xp_logs | Nathan and Marie

Nathan helps Marie out with her shielding problem. Ironically, given his own history of shielding problems, he's a pretty good teacher. He also warns her about the need to be aware of the comfort levels of the people around her while she's telepathic.

Marie opened her eyes with a frustrated sigh. "It's harder to focus it like that, to try and just send something to you instead of just sending it out." Nathan had been working with her for almost an hour on what seemed like it should be a simple task. At least they'd already managed to build up her rudimentary shields, covering the chinks that Betsy's had left open.

Nathan shifted his arm in its sling and raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, nuts," he said, almost drawling the word. "And here I thought you'd pick it up over the course of an afternoon and put the rest of us to shame." He reached out telepathically and gave her shields a flick to test them. The new bits felt definitely unsteady. Going about this the wrong way...

"Well usually Ah can," Marie said with a shrug. "So this is newer territory." In fact, the last ones she'd really struggled with had been the flight and superstrength. Feeling Nathan's pressure on her shields, she tried her best to strengthen them, picturing sturdy dam walls covering the wobbly areas.

"If you want my thoughts as to why... it's because shielding is an artificial use of telepathy." Nathan took another poke at her shields, cracking through one of the patches. #Fix that,# he sent, and then went on aloud. "Having a bona fide genius of the psionic arts in my head for nearly a year and a half left me with some interesting theoretical ideas. Charles still occasionally likes to have tea from time to time just to chew over some of the stuff she passed on to us."

Chewing on her lower lip, Marie slowly but carefully rebuilt the shield, this time making it stronger and reinforcing it by attaching it to the existing shield instead of just placing it in front of it. #There# she sent with a hopeful look.

Nathan made a face, examining it closely. "Easy prey for any telepath who knows what they're doing," he muttered. "I mean, I know it's temporary, but still..." He kept checking out the weak patches, his presence shifting over her shields, pushing only intermittently. "Anyway. Artificial, like I was saying. The instinctive things one does with telepathy are to reach out, and to listen. The shields are a necessary adaptation but an unnatural use of energy, according to Askani. I think Charles found that a little too radical an idea. But her mind..." Nathan paused, thoughtfully. "Her mind was more like Rachel's. Honeycombed, rather than fortress walls."

"Well, at least my mind already baffles those who find it when Ah'm not temporarily a psi myself," she said with a slight wince. "Ah really need to send Betsy a bigger basket."

"We wouldn't be psis if we didn't do crazy things, generally with the best of intentions." Nathan shook his head. "Marie, try this instead." He stripped away one of the not-quite-patches and projected an image, interlocking spirals. #Extend the construct outwards from the edges of the gaps, following this... see if they don't meet in the middle.# He flashed her an image of his shields, layer upon patterned layer, smooth and gleaming and all but impenetrable.

#Like this?# she asked, forming a mirror image of the pattern he'd shown her. Where his was smooth and gleaming, hers was rough with a slightly green glow, like unpolished jade.

#Exactly like that.# Nathan gave her a brief, approving smile. #The energy is there to be patterned in the shields you already have.#

Marie quickly set to work replacing the patches in her shielding with similar green spirals. Smiling at Nathan, she let out a sigh of relief. "It's quiet again." Or as quiet as it ever is in here.

"The key is layers," Nathan said, smiling back. "If it starts to get too loud - and it might, depending on the time of day or where you are, try and create more layers on top of what you've got." His smile turned a little reflective. "Did I ever tell you that I didn't have proper shields until I got here and Charles and Askani started training me?"

"Seriously?" Marie asked, relaxing slightly now that the lesson seemed to be over. "How did you stand it?"

"Not very well at times. On the other hand, a lot of what I can do now, I couldn't do back then - psychological inhibitions. So it wasn't as bad as it could have been." Nathan leaned back in his chair, waving his good hand a bit more breezily than he felt. "I was... hypersensitive to the telepathic ambience. Tended to pick up on a lot of stray thoughts."

"Sometimes that's not so bad," Marie said and then quickly blushed. "But yeah, Ah had a lot of trouble on the trip back from Cali. It's why Remy ended up driving me back here by himself. He's...quiet."

He had to wonder what the blush was about. "Remy's mind is odd." He smirked, although there was a faintly sad look in his eyes. "Although Askani taught me a way to track him, if not easily read his mind... it's the specific sort of lack of ripples he causes on the astral plane."

"Like finding it by looking for what's not where it should be?" Marie asked.

"Pretty much. It's the easiest way to pick up someone shielding in a crowd, too. You find the blank spot, or the cold spot... but that's not anything you really have to worry about, I suppose," Nathan said wryly. "Any guesses from Charles on how long you might have the telepathy?"

Marie shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe a week? Once Betsy wakes up, Ah'll know better. As she gets stronger, the part of her that's in me will get weaker." Marie frowned as she realized that she hadn't really gotten memories like she usually did from Betsy's touch, but she quickly pushed the thought away. It wasn't like she'd ever absorbed while possessed before.

"I'm assuming you're going to want to try and keep up your normal routine as much as possible." Nathan paused, reluctantly, but then decided he had to bring it up. "Marie, even with the shields, you'll hear things. You've probably realized that already. They keep the noise out of your mind, dull it. They don't silence it. I always think of it as waves lapping at the shore."

"Ah'm used to it not being quiet," she said, a sense of amusement in her voice. "So Ah don't know that it'll be much different than what Ah'm used to."

There was no amusement in Nathan's expression as he met her eyes. "It will," was his response, followed by a tight smile. "Trust me. Be very glad this is temporary. You won't get friends looking at you sideways for more than a few days."

"Oh?" Marie said, casting a look of sympathy at Nate. She almost made a comment about people never wondering if he'd steal their powers...but then she realized that most people didn't look at her in fear anymore. People had accepted her. "Ah'm just glad Ah'm not gonna be adding anymore tricks to my bag. It's full enough."

Nathan gave a one-shouldered shrug, leaning back in his chair again. "I'm maybe more sensitive to anti-telepath sentiment than I should be. Thin-skinned. Mostly because I was so terrified of telepathy myself for so long. Hell, I avoided meeting Charles for years. There were times Moira came very close to begging me to arrange a mutual visit to Muir and sit down with him for a few hours, but I always resisted."

"You should know better now," Marie chided him gently. "Ah mean, with Charles here, you know this place is accepting of telepaths, right?"

Nathan just raised an eyebrow. "Right. So that's why Lorna takes every opportunity she can to poke at my ethics. Not to mention all the people around here who've been hurt by one psi or another... you want a free piece of advice? Be very careful, while you have this power, about what you react to. If you accidentally let on that you've picked up on someone's stray thought, you'll either get a lecture or the cold shoulder." His voice was a little harsher than it should be.

Marie just shook her head. Garrison had been so understanding...and her telepathy had actually helped the two of them, or at least it had seemed to. "All depends on previous experiences Ah guess."

Nathan took a deep breath and then let it out. No fair taking out old frustrations on Marie. Even when they were new frustrations. He needed to call Moira about the falling-through of his Grand Plan regarding Rachel and playgroups. "The advice still holds," he said, much more naturally. "Kind of stinks, but even when it's a temporary burden you still have to think of other people's comfort levels. Easy trick, to help - put your hands over your ears and keep listening. It helps distinguish between spoken and unspoken."

"Ah'll keep it in mind," she said. "Especially the thing about other people's comfort levels. Thanks for helping me out with all this. Ah...Ah didn't want to use the Box, y'know?"

"I have many other tricks," Nathan said, almost gently. "If you need them, you know where to find me. And I may be Negative Guy here, but it's not all bad. It gives you... a sense of things that can be fairly amazing if you let it." He smiled a bit crookedly. "I hope you get the chance to find that out."

"Me too," Marie replied. "But Ah also hope this doesn't last too long. Ah'm ready to go back to my normal life." Or as normal as life around the mansion got anyways.

"Do me a favor, though? Before it does wear off, go to New York," Nathan said. "Go stand in Times Square for a little while, and just... feel the city around you." His smile was a bit sheepish. "This is my mystic side speaking, but you may not have the opportunity again."

"Sounds like a plan," Marie said. "And maybe we could go together. Sounds like you might need to feel the city too."

"Oh, now, you just want me around in case your shields collapse..." It was said teasingly, however. #Deal,# he sent to her. #Now let's work on those other patches some more.#