this won't change my opinion of you

Avantika was almost obligated to keep watching Audra, wincing every time she picked off another of the crystals but never looking away. Her girlfriend was hurt. She was crying. They were going to stay together, right here, and figure something out. Not that she had any ideas of any clues hidden in the back of her mind, but she couldn't do anything else. It was almost satisfying to hear Audra's anger, much as it hurt. You could do something with anger.

Watching Audra's face so closely, she noticed that the crystals she pulled off were only growing back and even bigger every time. "Stop plucking those," she warned softly. "They just get bigger." It would make it so much easier if they could just remove all of the disease themselves, but of course, that wasn't how it worked. Although she really, really wanted to pull the crystals off anyway, even it was worse than doing nothing.

"Speech"