Shrinking Violet (Jean & Klara)

[Gummy]

Since the bank robbery gone wrong, Klara had refused to leave the house or even go into her garden. The bushes were still mostly overgrown from hiding Kei and all the other monsters during their escape. She hadn't wanted to socialise or even go to the cinema to watch 'Gone with the Wind' for the dozenth time. She had just lounged on the floor with chin resting on her hands and ankles crossed in the air. The soap operas were just good enough for her, they were all she could cope with. Whenever a news flash interrupted the schedule she just turned it off and rolled over to look at the ceiling. In her head she tried to imagine life without her powers, or with being back in time. Life sucked!

Molly had been busy at school and the others were all off working or doing something, she didn't really care what. That was until the power cut. The TV pinged out off and the lights all went dark. Rolling onto her back she thought about it but when the power didn't come back on she decided to head to her little, VERY overgrown garden. At least there she could be hidden under the foliage.

She ran out the door straight under the cover of the plants. As if welcoming her she smiled a little for the fist time in a while. Finding an area now covered in thick moss she laid down and sighed. The dappled light through the twisted rose bushes and berry shrubs made the light dance across her face. At least here she was welcome, at least here she didn't have to pretend. She was a preteen but that didn't mean she didn't have the mood swings or wanted to do stuff with other people. She felt herself drifting off to sleep despite the cooling air.

Just as suddenly she was fully awake having heard something. The panic was there and she crept further into the darkness of the plants.

[John Kilroy]

This had essentially become routine to Jean for a while. Meditate in the White Room for a few hours a week or spend time building onto the white room , sense something was amiss. help said person that was in distress, help them. Enjoy life as a human. GO back to the white room to meditate for a few hours maybe a day, rinse, wash repeat. It was a routine but a fulfilling one. It was then her Phoniex sense, her cosmic awareness or whatever one wanted to call it started to tingle. She could see the image. A poor preteen girl, who's powers were floral based. She seemed down, lost and venerable, above all else she seemed like she needed a friend.

Sure it was not some kind of danger or world ending threat, but still what kind of person would she be if she did not help someone like that when she was in the position to do so?

So Jean teleported to The young preteen's little garden. She cursed herself however when she had landed and caused a little centralized EMP causing Klara's power to go out. *Ugh, can't believe I did that. Stupid stupid...*

deciding that taking on the form of a much older adult or a firey cosmic bird goddess might be just a TAD bit too intimidating for Klara, she instead took used her molecular manipulation abilities to take on a form that would hopefully be a bit more appealing to Klara.

she took on the form of a large flower with big fluffy white petals that gave off a fiery glow. Jean then used her telepathic powers to make it where anyone near her flower form would feel a nice toasty cozy warmth (Like cozying up to a fireplace on a cold winter night) and would smell a strong scent of Vanila and oranges coming from the petals. Said petals would also feel like as soft and fluffy as bird feathers if touched against skin.

Jean mentally crossed her fingers. Hoping she'd come across as a near perfect flower and able to sooth the poor girl.

[Gummy]

Klara knew there was someone there but didn't get to understand what they were seeing as everything went quiet. The panic that came over her as everything suddenly went deathly quiet was crazy. What had happened? Why couldn't she hear them? Was she being attacked? What was going on!? Looking around wide eyed and breathing fast didn't help her calm but it did make her smell the orange and vanilla but where was it coming from? She hadn't noticed it before. She curled into herself but then took a deep breath to try and steady her panic and fast breathing.

Wide eyed she stood up and gingerly moved forward. Peeking around the corner she looked out to try and figure what was going on. She could see a new plant. That wasn't normally there! Was it something that Kei had made for her to help? Was it a trap? She had never seen anything like it. The plant glowed! Were the petals made of feathers? She had seen a plant that has soft tuffty stems but most of them were types of grass. There was also a warmth but plants didn't produce heat... at least not like that. Some strange plants could glow, so she had learned, but this was different. She felt like she could trust it but part of her was scared... very scared.

Then her powers blinked back on and a rush of noise filled the air around her. Something wasn't right but it was ok.

"Shhh."

She said as the plants leaned towards her slightly. She waved back to them and thought about going out there. She could hear in her own way the noise of plants a low buzzing noise but to her made sense. Looking at the plant in front of her she frowned.

"You're not a plant. What are you?"

((OOC recent research Plant sounds discovered))

[John Kilroy]

Jean began to rustle and slowly the petals began to open up and twist as she shifted back into her human form. She still had that cosmic divine glow to her. Still she tried to be as meek as she could, even going as far as to kneel to make herself seem smaller while not using her powers.

“Hi.” was all she said at first. After a second or two pause, she introduced herself. “My name is Jean Grey, though some call me Firehair, others call me The Phoenix. I don't think you and I have met officially."

Jean then sat cross-legged. She then looked over and saw a bunch of closed flowers. Due to being the physical manifestation of existence she had a connection to the universe itself. She too could talk to the plants and understand them.

“Come on, it's okay. I won't hurt either of you I promise." Once she had earned the trust of the flowers they began to open up one by one. Some even began to nuzzle against her as she gently stroke them. Plants and animals had more in common than most knew. Nature also had a way of bouncing back, something Gaea herself seemed to forget a lot of time.

“So what is your name little one?" Jean asked Klara.

[Gummy]

Klara ducked back behind some of the roses and bushes to hide as Jean turned into a person but then the name sounded familiar. She looked back out at her and frowned. She could hear the plants and they seemed very happy around her and that in itself made Klara relax a little.

"Do you know Laura? She mention a Jean at the restaruant. I'm Klara."

She moved out a little more and looked at the plants.

"They like you."

She indicated the plants as she got a little closer looking for traps but also not getting to near.

"Those shouldn't be flowering at the moment... they won't last long in this temprature."

She looked at the blooms and thought but then thought better of it. She was going to make the flowers sleep but there wasn't a need for it.

"But you seem warm. I've heard about a pheonix in stories that a man once told us but we weren't allowed to talk about it as it was not of Gods creation. Now... now I am not sure."

[John Kilroy]

Jean gave a warm smile as Klara asked her question.

“Laura Kinney?" Yeah I know her she's a friend of mine. She's also the daughter of my…well I am not sure if we are fully boyfriend and girlfriend yet."

She could not help but smile as Klara noted how much the flowers seemed to like Jean. “I have a way with Nature,  Trees, animals, stars, in a way I’m connected to it all in a sense."

That was when Klara mentioned something about being told that she was not allowed to talk about her because it was said that Phoenix was not a part of God’s creation. She raised an eyebrow.

“Are you talking about Jehovah…the Christian God?” She paused for a moment as if thinking.

“Well…I can tell you this….When I first came into being…I heard a voice from a being I call The One Above All. When he commanded the light to be brought forth, that was when I came into being…so there may be more merit to your religion than you know…I also have plenty of friends whom are Christian and Jewish including Laura.”

She then Shrugged.

"That's my belief anyway."

[Gummy]

Klara came out fully from where she had been hiding and looked a little more comfortable with the woman. Then screwed her nose up.

"I'm not too keen on Laura."

There was jealousy in her voice which she couldn't hide. She really like Kei but time would tell. She looked back to the dome of plants.

"Do you want to come in? It's nice and calm in there. I made it a few days ago and decided to keep it."

She took a big sigh and then sniffed.

"I am ... or was... I don't know... a Catholic but... I'm ...."

She looked to the ground and moved a small stone with her foot. She didn't know what she was. She had been blamed in the past and well it was the distant past. The idea of mutants were that they were freaks and abominations against God. Yet, being here with these people... they just lived and they were mutants, witches, aliens and well others. Her shoulders shrugged.

"I don't know what. I know I've caused trouble. I don't want to leave here again. Why is it no matter where I go I cause trouble?"

[John Kilroy]

Jean could not help but smile, she could sense the jealousy in Klara's voice and it was something that she knew all too well...the dreaded love triangle. She was the center of one for the longest time, and chances were if she had not put her foot down and actively killed it, she would have likely gotten roped into another one.

"I take it that Laura is sweet on a boy that you like? I get it, I've been there."

Jean could not help but smile at the invitation

"I'd like that...thank you."

Jean took a large rock and used her telepathic powers to shape it into a mug. she then used her transmutation powers to turn water into hot chocolate. She then created a chair for herself (or more of a floating platform) of leaves and sat down. She listen as Klara went into her faith before finally asking why it seemed that no matter she caused trouble.

Jean raised an eyebrow. not wanting to put her foot in her mouth she knew it would be better to get proper context before anything.

"What do you mean? What trouble do you think you caused?"

[Gummy]

Klara nodded at the boy question and watched as Jean made hot chocolate from almost nothing then she made a chair and sat down. Klara looked behind her at the plants and chose the moss.

"Stool."

It grew around some of the plants but didn't do much. She tilted her head as she looked at it as it struggled to make the shape. She could tell it didn't know how to. She chuckled as she re-though.

"Comfy"

It made a big clump for her to sit on.

"Thank you."

She patted it and smiled as she heard it being happy. Then she sat down on it. Looking back at Jean she thought for a few seconds.

"When I go out, things happen. A man tried to attack me and I was saved, then there was the robbery at the bank. I tried to help but then the police chased off of me and started shooting at me! I'm.... I'm... I'm not legally here.. well I am but I'm also not! They could send me back and I really don't want to go back! You see my husband.... he's.... he's..."

She was now looking at the stone and picked it up whilst fiddling with it. She let out a huge sigh and couldn't finish what she was saying. She had only just met Jean and if she knew Laura ... ohhh! The sigh turned into a sniff as she tried not to cry. She pulled her knees up to her chest and placed her chin on her knees.

[John Kilroy]

Jean frowend as Klara told her story. somthing wasn't right about it. Klara spoke of a...Husband? The poor girl looked barely above twelve...she didn't even seem to have gone through puberty yet, and she certainly didn't seem like an adult mentally, so she highly doubted klara was a woman in a child's body. Just what was going on exacly.

And then the poor girl curled up ready to burst into tears, and almost on instinct Jean rushed to Klara and wraped herself around the girl like a protective mother hen. She even used her cosmic powers to sprout phoniex wings from her back and wrapped them around Klara as a sort of extra protective barrier of comfort.

"Shhh...Shhh...it's ok. You can cry. I'll be right here. it's ok...it's ok."

Jean stroked Klara's cheek and even kissed her on the forehead before once again snuggling her close tp her/

"shh..."


Jean had an idea but it was not something she wanted to do without Klara's permission.

"If you want, you don't have to say anything. I can learn about by reading you....it won't hurt. I promise."

[Gummy]

For a while Klara sat but the embrace felt to strange. Her tears flowed but she didn't make a sound. She leaned into Jean and frowned at the idea of having someone look in her head then nodded. She closed her eyes against the world.

The first images were new of the bank robbery and her wanting to help then the police chasing her and shooting upon her.

The second was back in her time, older of a church wedding with her mother and father and a man. Klara was trying not to cry she was given to the man who was going to take her away. She had to go because of her curse.

The third was at night and the strong smell of booze and the pain but she wasn't allowed to make a sound. She had cried that night as the man held her naked body. She had to do it. They were married. It was her duty to bed him.

The fourth was of the boat journey to New York. She had hated it because there were no plants and she had felt so sick.

The fifth was her being beaten for not finding a job. They needed money and she had the belt across her thighs and then he had bedded her once more. It didn't hurt so much but it wasn't comfy.

The sixth was her going down the wrong alley and some men tried to snatch her. A man that looked like Logan saved her after she had tried to use the plants to save herself.

The seventh was both of them being ill. She had to go to work sewing buttons in a linen mill. There were vague memories of Franklin Richards and Kurt but she was delerious.

The eighth was the fire in the factory and her being trapped. The plants had saved her. Then she met the runaways. The resulting being sent out to sell her roses. To the final beating which made her runaway to this era.

Other memories flickered in and out. Of times spent watching TV, playing games to lying on grass and Kei.

By the end her tears had become gut wrenching sobs. Tiredness was creaping in and the confusion of being in this day along side her confusion with if she was God's creation to the guilt of abandoning her husband.

[John Kilroy]

As Jean gazed through all of Klara's memories. Jean bit her lip[...everything that happened to Klara was not of her own doing, it was because of the people around her. It made her sick to her stomach. She was accused of having a curse and being a witch. (She didn't and she wasn't) ok fine, people tended to flee from mutants for various reasons, disappointing, heartbreaking, even frustrating but she'd be lying if she didn't admit she understood it.

No, what drove the firebird over the edge was the fact that her "Mother" gave her to the hands of a drunken violent pedophile. Nothing about that was of God no matter how you sliced it. As she watched as he bed her and then later memories of him beating her and abusing her (She was also reminded of the little fact that Klara was freaking TWELVE at the time, so it was neither legal in the US at the time, nor was it moral

for that split second, Jean almost went full blown Dark Phoenix, she was ready to burn Mr. Prast and that forsaken witch of a mother so thoroughly that not even a memory of them would remain. But Jean refocused herself. No, Lashing out at humanity would do nothing. She needed to focus on helping Klara...giving her the love she should have gotten but was denied by others. Funnily enough she found herself quoting a scripture she'd sometimes hear Kurt say.

"Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! 2It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones."

She held Klara tightly once more in a motherly embrace and gently wiped her tears as a mother should.

"You are not cursed...you're not a monster...and you're not going back."

A decision rolled around inside Jean's head. There was no way in you know where she was going to send Klara back to her original time period. She'd send the girl to another universe before letting that happen. But the girl had no ID, no legal records nothing. Without some sort of identity she would not be able to live a normal life, but how would...she then got and Idea...

"If you want...I could adopt you."

[Gummy]

Klara's sobs continued but lessened slowly. She was getting tired. So tired. All the feelings deep down. She didn't know about the reprucsions it would have in the future. What damage he had done to her. She hadn't wanted to have seen a doctor back then and still didn't. Eventually she said.

"I know I'm not... I'm here because God want's me to help heal the world....."

Then Jean mentioned the adoption bit and she pulled back a little and looked at her. The tears wiped she looked Jean with her wings and everythign.

"You're an angel! How can an angel adopt a kid? I have friends here... but they don't understand. Only the people in the TV understand what had happened. I don't know... I've only just met you."

She was struggling to keep her eyes open as she looked at the stone.

"I don't know. I mean Kei, he said we should go to the Avengers and get papers that way but it all just seems scary to me."

Picking up the stone she sniffed then yawned.

"Sometimes I think it would have been better if I had stayed. I did my duty as a wife.... I earned money, made sure food was on the table and a bottle on the shelf. I had a roof and a balcony where my plants could grow... Now I have the whole rooftop and the grounds below. The others... one goes to school... I've only ever been to Sunday School. Back then... despite the protests, I still worked. I didn't have time to go to school."

She sighed heavily and leaned back into Jean.

"No one here... they try to understand but how could they? They said he did me wrong... but isn't that how a husband is supposed to act? You have to be humble towards him for he is master of the house and God is above he... If he should wear a millstone then surely I would need one too? I did my wifely duties, I just didn't have chance to bare him a child. I should have given him a child... Or was that wrong in thinking too?"

By now she was leaning really heavily on Jean.

"Can you stay a while?.... please? Can you tell me about you and what life should be like?"

[John Kilroy]

Jean could not help but give a warm jovial laugh.

"Oh no, I'm not an angel...I'm...well, I don't know what I am. Many would consider me a cosmic goddess, but I don't consider myself as such. and I actually have children though they are already grown." still she felt bad. "I'm sorry. I probably came across a little too strong. Forgive me."

then Klara spilled forth everything. Jean could feel the pain writhing within the poor girl and she fell into sorrow. She again wrapped her arms around Klara again in an almost motherly manner.

when Klara asked what a husband was meant to do she wasn't sure what to say at first. The girl was only twelve. She wouldn't know about how the age of consent was 14 in America...how it was at the very least VERY unlikely that their marriage was sanctified...she would not understand any of that...but there was one thing that she might understand.

"Ephesians 5: 22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. this much you no doubt know and you dare not forget less he remind you of this verse with every beating. but there is another half of the verse he conveniently forgot.

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. 

Did Christ not love the church, did he not willingly sacrofice himself for it, did he not willingly humble himself as to wash the feet of the one of its first members? Did he not give them talents and let them use it so that they might be used to bring forth God's glory.  Even if a woman is to not teach in the assembly as some believe. they can still teach to their friends thier familes and thier neighbors outside of the assembly...now tell me...did your husband do any of that for you? Did he love you as he loved his body or his drink? Did he willingly humble himself for your sake? Did he allow you to use your talents for God's glory? If love is definded as described by God in his word...did your husband really love you?"

[Gummy]

Klara listened, her crying had nearly finished by the time Jean had stopped talking. She needed time to think, sniffing she rubbed her eyes.

"I wasn't thought of as a God's creation. He said that no one would love a freak more than him. He said he loved me. He said I was his property as I was worthless to anyone. He .... he treated me well if I behaved. I worked hard. He said that he loved me. Back then freaks were freaks and everyone else were better. I looked normal so I was treated a little better. He treated me like his empty bottles sometimes. Isn't having sex a sign of love? It's on all the TVs. Surely that showed he loved me... But when someone hit someone they would get in trouble. So ... I don't know. It's all confusing."

She rubbed her eyes feeling the soreness of the tears.

"I think... I think I need to just forget about it. When I do... it comes up. If you are dating someone shouldn't you speak to them about adopting me? Could we have time? My friend suggested going to the Avengers. There are others who look out for me too. I'm just so far behind in everything. I'm still trying to figure out what things are in this era. I ... I can't even read or write."

She shifted so she wasn't leaning on Jean but looked like the whole world was still on her shoulders. Being adopted would help her status but she still had nothing apart from the clothes on her back.