@vdova ; video

[waytodie]

[Her hair is in two messy twin braids. Her eyes are glassy. The sharp-eyed might notice she's probably, definitely drunk. The less-so might just assume she's overly tired. Her tongue presses into her cheek as she considers how to start this one, but in the end she just rips the bandaid off quickly: ]

So, tell me, how is it that you handle grief?

[She probably won't be elaborating on why she's asking, unless she has a certain level of familiarity with you, but you can try. People closest to her probably already know what this is really about: Her sister is gone. From Moorecroft. From Etraya. From the top side of the dirt. Gone and back to dead, and Yelena is spiraling.]

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@amidala

[politicallyinclined]

(This is a heavy question for obvious reasons. Padmé isn't going to probe for answers from Yelena - she is going through enough.)

I give myself time. I surround myself with loved ones or items that give me comfort. The first part is the most important. Let yourself grieve; there is no shame in it.

[waytodie]

[She appreciates it, honestly. The advice is more than enough to suffice for what she's looking for at the moment.]

How much time? How do you know how much time you need?

[She wants to scream. And yell. She doesn't wan't to grieve, she just wants her sister back. Her mouth shifts into a pout, trying her best not to start crying again.]

[politicallyinclined]

You'll know when your heart feels less sore. (There isn't any perfect time limit.) Let yourself cry and scream. It's natural to feel sorrow and anger. No matter the circumstances, it feels like our loved one was stolen from us.

[waytodie]

[That isn't the definitive sort of answer she would have liked to have, but... she supposes there isn't one. It's different for every person and every situation, no guidebook to follow, no rules to parse.]

Those are two very good words for what I am feeling right now. [She admits quietly with a slight nod.] You sound like you speak from experience.

[Yelena knows she is not the only person who has ever suffered the loss of someone close to her, that this is a universally lived experience no matter who you are, or where you're from. But there's just something in the way the other woman speaks that makes Yelena feel like she's speaking from something far more personal than general advice.]

[politicallyinclined]

(Hugs are good - if Yelena is comfortable receiving them - but Padmé doesn't want to push or assume. The best she can do is share a story - one of the first heartbreaks in her life.)

When I was seven, I traveled with my father on a relief mission to the planet Shadda-Bi-Boran. There had been an ecological disaster and the planet was dying. We transferred the Shadda-Bi-Boran people to another planet, but they couldn't adapt and they all died.

There was one of them - a little boy named Sweetheart - that I loved. He died too. I felt...hopeless. And I was angry. I wondered what else we could have done for them; my father told me it was a lesson. Sometimes you can do your best, but it's still not enough.

[waytodie]

The world is such an unfair place...

[Which is, frankly, true to the tune of her entire life, if she is completely honest about it.]

[politicallyinclined]

You're not alone. That, at least, I can promise.

[waytodie]

Thank you…

[Its all she can really manage, trying to keep herself from dissolving into tears on the network.

It means more than she knows to have this kind of outpouring of support from strangers who have no reason to care about her struggles at all.]