Seven/Marina | The Lorien Legacies (sietedelmar) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-09-14 21:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, ~2017 september, ~25 points, ~~number seven (sietedelmar), ~~~sarissa (ladyofsummer) |
WHO: Marina and Sarissa
WHAT Talking at the clinic
WHEN: Yesterday
WHERE: The clinic
WARNINGS: Depression, war, death, etc.
STATUS: Closed/Completed Gdoc
Marina was one of the newest employees of the clinic. She felt a lot of the time that she was having to prove herself, not just to the other doctors and healers, but to herself. The deaths of Eight and Sarah had taken a lot out of her, and had severely damaged her confidence. Helping Kate had helped that a little, but it was still far from perfect. You didn’t get over the kind of damage that she’d suffered overnight.
The clinic was slow today, so Marina was sitting in the back room working on some paperwork. It was nothing interesting or exciting, but it was keeping her mind busy, which was really all that she wanted right now.
She heard the door close behind her and jerked her head around, almost frightened. When she saw Sarissa, some of the tension drained from her face. Habits learned in war were hard to lose.
“Hey,” she said, trying to sound casual about it.
***
Sarissa was carrying a flower basket, sent to the clinic from someone who had been there recently.
She gave Marina an unthreatening smile, having caught the initial moment of startlement. “They told me to bring the flowers in here,” she explained. “I didn't mean to interrupt.”
***
“No, it’s okay. I was just...surprised, is all.” She smiled a little, weakly. “I’m Marina.”
She wasn’t sure if the other girl knew her name. She’d learned all of the names of those who worked at the Clinic, but Marina herself was shy and rather quiet.
“Have you worked here long?”
***
“Sarissa,” came the reply. She picked a table to set the basket on and turned it around so the card would be facing the front for anyone who wanted to know who it came geo
“I don't work here,” she explained. “I'm just delivering the flowers. I work at the florist down the street.”
Which was probably why Marina didn't know her.
“Have you had a long shift?”
***
Marina blushed. That was certainly why she hadn’t recognized her. Apparently she needed to pay much closer attention.
“Yes and no,” she said. “It hasn’t been very busy today, which is making time drag a little.”
Not that she wanted anyone to get hurt or sick just to entertain her, but it was still true.
“And the things that have come in haven’t needed me.”
When it was just a cold or something, there was no need for her healing.
***
“That's good to hear,” Sarissa said, her lips quirking up in a wry smile. “I think there are some professions when quiet is a good thing.”
One of the flowers stretched towards her, seeking her presence, and she nudged it back into place. She did it discreetly, hoping it wasn't noticed.
“What's your specialty?”
***
“Oh, I’m not a doctor,” she said. She really had no medical training whatsoever. It was a Legacy, and she didn’t understand it much. It at least she knew that it worked. That was the most important part.
“Or a nurse. Or anything professional. I just have...an ability.”
***
Sarissa tilted her head with mild curiosity, inviting elaboration. Marina had said the things that had come in hadn’t needed her, so she must have some particular skill - or ability, as she’d said - that didn’t apply to the day to day. Sarissa wondered what it was.
***
“I can heal people,” she said, because she knew elaboration was expected. “But they don’t usually use my powers unless it’s serious. You know, something the doctors couldn’t treat.”
They didn’t want to exhaust the healers, or make them useless for the emergencies in which they were really needed.
***
That wasn't a lot of detail, but Sarissa could see an empty weariness in Marina’s eyes that made Sarissa think that she'd had to use her healing in much more traumatic ways in the past. Definitely not what the normal doctors could handle.
“I guess it's a good thing you're not kept busy, then,” she said gently.
She glanced at the flowers. “I should get going, and leave you to your break. But thank you, for what you're doing.”
Because she was using her powers to help. Sarissa could heal too, but she was selfishly keeping her own powers under wraps. It was safer for everyone, in the end.
***
Marina didn’t know what else to do. She almost felt like she had to use her powers, like she was letting people down if she didn’t. She’d let so many people down in the past that she just couldn’t do it again.
“Sorry to keep you,” she said a bit weakly. She hadn’t meant to bother her, or hold her up when she had more important things to do.
***
“Not at all,” Sarissa assured her. She did have other deliveries, but if she needed to, she could easily teleport to her next location. Just because she didn’t like to use her powers didn’t mean she wouldn’t - especially if it meant not rejecting someone who looked so lonely.
“I just didn’t want to bother you. I’m more than happy to chat, if you’ll have my company.”
***
Marina’s face brightened a little at that. She didn’t like to face it most of the time, but the truth was that she was lonely. Very lonely. And she felt empty and broken. She had ever since Eight had died, and Sarah’s death and being unable to save her had just compounded that pain.
“I mean, you’re welcome to stay for a while. It must be nice, doing what you do. Even really sick people must smile when someone brings them flowers.”
***
“It’s a simple way to be helpful,” Sarissa agreed. And simplicity was what she needed right now. She knew she could do a lot more to help the town and the people who lived in it: provide never-ending summer to those who wanted it. Create things people longed for. Heal. Care for those who needed it. But at a cost far greater than what she was willing to expend. Little bits of teleportation, sure. But more than that, and she worried the Mantle would want more. And more. Until it overtook her completely.
She admired those who did use their powers to help, though. She knew it came at a cost to themselves as well.
“I admire you, though,” she said, “for helping the way you do. It can’t be easy.”
***
It was less of a cost to Marina than it was to some. Granted, it still wasn’t easy, but it didn’t do much to her except make her tired...and make her feel guilty when she failed. But that was her own problem - feeling that she could do more than she actually could. She wanted to push herself to save everyone, but it only led to her downfall. She’d discovered that the hardest way possible.
“Don’t admire me,” she said. “I’m just doing what anyone in my position would do. Do I wish I’d gotten another legacy, maybe something that would help me fight harder? Yeah, I do.”
She had her cyrogenesis, of course, and that could easily be deadly. But she wouldn’t mind having something else she could use too.
***
“I think healing’s just as important as any offensive power,” Sarissa said. She pulled a chair towards her and sat down, looking very much like a queen on a throne. “You can’t fight if you’re wounded, or worse. And I don’t think everyone in your position would do what you’re doing.” She ought to know. “You might think it’s nothing, but it’s not.”
***
But Marina didn’t feel special, or that she was doing anything particularly good. Honestly, she just felt tired, and that wasn’t the best thing she’d ever felt. She was nineteen years old, and exhausted. What did that say for the rest of her life?
And it wasn’t just her body, but her heart. Her heart was exhausted from the pain and loss. She didn’t know if it would ever let her love again. She didn’t know if she wanted to take that chance after how much losing Eight had hurt.
“I don’t know. I don’t know much of anything anymore, it seems.”
***
“Time might help bring clarity,” Sarissa said gently. “I don’t know what happened in your world to put that void in your eyes, but I’ve found that time and distance can dull the pain.”
She didn’t ask further into what had happened. If Marina wanted to share, she’d listen. But she heard too many tragic stories already - some of them her own - to go looking.
***
“Maybe,” she said. She was skeptical. She’d already spent a year wandering and trying to find herself, and nothing had felt any better. She’d even stalked Five for a while, wondering if it would make her feel better to kill him, but she hadn’t. It hadn’t seemed worth it.
“But here, well, at least it’s peaceful here.”
Relatively. And that was the most she felt that she could hope for.
***
“Dinosaurs and vampires aside,” Sarissa said drily. But it was definitely more peaceful than what she was used to, she had to admit.
She stood up. “I was going to get a small snack before the rest of my deliveries. If there’s no need for you here, would you like to join me?”
***
Marina was surprised at the invitation, but she wasn’t going to turn it down.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’d like that. A lot.”
She needed to get out more. She needed to do more. She needed to stop sitting at home and feeling sorry for herself, wallowing in her self-pity.
“Give me a second to let them know I’m taking my dinner break. Then we can go.”
This would be fun. At least, she planned to make it that way. She needed fun, even if it was just a coke and some fries out with a girl she was getting to know.