xp_logs | Nathan and Marie-Ange, backdated to Monday

Angie comes to talk to Nathan about the Askani precognitives, and get her present. The conversation turns to the physics and philosophy of precognition, and Nathan gives himself a research project.

Normally Marie-Ange needed barely any excuse to go talk to Nathan - but with his schedule being a bit more busy than usual, she had waited a little longer than normal to go seek him out. Even with the mention of a gift, she did not want to seem entirely frivolous about it. The offer of speaking to Askani precognitives fascinated her, though she worried a great deal about upsetting them. The Askani seemed very prone to upset. Or perhaps that was Askani herself. Marie-Ange wasn't completely sure.

She poked her head into the doorway of the classroom Nathan had adopted for the language classes, and knocked lightly, out of politeness. Politeness counted, even with telepaths.

Nathan looked up with a smile. "Hey, Angie," he said. He'd 'heard' her coming down the hall. "You're early. Enjoying the class that much?" He reached into the zippered folder Moira had given him, glad he'd remembered to bring Angie's gift with him today.

"Both of them, yes, though I am starting to question my wisdom in taking two language classes at once. If I write my Mandarin homework in Askani, I only have myself to blame." Marie-Ange answered, grinning. "But, I came early because I was wondering – you had sent me an email about the Askani having precognitives?"

"I did," Nathan said, finding the box and pulling it out. "Before we talk about that, though..." He extended it, smiling. "I should confess that Doug has seen this. Wanted to show it off a little." Angie came over and took it, smiling, and Nathan went on. "I found it in a little antique shop on Santorini. Thought immediately of you."

After opening the wooden box carefully, Marie-Ange's eyes widened. "This is ... " She picked up the top card carefully and looked it over, admiring the artwork, especially on that particular card. "This is wonderful. Thank you." For a few minutes she remained quiet, happily looking through the cards, and making little comments on the artwork and the differences in design between these and her own normal deck.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you like it," Nathan said, glad he'd remembered to put the High Priestess on the top of the deck. He let her admire the cards for a few moments longer, then gestured at the seat next to his. "Want to sit down? We've still got a while before class starts."

Marie-Ange nodded and sat down, crossing her legs at the ankles. Absently, she ran her fingers over the carvings on the wooden box. Several questions – all ones she was most assuredly not going to ask, rattled around in her thoughts. If the Askani had precognitives, why could they not prevent what had (would?) happened to them.

"Because they had limited options," Nathan said, 'hearing' the question clearly. Angie blinked up at him, clearly startled, and he smiled faintly. "Things had progressed too far along a certain path," he went on, knowing he was being vague but lacking a real understanding of the vocabulary the Askani used to describe temporal phenomena. "The course of events couldn't be changed, because the roots of what was happening were too far in the past."

"Too far in the past?" Marie-Ange said, curiously. "Meaning now, right? Which is why they are in your head and trying to, um, influence things?" She frowned and shook her head. "I do not understand, that, entirely. If they change things, will they still be in your head once ... " With a pained wince, she rubbed the bridge of her nose and frowned. "I am not thinking about that. Too much like Algebra.."

"Now, yes," Nathan confirmed, nodding. "And yeah, I've been wondering that myself. What happens if we fix things so that their future doesn't come about." He smiled. "You and I really ought to start studying temporal theory, you know."

Marie-Ange made a whimpering noise. "Doug keeps trying to explain something about electrons and looking at them changing them to me, and it makes my head hurt." Science was not her forte. Not at all. "But I do wonder.. how it works. I -did- change things from what I saw, once by my own action, and once just by telling someone.."

"Think about it for a moment," Nathan said thoughtfully. "You make a change... but what else changes because you made that change? If there's a ripple effect, that grows over time... where does that leave the precog two thousand years from now, trying to change what the ripple effect's produced?"

"And just by looking at it, we make a ripple sometimes, because otherwise what use is knowing the future." Marie-Ange sighed. "And I worry sometimes that I will make the wrong changes. What if... " She shrugged, and spread her hands. "What if saving Manuel was the wrong choice? What if. No, I know. I should not worry about the whatifs, because then I will never be able to act. I just cannot help it sometimes."

Nathan was silent for a while, thinking. "Have you read the Iliad, Angie?"

"And the Odyssey as well, yes. Long before I knew I was precognitive. " She smirked a little. "I am trying to -avoid- Cassandra references. People believe me when I tell them something bad is going to happen."

"They may not always," Nathan said quietly. "Here and now, we know that your visions have been accurate... you've done some pretty amazing things, or brought those things about. What happens when you start using your precog on the outside world, though?"

Marie-Ange frowned a little, thinking. "I .. honestly have not thought about that. It has always been so personal. I see people I know, or care about, or spend time with. Using my precognition in a more global manner is not something I have given thought to.”

"I don't think you're going to be able to avoid that, in the end." Nathan smiled a little, fondly. "And no, that's not being a precog. Just making a guess, based on knowing you... at least a little by now, I hope?"

A faint blush crept up Marie-Ange's cheeks. "It is too beneficial not to use, and .. " She paused, thinking. "I feel silly saying it. And far too much like my mother. I have this, I should use it. It is a waste otherwise."

"Don't feel silly," Nathan said, the smile growing into a slight grin. "Look at me. The Man with the Clan in his head, wanting to save the future."

”That sounds like the plot of one of those movies Doug likes." Marie-Ange said, laughing a bit. "But then, all of this sometimes sounds unreal. Just when I think it is going to start making sense, it stops making any kind of sense, and I am back to trying to figure out what I want to do with myself again."

"You've got time," Nathan said with a chuckle. "But seriously, you know... you and I should look into this a little more. Maybe not the scientific stuff so much as the philosophical?" He spread his hands wide, still smiling. "Might help us to sort out exactly what we are doing."

"Philosophy I can do. I like some of it, though I have not had exposure to a great deal. I went to a religious school before this one, and ... " Marie-Ange shrugged. "The nuns were not terribly interested in broadening our minds in that regard."

"I can look into what might be appropriate," Nathan offered. "While you and Doug are way, I mean, so that we can get into it once you get back?" He laughed suddenly, almost sheepishly. "I don't mean to be pushy, Angie. Just tell me to back off if I start, okay?"

“You are not pushy! And I would, I promise, if you ever got pushy." Marie-Ange smiled, and shook her head. "I like learning. I know I may be breaking some kind of teenage code by saying that, but I do. I like school, I like learning. I do not necessarily like homework, but mostly only when it is busywork."

"I felt the same way when I was your age," Nathan said a bit wistfully. "Was given the choice of a reward for good service and picked going to college." He smiled again, more cheerfully. "So I'll do some research, then," he said, rather tickled by the idea. "Make us up a reading list, or something." He chuckled. "And I'll try not to suck all the fun out of it, I promise."

"You know Doug will merrily go along with reading anything he finds lying around my room, yes?" Marie-Ange said, grinning. "So he will end up with a bit of an education in philosophy too." She smiled a bit impishly and affected a mock-innocent expression.

"Hey, the more minds broadened, the better," Nathan joked, but then grew more serious. "And actually, that might not be such a bad idea. I suspect both of us are a little too close to see precognition clearly? Doug might provide a very valuable outside perspective."

"I think Jamie or Rahne may be better, or Kitty when she comes back in the fall. Doug and I think too much alike sometimes." Marie-Ange suggested tentatively.

"The more the merrier," Nathan suggested. ”There's no substitute for having a range of different perspectives on a truly tricky problem."

Marie-Ange opened her mouth as if to speak, and then paused. "That.. makes me think. I should probably get the others to look at my notes from readings. Though, I suspect that sometimes they are a little scary, I would not blame anyone for not wanting to look.."

"I don't think it can ever be comforting," Nathan said. "But like I said to you back that first day... we need to try and laugh at it as much as possible. Find the weirdness, rather than the terror." He chuckled. "We ought to try and put together a stand-up comic routine." Angie looked appalled. "No? Okay, maybe not..."

"I try. It is .. hard." Marie-Ange said, shrugging. "Though, I have to admit, my mother's conviction that I am blessed by God helps, as odd as that sounds. It gives me room to laugh, to make jokes." She looked a bit sheepish for a moment. "I should probably not make that much fun of my mother. It is how she is coping with knowing what I can do."

"She has her ways, and you have yours," Nathan said with a grin. "And will have more. Once you're back from vacation, we'll bury ourselves in coping methods. We'll be the best-adjusted precogs in history." He waggled a finger at her, still grinning. "And yes, that’s not saying much."

"Nathan? The only two precognitives I know of in history were killed because of their visions. I think we are already doing better than they are." Marie-Ange paused for a moment, and then grinned. "At least when you died, you came back. Perhaps with houseguests in your brain, but you came back."

Nathan snorted. "I make a better Jeanne D'Arc than you do, Angie." Angie blinked at him, and he grinned. "I meant with the hearing voices, Angie," he said, shaking his head at the mental image she had just projected at him. Oh, it was going to take a while to get that out of his head.