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

[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.

[captainobnoxious]

So a bad person.

[isafraid]

Usually.

[notjustawriter]

They can be. Not all of 'em.

Usually it means they have little empathy among other problems-- doesn't mean they kill for pleasure or anything, though in this case, it sounds like "Observant" did.

[captainobnoxious]

Oh, I see.

[...]

Kinda sounds like our asshole now, actually. Guy couldn't be the bearer of bad news if his life depended on it. Though he told me once he'd never had to do it before. I'd say our KM's got more of a problem with reality himself with how high and mighty he acted.

[amygdalae]

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

[notjustawriter]

It's... complicated, yeah.

[captainobnoxious]

Don't overthink it, Bruce, just give me some traits. I'm not gonna understand if you go long-winded on me anyway. Use an example if you want.

[amygdalae]

In the basest terms, a sociopath is somebody who has little to no regard to society's ethics and morals; he functions essentially on his own beliefs, which more often than not are incredibly skewered and usually seen as invasive or even immoral by others, and they don't feel any remorse or guilt in any of their actions.

[captainobnoxious]

[.................]

Oh. Huh. I see. Thanks.

[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.