Welcome to Gaia! ::

The soft sound of cello outside of Naeria's window brought a smile to the cadet's face. It was always nice to hear Fae-Fae exploring her music hobbies, and even if it wasn't something that Naeria had the same kind of passion for, the sound was soothing.

After only a few seconds of hesitation, Naeria took the book she was flipping through, a field guide to medicinal plants that she'd picked up in a library, and she headed down the stairs and out the door.

She'd come into the habit of wanting to be around the others, especially Fae-Fae, rather than staying alone up in her room. She wasn't sure if it counted as making friends by the standards of others, but it brought a warmth to her chest all the same.

She settled in cross-legged just outside the door. Then, she happened to look up.

"Oh," she gasped. "Your clothes!"

Fae-fae’s laugh was contagious. Naeria found herself giggling, too, happy for her friend, until a few seconds later she remembered that being promoted meant she deserved more respect, so she tried to look more respectful, hands clasped in front of her waist.

She still smiled, though.

“You should be proud,” Naeria said with a nod. Out of all of them, she thought Fae-Fae truly deserved this. She’d been working so hard.

Naeria’s eyes never left the pink and orange detailing, though. It was so eye catching, so beautiful. “You changed the colors,” she said. “Why?”

She asked like she wanted to know the answer. She knew that Fae-Fae had been doing research on creativity. Maybe this related?

Velencya. Naeria thought about it, every day, and as Fae-Fae spoke about it and a half-familiar scent washed through the air, Naeria found herself thinking of it again. Her heart ached, half with missing home, and half with worry about everything that was happening.

"I want to save it, too," she said, the words coming faster than they often did. "I'm trying to increase energy efficiency in agriculture, construction, anything I can. That's why I'm trying to find the uses of these fungi."

Although she did not know if the reason Velencya was dying came down to simply energy consumption or if there was something deeper. There was a way to find out, but thinking about it made the words stick in her throat again.

She swallowed to loosen them. "I should ask the Commodore what the main issue is, but-" she was quiet for a long moment, then simply shook her head.

"Yes."

Although Naeria's thoughts about the battle that they'd been involved in had been swirling through her mind since it had happened, along with worries about Lyndin, and Caedus's starseed, and Velencya, she hadn't been able to bring herself to speak of it with anyone.

The simple question helped her bridge that gap, though, and after the word was out, she thought that she wanted to talk about it.

It didn't quite help the lump in her throat.

Instead of trying to push through it, she reached for her own ComTech as she watched Fae-Fae.



She typed out the text and then sent it, her eyes on the ground.

Naeria sat down in the spot that Fae-Fae pointed at, and she just ran her fingers through the grass for a few seconds, gently playing with it, before she did much of anything else.

She watched Fae-Fae's face, too, and while the nerves were still in her stomach, she wasn't frozen by them now so much as she was thinking. She was thinking about how Fae-Fae had looked, back in the battle, how upset she'd looked. She was thinking about how Fae-Fae said she wanted to talk about all this.

Slowly, she nodded.



Her lips were twisted as she kept looking down at the grass.

I don’t know, Naeria typed out quickly, and the words sat on her screen, where Fae-Fae could easily see them, but she did not send them over.

They were not right, and after a drawn out moment, Naeria deleted them, her hand balling into a fist around the strands of grass. She thought about how she’d felt when they’d been pulled into the Negaverse’s throne room.

She let out a breath, slowly, though her teeth.

Naeria tried to breathe steadily and to unwind her fingers from the grass before she accidentally ended up pulling out any of the little strands by the roots. She didn’t want to look dysregulated. She didn’t want to worry her friend.

The offer was appreciated, though, and she nodded as she reached a hand up towards Fae-Fae’s Source Stone.

“Thank you,” she whispered.