robowest | [ WEEK FOUR

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...you're right about being able to say it the other way around. I find it really weird that a single person would put the bodies in the same place, if they went so far as to differentiate their method of killing to try and make it look like two people.

[So... what then?]

Does that mean we have two killers who chose the same place by accident? ...wouldn't the second one have noticed, though?

Mayybe not? If it was more than one person, if Simon was left there first, then whoever killed Lust might not have noticed? We found Simon down in the water, tied to a rock.

[ so if lust's killer came there second, they might have not noticed a body already in the water?? ]

...that would make a lot of sense.

[HMM.]

Then, if nothing else, we have a rough timeline - that Mister Keyes was killed first. That's more than we've had to go on than in other trials, so maybe this week we'll get lucky and figure it out...

[SHE HOPES SO.]

Maybe...

[ unless it turns out there was like fuckin four killers or something, at this point who would even be surprised?? ]

That or maybe they didn't care about hiding them that much.

...I could see that being the case too. It's not like we've had much luck figuring things out, so it makes sense that as time goes on whoever is doing the killing would see little need to be subtle.

[HUFFS]

Well, that's their mistake. We're going to get it right this time!

[ she nods her head. ]

We have to!

[ EVEN IF IT'S BY COMPLETE ACCIDENT. ]

If Simon was at the bottom of the lake already, maybe our second killer wouldn't have noticed. That, or we have bandits running around again.
They could have gone solo for the kill and met up later to dump the bodies.

[P...robably.... Or maybe someone just didn't care about the floating body parts in the lake.

...oh.

[Sei deflates a little.]

That's true, too... [DAMN IT she wanted to think that they'd figured something out!! But everything about this is uncertain and she hates it.]

It does seem like the bandits tend to cooperate with each other. At least, from what we saw...

[With Higekiri and all. Uuuugh.]

They're picked together. Teamwork's easier than flying solo, too. So unless the Sheriff says otherwise, we might as well assume it was 2 bandits.

...I'm going to go find out!!

[hobbles away]

[THUMBS UP, SEI. DO YOUR THINK.]

We can't really say that two killers wouldn't have just picked the same place, anyway. Higekiri was a bandit and he knew who the other bandit was, so it's not like it's entirely impossible to say our killers knew each other, killed in two different ways, and helped each other dump the bodies in the same place.

[THIS IS TRUE. Sei's shoulders slump. She really wanted to believe they'd figured out the timeline! But Sara and Jason are absolutely right.

She heaves a heavy sigh.]

Does anyone else find it a little unfair that two people working together pull the wool over our eyes week after week when all of us working together don't get anywhere near the same results?

[ peanut gallery time ]

Well, all they have to do is kill a person. Anyone can kill. It takes whole teams to figure out how the crime happened.

[SULKS]

And yet we've never once managed to do it, except the first time...! We're all relatively capable people, so why...?!

No evidence. Limited time. Too much pressure. You're not set up to win here, and it's on purpose.

...don't you mean "we're" not set up to win here? You're stuck in the same boat as the rest of us, after all.

[Hannibal likes him so he can't be a bad guy. At least, that's what Sei's telling herself, so she's giving him the chance to explain instead of jumping to conclusions...]

[ Local empathy man fucks up because he's an infomodding shithead, more at eleven. ]

... Yeah, but I'm not trying to figure out anything.

[ Is that a better answer than "I always know who the killers are"? Probably. ]

Oh, that makes-

[Wait. That doesn't make sense at all, what is she saying.]

...why not?

[ will graham fucked up so badly ]

I don't want to.

But Lecter-sensei is working so hard to help everyone... don't you at least want to help him? You're soulmates, after all!

[i'm sorry]

[ why is this happening.......... will just looks even more tired than he did before ]

His helping everyone is what makes him happiest. My not helping is what makes me happiest. Why would I change that?

Will.....

[ can you maybe chill ]

It's okay. If you feel like helping, let us know, but... it's okay.

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Unfortunately, there's a saying or something that he who holds the information holds the victory. A lot of the time, we're fighting this thing completely blind.

...well, with any luck we'll get it right this time. We just have to keep trying!