Town Meeting: The Quencies

[singmod]

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

Comments

[meadqueen]

[Randvi doesn't like this either - she likes Francis much more than she likes Hickey - but how else can they live in a community together?]

Do not mistake me, I think the crimes the perpetrator of those injuries is accused of are abhorrent. But if you’ll recall, that man has already been publicly beaten without consequence. Are we going to apply justice to some but not others?

If people feel unsafe here because we play favourites with people who are nicer to be around, some of us will die. This is inevitable.

I want to see justice done, but we cannot continue to avenge ourselves on one another. Labour is, to me, the preferable consequence, and if we are choosing it, it should be applied to all of us in proportion to the damage we may have caused.

[load_aim_shoot]

[Raju starts to scowl, his hackles starting to rise—

—but she doesn't want to let any of them off without punishment completely. It's a relief. Once she finishes speaking Raju's frown and the tensed line of his shoulders both loosen, and his tone eases a little.]

Labour might be the best we can do. Or something like it. We can't go easier on anyone simply because we didn't do something in the past, but we can always pull in whoever it was who attacked him back then too, can't we? I'm not calling for favouritism after all, just... [He sighs.] This place won't be safe for anyone if we let actions like this go. That's all.

[meadqueen]

There are many things to rebuild, and… [There are bodies that need to be buried. This must be awful for people who had found the original Milton residents this way.] And other activities that will require physical labour.

Once the works are complete, it is done and we move on. Reducing rations or making people feel like they can't access the food at the hall will lead to the most heinous of these crimes being committed again.

[If Hickey is pushed into desperation while game is still scarce, he will kill another person. Kieren as well, and likely Alan.]

[load_aim_shoot]

[He nods.]

We don't have the resources to enforce something like that anyway. Nothing that would make people desperate enough to stop cooperating would work with our limitations here.

[He sighs, then clasps her briefly on the shoulder.]

You're right that we can't afford to allow that creature's work to divide us. I just want to be sure we're thinking about how to keep everyone else safe, too.

[meadqueen]

[Randvi nods her head once.]

If the healers and philosophers can figure out why people were influenced by the creature’s commands to such different degrees there may be other conditions to impose to keep everyone safe.

[load_aim_shoot]

[He makes a noise of agreement, nods back at her, then sits again to wait and listen for anything else anyone wants to add. Knowing the why of the creature's influence would be wonderful, but in the here and now there's only so much that they can do. Making sure something comes of all this would be a good start.]