Looks like this will be a weekly thing

[forcegalactic]

[This whole week has been awful. This whole experience has been awful. Mordecai wants to go straight to his room and deal with his frustrations, but that's not what a mayor does. A mayor takes charge, a mayor fixes what's wrong, a mayor makes things better. Even if he can't do everything on his own, he's has to do something.

Two hours after the end of the trial, the living will find another note slipped underneath their doors.]

There's cookies in the kitchen. The dining room is ready for anyone who needs a quiet place to talk it out. I'll be in the bar if you need a drink, alcoholic or something more appropriate for the underage crowd.

-Mordecai Benmont Jiminy

[There's a pile of warm chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen. Two more candles are lit at the memorial - one for the victim, one for the culprit - and Mordecai has left a pile of blankets from the storage room on one of the dining room tables.]

Comments

[forcegalactic]

[Using the power of friendship and the Force Galactic--no wait.]

What was that he mentioned to me again? The last experiment session unfolded in such a way that literally anythin' would be better than that. Yeah. If we do remind him of his coworkers...wonder if that's how they all died.

Sometimes I wonder if he wants us to leave. First the precaution to allow us to kill him with his permission, then sayin' there's a way for lots of us to leave without murderin' someone, and his promise not to stop us if we find that way out.

Now, he might say that this is his idea, but he's gotta have some reason to stick to bein' all neutral and non-interferin' for the sake of the experiment. Ain't the god forcin' him directly, but if there really was a deal, we have our answer.

[perpend]

"Literally anything would have been better than that".

[He looks thoughtful.]

That doesn't tell us much, does it? I stiiill don't know what kind of a man the Conductor is.

[...]

You know, I think him being neutral and non-interfering is the pooint. He's running an "experiment" the way scientists put rats in mazes.

[forcegalactic]

I dunno. Mad scientists don't always make sense.

[Why isn't the Marshal here? He'd know more about this.]

[perpend]

They doon't, do they?

The only "mad" scientist I know is a friend of sorts, and he's nothing like the Conductor.

[forcegalactic]

...So he's one of the harmless ones? Mostly rambles about what he wants to do?

[Those...are potential troublemakers, and he would not allow them in his saloon, but if they aren't breaking the law, there's no reason for the Marshal to take action.]

[perpend]

The only mad science he's doing is helping me out, maaan!

We've been... working on something for a number of years. Maybe it's a lie to call what he does mad science; he's just your regular run-of-the-mill doctor, really.

[He just happens to have a pet pigeon that can do everything for him, nbd]