Quinn was quiet for a long time as she looked into Doctor Follen's gentle eyes. Her own eye betrayed the storm inside her, mind churning and grinding like a broken machine, filling up with sparks and smoke.

[color=lightblue][i]Things being the way they are, 'just because', is the logic of storms and monsters.[/i][/color]

[color=lightblue][i]To define yourself by what has happened to you is cruel and unfair.[/i][/color]

She opened her mouth, trying to find something to say. She couldn't; the smoke was just too thick. She closed it again. She knew he was wrong. She knew he was wrong so deep in her gut. But she just...couldn't find a way to explain or justify it. A distant and buried region of her mind clogged with smoke and sparks knew that meant something, but the rest of her overwhelmed it, crushing that part of her beneath an avalanche of renewed guilt.

[color=lightblue][i]We are not monsters, and we are not guilty. Decide for yourself what you are. Be what you[/i] do.[/color]

The smoke cleared, just a little. The sparks spat out the smallest bit less furiously, and that distant, muffled piece of her whispered into her ear as though from a great distance: [i]be what you do.[/i]

And then again, still just that frail whisper, but persistent, [i]in[/i]sistent. [i]Drag light into the future, no matter how dark. Set the night ablaze.[/i]

She took in a slow, shuddering breath, completely oblivious to the fact that tears were starting to creep down her cheek as her brain collided with itself. She knew she was at fault. That feeling of being at fault—that [i]knowledge[/i] that she was at fault—crashed into that idea that what had been done to her and to Hovvi didn't reflect on her, but on the Modir that were hunting her. It seemed so easy. If she thought of it logically, she [i]knew[/i] it was true. But still, that guilt bit into her ankles and dragged her down into the muck.

She suddenly realized she was crying almost dazedly—when had that started?—and as she sat up straight, or at least straight[i]er[/i], she swiped an arm across her eye. The crushing despair loosened. But...it still hung over her. Not as [i]lethally,[/i] but more than enough to keep the weight pressing down. Like a wire around her neck that was still choking her, even if she could breathe now.

"[color=ffe63d]I'm being stupid, aren't I,[/color]" she mumbled through the lump in her throat. "[color=ffe63d]I'm sorry...I'll—I'll try harder.[/color]"