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

[heritrix]

I did, but it's not related to this. Walter's death was [a slight pause here] violent, to put it lightly. Between the bar, billiards hall, and the infirmary on the second floor we have signs of a struggle, but he was a normal human. If he was poisoned or drugged, it should have taken him out quickly.

I'd guess it's the opposite; that he slipped something into someone else's drink, and bit off more than he could chew.

[destage]

...So it's possible he was the aggressor, and someone...uh...

[...ALIGULA'S EXPLANATION IS KIND OF WIGGING HER THE FUCK OUT TO HEAR, JESUS CHRIST WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ALL.]

Retaliated. Really retaliated.

[perpend]

What a nasty surprise that must have been

[But it does sound like a reasonable enough explanation.]

[notaccurate]

So...whatever he slipped into someone's drink was enough to turn them into a-a bear or something?

[Because ripping people apart and claw marks and stuff.]

Honestly this all sounds absolutely ridiculous, if we were anywhere else but here I would call this a poor attempt as a joke.

[hesperos]

I'm guessing it's more like he expected his target to be susceptible to whatever the hell he slipped in their drink, only to find out the hard way that wasn't the case.

[brandnewday]

W-well, if we're gonna keep usin' the bear analogy...

[And Hibiki doesn't like that!! Bears are great!! Bears are a teenage girl's best friends!!]

Wouldn't it be some kinda self-defense? Bears don't attack for no reason!

[perpend]

I'd say attempted murder is good enough for a self defense claim as any.

[notaccurate]

Not that it matters here either way, or so our first trial proved. If motive did matter, then Caren would still be here.

[innocentloveholic]

Bears are just stupid animals, Vivacious. They attack when they perceive something might be a threat, like if they have a baby and they see someone around their area, or if they have a secret that'd totally screw everything over for them in their little... Bear societies or whatever they have.

[ Is this about bears or is this about humans, who the fuck knows. ]

[brandnewday]

Bears don't have secrets. That's stupid.

[You know, just putting it out there, you sound pretty ridiculous Aligula?]

Also a group of bears is called a "sloth" of bears, but family or litter works, too.

[bloodisthicker]

...You know, that's entirely possible. I didn't know him well enough to judge for certain, but a lot of the way his profile was worded made him seem like the sort of person who might have a few secrets he'd want to keep under wraps.

[he says, like "ambition" and "power" as interests aren't shady either]

[heritrix]

He had a noted interest in chemistry, too. A skillset like that would lend well to poisoning someone.

[bloodisthicker]

Yes, although I'd question the sheer amount of pills if he was going for that.

...

Then again, if he was going to leave and we all were going to die, there's really no reason not to go overboard to make entirely sure someone died.

[heritrix]

Like I said, I think it's possible the rest of the pills could be with the culprit. If they was badly poisoned, for example...

[They could be in pain.]

[notaccurate]

Chemistry isn't my strong suit, but I know enough about it to know that it is very easy to make poisons if you intend on doing so. Even common foods can be used for such purposes.

[heritrix]

[/nod, nod. Yup, you get it, Luca!]

[ninehundredlives]

Right? Why would you need inverted commas around "entrepreneur"?

[perpend]

....perhaps what he was doing wasn't particularly legal.

Black market criminals will find ways to word what they do very carefully, to avoid saying things like "drug dealer" and risk being found out.

[ninehundredlives]

It sounds like a secret worth keeping, for however much life he had in him.

[bloodisthicker]

Precisely. Most criminals will swear up and down that their business is entirely legal and that any attempts to put a stop to their enterprises is infringing upon their liberty... at least, if they've got half a brain, anyway.

[bloodbiter]

Then... Either they noticed the poison and didn’t drink, or it had a different effect on them than he intended for whatever reason?

[notaccurate]

I think it is safe to say that whoever killed him is not human. Or, at the very least, they can become something that is not human. So you may be right in that whatever was in the drink had a different effect than what was expected.

[bloodbiter]

And unless they simply walked on him when he was making the concoction for someone else, it would be someone who trusted him enough to drink with him, correct?

[ninehundredlives]

Maybe someone he thought wouldn't notice the smell...

[notaccurate]

That too, yes. Though that might be difficult to prove here, we have...a lot of trusting people.

[That's putting it gently.]