Taking Responsibility.

[trustbound]

A while after that space behind and above the game room has been accessed, after things have been looked over, Jericho can be heard over the intercom; apparently, it works over in that area as well. "Wow, you guys really are having a great time going through our stuff, aren't you? Good for you! Seriously, look at all of you go, utilizing Rule Four and everything. It's cute as hell. I'm guessing you want something out of all of this, though – I mean, we absolutely could leave you there to just sort of mull things over until somebody else dies, but that seems like a waste of everybody's time, and believe it or not, I'm not too crazy about wasting tme. So if you're all happy with what you found, go ahead and head down to the courtroom – as always, we'll be waiting for you." And as he's said, the door the courtroom below is unlocked and open when you arrive; as always, feel free to follow that darkened stairwell down to that familiar room made of concrete and steel. There are so few of you now. Kyrie's photograph has joined the others in the circle that have their pictures in monochrome, their podiums draped in black – but notably, the podiums have all been rearranged. There are definite patterns to it, if you look; either way, feel free to find and take your place. The pit in the center of the circle remains darkened, but it isn't as though it matters much for the time being, given that there would be no one in it; after all, the thirty-sixth podium, across from all of you, is occupied. Hilda is standing there, dressed in black as always, a notebook folded tightly against her chest – not the notebook that killed Aligula, but a nice leatherbound one. She looks at everyone expectantly as they walk in; the implication is incredibly clear. It's you against the guilty. Take control of your fate, and hold them responsible. When she does speak, it's simple and straightforward, especially as compared to Jericho's rambling. "Let's begin, shall we?"

Comments

[trustbound]

And why in the world would I do that? There's no benefit to doing anything that way, is there?

[matchbreaker]

There isn't. Honestly, I can't imagine why -- no, I can think of a lot of theories, but they're all hair-brained, as to why you would kill your sister. But as to why Rachel would be the one killed this time, that would be to allow us to continue to think she was Alena while eliminating her from our exercise. At least where she we can see her.

[trustbound]

...What do you mean by that?

[matchbreaker]

Rachel looks just like Alena, based on what Adelina said. Unless you were lying and Alena looks totally different than the Alena we were talking to... but let's keep with this.

Basically, if Alena "died" then she could be removed from being visible to us in the exercise. Several of these notes we've found suggest that Rachel has turned on your group before, or at least cooperated with people in other exercises, right? And some of the other ones note that Rachel liked a lot of people here...

So what if you needed to make sure we couldn't talk to her anymore, while still making it seem natural?

[evilfrenzy]

[When Elda puts it like that...]

That would indeed put the note that Rin found into an interesting context if it's true. Jericho wasn't pleased with what she was doing on her own, and that was his solution.

[trustbound]

[...]

Rachel can choose to look like anyone she wants. And besides, a lot of you have pointed out that killing her myself was anything but natural. All it really did was make you guys hate me.

Doesn't that seem pointless to you?

[bloodisthicker]

Unless that was the point.

...

In which case it didn't work really well, honestly. I can't bring myself to be that worked up about it.

[trustbound]

You wouldn't.

[...WOW.]

[bloodisthicker]

....

I was at least kind of agonized about it and didn't do it in front of a group of people, you know.

[trustbound]

You were asking for that. Rachel or not, she was wearing my sister's face.

[bloodisthicker]

And that's the thing that's confusing us, because I'm not sure why your shapeshifting artificial coworker decided to start wearing your dead sister's face everywhere.

[trustbound]

Because Alena made Rachel. Didn't you ever go through a stage when you felt like your mom was the prettiest woman in the world?

Even if you didn't - maybe it's a guy thing, maybe your relationship with your mom sucked, who knows and who cares - I can guarantee that a lot of little girls think things like that at some stage in their life.

[matchbreaker]

Rachel is mentioned over and over and over in all these notes. Alena comes up far less than that, but more over...

I suppose it does mean less people would talk with you. Which could mean... well it could mean you'd have less memory problems, for one.

[trustbound]

It had nothing to do with my memory issues. Though it was nice having less of you to keep straight.

But fine. So I killed Rachel in front of you guys, not Alena. Once again - and I suspect this is just going to be a theme today - so what?

[matchbreaker]

The fact that you guys went to such lengths to disguise a person is clearly - there's something there! [ Why can she hear Kimblee smirking in the back of her mind. She exhales sharply, trying to calm herself down. Okay... ]

The fact remains, how you talk, those times we've spoken... Alena is still dead, I'm sure of it. There's no way that's not the case unless you've just lied about everything, but I don't see that as plausible.

[trustbound]

Of course Alena is dead. I killed her. I've never hidden that fact from you, I've admitted to it every time.

[hesperos]

[ ... ]

When did you kill her then?

[ If Rachel had been killed at the time the rules were broken happened, then... what. ]

[trustbound]

[...]

Before you guys got here. When we were trying to select people to draw here in the first place.

[matchbreaker]

[ A reminder...

... Oh. Okay, okay- ]

... What's in that locket that Luca couldn't open, Hilda? Wanna open it for us?

[ It's got to be that or Ziska, right? What else could it be? ]

[trustbound]

[Hmph.]

And what will opening that prove?

[evilfrenzy]

[Rideaux goes over some things in his head...]

"So what"? I would think it rather important that Jericho would decide to have Rachel taken out of the game, or at least a position in the game that involves direct interaction with us. In the note Rin found, there was concern that she could grow close to us subjects, and that could end up becoming a problem. After all, she is apparently the one who is capable of destroying us in that way that you people want.

[trustbound]

I don't see why it's so significant. After all, you know why she was taken out. Unless you're implying that we somehow manipulated Tenacious and Crystalline's actions, too?

[evilfrenzy]

...I cannot confidently imply that, no. [He has to admit that the whole fiasco with Weiss has him stuck.] Truthfully, I still have no idea what was actually going on that night. The only people who would are Weiss herself and potentially Jericho if he's able to view our actions. Rachel obviously didn't- how could have that mistake have happened otherwise?

But I'm sure I'm not the only one who has questions about that series of events.

[heritrix]

[Just to add onto that:]

Concern that was founded. Alena—or Rachel rather, give what we know now—told me outright she had favorites. Like when Tabby died. She said if anyone was going to be taken out by the timer, Tabby wasn't one of the people she would have hoped for.

[evilfrenzy]

Perhaps it was around that time that Jericho started to become concerned that she could end up "screwing it up", as the note said.