It Goes Way Back

[Cleo Némain]

Ossus had gone and gotten a bit cold, it seemed. Not from a season change or nothing so planet move-y. No, nothing like that. Though, if you asked Cleo, the absent weight of one person on a planet made oh so big a difference indeed, like the axis was just ever so slightly off kilter and you couldn't quite put your finger on it unless you laid down on the grass and pressed the side of your face to the dirt and watched with keen interest the way the trees were now pointed. Cleo had tried that, just to make sure it wasn't just her, but no matter how she squinted everything still stood exactly like it always had. It was her that off and probably always would be in a way. But absent friends didn't mean they weren't your friend anymore, it just meant they weren't about. The big Mandalorian whose shadow she had perpetually drifted and skipped in and out of had made his decisions, family had needed to come first. Cleo hadn't the heart to tell him that she was his family now too, so were all the other Bright Spots on Ossus and beyond. She knew when to hold her tongue when someone had gone and fully made up their mind. Didn't mean she didn't miss the big fella, it just meant she had to find new shadows to play in - maybe her own for a change.

It wasn't good to dwell on bad thoughts, especially not so early in the morning when the sun had just peaked over the horizon and breakfast was being served somewhere; the smells of which mingled in an oh-so-pleasant way among the grass and other outside odors. Not that Cleo liked to stay on bad ideas any time of day, but there was something about dawn that just made it seem ultra out of place. Besides, today was a day for new things, not old things and while old friends were some of the very best kind, new friends had so many possibilities that not even a whole galaxy could hold them all! Today was the day she was going to meet with Mas'er Navi's other Padawhatsit.

They were given a pretty simple thing to look in to, too. Perfect sort of thing to get to know each other and as Cleo was determined would happen - become the best sorts of friends. But all that could wait! First, well, first Cleo had to go and meet the other person for breakfast because everyone knew that meeting over food was the best way to do things.

[Bryna Belargic]

In the cantina a stone’s throw away from the Whaladon, Bryna Belargic sat with a mostly untouched tray of food in front of her. As members of the Jedi settlement drifted in and out of the hall, fortifying themselves for the day ahead, Bryna had been sitting not eating for so long that her food was starting to get cold.

You’ve got to eat, said a rational part of her brain, but something about this morning had really killed her appetite. Was it being back on Ossus? It had been hard to leave Bothawui (https://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?56966-Turn-and-Face-the-Strange), harder even than Bryna had imagined it would be. Ossus was where she belonged, of course. To get back to any semblance of the life she knew, she had to be here, with Master Tarkin and the others.

Her stomach protested, churning not with hunger but with nerves. The last time she had seen (https://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?21664-Traitors-and-Transients&p=367667&viewfull=1#post367667) Cleo Nemain, her entire universe had quite literally been turned upside down and inside out. Something had kept her from seeking out the Cleo in this timeline. The logical conclusion of the questions that she kept asking herself about how and when she would ever get home. As the question started to form in her mind, Bryna shook her head. There is no emotion, there is peace. She reached for familiar support of the Jedi Code, head rolling back for a moment and exhaled a long, slow breath.

"Pull it together, Belargic," she said, a murmur to herself. Be more like mom.

[Cleo Némain]

"Pull what t'gether?" The question rang out, full of curiosity from just behind the brunette.

Someone had once told Cleo she was bad with personal space. Probably came down to Cleo not really understanding what that meant. Everyone shared everything in a space, breathing the same air, letting their thoughts go all mix-'em-up as they floated out into the ether. The cantina was good that way, sounds and feelings all mixed together along with the strong smells of caf and hopefully something good to eat.

She'd thought about going and waiting in line first, but there wasn't much of a line to wait in and the makeshift mess hall was mostly empty this early in the morning anyway. Besides, all it took was one look around to spot the only person there who looked like they were waiting on something or someone with a purpose. Other people were waiting too, but they just didn't know it yet.

Without waiting for the other girl to answer, Cleo barreled ahead, doing what was only proper when you first met someone.

"Y're Bryna, ye?" The name sounded funny to her to say, like it wasn't quite right. But then again, that was because she hadn't made the name match with the person yet. Sometimes it took a bit for that to happen. "Hi. 'mma Cleo."

Her hand was stuck out and Cleo gave it a quick look to make well and certain it was a welcoming hand and not one covered in dirt and such from her earlier layabout outside. Nope, clean as ever!

[Bryna Belargic]

Bryna twisted in her seat at the sound of a voice just behind her ear - and was confronted, not for the first time, with a strange sight. A face she knew, and yet… a stranger. It was Master Nemain, but not as Bryna knew her.

After a moment of being frozen by surprise, Bryna reached out to accept the handshake. In the seconds before her hand met Cleo’s, Bryna felt certain that somehow when they touched, energy would crackle between them and a rift in the fabric of space and time would open, hurtling her back to the hellish future that she had been sent from -

But it didn’t. Of course. How ridiculous. They shook hands, Bryna holding onto Cleo for a little longer than might have been socially acceptable.

“I’m Bryna, yeah - and you’re…. Cleo. It’s good to meet you, at last.”

[Cleo Némain]

If their hands were held for too long, it wasn't something that Cleo was aware of. If anything, it felt right. Not in any obscure weirdo insipid sort of thing, oh no, nothing like that. Just a warm comfort that started in Cleo's palms and worked its way up her arm and found itself a nice cozy spot behind her eyes. Cleo wondered a bit if it was because it was like the same thing that happened whenever two bright spots met and their colors mingled and swirled about where they'd touched, if only for a little bit. It was fun watching her own sunset ruddiness sprinkle about with the warm - how could green be warm? - goldenish veridianness that seemed out from the other Padathing. For a moment she was distracted by a familiar swirl of yellow, like a small starburst or torchbug wriggle its way out from where their hands had touched to turn into a fine mist and then poof away. Not that it was a dramatic sort of light show, oh no, nothing like that. They were only learners, after all, and while that didn't mean they had to be dim by any means or mights, it did mean they hadn't gone and turned up their dials none either.

She probably could have stayed lost in that for a while, as it sometimes happened, but Cleo forced herself to see the more solid stuff and took a seat just a bit away from where the other girl sat.

"'M pretty sure is vera good t' meet y'. Nah that I was thinkin' it'd be diff'ren'... but... y'know..."

Her eyes shifted off to the side to accompany a small tilt of her head and an equal side shoulder shrug. Cleo weren't really proud of the thinking in her head, it was too much, applied to too many. It was one of those thoughts that should have stayed in place and told it was wrong and bad and never let out in the world, but there was something about her fellow Jedi student novice thing that had come about in the tiny instant they'd known each other for that made Cleo far too comfortable.

"Nah ev'ry one here is all sortsa welcomin'. Is nah their faul'... 'm just... too differen' I guess. Bu' Mas'er Navi dun seem t' mind. An... well, 'm thinkin' - hopin' - y' won' as well?"