[Bounties + Honorary Bounty: week 5, Tuesday]

[thatsthespirit]

[on Tuesday, Milla flags down Percy, Damian and Noctis and tells them to meet her at the homestead-- the perfect, out-of-the-way place for clandestine meetings. she makes sure she arrives first (after all, part of the purpose of this meeting is to introduce Noctis to Percy and Damian as another Bounty), so when the others arrive they'll find her dutifully feeding a cow some hay from her hand]

[when all known Bounties and the Honorary Bounty arrive, she speaks up, hand resting on the cow's neck as it chews its cud]

I confirmed yesterday afternoon that Noctis is a fellow Bounty. With three of us gathered, I imagine the Sheriff will soon be introducing us to the fourth-- and last-- of our numbers.

[or is it fifth, with Percy hanging around?? he was just as good as a Bounty in her mind, after all. ah well]

And with that, I imagine we all have much to discuss.

[MEETING, GET!!]

Comments

DEPUTY!!!!

[thatsthespirit]

[soon after she makes her introductions, Milla's smile fades and her hand falls to her side]

I spoke with the Sheriff about the purpose the stocks play in this game. The answer he gave me is directly relevant to our interests as Bounties.

[she glances at Noctis and goes into a little bit of background in order to catch him up]

The role the Bounty Leader is searching for is the Deputy, and said Deputy is the individual manning the stocks. That is, the Deputy chooses someone to place in the stocks on Thursdays. The purpose of placing someone in the stocks is to make them more vulnerable to that week's Bandits.

[her brow furrows, but her voice remains even]

And here is the part that's important: the Sheriff told me the Deputy does not necessarily need to use the stocks at all. That role may, instead, choose a single person to place in the jail cell for the night. The person chosen would then be shielded from any attempts at murder.

[places a hand on her hip and shifts slightly on her feet]

The conclusion here is obvious. The Deputy is a role that may be used to either prevent a murder, or encourage one. The individual occupying the role is actively choosing to encourage violence rather than protect those in this town, even though they have the ability to do so.

[annnnd now she glances at Damian]

When I pointed out how opposite our Bounty Leader was to the Deputy, the Sheriff told me such a match up was done on purpose. So in other words. . .

[a deep breath, which causes her to wince a bit]

. . . when we discover the identity of the Deputy, we cannot let them know about Damian.

[because anyone who chooses to harm instead of help would probably only use the information to go directly after Damian himself]

[hydrokinetics]

[When Noctis shows up, he lifts a hand to wave because yeah. Yeah he knew about this and there's a half-smile. He finds himself closer to Damian to subconsciously protect even as he listens to Milla, nodding along with everything she says.]

...can confirm. Sheriff told me the same thing when I asked him about the stocks, and someone else I spoke to last week confirmed that was the Deputy's duty. As you can imagine, I didn't tell them about the Bounties or anything. They already knew of their existence, but I didn't confirm or deny anything Hal didn't already tell them. Figured it was best not to say anything at all.

So. Our Deputy is definitely somebody who'd rather wreck all of us than actually help. The thing is that the Bandits are the ones who choose if they kill who's in the stocks or not. That's why Annabeth was murdered but Jason and Shinnosuke weren't.

[thatsthespirit]

[nods along with Percy's reply, finding it to be exactly in line with her own information]

Who confirmed the Deputy's role for you? There's no need to name names if you'd rather not, but if this person knows who the Deputy is, then perhaps we could use that information to help our search.

[that information, along with the fact that their Deputy apparently doesn't like snarky teens. what's up with that???]

[hydrokinetics]

[A shake of the head.] He doesn't know who the Deputy is, I know that much. He just found out what the roles did after I told him how many there were. [A pause, and he figures it's safe.] I spoke with Dr. Lecter. Like I said, I didn't tell him anything he wasn't already partially aware of. The information about the Bounties came from Hal to him, he brought it up in our conversation last week.

[thatsthespirit]

[that makes sense to her. after all, everyone here has been getting information from Hal. but it does make her wonder. . .]

Do you think he has a role in this game, period? I remember we discussed the possibility of him being our doctor. It seems like the Sheriff chose everyone's roles very carefully.

[and Hannibal as their Doctor would be the most obvious thing]

[bittybat]

[Well, fuck.]

They could be choosing at random, but it wouldn't hurt to see if there's a common person between the people left who have been in the stocks. The Deputy could have spoken to all of them and made a decision based on their conversations.

[elemancy]

That... might be pretty tough to figure out, though, right? If they talked a bunch in private, may not be easy to pick out.

[that's what they're doing, after all. even his own role probably wouldn't have been brought to light if he hadn't dropped subtle hints that made it more obvious to those who knew the role.

he's been pretty quiet for the start of this discussion, trying to take the time to absorb all the information and see if there's anything he can piece together from it.]

Not sure I'd even know anyone off the top of my head that could be singled out, though.

[bittybat]

[Hi, Noct.]

Only if they lie or withhold information. [Likely, but wtf else should they do?] There's still the Madame and the Bartender roles left.

We need to lure all three out.

[elemancy]

[to that, he nods. there won't be any disagreement from him about that. he still feels like there's a lot he's missing here, which makes this more difficult.]

The sooner we can, the better. [he sighs and mutters under his breath:] I feel like we're chocobos running around with our heads cut off.

[though they got this far, but his woefully uninformed life definitely frustrates him when they're trying to figure this all out.]

Guess we just have to figure out how. Or hope they all come spilling their guts to Percy.

[thatsthespirit]

[she nods]

Those are my thoughts as well. There seems to be a pattern to those who have been chosen so far-- they're all younger, and all of them display signs of teenage sarcasm rebelliousness.

[which she talks about like she heard the term from a nature documentary or something, you know]

I wonder if they all rubbed the same person the wrong way?

[bittybat]

I asked the Sheriff whether Yuki was a Bounty based on the hint he gave me before. He said she wasn't, and that he thought about getting rid of her because she wasn't participating to the fullest potential. [Which doesn't seem to make Damian all that happy.]

I was offered a reward for finding out Maxwell's role. I tried to keep him from doing away with Yuki via the reward, but he wouldn't allow me. [Sigh.]

I can trap the stocks again like before, but we should warn Yuki not to stay outside there. Not only could she be injured, but she could deter Bandits from engaging the trap.

[hydrokinetics]

[He schools his face into a more serious expression then.]

I hope he didn't revoke your reward for something he wouldn't let you claim. [Asshole. But.] …depending on who's in the stocks, she might not even bother. She stuck around for Jason and Shinnosuke, but she didn't bother with Annabeth.

[It's something he's thought about.] She wants to save everyone or whatever, but she's also selective, it seems. Maybe Milla can convince her to stay inside this week.

That goes back to we don't know who else is a Bounty. What was the hint he gave you again?

[bittybat]

He didn't. [Just... unsure right yet what he actually got because waiting to hear confirmation...

Also: ouch. Yuna, why. (Damian still feels like shit, as a glorified Robin, about not being able to stop Annabeth's murder.)] Did she assume you would stay with Chase? It doesn't make sense... why both of them, but not Chase?

[He'll fucking ask.] They were going to potentially be harmed. [He pauses.] The new hint was they had interesting actions with machines in the last week.

He should tell us, however. Once three Bounties have found one another, he will tell us the last. One is dead, confirmed, so only one is left.

Who went with Xion to open the gunsmith? Todd and Arisu also opened the post office. [He frowns.] I asked Todd if he had a role, and he said no. He could be lying.

I haven't asked Arisu. He knew it was me who set up the trap, but we didn't discuss anything vital.

[hydrokinetics]

[A shrug. He doesn't know what Yuna assumed, but he does find it weird. That hint also doesn't help much, and he frowns lightly in response.]

Are you sure he didn't actually mean Milla? She's a girl and she got hit with a cannonball and she's a Bounty. Maybe Hal didn't know you were already in touch with her?

[That should also answer Damian's question.] And how'd Shinnosuke know it was you, by the way?

[bittybat]

It could have been. He didn't say whether they were male or female.

[Damian frowns.] I told him when he asked who was there.

[thatsthespirit]

[ah. . .]

That. . . may be my fault.

[what is this guilty look she's wearing!!]

The day Annabeth was chosen for the stocks was the day Natalie was found with a missing arm. Natalie asked me to stay with her at the clinic that night, since she was too weak to return to the hotel.

During our first week here, Yuna and I made a promise to always stick together on nights when murders were supposed to occur. We thought our buddy system would help protect us both. And so, I asked her to stay with Natalie and I at the clinic the night Annabeth was killed.

I'm sorry, Percy. [had she and Yuna stayed at the stocks instead, would things be different. . . ? now that she knows the specific purpose of those stocks, she can't help but wonder]

[hydrokinetics]

[...there's a long pause as he takes that into account. Somehow, that makes sense. He doesn't say anything for a moment before he slowly shakes his head, almost sadly.]

It wouldn't have mattered if you guys stayed, just like it wouldn't have mattered if I stayed, apparently. Hal already told me that even if I had won that argument and fought Annabeth to stay with her, the Bandits would have gotten rid of me because she was supposed to die. So...don't feel bad, okay? But that makes a little more sense why Yuna's pattern went off. Thank you for telling me.

[thatsthespirit]

[Percy 8(((((]

[she's quiet for a long moment, before she speaks up again]

. . . if that's true, then we need to find another way to protect those placed in the stocks. Damian mentioned traps, but--

[those could probably be easily disarmed]

[thatsthespirit]

[shriek?? SHRIEK???? she looks like she really fuckin' wants to stab a Sheriff now??]

Yuna's contributed more than her fair share to this game. . .! She protected Shinnosuke, and has been diligent in looking after others-- including myself.

[she is so unhappy with this news]

She doesn't deserve to die, and I won't allow the Sheriff to harm a hair on her head.

[elemancy]

Don't forget... his idea of contributing's probably not the same as ours. Not like he wants to see a ton of people getting out of this safe and alive.

[which means that yuna interfering to keep people safe is probably wrenching the sheriff's plans for the game at least a little.

which isn't necessarily a bad thing for their morality, but it's a safety issue.]

[thatsthespirit]

[ugh. ugh!! she's so visibly annoyed. one hand curls into a fist at her side as she attempts to distract herself by petting this cow again]

Unfortunately, you're right. Our best plan of action right now is to keep a close eye on her. As her roommate, I can ensure she doesn't go anywhere on Thursday night.

[NOT. . . THAT. . . IT WOULD MATTER, APPARENTLY?? based on what happened to Simon. but leave her alone she wants to hope and dream and believe she can protect Yuna :( :( :( her favorite bean :( :( :(]

[elemancy]

Sounds like a start. You have to be careful too, though. We already know that being roommates... doesn't really stop much from happening around here.

[like what happened to simon. but there's also the matter of lust too, and how barnham wanted so badly to protect her and couldn't.

of course, they have knowledge that barnham might not, so maybe that changes things? he's not sure, but it concerns him, no less.]

[bittybat]

[It's okay, Milla. Damian is just as unhappy about this kind of talk from the fucking Sheriff. He probably should have punched again, tbh.]

It's best if we keep her in some kind of lenient custody. Otherwise, I think the Sheriff may make it easier for Bandits to kill her, or she'll get herself killed unintentionally by being in the way.

[thatsthespirit]

[the Sheriff deserves so many punches]

[uuuugh. she turns back towards the cud-chewing cow and focuses on petting the creature's neck for a bit while she tries to calm down. come now, Maxwell. don't lose your cool like this]

I'll do my best to keep her safe on Thursday night. If someone else winds up in the stocks this week, she'll likely want to protect them. But if there's another mechanism in place to keep them safe, then I'll have an easier time talking her into staying at the hotel.

[bittybat]

[He nods in acknowledgement, glad more people will be looking out for dumbass Yuna. He can't believe he has all these stupid protags he has to also keep up with and protect. (Like he isn't one, too.)]