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Flood of Light had maybe fallen asleep, or maybe he'd just shut his eyes for a very long time and said nothing. He also wasn't sure, exactly, how this pattern made sense. Was Second Star to the Right a predator, and they'd been distressed at the elimination, lashing out at Doubleback? He straightened, and watched everyone for a moment. He wasn't really sure what was worth saying.

"I suppose it should be taken for granted that we would all say 'I'm innocent,'" Flood of Light suggested, though he had suddenly thought it was strange no one really did.

"I remain concerned about Freedom to Act, as I was before," he said. The reason had something to do with votes a couple 'nights' ago, when he'd begun to suspect Blurs and Stains as well as Freedom to Act.

Wild Sage stepped forward cautiously. "You're right about one thing, you great meat-headed git - I do have a bone to pick.

I would like to ask you all a question," the slight brown and green buck began, glancing quickly about those gathered who remained among the living. "What reason, do you suppose, would someone have to try and direct all of us, day after day, in our thinking? To consistently nudge and guide us in our decisions? They could be aiming to stir us into more energetic participation in this game, I cede that possibility. But, I must ask... could the motivation more sinister? I believe it could."

He turned to face Freedom to Act directly. "You are almost always the first, or among the first, to speak every day, and what you say inevitably shapes our discourse. Furthermore, every person you have ever voted against is now dead - and so is Doubleback, who was gathering and sharing information. Why is that, I wonder - was it too risky to have a possible source of direction other than yourself? Were you afraid she would find out your secret - that you are a predator in disguise?

"You were able to convince enough of us on the third day to help you remove Blurs and Stains from play. You had voted against her the day prior, sure, but that would likely have been a choice made to prey on others' uncertainty about her appearance. On the third day, I believe it was a more directed attack.

"On the second day, as I recall, Blurs and Stains voted to remove Farrow from play. Butcherbird, who had also voted against him, was killed that night. Second Star to the Right, who was killed yesterday, had also voted against Farrow." Sage stepped forward again, his excitement making him bold. "Was Farrow one of your cohorts? Who will you lead the others to enact your vengeance against next - Expecting to Fly? Flint? Tracks? Myself?" After a beat, he laughed hollowly. "Maybe you'd better pick me. You'll have at least one other backing your vote, if you do - maybe more, if you make as good an argument as you usually do."


After he stepped back, Sage couldn't help muttering bitterly at Colored Spring, "Aren't red clouds an omen of ill weather? And I don't know that I've ever seen your particular shade in the sky, anyways."

"A bit of both," Tracks replied calmly. "And how would the predators use you as a distraction?" He snorted, shaking his head. " Our more vocal accusations have done enough damage over the game and perhaps it is time for a change and even if it is because I can't stand your attitude . I remain in my vote against Colored Spring."

Expecting to Fly was, pleasingly, helpful now, far more so than she'd been before (though Life had appreciated the pressure she'd put on Wild Sage, apparently it...hadn't been enough?). Freedom to Act nodded after her questions, and nodded to both of Flood of Light's statements, too - no one would state, during the "day," that they were guilty. It was no surprise to her that he disliked her, and as one of his targets for suspicion was gone, well, it was clear who he'd vote for. She did not fault him that thought, though she wondered if he'd have any suspicions remaining if Life herself died.

"And who would you vote for were Wild Sage dead? Who would you suspect?" Freedom to Act asked him - for that was the real concern, for Life. It was completely likely that predators would use him as distraction, since he was predictable - but his awareness of his predictability and unwillingness to change it could be a liability for prey. Even if he was prey, she didn't want that to continue. Even so, she'd continue listening to him before casting her vote alongside Tracks': Tracks had made strange decisions, before, and if Colored Springs could notice patterns that she could not (though she doubted that was the case in Wild Sage's case), she'd want to keep him around for a little, at least.

Wild Sage's accusation, though, took Life for surprise: for once. For his suspicion of her had come from nowhere, and it'd been his only vote so far that had included a reason with it: his votes for Farrow and Precipice had followed crowds rather than logic, and his non-votes were annoying at best. She expected a speech like this from Flint, but not he. "We've never purposefully directed votes," she began with a smile. She'd always supported alternatives, had always acknowledged that she found it reasonable that someone who spoke so often could be seen as shady, and she thought it'd been fairly clear what her opinion on someone who simply voted for someone because they'd voted for them was when she voted for Blurs and Stains. And of course it was difficult for her not to be among the first when everyone else merely waited for her opinions to say something - as though they were, for some reason, reluctant to die.

"We think it'd be more prudent to kill Doubleback if the intent was to hide that our vote targets never died to nighttime means. What informatoin has Doubleback presented that we could gain to hide from? If you think us suspicious because our targets have on occasion been popular - ask those who vote with in agreement with us why they agree." She tilted her head at him, interested. If she wasn't sure where his reasoning came from, at least he was talking. "Only one kin suspected Blurs and Stains for her coat - and that vote was from the first day." Feral Storm hadn't ended up voting to kill the doe on her final day, either: surely Wild Sage could not be accused of preying on his fear to convince three different kin (well, four if you counted Doubleback - who'd spoken against him, but not voted) to vote, and surely he could not be saying Flood of Light's distrust of the same kin was based on her coat patterns.

She shrugged, at the last point. She'd chosen Second Star to the Right to benefit the group as a whole, she thought. "At time of voting, there were two votes for yourself and two for her. We picked the candidate whose death helped prey more." That had been fairly obvious: Wild Sage had seemed reasonable when reluctant to select an arbitrary target, the first day, and one of the kin voting him was suspicious on account of Colored Springs had never voted for anything else. Besides, if Second Star to the Right had not been voted to death the previous "day", Through Your Eyes would have taken her out: the doe's growing anger and narration had made that, in Life's opinion, fairly clear. "If we'd wanted to turn on you, you wouldn't be speaking." That was fact - or, well, likely fact, anyway. Her vote for Second Star to the Right had drawn in those kin who only liked to vote with a "majority" in place, hiding among the crowd rather than speaking up themselves. If she'd picked him instead, he'd probably be dead in addition to Second Star to the Right - and if she'd picked someone else, well. It was probable that either Freedom to Act or Wild Sage would be dead along Star's side, or that the same result would have come about: the votes on Life had accumulated after her decision, but it would've been easy for someone else to force a "majority" on one of the two, and then drawn in the same kin.

Freedom to Act regarded that answer with little of her characteristic mirth. "In that case, we think we'll vote for Colored Spring." She didn't trust Tracks much, but she didn't want a player to continue playing like this: he was essentially not voting each day, and he also continued to conveniently leave out a reason for doing so. Bias for green kin aside, Colored Spring could do better than this, and he could certainly at least try to find a game-related reason to distrust Wild Sage, if he really wanted him out of the game: there were a few, as there were for any other player. And of course he could also have suspected the motives someone else with green on their coat who seemed suspicious, even though the kin with large amounts of green were by now gone. His refusal to engage in the actual game despite Life's attempt to allow his freedom of...discrimination was more than shady.

[WHOOPS SORRY TIA - I thought I'd corrected that Q_Q]

Feral Storm found this bright red buck distasteful in his mannerisms. He didn't even look at Colored Spring as he spoke up. "While there may be other kin we could vote for, some of which may even seem more suspicious that you, the way you vote does nothing to help, only hurt. Even if you aren't a predator, you might as well be."

Flint, who had said nothing (because all of the kin here weren't given him a breath in edgewise, let alone a word), just grunted. "I told you: I have a bad feeling about Freedom to Act, and I have for awhile. She's still getting my vote -- let's see if I wake up tomorrow morning."

The smile he wore certainly wasn't cruel, and it wasn't bitter, but it was close. He tossed his hair back. "Just a theory, you know."