Take Responsibility.

[antitrust]

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.

Comments

[openterrain]

That's hard to say... You, me, Giovanni, Sol, and Weiss for sure.

[ ... ]

And... Marty or Mordecai might have also managed it.

[sunsong]

[ ...SHE'S FLATTERED, JEAN, BUT SHE'S ALSO PRETTY SMALL BUILD-WISE. BEING ATHLETIC DOESN'T HELP HER BEING THE SMALLEST PERSON LEFT STANDING. ]

Uh, I couldn't swing it that well, probably...

[blazeit]

Yeah, I think other than Sol and... probably Marty, that list sounds about right.

[sunsong]

If it were a bit more manageable size-wise I could give it a go...

[ sol do you really care that you couldn't lift a giant hammer

is this the time to care about that ]

[openterrain]

Scratch Sol and Marty, then.

That probably makes it one of us that killed those two, then...

[sunsong]

Do we know anythin' about who all got those stupid hammers from the machine?

[openterrain]

[ HEAVY SIGH... ]

I got one. I think Rick did, too.

[sunsong]

Why the fuck are there so many hammers.

[ SHE COUNTS...THREE. AT LEAST. ]

[ninehundredlives]

Rick got one. But it didn't look like he was having any luck picking it up when I saw him.

[sunsong]

Well, he's old.

[ninehundredlives]

And skinny.

[sunsong]

So, yeah, I think that's probably a no-go.

[perpend]

I got one.

[But he still has a broken arm, even if it's mostly healed now.]

[sunsong]

And you shouldn't be swingin' shit that heavy with your arm, so I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you probably didn't.

[ninehundredlives]

If he even picked it up in his state, I'm locking him in the infirmary.

[j o k i n g]

[sunsong]

I'd help! Can't have our favorite old man over-extendin' himself, can we?

[ PROBABLY ALSO JOKING... ]

[perpend]

[He'll just take this in a good-natured way.]

I caaaan't imagine I'd do much more than drop it on my foot, anyway.

[blazeit]

I'd be a fucking moron to not say this either way, but I didn't kill them.

[openterrain]

I think everyone who could have done it is gonna say they didn't.

[openterrain]

-- And Tabby. I forgot about her, but she's always fighting people with super powers and stuff, right?

[icysemblance]

I'm strong, but not that strong. I can't manage things that are as large as that hammer without someone spotting me, and even then, I wouldn't be able to manage it long without dropping it.

[Yang's the one that does the heavy lifting, okay.]