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]

[ ...mmm. ]

They're probably people who were important to him somehow, or were his peers in his round?

[goodforsomething]

Aw, so I took all his sentimental trinkets?

[He sounds so sorry

so

sorry]

[amygdalae]

...was he actually part of that particular round, in that case?

[Just a thought.]

[notjustawriter]

That's what I'm wondering.

[amygdalae]

If they are and the Kingmaker is the winner of said round, then it seems to reason that it was the round that happened right before our current one.

[penduli]

...it's possible. They're items he considered important, so it's probably not a bad theory to have.

[amygdalae]

Glory mentioned that he came to the room often as well, if I recall? It's a strange habit, especially considering that there's nothing else in it too.

[Certainly that could have been different earlier, but.]

[notjustawriter]

[.......]

It's a memorial.

Maybe not one of actual mourning, but why else would he keep their possessions, too? Unless they're trophies.

[amygdalae]

The book did list him as a serial killer.

[And usually those types of people like 'prizes' for what they did, don't they?]

And we know that you're not limited to killing off one person alone.

[notjustawriter]

"Trophies" from the people he's killed....

If he took out a whole lot of 'em at once, that would almost ensure he won by default, wouldn't it.

[amygdalae]

If he wanted to be even more certain of his victory, they could all have been the last remaining people, just like how we are right now.

[goodforsomething]

If we assume each of these is from a different person, and the pocketwatches go together...that's six.

[Small pool.]

[amygdalae]

[Seven people... yeah, that's small.]

It's a possibility.

[...and not a very nice one, but still.]