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Reverse World ~ Rockfall Cavern

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R4 – Brisa & Starr in the Pit

Namohysip

Dragon Enthusiast
Staff
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. charizard
  3. milotic
  4. zoroark-soda
  5. sceptile
  6. marowak
  7. jirachi
In a strange land that could be very near or very far, there was a cold cave of deep purple rocks and dirt, different shades between blue and indigo and violet. Inside this cave was very little water, but a small trickle to what might have been the northern corner, which dribbled southeast and into another crevice. The occasional drip, drip, drip suggested there was more water somewhere high up, but it was either too far to find or too deep in the walls to be useful. A mournful wind howled high above them, and there seemed to be no way out but up.

There was, however, a sliver of light to what might have been east. The light was dim and it was impossible to tell if it was moonlight or sunlight or something else entirely, but it was certainly light. It was up a series of rocks and unstable boulders, also shades of indigo and perhaps even red in some portions like a cool-colored mosaic. But to squeeze past would require quite a feat of strength. There did not appear to be any food here aside from a few stray plants that looked suspicious and smelled incredibly bitter.

Other than the few plants, the trickling water, and the rocks, there was nothing else.

Nothing but a Shinx and a Litten, unconscious with residual energy sparking and fading around them.

<><><>
 

unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
Brisa came to first, feeling much as she had after the last two mass combats the posse had undertaken. Exhausted, pained, vaguely numb. A quick check confirmed that nothing seemed broken. Incredible, given how unreserved she'd been in the fight.

The fight... they'd performed well. Her new strategy of providing covering fire had made a difference, she was sure. They must have won, despite the panic at the very end... and whatever caused her to end up here.

Brisa assessed her surroundings. A foreboding howl was in the wind, and the most she could smell besides her own scent and the tang of blood was a bitterness that rankled her nose. This was not a good place. This was not where the others had gone, surely. She lit up her coat with a shimmer of energy, and looked around for any visual confirmation of other life...

Lying in a heap some yards away from her, was Starr.

Of all the people with whom Brisa could have been trapped alone... She wasn't sure whether this was good or bad news. Or even if Starr was alive. Or real.

She checked for the litten's breathing, found it, and left her to recover. Starr wouldn't be pleased to see her when she came round. It was best if Brisa was elsewhere.

She wandered over to the trickle of water, took what she needed, and doused her light to wait in quiet darkness for Starr to rouse herself. Or rescue. Or anything.

The wind howled.
 
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Chibi Pika

Stay positive
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Location
somewhere in spacetime
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they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
When Starr finally woke up, she felt like she'd been hit by a truck. A dull pain wracked every inch of her body, and her limbs didn't want to move. Slowly, she opened her eyes a crack. She was... somewhere dark. Her night vision was able to make out a rough cave wall. This wasn't where she'd been earlier...

The mission. They'd... they'd won, right? Darkwhite had turned tail, and they'd managed to pull together to take down Lugia at the very end. But then, what happened after that? How had she wound up here? This didn't look anything like the Silver Trench.

Starr slowly pulled herself to her feet and looked around. Her eyes fell on a Shinx, and she tensed imperceptibly. So she wasn't alone. But then where was...? Starr jerked her head around rapidly, eyes scanning every inch of the cave, a growing feeling of dread dawning on her. Her ears flicked in every direction, but she couldn't make out any sounds of activity.

"Where's the rest of the team?" she demanded.
 

unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
Brisa wasn't sure how long it had been when Starr finally woke up. She'd had enough time to ruminate in her own despondency to eventually get up, pace about looking for resources or routes out, and try contacting the posse via telepathy and badge. Naturally, she'd found no leads. All evidence suggested they were trapped. The trickle of water was a blessing. Or perhaps a curse. A mon took a lot longer to starve if they had enough to drink.

"Where's the rest of the team?"

This time, Brisa hadn't prepared something to say. Clearly she couldn't hold herself together when Starr got under her skin... which was every time she talked to Starr. Besides, it wasn't like either of them were going anywhere. She could think through what she said without getting so tripped up.

"Got out safe. Least, 's'far as I can tell. Looks like it's just you and me in this pit."

Starr didn't reply straight away, but stalked about, looking for answers and opportunities just as Brisa had done, but with more vigour and urgency. She skipped the despondency phase, though. That could be a good sign. Or a bad one. Brisa had a growing suspicion she had no understanding of Starr after all. She thought of asking if Starr was okay, but it would be a stupid question. Why would Starr want to answer that, coming from her?

'Where's the rest of the team?'
Now, that was a good question. Starr didn't disregard the team when it came to a fight, at least. Good. However, it invited a followup question: where were Brisa and Starr?

Brisa watched Starr scrutinise her surroundings with growing agitation. From every angle, she could see a part of Starr's body that she'd bitten into or clawed open not a week earlier. Eventually she thought to speak up.

"I'm startin' to suspect I might be dead," she remarked, almost casually. Starr wouldn't pick up the raw edge to her words. "My pa used to say that when you died, if you'd lived a wrongful life, your spirit lived on in another world, sufferin' punishment for your transgressions. I'm startin' to believe it. Nothin' down here but this bone-chill air, that awful sickenin' smell, and a reminder of one of the worst things I ever did."
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
"I'm startin' to suspect I might be dead," she remarked, almost casually. Starr wouldn't pick up the raw edge to her words. "My pa used to say that when you died, if you'd lived a wrongful life, your spirit lived on in another world, sufferin' punishment for your transgressions. I'm startin' to believe it. Nothin' down here but this bone-chill air, that awful sickenin' smell, and a reminder of one of the worst things I ever did."
Starr glared at her incredulously. "What? Don't be stupid. There's gotta be some way out of here." She scrambled for her bag, thankfully still had it strapped to her back, and grabbed for her badge.

"Badges ain't workin'," Brisa spoke up.

Starr fumbled with her badge anyway, hitting the button to power it on. It lit up, but then--no signal. She cursed and stashed it back in her bag. A few seconds passed in relative silence with nothing but the howling of the wind outside the cave. Starr paced furiously, mind racing, until: "Diyem! Diyem can--"

"Nah."

Starr's claws dug into the ground with agitation. She ignored Brisa and concentrated as hard as she could:

Diyem, can you hear me? Brisa and I are trapped in some kind of cave-in, there's no way out. Can you sense where we're at?

There was no response. She clenched her teeth and yelled, Diyem! This isn't a joke! We're seriously trapped! Get your fat ass in gear and find us!

And still there was no reply. She continued hurling more and more comments his way, slowly progressing from demands, to threats, to pleading, until she finally began to accept that he truly couldn't hear her.

"If... if Diyem can't talk to us, there's gotta be a distortion, right?" she said, half trying to convince herself. "If he can't sense where we are, he'd still know the general area. He could send someone to find us."

Brisa turned her face away at that, as if she'd been scolded. No answer this time.

Starr slowly laid down, forcing her breathing to level out. "We just. We just gotta sit tight. They'll... they'll find us."

Outside, the wind continued to howl.
 

unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
"Alright," said Brisa. She pulled herself into a sphinx pose and rested. She would recover very little energy, but at least she wouldn't exhaust herself further. It was the best she could manage.

"I tried that already," she called flatly, as Starr pressed against the boulders in a vain effort to shift them. The litten didn't pay her any mind. Ah, what was the use? Starr could be as restless as she liked. She'd come to the same conclusions as Brisa eventually: There was no way out. They couldn't survive indefinitely. Nobody was coming for them.

There was a strange peacefulness in that understanding, she mused. No more pressure or fear of failure. The only person left for Brisa to disappoint was Starr, who already had as low an opinion of her as anyone ever had. She deserved it, too. Brisa would die here, and she deserved it.

It was just a shame Starr was here, too. All she'd done was be rude and reckless. She hadn't lost control and traumatised a friend. She hadn't started a fight that nearly left someone dead. Goddamnit. Maybe... Starr wasn't real. Just a phantasm meant to torment Brisa while she lay here. So long as they didn't touch—and there was no chance of that—she could keep believing that.
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
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Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
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  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
Starr wasn't sure how many hours had passed. She'd tired herself out pacing back and forth across the small cavern, worn her paws ragged trying to climb toward that tiny glimmer high above, and then finally passed out before waking up to repeat the process all over. She tried carving through the walls with Shadow Claw. Hurled more insults at Diyem. Wasted time messing with her badge and reading through old texts that didn't need a cell signal (or whatever the Cibus equivalent was.) Then she slept again, and by the time she woke up next, her stomach felt like it was going to collapse in on itself. She'd eaten her only remaining Oran Berry shortly after first waking up. Her energy was quickly draining away. Sleep wasn't helping. She was twitchy, anxious, jumping at every sound that vaguely felt like someone might be outside, even as time and time again that fleeting hope was torn to shreds.

Brisa had... well, she'd gotten up a few times. Paced a bit. Pawed at some of the rocks on her side of the cave. And spent a hell of a lot of time staring at the wall. It was infuriating. Starr would've killed to have someone else here that she could actually talk to--the silence was driving her mad.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Starr finally spat after who knows how many hours of clawing, digging, climbing, and desperately holding onto that hope that they'd be rescued even as all signs pointed to the fact that no one was coming to save them, oh god. "Don't you care that we're stuck here?"
 
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unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
What the hell is wrong with you? Don't you care that we're stuck here?
Brisa looked up from yet another vivid recollection of the fight to see Starr in front of her, mad as hell. She kept eye contact. Her stomach twisted.

"Of course I care," she said, with bite in her words. "You still don't have the first idea what's goin' through my skull right now, huh."

She groaned and dropped eye contact. There was no point in getting riled. Not any more.

"Sorry. Figure you're askin' why I'm not scrabblin' for escape like you are. I already tried damn near everythin' before you woke up. Our only chance is some kinda rescue, and we'll survive longer if we save our energy. I'm just not about to tell you what to do with yours, is all."

She shivered. At first she thought it was the onset of fear, or intense regret, but no... it was just cold in here, and she'd been waiting for very probably most of a goddamn day for something, anything. It was too long since she'd last eaten. There was nothing to fend off the cold with. Warming up by exercising would just drain her faster.
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
Starr glowered at Brisa for a bit before exhaling slowly and sitting on her haunches. Of course Brisa had tried to find a way out. Starr had only imagined she hadn't because it made her look worse.

"Yeah. Alright, fine. Makes sense," she grumbled. It was a waste of time. Waste of energy. No point. All they could do was wait.

A few minutes passed. Brisa hadn't moved, and appeared to be staring at her. She wasn't actually sure how well Brisa could see her (could Shinx see in the dark?) but it annoyed her all the same.

"I just hate silence," Starr spoke up in response to nothing. "I hate doing nothing. I hate waiting here without any way of knowing if they'll ever find us. I'm tired. I'm hungry. I hate that I don't know if I'm ever going to get out of here. I hate that I keep thinking that maybe I'll die and wake up back home. And I hate that I can't even talk to anyone about it because it just had to be me stuck down here with--" She caught herself before finishing. She wasn't sure how or why, but the effort of holding back the frustration was so much that she pivoted on the spot and slammed a Shadow Claw into the nearest boulder and let out a snarl of pent-up rage that echoed throughout the cave.
 

unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
Brisa didn't react at first. When she did speak, it was uncharacteristically gentle.

"I'm sorry you had to be here at all, Starr," she said. Starr gave her an incredulous look, and she shrugged. "I'm glad it's you down here with me, though. You're tougher than most of the posse. You might have it in you to off me before I waste away."

Starr bristled at that. "What the actual hell, just be quiet if you're gonna say shit like that, god."

Brisa gave a short, sharp laugh, dry as dust. Not one for gallows humour, huh? Oh well. She'd never please Starr with her presence, she knew that much already.

"I thought you hated the silence? Look. I don't reckon anyone is comin' for us," she said, bitterly. "We can't be reached by telepathy or technology, and it's been fuckin' long enough since we woke up for them to find us. Maple would have opened a portal by now if we were anywhere that made sense. It's just you and me. We gotta come to terms with that."

She stared Starr in the eye. "You wanna talk about this predicament we're in? Cause I've been thinking about it for a while before you got your wits back. See, I reckon you'll outlast me. You'll save your energy, bein' fire type and less affected by the cold an' all. I'll go first, and then it'll just be you. And that don't seem fair to me, seein' as I'm the only one who fuckin' deserves to die alone here with my regrets. You don't belong here."
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
Starr let out a very audible groan and stood up. "Oh my god, again with the pity party, do you ever stop." She was pacing again, too agitated to sit still even though she knew it was a waste of energy. "Stop talking like we're already dead--it's fucking depressing and I'm not in the mood to deal with it." She reached the opposite wall, then spun around to face Brisa and added, "And stop talking like you're the scum of the earth when you didn't even DO anything! It pisses me off."
 

unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
Brisa gawped at the litten.

"You're still sayin' that? When you said that back at the dojo about me fuckin' losin' control and hurtin' Curio, I didn't get it. Then I start a fuckin' fight with you and do you a dozen kinds of injury, and you're still sayin' that? What the fuck is your criterion for judgin' folks' behaviour? 'Cause if you wanna know what I- Why I- nnn-"

She was shaking again, harder now, not from the cold but from something within that was threatening to close up her throat and trap her words inside, with her hunger and her grief.
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
Ughhhhh. Right. Guess we're doing this, Starr thought to herself with a particularly dramatic eye roll that she wasn't even sure Brisa could see. She plodded back over to the Shinx so she could glare at her properly.

"Yeah, starting bullshit fights with people because you hate yourself or whatever is a pretty shitty thing to but congrats! It doesn't mean you deserve to die. It just means you're an asshole--big deal. Been dealing with assholes ever since I was twelve."

She sat down, fixing her glare on a particularly offensive patch of cave wall. "And yeah, what happened with Curio royally sucked. I saw the state she was in. I also know it was a fucking accident. It's not like you did it on purpose." Her chest tightened suddenly, and she forced it down. "Last time I checked, people don't deserve to die for accidents."
 

unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
"Accidents? You think that's all that's on my mind? An accident?"

Brisa wrestled down a sob.

"Is it an accident if you know you're dangerous? If you don't keep yourself in check? I should fuckin' know better. This isn't the first time I've gone too far in a fight. It isn't the first time I've driven someone away. And if I ever make it outta here I'm just gonna keep doin' it."

She could feel tears coming, and fought them for as long as she could. They came anyway.

"Don't you get it? I'm not safe. I can't control myself. I belong here, where I'm no risk to anyone. I know what people think of me. I know what they see. And they're right. I'm no good for anythin' but fightin'. I can't do right by anyone, I can't be anyone's friend, I can't even apologise to someone 'cause I end up puttin' my teeth in her neck 'cause that's what I do, I hurt people, 'cause I'm just a violent fuckin' animal and that's why I've always been alone!"

The last words out of her mouth turned into a hideous wail and she silenced herself beneath her paws, turning away from Starr in shame. This was disgusting. She should have shut up and died quietly. Maybe if she was lucky, Starr wouldn't even fucking say anything. Maybe she'd turn out to be a phantasm after all and fucking vanish in a puff of smoke as a reward or punishment for her confession. Maybe Starr would hurt her and end this unbearable anticipation.

Please. Please don't be kind to me.
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
Starr gaped at Brisa, utterly bewildered. "What? What are you...?" Where the hell was this coming from. What even was any of this. "God, just stop, I can't fucking deal with this right now." She stormed off in a huff, muttering, "That's what I get for complaining about the silence, I guess."

Minutes passed. Brisa was still sobbing quietly. God damn it.

"Stop. I can't even be pissed at you for acting like a total ass, not when you're crying." Even just saying it felt awkward and uncomfortable.

More time passed. Brisa's words still echoed in Starr's head. She tried to force them out, but they were still there.

"What were you even talking about with all that," Starr went on, against her better judgement. "So, what... all this because you suck at holding back in fights or whatever? You're a Pokemon, that's not even that weird. Seriously, have you met Owen? Hell, that's pretty much normal for untrained Pokemon in my world."
 

unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
"I'm not human. I'm sorry I'm not human! This is all that I am! Can't you love me this way?"

"I know. I know you're not human." {You're a violent animal.} "You're a pokémon."

"Yeah. I'm a pokémon."

Brisa pulled herself together as best she could. It wasn't much, but at least she could talk without choking on her words. She wiped her face a little drier with her paws—not that it mattered, in the dark.

"What, you think I'm just like Owen, that I just battle hard? No. No, that ain't it. I've damn-near killed people. Goddamnit, Starr... how many people am I gonna hurt before you'll tell me I'm a fuckin' menace? Don't you see? That's what I am. Jesse was right about me the whole time..."

He'd known. How could he not have known? Delphox were mind-readers. He knew her from birth. Of course he was right, of course he knew what she was and always would be.

"He was right. I'm dangerous. I shouldn't... I shouldn't be around people."
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
Goddamnit, Starr... how many people am I gonna hurt before you'll tell me I'm a fuckin' menace?

Starr's claws dug into the dirt again. She felt like she was losing her mind. She'd only been here for, what--12? 24? 48? who the hell knows?--how many hours and she was already going insane. Nothing mattered. Secrecy? Privacy? Those things were dead. Brisa's words had left her in a swirling torrent of anger and frustration with weird shards of sympathy digging into it from all over. She could feel her defenses eroding, torn to shreds from a thousand tiny cuts.

"I get it," Starr said, her words cold and quiet. "You're afraid of hurting people. You've hurt people on accident, and you're afraid you'll do it again, and that somehow means you're irredeemable."

She slowly walked over to Brisa, stopping right in front of her. Waiting for the Shinx to look up at her so she could stare her dead in the eyes.

Her voice was a low, vicious snarl when she said, "What if someone did that on purpose?"
 

unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
"What if someone did that on purpose?"

Brisa's eyes widened. She knew that tone. This wasn't a hypothetical piece of rhetoric, neither was it an implicit threat, this was about something real.

'On purpose.' Deliberate. Not a mistake.

“It's stupid to get bent out of shape over a mistake.”

"Oh," she said, her voice as soft as it had ever been. "I get it, now."

She returned Starr's gaze. The burning anger was there, as it ever had been, but Brisa recognised it for something else this time.

Not malice.

Pain.

"Starr... what did you do?"
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
Starr felt an invisible hand clutching her chest, squeezing her heart until she thought it would burst. Her eyes burned, throat clenched up, and a familiar voice said: No. You don't get to. You don't deserve to.

"Starr... what did you do?"
It was in the past. It was settled (it would never really be settled). It'd been forgiven (it really shouldn't have been).

Do you honestly think you can ever make up for it?

Slowly, Starr sat down so that she was eye level with Brisa. "You know what you did to Curio?"

She waited until her words had the chance to fully sink in. Then she went on, her voice barely above a whisper, dripping with hate. "I did that. To my best friend. Tortured the shit out of her. Deliberately."

Silence. Nothing but cold, biting silence.

"Still think I'm better than you?"
 

unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
Brisa maintained eye contact. Everything inside her had shifted. There was anguish in Starr's voice as she spoke of the thing which she had done, the thing which did not sound real, but must be, must be. For Starr to have told her this... the turmoil in her heart must be unimaginable. Brisa's own pain sank back, forgotten in the face of Starr's agony.

"Still think I'm better than you?"

"I don't know," said Brisa, her voice whisper-soft. "I'm startin' to realise I don't understand the first thing about you."

"You think you can stand there and tell me that I don't know what that feels like?"

She took a steadying breath, and shuddered as she did, so tense was her sob-wracked frame.

"I had no idea you were carryin' this kind of pain," she murmured. "Starr, I'm sorry."
 
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