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Doubleback did not so much as bat an eyelid at the gore and violence that precluded Watch the Skies' death. A pity, but an inevitable one. She walked towards the center and turned to speak to the group.

"We can be sure the one killed during the night phase is one of our fellows, and if so then there must have been something about dearly departed Watch the Skies that convinced the predators that she was trouble."

The golden buck had antagonized others and now, one of the does who'd voted for him was dead. Doubleback was not ready to accuse him yet - she wanted to see if anyone else thought the same thing.

"Or they wished to throw suspicion on those who voted for her," Giveforward spoke up. Fire Made Flesh and As the Sun Burns had both voted for Watch the Skies. It seemed too easy that one of them would be a predator and kill the one they voted for, though.

What had Watch the Skies said yesterday...

She hadn't been expecting quite that level of detail. It didn't turn her stomach -- she was made of stronger stuff -- but she wasn't expecting it. Game or not, it painted a gruesome and effective picture. No one else was going to want to end up stripped down to the bone, not even by imaginary wolves.

And that was an excellent question to be answered: how did they narrow their focus to something other than blindly pointing and choosing someone for the vote?

"Maybe we should make teams. Pairs, at least. That way we could keep eyes on one another in smaller clumps. See if one or another of us starts to get itchy hooves."

Or.

"Or," she amended a moment later, tail giving an irritated jerk. "it isolates us and makes us even easier to pick off." She puffed her cheeks out and shook her head. "Nevermind."

She would keep thinking.

"I didn't think a social game could be so gory!" said Optimist, worriedly. Well, not that worriedly - she'd once met a buck called the Salt in Your Wounds, after all, and that made her much more hesitant.

"Anyway! I don't think we have much to go off of, either, but I think it's better that relevant discussion get started anyway." She nodded respectfully at Giveforward, Doubleback, and Snake Flower. "Anyway, even if they're both prey, it still gives us a good jumping point for more discussion! Personally, um, I think Fire Made Flesh was rude yesterday, but it also seems like he's who the predators want us to kill, if this is at all targeted. I-I mean, he was pretty mean, and Watch accused him, and he voted for her. I'm slightly more suspicious of As the Sun Burns because - um, I didn't get to say this yesterday, but we'd clearly moved from random speculation already and it seemed like his vote was just that." She paused, to put a breath into that mouth of hers. "So if either of the people who voted for her are a predator, I'd say it's him. But I think what she said yesterday was nice enough that it seems more like predators trying to kill off unassuming people than anything!"

She cocked her head at Sun Sinks Down with a frown, though.

"U-Um, I mean, I guess that makes sense in the game's story! But I don't think we could really do that; I mean, it's not like any of the predators are actually killing people." She paused. "In real life, I mean! I think, anyway."

She held her breath as the votes started coming in, hearing the conversations and trying to make sense of things, but soon it was definitely out of her hands. And while the others didn't vote -- she found herself speechless, the round over. "I---I---" The doe stammered, eyes wide at the results.

She did agree with the bright green-dark doe's revelations with the whole bandwagon-theory. "At least this round has been giving us more clues of who could actually be the predators.. And it doesn't make sense not to vote for anyone." Bare Trees sighed gently, she did not want to blindly point to another kin without much evidence. She did not like to do this, even if it was pretend.

"Oh dear," Peep said as the results were revealed in all its bloody detail. The Merry was quite the talented storyteller and she couldn't help but smile proudly. Rupture's children had all grown up so beautifully.

It made sense to look at Fire Made Flesh as the next possible candidate, considering what had been said the last day but then that was too obvious. Surely a wolf wouldn’t get rid of their direct opposition if it then made them suspect.

With a slight frown and a tilt to her head she listened to her fellow kin speak their mind, only nodding once Okay Is Wonderful had said her piece. "You might be on to something, dear. As the Sun Burns made the second vote for Watch the Skies," her words came out slow and thoughtful, "and for an arbitrary reason. If it only takes one extra vote to get rid of someone and he thought others might not vote at all, that could have been his plan."

Peep laughed. "Or not. This game is very hard." Yet she looked across at the buck, hoping to hear his rebuttal.

Wolf Dream had gotten lost in the conversation at the end of the last day round and not been able to come to a decision about who to vote for before the time was up. He certainly hadn't meant not to vote -- but the young buck had simply not been prepared for the huge amount of decision making that was required by this game. He was more accustomed to interacting with animals than with other kin, and the action was perhaps moving a little too quickly for him.

"This is certainly much harder than simply hunting an animal," he mused with a frown. "Despite the fact that we're the 'prey,' we are still, in a sense,'hunting' the hunters." His eyes cast around the gathered circle of kin, trying to get some sense of their personalities. "And, of course, the things hunting us aren't just simple beasts, but creatures with logic like ourselves. The best way to find them out is to figure out what they're basing their decisions on." He flicked an ear in thought, still frowning. "But of course, with only one night behind us, there's not much information to go on."

Apathy puffed, pleased that her friend agreed. Where Kiss of Death might've been hesitant to smile, however, Apathy was not; she grinned from ear to ear, with leaves from her earlier flower-picking stuck between her teeth. The smile passed with the night, when they woke to find a doe slaughtered. The name, those spots... it was all quite familiar; it filled her with unease, and sense of loss, too.

"The name's Lost Apathy." She curled a dusty tail around Kiss, dizzy with a sense of déjà vu. "But you can call me Apathy!"

Clinging to Kiss, she realized she would really have to think, and remember, if they were to get out of the game alive.

"It's risky for a wolf to target someone they voted in the day," Apathy agreed, but peered towards The Once and Future King in the sidelines. "But what if it's a bluff? Excuse me, Fire; perhaps because you're so old—" 'wise' might have been the word she was looking for "—you're not used to having to explain yourself. But you must know that suspicion falls on you, too, and you've chosen not to acknowledge it."

As the Sun Burns was suspect for the same reason, but he'd yet to speak and ignore the comments as Fire had.

"But I suppose being defensive would be suspicious, too..." she added, tail waving erratically (and likely whapping at poor Kiss's legs) with all the twists and turns her mind was making. Still, she studied those who seemed so fervent to let Fire slide by. She felt she was making enemies of them all, but could not let it pass so easily and unopposed.