does this apply to me? confusing.

"Judge Wright is currently indisposed, but I've been instructed to give you whatever you need." Bobby turned around in his seat and opened the filing cabinet, pulling out the Arc'err casefile. There wasn't a whole lot to it just yet; the initial videotape showing his raging, the list of his visitors, a copy of the prisoner report, plus attached were the affidavits from the witnesses in the Tapole case (and her name was highlighted on the visitor list), and a copy of her warrant.

Overall, the whole thing was far from complete, but as soon as they could get the prosecutor on the case, it would hopefully start coming together.

"What we need," Jack said, jumping in from his desk and speaking for his twin, "is for you to first speak to our prosecutor. But what you're basically going to be doing is determining whether or not Arc'err could be put to trial or not, depending on his mental state. There's been some question about his sanity, and what we're ultimately going to need to know is whether or not he can be held responsible for his actions in your expert opinion. Likewise, we need to have you available to testify as an expert witness, if needed."

"Really, though, it's up to the prosecutor to tell you exactly what he needs to go forward in the case. He hasn't been in yet to answer his summons, but his name, as well as the name of the present defense counsel, is already inside this jacket," Bobby added, offering the file over, with a legal envelope containing the video tape. "If you don't have a VCR, you're welcome to use the court's. In the meantime, this should be enough to get you started."

((Post changed due to playable being deleted. Since the massacre didn't happen, Elena's memory of it has been erased.))

Walking through the marketplace, Elena blinked a bit. She had the idea that there was something that she had intended to do here, but she couldn't think of what it might be. The marketplace looked busy and noisy as always, with not a thing out of place. She bought some bread from a cheerful woman named Alesa, and continued on her way.

Elena shut the video off, and leaned back, trying to stretch her stiff muscles. When was the last time she had gone back over the recording of a session' A number of years ago, it must have been - in her daily practice, it was enough to rely on her notes and fairly capacious memory. But an assessment required a much closer degree of scrutiny, and she needed to be able to provide evidence of anything that she included in her assessment report.

She gathered up her video notes - transcripts of words and phrases that seemed significant, jottings of preliminary theories that she would need to explore, and questions that she wanted to ask after this first interview with Renne, both of him and of those who knew him. Lots and lots of questions - and of course, once she started asking those, more questions would appear. But she thought that the information she had received from talking to Renne was already coming together nicely.

And speaking of theories - Renne's odd use of the English language had caught her notice, and she wanted to figure out how he used certain words and phrases. But she didn't want to spend another few hours transcribing the tape in full - she already had enough on her plate - so she thought she'd go and see whether the promise of "whatever you need" from the court included a willingness to let her take up the time of their people.

Bobby and Jack were still in the front office at this late hour, and when she explained her request to them, they were unexpectedly eager to help her out. "There haven't been many trials of late, and our stenographer can't get nearly enough hours to really support her family," explained Jack. "Delia's been doing lots of odd jobs, to the extent that her work here is the odd job. But she's really good, and it's a shame that she can't do more of it."

Jack went out the door, and reappeared fifteen minutes later, with a thirtyish woman in tow. Her dress was much-patched and currently dusty, but her head was tilted up, looking at the world with openness. Her words confirmed what Jack said. "Oh, yes, no problem at all, and it won't take me long. It would probably be easier for you at the trial to refer to transcripts than scroll through the video, right?"

"Right," Elena said, and they exchanged smiles. "And I'm wondering - as I said, I need to look for certain words and phrases - would it be possible to make it part of your job underlining them for me?"

"Very possible," said Delia, with a tone of craftsmanslike satisfaction. "It doesn't come up often, but when the judge needs to refer to records of previous trials, I'm the one sorting them out and giving him the relevant passages."

So that was settled - it didn't take long to explain what she needed. She said goodnight to Bobby, Jack, and Delia (who was pulling out her stenographer's machine with an abstracted look on her face), and set off for the post office. One last task for the day, and then she could go home. A walk on the beach with Brian sounded like just the thing.

At the post office, she bought three envelopes and stamps, and used pages from her notebook to write three identical notes. At the top, she had neatly written in "Dear Sarah," "Dear Cinder," and "Dear Vicfryn," respectively.

"My name is Elena Dumova, and I am the court-appointed psychologist in the trial of Renne. I am required to perform an assessment of his ability to stand trial, whether or not he was responsible for what happened at the time of the murders, and an overall assessment of what would be most helpful to him in terms of his mental health. Since a good assessment requires that I talk to as many of the people who know him as possible, and since he has named you as someone he feels close to, I am requesting your help. Please write me with the times that it would be convenient for us to meet to talk about this. With thanks, Elena."

She had deliberately omitted the more precise word that Renne used when describing these people - she wanted to see how they would characterize the relationship. She sealed up the envelopes, wrote the names again, copied the address from the prison's visitor's log on Cinder's envelope, and handed the envelopes over to the mailman, apologizing for not knowing the other two addresses. The mailman, used to people writing all sorts of strange directions on their mail, just shrugged and said that he would do his best to deliver, but of course, could not guarantee it.

At least she knew where Harry and Archie were - the other two (living) people that Renne had named. But busy as those two were, arranging a meeting would probably be no less difficult.

Sarah had just arrived home from the post office, not having looked at the mail just yet.

She sat down on the new, yet tacky, couch in the living room. She opened the letter she was sent, read it, and soon had a puzzled look on her face. She knew Renne was going on trial for the horrible things he had done, but that she needed to be questioned puzzled her a bit.

Either way, she didnt mind. She wrote a letter back, and marched back over to the post office.

"Hello-

I would gladly give you a statement, and help you with your case as much as you need me. Set up a time and place, and I will meet with you for how ever long you need.

-Sarah"

Elena got into town early in the morning, after a night of rest together with Brian at the beach house, for once. She had barely walked through the doors of the courthouse when Bobby hailed her.

"Elena! A guard brought this over from Port South. She said that you should really see this."

Her eyebrows rose, and she accepted the newest tape, hefting it in her hand. "Hey, Bobby. Thanks. Did she say why?"

"Nope, just that it was weird, and didn't seem to be happening inside the cell, despite being recorded there."

"Huh, I should look at it first thing, then." She tucked it under one arm, and walked back with Bobby to the court offices, chatting amiably. In the video room, which had become very familiar over the past few weeks, she quickly settled in to watch.

The first time she watched it, she was startled, wondering what was going on. But it quickly became apparent that this was some landscape of the mind. From what she knew of Renne's abilities, he could probably have projected it, though he gave no sign that he knew that this was being recorded. And the corpse-like thing that appeared from the walls and disappeared back into them must be the Hunter that Renne referred to. She wondered, not for the first time, what the significance of that name was. For that matter, she wondered about the symbolism of the mental landscape, but rather than guess too much, she made a note to ask Renne about it.

She then settled in for the stop-and-take-copious-notes slow going of a second watching. Her questions multiplied, but at least the possession theory was looking less and less likely. And the relationship between Renne and Hunter seemed to be clearer, as well.

She sat back to read over her notes, frowning in concentration. Renne's responses were in line with what she knew about him already, but the Hunter's - those were odd. If you put aside the denigrative remarks, there were a number of things in there that seemed an attempt to get Renne to listen to him. And if this wasn't possession....then who was trying to communicate with Renne in this manner, and why' The most obvious answer would be a part of Renne's self, but if so, which part' And was it worth listening to'

After decisively writing down a couple more questions, she dropped the pen on the table, and closed her notebook. She needed to go down to Port South and talk to Renne again before speculating any more.