Take Responsibility.

[trustbound]

Once again, as people finish their investigations and make their way toward the door at the bottom of those stairs in the dorms, the door down there is unlocked once again. It opens as though of its own volition, with a loud clicking sound and a soft outward swing, not firmly enough to harm anyone who might be standing in the way but enough to give them some slight encouragement to move. The stairwell it leads to is once again dark, the only light coming in from the courtroom below, if it can really properly be called that. It stands as cold and unforgiving as it did last week, all concrete and steel and the podium circle in the center, surrounding the darkened pit in the middle. Nothing can be seen down there for the time being; it simply seems like a large black hole leading nowhere. Three more podiums have joined Jean's in being arranged differently from the rest; Caren, Yosuke, and Chitoge have all joined the ranks of the deceased, their podiums draped in black with their profile portraits sitting atop them, greyed-out and watching the room with unseeing eyes. The thirty-sixth podium remains empty and blank, as always. Once everyone has found their place in the circle, the public-address system comes to life once more, and after a moment Jericho's voice can be heard "Dexterous has been taken from you; seems like a lot of you were friends with her, and you all know why you're here by now and what you're supposed to do. So hopefully you guys won't be disrespectful assholes again and expect me to make you give a damn this time! Be self-centered about it all you want, just do your jobs. After all, it's in your best interests to do that. As always, do your best - I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes." Thirty-one Participants remain. However many are left at the end of the day is up to you.

Comments

[bloodisthicker]

For once, I agree with Aligula here. Unless there's something involved with this that means she didn't kill Chitoge, there's no need to listen to her sob story about why she thought condemning all of us to death was a good idea.

[innocentloveholic]

[ shit.... her and tarrlok agreeing on something.... end of the fucking world here, probably. ]

Yeah, what Assured said. [ so speak now or forever hold your peace i guess ]

[heritrix]

I know you're a councilman, but I hope you have nothing to do with law enforcement if you're this negligent. Even having the correct culprit, we should get a better grasp on what happened.

[bloodisthicker]

If you're so certain there's something more to this, then by all means keep prying. Maybe you'll manage to convince yourself someone else did it and run around in circles trying to prove the culprit isn't right in front of you.

[heritrix]

No, I have no doubt it isn't her, but if we don't get out of here soon this is only going to continue. We should carry this out the proper way, so we don't get in the habit of cutting corners and pay for it later when a tougher case blindsides us.

[bloodisthicker]

Are there really even corners to cut here, though? I believe this has been about as straightforward as you can get. I know not to oversimplify something complicated, but there's also a danger inherent in overcomplicating something simple.

[notaccurate]

If you are wrong and she actually is covering for someone else, then I will be sure to say 'I told you so' as we are all killed.

[In case Tarrlok forgot the stakes here.]

[bloodisthicker]

Who are you thinking she'd be covering for, then? Throw out a name.

[notaccurate]

It could be anyone. We are assuming that the murderer has to be a friendly face that Chitoge trusts. If Blue was that friendly face, she could have let anyone else here into that room to commit the murder.

[heritrix]

She could have, but she didn't. Blue literally has bleach stains on her, which puts her at the scene to collect the bedsheets. If there was someone else and they didn't want to get caught, they would have cleaned up the mess in the laundry room.

[notaccurate]

You don't think someone smart enough to use another person to commit a murder would also be smart enough to have them clean up the mess after the murder?

[matchbreaker]

... Backing up to the rules though, wouldn't that still kill Blue?

Like... only the murderer - the winner - survives. So any accomplice'd probably drop too, right? The girl's smarter than that.

[notaccurate]

Yes, it would. It would have to be quite a bit of leverage against her to get her to act when she knows she would die too. Assuming that it's true and Blue is not the murderer.

I don't like how quickly she admitted to it, nor do I like how certain people here were so eager to jump right at it and end things.

[matchbreaker]

I agreed in the first place, but letting the illusion go on... well, if you're right, we're all dead. But if you're not, then it seems almost insulting to the woman, doesn't it?

[notaccurate]

I would much rather keep living. Blue claimed to be selfish, but she is not the only one.

[But given the outburst in the other thread, this is probably done with, so he'll let it go.]

[heritrix]

I do, but that's obviously not the case this time. We've only been here for two weeks; Blue's personality doesn't match such an obedient accomplice who would carry out such orders at the expense of her own death.

[notaccurate]

[He's losing this fight, so he's not going to push it anymore. But he does say one last thing:]

Anybody can be blackmailed. Don't overlook that.

[bloodisthicker]

With what, though. I mean, I'm not disagreeing with the basic premise of what you're saying, but the only ones who might have the cards to do the blackmailing would be Alena and Jericho, who wouldn't need Blue to give them an in to kill Chitoge.

[bloodisthicker]

Who would Blue throw herself under the boat for, then? I really doubt it's anyone here, given that we've all known each other... what, two weeks? There also isn't really much leverage you could use to force someone to cover for you, either.

[notaccurate]

Yes, I know. And I know Blue won't exactly come out and tell us if that's the case. It's just...

[He sighs. He can't put words to his thought process.]

Fine. I will stop my protests on the matter.

[heritrix]

There were. A few simple questions have since cleared that up, and we've all learned a valuable lesson about chairs. See how simple that was?

[Rin found it kind of alarming how many people thought it would be death instantly if you were hit with one, so it works out that was the weapon that knocked Chitoge out after all.]

This group is largely comprised of amateurs, so we need to pay attention to details like these as we go. Others might not be as forthcoming next time.

[bloodisthicker]

I never tried to stop anyone from asking those questions, but... you're right that the clarification of the "how" was reasonably helpful. I think people are getting too concerned with how she's acting and why she did it in the first place, which isn't as helpful here.

[heritrix]

That I do agree with. Absolutely and 100%.

[Sorry Luca.]

[bloodisthicker]

I'm glad we've reached the same page, then. I'll try to be less hasty on the mechanics front in the future, then, for the sake of making sure everyone can follow along.