Take Responsibility.

[trustbound]

And once everyone has finished their investigations of the building, the door down at the bottom of that stairwell in the dorms seems to once again have been unlocked; it opens slowly and as though of its own volition, swinging outward lightly after an audible click of the latch. Hopefully everyone knows better than to stand in front of it by now, but if not...well, it's gentle enough to provide some sort of encouragement to move without straight-out hitting anyone. For the third time in as many weeks, the stairwell that door leads to is dark; the only light visible is what managing to get in from the courtroom below. The room itself remains as unforgiving and imposing as ever with its walls made entirely of concrete and steel; the podium circle stands starkly in the center, wooden structures ringing the darkened pit below. Again, there's been a change in the podium setup; Blue and Walt have joined those with podiums draped in black. Their profile portraits are arranged atop them, greyed-out and observing the proceedings, along with the rest of those that you've lost. As always, the thirty-sixth podium stands empty. Once everyone has found their place in the circle, Jericho can be heard over the public-address system; he seems to have gotten himself together a little more since morning, though he still doesn't quite seem up to the usual. "Methodical's been taken from you; almost all of you know why you're here right now, and even if your secrets aren't safe anymore, I'd still suggest doing your job to the fullest - unless you consider those secrets worth dying over, even if they aren't worth killing over. As for the guilty party...your secret's safe with me, but unfortunately? You're not safe at all just yet. Whether you manage to actually ensure that you are by the end of the trial is a different matter, I guess. Innocent against the guilty. Let's go round three, see how well you all come out. As always, do your best!" Twenty-nine Participants remain. Let's see how many remain at the end of the day.

Comments

[brandnewday]

Hmm...most bear attacks are defensive, y'know. Bears hurt less people per year than humans do, after all.

[don't slander bears???]

[matchbreaker]

None of you humans have the strength to rip off an arm!

[ . . . She worded that weird but oh well. ]

[brandnewday]

That's right!

I just feel kinda bad for bears bein' used for comparison. Bears are really sweet as long as you don't get 'em upset!

[matchbreaker]

Okay, right, bear dignity matters.

[brandnewday]

Misinformation only makes people more afraid of animals! It's a very serious issue.

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . I GUESS? ]

[hentopan]

So you just wanna look at the non-humans then?

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . ]

No.

[hentopan]

Why bring it up then? Not saying you're wrong, would be hard for most humans to display this kind of force.

[matchbreaker]

Because it's surprising? Hell, short of someone getting a tiger out of the vending machine I'd be hard pressed to think of how you rip off an arm. Or why, really.

[sleepytimegal]

Vending machine... Has anyone seen, uh...anything outta that, like...a claw-glove, something? [ She shrugs helplessly, but it's an idea. ]

[matchbreaker]

Closest I've gotten is brass knuckles.

[ Which she'll never wear because hello chipping a nail? Plus it'll make her fingers smell bad, iron-y. ]

[ninehundredlives]

Though apparently there are animals in there...

[Susan isn't entirely over the whole "living creatures and/or slimes in the vending machine" thing]

[matchbreaker]

Yeah, that's why it's... possible, I guess.

[destage]

[...Elda, can you please watch your wording for one trial--]

Is it possible that we're looking for a weapon of some sort, then? Maybe multiple..?

[matchbreaker]

That looks like... claws? Like some sort of bear -- err. Tiger claw... glove. Or something?

[destage]

It's possible, yeah...

[...She's kind of starting to look concerned, though, and...kind of quiets down a bit.]

[innocentloveholic]

Well, if they're strong enough, if Methodical was unconscious during it, and if they did some awful twisty stuff with his arm, then they could've! But like, yeah, there'd have to be a lot of force involved.

[ ...this sure is fun fact hour with aligula, though these facts are not very fun. ]

[matchbreaker]

Even with twisting, bones and muscles and ligaments are no joke. That's a huge amount of force or a lot of patience. Or just a lot of mindless frenzy.

[innocentloveholic]

Well, all his broken bones could've helped with the "bones and ligaments" part of that equation... I'd totally guess that it'd be way easier to rip the arm off of someone who had a buncha bone pieces instead of a skeletal structure.

[matchbreaker]

Oh, that's true, isn't it?

[ Nod. ]

I never thought've that!