Take Responsibility.

[trustbound]

And once everyone has done what they need to do and gathered at that bottom of that stairwell in the dormitory, the door before them once again seems to unlatch and swing outward, lightly and of its own volition. It's the fourth time in the span of about a month; perhaps there's some strange, dark sense of familiarity in it. Perhaps, too, that stairwell leading further down is beginning to feel familiar, dark and unwelcoming though it is; the courtroom is still illuminated at the bottom of it, sending a slight amount of light up the stairs and guiding everyone down to that stark room made of concrete and steel. The podium circle stands still and silent in the center, waiting for everyone to take their place around the darkened pit below; once again, there's been a change in the circle itself in the form of three more podiums joining the ranks of the deceased. Fern, Tabby, and Sigrun all have their places in the circle marked with black cloth and a photograph in greyscale, keeping watch over all of you in a manner both unseeing and vaguely judgmental. As always, the thirty-sixth podium stands blank and unoccupied among you. Once everyone has found their place in the circle, Jericho can be heard over the public-address system; he seems to have collected himself at some point during the investigation, it shows in his voice, as little as anyone really wants it to. "For better or worse, Boundless is no longer among you. I'm sure you guys all know what that means by now, what you're here to do. And before you ask, because I know it's going to come up eventually and now's as good a time as any - yeah, we'd have you down here if someone tries to be a big damn hero for the group, because someone's still dead because somebody fucked up. It just means the dead person and the guilty person are the same person. So you know what, the game's the same, no matter what happened here - innocent against the guilty, fourth time, let's go! And as always, do your best!" Twenty-six Participants remain. However many leave this place is up to you.

Comments

[introspects]

Well, that explains where the missing crossbow went... Did you find anything else?

[matchbreaker]

She - well I guess it could've been someone else - but she carved a buncha stuff in the walls and ceiling.

[ she pulls out the notepad now and flips open to her artist renditions of this and this ]

This hammer looking thing and that magic circle looking doohickey were carved in the walls around the door. And then propped herself up to write "vern" into the wall above the door, I guess.

[bloodisthicker]

...

So I suppose those are things that may have meant something to her, at the very least. Has she explained those things to anyone?

[heritrix]

No, but... Elda, you said it looked like a magic circle? Can I see those, please?

[She's just going to approach the vampire's podium now; don't worry, she'll come to you.]

[matchbreaker]

Yeah, kinda figured you might know it. You or Kimblee.

[ She passes the notebook over. She sketched what was etched into the walls. Check it. ]

MODS

[heritrix]

[Alright, Rin's going to check them out then!

And just a quick double check before I blunder in; I have an idea of what these are, and Rin probably would as well given Fate/everything runs on mythology. Is it cool if I have her recognize them?]

[trustfellows]

[...if she'd recognize them then she would, so yes?]

[heritrix]

[Cool, just wanted to be sure.]

These are common symbols used in Norse culture. This one [she points to the one that looks like a magic circle] is a symbol for personal protection, and to prevail in battle. The other one is probably Thor's hammer. It has a lot of cultural significance, both as a symbol of honor and as a ward of protection.

[matchbreaker]

So... [ Based on what Sayaka said here ] basically, she's blessing her door to protect herself?

[notaccurate]

We use circles in sfeer theory as well.

[matchbreaker]

Okay, okay, all the mages and alchemists. Anyone else wanna come out and say they use circles?

[ She glances around at other people she knows are magic. Estelle? Rideuax? our two resident gods (Terumi and Milla)? ]

[explosivecombat]

Ah... I haven't any idea, unfortunately.

[matchbreaker]

So does that mean it's not alchemy, or just some ... uh. circle? you don't know.

[explosivecombat]

It couldn't be used for alchemy, I can tell you that much.

[matchbreaker]

Okay, got it.

[ She'll nod in thanks. ]

[destage]

...I wonder if they might've been similar to those runes she talked about. Eide-san there were special ones carved into her dagger--like, runes for protection, and for a sharp blade...stuff like that.

[matchbreaker]

Did you get a good lookit those? I kinda want you to look at the crossbow, then.

[ Because the crossbow has things carved into it too, similar to the ones on Sigrun's dagger. ]

MODS

[destage]

Eide-san showed her dagger to me at the party, and described the symbols to me...I can take a look.

[Do they look similar to the runes that Sigrun described?]

[trustfellows]

[They do, yes!]

[destage]

They're similar.

[Sayaka says that much easily, nodding her head.]

We talked about that in the shooting range, actually--she may have just taken the crossbow with her, and decided to keep it for herself, and carved those into it to bless it.

[introspects]

Is "Vern" on the crossbow, too?

[matchbreaker]

Not that I've seen. Vern's just above the door.

[ The crossbow is more runes and such. ] The crossbow stuff doesn't really match the stuff around the door that closely.