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

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.

Not all of us have.

[She's not even looking at Fern though, she's looking at Terumi.]

Yo!

[/WAVE, but. She'll get back to you, Terumi, if there even is a need to get back to you. What the fuck, Fern.]

...well, he's next if Fern ever decides to allow herself to potentially be cleared.

....She is not acting like an innocent woman, at the moment.

No, she... certainly isn't. If she is, I hope she has an explanation for this behavior.

Yeah, she's by far more suspicious right now. It would explain a few things too.

[Why Fern would keep trying to pin it on her or Elda, for example, despite what should be a clear alibi.]

There are, perhaps, a few things I still don't quite understand here, but perhaps we'll get an answer as things progress.

Th-there's enough of us here that we could probably clear him now while... um... that is happening.

We should probably wait on Fern first.

[ Do we really want another brawl on our hands. ]

I-I suppose that is a fair point.

[That would be bad if two brawls happened.]

Want to fight about it, powderpuff?

I simply said to clear your name, did I not?

[Do we need Estelle falsely accusing people again, because we can totally replay that... ~~no no we don't need that again.~~]

And there's nothing that points to me, so no.

(no subject)

firstaid - 2017-09-30 21:24 (UTC) - Expand

hentopan - 2017-09-30 21:26 (UTC) - Expand

They're putting on a good enough show to warrant submitting to the check for approximately three seconds once they're done, you know.

[no really look at miss fern go

that said, come on, terumi, don't be a total shit]

hentopan - 2017-09-30 21:23 (UTC) - Expand

Fern-san, please...

[Girl, christ, this is getting concerning as hell.]

Please move on?! I don't see why not!

Fern, anyone else here could take a strand of hair. You should let them.

You yelling isn't making this any better.

[Sorry, she's...kind of not pleased here, but also kind of desperate.]

It's completely viable, and...and it's actually a good point. Please, Fern-san. If this doesn't work, then it's simple, isn't it?

...fighting will solve nothing. Is there no one you will trust with this endeavor?

[She doesn't want to make her upset any more. She's fond of Fern after all. But this is an investigation.]

Edited 2017-09-30 21:26 (UTC)