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"I did it of my own volition," Sage corrected Optimist airily.

"If you were a wolf before, perhaps you are again. If so, you’re welcome to announce yourself early this time," Peep teased Sage with a smile that wrinkled her nose.

"Though it does sound as though the kin in the last game did a very good job in identifying the predators and I hope we can all do the same." The small doe looked around the group. Alas many of them were being quiet today.

Sun Sinks Down wasn't being quiet on purpose. Or rather, she wasn't deliberately holding her peace. She was listening and thinking, trying to puzzle out what it might have been, exactly, that got Snake Flower "killed". Just like the rest of them.

"I hate to say it, but maybe the wolves went after Snake Flower for the same reasons some of us have been voting for others. For no reason at all. Or just because. They might not be any better at the game than we are." Then again, they did have the advantage of hearing everyone's commentary before they had to vote, themselves. An unfair advantage, really, but that was the way the game worked, she supposed.

((Thank you, Frosty! qvq))

"That's subjective, isn't it?" Apathy replied, with a crook of her tail. The doe's continued mistrust was not lost on her, but that was to be expected in a game that bred suspicion. She supposed she should be wary of Kiss for the same reason; even if she was fond of the doe, it wasn't as if roles were assigned by likability.

"I talked to others, but I didn't know them," she said. Maybe it would be easier to talk after the game? In either case, it didn't look as if Kiss cared to associate with her now. She turned her attention back to the game.

"Well, that was unexpected," she said, nodding in thanks to Giveforward. "I'm not sure what advantage the wolves would've gained by taking her out. I didn't agree with Trouble, but she seemed more like a threat to me; she spoke more than Snake ever did. But I guess that would depend on how accurate their statements were..." she broke off, trying to remember what Snake had said. The others had already touched upon the main points and, like them, she couldn't find anything incriminating.

At Optimist, she said, "Maybe you're right. The wolves want us to take prey out for them; does that means there's something about our past speculation that they want to encourage? That one or more of the ones we've suspected are innocent?"

And, at Watch, "I suppose you're right. I'll try my best," she said, with a valiant air. "But no promises."

"Pleeease," Sage moaned with a shake of his head, "They wouldn't have had near as much to go on if one of us hadn't been a huge bigot - against kin with green pelts, if you can believe that. That buck completely wrecked the whole thing. We would have won, I bet, if it wasn't for him."

Sage frowned deeply as he listened to Sun Sinks Down. "That's probably the right of it," he agreed. "Attacking with no pattern - with no connections between the victims, there's no way to trace the killers. With perfect disguises and glib tongues, how can we know who to choose next -" he nodded towards Arctic Waste - "- whoever sounds guilty, or whoever sounds too innocent? While we vote based on what tenuous connections we find, the wolves laugh - but we can't stop, or they'll get us all eventually.

"Or, enough to win the game, anyways," he added with a laugh.

She had to admit though, staying close around Apathy was safer than being alone. Has her own opinion about nicknames made her jump to conclusions too quickly?

After listening to the crowd, though most haven't said a word yet, she spoke again while looking at the tiny ach. "I have to agree with you, I feel like I have just dug my own grave speaking at all today."

"That's not unreasonable," said Optimist to Sun Sinks Down. "But I think that's only more encouragement to go back to what we were discussing, um, yesterday. Fake yesterday!"

She nodded carefully as Wintershadow spoke. "Yes, that's certainly the case - if we didn't figure out someone overtly suspicious it might be better to...perhaps pick someone who isn't contributing as much?" She shrugged. "It feels so mean, but I think there's a chance that quiet people are wolves, and I also think that if they're prey...at least they weren't very helpful prey."

Wow, that sounded so heartless! But if they had to kill someone, by the rules of the game, then this was the best way.

She listened to Apathy with care, nodding - at least she was paying attention now. Perhaps she'd only stopped because she'd thought the discussion had ceased. It was strange, and it would be it if happened again...but for now she'd let Apathy slide.

She raised her eyebrows at Arctic Waste, though. "I think it's silly to call the fact that Wintershadow stopped speaking for a bit 'hiding in the group'; I talk a lot but I don't think I'm hiding when I'm not talking!" But maybe she should let the buck talk for himself: Wintershadow was certainly a capable enough speaker.

Optimist pushed her chin upwards as Wild Sage began to talk. "I won't let that happen!" she said, with determination.

She smiled carefully at Kiss of Death and Peep, though. "I think it means we've made new friends, though! At least...I hope so? Anyway, perhaps it means people will look at us, but I'm more inclined to trust people who talk a lot myself." The yellow doe paused. "I think that might just be because I'm one of them! But I like knowing that people are voting with reason. I don't like the idea of some predator getting a vote passed because no one pressed them to explain."

He blinked a little, then nodded at Wintershadow in turn. He was a handsome buck, and perhaps what Waste had interpreted as hiding was, in fact, shyness... It just wasn't how his mind worked.

He turned his luminous eyes back on Optimist, and blinked at her. "What had caught my attention, m'lady, was not that he stopped speaking, but that when he finished his piece, he slid into a group of kin. It felt, to me, like trying to hide in the crowd. Perhaps I have a different view of the actions, or perhaps I am, like many of us, grasping at straws in an attempt to find some clue to this puzzle."