"I want to find out what the blue stuff is."
Lucy and the two other Lucys stared at the last Lucy in shock. Of all the answers for why that Lucy was risking Lord Heartfilia's wrath, it wasn't something Lucy was expecting.
"…Why?" The Lucy on bed number 3 asked, "it isn't like knowing what the blue stuff is matters." She was the only Lucy on that side of the room, the other four beds were no longer occupied. The Lucy everyone was looking at was between Lucy and the remaining Lucy.
"Didn't Miss Layla say it was ink?" Lucy added, from her place on bed number 7. It was after dinner, and the four of them had been sent to bed. Thankfully the Lucy on bed number 8 didn't get them all in trouble for skipping out on her duties in order to read.
"Ink doesn't act like that though, not even blue ink." The Lucy on bed number 8 huffed, crossing her arms. Lucy wondered if she was annoyed that the others weren't as curious as she was. "And ink's thicker than water."
"So? Just about everything's thicker than water." The Lucy who slept on bed number 10 grumbled. "Especially your head."
"So," the eighth Lucy gritted out, "it should be impossible to breathe in the blue stuff, yet it is."
"Is it?" Lucy wondered out loud, thinking about the fates of Number 4 and Number 5. "Because even if they didn't drown right away, being in the blue stuff is still what disposed of them."
"But they weren't disposed of by drowning. The blue stuff drained them of their magic and that's why they died. And ink doesn't drain magic either."
"Or glow." The Lucy on the other side of the room added.
"It only glows when draining magic though. It's nearly black when it doesn't."
"You know," the Lucy on the other side of the curious Lucy drawled, "you still didn't answer why you want to know."
"Because it's what's going to be what we'll wind up in. When Lord Heartfilia is tired of having us around, when we're too obsolete to keep, he's going to do to us what he did to the other two." She shrugged, "I just want to know what we'll spend out final moments in."
Lucy frowned at her blankets. It'd be a lie to say she hadn't thought about when and how they were going to be disposed of. However, she had never considered trying to know what the blue stuff was. "Is that the only reason?" It seemed very morbid, especially since that Lucy wasn't known for that sort of thinking.
"Well…I also want to know why Lord Heartfilia wants to drain our magic."
"Well it sort of makes sense, right?" The Lucy on the other side of the room spoke up. "It can't be that easy to make us, so it'd make sense that he'd get something out of us when we're obsolete…or traitorous." She ended with a mumble, glancing at bed number 5.
"Maybe magic does something to empty bodies?" Lucy wondered, but in all the books she'd read, whenever someone would die, others were never worried about the magic in their bodies. Unless it was different for them, having been created by Lord Heartfilia rather than born.
"Hmm, maybe it causes them to keep moving, making them seek out other sources of magic to consume." The Lucy on the other side of the middle Lucy chuckled. "In the dead of the night they'll come walking, searching for more sources of magic."
Lucy and the Lucy across the room both shuddered. "Don't talk about things like that!"
"Yeah, it's creepy."
"Oh please," bed 8's Lucy snorted. "You're making it sound like they'll become zombies."
"Are you saying they won't?" The girl in bed 10 challenged.
"I'm saying that, for one there hasn't been a documented sighting of a zombie for the last 100 years. For two all zombies are created from non-mages. And thirdly zombies are as useful as worms and about as mobile. Besides this has nothing to do with zombies."
"Stop saying zombies!" Lucy snapped, looking around the room just in case the other Lucy somehow summoned one by talking about it. "Anyway, if you're looking up stuff about ink, then why were you researching fishes?"
The Lucy next to her rolled her eyes. "Not fishes. There are only two creatures that make ink or ink like substances. Octopi and squids."
"Are you saying we'll be submerged in octopus juices?" The Lucy on her other side stuck her tongue out in disgust. "That's nasty! I don't want to be in octopus juice!"
The last Lucy on the other side of the room gave her a flat look and muttered; "I think it sounds worse when you say it like that."
"Probably not an octopus." The eighth Lucy continued, glaring slightly at the one next to her for interrupting. "None of the species have anything associated with their ink, magic wise or not. I was, however able to find information about a squid though. It doesn't quite fit all the way though."
"If it doesn't fit then why bother with it?"
"If you'd stop interrupting me maybe you'll know!"
"Then stop talking and just get on with it!"
"Lucys! Enough, Miss Layla will hear us." Lucy reminded the other two that slept on her side of the room.
On the other side the last Lucy spoke up. "That might be a good thing, we could just ask her."
"I did! We did! All she said was that the blue stuff was ink!" The Lucy next to Lucy snapped. She took a deep breath before clearing her throat. "Anyway. The only squid that really fit, sort of, is called the daydream squid. It has dark blue ink and contact with it causes hallucinations."
"Hallu-what?" The Lucy next to her asked.
"Vivid life like dreams that happen even if the person is awake."
"Hmm," Lucy recalled something that sounded familiar, back when Number 4 was first placed in the blue stuff. "Didn't Miss Layla say something like that? That when they were in the blue stuff they weren't dead but dreaming?"
The Lucy next to her nodded, excited that someone understood. "Exactly!"
The other Lucy on that side of the room rolled her eyes. "Okay, so you got the blue ink and the dreaming, but what about the most important one, the magic draining?"
"I don't know, maybe it's a hybrid or a mixed potion of some sort."
Lucy thought of the tube that had trapped Number 5 and held her in place while it filled up with the blue stuff. "That's a lot of potion."
"I know, if it's too much to make a lot of at once, then maybe we could, I don't know, figure out just how far we can push Lord Heartfilia." The others looked at the eighth Lucy in confusion. She huffed. "Think about it, if it takes like a week to make enough for one of us, then if two of us get all insubordinate then it'd be hard for him to dispose of both of us!"
"I don't know…" Lucy thought about the room where Number 4 and Number 5 had been disposed of. There'd been ten tall cylinders, more than enough for the rest of the 55th generation. "If it can't be done in groups of ten, I don't think Lord Heartfilia would bother with it."
"You don't know that."
"It's not that hard to figure out." The Lucy on the other side of the room said. "Literally everything that involves us comes in ten." She waved around the room, demonstrating her point.
"Not the Journal." The eighth Lucy supplied.
"Ug, can you imagine writing everything down ten times?" The tenth Lucy groaned.
Lucy tilted her head to the side in thought. "Wouldn't it be just nine? There wouldn't be much reason to write in your own."
"That's not much better. And knowing Lord Heartfilia, he would have us write in all of them."
"Can we get back on topic?" The Lucy next to Lucy snapped.
"What topic was that?" The Lucy on the other side of the room questioned.
"You mean the blue stuff?" Lucy spoke up next.
"Not much else about it to talk about. Unless you want to go to the tank room and look around to find it." The Lucy on the far side of the curious Lucy drawled.
Lucy scoffed. "Oh, don't be silly. She'd never suggest something like that." Not only was the tank room the place where Number 4 and Number 5 were disposed of, it was also fairly far away from their room and it was past their bed time.
"Actually…that is what I was thinking."
The Lucy on the other side of the room choked. "Wait, she's right? That Lucy's right? She's never right."
The always wrong Lucy blinked in surprise. "Yeah, I…didn't expect that." Then she grinned, "but I'm not complaining! Lets go!"
"What? Now?" Lucy squawked.
"When else would we be able to?" With that the two Lucys on her side of the room got up and went to the door.
In desperation to find another voice of reason, she turned to the Lucy on the opposite side. Her only response was a shrug. "May as well, this way I'll be able to look at the stars. I haven't been able to see them in forever."
"The door's not locked. Come on!"
Lucy groaned. "Fine! But let it be known I'm against this." With that she got up and joined the other three in leaving their cozy room for the outside. The only response she got was laughter from one of the other Lucys.