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

[zomgboom]

Uh, no. Dio, like, wanted to kill you all and turn you into vampires. I want to blow up the shadow monster so the ghosts are safe and you can bring them back.

Huge difference.

[icysemblance]

Didn't you learn anything from Logan? What happens when you fight those is that you die. Tabby. You die. That's it. We've seen game over, we've seen the end.

[zomgboom]

Logan also, like, didn't fight monsters on a weekly basis. Also he had a sword. Who brings a sword to a bomb fight?

[icysemblance]

I do fight monsters on a weekly basis, back at home, and these things aren't like anything else. They're shadows, like the ones I deal with, but there's something worse about these.

It takes a lotfor a monster to truly frighten me, but these do.

[zomgboom]

I can't be afraid of anything anymore. [SHRUG.] It's, like, not ideal or whatever but fine. There's things about killing me the Conductor probably doesn't even know.

[icysemblance]

[Weiss digs her fingernails into her palms hard enough to draw blood.]

...then let us be afraid for you, if you insist on being that reckless.

[perpend]

I'm the cop, remember?

I'll do the worrying for you.

[zomgboom]

Ugh, I don't even like cops.

[THAT'S HER WAY OF SAYING YOU'RE KINDA OK.]