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]

Look, do we know whether Sigrun cutting herself happened first, or whether her drinking the drugged alcohol happened first?

[matchbreaker]

... If she made the cut, there's no way that didn't happen before the pills. After all, it was a clean singular line. If someone else made the cut, it's more ambiguous.

Or at least that's what I'm seeing. Medical people can correct me.

[firstaid]

Then why would she take the pills willingly then cut herself? It seems meaningless! She was drugged first then someone cut her. That would explain that she bled out and probably too out of it to fight being killed.

[matchbreaker]

Then how's the blade in her hand? Just planted there perfectly?

[firstaid]

Because he placed it there since rigor mortis hadn't kicked in.

[paralogical]

It wouldn't be hard to plant a knife.

[matchbreaker]

[ Mmmmmm Okay, well, she'll wait for Kimblee's response then. ]

[firstaid]

[Mikoto, you're her next favorite person now. Yuri's been demoted to third.]

[notaccurate]

...the glass .

If she had cut herself before taking the pills, her blood would have gotten on the glass.

[notaccurate]

Remember the crossbow bolts ? He was with her for at least a while, he didn't just stumble upon her after she died.

[matchbreaker]

And how do you place him there?

[ We haven't proved that, have we...? ]

[explosivecombat]

Please. I can't shoot - they didn't even give me a pistol in a war zone for self-defense, and Mrs - ...Pragmatic has seen for herself what poor aim I have.

[chessturner]

He's correct. Kimblee-san wouldn't be capable of shooting a barn even if it was right in front of him. If he's the culprit, then Eide-san must have been the one shooting.

[At least she believes he'd have no reason to fake his bad aim two weeks before committing a murder]

[notaccurate]

He didn't shoot them.

He asked Sigrun to shoot them. Maybe as a lesson of some sort.

And then afterwards, he offered to makers her a drink to 'pay her back'.

[paralogical]

No, that's right. Direction of the cut means she wasn't the one to make it, too.

[matchbreaker]

That's what it's seemed like the whole time, yes.

[ So ... they might have him? ]

[paralogical]

Yeah. I don't think anyone's going to get more out of him than this. You can keep tryin', but he's having fun making everyone run around in circles.

[ninehundredlives]

The pills wouldn't kick in right away...depending on if she'd eaten anything, and her metabolism. Maybe she could have taken them and then cut herself immediately, and it would be fine. Honestly, I don't think she could have taken a drink after cutting herself without spilling blood and whiskey everywhere.

[matchbreaker]

[ Hmmm. ]

Does that mean you lean towards rigged suicide?

[ninehundredlives]

I don't know, the direction of the cut is still strange. And there's no reason she would have set both of those up.

[firstaid]

Does it really matter anymore? Kimblee was there and he wouldn't have written a note if he was trying to make this look like what it was! Honor and all that? I don't think that had anything to do with this.

[matchbreaker]

And if it technically wasn't him, you're racing us to our deaths.

[ She grits her teeth and: ]

If you're right and we're throwing him in the pit, I'll apologize for delaying things later.

[firstaid]

It doesn't matter anymore. We know Kimblee did it.

[Or at least she's convinced and she's refusing to listen to reason anymore.]

[bloodisthicker]

Believe me, I definitely don't want to have to deal with Kimblee after this absolute nonsense polar bear dog and poodlepony show he's putting us through, but not enough that I'm just going to throw myself in the pit over it.

[matchbreaker]

Good. Fortunately, Estellise doesn't have a good rapport with Jericho to force the vote.