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

[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.

[goodforsomething]

I could buy magic on that one, or demons. But AI's a whole different can of worms.

[cherryblooded]

Any particular reason why?

[goodforsomething]

Pretty sure they shouldn't be able to do stuff in the real world without controllin' a machine. [Stan shrugs.] All I know about that's from movies though.

[cherryblooded]

About that. What's to say that we're in the real world?

[goodforsomething]

That's what I'm sayin'. [He gestures towards Mouri.] It's startin' to sound like the Inspector was right with the whole Matrix thing.

[notjustawriter]

It would explain the floors blinkin' into existence, wouldn't it?

[isafraid]

Hang on. You're trying to say that we're inside a machine.....?

[cherryblooded]

Essentially speaking.

[isafraid]

That... that's just madness!

[cherryblooded]

It's not something impossible on my world. Few people would know how, but it can be done.

[goodforsomething]

Just our minds. Kinda like a dream, but all hooked into a computer.

[isafraid]

[.............................

he's so confused.]

Then... all we have to do is wake up then! Right?

[goodforsomething]

Doubt it's that simple.

[sleepingkogoro]

I think the problem would be why we are not in a real world. What I mean to ask is why we would accept to be in here.

Do you remember that very first dream? The one about feeling safe and all that? I don't think if we had been kidnapped against our will we would have felt that. It's possible we were lied to, but I have to wonder what exactly we were told.

[cherryblooded]

Drugs can do that to you, the ones Black mentioned. Or, it's possible that we did whatever we did to get here willingly?

[notjustawriter]

Were we tryin' to accomplish something?

[cherryblooded]

If I was, I certainly don't remember it. I wouldn't have left my wife and daughter behind to go play a fake murder game.

...But it's also possible there's more I don't remember.

[garudynamic]

If we all had something bad we did it'd make sense with how the game started but... a lot of us didn't. I mean, could you see Megumi doing anything that would get her in some awful punishment game?

[goodforsomething]

It'd take a lot to get me to go for somethin' like this, but it ain't impossible.

Why us, though? There's plenty of people in my world who'd do better at the whole Matrix thing.

[amygdalae]

[An AI, huh...

It's a hard topic for Bruce, considering... well. His recent(?) history with it.]

...she certainly seems to be an incredibly complex AI, if that's the case. I only know one person in my world who could have managed to program something to that level.

[goodforsomething]

Ford's never done that, but hell, he probably could if he wanted.

[Fuckin' Ford, always being so smart...]

[amygdalae]

The important thing to note, mostly, is that not anybody would be able to program an AI like this so easily.

[sleepingkogoro]

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