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

[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?

[cherryblooded]

Would explain a lot of things. How holograms can kill people, how AIs can use whiteboards, how rooms can move and disappear.

[notjustawriter]

So none of this is real, we possibly all signed up for it willingly, and we don't know why.

[....]

These past winners, none of them seem like they were great people. A sadist, a serial killer, a sociopath... Ambitious is listed as a warmonger....

Was this some attempt to see if someone different would win the game?

[captainobnoxious]

Sounds like a hell of a collection.

[...]

What's a sociopath?

[isafraid]

A monster, someone that likes to kill and do evil things for the hell of it.

[amygdalae]

It's... not that easy to explain.

[cherryblooded]

It's a possibility. Though if you're looking for someone to win a game through murder, it's unlikely that you're going to get the nicest person.

[penduli]

That's what the— what she said. "Being used to keep you under." [ ...that's lovely. ]

[cherryblooded]

Lends credence to the virtual reality theory.

[goodforsomething]

I was right - I am gonna be pissed about this.

[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.

[penduli]

Miss Sigrun's mentioned that Glory's definition of bad people were people who thought they could kill anyone. [ ...and not have any repercussions, probably. ] It's a noble thought, but yes, it's one that... probably didn't last long.

[notjustawriter]

....Christ.

I doubt that lasted long at all.

[garudynamic]

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

[penduli]

[ SHRUG. ]

To see how people would run things if they got to be king for a day? Or... however long it takes for the game to end, I guess. [ ...that's something to ask, he guesses. ]

[garudynamic]

Maybe they just ran out of people that fill the requirements- just doing the same thing over and over cuz, you know, AI.

[Shrug, hell if he knows]

[captainobnoxious]

... Maybe it's different for every Kingmaker. The first might've had good intentions, like Misa's whole killing criminals deal, but I can't say what ours is.

[penduli]

[ ...a shrug. ]

Neither can I. [ And he's obviously been busting his ass trying to get info for them this week, so. ] I have an idea or two, but... they're probably wrong.

[sleepingkogoro]

It wouldn't hurt to say them. Who knows, maybe you are onto something and you haven't realized it.

[notjustawriter]

An idea's still an idea, innit?

[captainobnoxious]

Well, let's hear it anyway. Haven't got a clue myself.

[penduli]

[ ALL OF THIS POSITIVE ATTENTION, WOW.

just. give him a second, um. ]

...well, he asked me what I'd do if I lost the people important to me, right? [ He's mentioned that in his notes.

And he's going to set his notebook on his podium so he can actually number his idea as he writes/talks them out. ]

One: maybe he had nothing left to lose and decided it'd be a good waste of time.
Two: maybe he lost someone important to him here and decided that people needed to know what it felt like to lose someone important, too. [ A beat. Black taps his pencil on his paper. ] I... told him that I couldn't do that—cause other people pain just because I'd been hurt.

[ After another moment, he's back to write/talking. ]

Three: maybe he's done everything he wants to as king, but the only way to pass it on is to run a game like this, so that's what he's doing.