trustfell | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was hard to tell, but I think so. The fire was controlled - the carpet wasn't burnt at all. If he were alive...

[PEOPLE FREAK OUT WHEN ON FIRE]

...it was still damp when I got there.

Edited 2015-12-12 17:45 (UTC)

Was there any blood nearby?

No, not at all.

How big were the stab wounds?

.... And for that matter, how does somebody control a fire.

With water, apparently. [She doesn't really know either; that seems like a lot of effort just to burn a body that was going to get identified anyway.]

It was odd - one of the wounds was smaller, and it looked like they knew what they were doing? It got him in the lung. The other one looked like it was from a different weapon. Bigger. It was more...violent.

Oh, and I tried to find his room key, but it was gone.

.... Wait, what?

I got into his room because it was unlocked and looked around, but his key wasn't in his room either... I thought it must've been on him because he thought he was going to be coming back to his room quickly.

So, I guess the key could be related to the murder...

...could you tell if anything was missing?

[She can't imagine what he could have in this place that someone would want that badly, but there must have been some reason.]

I don't think so? It was pretty messy, I couldn't tell if he had slept there at all. There was some stuff on his desk... Rakka's key, which I guess is from the last trial. And one of those hats from Ashley.

So their rooms were unlocked, they didn't have their keys... who would take those off of them? I mean, some of us are a little more inclined towards that sort of thing, Tabitha, but that would require someone to have found those bodies before the announcement and not tell anyone.

Probably the murderer, right? Maybe there was something in their rooms that they didn't want seen, and they didn't know that the doors were unlocked anyway.

... Also, I think it's probably not a coincidence the two fourth floor murder victims both had their rooms unlocked.

Their keys were stolen off their bodies because the murderer wanted something from their rooms, and the murderer already looted the rooms and left the doors open before the body announcement?

Seems likely. Who searched the other room? I didn't think there was anything missing in Marty's room, as far as I could tell. It was also kind of a fucking mess, though, so there's that.

Um, excuse you. Would you rather I break into their rooms? It's not breaking and entering if you, like, have a key.

[NEVERMIND THAT SHE'S DONE THAT TOO.]

You shouldn't be doing either of those things, for the fucking record.

...Especially if someone's still living in there! For fuck's sake.

[ DEAR GOD YOU'D BETTER BELIEVE SHE'S STILL MAD ABOUT TUESDAY ]

[ MOM SWORE AND BAKUGOU'S FACE IS GOING CRAZY OVER HERE

DROP THOSE F BOMBS, YOUKO, DO IT ]

How was I supposed to know you were, like, shacking up with Logan? It's not like you sent out save the dates or anything!

Uh, what?

The

is mad because I, like, broke into Logan's room and stole [yelled for Youko's benefit:] STUFF THAT WAS MINE ANYWAY and she, like, is super in love with him and they were living together.

(no subject)

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[ ...please try not to be worried by the burst of hysterical laughter ]

Miss master thief completely missed my folded clothes, in plain sight?

I have no idea how you get away with anything.

Uh, no. I

figured it out once I broke in. How was I supposed to know before that, you [bleeped for your sanity by the Beyond Corp.�]

idiot.

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Mordecai's key was missing too.

Did anyone search his room?

What do they even teach you in school?

[SERIOUSLY.]

So fucking sorry, I'm not the one who sets things on fire! And the one who can does a shitty fucking job of controlling it anyway!

[ ANYWAY... ]

I was more asking, what method was used?

Susan said it was, like, wet. So water is probably most likely since, like, the bathrooms or whatever are right there.