I always put myself in destructive situations [W5, Friday]

[hydrokinetics]

[It took time. Everything took time as it always did. It took time for them to all calm down, it took time to heal physical wounds, it took time to properly remove the evidence of obscene crimes...but in the evening they were able to gather in one place away from everyone else. It hadn't been easy coordinating everything, but it was necessary.

And so here they were. All seven of them.]

...I don't really know where to start. [His voice is tight, but determined.] But we need everybody on the same page. Who wants to go first?

Comments

[insincerely]

[Shinnosuke's staying a bit of a distance from the others—short enough that he can easily hear and be heard if need be, but far enough to be noticeable. To be honest, Bounty or not, he's... pretty sure he's an outsider here, so it feels a little weird to be hanging around them.]

Well, I guess we can start with establishing, once and for all, why all of us are here right now.

To begin with, Damian is the Bounty Leader. Milla, Noctis, and I are the Bounties, as was Mr. Ocelot, who's dead now. That's our part in this.

[thatsthespirit]

. . . why are you standing so far away, Shinnosuke?

[#importantobservations]

[robitussin]

I'm the Doctor. The camera, the beartrap, the dynamite, the... deer. That was me.

[There's more she wants to say about that, but Jason is here, and she doesn't want to deal with his reaction to her apologizing again. Still, she pauses for a moment, fighting back that very apology, the guilt that still wants to leak out.]

I also have a one time thing where I can pick someone to revive after they get killed. So, there you go.

[impulsiveness]

[Dead eyes at him........ not that Shinnosuke can see??

Which means Jason is just going to grab him and drag him closer to the main group. Whatever, bro. Get over yourself.]

[impulsiveness]

[Jason d...oesn't... really want to be here. Or anywhere at all, really. But especially not here, among people and existing and— ugh.

Whatever.

On a notebook, he writes down three sentences.]

Yuna got killed by coyotes. It was like they were hyper focused on ripping her to shreds. [Since, uh. Forehead aside? Both Jason and Milla came out of it alive.]
I don't know if there's anything else to be said about that.

[But discuss, anyway... And please read it out loud for Shinnosuke's sake, thank you.]

[elemancy]

Hyper-focused... on just her?

[why her? why just her—that's really foreboding in a way that rings dangerously familiar to him.

and his tone definitely reflects that.]

[thatsthespirit]

[for Shinnosuke's sake, Milla reads Jason's writing aloud. but she adds her own commentary afterwards]

. . . Jason passed out first. He tripped after a coyote attacked him, and knocked his head on the stocks. I fell next, due to-- ah. . . my preexisting injuries.

[don't fight coyotes with broken ribs folks]

One of the creatures leaped at me. I blocked it with my arms, and Yuna. . . [. . .] She tackled the coyote away. It bit into her, causing a mortal injury, before she managed to kill it.

She-- bled out shortly afterwards. I held her hand before she went.

[how can she talk about this so calmly, especially considering her demeanor earlier??]

Russell was alive during this. Jason and I both fell unconscious at the stocks, but woke up in the clinic. Someone moved us during the night, though I can't remember who it was.

[insincerely]

[Shinnosuke also really does not want to be among people, but Noct dragged him out of his room, so ehhhh.

Though to add onto what Jason wrote:]

... When I was in the stocks, none of the coyotes went after me either. It might've just been because Yuna was fending them off, but...

[hydrokinetics]

[He's listening to everything. He's listening and processing but there's a lot of conversation and while he can keep up, he thinks it's best to listen. A lot of this is hard to take.

Why would coyotes go straight after Yuna? How did they wind up with five corpses? What the fuck kind of items could they use for their own good?

But while that's going on, he's sitting back with a letter in his hand and he's reading over it.]

...so I think we need to consider something. Like the fact that the dead might know more than we actually know they know. Hal told me that someone set up TVs to watch all of us. This is the second letter Annabeth's sent me and I think I finally get some of what she's trying to say.

[thatsthespirit]

[inclines her head at Percy curiously, like ????]

I've received two letters from deceased individuals. Neither of them seemed particularly helpful, though.

What do you think Annabeth is trying to say?

[insincerely]

Yeah... I got a letter from Annabeth too that mentioned my and Jason's work with the post office, so they're definitely watching us.

[Which is, uh, nice.]

What's her message?

[elemancy]

Got a letter from Riku last week, too. Not sure we'll really find much in it that's useful, though.

[but for the sake of transparency, he'll mention it.]

[insincerely]

[Well, since his name has been coming up thanks to the letters:]

Does anyone know what the hell was up with Riku? He somehow knew about the Bounty role—sort of—but from what I can tell, none of us told him anything.

[elemancy]

None of us did, that I know of.

...Maybe he'd talked to Deputy, or something.

[hydrokinetics]

When I asked Xion who Riku spoke to, she gave me a list of names. She named me, Noctis, Tarvek, and Harry. Obviously Noct and I didn't say anything. I never really talked to the guy and Noctis didn't even come clean until a few days ago.

So...what do you think of that?

[thatsthespirit]

[annnd after some stuff about roles, the letters, the incident at the stocks with Yuna, etc come out, Milla finally decides to stand up]

I've been sitting on this information for a few weeks now at the advice of the Sheriff. But since I'm not feeling particularly charitable towards him right now, I think I should share it. But I'd like to ask everyone to make sure it doesn't leave this room. Xion is the only other individual who knows.

[DRAMATIC PAUSE]

I know where the dead people are being held. It's the train. The one with the shadows, at the station.

I advise against trying to break the windows to let them out, though.

[insincerely]

... Well, what Papika said about there being more shadows makes sense now.

[hydrokinetics]

...it was you. [His eyes widen a bit.] Xion told me, but she made me promise not to say and wouldn't tell me who told her. Now I get why.

[robitussin]

...Well, shit. That's horrifying.

[that's it that's all she's got]

[elemancy]

[he just makes a face, because wtf at this place, honestly.]

[insincerely]

Since we're suspecting Xion...

[He hates this. He's not surprised, because he's dealt with this kind of thing too many times for that, but... he still hates it.]

She and I recently discussed roles—on Thursday, to be specific. Obviously, I didn't tell her anything, beyond saying that I knew the names of a few. It might've looked suspicious if I said I knew nothing... even though that would've been the truth, if the rest of the Bounties hadn't found me.

[Yeah, he's been a shitty detective.]

She told me that she's heard of the Doctor and Bartender but doesn't know who they are or what they do. She's also heard about the Madame and Deputy.

[maybe more to be continued but THERE IS A CONTRADICTION HERE!!]

[robitussin]

[God.]

...She knew by Wednesday. About me, I mean. But, it's not hard to imagine her not telling you because she didn't want to spread it around when I told her in confidence.

[impulsiveness]

[RAISES?? AN EYEBROW?? And give Natalie a Look.]

No, she definitely knows who the Doctor is. Natalie and I [uh] spoke to her on Wednesday.
She's known since then.

[thatsthespirit]

[she doesn't know about any contradictions, and as much as she also hates this, she's shut off her personal feelings in order to have this conversation]

Can we confirm where Xion got this information? Was it from anyone here?

[insincerely]

[CONTINUATION OF: XION IS A LIAR, OOPS.]

... She also told me that she knows about a "leader", though not of what, and that killing them will end the game. Apparently, she's been trying to figure out their identity all week, but to no avail.

[and possibly more fishy details, but again to be cont.]