[ Whether it was the high of being agreed with or simply the companionable feeling of standing alongside a man Jake felt he understood better than he did before, his tail begins a slow wag. The remembered room around them was beginning to blur at the corners, the orb shard's influence thinning the closer they got to the real world. ]

They try their best. Just like us, right? [ He elbows him gently, if a little ruefully. ] We're all just doing the best we can with the hand we're dealt.

[ He pauses a moment, breathing in and out with quiet weight as the world begins to blur further. ]

I don't know how things turned out for you two, man, but... from what I can see, you gave that kid what he needed back then. And it sounds like maybe he gave you what you needed, too.