her head was still spinning, stomach clawing at itself in protest. it didn’t make sense ⎯⎯ none of it did. the simulation wasn’t supposed to hurt like this. it wasn’t supposed to crawl under her skin, burrow deep into her nerves, make her feel like her whole system’s been fried. and yet, here she was, shaking, nauseous, the taste of bile and turbulence sharing space on her tongue. the edges of the world still hummed, flickering faintly like a dying screen, but somewhere in all that noise was ivelisse’s voice cutting through the chaos like a hand reaching through smoke. she forced herself to breathe, to swallow down the acid making its way up her throat. one step at a time, they’d said. she could do that. maybe. “ the best day of my life, ” she repeated, then took a few more trembling breaths. a few seconds passed before the answer came. “ probably when i got brisa. ” her chest loosened a little just saying the name. she closed her eyes, and for a moment, the air smelled less like fumes and more like rain. “ freshman year. i’d just flunked my first martial conditioning practical. completely froze. first time i ever failed anything. it went so bad that i ended up dropping the course by the end of it and didn’t show up to the rest of my classes. i snuck out, it was pouring. i was mad at myself, the world, everything. then i saw her, this tiny gatita hiding near a drainage, shivering and soaked and looking at me like i was the savior she’s long been waiting for. ” ale huffed out a small, shaky laugh, the corner of her mouth twitching into something faintly resembling a smile. “ she fit perfectly in my jacket pocket. meowed the entire walk back to the dorms. i wasn’t supposed to keep her — especially inside school grounds — but i’ve been sneaking her in for the past two and a half years now. ” she tilted her head toward ivelisse, eyes still glassy but calmer, the ghost of humor threading through her exhaustion. “ so you can’t tell anyone, okay ? she’s got tenure at this point. ” her voice faltered at the end, not because of fear ⎯⎯ but because she suddenly realized how real the moment felt. talking about brisa, about something small and soft and alive, in a place that seemingly kept pulling her into death. she exhaled, letting her forehead fall against her knees. then the grass beneath her feet flickered into the cold, metallic floor of an airplane, then cracked open into asphalt, the faint hum of tires skidding past her ears before it all dissolved back into green. over and over, their environment kept changing, cycling through realities like a broken reel. every shift came with a burst of static, the distortion crawling closer, louder, until it was all they could hear. “ mierda— ” she winced, eyes squeezing shut, but even through the chaos, she turned her head toward ivelisse. “ your turn, ” she said, forcing the words out through gritted teeth. “ tell me something good. ”