What Was and What Will Be

Brandyn Sal-Soren said:

"If you don't pop the question soon, we will have a Praxon long before we have a Trozky in the family."

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Despite his reaction to being put on the spot on that day, months ago, Vizion still hadn’t made good on his intentions. Despite making it known he had a ring, he had it for an undefined length of time, and in earshot of her, no less. It wasn’t reluctance, or any other kind of hesitation. Jedi duty being what it was for him, his time could get scarce, and he simply hadn’t found a good opportunity or way to do it that Briana Sal-Soren wouldn’t see coming.

But today he had plans. Plans that had nothing to do with it at first, had everything to do with her, and were discussed months ago, when she didn’t feel ready to face her parents where they were interred. Now he’d gotten her to agree to the visit, and suggested she think of what to say. Dinner, later. Wherever the day took them in-between.

There had to be a moment, somewhere in there, that felt right.

The morning of, he stopped in the middle of his usual run to do something important and beneath her notice. First, he left a voice message with his brother Dominic Praxon, who was far from Naboo, and whose status was unknown:

"Hey,” he started, “Sucks that you’re not here. But… not like I’m not used to that.” A faint laugh. Nerves. “I don’t know when you’ll get this…” He sucked in a breath, and blew it out, “…It’s time, Dom. I’m gonna do it. Gonna ask her.” A small sigh. “Miss you, bro. Get back to me if… when you can.”

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He exited the call, hesitantly tapping ‘end’ on his comm. The fate of much of their family had been unknowable for months, and there was no way he’d been able to contact them long before now. Now this. This wasn’t at all how he thought it would go, in years past. None of this was. Not the year, the season, or even the planet. Much of the situation wasn’t ideal or didn’t live up to his early… let’s call them idyllic fantasies.

At this point, he wasn’t going to wait forever for the stars to align.

Next was a text to the only other Sal-Soren he ever called friend — her brother, who was similarly absent, but the reasons were known. He almost didn’t want to distract Brandyn Sal-Soren from his current reality, and felt badly for him with the situation he was in, but he deserved to know:

Nether still hasn’t frozen over, far as I’m aware.

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And he almost left it at that. Almost. But nerves compelled him to say more:

You should know, if this was some other century I’d be doing you the courtesy of asking your permission. If you were here...

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If everyone was here. But he wasn’t. They weren't. There was one more thing, off-topic:

If there’s anything I can do to help, as a Jedi, as a Friend?
You know where I live, man.

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Then he darkened the screen of his comm, pocketed it, and resumed his run, keen to clear his thoughts for what was to come.