[ WEEK FOUR – 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.

QUICK NAV PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS | STATUSES | PROFILES | LOCATIONS | GRAVEYARD | MAIN NAVIGATION

Comments

THE SHERIFF

[sheriffexe]

[ Today, he is carving a deer. ]

THE BODY

[sheriffexe]

[ Nope. ]

[tightly]

[ Today, he is getting a monte cristo with grilled onions on french sliced loaf. ]

[sheriffexe]

[ Nice. The Sheriff appreciates you, Chane. ]

[flippity]

[ u know what papika is ok with this ]

[hydrokinetics]

[He appears to be calmly eating a carton of blueberry yogurt but he's pretty irritated that somehow they ended up with multiple bodies again. So, while his spoon scrapes the sides of the container, he speaks up]

Can we talk about the fact that there are way too many similarities to last week's crimes? Decapitation, burning, and a gunshot wound. Sound familiar? [Three methods used last week.] We should probably start with discussing everything we found yesterday. Who wants to start?

[feminitis]

[Sei's brow furrows as she considers that.]

Do you think it was the same people...? Or... two of the same people, at least. [Since they only found two bodies. Unless the monkey counts as a third.

...that would almost be ideal - it would mean they had a second chance at catching the people who got away last week.]

[impulsiveness]

[when will their body privileges come back from the war]

[hydrokinetics]

It's possible. The Sheriff did say it's possible that Bandits can be chosen more than once, but it could just be a couple of people who wanted to pin the blame elsewhere. With something like this, we should really focus on who could even possess those kind of skills.

[impulsiveness]

[i am not typing JASON WRITES DOWN each and every time kill me]

Way too similar.
Could be a copycat or someone doing an encore of their greatest hits.
And there were entrails in the fire, too. Nisha?

[hydrokinetics]

[A nod.] I'm thinking the same, but that would mean somebody could have gutted her as early as Wednesday doesn't it? It goes off-pattern.

[flippity]

Um... it was mentioned that it might have been just one person trying to make it seem like two different people did it? Since it's weird that it was two very different ways of... killing... the person, but both bodies were at the same place.

[ she looks like she never wants to discuss these bodies ever again WHY MUST SHE HAVE TO DISCUSS THEM ALL DAY NOW ugh ]

But I guess you could say the same thing the other way around.

[feminitis]

...shooting would probably be the easiest one to narrow down. Unless the decapitation was especially clean, it doesn't... that is... [Sei makes a face.] If someone unskilled tries hard enough, they could remove a head after a couple of tries with a sharp enough weapon. And it's not hard to start a fire.

But firing a gun can be really difficult. Even some of the most capable people I know from home struggle with it.

[feminitis]

...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?

[flippity]

[ she raises her hand. ]

Um. The cuts weren't super clean, but they also weren't very... messy? But it was also more than just the, um, head. It was her whole body.

[sating]

It does not help us now, I admit... But considering we still have not earned the "privilege" of looking at the bodies, if we happen to find this again in the future, maybe I could help. I wouldn't be able to identify anything in particular that might have been used to maim people, but I might be able to give a more general idea.

[ He looks to Yuna at his point though and gives her a nod ]

At least, unless I have more pressing tasks, naturally.

[ dr. dad is always on call :'( ]

[impulsiveness]

Maybe they didn't care about the reward and just wanted to have some fun.
We still have people like that, don't we?

[Not. Writing down any names, but it's not like it's hard to guess.]

Nui was sniped from afar. Simon wasn't. Point blank shots are easier. [Re: the skill set...] We have to consider why both bodies were dumped in the same location, too.

[moraled]

[If nothing else, this is Duty, and Barnham can put Duty first always and forever.

His arms are crossed, his eyes closed, and his expression flat.]

Miss Papika and I found the bodies near the watering hole. Lust's... head was on the end of the dock, left there undoubtedly for someone to easily find.

[also gruesomely being eaten by crows but he's not going to say that.]

... The remainder of her limbs were in the water, as was Mister Keyes' body, anchored to a rock.

That was all that could clearly be seen from that scene.

[feminitis]

[Shudders. GROSS.]

As if killing someone wasn't bad enough... was it really necessary to cut her up, too?

...but that means we're looking for someone with an average amount of skill, or someone with enough skill to try and make it look like they had less. ...or someone unskilled who just got lucky, but that's less likely.

I don't suppose anyone here has experience as a butcher...

[flippity]

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?? ]

[feminitis]

Oh, that would be really helpful!

["Quick, someone go get Dr. Dad" is going to be the new catchphrase of Whole Ass, isn't it.]

Thank you for the offer, Lecter-sensei.

[flippity]

[ let's take the crow thing to our graves dude because

yikes ]

[hydrokinetics]

Shinnosuke and I had talked about him taking pictures of the bodies for the future when we don't get privileges, but as it stands that may not be possible now. [You know. With Shinnosuke being blind and all.] That would be good for the future though, yeah.

[impulsiveness]

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.

[alcobrawlic]

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.