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

[blackmass]

If it is a case of possession, that's something I should be able to handle if it becomes necessary. But at this rate, I doubt it will.

[bloodisthicker]

I'm getting the impression it's more like some sort of parasite, honestly. I've read up on some really nasty ones, though they usually... can't talk or anything.

[zomgboom]

Usually they, like, build robot suits for themselves where I'm from.

[bloodisthicker]

Well, there aren't any robot suits here, so apparently this one had to settle on puppeting a corpse around.

[zomgboom]

It's, like, next level. At least she's not broccoli, though. I was worried about that for a while.

[bloodisthicker]

...like, some broccoli-human hybrid.

[he's learning not to question things.]

[zomgboom]

No, like. A broccoli person. The people I work for, like, grow them to annoy us.

[bloodisthicker]

[he opens his mouth.

he closes his mouth.]

Okay.

[hesperos]

[ Because things couldn't get anymore weirder. ]

Right.

[bloodisthicker]

...I admittedly don't know how to feel about the fact that Fern's apparently already dead, since... well, at least we don't have to execute her alongside her terrifying parasite? I really get the impression we'd have to do that.

[heritrix]

If that's the case, that it ended up like this is a mercy.

[chessturner]

...a particularly cruel mercy, but there's some comfort in knowing Fern-san won't be the one who'll be executed.

[Just her body and whatever is controlling it]

[heritrix]

[Exactly what she was getting at, Kyrie.]

[bloodisthicker]

...Yes. That's what I'm thinking, as well.

[hesperos]

... Yeah, I guess there's one silver lining.

[ He sounds a little unsure there because Fern being dead is really shitty, even if he didn't know her, but you know... there's whatever that is over there and. Yeah. ]

[bloodisthicker]

...it'd be preferable, of course, if none of this happened.

[but what the hell could they do? he sure as shit couldn't do anything.

ugh.]