Quinn's jaw clenched so hard she thought she could hear it creaking.

"[color=gray]By then they either give up, or they keep trying, and settle for the good they can do.[/color]"

Her fist tightened around her spoon.

[i][color=gray]They either give up, or they keep trying.[/color][/i]

She pulled in a long, deep breath and lifted her head from its staring contest with the remnants of her cereal, staring Besca's eye dead on with an eye swollen and red and rimmed in burgeoning tears, but suddenly filled with a surge of determination as she dug deep into herself and found the oft-neglected steel that was sunk down on her core. That hidden part of her that had kept her fighting against [i]Blotklau.[/i] Against three Modir. That had urged her onward more and more, hung on and refused to let go.

[i][color=gray]Give up, or keep trying.[/color][/i]

Quinn found her her voice, thick and strained as it always was when she was trying to hold back tears. 

And she found her courage.

"[color=ffe63d]I'm not gonna give up.[/color]"

She swiped her arm across her face, trying to wipe the tears away. There was a temptation to give up, certainly. Trying to do what she was doing was...it was hard. It was really hard. Her life would've been so much easier, she knew, if she'd just finished Roaki off. Everything would've been so much easier, so much [i]simpler[/i]. But just like in her nightmare, any suggestion of that easy, quiet complacency shattered when she met Besca's eye.

Nuh-uh. No giving up. She was going to be someone that Besca, Dahlia, and [i]Safie[/i] would be proud of.

"[color=ffe63d]I'm not giving up,[/color]" she echoed again. "[color=ffe63d]I'm gonna keep trying.[/color]"

No giving up, and no going back.