i may not follow, i may not lead, just walk beside me

Avantika had gotten out of bed that morning with a mind to do a lot of patrolling. It was still one of her duties after all, and one she found herself liking more and more now that it wasn't her one desperately-clung-to coping mechanism. It was familiar, but no longer was it that in a bad way. Instead it was a good time, where she could just be alone with her own thoughts, murmuring to herself half-dreamed ideas without needing them to be thought out yet. She'd been on a kick recently of trying to improve all those areas of her life which had fallen into disrepair during her... lapse of judgement. The really difficult change, but also one that she knew was important -- and important largely because it was so hard for her -- was in her social life and relationships. She focused on work, and that would never change, but she was tired of not really having friends. She'd neglected one relationship to the point of catastrophe, but there were others that had also been forgotten about in her obsession with safety, safety, safety. She sighed suddenly, not paying attention to anything but her own mind.

"Speech"