Ghost of a Chance
Quentin had always pictured his telepathy as sort of like jacking into the Matrix. There was that brief pinch and moment of "oh my god there's a needle in the back of my -head", and then boom, you were in the Matrix. With his telepathy, there was the brief sensation of invasion, and then whatever command he was giving (in this case "STOP.") would take effect. He hadn't used it very much, but he was adept enough with it.
Except that Marie-Ange's brain wasn't like normal brains. It was like...the astral equivalent of a black hole. His command just sank into the morass, and accomplished nothing except to cause him to break the link and stagger backward with an instantaneous massive migraine. He clutched at his head involuntarily.
When a touch based telepath tries to influence Marie-Ange’s decision, he gets more than he bargained for and sets off a series of events that culminate in mass visions taking place at the mansion.
Contents
Cast
Marie-Ange Colbert, Doug Ramsey, Moira MacTaggart, David Haller
Timing
Plot Summary
When Doug’s local college rival discovered that Marie-Ange was newly single, he decided to ask her out. At her polite rejection, Quentin attempted to use his hidden mutant ability to telepathically influence her choice. Unfortunately for them both, Quentin’s touch has an unforeseen (and not immediately recognized) complication when Marie-Ange’s power begins projecting visions of possible futures that are seen by people in her nearby vicinity. The alternate presents affected students and staff in a variety of ways. Some of the images were funny (such as Alison dancing in roller skates and glitter), while a vast array of others were touching as people saw what life might be like if certain people hadn’t died (such as Charlie Plunder and some of Nathan’s fellow Mistra operatives).
When Doug experienced his own vision, that of Quentin in the mansion, he started to put the puzzle together himself and enlisted Cain to go with him to check on Quentin. Doug was actually concerned about his classmate until he realized that Quentin had purposefully tried to influence Marie-Ange. Quentin attempted to make physical contact in an attempt to telepathically manipulate Doug, but instead received a punch to the face. When Quentin again attempted to use his telepathy, he came across Doug's mental shielding, represented as a wall of computer code and found himself unable to crack his way into Doug’s mind.
Moira was eventually able to fit the pieces of the puzzle together and realized that Marie-Ange was the cause of the visions, informing the rest of the school as to what was taking place.
In order to heal the damage from Quentin, Haller entered Marie-Ange’s mindscape. Finding older damage, he discovered the place where Kwannon had used Betsy to injure Marie-Ange and was able to heal the old wound in addition to the new
Related Links
External Links
Trivia and Meta
Trivia
Due to entering Marie-Ange’s mindscape, Haller was able to determine that Betsy had been controlled by another psyche at one point.
Meta
Plotrunner: Frito
This plot was inspired by the Rush song of the same name and cut lines were taken from the lyrics
