[ WEEK TWO – TRIAL ]

[sheriffexe]

TRIAL

In the morning, the town comes back to life. Birds crow overhead, a snake nearby hisses, a lingering coyote dips behind a shop before disappearing into the wild. It's a frightening contrast to the stillness of yesterday but it doesn't mean it's over yet. After all, today is the trial. The Sheriff stands on the porch of the Town Hall and brings his hand up to his mouth to let out a whistle. He'll thumb back to the Hall behind him and very clearly state -- "Trial time, folks. Get in here and figure out who did it." And then he'll turn to leave before pausing and adding on, "Bring a snack or somethin' too. The Town Hall is set up more like a court house, a Judge's bench at the front but instead of at center, it's off to the side as if more for observation than participation. There's a table at the front of the room already holding a small box and a pad of papers and pen, for voting apparently. A side room containing only a metal gurney is next and today it's obvious why there's a gurney there at all with the corpse, resting right on top of it. Aside from that, there are rows for everyone to take a seat and it's only after everyone is inside and settled, that the doors close and the Sheriff speaks. "Well, have at it. You've got till nine." And then, he points to a clock on the wall that reads 12:00. Good luck. Welcome to the trial post! Characters are free to discuss everything related to the trial here. They won't be let out of the room until 9PM when voting ends. Every character must vote and the voting post can be found here. If there are any questions, please shoot a message to this journal or to robowest.

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Comments

[hydrokinetics]

[Sorry he's just going to snicker at Noct calling the Sheriff Scrap Heap. Thanks Noctis.]

I think we can agree with that. [A pause.] Aren't murders supposed to be cleared by him anyway before people do them?

[elemancy]

"Do not kill without consulting the Sheriff first." [he'll parrot it from the rulebook.]

[hydrokinetics]

Right. I wouldn't be surprised if he helped set up the whole thing with the camera, too, so that we could see the footage later on. But I don't know how involved he allows himself, like if somebody asked for something would he provide it? He already said he won't let people cheat but this is kind of in the guidelines.

[combattente]

When I was the executioner, he offered to provide me with anything that I needed.

[He pipes in, not too happy about all this.]

I'd imagine the same is true for murderers.

[hydrokinetics]

You think he'd bend the rules enough that he'd allow someone to borrow someone else's weapons?

[elemancy]

What, like if it was part of the killer's plan or something? Setting the camera up so we'd find it, then keep an eye on it to see who left....

[he frowns.] Might be. Seems a little convenient, though... even if someone is trying to pull a frame job.

[hydrokinetics]

We're spending more time focusing on the camera than on possible suspects, aren't we? I think it did an okay job at distracting us. The camera could only show one part of the hotel at a time. If it was focused on Manfred and Higekiri, who knows what could have happened off screen?

[elemancy]

...Like whoever wanted us to see that pulling something else completely.

[there are too many questions they don't have answers to.]

Camera footage doesn't tell us anything we don't know, anyway. Higekiri and Manfred were found outside the hotel—definitely seems more like a distraction that way.

[hydrokinetics]

Exactly. [This is fun for the whole family, clearly.]

There's also the whole part about Higekiri being found in a different place than Manfred. I mean maybe he walked to the clinic after killing Manfred but that'd also have to be after burying him in a pile of clothes. That seems like a ton of wasted time and effort for someone who was pretty injured.

[elemancy]

Yeah. Something just doesn't feel like it's adding up here. Some kind of interceptor pulling the strings, maybe?

[it's hard to shake the idea that it's a framing.] Not gonna jump to conclusions, but we should try to figure out the other pieces of this... with Higekiri's sword and the note. All that.

[hydrokinetics]

Wouldn't be the first time. [Hmmmm.] We'll figure something out. We've got a lot of hours left to put the pieces together.

[elemancy]

Yeah, let's see what we can figure out before we make real accusations.

[impulsiveness]

So whatever happened was planned beforehand, and got sloppy halfway through... Or it was meant to look like that in the first place.

[A beat, and he grimaces.]

That, or our killer is really, really bad at plotting murder.

[elemancy]

Could be any of those things. Probably a bunch of us here who don't exactly have "planning a perfect murder" in our skillset.

[he thinks it's a pretty plausible scenario?] Could've just been a scuffle, but the only signs of anything on the old man was the stab wound.

[according to shinnosuke's expert strip search.]

[impulsiveness]

The stab wound which, conveniently, we can't compare to the obvious murder weapon in this room.

[Shinnosuke is doomed to corpse duty forever, though.]

[elemancy]

Can't make things too easy on us, right?

[the sarcasm is dry as the desert itself.]

[impulsiveness]

No, apparently not.

[Thanks, Hal.]