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

[sunsong]

Yeah, but the part before the pen would probably be matchable, right? And we do have the petitions, of which I know he fuckin' signed at least one or two.

[blazeit]

Oh yeah, I forgot about those. Then, let's check the petitions against the letter... if there's a match, I'd be willing to theorize that he was the guy who wrote that shit in the art room too.

[sunsong]

Yeah, I just like to be 100% sure about things whenever we can be...it makes for less arguin' about hypotheticals. I'll let you do this check, I already confirmed Hibiki's handwritin' on that note.

CONDUCTOR

[blazeit]

[ ok let's just assume Bakugou shouted his head off until he had the "I AM NO LONGER HUMAN" letter and those petitions in his hands...

Do the first few sentences match Mordecai's handwriting? ]

[sunsong]

[ sol will just go hang out on his podium to see what the results are impatient like ]

[blazeit]

... No dice. Should I keep looking while I'm at it? The petitions aren't so great for checking... some people just have names.

[sunsong]

Check Rick's next.

[blazeit]

[ Since she's nearby and he can speak to her without being overheard (the convenience of being surrounded by death), he'll lower his voice for once. ]

If you're going where I think you're going with this, there's gonna be one thing we have to get out of the way right off the bat. The warhammer.

[sunsong]

[ She'll answer in the same low voice. ]

Yeah, I know. But he's being weird as fuck, so he gets checked before anyone else. [ They can deal with the warhammer after that... ] I know I dismissed your pulley lever thingy earlier, but he is a mad scientist, right?

[blazeit]

Yeah, he basically admitted right at the beginning the only thing stopping him from killing was his grandkid being here, so... He might not even need a motive to kill.

[ ... As Weiss pointed out, he has nothing to lose. ]

Also, if he's our suspect, did he kill all four of them or not? He said at the beginning he thought there was multiple murderers. That could be to throw us off...

[sunsong]

For now, let's continue forward as if they're two separate cases. They're both pretty distinctly different, right...? We can try to tie them together at a later point if it comes to that.

[ Someone killed the people here, and she's not sure if it was one person or two people yet, but...

They just have to go through the possibilities one by one until nothing's left. ]

[blazeit]

[ He's got something else on his mind he wants her to consult on first, but in spirit he is agreeing with that. ]

[icysemblance]

That's entirely possible. The blood writing and body placement could have been done just to make it look like there was more than one murderer.

[trustmods]

[They do not.]

[blazeit]

[ The lady doth command him match the letter to Rick's handwriting next, so let's go for that! ]

[trustmods]

[Nothing there, either.

You can keep going, but the handwriting isn't going to match anything on that petition. Really, the more you look at it, the more it might start looking fake - like someone disguising their writing.]

[blazeit]

[ Well, that's definitely weird — he notices the fact that it looks like somebody's purposely changed how they write, but he's going to bluff a little. He glances up at Sol, trying to not let any surprise show on his face. ]

I'm no good at this kinda shit, you give it a look.

[ And then, in a very low tone: ] Doesn't it look kinda... faked to you?

[sunsong]

[ She'll take the papers from him, curious. ]

Yeah, yeah... [ And then, equally low, after examining the papers: ] ...You're right. If that's the case, though...someone was trying to frame Mordecai, right? The letter that "had" to be his...but if there's one person who wouldn't disguise his writing in a case like that, it'd be the person whose letter we assumed it was. Right?

[blazeit]

Yeah, he'd be a convenient fall guy, being dead and unable to defend himself and all.

... Besides, Jean said the letter is weird. Like it's not how he'd address his wife, so... the letter's almost definitely fake. You think we should bluff and say we can't tell whose handwriting it is rather than saying it's a fake and see what reaction we get?

[sunsong]

Up to you. The one who keeps sayin' it had to be Mordecai, though...

[ That's Rick. ]

[blazeit]

And it's real convenient for him that Mordecai's dead.

[ It... makes sense that Rick might've killed Mordecai for that purpose

Anyway, he raises his voice back up to normal levels so everybody can hear. ]

Well, it's a fucking wash, guys. It could be pretty much anybody, as far as I can tell. I guess it kinda looks like Mordecai's?

[ He's like. Kinda average at lying, but it's passable enough. ]

[sunsong]

[ THEY'RE GOING TO GET SCOLDED FOR CONCEALING EVIDENCE AT SOME POINT but she's with him on watching for reactions. ]

Handwritin's a lot neater than mine ever is, that's for sure.

[perpend]

Does it?

[It sounds like Cabanela believes him.]

You'd think he'd address his wife by name. He seemed like a romantic sort of guy.

[blazeit]

Hey, you can come over here and check it yourself, if you want. Maybe the possessed pen was already in control of him?

[ And should Cabanela come over, Bakugou will mutter in a low voice: ] Pretty sure the letter's a fake.

[openterrain]

[ Jean doesn't look like he believes it at all. ]

But it could be faked, right? There's no way he wouldn't call Ha-- call his wife by name.