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

[matchbreaker]

Humor me, please? I wouldn't think to target you on something so flimsy. I'm more looking for blind spots in your or his alibi for each other. Like for example, did you fall asleep last night?

[explosivecombat]

I did, for a few hours. But again, I sleep lightly - if he'd left, I would have known about it. I woke up with Mr. Jericho's announcement; I stayed with Lt. Colonel Archer for a while in the room, to see whether he would actually wake up to see what was happening with that announcement or not. He's like I am, he likes to know what's going on, even if it's unpleasant - as such, the fact that he went back to sleep immediately afterwards was concerning, I don't think he even really woke up fully.

I was in the room with him for a while, and then the second announcement went off, mentioning the third floor. I stay with the bodies for a while after people are done investigating them, as I don't want to intrude on what they're doing or impede due process accidentally. I admit i was far briefer than I would normally have been, given the situation with the lt. colonel, but I didn't even leave the room until well after the murder had been committed.

[matchbreaker]

So basically... short of you not waking up, there's not a lot of windows here.

[ She nods to herself. ]

Alright, thank you for humoring me.

[explosivecombat]

Of course.