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[powerhungry]

WELCOME TO THE SALTBURNT NETWORK

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SILCO

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[wicka]

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. ]

[powerhungry]

[ 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.

[wicka]

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

[powerhungry]

[ 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. ]

[wicka]

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. ]

[powerhungry]

[ 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.

[wicka]

[ 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. ]

[powerhungry]

[ 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.

[wicka]

[ 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

[powerhungry]

[ 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?

[wicka]

Yea
I like doing stuff there
It's pretty cool

[powerhungry]

Thank you, Dom.

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

I'll arrange it, then.

[wicka]

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

[powerhungry]

[ 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.

🎀!

[wicka]

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. ]