Nathan, Marie-Ange, this evening

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Just after this thread in Marie-Ange's journal, Nathan goes to find Marie-Ange.  She bolts, he corners her in the gazebo, they have an arguement. Marie-Ange has a sharp tongue - Nathan has a mouth like a sledgehammer. Its like the precog vs. precog late game show, only without bloodshed, footballs or cheerleaders.



Marie-Ange was up, chair pushed back violently away from her desk and running like hell out of the room once she had read the last comment from Nate.  She didn't have an end destination, just -not- in her room, and not on the dorm floor or anywhere near the staff floor, and as far away from anywhere Nathan - or Doug - might be.

Nathan was fully prepared to deal with a fellow precog in strategic-retreat, however, and had lowered his shields almost all the way as he headed towards Angie's room. Consequently, he sensed her heading downstairs and picked up the pace to follow. She was obviously at a dead run, though, and he grimaced as he realized she'd taken the first door that led outside.

The night air was thick and humid - which slowed Marie-Ange down considerably, and left her wheezing slightly. She reached the small gazebo in the back yard, and dropped onto one of the benches, trying to catch her breath. 

"Good choice of locales," Nathan said quietly, climbing the steps to join her and carefully shielding the little gazebo in a TK bubble, just to make sure she didn't take off at the sight of him. "Sign of one of my more spectacular meltdowns, actually. Rahne found me out here sleeping in the rain one night after Manuel got a particularly good dig in."

"I'll remember to just go straight for the woods next time then."  Marie-Ange huffed, still out of breath, and now quite furious. How -dare- he follow her, and how the hell had he ...  ~Oh. Right. Telepath. Shit.~  "I guess asking you to leave me the hell alone isn't going to get me anywhere?"

"Not an inch," Nathan agreed, his voice still even, calm, as he sat down on the bench across from her. Giving her a little space, at least. He could give her that much, considering what he was about to do. "This is rather interesting, you know," he went on conversationally. "The shoe being on the other foot, so to speak. I'm not liking the feeling. I'm surprised I didn't drive all of you batshit insane."

"Maybe you did, and this is just your fault."  As she -said- it, Marie-Ange knew it was definitly not the right or acceptable thing to say. She just didn't care.  "You are obviously such a good role-model for precognitives."

"I'm not a good role-model for anyone, Marie-Ange," Nathan said calmly, not batting an eye at the semi-hysterical note in her voice. "I'm the anti-role model. I think that's why Charles keeps me around."

"Funny how that works, I thought you were supposed to be helping me."  She shrugged.  "Guess I'm getting a lot of illusions shattered today."

"I suppose there's probably not enough sleep in the world to allow people to actually appreciate my sense of humor," Nathan said with a faint smile. "So I'll be serious. I am here to help you, Angie. And you are going to listen to me."

Rolling her eyes, Marie-Ange lay back on the bench, kicking her legs out to dangle over the side.  "So, you are a bad role-model, but I should listen to your sage advice anyway. The sense of this is escaping me, Nathan."

"Well, why don't I be painfully direct, then?" Nathan asked, leaning back against the wooden pillar behind him. "You and Amanda need to form a support group for people who like to hurt themselves overcompensating for what they see as their sins."

"What I -see- as my sins? SEE? Should I spell out exactly what I did that was a sin to you, so that you can lay the fuck off my back?"  Marie-Ange sat up, practically glaring daggers at Nathan.  "To start, I helped kidnap a teacher. I think we know how much that screwed up, oh, everything. on top of that, I slept with Manuel, so that he would look to see if Doug was suicidal after the teacher I helped to kidnap drugged all of us. And if that wasn't enough, I killed someone, so I think I am very justified in thinking I have sins to compensate for!"

"In those first two instances, you were trying to help someone," Nathan said quietly, not responding to her anger. "The fact that they turned out poorly doesn't change that. As for Jamie's twin..." He stopped, shaking his head. "What's going on, Angie? Are you blaming yourself for not having understood the dreams in time to prevent all of that?"

'I stuck a sword - ten of them, actually - in his back. Because I was angry and wanted him dead. How hard is that to understand?"  Marie-Ange threw up her arms in disgust.  "Maybe you just spent too long being a mercenary, but I don't have twenty years of killing people to feel okay about making someone dead!"

Okay, that stung a little. Nathan repressed the reaction, responding just as calmly as he had the last time. "You know, if you're still dealing with what you did that day, fine. As you've just pointed out, I'm not qualified to help you with that, being a cold-blooded killer myself." He stared across the gazebo at her steadily. "But if you let that influence what you do with your precognition to the point that you start hurting yourself, Angie, I'm not quite as willing to pass the buck.

Marie-Ange shrugged defeatedly. "It doens't do any good anyway. One fluke in how many times, and I have not manage to do any good, so it isn't an issue anymore."  She spread her hands and looked down at the ground.  "No more readings, even if I had cards, or thought I could get them back from Doug at all ever now, so this is all academic anyway."

"No one is going to take your cards away from you permanently," Nathan said patiently. "And why, precisely, do you think that you can manage to master an ability as difficult as precognition in the little time you've had? Are you actually that arrogant?"

"I don't really expect Doug to give them back, Nathan. I don't much expect Doug to want to talk to me anytime soon."  Marie-Ange shrugged. "And they just get me into trouble. Headaches and nightmares and I'm tired of trying and trying and trying and not -getting- anywhere."

"Pardon me, kiddo, but grow up," Nathan said, more bluntly. "A lot of the things we have to do aren't easy. Learning is not a straight line. You do as much backsliding as moving forward."

"How in the hell am I supposed to learn if every time I try to push anywhere with this, I get yelled at for having a headache!"  Marie-Ange's voice was starting to go shrill, with the yelling, and the fatigue both taking their toll on her ability to speak.

"I wasn't yelling at you for having a headache. I was yelling at you for not having slept in five days and pushing yourself to the point where you sounded like you'd had a psychotic break."

"I have a psychotic break whenever I use my powers, Nathan, or has Manuel not bitched to you about me going insane yet?"  She crossed her arms, scowling.  "He certainly makes mention of it to me often enough."

"Were you using your powers when you came down to my office last night?" Nathan inquired lightly. "Or do you remember enough about that to be able to answer the question?"

"It.. is not as simple as 'Was I using my powers or not.' Manuel has commented on me looking insane hours after I did a reading, or had a nightmare."  Marie-Ange shook her head slowly and shrugged.  "It does not have a very clearly labeled on and off switch."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Do you really not think you pushed too hard," he asked, "or is this just pride at work?"

~Oh, for the love of God.~  She knew Nathan wasn't stupid. She knew he wasn't ignorant.  "I know I pushed too hard! I slept for eighteen hours and still woke up tired. It does not change that you and Doug raided my room and took personal things that are none of either of your business!"

He wouldn't mention that the initial impulse had been Doug's. "You'll get them back," Nathan said coolly. "Once you've rested."

"Until one of you decide that I'll just do readings again, and confiscate them for my own good, right? That is how this seems to work, instead of asking me what I intended to do when I woke up."  She wasn't going to admit he was -right-. She would have gotten up and started over with the readings.

"Manuel wears an inhibitor because he can't be trusted to use his powers without hurting himself or the people around him," Nathan retorted evenly. "You may only be doing any physical harm to yourself, but the principle is the same."

"So I get a nice shiny bracelet now?"  The question was asked, accompanied by a derisive snort.  "Confiscate my cards, nice shiny bracelet, I guess its not that different."

"You don't have Manuel's excuse," Nathan said, a bit of a bite to the words now. "You have more sense - or should."

Rehashing the same arguements over and over and over was getting tiresome. More so, because even eighteen hours of sleep could not totally erase the fatigue from not sleeping for five days. One hundred twenty hours.  "Fine. Just tell me whatever I need to do. I'm too tired to argue."

"You need to sleep," he said more gently. "You need to let the future be, at least until you're fully recovered."

"I am precognitive, Nathan. Not..  well, I cannot stop time, at least. It is the future, it does not wait for people to recover from not sleeping."