I guess the picture Coil had wasn’t up to date as far as Jack’s hair length goes.

Theo looked at the thirty-something man.  He wore a dress shirt that was open to show his muscled chest and stomach, and had the sleeves rolled up to expose his forearms.

Yeeah, I feel like if this were Mannequin, these wouldn’t be the prioritized features.

His tight jeans were low slung, his limbs long, and his hair was longer and greasy.

…long and greasy hair?

It seems I may have been wrong about Jack Slash being either first or last.

Wait, no, looking back, Jack’s hair is described as short, not long and greasy. There is, however, a character whose hair is described as long and greasy and who would have reason to want to talk to Purity.

Hookwolf.

(That also explains the rolled-up sleeves. It’s necessary for the arm shapeshifting to not rip them.)

“Don’t drop her, now, or I’ll be very annoyed.”

Ahahaha!

After what this dude just did, this is easily the funniest line we’ve had in a while. 😛

Theo nodded, raising his voice to be heard over Aster’s shrieks, “Yes sir.”

Okay, so here’s my current read of the situation: This scary man, presumably one of the Slaughterhouse Nine, came in to talk to Purity, finding only Theo and Aster. Theo has been terrifiedly sitting there, trying not to antagonize the scary man in any way, while they wait for Kayden to come back. Now the man is basically asking Theo to leave the room and, secondarily, deal with something much more mundane like change diapers on a baby, and like hell is Theo going to argue against that.

“Must you keep calling me that?  Do I really look like a sir?”

…could it be Mannequin, perhaps?

While the only reasons I brought up Hatchet Face specifically were that I wanted to make an unfounded guess at which one it’d be if it were one of them and that Hatchet Face got some early favoritism out of me just for the name, I do think Hatchet Face and Mannequin are the two main suspects here. The man’s appearance is being called attention to (and will probably be described in the next paragraph), so it’s probably relevant.

“Nope.  Don’t see the appeal.  Hey, boy.”

Don’t see the appeal of what? Staring at the TV while it’s off?

Theo’s heart leaped in his chest.  He tore his eyes from the television and looked up at the man who was cradling Aster.

Wait, what?

…is this our Slaughterhouse member of the day? Hatchet Face, perhaps?

“The baby needs to be changed.”

I’m not sure it’s any of the Slaughterhouse Nine yet, or just a potential stepdad, or a subordinate of Purity’s (Fog, for instance), but I can’t help but imagine Hatchet Face saying that with a super gruff voice.

Theo nodded and stood.  He was reaching for Aster when the man threw the baby at him.

I suppose at this point “the man” would’ve been replaced if Theo knew well who he was.

He had to scramble to catch her, almost let her slip through his arms, and only just barely caught her by pressing her against his stomach and pelvis.  She started screaming. 

Pfft, I got distracted by the lack of clarification on who “the man” is in that sentence and didn’t realize exactly what he was doing.

This belongs in one of those “how to care for a baby” memes. 😛

Theo’s throat was dry, every thud of his heartbeat seemed to make his hands shake and his vision waver.

He’s not drugged, right?

He’d never been more intimately familiar with the television itself.  The shape and color of the TV set, the proportion of the screen to the outer frame, the little border of silver around the very edges, and the ‘Starry’ brand name logo at the very bottom.

I guess that’s what happens when you stare vacantly at it for five minutes, trying to distract yourself from something else.

He suspected it would be ingrained in his memory for the rest of his life.

Jeez.

Seriously, if this turns out to be a trigger event somehow… I mean, he is Kaiser’s son, if I’m not hugely mistaken. As a second generation parahuman, he could have a much milder trigger event than others.

Then again, that might already have happened.

Which might just be a very short span of time. 

How so?

You planning on spontaneously combusting in that seat?

Theo clutched the remote control in both hands.

Theo! Now that’s a character we haven’t seen in a while! How’s it going?

I have a feeling we’ll explore his feelings about Kaiser’s death a bit.

For five minutes, he hadn’t taken his eyes off the TV set.

But he’s not really watching, is he.

For those same five minutes, the TV set had been off.

Yeah. I mean, I wasn’t expecting it to be off, but still.

“Who’s a pretty baby?  Who’s a pretty little girl?  You are! Yes you are!”

Hi, Kayden.

This is the leader of one of the city’s top threats, right here.

I wonder how Theo feels about that. We’ve barely met him, so I have no idea how he feels about Kaiser, or the Empire, or anything they stood for. Maybe he feels like he should’ve ended up as Kaiser’s rightful heir, or something like that. Or maybe he disapproves of Kaiser’s actions and resents that Kayden has ended up with the mantle of continuing where he left off.

If that is even the case. Several of Purity’s subordinates were people who had left the Empire, just like her, because of Kaiser’s manipulation. Maybe the Pure are actively distancing themselves from Kaiser’s methods. Maybe Theo dislikes that?

Basically what I’m saying is that this could go in a lot of directions.

Incidentally, if I were to be right in my guess from the intro post about the POV characters being Fellowship recruits, that would require Theo to a) have powers, and b) be of interest to the Slaughterhouse Nine, presumably due to brutality. I suppose it’s also possible that they’re after Purity, but unless her time in the Empire has changed her quite a lot, I don’t think she’d accept.