[WEEK 5, FRIDAY POST-INVESTIGATION: Lucina]

[spinatalltale]

[it's after she has dried off her clothing, warmed up, and returned Lief's cloak that Magilou eventually returns to the Magilou-Lucina hut. she is, of course, searching for one person in particular]

Lucina?

[having not seen her all day is a bit. . . worrying. though it isn't like Magilou is worried or anything!! seriously]

Comments

[rightfully]

[ Lucina is alive! She's sitting on her bed, expression teetering between worried and carefully, precisely detached. The finesse of it is almost surgical, and her body language would be rigid, were it not for the slumped manner of her limbs.

She knows what had happened, but ... ]

Yes? [ Realisation dawns and she adds, ] I'm sorry if I worried you, I snuck back in here for a quick rest after being out all night.

[ While everyone else was out doing the thing. ]

[spinatalltale]

[she closes the hut door behind her and steps forward, arms folded, to set on the bed next to Lucina. sorry about your personal space partner!!]

I wasn't worried. [she was a little worried] Everything went okay last night?

[she assumes, since. . . uh. Fie's head was on a spike]

[rightfully]

... Yes.

[ Fie had knelt, tired eyes blinking slowly, giving permission — a sudden sharp pain spikes in Lucina's belly as she thinks on it, and she's bringing her hand up to cover her face.

Her breathing has grown a bit shallower. ]

She... she was willing, once she understood why.

[ Lucina had slit her throat messily, wanting to distance the murder from her public executions some weeks past, and laid her body out in the pristine flower field.

She has no doubt the head was removed, after the fact. ]

[spinatalltale]

[. . . it's funny, how much this island has changed her. how so long ago, she would have taken one look at Lucina's condition and brushed it off as none of her business. now?]

[now, she reaches out, hooks her fingers against Lucina's sleeve, and tugs lightly. a small attempt at some manner of physical comfort, since comforting words escape her]

When you think about it, they really had it the worst out of everyone.

[rightfully]

They were fed lies. It isn't their fault.

[ Lucina had tried to bring them into the fold, tried to open their eyes and perhaps find a third option to the island's entrapment. She had failed, and Raven had been removed from the game mere hours after.

She wonders a lot, was that my fault?

Lightly, Lucina's shoulder leans against Magilou's. ]

Who else was dead?

[spinatalltale]

Deceived by the rules of this game, and then forced to become nothing but lambs awaiting slaughter. . . I don't envy them.

[even now, she can only imagine how Vriska feels. afraid, scared, and so very, very Tired]

[Magilou leans into Lucina in return]

Yona. I assume she's a Siren kill.

[. . .]

And Jinah, too.

[which. she already knows will complicate things at tomorrow's trial]

[rightfully]

[ Yona...

Lucina's hand tenses, fingers curling into the mattress beneath her. Yona had been so sweet, and - twice, now - Lucina has failed utterly to protect her. She had predicted a Siren kill, but the game had given her no avenue to stop it, save the path she had already chosen. Kill the Sirens. End the game. It's an important goal, but - the pain that will be wrought in the meantime is hardly insignficant.

Lucina doesn't doubt that Yona had been loved, here and elsewhere.

... even if this isn't entirely real, that - that matters. Lucina allows herself a moment to mourn, the essence of an unsaid prayer leaving her thoughts like an offering, and then she continues. ]

Jinah was an independent kill, then?

[ It may seem callow to jump right into technical details.

Lucina no longer wastes time with sentiment. It won't save anyone, here. ]

[spinatalltale]

. . . no.

[Magilou keeps her tone carefully even]

She took her own life. I suspect it was because she knew Vriska was a Siren. Whether it was to protect her, or to ensure that Vriska would be executed post-trial. . . well.

Tough to say.