ok i need to be insufferable for a moment but the very first screenshot that op provides is a perfect showcase of the fact that lucy didn't actually trust skull and what lucy's mistrust looks like in her head
'Do you trust me?' the skull said.
I looked at it. I didn't see the hideous, gurning face. I thought of the sardonic, spiky-haired youth standing on the Other Side.
'Yes', I said. 'Sort of.'
but in this very moment you see the cogs of her brain turning, her thinking rewired in real time.
lucy was born in the 4th official decade of the problem, her older sisters before her worked as nightwatch kids, she saw her first ghost when she was only 6 years old, she had one year at school before she became the nightwatch kid herself and later a breadwinner as she became an agent. from behind every corner ever since she was born she was told that ghosts are evil, that she has to be cautious of visitors and never let them get into your head, never trust them. that's why ghosts are referred to as "it", because they're not treated as humans. they are other, they are visitors.
lucy calls skull "it" almost exclusively throughout all 5 books. (there are instances when she slips and calls skull "he" but these moments are sparse and are usually following deep conversations that lucy had with skull, when she truly let's skull's words sink in. but then she bounces back to "it". when i reread the books you all know im making a compilation and timeline of it vs he uses in regards to skull. ok i got sidetracked.) and even in this moment, in fittes headquarters, when lucy willingly took skull with her, her first and gut reaction is to strip skull, like any other malicious ghost, of his humanity, to call skull "it".
I didn't see the hideous, gurning face.
but one thing about skull is that he constantly challenges lucy's beliefs and thoughts, to the point that lucy grows uncomfortable at how transparent she is to skull, that she calls every skull's statement a lie, even if she agrees with it or had the very same thought earlier. it became her go to responseāto disagree, to deny, to ignore. but she can't ignore skull right nowā she's bleeding from her wounds and is cowering behind a sofa. and skull is right, she doesn't want marissa to win. she looks at skull with clear mind, resetting her beliefs as she no longer sees a vile visitor at her side but someone rooting for her to win, to bring fittes down.
I thought of the sardonic, spiky-haired youth standing on the Other Side.
she sees a human she was denying this whole time. a human, a boy her age, a youth. in real time lucy's perception of skull changes after she saw skull on the other side, after she talked to him there, after she ended up in the same situation ('How does it feel to be trapped somewhere unpleasant? Bet you wish someone could set you free' ), after it felt no longer right to skull as skull after seeing him with face body and everything. after all that she can no longer see skull as just some visitor. he used to be human and that humanity is still intact, unlike marissa's or ezekiel's.
but lucy can't bring herself to trust skull completely. right after 'Then break the bloody glass' she doesn't break it, the belt-hammer was too weak for the job. and then lockwood showed up and made lucy believe that luck was on her side again, that she wasn't facing the horrors alone and that she could win. and they did. the two of them overpowered marissa and almost brought her down. but skull kept laying there on the ground in silver-glass jar.
lucy taking skull with her never was her go to plan to defeat marissa, it wasn't even a plan B. she came back and smashed the jar only when victory was seconds away and when she really had nothing else to loseāmight as well fulfil her promise and free skull, whatever happens next can't be as bad as fighting marissa and ezekiel.
it's only when skull saves her and lockwood and acts all nonchalantly, like it was a pure accident that his ectoplasm flexing was of any help. only then lucy's mind is changed, only then she hopes skull will stay with her, with lockwood & co. but it's ultimately too late for that trust to go anywhere. and that is making me sick about them
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