trustfell | Take Responsibility.

This investigation seems to have been difficult for many; while your time here hasn't been particularly easy on anyone, it's been eight straight weeks of people dying, of losing those you care about - or at least, losing those you had some sense of solidarity with.

There's only about a quarter of your original number left.

Either way, however, there are some things that remain constant, even if your numbers do not - the corridor down below the dorms, the way the door sounds when it unlatches, the gentle outward swing of the door. The darkened stairwell that it leads to. The courtroom.

The podium circle remains in the center of the room, the spots marked out from the dead having increased in number yet again; Aligula, Hibiki, Sayaka, and Alex all have had their podiums altered, draped in black with greyscale portraits set atop them. They'll be keeping an eye on the proceedings today, for better or for worse.

As always, the thirty-sixth podium remains blank.

Once everyone has found their place in the circle, Jericho can be heard over the public-address system; he doesn't seem to have settled any from the investigation.

"Attentive and Submerged are gone - and trust me, for at least one of them, it's better for everyone that way. Maybe you disagree with that, maybe you don't, I don't really give a fuck - and at least for the guilty party, their deaths might be their ticket out of here. So it's probably better for them, anyway. Either way, I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you what you're here to do.

Once again and as always, it's the innocent versus the guilty. Whichever side wins is mattering less and less every week, isn't it? Even so, you should still put some effort in, just to satisfy the dead - so you know what, do your best!"

Nine Participants remain. However many leave here at the end of the day is up to you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...

You know, I get there's a non-zero chance this was done so the culprit wouldn't have to pick one of us to kill, but this is... a little much? A little much.

Would this indicate the culprit was hesitant about having to pick a victim for their crime?

[She doubts that, but...yeah]

Probably. With how few people are left, I think we all know each other pretty well by now, and none of us are that bad of people. It would certainly be harder than it was in the first couple weeks, especially since there is no 'easily justifiable victim'.

I mean, I think at this point it makes sense, honestly. I'm not exactly close with everyone here, but we've definitely been through enough together that I can see someone wanting to remove the personal element.

Yeah, I think so. Not that that narrows it down.

[Most of them would at this point... right?]

Well, think about it. We're all different heights. Even if their weapon hit the person who sprung the trap, there's no guarantee it would kill them instantly depending on how they were standing. The trap that killed Alex was probably an extra precaution to make sure the victim was really killed.

[Anyways, let her continue with the rest of the trap now.]

To move on off of that, like I said, there were two more strings that were cut. The first of those strings lead to a heavy ball that was set on top of an inclined path I found hidden behind some books. When the ball rolled down, it probably knocked over some wet containers Rideaux also found, dumping water all over the ground.

[She's got the containers and ball to show here too. The ball is heavy, but it looks like it could be made of clay.]

The second string was stranger... I'm actually not sure what it was supposed to do? I think someone went so far as to bore a small hole in the bookshelf and loop a string through it, but it would have connected to that weird armoire in the library. It was tied to the handles, but near as I can tell nothing actually happened with it.

Perhaps the armoire had a third trap inside?

Maybe? [Rin taps her foot.] I couldn't get it open even when I yanked on it.

[...from an angle. Like she went to the side and tried to open it that way in case there was a trap.]

[....RIN]

Please try not to set off potential traps in the future.

Give me more credit, I took several precautions. I couldn't overlook it if it was evidence, could I?

No, but it still would have been upsetting if you had died too.

[Please no mass-death to the teen girl squad.]

But the rope was tied to the outside of the armoire doors?

[...]

Yeah. [She's ignoring the first part of that comment.] Right to the handles.

That seems very strange, then. If you were not strong enough to open the doors, then how would a rope be strong enough?

It wasn't even a rope it was just string.

[Said with a little bit of a huff, and holding up that talisman again, which still has some string attached to it so Luca can see. It's probably strong string given all the heavy stuff in this set up? But it's not as thick as rope.]

It was thin enough someone could loop it through that small hole I mentioned. I don't know why they'd go to all that effort for a lot of nothing.

Ah, my mistake.

[But now that he can better picture it!]

And if it was meant to respond to someone turning the door handle, you would think it would be on the inside, not the outside. If it was meant to be a trap, then you wouldn't want people to see the trap.

I don't know if that's possible, because that... seemed to have belonged to Alex in some way, and she mentioned that she couldn't open it.

It was Alex's? [...] Did she say anything else about it?

She seemed kind of frustrated by its very existence?

[...WE DIDN'T GET THAT FAR IN THE THREAD YET...]

I don't really know that much about it, honestly, but she seemed to find its presence kind of ridiculous.

[...okay, that's not...sounding very good. The implications could be saddening. Kyrie winces a bit]

Do you know if she took it with her to her room or...left it where other people could take it?

[Although taking a whole armoire seven floors upstairs must be really difficult, eh?]

I rather doubt it, considering it was a whole armoire. We'd probably have heard it if she tried to take it down the steps or something.

Given we found it in the library as well, I think that's a safe no. Not only would she have to get it down, but someone would have had to take it all the way up again. That's just not possible with everything else they had to do.

Good. That lessens the odds of Alex-san being involved in any way with this incident.

[It's ugly to have ever considered it, but yeah. If Alex left it in the library, anyone could have gotten it involved into the trap]

Take Responsibility.

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