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

[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.

[captainobnoxious]

We only met up with Glory after Mettaton died, though, and I can't imagine that guy was all that important to the Kingmaker since he told Mettaton to kill someone that week. But he was mad about something, right? I still don't know what we did to piss him off.

... Or if it really was just complications one way or another. Or whatever. I'm willing to believe my honey's words over that bastard's, anyway.

[penduli]

Well, these are ideas for why he's running this game in the first place, not for why he's ending it.

[ ...he really doesn't know why he's ending it, so. ]

[notjustawriter]

If this is being broadcast.... does that mean that it's a television show?

Maybe the show is ending?

[penduli]

[ ...he's had too many intimate conversations to want to believe this, nnnooo. ]

May...be? [ nnoooo oooo oooooooooooo ] I can't say I'd be surprised if it was—humanity doesn't have the best track record when it comes to what it finds entertaining.

[isafraid]

[...He doesn't fully understand what a television show is, but this gets him thinking.]

All plays are supposed to end eventually. It can't go on forever.

[There's not enough of them.]

[notjustawriter]

That's what I'm thinking.

With television, we have these things called "seasons" and they only go on for so long, and then it's over for a while.

There's usually a big finale to make sure people watch when the show comes back.

[goodforsomething]

Yeah...

[Here comes the Mr. Mystery voice, Stan straightening his back and gesturing dramatically.]

"Can our heroes find the truth? Who is the Kingmaker? And just what is lurkin' down those dark corridors? Tune in next week to find out, folks!"

[captainobnoxious]

Why would you wait a whole week to find out?

[She'd just binge watch anything. Fuck waiting.]

[cherryblooded]

They don't air the entire show at once. It only comes on once a week.

[isafraid]

Well that's a good way to keep suspense going.

[Shows sound pretty cool.]

[goodforsomething]

Just how it works!

[penduli]

Suspense sells as well as sex does, sometimes, and there's a lot of work that goes into shows too. You can't just film it and then put it out—it has to go through editing and everything.

...there's some shows you can watch all day, all week via livestreams set up by the showrunners using their surveillance cameras, but that's usually for day-to-day stuff, not for the big challenges and eliminations. Those are still once a week or so.

[pokexplorer]

And there is no better "acting" than our own genuine reactions I suppose.

Still, how incredibly morbid.

[Stan's voice didn't help.]

[isafraid]

It's like a bloody bloodsport and we're performing in front of an audience.

[The more he thought about it... the worse it became.]

[goodforsomething]

Well, if he did everything he wanted...what had he done by then? If it was just killin' a particular person, I don't think he'dve done all this.

[penduli]

[ A shrug. ]

The king can do whatever they want after they win the game. Maybe he had a good time with whatever's out there [ or whatever he can do with his virtual reality bullshit, if we're gonna follow that ] and then decided he wanted to step down and let someone else take the reins.

[goodforsomething]

Even knowin' we'd kill him?

[penduli]

If one of us got away with murder, we'd probably expect him to make good on his incentive. [ incentives that were "kill one of your friends or i'll just kill someone myself" aside ] Nothing says the new king has to dispose of the old one, just that they're the ones who become it.

There's probably some that haven't died, just been excused. [ .... ] Though, looking at the list of past winners you guys find, I'm... not really sure any old gamerunners survived, actually. [ Hm. ]

Or maybe it's just a risk that comes with the job, or maybe he'd really like to die but he can't just leave this game alone. [ ...there's a lot of things it could be. ] I don't know. That's something he'll have to answer for himself, I think.

[goodforsomething]

Ohhhhhh, no, I'm pretty sure we all wanted to kill him. The ones who wouldn't would never win to begin with.