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

[heritrix]

She wouldn't do that at the cost of her own skin. Even if she did, shouldn't it be seven days now?

[It's been a week since Jean died.]

[icysemblance]

Not necessarily. We don't know whether the timer is always the same. It's possible it's entirely random.

[ninehundredlives]

Alena told me it wouldn't get shorter, at least. I don't think she would lie about that.

[Other stuff, probably, but the rules seem straightforward.]

[zomgboom]

But we, like, do? Susan said Laney told her the timer won't get shorter, only longer.

[icysemblance]

We don't know that she didn't lie about it.

[zomgboom]

Nah, Jeremiah Bullfrog is, like, pretty anal about the letter of the law and not the spirit. She wouldn't lie about a lot of things but not about, like, the rules of the game.

[ninehundredlives]

That's my thought. The one thing we can trust her on...

[evilfrenzy]

[After Tabby speaks:]

Plus, Alena doesn't really beat around the bush with answers. She'd probably refuse to answer entirely before lying.