The X-Project

Backdated to Tuesday evening. (March 15th)
As if these two aren't spooky on a regular basis. Marie-Ange goes to Nathan with her visions. Some of which are actually hopeful. Some are scary. But! They make a heck of a lot more sense than the last time she did this, which is not to say they're not vague, because they sure as heck are still full of the vagueness.



Marie-Ange tapped lightly on Nathan's office door. Hopefully, she thought, he'd be in there, and she wouldn't have to go looking. Or Looking either, since everything was coming up strange again. Not -bad-, thankfully, just odd.

#Come in, Angie,# Nathan called back, his eyes still scanning the file scrolling across the screen of his computer. He'd been expecting her. In the vaguely creepy sort of way, too; he really had just... known they were going to be having this conversation soon.

That was never going to stop being just a little unnerving. After coming in - with cards and notebook in hand - Marie-Ange pulled a chair over to the side of Nathan's deck, making sure she was not close enough to be tempted to try to look at the screen, and sat down, feet drawn up under her. "These conversations always make me feel like I should have a bad gypsy accent and a lace-covered shawl..." She said, trying to lighten her own mood.

Nathan looked up at her, smiling faintly as he saved and closed the file. "I bet Doug would get a kick out of you in a fortune-teller's get-up. Maybe for next Halloween?" He leaned back in his chair, telling himself to relax a little. "You've been seeing something about what's going to happen this weekend."

"I think so. A lot of somethings, to be quite honest." Marie-Ange said, nodding. "Four nights of somethings, and a handful of double glances. " She put the notebook on the desk, and opened it to a page of a few sketches. "It is like when my precogntion would not turn off, but not quite. I just keep seeing things for... a lot of people. You, Alison, Mr. Marko, Mr. Summers, once Paige's brother I think, but I am not certain of that."

Nathan studied the sketches thoughtfully. "So what's with the 'holds back the winter' motif and so forth? Because that was... odd. Disturbing." He gave her a faint smile. "Not that your visions are generally happy, fluffy things full of bunnies."

"It could be midgets. Or demons." Doug was -really- rubbing off on her too much if she was making references to that Buffy show again. "It is in tandem with what I saw for Alison too. That you were holding back the winter, perhaps an ice age, or extinction because it was dark, and Alison was making the sun rise up, and making it spring. "

Nathan took a deep breath, then let it back out again. His mind was turning over the images, trying to figure out what they meant. "And you think the two are linked?"

"I think so. So many of the visions are metaphorical that I think that when there is a common theme, they might have to be linked." Marie-Ange said, not at all sounding confidant about this. "Spring and winter, light and dark? It makes sense, I think... But those were the only two that were similiar, so maybe not. Mr. Marko's came out very straightforward in the cards, and the rest are not coming out clearly at all."

"What did you see about Cain?" Nathan pressed, concerned.

"The hanged man." Marie-ange flipped through her deck quickly and produced the card in question. "It is... a choice, or a decision, and supposed to be a very important one. Not that it tells me much about what he is choosing or when.. ." She didn't think she needed to mention Mr. Marko in the horned helm. That had just been in passing and was really too silly to think about, their groundskeeper as a viking. Though he had the red hair for it.

"A choice..." Well, that was... not as alarming as it could have been, he reflected. He looked back up at her. "Are you seeing anything really unpleasant?" he asked, wishing he didn't have to ask that question.

"A great deal of violence." Marie-Ange said, after a thoughtful pause. "And the winter you were holding back was not exactly visually appealing. Dark ice, like it was opaque covering -everything-." She frowned and sighed. "I hate metaphors. I really do."

Nathan bit his lip. There weren't many good possible interpretations of that. "How... was I doing?"

"I never saw the winter win.." And she had looked. A lot. "Not in any visions, and not in any of the readings. Death never came up foryou. A lot of other cards, a great many other cards, but not Death, and not most of the other cards that even remotely indicate death. The Tower a few times though." It was hard to remember all the things that had come up that she hadn't been looking for, as opposed to the ones she -had-. "I think you might get -hurt-. The Tower is destructive.. a lot. I actually expected it for Mr. Marko. It came up for him a lot before."

"The Tower... is change, right?" Nathan asked slowly, remembering some of their discussions. "That's not necessarily a bad thing, Angie. Even if it is destructive. In this context... well, I'm not sure it can be anything but drastic change."

"Change, through destruction or pain." Marie-Ange thought for a moment. "I think there are other meanings but I always come back to the broader ones. Death is change too, but it is more personal. The Tower is bigger."

"Change for more than just me." Nathan stared down at the sketches. "I think I can live with that." He blinked, then focused on her again. "And Alison? What do you think that means?"

"My first guess, is that she is going to save someone's life." Marie-Ange paused for a moment and made a face. "Or she is pregnant, but I really do not think that is it, since that would not have anything to do with the visions of you being winter to her spring." Also she just did not want to think about that.

Nathan tried not to choke. Or laugh. "Um, right, sometimes it's good to stay far, far away from the alternate interpretations..." He trailed off, the momentary flash of humor gone. "I've been... sensing things, as well, I think. I'm not sure, because given what it is, I may have my own feelings muddying the water."

"If you and I are both sensing something, then this is very big, yes?" What Nathan -wasn't- saying was doing a lot more to explain some of what she was seeing than what he had actually said. "Did the Askani say anything at all, or are they being cryptic?" Marie-Ange asked. "And really, you would think that if my visions are cryptic, that the Askani might not be, just for fairness's sake? Except my visions are always cryptic..."

"It's like... a rock dropped in a pool of water," Nathan said with a sigh. "I know it's big, and that the ripples are going to be significant. I'm not even sure whether it's focused on us, or on..." He trailed off, aware they were skirting the edges of what should and should not be said aloud, even if they were both aware of it. "You have your metaphors," he finally said, wryly. "I have my patterns. They're both as impenetrable. And the Askani have been no help at all."

It was very tempting to mutter that ghosts from the future were just no good if they weren't helping you figure out the future, but that ran the risk of the ghosts from the future deciding to bother -her- on a regular basis too. Marie-Ange was definitly not going to invite her own personal set of ghosts to hang around, that was certain.

"Impact, and weight. I kept getting senses of everything happening having weight. Like it was changing things.." She frowned. "Doug once tried to explain to me that planets and stars make dents in space and time, and that big things distorted how everything else around it moves. It was kind of like that. Like everything was being moved around by what I saw.. "

"Lives that might be saved, and the impact they have on the world after," Nathan said very softly. "People who have the chance to make different choices." Their own choices. "The butterfly that flaps its wings in Nebraska and causes a hurricane in Hong Kong."

"And the lives those lives might save or end, and those and those, like branches that were not on a tree before." Marie-Ange nodded. "Exactly like that. Too many branches on the tree to see it. I cannot see the forest for the tress, I suppose. The forest is just too big to see any but the trees I know best."

"And I can't see the trees for the forest." Nathan shook his head. "We make a hell of a pair, Marie-Ange. Think we'll ever get our precognitive act together?"

"I hope so, because the vague is very tiresome and frustrating." Marie-Ange said. "Though not half as much as a few months ago. A few months ago I would not have been able to get even this much. Just vague pictures of you and ice zombies, or Alison creating stars."

"Then you're making progress. And that's what counts." Nathan smiled a little at her. "What say we put our heads together on Monday, after... well, after, and let hindsight be twenty-twenty?"

"Maybe I should start a new notebook of what all my visions really mean once they happen." She'd done that a bit already, notes in the margins of the existing notebooks, but never anything offical. "Maybe the metaphors will make more sense if there is some long term pattern? And you are good at patterns..."

"Get another notebook," he agreed with a nod. "We can make a fresh start with this, if you want."

"I think over the weekend, I may try to write down all the notes I already have." Marie-Ange offered. "So I can have background information. Even just for a reference." Two notebooks and a sketchpad of notes might take a while, but would keep her from pacing worriedly, or doing readings over and over until she was exhausted.

Nathan leaned forward, arms resting on the edge of the desk. "You're worried," he said quietly. "About all of it... and about seeing theTower for me?"

"You do have a certain reputation for getting hurt.." Marie-Ange said. "And this is very big, and the Tower is.. there is a reason I always saw, or .. see... it for Mr. Marko. It is not a traditionally good card. It usually means a lot of destruction or chaos, and while good can come out of it, it is always meant to be difficult."

He twitched irritably at her first comment, and his response to the rest was a little sharper than it should have been. "Like I said. I don't think we're doing this without a lot of chaos. So long as it's focused on me, though, I can live with that."

The twitch didn't go unnoticed. "I am not saying that you do it on purpose, but I do worry a little." She paused. "A lot. Very much a lot. And I know you have to do this, but could you maybe come back with all your pieces? Even if they are bruised or hurt, do not -lose- any?"

Nathan sighed, mustering another faint smile for her, some of the tension ebbing. "I'm going to do my best, you know that," he said. "I have a hell of a lot to make it back for, remember?"

It was only just a little hard not to tell him what she knew about that too. But she'd promised. "I remember." Marie-Ange said, nodding. And that gave her an idea, that she hadn't considered. She was not getting anything distinct on Nathan, but perhaps if she looked at a reading for the baby, she might see something clearer.

She had the lightbulb look. Nathan decided not to ask. "I could always make my brownies again," he suggested idly. "For experimental purposes only, of course. And under controlled circumstances this time."

"I have a Botany paper due..." Marie-Ange said, quite mournfully. "I do not need visions of coffee plants attacking and eating Manuel." Though the thought had appeal, on second though. "Or perhaps I do need those visions. He keeps taking notes in crayon on the project."

"Has a fixation with crayons, does it?" Nathan smiled briefly. "Something about being basically juvenile, maybe?"

"I think he did not get any crayons as a child, so he is making up for lost time. Manuel insists it has to do with the mood of the plant, but as with so many things Manuel says, it only makes sense to him." She should have never given him those oil pastels. She'd really created quite the monster. Coloured pens would have been better.

"It's endearing in a funny way, I suppose," Nathan said with a chuckle. "We all have our artistic sides... and yes, I did mean that about exploring mine."

"More glass sculptures, or something else? Askani art?" Marie-Ange asked curiously. "I had not thought of that before, they must have had some..."

"Both, actually," Nathan said, and started to lay out some of the ideas he'd been toying with. Talking about powers-application and art forms might be somewhat on the frivolous side, but damn it, he thought they both deserved a little frivolity just now.