scrapdraught

[oh boy the vibes are very bad. Their powers combined make for a desolate wasteland of grief and bleakness, exhaustion. She meets his interest with a smile and pushes the spare chair out with purpose.]

Sure do. Help me finish it.

[And once he's sat properly, she has to bring the mood down.]

Lavi, I have a couple things I need to talk to you about.

[OUR CAMILLE!!!!

Lavi's vibes of concern only grow at feeling her emotions, but his expression remains cheery as he picks up the pot, pouring a bit of the tea in his cup, and refilling some of Camille's, before setting it down.]

I'm all ears.

[Augh, this waft of concern. She grimaces, reaches to give him a squeeze. Can't they go back to the week where they were just biting each other and being slightly annoying? All of these side effects are enough to make you go mad.]

First off, I think I got a letter from Nona. She said to tell you — ah, something about the stricken stuff not being important? So. Don't sweat it.

[Paraphrasing. And if it's not Nona she'll feel a bit silly, but it's an easy mistake to make. Why was there a need for aliases in the first place?]

Secondly...Kate said she spoke to you.

[He gets a look on his face when she mentions Nona, a little blip of someone also remember something to pass on, and he opens his mouth -- only to close it when Camille continues. the tangle of emotions can only be complicated -- grief in spades, and a flare of anger that fades under a tumult of guilt.

Lavi though, only looks a little tired, but he nods.]

...Yeah. She told me on Sunday.

I'm not planning on telling anyone else, but Yuffie and Laudna put it together -- when they saw all of the letters to Kate.

[She purses her lips. Reaches for his hand and lets hers rest softly atop it.]

It's okay if you're angry. I know. When you have no place to put it, it feels a little like being robbed.

I suspected Laudna did. She talked to me on Sunday, though she didn't name names. Just wondered if I put some clues together. [Yuffie is a surprise. But knowing how the letters come in batches, then it makes sense. It hurts though. Are they raking Kate over the coals? Telling her all is forgiven? Something in between?]

I tried to help her on Thursday. She took something to make her drowsy. We filched a little coffin from the morgue, set it up in her room. I helped her in and tied it up for the night.

Maybe stupid in hindsight. She said the damn thing just took all that into account anyway. Snuck out and did whatever it wanted.

...If we want to help her, we can't let her know how. No matter what kind of help that is.

Edited 2024-07-17 03:28 (UTC)

['It's okay if you're angry.' And Lavi is, so much -- in the worst way, because it's anger that he can only funnel at a group of faceless beings, but some of it bleeds through at Kate anyway -- which makes him feel worse, because what kind of asshole hates a thirteen year old? which flares up into anger at himself too for being angry at Kate and for trying not to be when he does have the right, and then back again at the cultists -- an eternal cycle of bitter grief and frustration.

He listens to Camille's words quietly,]

She got a lock for her door. [a little dully, because like Camille says -- if a coffin and pills couldn't help, then what will the lock do?] ...I'm going to talk to her after she makes her wish. Famine said that she talked to them about her options.

[his hands tighten into fists]

I was gonna ask her to consider dying. By her hand or whoever else's. [the guilt overpowers his anger,] But then we got letters about how we need at least six of us left and to slow down the killing and that if we don't then the cult will just kill the rest and start over again --

[his voice gets progressively louder -- but he cuts himself off, rubbing at his face a hand,]

Hey, hey.

[She shakes her head.]

It's okay. It's okay, we're...it's not an easy thing to talk about.

[Fuck, his tea. She swallows and elongates the pause. A drawn out silent pour, then the soft scrape of china over the table top. It's good drinking temperature. She'd been sitting with it for a few minutes.]

I'm talking to the overseers too. I doubt there's an easy fix, otherwise we'd all be grabbing one. I heard about the six thing — that we might need to make it five at the last minute even, just to thwart their plans with the wrong number. It's fucking insane but...with that news, and needing to bide more time? I'm worried.

All I can ask is that, if we all make it to trial, and so does she, and if things...start pointing in her direction? We don't leave her to the vote.

[Camille shakes her head. Her eye is tearing up, throat tight.]

I won't allow her to go in the ring on a Sunday. I can't. I can't let that happen.

[She's just a child. It'd been hard enough before, doing what she'd had to do at home. To watch history repeat itself with a far crueler sentence?

She'd lose her fucking mind.]

Cami...

[Lavi looks at Camille, thinks of the brief memory he'd seen of her -- when she was younger, at the mercy of someone cruel and who should have protected her -- and he thinks he understands just from that, the same way he can understand the letters pleading for Kate to keep surviving, to not end up where the dead are. there's dead and there's dead -- Kate hadn't asked to be possessed anymore than Camille or Nona or Aqua or Karlach -- and he understands this.

his emotions still pitch to either side though, guilt, anger, wariness -- kanda's words, we're destroyers, not saviors. and his letter too -- not to wait for the weekend, to figure it out on his own. stupid rabbit.]

...I don't want that to happen either.

[but if he'd found her during trial? if they figured out that it was her then? he swallows. pulls his mind from the subject so he can rest a hand on Camille's arm.]

I can promise that I'll try. [but the other issue is whether or not someone will want to kill kate before that time is up, who'll give into that burst of rage] We'll have at least two other monsters to find anyway.

That's as much as I can do. But I don't think anyone else will vote for her either.

Lavi

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