WHERE: The Greenhouse WHEN: June 1st; 11:30am WHAT: Clara and Sienna have another session, it's interrupted by Clara's powers STATUS: Complete VIEW WARNINGS: Minor
The greenhouse was a lovely place, even without being too full of plants yet, still in its infancy and yet to fully bloom. Sienna could see why Clara would want to spend time here.
It was tranquil, but not isolated. And plants were simple; pretty and colourful, although Sienna did note that there was the means to grow some slightly more dangerous plants, just not dangerous to most humans. Being somewhere that Clara felt calm though, that was important.
âHow have you been feeling lately?â Sienna was inspecting one of the newly potted cuttings, the heads just starting to bloom in several colours. She couldnât name it for the life of her, but it was nice and bright.
Clara had been distant for the time that theyâd been talking so far. Sienna hadnât been there long at all, but sheâd felt the future tugging at her insistently since sheâd bumped into someone earlier. He wasnât on her team, but sheâd knocked into him by accident and her cards had fallen out of the bag and heâd picked them up, holding them in his hands and looking at them for a moment before heâd given them back.
âHm?â she asked, carefully pruning one of the plants. She stayed away from the back corner, one of the new girls had taken it on herself to claim that corner, she was growing her own plants there and Clara wasnât going to look after them. âI- uh-â
Her fingers were itching, like sheâd touched poison ivy, âMister Frost is making me do training with Theo.â She wasnât sure how she felt about that, so far theyâd just been talking, not doing much in the gym. He joined her in here and they talked about⌠things. âThere was a nice cake yesterday in the cafeteria. I shared some with Grey and Danny. Someone fell through Greyâs ceiling a little while ago.â As she turned her eyes to look at Sienna, the outer edges were beginning to cloud, a little.
Sienna was still noticing how regularly asking Clara about herself turned into Clara and Grey and Danny and Kathryn and sometimes Victor. It was a sign of their dependency, but at this stage of things Sienna wasnât looking to put lines in that, Clara was happy and taking relative care of herself -or Grey and Danny were taking care of her- and she was still able to socialise to a some degree with other people.
âTheo for a training partner, that sounds like it could be a good thing. I hear heâs very nice, and capable.â Lupei had a track record of exemplary work, and his mental health seemed to be holding strong, even in this setting. âHow do you like him?â
Sienna didnât take offense when Clara zoned in and out of their conversation, she learned that precogs could end up distracted easily, by the simplest of things, and it wasnât anyoneâs fault. âThat mustâve been quite the evening for Grey, was she okay?â
âHe has nice hands,â Clara said. She wasnât sure how she felt about Theo. She knew that he had been worried when he came into her room but took her to Grey so that she could be taken care of. But he was also friends with Mister Frost, and that meant that she was in a position where he could tell her what to do and if he wanted to make her do something she would have to do it. And he was strong, really strong. He frightened her a bit but in a different way to how Victor did. âHeâs strong.â
A frown flickered across her brow again and she flexed her fingers, âMm, Grey was startled but I think she likes the girl who fell. Her nameâs Chloe. Sheâd had a bad dream.â
She looked around them, like she was trying to find something but she couldnât figure out what it was. âSomethingâs not right.â
âHe is,â in more than one way, Sienna felt that strength came in a lot of different ways, and Theoâs progress in the Regiment, his ability to care and appear compassionate, to assist his team in training, taking a mentor role, that showed his strength more than any weights he could lift. âBut strong people can still be gentle.â
The mention of Chloe and falling meant that Sienna knew it was Chloe Deacon, who Sienna was poised to speak to later to cover a number of bases -bad dreams would need to be on her mind, although nothing that Clara told her about Chloe would be used to base that on. âMaybe Grey could help her too, the way she helps you?â Grey appeared to be the primary source of self-care in the group, either as the logical speaking one, or just as the inherently compassionate one.
As Clara said something was wrong, Sienna instantly stopped touching things, âHave I moved something I shouldnât?â Although it didnât seem like Clara knew what it was that was wrong.
âce n'est pas toi,â Clara said, not at all really paying attention to Sienna anymore. She was looking around for her cards an increasing urgency to her movements. Something was coming, she could feel it and she needed to see it, it was almost here.
As her fingers closed around her cards, she dropped heavily to her knees. Her sight was already going, her head turned up towards Sienna and over her eyes storm clouds were already gathering, the dark grey-white of the future that moved like clouds in the wind.
âHe- Somethingâs going to happen to him,â she told Sienna, her voice remarkably clear, far clearer than usual, focused. âI need- I need to see.â She swallowed, âWill you stay, please?â
Crouching down as Clara settled, Sienna ignored the dirt getting on her pants, watching as Claraâs eyes clouded over, as she grew somewhat agitated but held firm to the need to see what it was. âIâm not going anywhere Clara.â
She wouldnât step in, tell Clara not to use her power, because she was advocating for Clara to use them when she wanted to, and Sienna could see the way Clara wanted to do this, almost needed to. âIâll be right here. Iâm not leaving.â
Because if it was something bad, Sienna could help Clara translate it to something, and if it was just something Clara needed to see and unpackage, Sienna could see to it that the girl was taken care of after.
Her hands found the cards quickly and shuffled them and although she couldnât see what she was doing anymore, her hands moved with purpose as she touched the cards. The Tower was the first one that came out, laid in the middle, next came Temperance - reversed which was placed above The Tower. Beside it, she placed down the the King of Cups, the Wheel of Fortune - reversed and the Nine of Pentacles.
She saw a man, tall and broad shouldered running on a treadmill, with a whistling piercing sound around him that echoed off the walls, a burning heat that prickled in his hands and arms. She saw another man with weights in his hands crossing his arms to shield himself as he was flung through a wall, sent flying across the building, breaking his fall with his back.
She smelt burning and flames, felt an ache in her bones as he exploded again, body reforming like ashes caught in the wind, shivering and cold and sore.
âSomethingâs about to happen in the gym,â she said, tasting ozone on her tongue. Her fingers moved over the spread. âMister Frostâs friend needs to go to the gym, thatâs where sheâll be. Sheâll have a blanket and wrap it around him after heâs blown up. Heâs sore. Itâs too much.â
I left it too long between explosions
âLeft it too long between explosions.â She wet her lower lip, fingertips still on the cards so the vision didnât fade away. âHeâs restless. I- I saw him earlier, he picked up my cards.â
Her brow furrowed, trying to run through the vision. Black, dark, something- Jett. Jett. His name was Jett.
âJett. And Ben. And Holly.â She repeated the names a few times, over and over like a mantra, as if that would explain. âWe have to- we have to help him.â
Sienna didnât know enough about tarot cards to understand the significance of the spread in front of her, as Claraâs vision came to her and the cards slowly folded out. Clara didnât seem to be in any distress, beyond what she might be viewing, and Sienna wasnât needed anywhere else right then.
When Clara started to replay things, giving instruction, Sienna had her network connected device out to send word. âIâll tell them, Clara, itâs okay.â She was already writing out messages, getting Holly to the gym and trying to place âBenâ before she remembered he was Charlotteâs agent and got that in there too.
âThere, Iâve got Holly going to Jett and Ben, sheâll take care of things, right? You did well Clara, you got them help.â So long as Clara didnât start hurting herself from the visions, from whatever she saw, Sienna would definitely use this as a positive example of Clara having control of when she used her skills. âAre you okay? Do I need to get you anything?â
Clara didnât move for a moment, her fingers staying on the cards as she kept herself in the vision trying to find out if there was something more she could do. But it was too close, the hands of time were ticking down. She hadnât been quick enough. She stayed, watching them walk the tall, naked man out of the gym. The three of them. They would be okay. No one was really hurt.
She rubbed at her eyes, hands off the cards and the images stopped playing in front of her eyes, but her vision didnât come back. It would take a little while, she knew, but it wouldnât be too long.
Siennaâs voice came through, bleeding into the ringing of her ears from the explosion, âI- uhâŚâ she swallowed. âI like Jett. I want him to be okay.â
âIâm sure he will be, Clara,â she knew Jett had been referred in for an incident, but Adelaide had dealt with that, presumably the young gentleman was made of hardy stuff if he could withstand some explosions. âWould you like to go see him, in a while? We can wait for a little while, let Holly get him checked on, and we can go see that heâs okay?â
It would probably be all they were allowed to do, but if Clara could see that Jett was okay, it would likely help her move past it.
âYou said Jett touched your cards earlier, is that why you felt the need to see what was happening?â
âI bumped into him,â Clara admitted, rubbing at her eyes again before she reached out carefully and very quickly swept the cards back up into a pile, using her sleeves to protect her hands once she had done so that she didnât touch them again. They werenât calling to her anymore, not as strongly. âThey fell out of my bag and he picked them up for me.â
She turned her head in Siennaâs direction, sitting on the floor because she didnât know the greenhouse well enough to be able to navigate it sightless and she didnât want to break anything.
She looked sad, the corner of her lips turning down a little. âThey used to make me touch things,â she told Sienna. âAnd then triggered my power so Iâd see what they wanted me to see. Sometimes itâs easier when thereâs⌠a connection? I donât just see.â She didnât know how to explain it.
It meant Claraâs power was somewhat channelled based on other people at times; and that seemed to have been used against her, like everything else at the Cheshire facility. âSo a connection to a person, that helps to narrow the focus on what youâll see?â Did Clara need her cards, or were they a comfort thing? Were they more detrimental to Clara than not?
âHow much warning do you usually get, before you see something? Is it something you can tell you need to do or does it just come to you, like now?â If Clara had little to no warning about when a vision would come to her, when sheâd be nearly compelled to let her power take hold, it might be dangerous letting her be by herself in general.
It was another possible reason why Clara was regularly with at least one of her friends at any given time. Group protection, should Clara have to use her powers and lose her sight temporarily, someone would be there to protect her while she was vulnerable. âWe donât have to be anywhere just now Clara, we can wait it out. Iâm still here with you.â
âOui,â Clara responded, her brow creased in a frown. âThereâs a tent,â she thought there would be, so she spoke in the future tense but it was clear she wasnât sure if it was a memory or something sheâd seen in Cheshire. âI- they make me touch things and answer questions so that my mom and dad can get-â
She cut herself off. âNo, it happened. And sometimes I didnât want to and-â She frowned, curling her arms around her stomach. âI donât always- I donât know. Iâve never- they always made me.â Not just Cheshire. Her parents. âMade me touch things until the future came. Or the past. Or the now. Sometimes itâs always.â She wet her lower lip. âI- I donât- when I feel it coming itâs usually too late.â
âItâs okay Clara,â the shifts in her tense, the way she wasnât sure where she saw things, or if they had happened yet, Sienna felt the tugs of concern still rising up. âIf itâs too hard to answer, you donât have to.â Sienna gave Claraâs knee a careful pat, avoiding letting her touch linger.
âSometimes there are things that need to happen, that they will happen, no matter what kind of interference there is. Itâs just how things need to play out.â And while Claraâs vision might not give them enough time to stop Jett hurting someone, or damaging things, it did mean they were able to react in a timely manner in order to deal with it.
âYou saw what you needed to see, and Jett will get the attention he needs, and it will be quicker, because you helped. But you donât need to do that, Clara. Not if you donât want to. You have the control now.â There would be no tents, no people wanting her to touch things and use her gift, no experiments to see how accurate she could be, or what her limits were. She wouldnât be used as a tool anymore.
âIf I donât have a direction,â Clara murmured, fingers drawing circles on the ground, âI just⌠see.â She swallowed, brow creased and lips turned down. âItâs always the same; fire and death. Burning. Screaming.â She didnât know what it was she saw, whether or not it was the future or something that had happened in the past but it was always horrible. âI never forget, either.â She knew some did, that some people saw and then forgot. But Clara never forgot. Everything she saw she remembered, somewhere in her mind. They came back to her in her dreams, at night time when she was trying to sleep.
She shifted so that she was sitting properly, able to cross her legs and her fingers laced together, picking at the edge of her thumb-nail. âHow long was it?â she asked, âHow long did it take me to see?â Maybe her vision would come back more quickly this time. If it wasnât long. âDo you promise heâll- Holly will be there?â
Seeing without direction, just seeing the past and the future, the now, without any input or understanding just what she was viewing, Sienna could understand how that could be difficult to come from, how understanding timelines would become complex, how easy it would be to get lost in that. The fact that Clara remembered it all, all these snippets of other peoples lives, of events that unfold, pain and darkness that happens to people. Especially if it tended to be the bad things that Clara saw.
"It must be difficult, remembering all these things, seeing them happen and not being able to forget." The notion that Clara was forced to just see things, without direction just to see how her power worked. It made her mad at the facility Clara had found herself in all the more.
"Just a few moments, Clara. It was a couple of minutes really." Sienna looked at her watch to try and gauge how long it might've been, but in reality Clara had probably laid out her cards and saw what she had in the space of five or ten minutes. Considering the warning it did gave so that Sienna could get Holly on her way towards the gym, it might've saved a bit more disruption, even if it wasn't enough to stop Jett from exploding at all. "She might be, she might want to stay with Jett too." Holly was a very involved handler, and Sienna couldn't see the woman just walking away from Jett if he was in a rough place.
âItâs harder when I donât know what theyâre from,â Clara agreed softly. âSometimes when thereâs something I see that- sometimes itâs mine, I think? And sometimes itâs something else. But I canât tell whatâs a memory and whatâs the past. Or if it hasnât happened yet. No oneâs ever been able to tell me properly.â Because sheâd never been able to see her own future. It had been worse when they realised she could open doorways. But Sienna didnât want to know about that.
She thought about Julian, the Cajun with the long dreadlocks and thought about a smaller person, but with the same eyes, pushing a medallion into her hand and promising her itâd keep her safe. But he wasnât here to tell her if he was giving it to her or if that was someone else. But sometimes the thinks she knew were hers she didnât want to.
It was confusing.
She pushed her hand into her hair, but caught herself before she twisted her fingers in the lengths, just letting it sit there, reassured by the weight of her hair on her fingers.
âMy sight should come back soon then,â she said confidently. If it hadnât been long, only a few minutes, then maybe it would filter back. She blinked owlishly, head turned towards Sienna again as her hand fell out of her hair to fold against the other one in her lap. âWe were talking about things,â she murmured, jumping back, to their conversation ten minutes before. âWhat did you want to talk about today? We were talking about Theo, I think?â
Claraâs powers were still so amazing, and the strength of the girl to shoulder them, survive what she had with a relatively intact mind. A lesser person wouldâve been broken long ago, in ways that no medication could help, that no therapy would be able to repair. But Clara had managed to filter her way through horrendous hardship, survive the terrible things done to her, the things sheâd been forced to see, and remember, and come out of it all a sweet young woman trying to find herself.
âI am in no rush, Clara. Weâll wait however long it takes.â Her next appointment was still an hour from now, and Sienna would calmly wait with Clara until the young woman was ready. âWe were talking about Theo. Would you like to continue the conversation? I was asking how you liked him, you were saying heâs going to help you train?â
It would be good for Clara to have a mentor outside of her group, although Sienna doubted it would damage the dynamic at all. âIâm sure Theo will take good care of your training.â
âMm,â Clara hummed, twirling her hair between her fingers. âHeâs nice? But.. heâs been- insistent.â She didnât want to learn to fight but she knew she had little choice here, because even though Sienna had said she wouldnât get experimented on if she didnât give the right visions, she had seen that there were punishments here and she didnât know what they were for. And sheâd said no before, and that always led to bad things. âI have to do what he says.â
âYou have to follow his suggestions,â There was a line, and she was worried that Clara wouldnât understand where that line was, but hopefully Theo was a patient teacher. âIâm sure, if you ask him why you need to do things, he will let you know his reasonings, and you can learn that way? But, if youâre ever uncomfortable with something, you can come and talk to me, okay? Even if itâs not our scheduled time to see each other.â
There were going to be some landmines with Clara, not just with her powers, and those would be difficult to navigate without proper patience and care.