Take Responsibility.

[trustbound]

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.

Comments

2/2

[chessturner]

...oh, that won't do, that won't do at all!

[She grabs more crossbow bolts, prepared]

All of you: move to where Rideaux-san is standing!

[She looks at everyone, calculating how quick she could strike if someone refuses to cooperate.

You guys may want to cooperate.

If it's any consolation, it'd be impossible to kill anyone when you're all standing in a group]

[bloodisthicker]

...what did you do.

[he's going to cooperate because what the fuck is this. what are you doing. oh my god.]

[matchbreaker]

[ On the full opposite side of the podium ring. For a long moment, Elda stares at Kyrie's crossbow, and she... ]

Right.

[ But you know what, she'll go. She's confident she can spring to her own podium to click a button if need be from Rideaux's ]

[perpend]

[Thiiiis isn't good, not at all.

Of course he's cooperating.]

[evilfrenzy]

[What the fuck? What the fuck is this.

Since Rideaux is...already here...he's slowly reaching toward his jacket pocket. He doesn't know what's happening but he's sure going to make sure he's prepared for anything.]

[hesperos]

[ He glares, about to protest, but he... seems to get what she's doing so for now he says nothing, heading straight on over.

If anything happens though he's prepared to react. ]

[bloodbiter]

[There’s a deep frown on her face, but she does as she’s told, keeping a careful eye on the older woman.]

[heritrix]

[Well, Rin already took off running, but she's moving back to Rideaux's podium as instructed, noting it's almost dead opposite of Kyrie's... Yup, time to move as quickly as she can and dragging anyone else nearby with her. She's not sure exactly what Kyrie's going to do, but she has a good guess. Time for ducking for cover behind the empty podiums near Rideaux too.]

[notaccurate]

Didn't we just get done talking about how you have lost and should not take everyone down with you?

[But he is going, like everyone else. He's angry, but not stupid.]

3/2

[chessturner]

[This trial is the last hurdle between her and freedom. She made her mind when she picked up the crossbow. If she had to break fair process to win, then so be it.

She presses in her podium:

>NURTURING.

Just a random choice. Slowly, she gets off her podium and starts walking towards the group]

Here I had thought I had done everything that should be done. Everyone killed at night, I killed at day...

[She passes by Tarrlok's podium and, without stopping, slams her hand on it, inputting a vote.

>SUBMERGED]

...I made sure nothing could be linked to me. Looks like I wasn't careful enough. I even left the victim to be the unlucky person who would take the talisman...I should have made sure it wouldn't be Sayaka-chan...

[She passes by Yuri's podium. Same process:

>ASSURED]

...Alex-san's death was a complete accident. The water was merely a failsafe, in case the blade missed. I never thought someone would try to reach the victim.

[Luca and Elda's podiums are one next to the other. It'd take no time for her to input votes in them]

Give me a reason why I shouldn't let this end here and now. What guarantees next week you won't all find yourselves here again?

[She stands on Yuri's podium, without making a move to vote]

[bloodisthicker]

[hm. um. hm. uhh. hm. hmmmmm.

how... many arrows can he take. he's kind of wondering now. if everyone uses the podium as cover it's not suspicious if he tries to stay down here and head over, right. this would be so much easier if he could fucking bend, holy shit]

I have a reason! It's that we're all sick and tired of murder puzzles!

[chessturner]

I'm sick of them too. It didn't stop me from giving it a try when I thought it was necessary.

[She rests her hand on the screen. Looks like she didn't like that answer]

[bloodisthicker]

[fuck. fuck. ughhh. well he's gonna fucking mumble here.]

Like that's our fault.

I am, at least, going to do my best to prevent any timer problems! It won't be an issue!

[matchbreaker]

[ She should have just tackled the woman. She might've been killed, but there's no way she would have been killed before she disarmed her. Still, with this distance-

Elda's quick, very quick, but while she's confident she's quick enough to kill Kyrie, she isn't necessarily quick enough to manage to prevent her from hitting a random button.

And so she...

Well, Ditty's still on her podium, maybe Ditty can help? But either way, Elda actually smirks. ]

To begin with, I'm not going to allow it.

[chessturner]

So are you going to leave it up to who can stop the other first? I know the odds aren't on my favor, but as you can see, I wouldn't go down quietly.

[matchbreaker]

No. [ Elda's smirk widens, and her eyes turn cat-like. ] You're going to back down and allow us to move on. What I meant was - being back in this room again next week... I will not allow it.

[notaccurate]

Elda.

[He puts a hand on her shoulder, and speaks quietly to her, in hopes that Kyrie's doesn't hear. But the others can hear him if they want.]

You're faster than me.

Run the other way, you can get to those two in time.

[And he slams his hand down on Rideaux's podium, voting.]

>PRAGMATIC

[Then he runs towards podium 21, Cabanela's podium, aiming to slam his hand down on 'pragmatic' as soon as he gets there.

Hopefully four votes is enough.]

[chessturner]

[When Luca runs, she moves immediately. The crossbow deviates to the left enough to shoot, aiming towards Luca's head, firing and returning to the rest, her other hand reloading the crossbow. She moves with the certainty of someone who has practiced a lot. No surprise there, the shooting range exists since...how long ago?

Crossbow bolts fly rather fast. If you don't block it somehow, chances are you'll die]

[evilfrenzy]

[...

Kyrie wasn't joking when she said she said they shared similar qualities. Qualities of a culprit like this. And wouldn't you know it, self-preservation is definitely one of them. Rideaux's is kicking in pretty hard right now.

He knows some are going to reason with her, but it's not going to stop him from doing something himself. And since everyone is conveniently near him, they'll hear him whisper:]

If she makes one move toward the next podium, everyone get down.

[Some here may be aware of what he carries with him. How good his aim is.]

[chessturner]

Are you sure you want to go down with me? Sure, it'd stop me, and even though everyone else would be alive, chances are you'd be executed in my place in less than an hour.

Are you sure you want to die?

[Everything's over for her. She doesn't care if someone else is dragged into deadland by killing her]

[evilfrenzy]

[Rideaux keeps his eyes tightly focused on Kyrie's movements.]

What makes you think I intend to go down with you? You know me better than that, Kyrie.

[heritrix]

[Oh dang, that was twice as clever as she had thought. She should have considered this. Could she make it back to her own podium in time...? Maybe crawling on the ground like this. No, it wouldn't matter. Kyrie has already put three votes in, and she's too close to Luca and Elda's podiums. She'd have majority rule in no time.

Rin's tempted to do it anyways. She's already sneaking, since she was low to the ground like this, but then Rideaux whispers what he does and she realizes trying to get behind Kyrie by surprise will fail too. Kyrie will move, and Rideaux—she has no idea what he's planning, but if he's saying something like that he can act too quickly.

If the rest of them want to get out alive there's no choice but to talk Kyrie down. Rin shouts the first thing that comes to mind, no matter how crazy it sounds.]

Because if we all die, then you really did lose! There will be no one to bring you back from the dead!

[chessturner]

How exactly would anyone be brought from the dead? Nobody has powers. Even if someone had such skill, it wouldn't be available here.

[hesperos]

[ Yuri's watching her carefully...as she's talking to people, is her attention diverted away or what. ]

[chessturner]

[The best part of everyone being in a group is that it's easier to watch their moves!]