trustfell | Take Responsibility.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't need to participate in any sort of farce.

Aren't we already?

And I don't see the reason to go along with it.

I'd argue that puts the suspicion on you, Ms. Fern.

Yeah cause I could bloody tear a man in two.

You did beat up a kidney stone.

[ ........ ]

That's not really hard? You undergo some treatments and get it all broken up, or you go on that one Disney ride that makes them pass right through your system?

No, I mean, there was a giant kidney stone and she totally took it out! She told me about it a while back, it was pretty cool.

What's a Disney?

...

[he's not sure whether he should look at Sigrun in befuddledment or both, so he just kind of looks at both]

A company! I'll tell you more later, it's proooobably not the time right now.

[ i can't believe aligula's going to teach sigrun about disney, jesus christ. ]

But ooh, so Nurturing's stronger than she looks, huh~? That's interesting. And here I thought she was just like, some totally lame mom person.

Fine.

[wow, you're getting really worked up over something kinda silly]

If there's no reason, you might as well.

If there's no point, I should've have to.

It's alright, Fern-san. It doesn't take long at all.

We're wasting enough time as it is.

But isn't this wastin' even more time?

Then we should move on! This is a bloody dead end anyway!

Fern-san! It really isn't a big deal!

[Hibiki visibly winces at being yelled at?? Wow.]

Why're you so insistent it is?

You know, people's lives are at stake here, and it's not going to even take that long.

Look, if your problem is with Ms. Marker, perhaps... someone else could do the hair and clothes thing, but like Yuri said, lives are on the line here. We all have done it.