water is wet

Briar felt Ophelia shifting closer till their sides were touching, the much softer side of her sister pressing into hers. There was a brief moment when her own obsessive need to be clean buzzed at the back of her mind, knowing that there was sure to be some kind of dirt or mess that would rub off of her sister onto her, but she shoved that thought away. Ophelia clearly needed that physical reassurance whether she knew it or not and Briar wasn't going to deny her that. There was a pause before she got an answer, but when she did it broke her heart. She hated how Ophelia spoke about herself - calling herself fat, disgusting waste of space - and she slowly began to realize just how bad they all had gotten. Not just Ophelia, but their whole family collectively. If one of them was struggling this much, then hadn't they all failed?

She leaned down to where Ophelia had laid her head down on her paws and gently nudged her cheek with her nose. "You're not dragging me down with you, I'm pulling you back up," she insisted, giving her an encouraging smile. "You're not a waste of space. It would not be better if you weren't around. You... are just a little disgusting though," she teased with a little humor in her turquoise gaze. She didn't want it all to be doom and gloom and she loved her sister no matter the state she was in... even though she did desperately want to scrub her down with soap.

She rested a paw over Ophelia's, her eyes looking at their stacked paws for a moment before she added, "Up until pretty recently... I wasn't doing very well. I didn't feel like I deserved to be a Fatalis, I didn't feel like I deserved to be a part of our family or our pack. I didn't feel like I'd ever amount to anything. I loved someone so much that I broke up with them because I felt like I was just going to drag him down and I didn't feel worthy to be with him." A sad smile pulled across her lips at that and she was just glad that was behind them now. "I guess I just wanted to tell you that so you know you're not alone in all this mess. I want to help if you'll let me, even if it's just spending time with you more often."

"Briar Fatalis"