"*Yes,* all right?" Tarantulas hisses at her (his rear unconsciously raising in an instinctive threat display, fuck off it's not cute). "We met in that shared dream, I --"

His voice cracks. "I loved her, is that what you want to hear? The fourth person I've ever loved in my life, not counting my children, and I wasn't even sure if she was *real*..." He shrinks down to cat-sized, covering his eyes with his forelegs. "Seeing her like that, knowing what was done to her...Pain that sharp cries out to be shared."