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

[sadisticwarfare]

[why are you people calling him "mr. archer" that's just weird]

No.

[Apparently he's not cooperating today.]

[firstaid]

Mr. Archer, please write the note. I swear between you and Mikoto...

[She huffs a bit, but she's still holding out the note book. Listen, we know how stubborn she is...]

[sadisticwarfare]

[You know what, fine. He'll take the notebook and write...

NO.

...that doesn't tell you enough, I am so sorry. It's sort of on the sloppy side, though?]

[firstaid]

[And she has to deal with Aligula too, why this?! Why can't you people cooperate?!]

Please write more than that. I'm afraid it's not enough to quite prove that you didn't write the note.

[sadisticwarfare]

As I said, it's a waste of time. Move on.

[firstaid]

Until I receive a sample from you or a match from someone else, I refuse to move on.

[She probably does make a circle and then comes back. But Archer... until then...]

[sadisticwarfare]

You're not getting a sample.

[We're both stubborn as hell, this is not going to go well.]

[flagitate]

I didn't know it took more than a few seconds to write down some words.

[sadisticwarfare]

Doesn't stop it from being a waste of time.

[like this hasn't been????]

[chessturner]

Someone from the military is likely to have good aim. Kimblee-san doesn't, but Archer-san...he may be good.

[Archer is a good person to suspect, yeah]

[notaccurate]

[Maybe he just needs some encouragement.]

Congratulations on being the first of the petulant children to half-assedly comply. Do you want your celebratory cookie now, or after the trial is over?

[innocentloveholic]

I'm not a petulant child, there's just no point to me writing anything if you all know what my handwriting looks like anyway!

[ she said, petulantly. ]

[notaccurate]

Well actually I wasn't even thinking of you when I said that, but I guess if the shoe fits...

[innocentloveholic]

[ HEY ]

Buzz off, Inconspicuous.

[sadisticwarfare]

[He's just going to ignore that, sorry Luca.]

[heritrix]

Honestly, as everyone's pointed out, this is a bit of a dead end. If you want to get on his case about anything, I'd focus instead that Frank is also an excellent shot.

[sadisticwarfare]

Archer.

[...of all things to get mad about there...]

[innocentloveholic]

You really do have the like, ugliest name ever, Ambitious.

[ frank archer, like. really. ]

[heritrix]

[Not her Archer, though. She didn't vote for summon you.

Times when I'm sad I can't make jokes like this IC, so Rin only shrugs.]

[destage]

[...]

Of course Archer-san would be good with that...

[This is a dumb thing to get hung up on but here we are.]

[blackmass]

How very ironic.

[aaaayyyyyyy]

[notaccurate]

[Rin actually gets an explanation, since she's a good person and he gets along with her.]

It's not even about the handwriting. You're right, it's probably not going to help much in the end.

It is absolutely about the fact that, time and time again, certain people who shall remain nameless- [Mikoto especially, hi.] -see fit to slow us down by stomping their feet and digging their heels in the ground over tiny details. We're all adults here, I should like to see everyone act like they aren't in grammar school anymore.

[perpend]

....Unfortunately, I have to say I agree with Mr. Archer. We have enough people complying to show we're not going to be finding much with a handwriting check; the "suicide note" already had disguised handwriting.

[sadisticwarfare]

Thank you.

["mr. archer"....]

[paralogical]

[ That sounded so encouraging. ]