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

[bloodisthicker]

I still don't think it's impossible that it wasn't a crime of opportunity, but the suspicious note throws who actually mixed the drugs and the alcohol into question.

[heritrix]

We can still speculate on that, if you'd like. If this was a crime of opportunity, what do you think would be the version of events?

[bloodisthicker]

...you know, the more I put things together on the "opportunity" front, the less likely it sounds, but...

Hm. I'm actually thinking of another potential sequence of events now, actually. What if Sigrun and the culprit were having a little crossbow competition and they decided to have drinks afterwards? Maybe it ran a little long, they lost track of time... but for all we know, the culprit might've been planning on the "drinks" aspect being their opportunity to kill Sigrun.

That... seems like it's not terribly out of character for her, anyway. I admittedly didn't know her that well, but from what I did know, she seems like the sort who'd enjoy that kind of thing. Anyway, her drink ends up poisoned, and when the announcement goes off that Tabby's been killed, the killer panics. She takes a little longer to die than expected, so they finish the job and make it look like a suicide.

[ninehundredlives]

That's still a really risky plan, to do it in the morning like that. Especially on a Friday - I imagine most of us start Friday mornings by searching the building, now.

[notaccurate]

But if it started Thursday night and ran longer than expected, that might explain it.

[evilfrenzy]

In a way, you could technically call it opportunity in that they could create a different context for her death with the whole "resetting the timer" front. After all, we only had vague ideas of what the time limit could be until now.

[heritrix]

I actually don't think that's too far-fetched, but... If it was a shooting contest, they'd use two targets. One separate for each of them. But the same might not apply if it was a shooting lesson, or one person was playing cheerleader.

[firstaid]

I don't think it was a shooting lesson, unless someone picked up the bolts that didn't make the target. So perhaps the latter?

[innocentloveholic]

[ .... ]

Couldn't someone have just shot up a target, put the crossbow they used back, and just left? It's not set in stone that Boundless was in there at all earlier.

[bloodisthicker]

She had to take the crossbow at some point, though, since Ms. Ushiromiya pointed out that there weren't any carvings on the one Sigrun was using on Thursday.

[innocentloveholic]

Actually, Pragmatic said she didn't have any there on Tuesday when they played around with them.

[hesperos]

[ ... Huh. ]

That explains the crossbows part perfectly, actually - and the rushed part too.

I guess in between them going to get drinks Sigrun stopped by her room to drop off her crossbow or something in her room?

[ninehundredlives]

I'm surprised she wouldn't have come to the foyer for that announcement, if she were able. I think she would have dropped her plans if there were some kind of threat.

[heritrix]

She never did miss a chance to talk with Alena or Jericho, at least as far as I saw.

[+1 to that]

[hesperos]

[ Hmm... he supposes he wasn't clear enough. His bad. ]

Well, I guess I mean that whenever she had to go to her room it must've been before the announcement, after she was in the shooting range, and before she went to the bar.

[perpend]

....Maybe the note was given Sigrun's signature after the fact?

As in, it was pre-written, save for the name of the victim.

[heritrix]

The note specifically starts by claiming Sigrun did this to reset the timer. It's the first sentence.

[Elda read it out loud before, but Rin will pass it around if anyone needs a refresher.]

[perpend]

[Right... Hm.]

[chessturner]

...do you know what I have been wondering about now? The cut in her arm. What'd be the purpose of that?

[heritrix]

On top of the drug cocktail, you mean?

[Because like. It was a really bad cut and the cause of death.]

[ninehundredlives]

It does seem like overkill. And cutting her that way - [Susan traces from her own elbow up to her wrist.] - is part of what made us suspicious to begin with. Maybe they just didn't know how long the drugs might take to kill her?

[evilfrenzy]

Time may not have been a factor at first, but then became one. Or, they may have become concerned that they did not administer a fatal dose?

[It's a bit tricky to hypothesize, since he's putting himself in the mind of someone who might not know as much about drugs.]

[chessturner]

Yes. The crushed pills in the liquor would have been enough to kill her. There was no need for a cut in her arm. Not only that, the note specifically mentions 'pouring one out'. If a third party faked that note, then why'd they make a cut in her arm, too?

Besides, I also remember it's a fresh wound. When the body was found, the blood was flowing, right? It's a wound that can only have been made when she was alive -- blood doesn't flow so easily when you're already dead.

Finally, it's not like the body was hidden away. Someone would have found Eide-san sooner or later. It's not like the blood was needed to alert us she was dead, we'd have seen that sooner or later -- if Jericho didn't tell us about it, of course.

[She shrugs]

Do you see what I mean? No matter how you look at it, that cut is nonsensical.

[explosivecombat]

With all due respect, I believe the implication meant by the note was that she was pouring one out before cutting herself. Steels one's resolve and all; it's not unheard of in circumstances like that.

[paralogical]

Same purpose as the note served. To throw us off.