trustfell | Take Responsibility.

Take Responsibility.

And when the door at the bottom of those stairs unlocks and it swings open gently of its own accord, allowing everyone back down into the courtroom, there are decidedly fewer of them than there were just a few days ago.

The change in the podium circle is massive this time; Dio, Logan, Marty, Yuuri, Hibiki and Mordecai have all joined the ranks of the deceased, their podiums adorned with black cloth and greyscale photographs. Furthermore, the mass of shadows in the pit at the center seems agitated again, shifting and breaching upward toward the glass if one looks at it long enough.

It's been something of a bad week, to put it gently.

Not that it's evident from the Conductor's behavior; as usual, the proceedings are being watched from behind that panel of translucent glass behind podium 30, and he'll speak as soon as everyone has found their place in the circle. His words are a bit more rapid than usual; he seems interested in this one.

"Temporal, Lucent, Vivacious and Universal...all four of them have been taken from you. Does whomever is responsible for this really deserve your compassion? There can be no hesitation; you should offer no mercy.

It's you against the guilty. Take control of your fate, and hold them responsible."

Thirteen Participants remain. You've lost five people this week, and eight since the last investigation; we'll see how many more you lose today.

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[Rick has his scarf with him, and he adjusts it, re-wrapping it around his neck as he says the following:]

So, right away. We...we need to bring up the idea that one of the dead guys coulda been a murderer. If only for the obscene amount of bodies.

Honestly, I was wondering that myself. I don't doubt that it's possible for someone to have committed all four murders on their own...

[...the fact that Rick wanted to kill everyone at the beginning and the only thing presumably holding him back on a personal level is gone goes unsaid...]

...but it's important to see what we can and can't rule out.

Can't write that possibility out so fast. I guess there's one thing I'm wondering about, then...

Where precisely were all the bodies found? They'd have to be pretty close to each other for that to be likely, right?

Yuuri and Hibiki were in the art studio and art storage room, respectively.

Marty was in the hallway on the fourth floor.

I found Mordecai in the billiards room.

... So, we're looking at two sets of two bodies pretty close to each other, then. The fourth floor hallway and the billiards room. The art room and art storage room.

...Huh.

So preeeeettyy close to each other.

Whoever killed Marty spent some time there with him. His body was burned.

Maybe he was the original target and - and a witness got iced, yo.

... That opens things up to a bunch of possibilities. I mean, we could have anywhere between one and five murderers on our hands, but I guess it's pretty likely at least one dead person was also...

[ Ugh. He doesn't want to think that of any of them. ]

Yeah, and I found darts and billiard balls in the hallway.

Well, that's fucking weird.

Could they have been used in one of the murders? Did anybody have... I don't know, stab wounds?

[ DON'T STAB PEOPLE WITH DARTS ]

Marty was stabbed twice in the back. One of the wounds was smaller, but I doubt it was a dart.

Wellll... Mordecai had a healed-over stab wound, probably from a knife.

...Although given how people have kept some of their powers, who knows what that means. Maybe he was struck there first before he was slashed with a sword. Maybe it's just an old injury! Who knows!!!

[ SHE'S SO FUCKING SALTY AND SHE'LL NEVER STOP ]

...I know.

He showed me that stab wound before. We were talking about our memories - he'd just remembered getting it, and wanted to know if I could tell how long ago that had happened. It was old.

(no subject)

clearasmud - 2015-12-12 17:41 (UTC) - Expand

Slashed with a sword?

... How do you know it was with a sword for sure.

(no subject)

clearasmud - 2015-12-12 17:43 (UTC) - Expand

What about the way they died?

Yuuri... His chest was smashed. Probably by that hammer Weiss brought up.

... I have so many fucking regrets right now.

[ HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE ASKED THE CONDUCTOR FOR WARHAMMERS ]

Anyway, yeah, causes of death seem like a good next step.

The same is true for Hibiki. It looked like she had extensive blunt force trauma on her torso.

Something very heavy hit her.

...was it only their bodies that had heavy blow damage?

Marty's didn't.

I tried lifting one of 'em. I couldn't. Noodly ass arms.

And - I hate to ask, but we need to know about the condition of the bodies. Finding that hammer that was washed off and hidden means it's likely one of the killers used it.

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