powerhungry | SALTBURNT

[ had it not been for werewolf, the bond that they all share, the kindness silco showed him and shauna when both of them needed a place to just be — then dom wouldn't reach out. but they have gone through it all, and jinx was someone he promised to see in her dreams. a broken promise, now. ]

Is she really gone?

[ It's for the same reasons that Silco responds at all. (That, and I like Dom a lot, the knowledge that she'd held some affection for him, before—) ]

Yes.

[ A beat. ]

She was fond of you.

[ he thinks of felix. travis. hope. friends that have gone home but left an absence that weighs heavily on those who remain. is this just something he has to get used to? the longer they stay, the more they lose? ]

I liked her too I told her I'd show her dream magic

Perhaps some other time.

[ It's the kindest thing he can say — not neither of us will ever see her again nor I'm sure you'll still get the chance. ]

Have you still been practicing, since?

[ Since the games. ]

Yea I've been practicing for a while now I need to get good at it

[ a beat, rubbing his thumb back and forth on the phone. ]

Not to hurt people The opposite

[ To do something that might reunite Silco and Jinx. He feels stronger and stronger about his self-appointed mission every time he loses someone. ]

[ He sees, not for the first time, why Jinx had liked him so much. The boy is honest, kind, good — his opposite, in so many ways. ]

How do you do it?
Practice, I mean.

Well I had to learn lucid dreaming first Once u learn that u try to manipulate the stuff that's in your dream Then u can use it to travel or learn things about people Kinda like traveling through ur imagination or ur memories I visit my friends' dreams sometimes Mostly Theo's It's better than just staying in my own

Edited 2026-01-05 00:19 (UTC)

[ There's something almost fanciful about it — strange, in the way that most magic is, if also earnest in a way that makes him once again thing of Jinx. ]

What's the difference between your dreams and those of others?

[ Asked rather than offering his own, when he knows their contents. Best not to extend an invitation to a world that exists almost solely in darkness. ]

I think it's kind of like being in a house Or a room They're all for the same thing but they're never going to be the same inside And they kinda look like a part of u U can let others inside and touch stuff but it's still urs

[ And the guests can break something if they're not careful. ]

[ A natural next question: do you have to be allowed in? Does someone have to open the door? A flinty thing reflecting light from the bottom of a still pool. Silco takes the thought and stows it away for another time. ]

I can understand that.

[ A beat. Enough time for a chasm underneath him to open up again, for him to be reminded of why they began this conversation in the first place. ]

I imagine you're tired of me asking you questions.

[ to which the answer would've been no. he wasn't allowed into nat's dream, he wasn't allowed into lanfear's; dom was just there before they knew it, and there was nothing they could do about it. ]

Not really I like talking to u And Shauna too

[ even if the circumstances that started this conversation make his heart ache. he can't imagine what it must be like for him. ]

[ He's not used to this. To this kind of open care. To returning it. It takes him a moment to respond, though he has the grace not to type and delete as he thinks it through. ]

So do I.
Both of you.

She cares for you, too.

[ It's sad to think that some sense of family has come out of something so horrible, but at least an event so horrible was also capable of producing something good. A lot goes unsaid because Dom doesn't know how to say it, hasn't figured out how to shape it into words from abstract feelings, like trying to figure out how to hold water in your hands for the first time.

How do you tell someone they mean a substantial amount to you, when the most significant moments are barely shoved into the backs of their memories, silhouettes visible if you really look? Everything that has come since - their conversations, the time they've spent at the Hex Club when they didn't want others to come after the wolves - adds to the case, but it's not quite the same. If it wasn't for that, he wouldn't know that Shauna had and lost a son, she wouldn't know that he had and lost a father, and he wouldn't be talking to a man who just lost someone too. ]

Me too Maybe we could all have dinner or something If u don't want to be alone

[ For Silco, it's just the way of the world. The bonds forged in suffering are stronger, tenfold, than those forged in weightless summer days. To shed blood for and with another — that's binding. Inextricable, in his mind, from the nature of tenderness and care. Devotion isn't worth anything if you're not willing to bleed for it.

Would he bleed, for Dom? For Shauna? Before the games, he wouldn't have hesitated to say no. Now—

Now, Jinx is gone. If his life here, his life after death, is a knife to be wielded, with whom would he trust the hilt? ]

Alright.

[ The best he can do, falling short of I'd like that, but still an offer accepted. ]

At the club?

Yea I like doing stuff there It's pretty cool

Thank you, Dom.

[ For the compliment, for the offer of company, for— ]

I'll arrange it, then.

Thanks Silco Can I ask for one more thing? Jinx has this jacket that she got from me Do u think I can have it back

[ After a moment, just long enough for him to look around the room and find the jacket in question: ]

Of course.
I can bring it to you at dinner.

Appreciate it I'll see u soon

[ And hey, maybe they'll sit and talk for a while. Dee is always happy to be around the others, too. ]

SALTBURNT | inbox.

text, slightly forward-dated?? time is a lie

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