[ 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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THE SHERIFF

[sheriffexe]

[ Today, he can be found carving a dinosaur. ]

THE BODY

[sheriffexe]

[ Or bodies, rather. It looks like everyone caught the bodies before they had been boiling too long so now everything's a nice slurry. Shame, that.

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. ]

[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?

[tightly]

[ It's sandwich time again! This time, it's beef and tomato on toasted flatbread. Hi. Bye. ]

[sheriffexe]

[ Okay, well, that's very tasty and the Sheriff is very grateful. Thank you, Chane. ]

[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.

[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...]

[sating]

The disposal pit, perhaps? The food metaphor is what concerns me, ultimately.

[ :'( bc he can't. Stop food shaming him]

[impulsiveness]

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

[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.]

[feminitis]

[icon keywords relevant]

That's disgusting...

[sweats]

[ YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU FUCKERRRRRR ]

[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.

[impulsiveness]

Disposal pit it is, then. And no more food metaphors for you. Sorry.

[HE'S ASSUMING HE'S SQUEAMISH. YOUR FOOD SHAMING SECRET IS SAFE.]

[impulsiveness]

Tell me about it. Whoever's behind this is seriously fucked up in the head.

camera & body updates

[ceded]

[ Xion saw that glimpse of her friend's head, thank you. If it fazes her, she doesn't show it, though when she comes to the fore of the room to speak, she's very pale. It's probably pretty clear she never slept last night, especially given that she was sitting outside with Percy ... all night, and was there when people began to arrive in the morning. Her broken foot has no shoe; just a sock tugged over the bandaging and splnting just visible beneath the hem of her pants.

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.

[sating]

[ I'm going to assume Will is literally giving him that look in which case Hannibal is just going to smile back at him lightly. Good morning Will. ]

[feminitis]

You can... say that again. Who does that?

["If we find them let's throw them into the pit while they're still alive," she thinks but doesn't say.]

[thatsthespirit]

[TODAY IN MILLA'S TRIAL SNACKS, she brought everyone cereal! with milk! and freshly made (slightly watery) tea! and several types of fruit juice! look what do you expect from her she can't cook??]

[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.

[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...

[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. ]

[thatsthespirit]

[Milla doesn't have any immediate questions, but she can see how visibly shaken Xion is by all of this. . . so silently, she places a hand on Xion's shoulder and gives her an encouraging nod]

[you're doing good, kid]

[impulsiveness]

Maybe there was something on the bodies that they didn't want us seeing. Like a wound that would make it easier for us to track them down.