Taking Responsibility.

[kingmakereffect]

And a while after that strange, dark floor is accessed, after you've had time to look things over and get some idea of what's happening...well. There won't be any sort of official announcement to tell you to get downstairs, nor will there be a personal invitation for you to do so. Instead, the doors at the end of the corridor (were they there before? You find that you don't remember. It doesn't matter anymore, though-) slide open, as they always do, and the elevator ride to the courtroom is probably the first familiar thing that's happened all day. It's smooth and quick, though it seems to take a bit longer than it usually does. And when the doors open at the end of the line, the courtroom looks different. The dark, weirdly cylindrical room is largely the same in and of itself, but the usual twenty-seven podium circle is gone; instead, there's a smaller setup in the center of the room - ten podiums total, and you'll likely find the way your spots have been distributed to be very familiar indeed. Of further notice is the balcony - there's a structure that wasn't there before in view of the courtroom, situated high above, barred-in by a railing that'd probably be at about waist-height on your average person; there's no one up there just yet, however. There are so few of you now. It seems that today there are no speeches to give; maybe the Kingmaker is absent, maybe he just doesn' have anything to say. Either way, however, the implication in the fact that you're here at all is clear. For one last time, make the guilty take responsibility.

Comments

[sleepingkogoro]

[Since Cherryblod spoke of what his ground found Mouri may as well talk about what he found]

My group found a place resembling the conference room we all know, but instead of whiteboards of any type there was a large screen. Eide-san and Black-kun should be able to give more detail about that.

Meanwhile, Speedwagon-san and I found another room. In there we found a podium and a shiny large circle on the floor. After experimenting with it we got to the conclusion it's some sort of hologram machine highly reminiscent to the executions we have seen all this time.

We also met Glory, who...wasn't of much help. She seems to be under some sort of rule to not to reveal much information, at least not to us or without the Kingmaker's authorization.

...in hindsight it doesn't seem like I found much, but there you have it. That is all I have to report.

[cherryblooded]

Holograms usually can't kill people.

[Not that he doubts Mouri, of course.]

[sleepingkogoro]

I suppose it is like...a base to build what actually kills us. At least the two I saw being activated tried to murder us, like it was programmed to do it.

I never thought I'd see myself trying to shoot anyone - much less me - with a clear intention to kill. It was weird.

[cherryblooded]

...But it didn't actually hurt anyone? It was just the image.

[garudynamic]

...maybe it was to plan out the executions? Or hell... for all we know the people being punished were holograms too- there's that bit of black where we can never see what happens after all.

But after Aiden I'm not so sure about that.

[cherryblooded]

It seems like it'd be hard to shoot holograms...

Did you try getting two of them at once? Maybe they're both holograms.

[captainobnoxious]

The screen was a way to talk to Glory... herself? Really? Glory's a girl?

[Huh. Okay.]

Well, that doesn't matter, really, because whatever you saw was fake.

Glory was made to help out the Kingmaker every game. An... artificial intelligence, I think it was? They're made up of the memories of other people, basically, and... created a personality to talk to us all.

[Someone's clearly hit by this. Three for three, guys! Three for three, working with the Kingmaker.]

There's, uh, a lot of info we got from them, too, but... I'll actually let Black handle that, since I had him take notes for me. But we learned about three topics specifically: about the game, about Glory, and about our situation.

That's the three topics they'd answer without fail, since Glory can't help us win the game.

[cherryblooded]

[...Since she's right there next to him, Cherryblod's going to set a hand on her shoulder.

He's sorry this keeps happening to her.]

[captainobnoxious]

[It's appreciated, even if forces a small smile with a wave of her hand.]

Hey, at this point, I'm kinda used to it. I'm like a hound with how often I sniff people like that out.

[By befriending them.]

Pretty damn useful.

[goodforsomething]

......you know, kinda seems like an AI shouldn't be able to write on a whiteboard.

[Turning to Mouri now, because are you a psychic, man?]

[cherryblooded]

...Kind of seems like entire rooms shouldn't be able to move or disappear, either.

That virtual reality theory is holding some water.

[sleepingkogoro]

Don't look at me. I don't know more than you about how AIs work.

[isafraid]

[Ah.... Speedwagon's looking as if he's about to come down with a headache.]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around that bit with Glory.

[goodforsomething]

[Oh, right.]

It's like if someone made your phone come alive or somethin'. We don't have real AIs where I'm from - [That he knows about] - but they're in movies and stuff.

[sleepingkogoro]

[Artificial intelligence? What is this madness? Mouri is not technologically ignorant but do you know how rare something like AIs are?]

That explains why she couldn't reveal much. As far as I know AIs are bound by all sorts of rules.

What I'm not sure is for what purpose Glory would be included in this mess. Was it just another way for the Kingmaker to toy with us? I don't know, I think there's something I'm not seeing here.

[captainobnoxious]

Like I said, they help the Kingmaker out. They deal with the upkeep of the vault and stuff.

[... But Black'll probably have most of that to deal out tbh.]

There's no rule against them helping us, and the Kingmaker wants the game to end. Simple as that.

[pokexplorer]

[...Man, if it weren't for the context and horribleness of it all, Colress would find this to be so cool.]

Weren't we just discussing holograms recently, Mr. Mouri? What a coincidence!

But yes, it is possible that they were used to run tests on how they would play out without causing any actual damage. You didn't find the physical forms, though?

[captainobnoxious]

I wish. Everything in there was just-- fake.

[She really, really wishes they could've.]

[pokexplorer]

How unfortunate. I would have liked to know what the physical forms were comprised of.

[Like, maybe they weren't literal copies? Maybe they had totally different insides.

...Well, guess that'll have to be a mystery for now.]

[penduli]

[ Yes, yes, he's got notes, just— give him a second to gently tear them out of his sketchbook so they're easier to pass around. Here we go. ]

It's on the notes too, at the bottom, but I just want to say that it doesn't seem like our worlds are actually destroyed. [ So. That should be a relief for some people, if there was still anyone worried. ...it's nice to clear the air with that, too. ]

To me, it seems like this is all a sort of... test, I suppose, to see who'd become the next gamerunner. I assume if the victor decides to go home instead of staying, the old king just runs another one to find someone else to take their place.

[ Hummmm. ]

[sleepingkogoro]

That is a relief! But if the worlds weren't destroyed at all then everything the Kingmaker had offered was a lie. He was not beyond lying to get us to kill people, it seems.

[Mouri scowls once he sees the note about the photographs they had received that showed another Vault]

A really cruel liar. There were no loved ones in another place, at least not as far as the Kingmaker knows.

[cherryblooded]

[...Well, he's relieved about the worlds thing, and his daughter not being in a vault, but... No, he'll think about that later.]

The drugs keeping us under. That's current? So we're not conscious?

[notjustawriter]

That'd fit with the whole "it ain't real" thing, wouldn't it?

[notjustawriter]

I never believed him about that.

[Gabriel sounds relieved.]

But..... originally created to "deal with bad people", huh? It sure sounds like that got corrupted fast.

[garudynamic]

But what's the point of passing the mantle on over and over?