spiritpearls | day 2. again.

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day 2. again.

SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDST OF THE OUSTING POLL TIMEFRAME

[This is getting out of hand, and right now... Trucy is starting to be the only person she trusts. To talk to, anyway. So, like she did earlier in the day, she loops her arm through Trucy's and leads her to her room. Hopefully everyone just assumes they're gossiping about boys.

Locking the door behind her, Pearl gently bangs her head against it. ]

All right. So. It's my cousins versus Mr Armando and Mr Blackquill.

[ This is not a good outcome. ]

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[ No, it isn't. No matter how they vote, things...things are going to get bad. While things evened out after Matt and Simon died, they hadn't been that close to anyone. Simon - Blackquill - is Aura's brother. Godot and Mia are...whatever they are. Mia and Maya are close to many of the people there. They're important to Trucy's dad.

They're Pearl's cousins. ]

Right. Aura and Ray's team didn't make it, but...I haven't seen anything the least bit suspicious from either of them, honestly.

[ Her stomach is sinking, and Trucy crosses her arms and looks away, uncertain how to explain to Pearl what she actually thinks. She'd said it to her father, earlier, but this is Pearl.

Pearl is family. Mia's and Maya's. By blood and love and choice. Trucy's only got the latter two, and she knows how she would feel if someone told her Phoenix was acting suspicious. ]

[ Pearl knew it would get bad, but... this is really bad. They're no closer to a way out or to save the captives, so all they can do is continue to play the game. This awful, awful game.

But what is she supposed to do with this kind of choice? ]

Neither have I. All Mr Ray does is try to hug people. [ pause ] If we don't vote for either team, the badger might hurt Mr Edgeworth... even when he's not even here doing this.. this stupid thing.

[ The idea of her cousins or Mr Armando being magic'd into being bad badgers was on her mind, but... she's not going to say it. She wants to protect her cousins more than anything, and really doesn't she owe Mr Armando for saving Maya? ]

[ Feeling awkward standing, Trucy goes and sits on Pearl's bed. Draws one leg up beneath her and lets the other dangle, as her hands lay loosely in her lap. She has to say it. She can't even consider not saying it, can she? Pearls had been so vehement defending her to Mr. Godot, and at the time, Trucy hadn't thought that Pearls' cousins could be bad badgers.

Until Mia had said something in particular. Had scorned the idea of ever voting again. Had claimed that Dahlia's death was more important than the possibility of sacrificing someone to secure it. ]

Pearls, [ Trucy says, and then she stops, wets her lips. ] I heard Prosecutor Blackquill earlier. Asking Daddy to vote for him instead of Aura. Not in so many words - he just said no matter how Daddy voted, he wanted him to ensure Aura was safe...but he had to know Daddy would never vote for your cousins.

[ She forces herself to stop looking at her hands, forces herself to look up and meet Pearl's eyes. They've been friends for years, close as sisters, and Trucy owes it to Pearl of all people to be honest. ]

Mr. Armando started acting in a way that he had to know would make people vote for him as soon as he walked into the room. He isn't arguing in his defense. He's hoping people will vote for him.

[ She could stop there, she could not say it, but that wouldn't be fair. She has to. Even if it breaks things between them. ]

Mia couldn't explain her vote for Mr. Gavin's team. She and Maya haven't wanted to vote at all, and Mia...wanted everyone to vote for Dahlia and didn't acknowledge the reasons that would be bad for all of us. I...they're acting more suspicious than the others, Pearls, I'm sorry.

[ She has to look down, then. ]

I...I still won't vote for them, if you... [ They're Pearl's family. The only way Trucy would ever vote for them would be if Pearl decided they had to, and she doesn't think that will happen. But: ] But I couldn't sit here thinking it and not say it to you.

[ Couldn't they have just pretended none of that had happened...?

Pearl listens to Trucy with her back to the door, biting at her thumb. When Trucy finally says what Pearl had been dreading, she slides down the door to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees. She buries her face there for a moment, trying to will the thoughts away.

There's so little evidence here, yet what little they have... it points to Mia and Maya. It fits, in a twisted way.

It'd be so easy to discount it, though, Pearl thinks. Mia's young and angry at Dahlia, who has hurt her so badly. Maya's gentle, she doesn't want to hurt anyone. Neither of them want to be apart of murdering others. They're optimistic. They're looking for another option.

And yet... and yet, all that detracts from the fact that if they all did like Mia and Maya, they'd all die very fast. Them, and the hostages, who have been front and center on Pearl's mind. There's no way out. Pearl's come to begin accepting that. If there was, three people wouldn't be dead. Two by her own hand, among others.

"You'd never hurt anyone, not even someone like Dahlia. You're a good kid." Maya had said that, just today. Trucy had used Pearl herself as an example of someone innocent who could be killed by the bad badgers.

She doesn't feel so good and innocent, sitting here contemplating if her cousins are the ones who need to be executed. Not because they're truly bad, but because they can't be. If they're being manipulated, by magic or otherwise... they need to be stopped before their own souls are blackened beyond repair.

All she wants to do is curl up and wait for this to all be over. But finally, Pearl looks up at Trucy, looking torn. Her voice is weak, small. ]

I know. I heard the way Mystic Mia was speaking... the only person she's willing to see dead is Dahlia, yet... that won't help the rest of us. I don't see how she could possibly not realize that, unless... unless something had been done to her. Surely she can't be that filled with rage to put killing Dahlia over everything else... Or to avoid killing other people when we're all at stake...

[ How can her elder cousin be fine with voting to kill Dahlia, but not want to vote to save others? ]

I just don't understand that. It was one thing when Mystic Maya didn't want to vote, she's always been so kindhearted. [ She's not just Pearl's cousin, she's her big sister. The woman who had raised her since the age of, what? Eight? Nine? Ever since her own mother had gone to jail for conspiring to get rid of her... Maya had taken care of the daughter of the woman who had tried to kill her, and had gotten her mother Misty Fey killed. For all these years.

And now Maya might die. A young Maya, who hadn't yet raised Pearl but who had already become a big sister to her.

This wasn't right. This wasn't fair. This was... something else. Twisted, and dark.

And it was the girl who was just as important to her, Trucy, her little sister who was telling her this. Who she wanted to protect, just as much. ]

If you think it's them, I... I won't blame you for voting for them. [ Her voice cracks. Mia. Maya. Dead. Executed. By them.

Pearl had woven herself a family, over the years. Mia, Maya, Mr Nick, Trucy... Even Apollo, Edgeworth, all of their friends... they were family. And her family was going to tear itself apart, but not before tearing her apart. ]

[ Trucy drags her eyes up off the floor again when Pearl finally begins to speak, her breath catching in her throat. She wasn't sure what she had expected. Pearl had never really, truly, been angry with her. Even now, after Trucy had said the worst thing she could imagine ever saying...

Pearl's not angry. She's one of the best people Trucy knows. Like Apollo, Pearls wouldn't forge evidence, wouldn't cheat to win, like Trucy would do. Like her father has done. The ends justify the means...don't they?

But the means in this place are evil, wicked, and Trucy's never wanted to kill but she thinks they'd all be killed, all the hostages would be killed, if they don't play along. It doesn't make it okay. It doesn't make it all right. But...she's an evil, wicked girl who would do so many worse things in order to hang on to her family with every ounce of strength she has, maybe.

She's already lost one family. She can't lose this one.

Trucy slides off the bed, stands on shaky feet, and takes one step towards Pearl. A second. Then all at once she walks over to Pearl's side, slides down the door to sit beside her, leaning her head on Pearl's shoulder. Still half-expecting to be pushed away. ]

I don't understand it either. I keep thinking - I keep thinking I have to be wrong, but I...I really think one of the teams...is bad. They keep saying we can't trust it, but what else can we do? I think the rules of this place are...I think we can trust they're not complete lies.

[ She thinks they got it right, the first time. She really does. Kristoph and Palaeno could be the culprits from that time, if they hadn't, but Trucy...Trucy thinks they guessed right.

This time, she thinks it's probably Mia and Maya.

Next time? The third time? Will she and Pearl and her father be included in the group of the "guilty"? Trucy doesn't know what she will do if and when that occurs. Except... ]

I'd tell them to vote for me. If it were you and me, in a trial. I'd tell them to vote for me. [ She's not saying another word about the Fey sisters, not unless Pearl wants to talk about it. To discuss the dark thoughts and paranoia and their suspicions that neither likes and neither knows what to do with. Even though Pearl has said she wouldn't blame Trucy, Trucy doesn't know if she can bring herself to vote for them, even if she believes it to be true.

But this she does know, without a shadow of a doubt. If it came down to her and Pearl, she'd tell them to choose her. ]

[ Pearl would never push Trucy away. Instead she leans her own head against the top of Trucy's. What a mess.

All Pearl wants is to go home. To return to Kurain Village with her own properly aged Maya and train. Visit the Wright Office to check on Mr Nick and clean, watch Trucy's impromptu magic shows. Heck, even investigating a random murder unrelated to her would be preferable to this.

All Pearl wants is for things to be normal again, not all skewed and confusions. Not filled with what if this and what if that. Not tragedy after tragedy. ]

I don't know. I don't know if we can trust it, or if they're just playing with us. [ What if there are no bad badgers? What if it's just a trick to get them to hurt each other? ] But we do know that people will die if we don't do something.

[ Something here meaning... voting people to the death. People they might care about. Who will be chosen tomorrow? Mr Nick? Trucy? Larry? ]

I would too. If it were you and me. ... So I guess that would just be us yelling, "no pick me" if that happened. [ Pearl lets out a small, hoarse giggle at that picture.

But it isn't just Trucy she'd do that for, no. If she were up for vote now, against Mia and Maya or even against Mr Armando and Blackquill, Pearl would beg that everyone vote for her. To choose her, because that would a kinder fate than seeing people die for her sake.

Pearl won't vote for her cousins. She can't do that. Shamefully, part of it stems from the fact that she doesn't want them to see it. For them to think she doubts them, even if Pearl would only do it for their sake. To save them from themselves. It would be too much, to see the pain in their eyes. It's a selfish thought, possibly the only one Pearl's ever had, but. There it is. ]

Do you think that maybe... after we leave here, we could bring the dead back? [ A random thought that pops into her head. A hopeful one. ] Mia and Dahlia... they were dead, now they're not. Maybe it can be done again?

I don't know. I asked someone - I forget who...Daddy, maybe? - about that earlier. I think...I think that everything is confused and confusing. I think... [ Maybe "winning" isn't worth it. There's no other option but to go forward, but it seems like doing nothing and doing something may both be paths fraught with death.

How do they pick which is better?

She'll vote, but this time, Trucy's going to vote for people she doesn't think are guilty. Maybe they are, though. The truth is impossible to follow when there's so little to go off of. Maybe this time, the people confessing are the ones who are guilty. ]

I'll vote for the other team, Pearls. It'll... [ It'll all work out would be a lie. So Trucy just reaches out to take Pearl's hand again, sitting quietly for a moment before she figures out what she wants to say. ] Daddy won't stop looking for a way to break this game. I don't think anyone else will, either. And if magic is real...hey, maybe I can learn some. And I'll do tricks we actually want to see.

[ It's her stage smile that Trucy turns on Pearl, but she's trying to be brave and to draw them away from the topic she'd brought up herself. They already know, really, which team was going to lose the vote from the second the two final teams were announced.

Now it's just a matter of formality. ]

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day 2. again.

presumably after mirror murder shenanigans, um

probably yeaaah

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