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]

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. ]

[ninehundredlives]

Is it relevant? No one seems to have shot anyone.

But I guess that must have happened this morning, or the target would probably be replaced...for all we know, Sigrun was just up there shooting really early today? Something must have happened with her this morning, to keep her from coming to the foyer.

[chessturner]

But the crossbow was found in her room -- room that's way below the third floor. If she was shooting and able to descend all the way down to her room, what'd stop her from coming to the foyer?

[ninehundredlives]

Yeah, that's what's weird. Unless it happened really early - I don't really know if Sigrun was usually up and about then.

[chessturner]

That's why I'm starting to think that the person shooting at the range may not have been Eide-san. She may have been there, but maybe she wasn't the one shooting at that target.

[matchbreaker]

[ Head still down: ]

Explain.

[chessturner]

Eide-san may have encountered the culprit at the shooting range. Instead of she being there, the culprit was the one shooting, which may explain why she wouldn't have with her the crossbow she worked so hard to customize with runes.

Afterwards, together they went together to the bar, and Eide-san was killed. What I'm not entirely sure yet is if Eide-san knew something about what was going on, because...something about her expression continues to bother me. It didn't look like someone who was betrayed, it was too peaceful.

Of course, we'd need to account for when the culprit would have time to collect the pills from the infirmary. If this was a casual encounter at the shooting range, it's unlikely they already had them.

[She's just theorizing, of course she may be wrong]

[sleepytimegal]

Unless we need to look for...I don't know, someone who would've already had them? If it's a casual encounter.

[hesperos]

I guess if the culprit had arranged for them to meet up in the shooting range, they'd have time to grab the pills beforehand.

[firstaid]

What if we're not accounting for one missing cross bow, but two missing crossbows?

[She sounds unsure of herself, but it's out there.]

M-maybe that would explain the bolts, but I would think we would know if someone had a crossbow on them, s-so please disregard.

[Yeah, now that her fire's gone she's unsure, but her two cents are here?]

[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?

[heritrix]

The left. It was the same arm I found the cut in.

[chessturner]

Just to make sure: the wound we found wasn't exactly where the old injury was at, right?

MODS

[heritrix]

[Iirc the infection in Sigrun's arm wasn't relevant to solving the case, but for sake of answering Kyrie: the cut wasn't anywhere Sigrun's old wound was, right? I assumed that was more on the outside of the arm.]

[trustfellows]

[It was not!]

[heritrix]

[Cool beans.]

The wound wasn't over the old injury, no.

[chessturner]

Thank you.

[Kyrie seems satisfied]