Nocturne Summit diamond heart

Sorry about her D: and thank you for the lovely thread, fading here!

Something in Shirin's gaze hardened at the offer of aid, as if someone had twisted the lens behind her eyes, the caustic network converging now onto a pin-point, smoldering.

I, she began. cannot take it.

Through a strained breath that did not seem to end: Anymore.

The side of her jaw darkened as a muscle twinged. Then a muffled squeak as her molars ground together. She poured into her voice what she could of her petty agonies, and fled before Teya could touch her.

The world shimmered before her tear-filled eyes, a rippling mesh of astigmatic light. Selfishly, she hoped she would trip and fall and become incapacitated, so that Teya could help her and Shirin herself could not protest, could not self-sabotage, that SHE would remember what it felt like to be gathered in someone's arms -- but her every step was true, and the distance between them grew.