Luna went for a walk in the wood in a random direction. Somehow, perhaps some God up there wanted to torment her, she arrived back at the scene of the crime from yesterday. Everything is all still there, except the food, someone probably ate it all. She can faintly hear some rustling in some nearby bushes.
"Why did I come back here??? Like of all of the fucking directions I could've gone to, I went to this place." she grumbles. But then she hears some rustling with her hypersensitive hearing. Carefully, and with some focus on her surroundings, she goes to investigate. Hopefully it's just a deer.
A chain comes out of the bush and tries to latch onto Lunas arm.
Luna wasn't expecting the chain and it latches on successfully. She screams a little bit. "WHAT THE FUCK"
Now her focus is on high alert as she tries to remove the chain.
Ivy gets out of the bush, she's holding the other end of the chain. "Oh. It's you." She tugs on the chain hard, pushing Luna towards her. "Y'know, I'm still kinda mad you didn't seem to like my tea."
Luna's fucking thrown towards her. "Yeah cuz I didn't want to get high and participate in your murder? Fuck you bitch."
"Oi, there's a lot of stuff we don't wanna do in this life. Do I look like I willingly wanted to DIE?!" Her screen shows red static. "I had no fucking choice!"
"Wait... what? What the fuck happened to you?" No really, Luna has absolutely no idea what the fuck she's looking at. She knows Ivory went to Hell according to Twitter. but unsure which one.
"Died, woke up, got decapitated, ended up in Lust apparently, came back, tweeted at Lucille, and now I came back here. I heard someone coming over here, so..." The screen stops. "You're lucky I didn't bring my scythe."
Memories of the bestiary she saw online flash in her mind. "Sisyphean Lust, with the object heads. ...you're lucky I'm not interested in another murder."
"Listen, didn't really want to spark any tension here." She walks up to Luna and takes the chain out of her arm.
"I was just stressed out, and I came here to reminisce, and then I hear SOMETHING, so... You can see my thought process."
"No tension??? You started all of this bullshit with the letter and the invites. Then you drugged me. And now you're out here attacking me. Trust me Ivy, there's gonna be fucking tension." Luna looks livid.
"Hey man, up to you, you might regret it but whatever." She's on high alert.
Luna is also on high alert and angry as all hell. "Okay, so why did you come back to this place? You so wanted to reminisce about how you made four people murder your ass?"
She breaks laughing. "FOUR PEOPLE?! BITCH, YOU WERE THE ONE THAT KILLED ME!"
"..."
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT YOU ACTUALLY DID?! YOU WENT FUCKING FERAL."
"The fuck? I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU. I HAVE ZERO FUCKING MOTIVE. AND BESIDES, I DON'T GO FERAL!"
"Oh my god aren't you supposed to be smart- I basically influenced you to do it, dingus."
"So you hypnotised me?"
"How didn't you notice that? A high intake of drugs, the fucking letter I gave to you, the fact I only really seemed to tell you about the event?!" Her screens flashing just random imagery of flowers. "What I'm trying to say is that, yes, I did 'hypnotize' you in a way. And hey, it fucking worked! You did what I made you do. That's it."
"I've never been on drugs before. And the letter? What the fuck kind of motive is that? I don't see why that would influence me."
Ivy is groaning. Her screen shows some more bloody imagery. "Listen, that letter had detailed instructions on how you'd fucking kill me, I wrote it in such a way where nobody would really know who did it! I made it such a mess on purpose!"
"Which letter? The one you told me to keep? The one that I never read?"
"You read it after you got high. Duh. You read it, discarded it, and killed me. The steps I wrote in that letter. Do I really need to say more, or can I just go. This conversation is starting to annoy me."
Luna closes her eyes in thought, trying to understand everything. "Wait, OBJECTION! I'm TINY. How did your body get like that? Literally the shortest and arguably the least muscle mass of THE KISS. I can't do something like that."
"...fuck if I know, probably that weird gay guy. He seems like the type of person to make my body look like the Family Guy death pose."
"Of all the people to accuse of putting someone into the Family Guy death pose, I heavily disagree Cole would do that." She glares at Ivy. Luna fucking wracks her brain trying to understand what the hell she’s talking about, but nothing comes back. "And not to mention, I only brought my sword with me to the party. There was no traces of blood found on it."
GROAAAAN. "Did you really expect me to not tell you to clean it after it was done- I WANTED TO MAKE EVERYONE CONFUSED ON WHO DID THE FUCKING MURDER!"
Luna just has the smuggest fucking smile on her face right now. "Even you can't explain certain bits of it."
"You're really starting to wear my patience down, I am THIS CLOSE to just... Ugh..." Screen stops flashing. It's all static.
"Do not fucking bullshit me Ivy. You don't know my weaknesses. And if I was hypnotized, Krystal would've pulled me out of it." Her eyes turn purple.
"God damn right Lunes." Krystal says proudly.
And back to blue.
"Listen man, I don't know what to tell you! You fucking killed me! That's fucking IT! YOU'RE TALKING TO THE PERSON YOU FUCKING KILLED!"
"I have zero motive. The whodunnit is fine, I'll accept that. The how and the why I don't understand. Explain to me my motive."
"I FUCKING DID- MY FUCKING- AAAAAAAAAH!"
The screen just shows an eye.
"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS FUCKING CONVERSATION. I EXPLAINED EVERYTHING YOU NEEDED TO KNOW AND IT JUST SEEMINGLY WENT IN ONE EAR AND OUT THE OTHER; IT FELT LIKE EXPLAINING SPACE TRAVEL TO A FUCKING GOLDFISH!"
She throws her chain and it latches to a chair.
"NOW. IS IT FUCKING CLEAR THAT I FORCED YOU TO KILL ME."
"No." She has the biggest fucking smile on her face right now. "Because the crime scene makes no sense. I'm tiny as I said before. If I'm the only one who was controlled, then I shouldn't have been able to cause so much damage. And besides, you said it yourself. The tea was an anesthetic. You wouldn't have had the strength to fight back, yet you did. Everyone else was knocked the fuck out on mushrooms. Explain."
Ivy goes silent. And then she just tries to hit Luna with the chair as hard as she can.
Luna just blips out of the way. "Nice try idiot."
"YOU FUCKING-" She tries to latch onto Lunas legs."
Luna saw it coming and jumps out of the way. Then she pulls out her sword in one fluid motion. "Bring it."
"Oh you're begging for it." She tries to knock the sword away from Luna.
Luna's got a very good grip on her sword, so it does not get knocked away. She does however go for a quick slash on Ivy's arm. "You're just mad that I keep finding contradictions."
It scratches her arm slightly, but enough so to make her blood fucking boil. She proceeds to latch onto another chair and try to hit Luna again.
She hears the chair coming and blips out of the way once more. "You're gonna have to try something else." Smug.
"MAYBE I FUCKING WILL!" She runs up to Luna and punches her in the face.
Luna simply blips backwards a bit. "Nah. Look, I'm done trying to fight someone who can't even get their own story straight. I accept the whodunnit. But everything else makes zero sense." Her sword is resheathed.
"My fucking- FINE! If you think it doesn't make sense, keep it that way! You ever thought that maybe you're just in denial?!"
"Why would I be in denial? You said it yourself" Luna does a near perfect impression of Ivy's voice: "You were the one that killed me. I basically influenced you to do it. I did 'hypnotize’ you in a way." and back to her voice: "And I accept that. I'm just saying that there are certain facets to this murder that make zero sense. Your death pose is not something I can do. Nor would I use a stick when I have a sword. Mushrooms don't magically give someone super strength. And everyone was knocked the fuck out, thus a fight should not have broken out."
"Again, I didn't make you do the body thing. I don't know what that was. Mushrooms 'knock' you out consciously, you still do shit. I should know. I'm siblings with an enaturalist.”
"Was." Luna says coldly.
"Hey man, if I'm alive, there's a chance she's in Hell."
"I just... I don't understand something Ivy. Why us? You said you didn't want to be murdered, yet you concocted this crazy plot to make an impossible to solve murder. That's a contradiction in of itself." That smugness is all but gone. In fact, she's entered a serious look, one she rarely shows.
"I never said I didn't want to get murdered, my entire plan was to get murdered!" Her screen is now just showing pictures of bodies. "I didn't want to go out the way my mom did, Luna. She was a fucking COWARD. I planned all of this so I could die but not by my own hands, really!"
"Hold it. I said WHY US. Why did you target [THE KISS] to go along with this? Didn't Harmonia give you a home? Didn't I bring you home from Tennessee and offer to take you home for your meds?"
"Oh." Her screen stops. There's an awkward silence.
"No reason! Just felt like it." Her screen shows a =)
"I highly doubt that. You wanted [the kiss] to do this specifically."
"Bitch do I look like I know anyone else here? Everyone I knew is dead! I only really know you guys!"
"And yet you used us." Her confidence is wavering a bit. "You used me."
"Ding ding ding did you just catch onto that?" Her screen is showing the joy emoji. "Like, yeah, I used you. Is that shocking...?"
"Yes. I wanted to be friends with you Ivy. You seemed really chill. But..." Luna's eyes go back to purple as Krystal takes control.
"You betrayed her you bitch."
"...boowomp."
"You don't fucking deserve that TV head."
"Lotta big talk from the one that gave me it. Hah."
"Oh no no, I'm not Luna. I'm her assistant Krystal. Her previous lover until my death. Now I exist solely within Luna's mind. Long story. Point is, I hope you repent for your actions."
"Ehhhh, I don't feel like repenting. Thanksies. Now can you excuse me? I wanna roll a joint."
"With what mouth?" Krystal regains the same smug smile Luna had.
"Hmph. Fucking smartass. Must be fun at parties."
"Hahaha. Well have fun geting food and water into that tv screen of yours. No more drugs. It's going to be one Hell of a withdrawal." And her eyes are back to blue.
Ivy's screen goes to black.
"With... Withdrawal...?"
Oh fuck.
"Precisely. Anyway, i'm outta here. I gotta tend to these wounds. Have fun out there."
And she disappears.
Ivy stands there and screams.
----
Luna appears with a few cuts in her arm, some of it dripping blood. "Hey Cole, we need to talk." While she does that, she snaps the first aid kit out of the bathroom and her sword back into the closet.
Cole had finished cleaning his weapons and looks over at Luna, "What's up?"
"Remember Ivy? Person who drugged us?"
"Mhm, what about them?"
"She's back as a Sisyphean Lust demon. Told me I was the one who murdered her." She's holding back tears but stays strong. "I was manipulated. Basically hypnotized in a sense. But I proved that there were other contradictions at the crime scene that couldn't have been my fault. So she attacked me." She exhales. "I don't like this."
"You want me to kill them?" Cole reaches into his jacket as he moves away from the wall
"Nah. I think she's gonna have her own living hell. Since she's a TV head, she cannot do drugs anymore. Gonna experience one fucking hell of a withdrawal. I think that's punishment enough."
Cole snickers, "Comical," Cole goes back to leaning on the wall.
Luna nods, but returns to silence. "I don't remember anything. Like my memory is already fucked up, but try as I might, nothing comes back." The tears finally start to flow. "I don't understand why I was used."
Cole takes his hand out of his jacket as he crouches and opens his arms to Luna, "I understand how you feel, it's awful to have someone use you for something you don't enjoy." Luna accepts the hug, tears flowing freely. Even so, something feels oddly familiar about all of this. Cole pats Luna on the back as he hugs her tightly, "It'll all be okay, hopefully they won't do it again"
Luna tries to remember why the familiarity, but it fails miserably. She unhugs. "Um, I think I need some fresh air, excuse me." And disappears.
---
Luna feels as if her horse privileges were revoked. She... doesn't know how to process that very very specific feeling. So she ignores it. And twitter too.
Lilith looks a bit concerned, but is happy Luna's ignoring it. "Hey, I imagine your shoulders get pretty tense from typing all the time." She manifests a spellbook in her hands out of green fire. "You want me to take care of that? I can either massage them while you work or curse you to not have shoulders!" She smiles.
Luna just tilts her head. "But I kinda need my shoulders."
"Massage it is! You don't mind if I do that, right?" The spellbook disappears in a flash of green flames.
"Uhhh sure, that's fine." She's still typing away. Lilith fucking Lovarian starts massaging Luna's shoulders. She's actually not half bad at it. She's probably done this a few times before. Luna begins purring a little bit and her tail starts swaying a little. But even so, her focus is on typing up notes on things she learned today and yesterday.
Luna gets a notification on twitter! It's a DM. From her.
"Ivy. Fucking leave me alone."
"If she sends you anything else, just ignore it, okay?" She keeps massaging her shoulders.
"I'm going to... hear her out." She feels like a goddamn fucking moron right now, but this is her job. "Just like Peyton, I'm going to talk and reason."
She sighs. "If you think that's what's best, then okay."
"For me, the mystery is more important." Luna sighs, "It's the same way when Peyton ultimately ended me 4 months ago. I could understand where she was coming from. She wanted to be useful. She just... took the worst route possible and trusted the Marked's biggest enemy for it." Luna feels as though she's being mocked by some otherworldly beings.
----
Ivy - Uhhh Hi.
Luna - …
Ivy - Hey, listen, I just wanna talk. Really.
Luna - and that went out the window when the chain was embedded in my arm.
Ivy - I, uh, regret it. A lot, actually in retrospect. Please just. Hear me out.
Luna - Whatever. Go ahead.
Ivy - I realized that I kinda. Became the thing I hate the most. I.E. Lucille
Luna - And I’m you now. Thanks for putting that trauma on my damn shoulders.
Ivy - No, no.
Luna - I didn’t need to feel this horrible shit.
Ivy - You're like, nothing like me. I just like. Did. Some awful stuff. I'm willing to admit that. I'm sorry, like, really.
Luna - A sorry isn’t gonna cut it. You think that’s gonna be enough.
Ivy - What would cut it in theory? I knew it wouldn’t be enough, it never is.
Luna - Correct. I'm trying to forget that this all happened. I don’t want your blood on my paws.
Ivy - It’s not really.
Luna - I don’t want ANYONE’S BLOOD on my paws.
Ivy - I mean, I'm still relatively confused on how my body ended up like that.
Luna - …
Ivy - Fuck, for all I know, maybe you didn't kill me and I was just tripping.
Luna - so you agree there's a fucking contradiction to the crime scene.
Ivy - There is.
Luna - ...that's all I wanted today. To you to admit that something was wrong. But no, you decided to attack me. I don’t appreciate that.
Ivy - I'm really sorry, seriously. Like, please place yourself in my position for a moment- I just turned into a demon. I just wanted to rot and die. But I'm still conscious. My emotions are overflowing. I can't just calm down, I just came back to Earth and. I don't know. Nothing feels right anymore.
Luna - Believe it or not, but I agree.
Ivy - . You do?
Luna - I don't know anymore. Something just feels really off about this. Look, I don't trust you. But I do want to solve this shit.
Ivy - Understandable.
Luna - If it turns out that I did end your previous life, fine. I'll accept it. But I have doubts.
Ivy - Also, uhm, if I may.
Luna - You may.
Ivy - If I remember you asked me why. Exactly I did that.
Luna - What?
Ivy - Why I forced you to kill me. Maybe. Probably. Uhh, I'll be brief. You have your own stuff to do.
Luna - I don’t understand why I was chosen.
Ivy - There was no specificity. You opened the door, and I saw a chance. It's stupid in retrospect.
Luna - Extremely. So because I was the one to open the door, I was chosen to end you. What a load of bullshit.
Ivy - Listen, I wasn't thinking straight, I was planning my death. From the first second this plan started it was a load of bullshit.
Luna - At least you agree with that.
Ivy - Now, may I please explain why I didn't just do it myself?
Luna - Yes please. Go ahead.
Ivy - Simply put, my mom. She was a bit of a coward. She almost abandoned me and Myla. And I promised myself I'd never end up like her. But then in 2019, I abandoned Myla, and then. Like, 1-2 months ago? I don't really remember, I think about it daily so I lost track of it. I was forced to kill her.
Luna - … Forced?
Ivy - Lucille. I was a proxy. She told me where she was. I was trying to get her some help, she got R053'd or whatever. Also my fault. I went there. And I killed her. I don't think I managed to sleep after that, I don't really remember when I last slept either.
Luna - … So all of this.. was basically one large Lucille plot.
Ivy - Me forcing you to kill me? No. It was just my way of getting redemption.
Luna - I see.
Ivy - I thought that if I got murdered as well, y'know, I'd feel somewhat cleansed.
Luna - Right.
Ivy - I said this before, I know it doesn't mean much, but I'm sorry.
Luna - Thank you for being upfront though.
Ivy - No problem. If you ever wanna talk personally, we can meet up again. ...accompanied if you still don't trust me.
Luna - As long as it doesn't involve chains or scythes? Maybe. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Right now, I need some time to... think.
Ivy - Same. I'll leave you alone now. Adieu.
Luna - Take care of yourself.
---
She stops typing and clenches both fists. A single word is uttered and very very silently. "Lucille."
Lilith just keeps massaging. "Just let out whatever you need to, okay?"
Fists unclench. And back to typing. "On the bright side, Ivy recognizes my findings. And I'm willing to investigate further, if only to know the full truth."
Lilith looks at Luna's screen. "What're you working on?"
"Uhhhh just notes on the last couple days." On the screen are honestly super detailed notes of what everyone said and did during the weekend, mostly things that she was personally involved with. Right now, she's archiving Ivy's testimony. "See, one of my innate problems is that I have really good short term memory, but horrible long term, so taking notes like this helps me commit things to my mind. I've been doing this for years now, even before I came out here." Luna explains, "And then when I'm ready to document things, I'll just refer to my notes and summarize. Removing the useless crap, keeping the important stuff. Some things, like various languages that I know. Tongues of the Gods, Divulgaric, hadalese, and whatnot, those I'm able to keep pretty consistently."
"Interesting!" She watches intently as Luna works. One could say her documents and archives are her memories.