"Can't feel you!" (Aubrie/Mac)

[morgancaine]

Mac didn't understand a lot of what Dari was saying, only catching a few key words and processing what she could. Her eyes widened when she realized that Dari was leaving. That he didn't want to take her with him.

"NO! NO! NO! NO STAY! GO! FLY FLY UP HIGH!"

She didn't understand and she started rocking against him. "Mac bad? Dari leave Mac bad?" Fresh tears streamed down her cheeks not knowing what she had done wrong, but knowing it must have been bad if Dari was leaving her. "Be good, promise! Promise good! No cry!" She roughly wiped the tears away. "No scream, no more mine! Be good!"

Mac didn't understand and this time she knew her fear was her own. She looked at the phone Dari pulled out of his jacket. She didn't want that. She wanted Dari. He kept her safe and he didn't hurt her. Her lip quivered and she squeezed her eyes shut trying not to cry. She had to be good if Dari was going to take him with her. "Be good. Promise. Good Mac. Not bad. Don't stay...go, fly fly up high..."

She felt Aubrie's approach and glared at the woman. She didn't know why Dari wanted to leave her, but it had something to do with her. She bared teeth at her, and though it was supposed to come off as menacing most only saw it as comical. "Brave Mac?" She looked to Dari for approval at trying to scare the lady away.

[Aubrie Carpathia]

Seeing that Mac was now awake, Aubrie went about doubling her efforts on calming her.

She really wasn't worried about Mac hurting her, or forcing her away, but she was concerned with how much Darian's absence might affect her. It now seemed obvious to Aubrie that without the vampire's presence, Mac would simply crumble, and be totally unreceptive to any help that the fortune-teller might be able to give her.

"Darian, I think we need to rethink our original plan," she said, going to kneel down by Mac and smiling comfortingly at her, still focusing all her power on keeping the blonde's empathy subdued. "Mac, would you like it if Darian stayed with us too? I know he's a very busy man, but maybe he can stay with us when he can, then go do his work when he needs to, then come back again?" She looked pointedly at Darian, wanting his opinion as well.

The vampire furrowed his brow. "I... That may be possible," he said uncertainly. "If that's what you want, Mac, then I'll do it. I can stay with you, but you need to understand that sometimes I'll have to go away on business, but I'll always come back." Turning his attention to Aubrie, he asked, "It looks like you're staying here in the shop, right? I don't know that this would be a good place to keep Mac, so I'll see about getting us a place nearby, but removed enough from everything that she won't be troubled."

"Okay," Aubrie agreed, not at all looking forward to having Darian around all the time. "Would that make you feel better, Mac?"

[morgancaine]

Mac still didn't understand a lot of what they were saying, but her ears perked when Dari said that he wasn't going to go. "Dari no go!" She giggled happily hugging him again.

When the lady came over Mac's gaze narrowed again and she stuck her tongue out at Aubrie. "Neener!" She didn't know why Dari wanted her to stay with this lady, but whatever her tricks were they wouldn't work. She was staying with Dari! That made her very very happy.

She blew a raspberry at Aubrie again and snuggled into Dari, a wide smile on her face. She didn't care about the stupid whispers right now. Dari was staying and that mean lady didn't get her way. "Dari stay, he no go, Dari stay, he no go." She sing songed it like small child.

[Darian Raniari]

Darian grimaced a bit.

"Mac, be nice. Aubrie just wants to help you. She wants to help you not feel so much, okay?" He ruffled her hair a bit, smiling. "Aubrie is a very nice woman to be doing this for us, you know that?" Pausing, the vampire looked up, meeting Aubrie's eyes with his own. "She won't do anything to hurt you, Mac. I promise. Because if she does... If she hurts you, I will hurt her back."

Aubrie flinched a bit, her eyes widening a little as she nodded once in understanding.

Standing up, Darian smiled down at Mac. "Okay, I'm going to go and look for a place for us to stay. I want you to stay here with Aubrie and get to know her. And Mac, I want you to be on your best behavior, okay? I want you to be as nice to Aubrie as you are to me. No arguments." He bend over to kiss her softly on the top of her head. "I'll be back soon, I promise."

[morgancaine]

She didn't understand what was going on! Why was Dari leaving her with this woman. She pouted when he said he'd be leaving her there. Mac knew he'd be back, but she didn't like Aubrie. She was dumb meanie head trying to take her away from Dari. Why?

"Why? No help Mac. Dari help Mac. No need lady!" She didn't know why Dari brought her hair and the whispering emotions were agitating her. She banged her fists against the bed. "Fly fly up high!" She wanted to go away from here where it was quiet.

Mac whined. "Don't wanna! Don't wanna!" She squeezed her head tightly. "Wanna go! NOW!"

[Aubrie Carpathia]

Before Aubrie could even voice a protest at the whole idea of "a place", Darian was simply gone.

Sighing heavily, the woman wondered exactly what she'd gotten herself into. It was true that her powers often didn't work quite right on supernatural creatures like Darian, but Aubrie couldn't help but feel a sense of impending doom, and she wondered if it might be her minuscule bit of precognition trying to warn her.

The truth was, she was terrified of Darian. She was more afraid of him than she'd ever been of anything. But Mac... She needed help, or eventually the madness was going to be too much for her, and she'd be completely lost. Aubrie didn't really know if she'd be able to help the young woman or not, but she knew she had to try, no matter what. Even if that meant staying with Mac and Darian, alone, for God only knew how long...

"Well, Mac, I guess its just you and me now, huh?" she asked, turning her full attention to the blonde. "I know that all the feelings around here are bothering you... Can I try something that might help until Darian gets back? I promise, I won't ever hurt you... I just want to help you, okay?"

[morgancaine]

Darian left and Mac did not like that at all. He'd left her alone with the mean lady and all the feelings in her head. Mac had nothing to hold onto when Dari left and she rocked, faster, eyeing Aubrie when she came closer.

Mac gave her a frowney face before sticking her tongue out at the woman. "Go away!" She didn't understand why Dari left her with Aubrie. Mac must have been bad for him to want to get rid of her. Grabbing a pillow she threw it at Aubrie before scurrying off the bed and crawling underneath it.

"Want Dari! Want Dari!" She covered her head with arms burying her face into the floor. The emotions were still washing over her. Mac was scared and upset and she couldn't handle it. Not even the pills Dari had given her were helping anymore. Pounding her fists into the floor Mac let out a blood curling scream.

[Aubrie Carpathia]

This was not going to be easy.

Aubrie knew that Mac's mind was too damaged for the girl to be able to understand anything that Aubrie might be able to tell her about how to control her empathy. So, if she couldn't instruct Mac consciously on how to do it, Aubrie would have to do so unconsciously. It would be time consuming, exhausting, and very difficult, but the psychic thought that, given enough time, she'd be able to help Mac as much as was possible.

Sitting down on the floor a couple of feet away from where Mac hid under the bed, Aubrie closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady herself. Then, she sent out a tendril of psychic energy, "bonding" it to Mac and willing it to entwine and connect with the distressed woman's own psychic power. Almost immediately, Aubrie was hit by the same level of empathic chaos that Mac was experiencing, but she had been prepared for it and began actively manipulating it, changing it from a jumble of confused emotions into a single, cohesive aura of calm and peace.

All the while, Aubrie's mind was "showing" Mac's subconscious how to do the same. This sort of teaching was difficult, and Aubrie had never actually attempted it before, but she'd read about it extensively and knew how to do it in theory if not in practice. And it was the only way to go about this, she knew, since Mac's mind was simply too far gone to teach her in any traditional way.

After a few moments, Aubrie could feel the swirling miasma of emotions that were assailing Mac and her begin to diminish. It was still there, of course, but it was subdued, and at least partially manageable. But Aubrie knew she couldn't keep up like this forever, for her own reserves of energy were quickly running dry. She had another option, though: Mac's own psychic energy was so strong, so pure, that Aubrie was able to take hold of it and utilize it for herself, and she would be for as long as she retained the "bond" between them. This bond was tenuous, and she had to remain in close proximity to Mac for it to remain intact, but it was working.

Aubrie knew that she wouldn't be able to fully "cure" Mac, and she doubted that anyone ever would, but she was pleased to find that she might be able to at least do her part to ease the poor woman's suffering, even if only a little.

[morgancaine]

There was a funny sensation in Mac's head. She felt calm and warm, but the there was a tingling too it, that she didn't understand. She wrinkled her nose and lifted her gaze to look at Aubrie curiously. The lady trying to take her away from Dari looked tired suddenly.

Mac could still feel the whispers pecking at her brain, but they weren't as strong as before and didn't hurt as bad. Her shoulders began to relax a little and the clutter in her head pushed back. She blinked as the fuzziness continued, but her head began to slightly hurt.

"What doin?" She asked, knowing the woman was in her mind. She could feel it as if Aubrie were poking her brain. The tingling had a signature of sorts, and to Mac it felt like Aubrie. She frowned not knowing if she liked it or not.

[Aubrie Carpathia]

Aubrie sensed Mac's discomfort through the bond that they shared.

Furrowing her brow, the fortune-teller gently withdrew the line of power that connected them. Two things immediately struck her as unusual. The first was the simple fact that Mac had been able to sense Aubrie's presence within her mind. Now, this was not an impossible feat, of course; there were some very well trained, very powerful psychics out there that could do such a thing, and Aubrie had even met a few. Aubrie herself was not one of those psychics, she didn't quite have the finesse to be able to decipher something like that. That meant that, even though Mac was probably entirely untrained, the strength of her abilities was more than enough to make up for that lack of training.

Secondly, Aubrie didn't know why her actions had led to such discomfort in Mac. She knew the woman wasn't lying about it, since Aubrie had also felt the same sensations through their link. The dark-haired psychic had never known such a simple, relatively noninvasive technique to have that effect on someone before. That meant, more than likely, that the damage done to Mac's mind by the cocktail of drugs that'd probably been forced on was making the link difficult, uncomfortable, and painful.

Aubrie wasn't quite ready to give upon that particular plan just yet, but she figured for the time being she might actually try talking to her. Flashing Mac a bright smile, Aubrie maintained an aura of peace and calm about herself, trying her hardest to project it around Mac, though her own gift of empathy was fairly weak to say the least.

"Mac, that was very good, that you noticed me inside your head," Aubrie said, nodding approval. "I'm sorry if poking around in there hurt you, but I was just trying to see what it was like in there." Her smile turned to one of compassion and understanding. "It's pretty noisy, huh? And crowded, with everyone's feelings. It's not easy to feel everyone all the time, huh?"