xp_logs | The Enemy Within

Marie-Ange always sees The Tower where Cain is concerned, but after the firey letters on the lake and Cain's speech, she's started to see other things as well, and goes to tell him about them.

Going over and over the speech that Mr. Marko had given didn't change what she thought she was hearing in the words he didn't say at all. Going over the cards wasn't telling her anything at all, nothing made sense and the cards kept tumbling out of the deck. She couldn't shuffle properly, or even hold the tarot deck without cards spilling everywhere, too many cards to make any sense of anything, but always the Tower on top of the pile.

Marie-Ange headed outside and sat along the stone wall lining the driveway, feet dangling down. If Mr. Marko had left, and she was certain he had - the truck was gone, and he was nowhere to be found, then he would have to come back this way, and then she could talk to him.

Cain whistled along with the AM radio in the truck, circling the driveway as the final strains of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" faded out before dropping the gearshift into neutral and coasting down the ramp into the driveway.

As he pulled in, he saw Marie-Ange perched on the wall, an intense look on her face. Taking the keys out of the ignition, he patted the dashboard lightly, in the way one would a faithful companion, before sliding out of the cab and walking out into the driveway.

"Morning," he said plainly, tucking his hands into his pockets.

"Good morning.." Marie-Ange answered. "I.. I need to talk to you, I think." She looked -tired-, and drawn, but not exhausted. "I hate that sentence..." She said absently. "It is so abrupt and foreboding. No one ever says that when they have something good to say, no?"

"Not usually," Cain said, leaning against the wall. "You look like you ain't slept in a few days. Been a rough week for you, huh?"

"Not as rough as it has been for others, and I have done more on less sleep.." Marie-Ange said, not entirely comfortable with everyone and their brother having seen the destruction of her relationship with Doug. "I think it has been no easier for you, yes?"

Cain let out a long breath, nodding. "Can't say it's been the best. Ain't how I'd always hoped things would turn out. But we gotta do what we gotta do. Hell, you probably know that better than anyone, right?" He nodded at the deck of cards half-sticking out of Marie-Ange's pocket. "Future's already in the cards, yeah?"

"Sometimes, yes, sometimes no. It is funny how my power works, I can see sometimes, the big things, and they happen just as I have seen them. And sometimes I can see... " She pointed at the truck.. "Where someone will be, fifteen minutes from now. And sometimes, I see things and they never happen at all, or they happen differently from what I have seen. And then there are the things I never expected." Like Doug breaking up with her and then leaving for a job with Pete and Remy.

Cain thought about that for a moment. "Since you're here, I assume you seen something? I mean, it figures something like this would probably register as pretty big on whatever spooky-meter folks like you and Dave and Chuck have. If you got any words, I'm listening."

"It was... nothing so specific that I could tell you what I saw. It was not like before, I have not seen any flaming skeletons taking out the trash recently. But after your speech, and the writing on the lake, I tried to see, because... " Marie-Ange swallowed heavily, frowning. "I am not entirely unfamiliar with how people act when they think they may be going into something they think they cannot win." She pulled the deck out of her pocket, and turned over the top card. "This is the Tower, and it comes up when you are going to be important. I saw it when everyone went to Youra, and then again when you were keeping Alison safe in Seattle." She paused. "If I am getting too spooky, let me know?"

Cain looked closely at the card, noting the tower in flames, crumbling from the top down. "Nice," he drawled sarcastically, "so what, it means I'm going to knock a building down or something?"

"Sometimes it means something will be destroyed. Sometimes it just means you will destroy something. It always means destruction in some way.." Marie-Ange explained. "I saw it for Youra, and I have always found it ironic that you did destroy a tower there. You are the only person I have ever predicted anything for that has been such a literal interpretation of their card." She turned the card over, looking at it upside-down. "I am also seeing The Wheel, and that is trickery. And that is all I am seeing. Just destruction and trickery, and ... " She tucked the card back into the deck with a gesture more appropriate to a scruffy Cajun than a tall elegant Frenchwoman. "I wonder, do you understand what you are getting involved in?"

Cain barked a quick laugh, shaking his head. "Girl, I don't think I've completely understood anything since the day I came back to this place. But one thing I do know - this thing I gotta do, it's the right thing. I ain't about to go off making some fool's errand noble sacrifice or nothing - I just have to go settle some old matters and put things the way they should be."

He sighed, looking out over the wall at the ivy-covered walls of the mansion. "Ain't no secret that this place means something to me. When I came back here, it was because I wanted to be someplace where the rest of the world couldn't come knocking on my doorstep to remind me of the things I done. Well, can't hide forever. Some chickens are always gonna come home to roost, and it's time I owned up to that."

"This is your home." Marie-Ange said, looking around, before she hopped down off the wall. She bent, to pick up the deck, as it had fallen out of her pocket when she landed, and as was her habit to do, turned it over to see what was on the bottom, and then straightened, cutting the deck quickly, too fast for Cain to see the tree and figure on the card. "Did you know I met Odin once?" She asked, seemingly without care for the rapid change in subject. "He gave up an eye, and hung himself for knowledge, and they call it a sacrifice, but he calls it a blessing."

"You're saying something can be a curse and a blessing at the same time?" Cain chuckled. "Don't I know it."

Marie-Ange nodded slowly. "It is ... something like that, yes." And then she looked up at the noon sky, and then down at her watch. "I need to go to my classes. I have to turn in a drawing before I have to be back here later.." She said, and then added. "Thank you for listening... " And then turned and headed back towards the mansion.