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

[bloodisthicker]

...

I think if someone had an ability that would allow them to change into a different form, it would probably be locked off, though. So we should probably be looking at people who'd be able to do that naturally.

[...sidelong glance at them nails tbh]

[captainobnoxious]

If it was ripped off, then they'd have to be pretty strong. But I mean, even I can't do that unless it's already rotting or hanging off by a string.

[and she's Strong.]

[matchbreaker]

[ gorgeous, aren't they? ]

Oh, yeah? I guess it depends on what biology they let people keep. I mean, you didn't get your bending, but my eyes can still shift around a little.

[ Not that it matters much. ]

[notaccurate]

Did you keep anything else? And I am assuming you were born with the eye-shift thing, yes?

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . Tch.

She goes to bite her nail but then stops short - the polish still isn't quite dry. But...

Well, her secret'll be out anyway probably, right? ]

I've got a better sense of smell than most of the room and these eyes see better in the dark. That's about it.

[ . . . Well and she's stronger than her size would imply by like a lot, but. ]

[notaccurate]

[...well that is interesting.]

Strong enough to smell whatever is in the glass, maybe?

[matchbreaker]

... Maybe? It's not like I know every scent. Like I didn't grow up with all the weird pills in the infirmary, so if I don't know it I don't know it.

[notaccurate]

I was more thinking that, if you kept your sense of strong smell, then whoever did this would have too. And they might have recognized the scent if their sense of smell was strong enough to pick up the poison.

[matchbreaker]

Oh.

... Oh, that's a good point, actually!

[ She brightens up ]

You're smarter than you look sometimes!

[ninehundredlives]

At the least, the bar's been around long enough that they ought to know what alcohol is supposed to smell like. If they didn't before.

[zomgboom]

It depends. [She pauses uncomfortably.] Things that directly tied to biology are, like, still there. If whatever this person took with their body, you could . . . trigger? A shift or something.

I could still blow something up if you did something like that, for example, but like. I wouldn't live through the process.

[matchbreaker]

No they aren't!

[ Or if they are??? She??? has been ripped off???

Erasing memories is totally pure biology.

Totally. ]

At least not all of 'em, I've not been able to do this or that.

[zomgboom]

I didn't say you could, like, use them. I said they were still there. Keep up, Tiny Grandma: what I'm saying is if I'm still a living bomb, it's possible someone else has biology that can be activated under specific circumstances too.

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . Oh, okay, that's more - ]

So it's like ... a dampening thing? Biology's not an on-off switch, but what you're saying is all the biology is still there, just inactive. But then messing up someone's organs might just trigger it anyway?

[zomgboom]

It depends on, like. How you trigger it in the first place? Like, I'm made of plasma so if you set a bomb off then, like.

ZOMG, boom. It's not gonna be pretty.

[matchbreaker]

... I'm so sorry?!

[ what the fuck ]

[zomgboom]

Why? [???? She doesn't understand.] It's not like it's going to happen.

[evilfrenzy]

[THERE IS SO MUCH TO ADDRESS WITH THIS, BUT...]

Did you just say a texting acronym out loud?

[captainobnoxious]

That's an acronym?

[ALSO: WHAT IS TEXTING.]

[zomgboom]

Uh, yeah? [Well, actually what she said was "zo-em-gee" but.] I've done it before, why are you, like, getting weirded out now?

[heritrix]

[GOOD TO FUCKING KNOW.]

[notaccurate]

[Way to give future-murderers ideas.]

[zomgboom]

[Do you wanna bring down the whole building? That is definitely how you bring down the whole fucking building.]

[bloodisthicker]

...

How does that even happen?

[zomgboom]

Uh, you build a bomb and set it of close enough to me that the shockwave, like, activates the source of my powers? I don't recommend that or whatever, though.

First of all, I'll die and take out the building with me but second of all everyone else probably will too.