Join me for a cup? {Open!}

Aylen glanced up, and saw that someone had stopped by her table, asking if she could sit with her. She smiled, bright and quick and nodded as she motioned to the seat across from her. "Please, have a seat. It gets rather lonely here with only a dog for company." The other woman's aura was quite pretty, bright happy yellows and pinks that cheered Aylen's formerly gloomy mood.

There was something else, though, that Aylen couldn't quite put her finger on. Something that was familiar, yet foreign in the sense of the woman's being that she couldn't place. She wasn't sure what it might be, but maybe if she talked with her some, she would figure it out sooner or later. After a moment, she realized she recognized the aura around the woman.

"You're Mari Sinclaire, right?" Aylen asked. She had met the girl before, briefly at the hospital when she had gone in to get stitches after she had tripped and sliced her upper arm on one of Charles's many swords. "We met the other night at the hospital. I don't know if you remember me..." She smiled. She was amused, after her thoughts of wanting a female friend, a woman had asked to sit with her in the warmth of the sun. "My name is Aylen, in case you don't remember. I think the doctors had you on some pretty rocking drugs that night."

Aylen smiled as Marina held her hand out for Charles to sniff, and he let out a doggy sigh and licked her hand, wagging his tail and hoping for attention. "Charles is a friendly dog," She said. "Sometimes I think he's too friendly..." She laughed a little. "I don't know what I'd do without Charles. Probably run into things." She grinned. She didn't mind making fun of her blindness, though sometimes it grated on her when other people poked at her about it. "I hope you get to have a pet though. They can really brighten a persons day."

"Don't apologize, I ended up getting something for the pain myself. Charles, my bodyguard not my dog, ended up having to carry me out. He wasn't very amused, although Samuel, his brother, was extremely amused when he got back home and found me doped out of my mind, and Charles panicking and not knowing what to do." Aylen smiled at the memory. It was just funny to think about, Charles panicking, and Samuel laughing. She didn't remember a whole lot about that night, but what she did remember made her laugh aloud.

"Yeah, I can smell them. They're very lovely," Aylen said with a wan smile. She still wished she could see them, and it ached a little more than it normally would have, ever since she found out that with Everette's help she could actually see.

"My favorite tea?" Aylen asked, frowning in thought. "I'd have to say Jasmine or Chamomile. Both are fantastic." She smiled and nodded when Mari said she was going to go get herself a cup, and Aylen leaned back in her chair with her tea and took another sip of the warm liquid. When Mari came back, Aylen smiled again. "I know how you feel," She said softly. "Did you get green tea? I never could stand the taste of it, though it smells good."

Aylen smiled, though it was a little sad for the girl who wasn't able to have friends or pets. Aylen found herself wanting to be the girls friend, though not just because she had so few. She truly liked Marina, and found her to be interesting. "Hopefully he will change his mind. Maybe if he meets Charles here, he'll open up to the idea?" Aylen suggested with a beaming smile.

Aylen shrugged slightly. "Well," She said thoughtfully. "If I didn't find the humor in things, like the fact that I'm blind, I think I would be miserable. I don't like it when others are miserable, so I don't think I could subject everyone else to it." She smiled at Marina. "You know what I mean?" She asked. "Ohh macaroons..." Aylen said with a wistful sigh as she reached out to where Mari said they were and grabbed one off the top of the pile. "I love macaroons..." She bit into it, and sighed happily.

As she ate the treat Mari had kindly let her have, she listened to her as she spoke of the way she could help people get impressions of what she was seeing. Then, in Aylen's mind, it seemed to click. That strange feeling she had been having with Mari's aura, that way it felt oddly familiar and yet different at the same time. But before she could say anything, Mari had moved onto the subject of her father, so Aylen listened instead.

Aylen reached out and grabbed Mari's hand, knowing right where it was. "I know how hard it can be when parents try to control you," She said softly. "The only way I was able to get out of the house and live on my own was if I had a couple of bodyguards. My mother hired them. I didn't have a say in the matter, but I really like Samuel and Charles so I won't argue."

Aylen smiled and leaned back. "So tell me, Mari, how long have you known you were a psychic?" Aylen asked in a soft voice. She had made sure no one was close enough to hear her when she asked. "I'd wondered... I could feel something different about you before, but I never could put my finger on it. I've never met another psychic before."

Aylen smiled sadly. "I can understand not wanting to get attached," She said softly as she reached down to Charles. She rubbed at his head and her heart hurt faintly. "I've had a lot of seeing-eye dogs. I keep telling myself I won't get attached to them but..." She smiled wanly. "Well, it's just not easy to keep yourself apart from such a happy animal..." She shrugged, and blinked once, glad for the dark black sunglasses she wore to hide the tears that were making her dark eyes glisten.

Aylen smiled, the tears drying up quickly enough before any could fall when Mari moved on, glad of it. Charles rested his head on her knee, and she reached down and absently rubbed it. "It can be hard when your parents appoint someone to watch over you," Aylen said with a sigh. "Me and Samuel hit it off pretty quick, but Charles... Charles was always so pushy. He tried to order me around, and I used sneaky ways of getting back at him. Like naming my dog here Charles." She smiled and it was wicked and mischievous at the same time. "He was so mad when I called for Charles here, and he came as well as the dog. It still bothers him since he never knows who I'm calling for." She laughed, bright and amused.

Aylen felt something in herself brighten. Maybe that part of her that was afraid she truly was alone. Sure, she was probably the only person that could see a person's soul thanks to the auras she saw, but now she knew she wasn't the only psychic either. After all the ones she outed as being fake, she was afraid that maybe there were no other real psychics. She shouldn't have worried.

"My gifts are... Strange," Aylen said with a faint smile. "For one, as you've noticed, I can, sometimes, sense what other people are." She didn't want to say she could always do it, even with this nice girl. Sometimes saying she couldn't always do something made her feel better about being so different. "I can also sort of see." She smiled faintly. "But not quite like everyone else." She shrugged. "I see people's souls in the forms of auras around a person. Yours is very pretty, which is why I spoke to you in the hospital. That, and the song you'd been singing was pretty too." She smiled brightly.

"I can tell you what color you are, if you'd like." She said it almost shyly. She rarely told anyone what colors she saw around them, because some people might be embarrassed. Like the big buff biker man she saw once with a vibrant pink and purple aura. After telling Charles, she heard one of his rare laughs from him, and it made her heart jump a little when she remembered that laugh, and wondered why. "If not I understand though," She said quickly.

Aylen could understand what it was like, wanting a pet but never getting one. She wasn't allowed to have a seeing eye dog until she graduated high school, since the schools wouldn't allow even a seeing eye dog because it would have been too distracting for the other students. When she graduated, and her parents gave her her first seeing eye dog, she had loved her so much. The dog had gotten sick though, and they had given her Charles. She loved Charles as much as she loved her old dog Maggie, but it just wasn't the same.

"I need a sense of humor, otherwise I'd probably go insane," Aylen said with a quick smile. When Marina went on to talk about her protector, Trenton, she could understand what she meant. "Charles and Samuel are both extremely protective of me. Charles maybe more so, though I'm not sure why. Maybe he just takes his job more seriously than Samuel. My parents, my mom and step dad anyway, hired them. They moved here to take this job, and they live in one of the rental houses with me that my parents own. It was the only way they'd let me move out, is if I lived in one of their rental houses close to their property." She shrugged but smiled with amusement. "It's nice though, even if I'm still being watched over."

"We have some of the same gifts!" Aylen said, excited now as she reached out to grab Marina's hand. "I'm an empath as well, although with my ability to see auras, it sometimes overloads my senses and makes me black out." She grimaced and pulled away from her new friend. "It's not much fun. I can see a little bit into the future, enough to be the pet psychic for a little store named Charms 'N' Thangs. Usually that only comes when I hold someone's hand though." She smiled and wiggled her fingers.

"I can tell when people are lying to me, usually anyway since some people, like Charles and Samuel, are able to hide it from me. I think it's all about a strength of will, but I'm not really sure." Aylen blinked, then smiled wistfully. "I wish I could talk to ghosts," She said with a sigh. "That would be so interesting. But since I can't see them, they don't want to talk to me. They put off an energy source, but since they aren't technically alive, I can't sense them with my ability to see auras."

"I don't know if I was born psychic though... My mother used to tell me this story of how a witch placed a spell on me to let me see, but it backfired so I could only see a person's aura, instead of the person. I can see auras around plants too. They're so pretty." She smiled. "If its alive, I can see an aura around it, whether it be human, plant or animal. Whether or not I was born with this gift or it was given to me by a witch, I have no idea, but I like to think the latter. It gives me more of an air of mystery, don't you think?" She grinned.

Aylen fidgeted when Marina said she would like to know what her aura looked like, but she still smiled. She was pleased that Mari wanted to know more about her gifts. "It's so pretty, and very calming," She said as she reached out to take her hand. "It's a mixture of pink and yellow, and very vibrant. Most people don't have such vibrant auras, they're usually dull and tired looking because they're tired of learning, and living. But yours is vibrant and pretty, like this flower I saw once when I was younger."

Aylen smiled faintly. "I thought I was alone," She said. "I knew there had to be other psychics, but I never met a real one, just a bunch of fakes."