[ WEEK THREE – 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

[impulsiveness]

Alright. A lot [understatement] happened yesterday, so let's start off by getting all our facts in order.

[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?

[sating]

[ ok but ]

...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 ]

[impulsiveness]

If you want to, yeah. Got any suggestions, Doctor?

[s t o p]

[bittybat]

Now isn't the time for your idiotic, exaggerated joking, Todd.

[impulsiveness]

I'm not joking. It was literally corpse gravy.

[feminitis]

Corpse... gravy?

[Who even let Sei hobble in here using her katana like a crutch. But. Yikes. That's a colorful description.

SHE KNEW PEOPLE HAD DIED, BUT...]

[impulsiveness]

Um, yeah. Someone melted four bodies using a truckload of chemicals, and they just kind of— [VAGUE. HAND GESTURE???] Turned into slurry.

[Please sit down, Sei??? Jason will make her sit down if he has to.]

[thatsthespirit]

[corpse. . . gravy. . .]

Putting that evocative description of the, ah. "Chemical bath" aside.

[whatever a "chemical bath" is, she doesn't know anything about this kind of science okok]

I would concur that the smaller skull with a hole in it belongs to Nui. Yuna, Elizabeth and I found blood spatters around the bonfire and on the porch of the restaurant, along with a bundle of partially burnt clothing that looked like it belonged to Nui.

[a_sin_for_him]

If evidence was left that allowed for a rather easy identification, why bother with the melting of the bodies in the first place? Dramatic flair? Or I suppose it could be a matter of timing...even in pure acid, it takes a body hours to entirely dissolve...

[impulsiveness]

Around the bonfire and the restaurant... [Hmm.] That's pretty close to where you, Yuna and Natalie were staying, right? If we assume the blood splatters are from Nui getting shot — it kind of makes sense.

[Regarding what they heard, he means.]

[guiltlevel]

Corpse gravy . . .

[ still a weird way to describe it... ]

It looks like... Someone took a nap in the saloon. Not sure when though.

[ THIS IS ALL HE CAN CONTRIBUTE. Okay, yeah. Hey. ]

[impulsiveness]

A nap? [BETTER THAN NOTHING.] Do you think our murderer camped out upstairs at some point?

[hydrokinetics]

[Like with Xion, it's pretty clear Percy didn't sleep the night before and people will have noticed he and Xion were sitting outside of town hall prior to the trial. It's when Jason says "what about everyone else" that he looks up from where he's hanging out. Xion sits at his side and a bandaged and sleeping Mrs. O'Leary sits in his lap. He seems to mostly be talking at her, but it's loud enough to relay facts.]

The stocks were scorched yesterday morning. We found an empty can of gasoline under the Sheriff's chair on his porch, and when Dr. Lecter and I were checking it out we heard a bunch of growling. [His expression tightens, and his arms tighten around his dog.] I sent Mrs. O'Leary to check it out and two coyotes ran out. One of them had a burnt arm in its mouth. So I went under the porch and found the last one...and Annabeth. [Oh gods why.] She'd been there for hours, there wasn't much left of her torso at all and it was chewing on her--[Ahhhhhh.]--and what was left of her body was too badly burned to even really recognize her.

[A hand reaches up, tugging at the leather cord of colored beads around his neck, a second necklace to match his own only with more beads, a college ring and a piece of coral.] This might have been the only way we could have. [His eyebrows furrow.] But the coral was outside next to the stocks. It doesn't make sense how it fell off of her necklace or how the necklace didn't completely burn.

[A pause.] So. Watch out for coyotes in the future.

[elemancy]

[he a bro shoulderclasp once he's done talking—stay strong, bro.

(moral support totally counts for something, even if there's not much he has to offer in words right now.)]

[moraled]

[... y i k e s]

We shall find who did this to her, Young Percy. Justice will be done.

[That's...the best he can offer to that.]

[thatsthespirit]

[daaaaaaamn. . . she hadn't heard anything about Annabeth's body until now, and she knew from her conversation with the young woman in the stocks that she was dating Percy. Milla can't imagine what he's feeling right about now, and comforting young teenage boys is a lot more difficult than comforting teenage girls]

I'm sorry.

[it's a bit awkward, but sincere]

This week, we won't fail to find the true culprit behind these crimes.

[feminitis]

When we catch Miss Annabeth's killer, we'll feed them to the coyotes.

[And then push the coyotes and the killer into the chemical pit. Yes. That seems fair.]

[sweats]

[ A bit of a hesitation here because, well. Emotions.

But he will quietly say to Percy -- ]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[bittybat]

A rifle was found buried in Sara Valestein's grave. It's a Henry lever-action rifle. One bullet had been used only.

[thatsthespirit]

[. . . oh!]

That would make sense, considering Yuna, Natalie and I only heard one gunshot on the night of the murders.

Can you tell me more about the firearm? I'm afraid I know very little about them.

[robitussin]

...I didn't realize it was you who found it.

[sorry about your horrible luck, jason?? anyways:]

Since the Sheriff was digging the hole, do we think he mixed up the chemicals, or that the killer did?

[ceded]

The Sheriff said that he doesn't really help, right? He just provides stuff. So wouldn't the killer have to have done it?

[flippity]

[ she raises her hand. ]

This probably isn't very important to this trial, but there are more of those spooky people inside the train than there were before.

[ SHE JUST THOUGHT. people might want to know. ]

[hydrokinetics]

[Uh.]

How do you know? Did you get a count of how many?

[impulsiveness]

... Seriously? That's not ominous at all.

[yikes.]