"Better than playing sacrificial lamb," Ilde drawls, and-- there's more to that, too, recent and brutal experience, but Steph's flip remark didn't seem to bother her and her own doesn't, either. Sometimes gallows humour is the only way to go, and it's the nature of her to be just a little bit more callous than is entirely appropriate. "It can always be worse."

Which is why it's best to try keeping a step ahead, she figures; even if it doesn't work, at least you're doing something, at least it's forward motion.