day 2.

[spiritpearls]

AFTER THIS CLUE

[ Pearl leads Trucy back to her room, the "Morgan Fey" room. It's not that she doesn't trust the others (her trust list is longer than her don't trust list, seriously), not exactly, but she is becoming more aware that if there are really bad badgers that they could easily be listening in when she's discussing things.

So, she figures that the Teen Girl Discussion Squad should maybe avoid speaking in front of, y'know, the whole room when making plans or just... figuring things out.

Locking the door behind her, Pearl turns to Trucy. ]

It might be safer to talk here. About everything. I hate to mistrust anyone, but... [ WELL ]

Comments

[stagewright]

...All right, so...so we've decided how to vote. So...now we just have to investigate the teams! Right?

[ that has to be right. ]

[spiritpearls]

[ Deep breath. ]

Yep... How are we going to investigate them, though?

[ Asking Simon Keyes if he was a bad badger got them nothing. ]

[stagewright]

...I guess we have to watch them all of the rest of today. And maybe try talking to them?

[ yeah cross-examining got them nowhere...unfortunately. ]

[spiritpearls]

That sounds about right. If we talk to them, though, we should be careful. If they think we suspect them, they might get defensive.

[ pearl suggested a trial yesterday, but uh. it didn't really work out. (since then apollo appeared.) ]

[stagewright]

Maybe we can just talk to them normally...we don't have to accuse them or anything.

[ yet, anyway. ]

[spiritpearls]

Sounds like a plan, to me... If we get to know them a little better, maybe that can help us figure out if they're... I don't know, up to anything.

[stagewright]

We...have to assume that they're being effected by, like...magic. Or something. Neither of the Blackquills would do all...this. Without that.

[spiritpearls]

Magic...? Like the way the badger moves through the mirror? [ Well, it did seem pretty, uh. Magical. ] And I know my cousins wouldn't, either.

But it does have to be someone... [ A Blackquill on 2/3 teams, the third being both Feys. ] At first I thought the bad badgers were bad people, like Engarde, but... that can't be if all three of these teams are good people.

You could be right, though it's hard to imagine.

[stagewright]

Right. It means...anyone could be a bad badger, not just "good" people.

[ AND YET TRUCY DOESN'T EVEN CONSIDER PEARL AS A POSSIBILITY... ]

I...wonder if they wouldn't want us to catch them, if they were in their right minds. I don't think anyone on those teams would have wanted to kill Myriam.

[spiritpearls]

[ Horrifying thoughts: that right there. ]

Trucy... Catching them would mean killing them.

[ It's one thing to vote for people who are clearly actually bad, quite another if it's friends or family that are maybe mentally unsound. ]

[stagewright]

...I know. I know, I just -

[ She knows that, that's why this is terrible and she hates how she's thinking but if they don't think like this it might be Pearls dead next. Or Trucy. Or Phoenix. Or any number of people. Until they're all gone. ]

If it were me, I'd want you to kill me, Pearls. I wouldn't want to hurt you. I don't want anyone to hurt you, or Daddy, or...

[spiritpearls]

[ The worst part is it makes sense, in a way. It makes sense. Not everyone here is a killer, and the three teams up today aren't anyone Pearl would see as such. But someone had to have killed Myriam, and one of those three teams is among them.

But, which one. ]

Don't go there, Trucy. We... we don't know enough. But I do know you're not one of them, so there's no use going down that path. [ Imagining killing Trucy is just as painful as it is to imagine killing Mia or Maya. ]

Let's talk again after the suspicion vote, before we vote for... who to oust. [ Who to kill. ] Maybe then we'll know more.

[stagewright]

[ There's a long pause before Trucy nods, reaching out her hand to take one of Pearl's. She's done this before, a hundred thousand times since she was eight and Pearl was nine. Since Pearl had first visited after she'd begun living with Phoenix.

Back then, they'd been nearly the same height. Now, Trucy's taller, but Pearl's hand still fits in hers. It's still comforting. ]

I know. I...know. Just...pull me aside when you want to talk, okay?