Luz cleaned the entire deck of the ship extremly unwillingly; all her muscles felt sore after shoveling coal all night and she just wanted to lie down and sleep for the entire day. Plus, she'd never been one to really appreciate manual labor. But despite her anger and dissatisfaction, she at least tried to do a good job and cleaned up all the salt and algae that had ended up on the ship due to the waves.

"Wow, Luz! I didn't expect you to try so hard!" Willow exclaimed flying onto her shoulder and carrying Gus in her paws.

The puppet let out a snort of dissatisfaction. "That crazy girl with brown hair would throw me back into the sea if I didn't, so I have to do this" she grumbled with a lot of irritation in her voice. "Where did you two end up, by the way?"

Willow rolled her eyes. For a moment she thought that Luz had finally started to commit because she was interested in doing a good job, but obviously she had done it just because she was forced. What could she expect from that bad girl after all... "We were with Vee. Viney handed her over to Jerbo and he asked her to help him with the boiler, and since we are quite small and could crawl into the pipes to clean them we decided to lend a hand. Masha is with Barcus instead, they are inspecting some maps"

"Yeah, it seemed to me that you were a little covered in coal" Luz said; in fact the two arthropods were full of soot,probably due to the fact that they had slipped into the pipes and had become dirty by rubbing on them. A mischievous grin formed on her face. "Since I am a dear friend of yours, let me help you clean up!"

"What are you… AARGH!" Luz grabbed Willow and Gus and threw them into the bucket of water she had used to clean along with the mop. She held them under water for a couple of seconds, and then she took them out again. "Ah! Good on you! That's for encouraging Viney to throw me overboard! It's not so funny when you are the ones who end up in the water, right? What are you saying now...?"

Shee froze when she saw that neither Gus nor Willow were moving. Or rather, Willow was completely immobilized, while Gus was still managing to wave a pair of paws as if asking for help. "Um... guys? Guys!?" she called them with a worried voice.

"Luz... dry us... right now..." Gus barely muttered, as if he was gasping for air, and Willow was literally turning blue.

Panicked, Luz grabbed a cloth and frantically began drying the two arthropods. After a while they started coughing and finally they returned to breathe normally again. "Guys? Are you okay? Please tell me that you are okay!" Luz exclaimed without stopping to dry them for a moment.

"Yes, yes, stop it!" Gus said as he stepped out of the cloth, then he looked at her sternly: "Luz, don't ever do that again! We almost suffocated to death!"

"But... but I only held you in the water for three seconds... it was supposed to be a joke..." the puppet stammered.

"Luz, we don't breathe with lungs like you do! Insects and spiders breathe through the skin! Getting wet like that for us is like if someone completely filling your nose and mouth with water!" Willow explained, struggling to her feet. "You would know it if you went to school and… Luz?"

Willow and Gus realized that the puppet was shaking and that tears were forming in her eyes. But it was no ordinary cry: her eyes were wide open and she was breathing extremely hard, as if she were in the midst of a panic attack. "I-I'm sorry..." she barely stammered. "I'm really sorry... I... I didn't mean... to hurt... you too..."

"Hey, hey, Luz, it's okay! You didn't know it!" Willow tried to calm her down, but she realized that the puppet was only getting more and more panicked. "Um… do what I taught you when your nose grew, okay? Breathe deeply"

"Look at our paws!" Gus said as he began to pat his paws on Luz's hand one by one. "Make a breath last as long as it takes us to beat our paws!"

Luz obeyed and did as she was told, and slowly her breathing returned to normal. When that happened her eyes finally stopped watering and she stopped shaking. "S-Sorry" she said, wiping her tears. "I didn't think you would get hurt... I just wanted..."

"Hey, don't worry, we get it! It was just a joke!" Gus exclaimed with some concern in his voice; he had never seen Luz react that way to one of her pranks. And in any case, that was definitely not a normal reaction. Something was clearly wrong. "We didn't get hurt and we didn't get angry. There's no need to exaggerate like this..."

"She's not exaggerating"

Luz looked up and saw that Viney had appeared before her, stealthily and unexpectedly as usual (though it was possible that she simply hadn't heard her coming due to her panic attack), but she wasn't the usual carefree and reckless Viney that she had known during the last day: her gaze seemed shrouded in a fog and her expression was quite heartbroken. She was looking at her almost as if she were a big sister who was sorry that her little sister had scraped her knee when she tripped and fell to the floor. Silence reigned for a couple of moments, then Viney asked to her: "You feel responsible for hurting someone, don't you?"

Luz's wooden heart skipped a beat. She was troubled by the pirate's intuition. "What… what are you…?"

"I recognize those eyes" Viney interrupted her. "I recognized them the first moment I saw you when you came on board. They are the same eyes I saw for months every time I looked in the mirror after I lost my fish friends to that kraken. Even if you smiled, moaned or screamed in fear in the midst of the storm, the broken light inside your irises was and still is unmistakable. And your panic attack that just happened only confirmed my suspicions". The brunette girl let out a sigh. "So? Who was for you? A friend? A relative?"

Luz bit her lip. She didn't feel like talking about certain things, especially to a complete stranger, moreover a pirate who clearly had a few things out of place. She looked at Willow and Gus, but they didn't say anything and instead signaled her to talk to Viney. Maybe they thought talking about it would help? Luz wasn't so sure. She didn't want to bring up such memories again...

"You don't have to talk about it now if you don't want to" Viney said sitting down next to her. "And you don't even have to do it with me if you don't want to. After all, you don't know me and I have no right to interfere in your life, and I don't intend to force you to let me know about your affairs. If I'm bothering you, feel free to send me to hell and I'll walk away with my tail between my legs. But... I've been through this before you, so believe me when I tell you that if you keep it all inside it will eventually swallow you up. Talking to someone about it can help. And even if I'm sure that in your eyes I'm not the most suitable person for this... I assure you that I'm a good listener"

Luz lightly gripped the edges of her jacket in her hands. That version of Viney was completely different from the one she had become accustomed to: she seemed more... softer, almost comfortable. Even though she didn't really want to open up to her, a part of her heart wanted to do so and almost seemed to be urging her on. Finally she took a deep breath and replied: "Her name... her name was Eda. She was a woodland fairy. She was the one who gave me life, you know... I was an inanimate puppet before, I needed her magic to start living..."

"Wow, a puppet needed magic to be able to move and talk like a real girl? I would never have guessed that" Viney said sarcastically, then she fell silent and bit her lip. "Sorry. I was trying to lighten the mood"

Luz ignored her joke. "I... I owe her a lot. She saved my life, she took care of me, she was so good to me. She's the one who... gave me this jacket that I'm wearing now. And I..." The face of the puppet grimaced, and a small tear fell from her eye. "And I betrayed the trust she had given me... and now because of me she has become a mindless monster, and she can't go back... I hurt her so much and..."

"Hey, hey, that's enough" Viney stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder. She realized that Luz was starting to tremble again, and she was sure that if she continued she would have a seizure.

Luz didn't know why, but the warmth of Viney's hand had a calming effect on her. She didn't understand why: she had no relationship with her, they weren't even friends. Yet she felt comforted by the simple fact that there was someone listening to her.

Viney let out a long sigh. "Luz, I know how you feel. I learned firsthand what it means to feel responsible for someone's death, or for hurting them. When I saw my fish friends being devoured by that kraken, I knew it was all my fault because I was I, who had stupidly led them out to sea, and had always been unable to do anything to stop them... I wanted to die too. If Captain Salty hadn't arrived I would have let myself be eaten too, and even after he pulled me to safety, I wanted to let myself die of hunger. Every time I felt the excruciating cramps in my stomach that was begging me to eat something, I told myself that I deserved that pain and that I deserved to die slowly and in terrible pain. The captain managed to convince me to eat afterwards, but it was still a long time before I had... the will to live again"

Luz clenched her teeth so hard she thought for a moment she would break them. "How did you do?" she whispered. "How can I get over... this thing?"

Viney shook his head. "You can't. You carry certain things with you for your whole life. Even today, every now and then I wake up and I don't want to get out of my bed. But... every time I feel like this... I repeat to myself what the captain told me that day and which gave me the strength to start again". A small smile formed on his face. "According to the captain, and also according to me now, when you survive a tragedy, especially if you are the one who caused it, then living and being happy is no longer your choice, it is your duty. Choosing to let yourself die would be no different than spitting in your face to those people who wanted to live and be happy but lost their chance because of you. Now you have to live for them too, and you have to move forward and try to be happy for them too. It's not a negotiable choice. I know that death seems like a way preferable, that you feel like you deserve it... but it's not the right thing to do". Viney looked her straight in the eyes. "You also tried, at least for a moment, to let yourself die, right?"

Luz let out a shudder, but she nodded anyway. "When I found out what Eda had become... I tried to let her grab me. I knew those claws could tear me to pieces, but I didn't care. I wanted... I wanted her to punish me... for ruining her life. But Willow and Gus dragged me away, and with them Hooty and Owlbert... and then I found out that my mother was leaving for the ocean, I had to find her..."

"Hey, hey, don't push yourself. You don't need to tell me the details… although sooner or later I'll need you to explain to me exactly how your family dynamics work" Viney stopped her. In fact, he no longer understood anything: that puppet said she had been brought to life by a fairy who had become a monster, but she was at sea looking for her mother who was therefore someone else, and what's more she had a basilisk as a sister. "Listen, I know you're dealing with a mountain of shit even if you try not to show it. Remember that you have people who love you, even if they're just as weird as you. And above all, don't be afraid to hurt others; maybe you made a mistake once, but that doesn't mean you'll always be wrong. You're not a poison"

Luz let out a sob. "I don't think..."

"Maybe you don't think that you are a poison, but subconsciously you feel it. I told you, I've been through it before you, I know what it feels like and what you think. So let me tell you this in advance in case sooner or later you start to think so" Viney told her. "And I'm sure your friends think so too. You two don't think she could hurt you, do you?"

Gus and Willow, feeling called into question, visibly shook their heads. "We are in danger of dying for many reasons, but Luz certainly isn't one of them" the cricket replied.

"Yeah. We know you'd throw yourself into a fire for us, Luz. That's enough for us to know you're not a poison" Gus told her.

Luz remained silent, then finally a small smile formed on her face. A very faint smile, but it seemed as bright as a thousand suns. "Thanks, guys. I needed that" she said. "And… thanks to you too, Viney"

"Of course. Members of the crew help each other" the brown-haired girl replied giving her a small tap on the shoulder. "You may be just a passenger with little desire to work, but as long as you are on this ship, you are part of the crew. And everyone here is your family"

Luz giggled. "You are certainly not the pirates I had imagined... but you are really nice. Even if I still consider you a crazy and weird person"

Viney raised an eyebrow. "Let me get this straight" she said, holding her hands together in front of her face, as if she were thinking hard. "You are a talking puppet brought to life by a fairy, you walk around with a cricket and a spider as best friends, you have a basilisk sister with a human girlfriend, you ask whales for directions, you float in water, you do endless of things that I don't even think are possible... and in your opinion, between the two of us, I'm the weird one?"

Luz burst out laughing, this time heartily; yes, actually she didn't exactly have the right to call Viney weird, although she still reserved the right to call her crazy. She would have continued laughing if he hadn't seen a familiar fat pigeon flying towards the bridge; when Puddles was less than a meter from the ground, she jumped up and tried to chase him away. "Hey! Go away, bird! I just cleaned!"

"Don't worry, Puddles is very polite. He won't mess anything up... unless he thinks it's funny" Viney said as she raised her arm, and the pigeon landed on it. "So, what news do you bring me, my faithful scout?"

"There is a big loot, master!" the pigeon exclaimed, pointing with his wing to a distant point in the sea. "There is a pirate ship currently busy plundering a merchant ship. They are carrying a lot of riches. They are well armed and have disreputable faces. I'm sure they are the Brotherhood of Demon Hunters again!"

"In our sea? What a terrible turn of events... I love the terrible turns of events!" Viney exclaimed as her eyes lit up. "I'd better inform the captain. Luz, get ready: if it was pirates boarding a ship that you imagined you would see, you will soon have the opportunity to witness it yourself!"

This chapter was to actually show how much Luz feels guilty for Eda and how much the event has actually traumatized her, much more than she lets others see, so much so that she is terrified of hurting someone else. The reason why I gave Viney a tragic backstory is precisely because then she could help Luz move forward despite her bad situation, since she can understand what the puppet feels. And the reason why I chose Viney is that... well, in The Owl House canon she's the one who, after Luz feels guilty for causing trouble at school and being sent to detention track, makes her understand that what she did wasn't wrong (basically helping her overcome one of Luz's biggest feelings of guilt, given that she had always felt inadequate precisely because she created problems at school, even in the human world). In fact, the same thing happens here, with the difference that this time Luz doesn't just have to overcome a sense of guilt but a real trauma.