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────013, silver lining nothings.
EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING.
It's a proverb Cleo had asserted she lived by, attempting to always look on the brighter side of every dismal situation. For the most part, it works; for the most part, she has no qualms in finding the positive in every negative━━however miniscule and abstract they may be, she chooses to focus on them instead of anything else━━because how else was one supposed to live life otherwise?
But she could not, for the life of her, find the silver lining in this cloud.
The details of the early morning are still muddled, useless thoughts now defected with the anxiety that had consumed her, but what she does know is this: they had found the Royal Merchant.
She was there as Big John had promised it, and as Cleo had wished it, and as John B had insisted profusely that it would be, laying forgotten at the bottom of the ocean, nine-hundred feet below the surface, a bygone ghost of centuries past. Cleo had yearned to recall the fragmented moment more clearly, but she can't; instead, she would learn of the revelation later when she had managed to calm herself down long enough to listen coherently to the others distressed voices. She had missed the discovery━━the thrill of seeing history before her very eyes, the thrill of making history herself━━but, as it turns out, the Merchant hadn't been at all what anyone was expecting. Because amongst the wreckage of the mighty vessel was absolutely nothing. No gold, no treasure, no sign or clue to further their hunt━━just nothing.
Of course, Cleo didn't realize this until minutes later when she had gathered her wits just slightly enough to listen to John B urge Pope to make the drone pass through the skeletal remains of the ship not once but three times in the hopes of finding what was clearly not there, amongst the bickering between her friends as JJ stated bluntly (and, quite possibly, a little piqued, if only because he had still been holding Cleo to his side as she practiced deep breathing in an attempt to steady the last of her shaking nerves, and had wanted to leave for her sake) the blatant fact that no one wanted to hear: either someone had beaten them to the gold, or the treasure was never there to begin with.
And JJ? Well, if JJ was her silver lining, then she considers herself the dark gloomy clouds of her haunting tragedy. Because while, yes, he had managed to soothe her back to reality for the most part, Cleo is even more so disappointed with herself.
So, crawling back to her home that day only to fall asleep for the remaining hours of the morning and late into the afternoon━━ladened with guilt and remorse and carrying herself in an empty haze as all her energy had been taken from her the day before━━Cleo can't find it in herself to move from her bed when she awakens, wallowing in broken dreams.
