Something compelling to me abt kipperlily who like. Against all airs and appearances. Does care abt her friends. So much, actually. But what she cares about and how she cares is so. Different. She wants them safe and close and protected and Lucy threatened that and she didn’t mean- they didn’t mean to- it got away from them. And now it can’t be undone (Lucy was their healer) but kipperlily can fix it. She can clean it up and protect the others. She finds a new, pliable kind of cleric and finds the spaces between the unbending rules so she can slot him into the space they have in their group and she mints a new name and a new face and goes big and brassy and runs for student body president and. Yeah. Maybe ivy doesn’t really talk to her anymore and maybe Mary Ann is even more inside her shell than she was at the beginning of freshman year and Oisin does that thing where he takes off his glasses and stares into the middle distance for an hour at a time but- but it’s nothing kipperlily can’t handle. She can fix it. She can make sure no one knows what happened and she can make sure Lucy stays forgotten and missing and uncertain and she can keep their group on the rails professionally and academically and even though they all still have to go back to those woods. And kill those rats. And remember the tree Lucy is hidden under- it’s fine. She’s fine. Kipperlily has got it under control.
