singillppl | Town Meeting: The Quencies

Town Meeting

Town Meeting

Following the events of June, in which the Interloper saw the Darkwalker’s influence slowly push them to the brink — until Enola put a stop to things — Interlopers must try to wrangle with the consequences left in their wake. For some, these consequences are far more harder than others. Several Interlopers now lie dead, which cannot be ignored.

A town meeting is called to address this, and once more the Interlopers gather in the Community Hall. Even Methuselah joins them, and sits quietly to the side to watch the proceedings.

The accused are asked to stand, to give a short testimony where they either acknowledge or deny their actions. Interlopers may offer witness testimonies had they been there during the incident.

Their fellow Interlopers must cast a vote: are they guilty of their actions? Or not? One might argue that their actions were not their own. Others may argue that the influence over Interlopers should not excuse their actions. Some may even use this as a way of dealing out punishment to those they believe have had it coming for sometime. Maybe sometimes there are crimes just too dark to forgive.

What will you choose, Interlopers? What side of the coin will land?

— — —

Character Name: Kieren Walker.
Crime: The murder and cannibalism of Simone Vitucci.
Character Comments:

[ Kieren's a trembling mess, his hands held into tightly curled fists as his sides. He can't look up, he can't look at anyone — just stares off into the mid-distance. ]

... I did it. I— I'm not going to stand here and say I didn't do something when I did. I killed her, and— I did that to her. And I know I wasn't thinking properly but it's not an excuse, I don't think it should be. I'm... I'm not normal, like most of you are. I'm— I'm different. And that's not an excuse either, I never thought it should be. [ He's not brave enough to full out himself, but he settles with. ] I've hurt people before here. I didn't want it to happen again, but it did.

So.. so I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking I should be— um, to be honest, I wouldn't blame anyone for shooting me for that. For what I did to her. And I know that sounds horrible, but it's true. I wouldn't. Blame any of you.

I wish I could take it back, and I— I know I can't. If it means anything, I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt anyone.

— — —

Character Name: Levi Jořdán
Crime: Murder of Max Ramirez
Character Comments:

"...I'm sorry. I-I didn't want to, but they just came at me and....and I moved on my own. I should have stopped it but I didn't. I don't have a defense. I'll take any punishment you feel fit."

— — —

Character Name: Scratch "Alan Wake"
Crime: Murder of Alan Lawrence, mutilation of a corpse.
Character Comments:

"None of us were in our right mind. It was self-defence, kill or be killed. I never wanted to hurt anyone, let alone kill them, but ... Can any one of you really believe you wouldn't have done the same thing with everything that was happening to us?

And for the ... Well. The other thing. I don't know, it was like a frenzy, I can't remember it. All I could think about was this story I heard once about The Wick Effect, about the flammable nature of the human body. Resources are so low.

I don't know. I think I panicked. It all made so much sense at the time."

— — —

Character Name: Levi Ackerman (I don't think anyone knows his last name though)
Crime: Murder (and a lil bit of corpse destruction) of John Rusnak
Character Comments:

[ He just stands there with his arms folded, frowning, until someone prompts him to speak. ]

What do you want to hear? It's not how I normally handle things. I hate pointless casualties. [ He doesn't seem at all surprised by his capacity to kill, though. Despite his words being somewhat harsh, it seems genuine. ] ...We've lost people. I am sorry for that.

[ Everyone should be aware of the creature in everyone's heads by now, so he sees no point to bring it up. Under the influence or not -- which is terrifying, actually, he'd never had his mind forcibly overtaken like this before -- it was ultimately still him who managed to carry it out. He shifts his weight a little; there's an air of tension around him, like he's a coiled spring ready to fire. He's probably less calm about it on the inside... or maybe it's an intimidation tactic. ]

I don't intend to let you execute me, if that's what you're planning. But if I'm unwelcome here, I will comply.

— — —

Character Name: Wynonna Earp
Crime: Murder of Elias Toufexis
Character Comments:

He was trying to kill Louis.

[ Who was maybe trying to kill him, first. ]

I tried to break it up. He came after Louis again.

[ Her jaw is tight; so are the arms she has folded across her chest. Her expression is flatly blank. ]

End of story.

— — —

Character Name: Cornelius Hickey
Crime: murder and cannibalism of Patrick Carlson
Character Comments:

[ Hickey's choosing his words carefully. There's a carefully controlled neutralness in his tone, keeping it conversational but not too emotional. ]

Some of you all are like me, yeah? We're changed. I can go longer, I can climb up and down ravines that I'd have trouble navigating before, but I get...hungry. And what with the game missing and that thing in my head—that thing in all of our heads, there's no point in pretending like everybody here wasn't in their right mind because of the Darkwalker. Anyway. What mattered most at the time was satiating the hunger and staying alive.

Obviously I'd do things different if we didn't have the Darkwalker raining bloody terror down on us. We'd all have done things differently.

As for the murder? [ Hickey gives a little shrug. ] Man came at me first. I simply decided to defend myself, as so many others here would—as so many others here already have. After all, it's not like these past few weeks are the first time one of us has tried to come for our own.

— — —

Character Name: Edward Little.
Crime: The Murder of Mikel Shane Prather.
Character Comments:

[ When he stands, Edward looks... strange, haunted — eyes wide and tearful and distant. It all feels like it's happening to someone else. He has to be told when to stand and when to sit down again, more than once.

He doesn't say what he maybe should. That the young man was going to kill Kate Marsh, that he had her on the ground — that Mikel's hands were around her neck. That all he could think to do was shoot, and quickly. There's no excuse for it; he could have made other choices, he could have — and he doesn't want to risk any ounce of backlash against Kate, either. So Edward just stands there, hands trembling, thumbs pressing tightly into his palms and rubbing, some futile attempt to self-soothe. ]

Mr. Prather was not.... himself. He was under the influence of darkness and can not be blamed. However, my... my mind was not afflicted. I was acutely aware of everything and in control of my faculties.

[ That's important. He wasn't anyone but himself when he killed a human being for the first time. ]

I will not resist the punishment that I deserve. I accept full culpability.

[ A pause, a shuddering breath. The usual clear, rich tone of his voice is hoarse now, hollowed out. Mikel became violent, like so many others did. It wasn't his fault.

He was very young. ]

I am so deeply sorry for what I've done.

— — —

A poll has been opened, in which you can ICly vote on the accused. Players will have 72 hours to cast their votes. After those 72 hours, results will be posted. For any character who is found guilty, their player will be asked to pick a punishment for their character.

This could be something like hard labour of some sort (rebuilding, town fortifications, digging appropriate graves for the dead into the ground) reduced food rations, or perhaps some kind of temporary exile from the safety of Milton, or guard duty.

Death is off the table. I mean, unless you really wanted to?

Players who have their character found Not Guilty may still choose to have their characters punish themselves if they wish to.

CAST YOUR VOTES HERE

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Kate has zero intention of getting up and speaking, not with her inability to speak aloud hindered and the fact she has an aversion to being in the spotlight. She will, however, after Edward Little has spoken, quickly write down something in a journal page and rip the page out. She hurries to Methuselah and asks him if he'll speak for her. The old man agrees after a long pause, rising to his feet to read aloud the words on the page. ]

Lieutenant Little shouldn't be blamed for what he did. When he acted, he did it to save me. If he hadn't done what he did, I wouldn't be alive.

Please don't judge him harshly.

Signed,
Kate Beverly Marsh

[Thomas listens to Kate's testimony with a little wince, knowing how much that's actually taking out of her.]

There is much that Edward Little is guilty of, but none of it pertains to this moment here. No one holds him in more guilt than he does himself.

This was yet another unfortunate victim of the creature, not of man.

Let him go, for Christ's sake, and let him punish himself as he so desperately wants. There is nothing we could do to him that he wouldn't do to himself, ten times over.

I know Lieutenant Little only to be a most noble, righteous man, who never fails to act in a crisis, nor would ever so much as dream of doing anything but right. I trust him in the utmost as both a colleague and the promising leader I've so known him to be, however much one must still grow to fit their true potential.

[ A beat, as he gathers his thoughts; Irving is a bit too timid for public speaking to come easily, but sometimes such things are necessary. ]

Survival will put upon even the best of us the most difficult of hardships and challenges— one has but mere moments in which to act, and I believe there's not a single man or woman among us who could argue cold-blooded murder in the case of Lieutenant Little acting in the defense of an unarmed innocent who could not otherwise have protected herself against certain death. By felling this man he's saved a young girl's life, and has very likely spared our already vulnerable community from future murders at the assailant's hands.

Can you hear yourself?

[These fucking sailors...]

You disagree?

[ He's trying not to sound indignant, though he feels it. ]

Better all things could be resolved with no loss of life at all, I'm sure, but you must know we've not always such the luxury.

[He jabs a finger in Irving's direction. It's fairly aggressive.]

I disagree with the idea of celebrating death as an act of heroism especially when Little himself said Prather was affected by the Darkwalker just as much as everyone. I don't begrudge Little for his mistake, he did what he needed to in the moment. [And he isn't trained like Damian and his family. These are all civilians.] But someone is still dead.

And you could wait until his corpse is buried before you start figuratively or literally pissing on his grave.

[ He bristles at both the aggressive tone and the language. ]

Any loss of life is still a loss, indeed, but it's Lieutenant Little's fate we're discussing— why his actions were merited in this circumstance. If even a single moment of madness is enough to turn a man murderous, then to respond any differently would have been tragically negligent, regardless of whether or not the fever may later pass. You call it a mistake, but should he rather have simply waited to see?

No.

It's a good thing that he was there to save Kate Marsh. But there are ways to subdue a person without killing them, even using firearms or otherwise lethal weapons. Resorting to lethal violence in a moment of panic is a mistake and a failure. And it's one that needs to be corrected if we hope to avoid this.

So no. They weren't merited. They were understandable given the circumstance he found himself in, and they were preferable to some of the alternatives. But you don't get to pick and choose who deserves that understanding based on which one of them you personally like the most.

[ God, Irving hates conflict. Public conflict especially. It's all he can do not to raise his voice, though he's gone a bit red in the face. ]

While I don't disagree that such circumstances are, indeed, the very sort which we as a community should be establishing some precedent for adjudicating, a man's character is not inessential to the point— nor should we continue to muddy the waters any further by disputing a case that is clearly not one to be made an example of, particularly as we seem to be in agreement as to his actions being, in this case, rather— [ the word "unavoidable" is on his tongue, but he swerves to: ] reasonable, given the circumstances.

[There is no fight Damian will not pick. There is no hill he will not die on.]

He isn't the one I take issue with. He isn't the one that stood up at his own trial - mockery of anything resembling justice that this whole charade might be - and declared what a hero he is for killing one of our own, because they were just too weak to resist active mind control.

That's all I object to, and that's all I have to say.

Edited 2024-07-01 08:01 (UTC)

If anyone's been making that argument, then I suggest you take it up with them. He acted with due cause in another's defense, and in doing so saved a young girl's life, whereas faltering would have resulted in even greater tragedy.

A-and as for— I said nothing of the kind, so pray not you twist my words so transparently. Whether or not a man is truly himself at the time will hardly make a difference in the moment to any resulting casualties of his sudden, violent impulses— of which, for that matter, a great many other men will commit while still in their usual, so-called rational states of mind.

Would that it were always so easily rationalized in but a mere instant exactly why someone means to kill you.

[ Irving exhales with a huff, then sits down quickly, not wanting the disagreement to escalate any further into the uncomfortably personal... he's really not great at this!! ]

Edited 2024-07-01 09:35 (UTC)

Town Meeting: The Quencies

Edward Little

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