powerhungry | SALTBURNT

No.[ And, sentiment dialed up to eleven as he stares down the barrel of a more deliberate betrayal elsewhere: ] I'm sorry for what it cost you.

[ But it's not what he's here for, and nothing he knows how to elaborate on. So the return to the track is swift. ]

He's from my world, but I'd not met him until he showed up here. He runs with a hero team and acts as though he's their mascot rather than a member whenever it comes up, and I never asked any questions. I never thought to.

Today I spoke to Koby, asked for the symbol on the collar of his killer, and he gave me the color red. From diamonds and hearts and the way his head was removed, Gale narrowed down our options to two: Bucky, and Bob. So I finally asked him.

And he seems to have power on par with a god.

[ Indeed, he types, though he deletes it before sending it. The trust of everyone in that little circle. The trust of my daughter. The trust of my business partner, with whom I'll still have to work if and when we return to the house. Everything I've spent months building. Words won't make me whole. Partially his fault, maybe, for having misjudged the willingness of the others to dirty their hands, but he'd made his intentions clear, and no one had stopped him until the deal had already been struck. He can't be blamed for that. ]

What makes you think it isn't Bucky?

[ You always have to be the one holding the knife, a wise woman had once told him. She was right. Only here they're all armed, and all differently capable, and still he'd assumed the uniformity of home to get him through teamwork, flinched, and made it all worse with a white-knuckled grip on his knife handle. Maybe this time the lesson will stick. For now, Silco silent on the topic, he continues on with the message at hand. ]

Nothing. He could still be involved.

[ But. ]

Bob was close with Adrian, who he found murdered by Saber prior to the wolf killings. He had the ability to reach Saber in the cage, and Bob and Adrian were both close to Ani, who woke to Saber's head on a plate the morning after the murders.

Koby couldn't see the symbol on his killer's collar clearly because something was covering his eyes. Shadow is an element of Bob's power.

It's not conclusive. But it's more than I have on Bucky.

What you have for Bob that you don't have for Bucky is a motive, but that presumes such a thing matters to the wolves, as well as the fact that no one else possessing enhanced strength would want to see Saber dead when he's well known for his harassment of women and threats of violence against anything that breathes.

Have you considered asking Saber your question, next round?

I considered it this round. He didn't seem to be an option.

[ He doesn't know if that's because as a wolf he would've been awake to see his killer plain and the game deemed that a clue too far, or because Saber would rather remain silent in death than give Stephen Strange a single hint. Both seem equally likely. ]

[ Coming to a third conclusion: ]

Was it a means of protecting the Alpha, I wonder.

[ Which is an unsettling thought, on its own, if the rules of the game are such that the worst of the wolves possesses some sort of safeguard. ]

If it is Bob, you believe him to have killed Koby, this round, and Homelander, previously?

[ Troubling, but likely, no? With the Alpha the only one capable of taking out another wolf, it stands to reason. That left to percolate with him for a while longer, it's back to the rest. ]

I don't know. Those close to him don't think he'd need a weapon if he had access to his powers, and I'm inclined to believe it. But there's magic and extraordinary ability blatant in so much more of the display this round than there had been last. Signs of compulsion last round, but no otherwise obvious magic where this time we have runes and signs of August's hellhound.

If that wasn't misdirection, it's possible the access to extraordinary ability is rising in increments each round. If that's the case, Homelander could have been Bob. Or something simpler like Will. I couldn't assign him anyone from the first round for sure.

With regards to changes each round, you may be adding more complicating factors where there are none.

I suppose we'll have to wait and see what the next round brings, and hope your question bears more fruit.

I may be. But in one round they went from individual killings to a team effort with props and a set. Complicating factors seem to be in vogue.

Yeah. Here's hoping.

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