dropoffs | AUDIENCE 🚀 BAIKEN

[ she doesn't answer at first, not wanting to delve back into her feelings on the matter. it's hard to feel vulnerable, so she's made sure that she never has to be ever again. a lifetime of pain and fury born from her grief. no matter what she does - it won't bring her parents back. or her eye, or her arm. she can live without the latter two. well... she's had to live without it all anyway. she's long given up on fantasizing about what her life would be like if her home had never been destroyed and her parents were still alive. she's a hollowed out husk of a person, only living for revenge. it's not a good life.

the acuteness of thebe's own despairing memory reaches her, though. the sudden, tragic loss. it puts a few things into perspective but... it's the same thing: nothing will change the past, and how much it hurts. there will always be a wound from where their loved ones used to be. ]

Pretty unfair, isn't it?

[ and she takes a drink. ]

[ a shake of the head, slowly. it's all so vulnerable, every moment shared like this. they give a long, long pause between puffs from their cigarette. pain so deep, that's had such a long time to take root and spread - you don't just rip it up easily and start all over.

quickly, they smear the heel of their hand over their eye. ]

It's always someone else's turn at some point... for things to be unfair. It can be early, it can be late... but it happens.

A wise person would say that how you deal with it is what matters.

[ baiken isn't, though. she knows she's the last person to give advice on how to cope. ]

...I'm not going to tell anyone if you need to cry.