Sometimes prolonged exposure to spooky energies in the Void kills you. Sometimes it kills you more slowly while giving you superpowers.

Echo is a walking oxymoron that neurodivergent people like myself can sort of relate to. She cares a lot about her physical appearance, but has trouble showing emotion. She craves attention from a distance, but resists getting close to others individually. She absorbs the pain of others to distract her from her personal demons. Yeah... she's been through a lot.

The members of Head Count are Echo's first real friends since the Bestowed were killed on Tacitus. For those reasons, and because of the aforementioned personal demons, she's afraid to lose them. In the short term, she feels her only recourse is to develop her abilities and get stronger. But how much longer can she push her body and brain until something breaks?

If she wants to heal and stay alive, Echo will have to put more trust in her friends to carry themselves. You cannot build a world of hope without having faith in others. To surrender completely to cynicism and doubt is to slowly destroy yourself.

Be kind to the traumatized, because they could really use a demonstration that that world of hope is possible.

~Az