Private Refreshing Old Sights

[Iris Arani]

Teru Challo.

Had Iris met him before? Honestly, the young Padawan couldn't remember. Then again, she rarely remembered anyone she met. Only a couple actually stood out in her mind, after repeated interactions at least. From what she was told, she was going to go help this Teru. A fellow Padawan who couldn't see too well. Help him see, and learn more on how to meld with other Jedi. The skill she'd picked up over time was something Valery Noble wanted her to work on.

If it could help someone else at the same time, why not, right?

Iris sat in one of the Ossus temple training rooms, cross legged on the ground. Eyes closed. She was watching the colors, relaxing. Preparing. She was going to have to talk, now that she thought about it. A sigh escaped as she leaned back, sprawling out on the floor.

This was going to be tricky.

 

[Teru Challo]

Iris Arani

Teru had slowly made his way through the temple. Lacking the usual assistance Droid that shadowed him through new places. Having left early, he'd been asked to meet with another padawan that might help him figure out his sight issue.

The mask was set over his eyes, his hands extending to feel the wall that didn't seem solid in the limited force sight that he wielded. It was a slightly different tinge than the rest of the world. A soft gray and muted blue tone giving some shapes to the world around him.

Outlines and vague slices in his path rather than the clear and defined world he had once lived in. He remembered the sky. Bright and clear with dots of white interrupting the scene.

The green and brown of trees a nearly forgotten smear now as definition was lost to the march of time.

His steps were almost completely silent. A learned effort to keep from overwhelming his own senses as he walked. His hands were already almost tingling from touching the wall as he walked, his nerves almost ablaze with travel as he entered the training room.

There was a brilliant stroke of color in the center of the room. A living presence that he guessed was the one he sought.

"Iris? Is that you?"

 

[Iris Arani]

Iris blinked as a voice filled her ears. Not at surprise of the voice, but the question. It was her, wasn't it? Why- Oh, right. She sat up, nodding her head. .. Right. "Mmhmm! I'm here. Teru, right?" Well, there weren't many blind blue padawans here. .. Were there? Suddenly Iris was unsure of such a thought. There might be. She really should try to learn more people. Regardless, she stood up, stepping closer to Teru Challo with the ever faint smile on her lips.

"So.. I'm.. Teaching you things? I think."

 

[Teru Challo]

His face pointed her way but didn't look her proper in the eye.

"Yes. That's me." He offered with a smile. His hands left the doorway as he slowly stepped inside.

"Yes. I think it was melding or something like that."

 

[Iris Arani]

Iris was the last person to notice Teru Challo wasn't quite looking at her. She was doing the same thing. Her eyes stayed on the aura of colors she could see. Right. Meld. She turned her gaze towards the room, motioning a hand. "Alright. It should be easy enough, I think. Um. Come, sit." That's what Jedi did when they were training others right? Instruct them to sit?

She quickly refound her seat, patiently waiting for the other to join her.

 

[Teru Challo]

He approached slowly, the smear of bright but confused energy matching the muted tones of his own excitement about learning and meeting a new friend.

"That's sounds right." He laughed as he approached and sat across from her. "Is the meld...confusing or how does it work? I haven't worked with others too much."

 

[Iris Arani]

"I match your colors and we become one." To Iris, that made absolute sense. Teru Challo? Who knew. Still, she was smiling and nodding her head like it was perfect logic. She settled into a meditative seat, letting her eyes close so she could focus on doing just that. "Relax, I guess? .. It'll make sense in a bit." She was assuring herself. While what she said made sense to her, actually doing it was different.

So she reached out. Her mind open, nothing hidden. Trying to bring her world of color into Teru's mind, if he let it happen at least.

 

[Teru Challo]

"Colors?" He asked blankly. It seemed a strange thing that someone else viewed the world in colors. Then again it wasn't such a strange thing for some perhaps. From what he understood, Iris dealt with paints. Something he wished he could peruse someday.

His meditative state slowly reaching across to Iris to reveal a world of black tinted with gray and muted blues. His mind was as settled quickly though. His constant state of near meditation present with the continuing darkness when he had nothing to focus on before him.

She would find the path to his mind unobstructed and easily traversed.

 

[Iris Arani]

Teru Challo was no Domxite, but the sentient Rainbow Gem had helped Iris figure out how to Meld with another through constant practice. And Teru not resisting? The two's perceptions would mingle. All thoughts, all emotions. Two minds becoming one. And her world of color so easily shown to him. Overwhelmingly so, though. Everything had colors. Harsh, bright lights that overlapped the real world seen by her eyes. Blinding her when she was younger until she learned to see through them.

There was no off button for her. And she hadn't yet realized it might be overwhelming for others to see what she did.

 

[Teru Challo]

The brilliance shared with him had been something he had lost fairly young. Even behind the mask his eyes stung with the cascade of colors that shown to him. Emotions tied to colors and feelings mingling between the two as memories refreshed themselves with vibrant contrast to the past.

The world around him shone brightly against the staunch dark that usually persisted in his mind.

There was no resistance as he experienced everything. Removing himself from emotions while also sifting through them with a curators precision. Everything about his existence to this point had been a carefully manicured thing for others to see as Iris granted him a glance into the world so splendidly vibrant to the usual.

"It's lovely." He quietly muttered, eyes stinging as tears pushed through the mask.

 

[Iris Arani]

<It is.> Her voice rang out in this connection, in Teru Challo's mind. She had a calm smile as she opened her eyes. Not that she needed to. There was no hiding away from this world of color for her. No shutting her eyes to block out the light. Her gaze traveled over the colors, looking to where he was, more often than not. Letting him lead to see what he wanted to see.

<Why can't you see this on your own anymore?>

 

[Teru Challo]

It wasn't words that could express the gratitude that he felt. Letting the warmth of his appreciation float through their connection as her words filtered through his mind. There was a solemn truth behind his response.

Nothing that lent itself to sadness or regret. Just plain truth.

<My father was a Miralukan descendant. My eyes are destroying themselves trying to become better.> He offered through their minds. Pictures of happiness between his parents smiling. A photo he had memorized before his eyesight had hindered him so grievously.

<Fate and genetics took their due. I'm not angry though. It let me appreciate the small things. The sound of life. The ring of laughter. Of fun.> He informed her quietly. He couldn't place the pictures in his own mind. The sounds on a black slate of other children playing on a playground. The memories slowly fading into another as it slid into another.

The small clink of cooking on a range as his mother cooked dinner. The soft settling sound of a plate settling on a table. Full and heavy as it slid into place. The knowing of placement being shared as his hand unseen was shared across their connection when cool metal brushed his fingertips.

The unseen object being used with complete trust in another.

<I had sight for a while. I can't place when anymore. But a day passed when I realized I couldn't see very well.> Their was no bitterness to his mental words. Acceptance and finality mingling with the smile that graced him.

<I might not be able to see your face. But even without my eyes, I can see that you care. Thank you.> He offered as he took in the color of their surroundings. Took in the feel of the world and basked in the sensations.

 

[Iris Arani]

Memories not her own. In all her experience using the meld, she'd never actually experienced the life of another. Domxite's sentience was limited. Emotions, yes. But never sensory things. The clink of a pot. The scent of fresh cooked food. The touch of silverware. They were Teru Challo's memories of family. His mother. Father. The love he had for them. A heavy sadness suddenly gripped Iris's heart, shared between them before she abruptly pulled back and cut the meld.

Heavy breaths. She stared at the ground in front of her, trying desperately to gain control of her breathing. She wasn't okay. What happened? "I.. Sorry.." Her voice was soft, meek. As if she was trying not to cry, but why?

"We should um.. We gotta work on.. Colors. Right. .. Can you see them still? The colors?" Change the subject, quickly. She cleared her throat, forcing a smile. "Helping you see the colors, right. Try to.. Feel that again? Without me."

 

[Teru Challo]

He felt her slip, the connection cutting between them as he was left in the dark again. A singular note of humor in the sighing laugh before as his head turned ever so slightly.

"Are you, alright? Do we need to stop?" Concern for her, no note of feeling in him for the loss of their meld. No longing for the sight she had shared. Her tone was lingering on sad, and it had to do with him. The slightest tingle of frustration at not being able to see to gauge her expression settled after it sprang up. Dissipating as she spoke of colors.

They were muted but still there. Echoes of what they once were as he felt them and saw them behind the mask. "Faintly."

 

[Iris Arani]

"No, no. We're okay. I'm okay. Just.. Needed a moment." She took a breath. Whatever that was that had her nearly burst into tears had passed, for the moment. But, good. Teru Challo could still see the colors, even if they weren't as bright. Then, she'd done something right? Iris flexed her hands, trying to think of what to do next. She could bring about the meld again. Probably easiest.

But what if whatever happened, happened again?

She shook her head.

".. Okay. Can you.. Remember what it felt like? Try to get that feeling yourself?"

 

[Teru Challo]

Her dismissal of worry did little when she took a deep breath. Even behind the eye cover one could see the disapproving bend of his brow. The discontented sigh that punctuated his failure to pursue the topic.

It was always funny how loud people spoke their emotions through small things when words failed them.

Her question however focused his attention to something else for the moment. Chasing the feeling that had been shared with him. It felt like grasping at starlight from the ground.

"Uh. Yes. Just uh, give me. A second." His own deep breath off diverting effort from her emotions to his task as he felt within his own emotions and traced that gleeful vein.

 

[Iris Arani]

She watched for a moment in silence, her gaze lingering on the colors around Teru Challo. Watching, waiting. Hoping that he might be able to pick up what she showed him without needing more help. Why, she wasn't really sure. Was she nervous about the meld? Her gaze lowered again, to her hands. Fingers slowly flexing. Was it that impactful for her? She took another breath, deeper. Calmer. Something to still her mind.

Feel, but don't let it control her. That's what Valery Noble had taught her.

"Let's try again."