thought about vast michael shelley. she’d do the sensible thing and book it at the spiral ritual and end up taking a bit of a dive into the sea when the ritual started to collapse. i think some mix of facing the end of the world and *not* being able to stop it herself, and her facing just what gertrude planned to do (kill her and use her as a tool), rlly cements a “oh. none of it mattered. then.”. and shes *so* far from land, and the ocean is so dark, so deep, so *cold*. she cant help but just, sink into those fears, sink deeper, drown a bit, anything to get away from that ritual and gertrude. and shes named michael so obviously the vast wants her.

And she would have no idea what happened. She’d just wake up, floating along the endless sea with no sign of that land that scared her so much. the world would be fine and shed realize oh. i didnt have to die, it would have been for nothing. all of that was for nothing. huh. shes so far from all her issues back on land, its just her and the endless horizon. and then shes just continue floating along before eventually getting fished out fo the water by a boat and she’d share her newfound nihilistic revelations and theyd be like “how the fuck are you alive” and shed flop back into the water, taking a guy with her and then he’d slip into the depths while she floated onwards, but thats fine he just didnt get it, didnt understand what she did about the universe. maybe shed eventually travel closer to london, who knows, shes having a decent time just floating around and may or may not inhabit a vague in between like mikes whole free-fall state. She’s not quite *there* until its time for her to get scooped up again and repeat the cycle.