[week four - saturday]

[hypertoxic]

[ It's lateish when Vriska wanders back over to the huts. She is ashen with exhaustion, and kind of just wants to go back to her hut and collapse--

--but when she spots Zuko sitting outside Katara's hut, she will just kind of sigh to herself and wander over to him. ]

Hey.

[ For what it's worth, she doesn't sound mad. ]

Can we talk, Zuko? I want to clear the air after today's trial.

Comments

[hypertoxic]

Trust me, I agree with you. Why do you think I always needle people when they focus on the evidence? It's a pointless time waster that just leads to more bodies, not more conclusions!

Anyway.

[ Vriska will go quiet for a moment, folding her arms over her chest and frowning at the ground. ]

The real reason is a little more complicated, and there is a reason I did not explain it in full at the trial. You're right in that it was not just for information, though it is true that was at least half my motivation. But the other half...

[ Vriska tilts her head. And then she'll gesture loosely with a hand. ]

Like I told you at the trial, Jacopo has been nursing a bad habit of convincing himself of things that weren't actually there. I was not the only person he just randomly accused of having a role. I'd prefer to keep that person anonymous, since they told me that little fact in confidence! But if it will clear my name to you, I am willing to at least ask them if they're alright with letting you know. But to get to the point, I think we've established that Jacopo just kind of has a tendency to believe things regardless of what is said to him!

So put yourself in my shoes. Jacopo sends you a mysterious note summoning you to a private part of the island where he could do literally anything to you and get away with it, and then accuses you of having a role. He definitely already believed it, given the way he approached the conversation. If I told him no, do you really think he would have believed me? No, he would have thought I was lying to him. And why would I lie to him if I had nothing to hide?

[ A sigh. ]

I let Jacopo believe I was the item role because it was better than letting him talk himself into thinking I was a Siren for "hiding" something from him that didn't actually exist. That was why I went along with it, Zuko. Presenting myself as the item role had its own risks, but if Jacopo had spread rumors I was a Siren, I'd already be dead. I decided to just take my chances! Playing into his perceptions was ultimately safer for me than trying to convince him of the real truth.

[cuedoves]

The bodies just keep on piling up. [But if she's a Siren, that's what she wants, isn't it?]

[Is it? There's still so much he doesn't understand.]

He does. But I can't say his instincts are always off base. He's one of the people who actually thinks about things. [bitterness intensifies] Maybe he was just testing your reactions to see if you had a role.

I can't say that makes sense to me. If you don't have a role, you lied to him regardless -- he could have picked up on that. [unless she's that confident in her skills in misdirecting]

[but he's just gonna come out and say it, because he is blunt af (and really not suited to this kind of game) and apparently incapable of not blurting out his thoughts:]

Do you have a role? You implied that you did with your little speech.

[hypertoxic]

He thinks he's more clever than he is, if you ask me. [ drawled.

Gestures loosely. ]

I lied to him in the way that was most likely to keep me alive, even if it was only for a week longer. Inciting him into starting a witch hunt for a Siren that didn't exist would have gotten me dead a lot sooner. It was the lesser of two evils.

Anyway, no. I do not have a role, Zuko. I never did. I decided to make it my personal responsibility to end the game because that's how I've always operated! I play games, and I win them! I arrived here from a game much larger and infinitely more complicated than this one. A game like this should be child's play for me! [ ... ] Well, normally. You know. [ flaps a hand. ]

[cuedoves]

[ZUKO JUST GLARES AT THAT because his jacobro is gonna die tomorrow]

[too soon :(]

I still think it'd be more dangerous to lie if you had nothing to hide. The truth was bound to come out sooner and later. If he'd been the one with the item role, he would have caught you right away, and you would have been trapped then.

[Yeah, normally, Zuko would have his firebending, which would make life and defense so much easier. But huh, that's interesting--]

So you're saying you've been in a game like this before?