"No, not really."

"Well, then, I suppose we could cuddle here until we do."

"Okay."

Ee! Cuddling!

Mmmm, cuddling.

"You? Really?"

He pokes his tongue out at her.

She giggles. "What've you been thinking?"

"About what to do about the Slaughterhouse Nine."

"Real cozy pillow talk. Come up with anything?"

"Sorry, we can talk about something else instead."

"Nah, it's fine, just snarking, what've you got?"

"Well... I've been kinda obsessing over them for a few months now and watching old news clips and stuff the PRT didn't release to the public—working with them does give one lots of perks, at least—trying to understand how the heck they manage to... well, continue existing."

"You mean, because their leader's power is having knives and their recruitment strategy is death, or for some other reason?"

"I mean, now they have the Siberian, yeah, but pretty much. And how they stay—together, I guess is the biggest thing. Like, the Siberian has actually been killing less people per day than she was when she was going solo and, like, what gives?"

"Yeah, I don't know how their group dynamics work at all."

"I think I have an idea, though. I don't know if I'm right, because it's not exactly a pattern, and if it was, wouldn't other people have picked up on this? Like, say, Alexandria, she's supposed to be super smart in addition to a flying tank, even if nowadays she tries to keep that quiet."

"I've heard that. What's the idea?"

"It's... well, it looks like Jack kinda targets them? At each other and at people. There's very little footage of him, and even less actually public, and I don't have clearance to watch all of the non-public images, but... There's a lot of fighting within the group, too, they sometimes stop rampaging to have a go at each other, but never Jack himself, and he's often... watching?"

"So you think he's got a secondary unrelated power like mine?"

"Not necessarily... but maybe. I don't know if I'd even call it a power, if it is it's super subtle, but yeah, based on the videos I think I could justify a master rating, maybe. It'd help if I had access to more files, but probationary Ward means nothing confidential sees its way to my eyes."

"They don't give us nonprobationaries that much either, you know."

"Probably not," he agrees. "But ugh, I'm eighteen now, and I'm only probationary in the first place because of an accident, my record's been spotless since!"