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]

I know that's stupid! But that's the only minor piece of evidence for that sort of delusion I can think of.

[ninehundredlives]

Sleep deprivation really screws you up. I don't know if he'd have thought that hard about it, by then.

[matchbreaker]

[ Argh. She runs a hand roughly through her hair, her frustration getting the better of her. ]

But unless Kimblee's lying here, then there's no way Archer did anything! So does that even matter?

[ Elda, you're the one who brought it up... ]

[sadisticwarfare]

Why are you assuming I did anything? I'm having a hard time just standing here, how could I have possibly killed anyone?

[matchbreaker]

I'm not, you dunderhead! You were being suspicious earlier, but you've been doubly cleared and I don't see anymore leads!

[ And you know what for that matter fuck Fern?

She's going to kick her podium again. ]

[ninehundredlives]

Would you just sit down, then.

[sadisticwarfare]

[...archer is a dignified man and will not sit on the floor but that'll get him to shut up, at least. HAVE FUN SOLVING THIS, GUYS.]

[innocentloveholic]

[ ....... ]

I'm gonna go with Adroit on this one. Take a seat, dumb-dumb! Doctor's orders.

[sadisticwarfare]

[he'll shut up at least, but he's not taking a seat!! he wants to see how this ends so he's gotta stay awake!!]

[innocentloveholic]

[ DOCTOR'S ORDERS, ARCHER.....!!!

but fine, damn, you're lucky the trial takes precedence. ]

[perpend]

Calm down, would you?

[sadisticwarfare]

[NEVER okay fine Susan's gotten him to shut up, so there's that.]

[ninehundredlives]

I don't know. Maybe not. Kimblee sounds worse than he does right now, but we haven't got anything that actually connects him to Sigrun's death. Just to being an idiot with drugs.

[matchbreaker]

Well right now unless we're all missing something, our suspects are you - and I'm dead certain it's not you - him - and I pretty much believe him here - or she just did it herself.

[ Or maybe she's the stupid one. That's entirely possible. Uuurgh. ]

[ninehundredlives]

[Susan sighs, rubbing her eyes.] Fffffuck. We don't think she did it herself because...because of the note and the way her arm was cut, right? The arm's the worst one, for me, I can understand her note not matching her wood carvings.

[matchbreaker]

A wall's really different than paper, yes. Also the drugs. Also we never did work out what's up with the shooting range if that's relevant to anything.

[ She's sulking face down into the podium now. ]

[chessturner]

Didn't Eide-san have an injury on her arm before arriving here?

[She doesn't know the details]

In which arm was it?

[explosivecombat]

You've no reason to suspect me in the first place. I've been entirely compliant with everything we've done, seeing as I've nothing to hide.

[ninehundredlives]

That's literally what I just said? Except for where you stupidly drugged someone, but I can't see any reason to think you did more than that.

[bloodisthicker]

...You really don't seem to be one to take one for the team or have many regrets, I'd imagine, either.

[HE THINKS ABOUT IT... because like, man, knowingly trying to destroy the human race. maybe there's a story there? but wow, man.]

[explosivecombat]

If I were trying to "take one for the team", as it were, I believe I would have spoken up already...?

[destage]

...The only thing I can think of is that Archer-san wouldn't have been able to vouch for Kimblee-san in kind all that much, if he was in a drug induced sleep, but that's only if the murder took place last night. Otherwise, we're essentially back at square one, aren't we?

[...small glance at Kimblee.]

I by no means mean that as an accusation, just as an example. My apologies.

[ninehundredlives]

Yeah, last night would have been the time for him to do it, if he meant to. Archer can't vouch for him this morning either, but that's most of us.

[chessturner]

Answer me something, please:

Let's go back to the shooting range problem. Who was shooting crossbows, again? Eide-san and the culprit? Just Eide-san? Just the culprit?

[Did we manage to clear that up? Kyrie seems to have something in mind, depending of what scenario it was]

[heritrix]

For that, we've had nothing but theories so far. Most likely, Sigrun was there at some point, given we found the crossbow in her room and the door was locked behind her. Who else might have been there is a mystery.