Not the chat, just the hearts. This didn't come to me from him, but Koby heard the same. I'm trying to corroborate.
To be clear, I'm in contact with another someone who overheard a villager they didn't see and couldn't identify say they saw someone fleeing a scene. I trust your information. I'm trying to protect the informants, and ensure what they have to say in future reaches the right people.
I don't expect you to share the name, but can I treat you as a contact for them?
If you trust your source not to have conspired to make this up, I don't think it's suspicious. I think it's two people receiving two pieces of similar information in similar ways, which to me suggests a pattern. And unless the pattern is Red Herring, we should pay attention.
I think it's an easy conclusion to draw given the evidence, and not a very smart play if you're a fleshworker.
Of the two narrowed down to thanks to suit, it sounds like one wouldn't have had the strength to act alone, and the other isn't stupid enough to be so transparent.
I think we need to look at the whole picture, and be critical of any answers that come too easily.
Assuming you'd been brainwashed into murderous tendencies but were otherwise yourself, would you kill with a fleshworker's hammer if you were a fleshworker? That's going to be a different answer for different people, but when we're narrowing down our suspects, we have to consider it for them too. It's the only instance in which I think the bias of the people who know the suspects well is worth overlooking - insight into skill, ability, a person's underlying logic, and how their character might manifest in the position of wolf.
I think the answer will vary, but I know they're not always in control of their methods.
Last year, Alia mind controlled Jacaerys into drowning himself in the lake. I don't know if you know her well, but she comes from a desert planet where water is held sacred. She would have never tainted it with his death if she were in her right mind. So I don't know how reliable a person's typical logic will be.
[ Ah - well, there's the other half of that puzzle. It's food for thought, but it's not enough on its own to make a case with here. So he has to ask: ]
I know he's dangerous, but anyone could have taken a hammer while the village slept. If that's the only thing that's sealed it for you, your conviction is based on your bias.
That's all any of us really have to fill the gaps in evidence with for now - grudges and hunches. But it's something to be aware of the longer this goes on.
I think that we are more likely to reach for the tools that we're used to.
But I understand your point. In a free, proper trial, it would be nowhere near enough. But this is a death game with a hundred ways to lose, and worst of all is not even trying. I'm making due with what I have, but right now, I'm leaning towards him. It's nothing to do with personal bias, it's just the small scraps of evidence that we have.
Of course, I'm open to other arguments. I don't cast my vote until I've heard them all.
The tools at his disposal for the last however many hundreds of years have been his hands and his teeth, and I imagine it would be a relief to be able to use them again after a month of limited ability. So if he did this, and he had the wherewithal not to use his most familiar tools, I don't know why he'd have chosen as a cover another weapon that could so easily incriminate him.
I haven't looked in detail at any other options yet. But I think you should strongly consider the possibility that the fleshworker detail is a distraction, intentional or not, and keep Armand ready in your back pocket if any time you spend considering other diamonds for that specific killing comes to nothing.
[ it’s just that they have frustratingly little to go on. It's worse than it was back home, sitting through hearing after hearing of bogus charges. But if ability, commune role, and motive don’t matter, they don’t have anything, unless a killer is caught red-handed. He has to go on something. ]
I want to solve it. I know what it feels like to be hurt like that. It’s long and excruciating and I would wish it on no one. My mind isn’t closed to other leads, I promise you.
[ It's difficult. They're all in an impossible position. Given that - he doesn't mind offering some insight to the one decision he has already mostly made. ]
For what it's worth, if we don't find any more evidence, my vote this round will be going to Saber Tooth. There's a chance he's responsible for the attack on Jake, and he's also somebody who will by his own admission start killing people if it means he gets the win. Whether or not he's one of the wolves, I'm not willing to pass up the opportunity to subdue a definite risk for the chance of subduing a possible one.
If it weren't for that, I'd be just as uncertain. I hope it pays off double, but we won't know until we try.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 05:54 pm (UTC)To be clear, I'm in contact with another someone who overheard a villager they didn't see and couldn't identify say they saw someone fleeing a scene. I trust your information. I'm trying to protect the informants, and ensure what they have to say in future reaches the right people.
I don't expect you to share the name, but can I treat you as a contact for them?
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 06:01 pm (UTC)Which scene?
You can. I can work with them.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 08:25 pm (UTC)Thank you. If they have anything else to say, now or in the future, I'd be grateful to hear it.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 08:28 pm (UTC)We can keep an open line. I'd like that.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 08:36 pm (UTC)Me too. Thanks, Tim.
[ It's a good time to be on his good side. ]
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 08:49 pm (UTC)Of the two narrowed down to thanks to suit, it sounds like one wouldn't have had the strength to act alone, and the other isn't stupid enough to be so transparent.
[ In short: he thinks this is the red herring. ]
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 09:03 pm (UTC)Assuming you'd been brainwashed into murderous tendencies but were otherwise yourself, would you kill with a fleshworker's hammer if you were a fleshworker? That's going to be a different answer for different people, but when we're narrowing down our suspects, we have to consider it for them too. It's the only instance in which I think the bias of the people who know the suspects well is worth overlooking - insight into skill, ability, a person's underlying logic, and how their character might manifest in the position of wolf.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 09:08 pm (UTC)Last year, Alia mind controlled Jacaerys into drowning himself in the lake. I don't know if you know her well, but she comes from a desert planet where water is held sacred. She would have never tainted it with his death if she were in her right mind. So I don't know how reliable a person's typical logic will be.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 09:13 pm (UTC)Which one of them do you like for this?
[ Armand, or Devon? ]
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 09:20 pm (UTC)I wish there were more real evidence, but unless a Seer comes forward, there won't be. The best we found last year were single hairs.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 09:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 09:52 pm (UTC)That's all any of us really have to fill the gaps in evidence with for now - grudges and hunches. But it's something to be aware of the longer this goes on.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 09:57 pm (UTC)But I understand your point. In a free, proper trial, it would be nowhere near enough. But this is a death game with a hundred ways to lose, and worst of all is not even trying. I'm making due with what I have, but right now, I'm leaning towards him. It's nothing to do with personal bias, it's just the small scraps of evidence that we have.
Of course, I'm open to other arguments. I don't cast my vote until I've heard them all.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 10:05 pm (UTC)I haven't looked in detail at any other options yet. But I think you should strongly consider the possibility that the fleshworker detail is a distraction, intentional or not, and keep Armand ready in your back pocket if any time you spend considering other diamonds for that specific killing comes to nothing.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 10:23 pm (UTC)[ it’s just that they have frustratingly little to go on. It's worse than it was back home, sitting through hearing after hearing of bogus charges. But if ability, commune role, and motive don’t matter, they don’t have anything, unless a killer is caught red-handed. He has to go on something. ]
I want to solve it. I know what it feels like to be hurt like that. It’s long and excruciating and I would wish it on no one. My mind isn’t closed to other leads, I promise you.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 11:13 pm (UTC)[ It's difficult. They're all in an impossible position. Given that - he doesn't mind offering some insight to the one decision he has already mostly made. ]
For what it's worth, if we don't find any more evidence, my vote this round will be going to Saber Tooth. There's a chance he's responsible for the attack on Jake, and he's also somebody who will by his own admission start killing people if it means he gets the win. Whether or not he's one of the wolves, I'm not willing to pass up the opportunity to subdue a definite risk for the chance of subduing a possible one.
If it weren't for that, I'd be just as uncertain. I hope it pays off double, but we won't know until we try.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-06 11:19 pm (UTC)[ That guy's a real piece of shit, huh. ]