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They... weren't dead. They survived. "Looks like we aren't doin' any mercy killin'," said Brisa, with considerable relief. She stared at the new terrain presenting itself to her. It was rougher than it had been, more 'steep' than 'sheer.' What had been an unscaleable edifice was now a rugged...

Brisa kept her gaze level. She saw fear, mostly, when she looked in Starr's eyes now. What did Starr see in hers? Was there anything to see? "Yes," she said, softly. "I do."

Brisa looked Starr plainly in the face, her own expression drawn by fatigue of every variety. She didn't have the energy to think through the human's psychology right now. "I'm not stupid, Starr. Neither are you. Nobody would be around to kill me. I would be alone, and die slowly. I know this...

Brisa made a non-committal noise in her throat. "Yeah," she said. "I'm sure that's right." She wasn't much good at lying. The fact was, she'd accepted when she took this mission that Diyem might be lying or mistaken. Maybe wherever they were was beyond his reach. That was okay with her. She...

Brisa smiled ruefully to herself. She was going to have to get used to a certain abrasiveness from Starr, if they were going to be... on speaking terms, she supposed. Or even friends, maybe? Did you become friends if you lived through something like this together? She didn't know, and she wasn't...

Brisa fought down the impulse to defend herself. 'Self-pitying garbage'. Like she hadn't tried asking for help from others in the past and been turned down? Like Starr had given such a strong impression that she'd be willing to help? But then again, Starr pulled through for teammates, grudge or...

Brisa shrugged. "Hey, you're welcome. Don't be so surprised—I've been hungry for longer than this before today. That's all I've got, though." Unless you fancy gettin' by on my corpse, she didn't say. Starr didn't like morbid comments like that. She pulled some strips out for herself, and took...

Brisa nodded. Starr surely wasn't wrong. "He seemed kinda... frustrated, that I took it so well." Kind of like you, Starr... "He said he was workin' towards comin' clean to everyone, startin' with the most receptive. Seemed fair. He explained himself well enough for me to continue trustin'...

Brisa frowned for a moment. Starr kept looking away and shutting up whenever she tried being reassuring or gentle in some way. Was it... unwelcome? Something to think about. "Yeah, I've felt a similar kind of way," she said. "I made a decision to trust him when I came here, shady as he is, but...

Brisa grinned. It was a profoundly unfamiliar facial movement, but... it felt good. Great, even. "You're serious? I mean, I know why you're sayin' that, but still. You give a shit about people, you're capable of change, you have a friend who believes in your better nature even after seein' you...

Brisa took a second to cool her head. If she learned one thing from this, it would be to think through anything Starr said before pouncing at her. "I don't get that," she said, when she'd recovered herself. "I don't see why I'd go tellin' everybody somethin' like that. The Bluff... that was...

"Get on with the team? Are you kiddin'?" Brisa laughed again, a wild high edge to it this time. "Did I not mention that Curio called me half the things Jesse used to? She doesn't want me. She knows what I am. And it's not just her. I fucked things up with you soon as meet you, over fuckin'...

Brisa nodded and listened, rapt despite how little any of this meant to her. "I'd love to travel," she said, without thinking. "I mean, I wander a lot, but only for my patrols." Starr seemed amenable enough to listening, so she continued. "I said I beat the shit outta bandits. That's part of...

Brisa nodded, knowing better than to push. She wouldn't like that either. This was the first time she'd told anyone this much about Jesse, and it had run her ragged. Starr's father sounded so much the opposite, giving out praise instead of recriminations, but... wasn't that just another way of...

Brisa laughed again, and more tension left her. There was a wild thrill in hearing someone talk down 'Delphox Jesse Stranger, world-saving hero.' As she laughed, her fur surged and lit up the room further, along with Starr. She did her best to return the awkward smile with one of her own. "I...

Brisa couldn't help but laugh, again. Something about Starr's willingness to take shots at Jesse was... incredibly cathartic. "Y'know, ya got a point there!" she said, between slightly-painful laughs. "I actually thought he mighta been makin' it all up, that he was just lunatic or lyin', until...

"Uh, yeah... people have been saying stuff like that. It's weird for me, y'know? You grow up with somethin', it seems normal. Even... even the stuff that guy did." Brisa shuddered. It was cold. She felt like she was laying part of her mind bare. It unsettled her to think of... of Jesse, her...

Brisa took a second to process what Starr had just said. Then she laughed. It sounded weird to her own ears... how long had it been? "Gods. Yeah. Thanks." Another breath. "Yeah, we have actual ferals too. 'Feral' is just also somethin' folks call sapient mon like my ma who don't wanna...

Starr shrugged off her injuries and the animosity Brisa had shown her as if it was nothing. Brisa knew it hadn't been nothing, but her expressed remorse seemed to pass by, scarcely remarked on. Why? If Brisa were in that position, being told such things by someone who'd hurt her... hated her...

Oh, gods. Maybe it was best not to pry. Whatever it was that Starr was remembering, it sounded like a truly hideous emotional wound. Brisa had no right to make Starr explain, nor did she know how to give comfort over something like this. Or even if she should—they weren't friends. All the same...