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 ![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico) robowest. |
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robowest2017-02-04 12:00 pm
THE SHERIFF
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Sheriff. Can you tell us how many culprits we're looking for? There were three victims. Were they all killed by the same person?
I'm not including accomplices in this question.
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Did you put the other bodies into that pit? Not Nui's, but... everyone else's?
[ since he was digging it and papika can't think of why the killer(s???) would go through the trouble of throwing people who were already dead into it. ]
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[ Hello, hobbling over here and not saying good morning. Maybe she'll apologize later. She's not in a good place. ]
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THE BODY
But as people arrive, they can see the Sheriff locking the body room and catch a brief glimpse of what's inside it. Riku's head, the rifle, and the burnt clothes sit on top of the gurney. ]
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[Or, uh. Try to.]
Remember that hole the Sheriff was digging on Thursday? Well, Shinnosuke, Rin and I went to take a look in the morning after curfew was over — and found out someone cooked up some corpse gravy by dunking four different bodies into a chemical bath. There was barely anything left when we got there, but the skulls were pretty intact. Enough to tell that two of them were smaller than the others, and one of those had a hole on the forehead and on the back. We... think that skull might belong to Nui, and the remaining three to people who were already dead.
[Obviously, since both Riku and Annabeth's heads are accounted for.]
What about everyone else? What else did we find?
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...As a minor note, could we call the... pit something else? Corpse gravy is a rather colorful analogy.
[ also it makes him want breakfast :( I mean what ]
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camera & body updates
Hobbling to the front of the room is rough on her, but Percy is close by her side, and the two of them will stick close together for most of the day. ]
I have two things I want to go over. The camera, and what I found with Sara.
[ Her voice is remarkably even, if a little ... dead. ]
Tarvek and I locked ourselves in our room around 9 on Thursday night. At some point, we ... we just fell asleep. Both of us. [ A beat, and she frowns, which is like. Wow! She's showing emotion! Amazing. ] Something happened. I don't know what, but there's no way either of us would have let ourselves fall asleep while we were doing something so important. And when we woke up in the morning, the camera was gone. Our door was still locked and our window was closed, but the camera was just ... missing.
[ It's probably visible how angry she is before she reins in her emotions again, returning to baseline. ]
Someone stole the camera from our room. [ After which she just kind of directs a very, very flat glare out into the room. Fuck all y'all.
Anyway.
Xion's jaw will work as she swallows and then moves on. ]
When Sara and I went to investigate the hotel yesterday, we found ... Riku and Nui's room torn apart. There was blood and ... flesh? [ she breathes that word like it's a question before forcing herself to move on ] all over the place. It was a complete mess. Even...
[ pause pause pause.
Xion has to shut her eyes, taking a steading breath, and then stares blindly ahead and again forcing the words out. ]
Even Riku's head was messy. The cut, it ... wasn't clean. It was like whoever did it had no idea what they were doing, or ... had to do it really quickly, maybe.
[ Shaken, but trying very hard to seem like she's anything but, Xion pauses and then gives a very shallow nod. ]
That's everything, I think. I'll try to answer questions if you have any.
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[you're doing good, kid]
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[but putting that aside, she wastes no time in getting to work. the brief view of Riku's disembodied head on the gurney doesn't faze her. she's got this]
At around midnight on the night the killings occurred, Yuna, Natalie and I were sleeping at the clinic. [MORE SLEEPOVERS] We heard a single gunshot, and although the precise direction was difficult to determine, it sounded as though it came from the bonfire, saloon or train station area. Inspection of the bonfire revealed a blood spatter, which I assume could have come from the victim being struck by a bullet.
[folds her arms]
I'd like everyone to state their whereabouts at midnight on the night of the murders. Please also have someone confirm this for you, if you can. I know this information can't be conclusive, but it's a start.
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[Even if he's not all too eager to throw this out there, it's...necessary.]
We must state clearly and plainly who we suspect of this act.
[...]
Without suspects, we shall go nowhere. However, if there is a name to be offered, it must be stated plainly, and for what reason. The evidence we have is spotty and inconclusive, and thus... We shall not progress without reasonable suspects.
[It is a trial, after all.]
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[that was a fatal flaw of previous trials, even if it didn't completely backfire.]
Don't really like pointing fingers, but if we've got ideas, we're gonna have to. [he sighs, quietly.] And everyone should try to keep their cool, too.
[which is kind of funny when noctis is tense as all hell over the situation; so much carnage, so many people hurting from it—but getting angry and exploding in either direction is just going to slow them down.]
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One of the other questions I had is about the victims themselves. Do we really think they were randomized, or do you think maybe they had something more in common than we think that one or two people would be interested in killing them over?
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SOMETIME EARLIER THIS MORNING, after xion fucking drags tarvek over to a corner....
When she gets a chance to drag Tarvek away to talk, though, the look on her face is dark.
Once she feels relatively confident that they won't be overheard, she gets close to him and hisses, as quietly as she can: ]
You talked to Riku about me! Why?! Why didn't you just ask me if there were things you wanted to know?
[ There is an undeniable undertone of betrayal and hurt, both to her voice and in her expression. ]
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You're making it sound worse than it is. Look, we can talk later, right now there's a trial to deal with.
[...maybe that was a bit too deflecting?]
Since Riku claimed to know you he was the best option besides you, and since you didn't tell me I supposed there must have been a reason for that. I wasn't going to force you to talk about personal details like those.
[Thanks for dragging him away and not making a show in middle of it all, Xion]
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A NEW ANGLE
All right! Let me summarize what we know so far.
Three people were murdered this week: Annabeth, Nui, and Riku. According to the Sheriff, none of them had any roles in this game. They weren't Bandits, they were merely participants. The consensus seems to be that Nui murdered Riku and Annabeth, due to her parasol being found in Riku's room and the fact that her clothing was partially burned when Annabeth's corpse was also burned. It seems as though Nui was then shot in the head from a distance, possibly from somewhere near the station or the saloon. The blood spatter near the bonfire and restaurant supports this, as does the state of her skull. [according to Jason] Nui's body was then taken and dumped in the chemical bath the Sheriff set up earlier that day.
Also of note is the fact that a bear trap was found on the Sheriff's porch a few days before the murder. The Sheriff confirmed that we could have used the bear trap to assist us in this week's killing, but we didn't. He then stated we should have used the bear trap to capture whoever stole the camera from Xion and Tarvek's room.
[and here is where her theories get interesting]
I think that's confirmation that the Sheriff is not the one who took the camera and locked it up. And that brings me to another thought: the person who took the camera from Tarvek and Xion's room could have, quite possibly, shot Nui when they went to lock the camera in the jail cell.
[and then she shakes her head]
. . . I can't guess a motive at this point, other than one of revenge. But maybe if we focus on the crime that occurred in Xion and Tarvek's room. . .
[we'll get somewhere??]
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we're all screwed, the comment
So... we can all start hating ourselves even more, because apparently there were three friggin' killers. What now?
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[SHE DOESN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY]
[SHE'S JUST]
[SO ANNOYED NOW]
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Re: we're all screwed, the comment
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SUBGROUP - Nui's murder
So, Nui. She was headshot, probably from a distance, and her corpse was dumped in the chemical vat. Her clothes were also burnt a bit. That means she had to have been by a fire. And it means our culprit was a good shot, whether or not the shot was the killing blow, and it means whoever it was dragged her corpse over to the pit. Am I missing anything?
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She was also killed at or around midnight, based on what Natalie, Yuna and I overheard. Otherwise, that covers everything.
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A thing
[Lying during a trail is... bad. And Jason looks unsure, making zero eye contact with Chane or Felix.
Ugh.]
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SUBGROUP - Riku's murder
I'll go over what we know and what we think we know about Riku's murder. His head was in the room he shared with Nui, and so was his sword, but his body was missing. There were pieces of him everywhere, along with a lot of blood. Like ... fingers, and ... flesh.
[ Ha. Ha ha. She keeps going. Somehow she keeps talking even though she has never in her life wanted to throw up more than she does right now. She probably looks it, too, her frame hunched and her eyes a little wild, but she manages to keep it together. ]
Nui's parasol was in the room, too. It was sitting on the floor.
[ A breath. ]
Right now we're pretty sure that Nui didn't kill Riku, so the parasol might have been there because she was framed. The weapon that was used to kill Riku wasn't there, because it wasn't his sword. That was as splattered as everything else in the room. [ ... ] I don't think I said this before, but Riku's head was on his pillow, next to his sword. And ... the door was open, when we got there. Just a little bit.
Re: SUBGROUP - Riku's murder
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SUBGROUP - Annabeth's murder
Annabeth was locked in the stocks starting Thursday morning. We fought a little about me staying with her, but she always wins. [There's a little humorless laugh.] Always. We traded weapons, I left her with a pistol and I went back to the hotel. Harry can confirm that.
Sometime that night, a coyote snuck up on her or something and she dropped her gun. Sheriff says it probably ate it. [He thinks it's bullshit, but fine.] Without a weapon, she was defenseless. Our killer probably approached her, saw that she was there and chose to get her out of the way. I think it might have been whoever stole the camera from Xion. She would have been a witness, so they doused her in gasoline and lit the stocks.
[But...] What I don't understand is a couple of things. When Dr. Lecter and I went to the stocks yesterday morning, we found this on the ground. [He pulls at one of the two necklaces he's wearing, specifically the piece of coral.] After we chased the coyotes out from under the porch we found her body half-eaten and charred...one of the coyotes ran off with her arm. But her necklace was in tact, too. It didn't burn in the fire somehow.
How did our killer get her out of the stocks to move her? And why do anything with the necklace? [The last part probably isn't important, but it matters to him a lot.]
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Is it... possible... the coyotes pulled her out after she was burned? The stocks were charred, weren't they?
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s...trip... searches...
[ Even though this is absolutely ridiculous, honestly, but. Hannibal is going with it. ]
We believe there may be people with injuries hidden by their clothing, so we will be inspecting certain parties for them. I will look over the gentlemen, and any women that may be comfortable with me doing so. [ like, might as well make this quick ] So, please.
[ line up I guess we're going to town ]
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[ if it's not obvious by the fact that some parts of his bizarre outfit appear to be nailed to his skin... ]
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Re: s...trip... searches...
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30 minute warning
... Guys, we have 30 minutes left until we have to vote. We're not any closer to finding any of our killers than we were at noon.
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[...]
Also, we're fucked.
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EXECUTION
Then he recounts them.
He recounts them a third time and finally lets out a huh. ]
... Well, I'll be damned.
[ He looks over to the group and clears his throat, raising an eyebrow at everyone. ]
So, y'all tied. Nisha and Tarvek both got the same amount of votes. They're also both innocent, but now y'all have sent them to their deaths. Congrats, I suppose.
[ He considers for a moment, before setting down the box. ]
... You also have the choice of voting for their executioner or letting the two duel each other for their lives. Not that both of them will live, I think, but it's a respectable kind of death.
[ He points at the two then with a bit of a frown. ]
You know where y'all are supposed to go. I'd rather not fight about this.
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[Tarvek says that without hesitating.
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JAIL CELL
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Sorry about them.
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JAIL CELL
He's not going to reject any visits]
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[. . .]
[well. hi]
The cell isn't a very comfortable place to spend the night.
[. . .]
Would you like some blankets or pillows?
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