i'm just afraid of forgetting

SO I have gotten some questions about WTF Libby is doing, which I totally understand, because unless you follow everything she does (which WHY WOULD YOU) it may seem strange.

In essence, Libby/Shrike is an idiot. A genius, sure, but an idiot when it comes to social interactions and processing human beings. And now, thanks to Loki's gentle nurturing care, she knows that. Her first couple of weeks were a disaster, because she's an obnoxious little bitch, and she was absolutely panicking internally at the idea of being dependent on other people for her survival.

Libby is convinced the ship is going to kill her, one way or another. Other people may be nonchalant about the ship's danger, but Libby is a hoodrat. I know from personal history that a homeless teenager is always scared and will do literally anything to stay alive. So what Libby has chosen is throwing herself in with the person she finds most terrifying on the ship: Loki.

Why Loki and not a hero? Because Libby doesn't trust 'heroes'. She knows she's not a good person, and she believes they'll cut her as soon as she demonstrates that. Her self-worth is about that of a really depressed rock. Loki, on the other hand, is someone who approached her first and allowed an alliance. And he's willing to teach her how to do what Libby believes she has to do to stay alive, which is lie and manipulate.

'Shrike' isn't real. It's about as convincing as a kid renaming themselves...anything, any alias that sounds 'cool'. Libby may be trying to adopt the name, but it's not her, and it doesn't fit. She thinks if she can be 'Shrike' she'll be safe, but she won't and can't. Think of it as a kid named Jacob insisting his name is Razr. Libby is trying to force a transformation she can't actually manage.

Why is she so malleable? She's sixteen, and not a very mature sixteen at that. Sixteen-year-olds are fluid by nature, and Libby's very tentative sense of self only makes that moreso. Loki scared the fuck out of her, and the only option she sees is capitulating. Jesse and Miles are good to her, and it's so foreign but good that she's latching on as hard as she can. She's continuing to make the same rapid choices that got her into trouble in the first place. Libby does everything too fast because she has a terminal illness and feels the pressure of time running out. She knows she doesn't have long to do something that matters, so she's doing everything as quickly as possible, because every day takes her a little closer to the grave. She knows she has less than two years to live even if the ship doesn't kill her, and she's trying to fit an entire lifetime into those months.

Strela really fucked her up. Libby, being as immature as she is and acting on a system of total amorality, killed fourteen people. Only after did she start to regret, and that's a major contributing factor to how much she's intentionally fucking up her life. She's acting like it doesn't matter because it appears to her that no one else on the ship is really hanging onto Strela, but it's haunting her every second of the day. She believes, now, that she deserves to be personally miserable while trying to provide for the people she's adopted as her own.

TL;DR Essentially sixteen-year-olds are stupid, feel emotions too fast, and generally fuck up constantly.