and in my dreams

That was what Antonia had expected. She nodded, jotting down a clarification for herself. “Sure, More space to plant flowers is something we can create.” That would be easy enough to execute, as long as she could get the board to approve the space, which seemed like no problem to her. “And we will access some archives for you. Do you have preferred newspapers or sources, or would you like a variety?” She didn’t know if the spirits were all local to the area or more diverse, which would probably matter in some way she didn’t understand as well.

.

“Thank you.” Victoria replied breathlessly, never having imagined her little quibble about space to plant and grow would be heard and, perhaps, acted on. She wasn’t one to draw attention to herself, especially when it came to lodging complaints, she hated that kind of focus on herself anyway. But perhaps there was something to gentle suggestions. “I couldn’t tell you. I get people that come to me from all over. If it was a national story or case, I can find it pretty easy but smaller towns I haven’t been able to access. It’s blocked to me.” 

“Pff, I wish. No. It’s something way lamer.” As much as Blake was annoyed by the fact that her power wasn’t something more badass, she wasn’t ashamed of it. In her view, it was just proof that she was too badass a person, and that the universe had to balance her out with a lame power. “But my power isn’t something I can turn off. It’s always there. So I had to learn ways to make it less, like, in your face, you know?” She paused, and then recognized that she’d need to clarify. “Not literally in your face but like–in my head in a bad way, you know?”

.

“No, no, I completely understand.” Victoria replied emphatically, sitting up straighter and leaning slightly into the table as she spoke. “I can’t turn mine off either and it’s unpredictable. Even when I think it’s off it shows me it’s on at the worst possible moment.” She sat back in her chair, rolling her lip around with her teeth as she considered the woman in front of her. “How do you manage yours?”

Blake could tell immediately she’d struck a nerve. She put her hands up in surrender. “It’s fine, you don’t need to tell me or anything.” She took a sip of her own coffee and then leaned forward so she could lower her voice as she spoke. “I’m just saying. There are things you can do to calm your power down when you’re trying to get calm. Trust me. I’ve been through it.”

.

“There are?” Confusion crossed Victoria’s face, bringing her eyebrows and corners of her mouth downward. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted the spirits to go away. Not entirely anyway. But definitely when she was sleeping. “So what’s your thing then? Power detection?” A smile grew on her face as she joked. 

“It doesn’t prove anything. You could be nothing more than another illusion manipulator. Just because people can hear and see the illusions doesn’t mean they’re real. Your spirit visitors could be nothing more than that.” He paused for a minute, scratching at his chin. “I may need to see it in action. I can read all the notes they’ve got on you, but until I see it happening I can’t know for sure.”

.

“I’m not though, you already have one of those here in the collection. You guys are the ones who gave it the name ‘communing’ in the first place.” Victoria was growing frustrated despite knowing deep down that Brian was just trying to do his job, even though it looked like he hated it as much as she hated having to explain that she couldn’t train. “So what do you want, a speed dial call the next time a spirit wakes me up in the middle of the night?”

Antonia paused. They didn’t want Victoria planting willy-nilly, obviously. But if she wanted to landscape. “Do you want more gardens, or do you want landscaping to be one of the service options? I’m not saying no to either, but I want to make sure I understand what you’re looking for. Different administrative avenues for different plans, you know.” She wrote down that the girl wanted more gardening on her survey anyway–she could always add the more specific answer later. “I’m sure you do, Victoria.” She hoped her tone was reassuring, but in reality, she had no idea. She wasn’t sure if she even really believed in spirits, despite having read Victoria’s file. “Is there anything we can do to help with that? I cannot expand computer time, but books or other archives could be added to the library.”

.

Victoria thought about it for a pause. She’d be considering landscaping and gardening to be interchangeable, though she knew they weren’t, not really. “I guess mostly more gardening? I’d just like more space to plant and plan flowers, I guess.” It helped calm her to think about the plants that would thrive where she planted them, plan colors off of each other, put them in the earth, and watch them grow. She saw so much death and the aftermath, it was soothing to facilitate life. “Yeah, actually.” Victoria brightened, standing straighter, “Archives would be great. And I know internet time is limited but if I could just be able to access newspapers and their archives as well.”

Blake was at least a little sympathetic to that. She never had power troubles anymore, but when the twins were first born–ooh, boy, it was rough for a while there. Really, really rough, like more than normal single parent with twins tough. She softened visibly, taking her cup from the woman and tilting her head toward an open table. She never really took to strangers–Blake had a strict “trust no bitch” policy since coming to Lake Grimstone–but even she wasn’t a total heartless monster.

“So, what’s your deal? Mind-reading, dream-hopping, or…hm.” Her eyes narrowed. “Is it something super fucked up like conjuring people?”

.

The question took Victoria aback, almost literally. She jerked ever so slightly, blinking rapidly at how well it seemed the woman was able to read her or how good she seemed to be at guessing. Victoria tried to cover up her uncomfortable reaction by taking a long, calculated, and hopefully calming drink of her coffee. It didn’t aid her much. 

“It’s uh-I guess you could say...” She stammered, trailing off before collecting herself, “It’s something like that.”

John gave a single, knowing nod. “As long as you’re sure,” he offered a warm smile, “power problems really can get in the way of just feeling…normal.” He knew all too well what his powers had done to his life prior to moving to Grimstone, so he could only imagine what others had to go through. “I’m going to hazard a guess that you’re an early riser. So you’d be here…pre-10am? Is that a start?” He took a step back and pointed at one of the empty tables. “You wanna sit for a bit or did you have somewhere you needed to be?”

.

“Yeah,” Victoria replied, a smile growing slowly across her face, “You have no idea how true that is.” She laughed cautiously, tucking a long piece of hair behind her ear. Vic had to think most people had similar problems with their powers and it wouldn’t be fair of her to assume that her problems were any worse than anyone else’s. She did envy most people for being more comfortable and open with their powers, though. “Tell you what, I’ll give you a hint. I’ll be here between sun up and sun down.” Victoria raised a hand to her lips to cover her laugh, glancing at the table he pointed. “Not at all, I’d love to sit.” She didn’t have many people she could talk to, after all. 

Not enough spades? Antonia turned away to dig in her purse for a post-it pad. She pulled off a post it, stuck it to her clipboard, and jotted herself a note to look into that, eyebrows raised. “Well, if you need more spades, that’s a pretty easy fix. Anything else at the garden lacking? If I’m going to have someone order supplies, I’d like to do it all at once.” Efficiency, after all, was something Antonia expected to make a hallmark of administration in Grimstone Point. As for the powers, Antonia simply noted Victoria’s answers, not sure what to make of that. She had no idea how the girl’s powers worked, only that it was something she preferred not to make her responsibility. That was for the scientists. “I see. But you don’t want to suppress them either?” Her own curiosity about who did or didn’t become a spirit was hardly relevant, now was it? That was too personal to bring to a resident.

---

Victoria stood straighter, not having expected Antonia to have been as receptive to her tawdry complaint of gardening supplies. “Uh, I mean, yeah. I’d love to have freer reign over flowers and where I can plant them. If it’s in the uh - budget, I mean. I think I’m the only one that really does any kind of landscaping.” She thought carefully about her answers in regard to her power. Victoria didn’t hate her power, not really. She hated the way people looked at her when they understood it or saw it, but she helped people. Gave them peace and the ability to move on as they were supposed to. “No? At least, I don’t think I do. I help people, Ms. Wilds. I give people peace. I guess I train, in my own way. I spend my computer time researching for people I’ve brought back.”

Brian gave a less than enthusiastic nod as a response and continued to look at the notes in front of him. Seeing spirits was an ability beyond even what he could think up a logical conclusion for. Aside from sounding mad, what use was an ability like that to him anyway? “That’s exactly the point. People have been trying to prove the existence of paranormal entities for years and then along you come. Yet we still can’t prove their existence, even with people like you.” He tapped at his chin. “It’s not even like there’s something physical that can trigger it.” Victoria was a frustrating case, but a case he intended to crack, one way or another.

---

“They appear, I touch them, I bring them back until they can finish whatever they thought they needed to fix before they died. You want to see it? You’ll have to follow me around.” She lifted her arms up and dropped them at her sides with a resounding slap in frustration. “Isn’t the existence of my power proof enough of them?”

“Oh…sorry to hear that,” he said genuinely, “anything I can help with or that you wanna talk about?” He knew what it was like to have a bad set of days in a row, so the least he could do was offer some form of help, if he could. “Okay, sweet. I can be here. We talking early morning or late morning/ near afternoon? Or do I just turn up and hope I strike lucky?”

---

“Power...problems.” She stuttered, being as vague as she could, “But thank you, I’ll be all right.” Vic laughed at his following questions, taking a long sip of her coffee, letting it marinate on her tongue, before swallowing. She needed that. “I could tell you. Or I could make it a guessing game, really make you earn that rain check.” She was mostly joking, she’d tell him if he asked again.

Miles walked beside the girl who still seemed a little uneasy about him and the encounter and that’s when it hit him, if he wanted her help he had to take on a different approach. Miles took in a deep breath and nodded as the woman spoke about her power. “Isn’t that how it is with all powers?” He asked her but kept his gaze forward. “I have energy construct and even though I have a pretty good control over it, sometimes it still acts up.” This was not something he would admit to anyone, but he wanted her to feel comfortable.

---

“I guess...” Victoria trailed off, nodding as he spoke to her about his power. She had a feeling that even this little information he was giving her was more than he usually gave anyone. “What exactly is energy construct? I mean, it sounds cool enough but I don’t know what it is.” Vic was stalling more than anything, not wanting to talk too much about her power, but...he clearly knew enough about her power to target her for this conversation and hadn’t run screaming about the crazy girl so, what was she waiting for? “I bring back the spirits of people that haven’t moved on until they fix whatever they thought was left broken.” She glanced sideways at him, waiting for a reaction. 

Normally, Blake’s fire at someone stealing her caffeine would have been fierce. She would have eviscerated the person. Absolutely destroyed their day in exchange for destroying hers. An overreaction, maybe, but Blake was a mother of two who needed caffeine to get through her day. But the moment the other woman–what was her name? Valerie or something–offered to buy her a coffee? The fire was squashed immediately, replaced with a surprising calm. “An extra large cold brew. Whatever the biggest one is. With almond milk and cream.” 

She glanced up at the girl, who looked quite frankly like shit, before returning her attention to her own nails. She needed to touch them up. “What happened to you anyway? You look like you haven’t slept.”

.

Victoria nodded hurriedly, trying to remember every detail of the woman’s order as she went to parrot it back to the barista to replace the woman’s drink, and slipping the mistaken one into the trash. She went back to the counter where one received drinks, and picked up her correct one, this time taking care to check the name on the cup, if a bit belatedly. Vic took a cautious sip, glancing back at the woman and hoping she wasn’t too upset for the inconvenience she had caused. 

The comment gave her pause, the cup hovering at her lips. Victoria swallowed her last drink carefully before she responded. “I didn’t sleep very well. Power-related troubles.” She furrowed her eyebrows as she answered, not sure how she could answer her as vaguely as possible.

Miles followed Victoria out of the coffee shop, once outside he took in a deep breath of fresh air. For some reason the air felt easier to breath than it had felt in the last week or so. Every time August came around, breathing… existing, became difficult for Miles. It was during those few weeks when people would be able to see a different side of him. “Right, one at a time.” He said and took in another deep breath. “Can you pick who you want to talk to?” That was the important question and what he really wanted to know.

Victoria walked as calmly as she could, still uneasy with how he seemed to know her name and power before she even spoke. She wasn’t one to really advertise what she could do, really only telling very few people if she absolutely had to. “Not normally.” Vic replied quietly, imagining he had someone he wanted her to find, “I’ve only done it once and I’m not even sure it was really me. There’s...rules. I can’t see anyone and everyone.”

Antonia felt instantly relieved at the girl’s correction. Well, mostly relieved. She knew in some vague part of the back of her mind that a girl Miss Martell’s age was supposed to have some sort of social life, but Antonia hadn’t had a social life and she turned out more than fine, thank you very much. “As long as it’s your decision,” Antonia replied with what she hoped was a gentle tone. Her assurances about the training facility were good as well, though less enthusiastic as she would like. “I see. And–well, so, training doesn’t do much for you. Does that bother you much?” In truth, she had no idea if that was something the government could fix or improve upon, but she didn’t like the idea of leaving any part of her town sub-par. “Is there some way we could improve your training experiences? Either to make them happen, well, less often at random, or more often when you want them?”

.

Victoria rocked on her heels, keeping a tight grip on the glass of water in hand as she considered what else she wanted to say. “I enjoy doing the gardening as my community service but...” she rolled her lips together, “There’s really only one good spade and they told me there wasn’t any point in ordering more seeds.” She was never one to complain, normally, but if she had to do the gardening as part of the side of town in which she lived, then she was going to do it right and she was at a bit of a stalemate with the person in charge of divvying out supplies and areas to her. “Not really?” She said hesitantly in response to the director’s question of training, “I feel like I have a good handle on the spirits when I do see them. I don’t really want to make them appear at will since I can’t control who comes. Not everybody turns into a spirit.” 

Victoria Martell | Peggy Schuyler Van Rensselaer And Peggy!

Maybe he had been a little too forward, but Miles was not one to hold back when he saw something that was useful to him. “There has to be more to that, no?” He asked narrowing his eyes slightly as he spoke. “How does your power work? Can you talk to anyone? How do you–” he stopped talking when he realized that there were other people around them. “We should probably move, you up for a walk?” He asked looking out the door, he didn’t want or need others listening in on his conversation.

It was Victoria’s turn to narrow her eyes at him. She would never say anything about it, but it was obvious to her that Miles didn’t actually care about anything else about her beyond her power. She ducked her head as he rapid fired questions, glancing about the shop around to see if anyone was listening. Her eyes found his again as he suggested going for a walk and she hesitantly nodded, turning to walk out the door and assuming he would follow. “You can ask your questions just...one at a time, please.” Vic put her hands up, palms out toward Miles and eased them downwards, signaling her need for him to slow down.