“That’s not funny.”  His voice went hard, any gentleness gone.

Of course he would think she’s trying to joke.

He might not like her proving it to him. Possibly not survive it either.

…pfft, imagine if, instead of proving it by way of showing him her power or something like that, she took out her stolen wallet and showed him a printed group selfie of all the Slaughterhouse members, making victory signs in front of a burning and thrashed building. :p

“Look! There’s me, and there’s Mannequin, there’s Shatterbird, there’s Siberian with her knockers out like usual, there’s Burnscar, Crawler, Hatchet Face and… the new girl. Shoot, I keep forgetting her name. Let’s just call her Barbie, okay?”

“It’s really not,” she agreed with a smile.

Hehe.

He went for his gun, but he didn’t get that far.  She closed her eyes for a moment, listened for the music that came from his mind and body.

Okay, I think we’ve got the Newbie here. I’m not sure what all she can do with this up close, but it’s a power that seems like it could be used to locate someone, depending on how much of a range it has. Besides, we know Bonesaw is a tinker, and this doesn’t seem like a tinker power at all. More thinker, with an H in there.

Turns out all the music, and not liking silence, was all foreshadowing of her power rather than of her amount of sanity.

The jangling, dissonant noise of alarm, the throbbing percussion of mortal fear, every part of his body shifting into fight or flight mode.

Ironically, this is telling her some of the same things I briefly mistook the music for being a power that could tell her about.

The underlying notes spoke to his personality.  His love of his family, his fear that he was about to leave them behind, anger towards her, a momentary anxiety that he was overreacting.

This even more so.

But there’s probably more to this than that. The only way she could use this information to stop him from going for his gun seems to be Tattletale-style appeal to secrets. Then again, I haven’t finished the paragraph yet.

She grasped this in the fraction of a second.

Yeah, this has to be quick in order to stop him from drawing his gun on her.

“Oh, we’re visiting because it’s a time like this,” she smiled.

Yep. Almost definitely a Slaughterhouse member.

And that “almost” is only there because while we haven’t heard of any other villain groups coming to town to take advantage of the situation, it’s still plausible that some would, and this could be an elaborate misdirection. I really don’t think it is, though.

“Thrill seeking?” his voice hardened.  “That’s not only stupid, it’s disrespectful.”

Hm, yeah, I suppose it is. It’s like looking at a poor nation’s suffering and going “that sounds fun, I should try that”.

But hey, wasn’t thrill seeking part of how Bonesaw was described in 10.6?

“The people I’m staying with?  They’re the Slaughterhouse Nine.  I’m one of them.”

Woah, way to be super honest all of a sudden!

I kinda love that. “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, I’m one of the country’s most feared villains.”

“Well, I’m not about to deny someone their coping mechanisms.  Where do you live, or where did you live, before the attack?”

I have a feeling she didn’t live here in Brockton Bay. If she says that, though, he’s bound to get confused about why she would come here.

“Out of town.”

He raised one eyebrow, but he kept looking out the windows for possible trouble.

Bingo.

I feel like that’s a big point in favor of this being either a surprisingly coherent Bonesaw, or the Newbie (which is a possibility I didn’t think of until now, but also one that seems less likely because of the lyrics). Moving to Brockton Bay right now is pretty worthy of a raised eyebrow from me to if she’s not here to take advantage of the situation like the Slaughterhouse Nine.

He put the key in the ignition and started the car so he could use the windshield wipers.  “Sounds like there’s a story there.  People don’t just come into town at a time like this, and if you were just visiting, you would have evacuated already.”

Oh yeah, I’m sure there’s quite the story here, alright.

She didn’t reply.  Her brows knit together and she undid her jacket and stepped away from him.

“Don’t mess with my look.”

He went on, “I can give you directions to the nearest shelter if you want. It’s new, just a little ways up Lord street here.  There may be space.”

Would that be the one Tattletale runs? I think so.

“I’m staying with some people.”

“Do you need directions?”

She didn’t reply.  She studied him instead.

Heh. If this is Bonesaw, I think we’ve met most of those “some people” recently.

“If you’re willing to wait, I can give you a ride when I’m done here.  I’ll get relieved in five or ten minutes, but we could talk in the meantime.  You can sit in my jeep, and you’ll be dry.”

Hmm.

This is beginning to toe the line to potentially creepy. Then again, this is the same guy who just shot down the POV character by bringing up the age difference, and I suppose this is a reasonable thing to suggest out of altruism in this situation. It’s just that it kinda seems a bit too persistent at this point?

“I have a daughter about your age,” he replied, smiling tightly.

Heh, yeeah, he might be a bit too old for you.

“That doesn’t answer my question.  Do you think I’m pretty?”  She stepped even closer, ran her finger down his chest.

My mostly unfounded wariness is growing.

“Yes, but-” he paused, gripping both sides of her jacket.  He pulled the jacket together, then did up her zipper all the way to the top, around the heavy box that dangled around her neck.

“Get that cleavage outta my face, temptress.”

Also, this “heavy box” sounds interesting.

“That’s all the more reason for you to be careful, understand?  Do you have a home or a shelter you’re staying at?”

This poor man is just trying to do his job and make sure this teenager he just met gets home safely.

I suppose maybe Bonesaw is causing havoc and the military has been called in to keep civilians away from the danger zone?

Crazed, kooky, cracked, crazy,
Nutty, barmy, mad for me…

At first I thought this might be some sort of power that tells our POV character – who is still nameless, incidentally, maybe we’re setting up for some reveal surrounding her identity – about the people she’s looking at and/or what their mental state is.

But then I realized it’s just the music, unless Wildbow’s awkwardly switching up what italicized paragraphs mean in this chapter. Another love song, too, if I’m not mistaken.

The crooning sounded artificial coming from the earbuds that dangled from her hand, nasal.

Yeah.

It wasn’t as though she was in a rush.

Yeah, this walk has seemed fairly relaxed. It’s a fairly calm scene for now, though I have a feeling that’ll change. Question is just how long it takes before Bonesaw, the Newbie or Hatchet Face gets involved here.

She’d walked long enough for six songs to start and finish before someone stopped her.

Oh, hello.

“Miss.  Miss!”  He was barely audible over her music.

Was she about to walk into the road or an open manhole or something because she was paying too much attention to the music?

She turned and saw a man in military gear, forty-something, his face heavily lined.  He wasn’t wearing a helmet, he had a short buzz cut, a bit of scruff on his cheeks and chin, and his face was beaded with droplets of water.

Hm. Restricted area? Or is this guy working for someone less official, like Coil?

I don’t think this is Hatchet Face.

She pulled out her earbuds.

Especially since we got to the end of that paragraph without any mention of the scars that give him his name.