Tapedeck [Maurelle]

[Christian Moynahan]

It used to be fun, but we were young
Has-been dream, irreverent
It used to be fun, but we were young
This used to be fun, now we’re in love
-Silversun Pickups, “Tapedeck”

The past year had seen difficulties. They had begun nearly off the bat, with the earthquake in Manhattan. Then Ira Reier had appeared and turned the renewable energy race on its head, cutting into part of Ark’s research, and into Ark itself with Reier’s repeated mudslinging, much of which targeted the CEO directly and personally. Then Halloween had come, and….

It was enough that Maurelle had been having difficulties with her own ability. Christian had been working on that. Now he had answers, and not very pleasant ones. Once his own powers kicked into overdrive, however, things had swung from “difficult” to “impossible.” Not that Christian had never dealt with the “impossible”; he had turned Ark Industries into a respectable company, had he not? But when it came to dealing with himself, things became complicated. He was not accustomed to needing help. He was not even used to being sick. Now he was both.

The severity of the manifestation had subsided over the months, to the point that he now dealt mostly with migraines and mood swings, and a constant need for energy. There was irony in the fact that he needed energy like an addict, yet two years earlier had been involved in a project regarding reductive drugs, a project which had first brought him and Maurelle together. Plus the fact that his migraines made dealing with bright lights difficult, when light was the easiest way for him to satisfy his need.

No matter. He would survive. There were only two things that worried him at the moment: Maurelle and Ark. The latter was unnecessary in that it was owned by the Kilvayne Corporation, which would have taken the brunt of any failure Ark made, and could do so easily, shrugging it off like a pesky fly. Ark was also saved by the fact that it was involved in many more aspects of technology than just energy, and was actually seeing a considerable amount of success in the development of programs like Dreamscape. The former was also unnecessary because she would never let anyone worry about her; but he did anyway, because of what he knew.

The days sometimes found him at his office or, more likely, his laboratory at Ark; but most often he worked from home if he did not need lab equipment. “Home” could be either Áine or Maurelle’s Texas home. The problem with Áine was that he had to deal with the eternally concerned and curious Drew; as grateful as he was for his cousin’s help, sometimes it came across a bit strong. The problem with Texas was that he was wary of crowding Maurelle.

The one-year anniversary of their marriage had been four days ago, on the twenty-second. Christian had decided not to make a big deal out of it, beyond dinner and a gift and such. Their marriage felt much like their relationship before it, just with more external problems that would have happened regardless, such as with both their abilities.

What he currently knew was actually quite old; he had learned of it just about a week earlier. Time had not allowed him to approach her about it before, and he had decided against mentioning it during their anniversary. But it had to be said. She had to know.

He was waiting for her in the living room of her home, sitting cross-legged amidst scattered papers containing scientific-looking scribbles. It was far from unusual. Natural light filtered in for now, a welcome respite for him. The scribbles were the basics of an engineering project, not really holding his full attention; just a distraction ahead of what was to come.

[Maurelle Lacroix]

Fighting and burning from turning from
Who we really are
Cannot suppress so let's find the one
We have shaped so far

Life, shaped from death, was flourishing as much as it could in the harshness of winter, though nature herself was cushioning that blow. How peculiar of a winter it was to be having, that one of the strongest El Nino's in history would come after the travesties and tragedies of the would be goddess of Lillith. If she was a religious sort, she would have said that this was the yin and yang of the world being balanced out, she had no room in her life for such superstitions though, only useful for corralling the herd.

The cosmos were ironic, that it was from the death that life was created, the proverbial door opening when another closed. If you listened to the most gruesome of such literal purveyors, then all of mankind where but ghosts walking through the bodies formed by the dead, discarded parts of the universe. Maurelle was not so inclined to take such a hard line that was grotesque in its literal translation of reality. They were children of the stars, its energies expelled forth and then brought back in, they were children of the sun.

Ironic that it was then that they had developed such awe inspiring and devastating powers. Some thought them to be gods among men, how much were they akin to Icurus and his fated flight, thinking themselves invincible. Hers though, they were a danger to herself for reasons that were beyond the scope of her purview. Perhaps it was a way for the world to punish her for all the misdeeds she had done to achieve the success that she had found in life. To be stripped of the gifts that had provided so much of her success.

She had the last laugh though, for she had seen what was coming in the future and no one would be able to escape it. No false gods, not the rich and power, the beggar nor the saint, all would be brought before what fate had wrought. This vision had nearly sent her into a coma but oh how rewarding it would be know what fate had in store for the world. Truly, they were the children of the sun chasing what they used to be and not seeing what they were meant to be.

Christian was here, scribbles of some project or another upon his cross legged lap. It was not of him to wait, waiting would not do in the time now nor ahead, waiting was for those who were lost. Genius was hardly lost.

"I've seen fire, glorious and terrible all the same. It's tendrils stretch out across the sky, reclaiming what it is its by rights."

[Christian Moynahan]

If you were to ask me
after all that we've been through
Still believe in magic
Yes I do
Of course I do
-Coldplay, "Magic"

The house always remained just that, a “house,” unless Maurelle was there. When he felt her presence drawing nearer, he relaxed a bit, and no matter what mood he was in the sight of her lifted his spirits. She had intellect and strength to match her beauty, and Christian admired her all the more for it.

It was a strange thing, to be in love. Stranger still to think that this fiercely independent woman had agreed to a commitment to him, in the form of an open marriage. It was not something he publicized but neither was it something he hid; he would consider it an honor to be seen as Maurelle Lacroix’s “arm candy” (but not the other way around). But they were both very private people, so the world remained largely out of their life.

He looked up at her as she spoke. She spoke in imagery as she often did, particularly when describing a vision. But she had told him her vision was growing dangerous…. Had she attempted another one? That was the sort of foolhardy thing Maurelle would do, although Christian doubted she would do so at the immediate risk of her own life.

After setting aside his own work, he stood slowly and and approached Maurelle, then took her hands in his. For a moment, he only looked at her, then glanced away, then placed a hand on her cheek.

“I don’t doubt it, Maurelle. I don’t doubt it at all.” His voice was even quieter than normal. He could ask her not to try to use her visions anymore, but he knew better than that. Nothing could stop him from worrying, though.

He had a way of comforting others when they needed it - most of the time. Maurelle, he knew, would prefer the news directly, not sugarcoated, not downplayed to avoid hurting her feelings. Still, it was difficult to say. He took a breath and looked at her again, into her eyes.

“I’ve spoken to Gabriel.” As the most powerful precognitive Christian knew, Gabe’s advice tended to carry significant weight, just behind Maurelle’s. But in this, Gabe knew more about what was happening. Until now.

“He’s having trouble accessing his ability as well. Only the visions. His location ability works fine.” That had been the case before as well, when Lilith had negated the world’s precognitives. But everything was different this time. Much more was at stake.

“Neither of you are alone. All the precogs he knows are having similar problems. But it gets worse.” He took a breath. “There’s a counselor at the Jung Facility who can travel through time. Specifically, he can exist outside of it. He mentioned to Gabe’s brother that he was concerned about his own ability. The range he can travel in the future is shortening. But their doctors checked. There’s nothing different about his ability. Nor with Jung’s other precogs. There probably isn’t anything wrong with Gabe’s ability, and there probably isn’t anything wrong with yours either.”

He paused to lightly press his lips to Maurelle’s forehead.

“The reason you’re having trouble seeing the future, mon cœur, could be because time is falling away. There is no future to see.”

[Maurelle Lacroix]

Flying too close to the sun
As if we're invincible
Cannot dictate
Dominate the earth that we're living on

The world had been meant for her to control, he had believed that for over a decade now. Never was she meant to sit upon the throne and rule the world, to be the face that the world saw as its master. That was not her destiny, design, nor was it her desire in the least, that sort of task was best given to those who wanted the celebrity. She was content to concede the rulership of the world to those who desired it, desired the throne(s) to sit upon, so long as they were adhering to her designs. It was a situation that was beneficial to all in theory, the practice was far messier but so was many things.

It was that superiority that she had felt that had her risk the extra vision even when she had told Christian that it was dangerous. Danger had never stood in her way before, even if it had made her recalculate her plans to account for it. After all, she had withstood the combined military might of the strongest cartels in all of the drug empire of Latin America and walked out nothing more than annoyed for the process. What was danger to her but an inconvenience that attempted to slow her down?

That vision though, it was not anything like she had seen before and perhaps the hubris for seeing it was the feeling of madness she felt. Christian was speaking in hushed tones, he likely did not approve of her recklessness in attempting the vision. For once, it was perhaps a reckless move that had not paid off, for the flames for which she saw were all consuming and felt very real. Was the future to be that of a destruction by the way of fire? She dared not take further risk in attempting another vision to see if it was so, the danger had now been accounted for.

She sat perplexed as Christian spoke further, revealing that she was not the only precog that was having issues. This did not feel the same as the power outages nor when Lillith's negator had secretly been using his power. That feeling seemed confirmed by the story of the Jung employee and the implications of that seemed far more ominous than merely another god level Special interloping in affairs that were best left behind.

"What has changed I wonder, what powers have brought forth the flame of destruction upon the world? I have seen far into the future before, beyond that of our lives with little problem in the past. What has been put into play now that could strip away even the concept of a future in the first place or the existence of space?"