Take Responsibility.

[trustharder]

And after all has been said and done and all clues have been found, those large steel doors at the end of the hallway open up. The elevator both is and isn't a particularly nice one; it rides smoothly and quickly and it's obviously been kept-up, but there's nothing on the interior walls, lending a claustrophobic feeling to what's already a relatively small space, particularly with all of you in there. (Well. Almost all of you.) No distractions from what just happened, nothing to take your mind off of considering what might, just you and your fellow Survivors in an unadorned steel box. There's no visible panel for buttons, either; looks like it's pre-programmed; at least the ride is a relatively short one, though it's difficult to tell the distance traveled before the door opens again. You would be forgiven for your initial thought being that it opens into a void. It isn't complete darkness, but it's enough of a visual shift from the elevator that it probably takes your eyes some time to adjust; instead of the usual concrete and steel, the walls are a dark, heavy black, making the room look far smaller than it is. There aren't any corners to it, either; the room is tightly circular, complimenting the setup in the center of it. In the center of the room is a circle of podiums, twenty-seven in total, arranged so that everyone standing at them can see each other. So everyone can look each other in the eyes, if they so choose. The podiums are interlocked - there's no cutting across the center of the circle, and for good reason, it looks like there's a lot of nothing down there where the floor should be, just a massive black pit in the center - and each is bearing the title of the person who's assigned to stand at it. No names, just adjectives, emblazoned across two brass panels on the very top and the front of each podium. Affixed to the podium itself is a glass touchscreen panel; it's dark for now, but it'll probably be relevant later. At least the glass is shatterproof, in case things get heated. In general, though, all of the podiums are identical, except for the one intended for Zagi. The podium that should bear Adaptable's title has had a black cloth draped over it, and a copy of Zagi's profile photo is sitting on top of it, framed and colorless, an image in greyscale. It's hard to tell where the Kingmaker's voice comes from, when it does; it seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, like it's being piped in from someplace you can't see. But he's very definitely audible when he does speak. "Adaptable has been taken from you. Looks like the guilty among you is attempting to end the exercise by carrying out Rule Seven. It's up to you whether they're held responsible for their actions or not."

Comments

[ratingspoint]

Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention for a moment!

[Mettaton, what the hell do you want- ]

We're all doing a wonderful job guessing and stumbling around in the dark! Absolutely fantastic, the very model of...well, twenty-six people with no idea what they're doing!

But if I do say so myself, this has gone from suspense into confusion, and that's no way to keep an audience's attention - so would anyone mind if we used a lifeline and asked our captor exactly why any of this is necessary? Speculation's great, but fan theories can only take us so far, after all!

[...that was a roundabout as fuck way to go SO CAN SOMEBODY ACTUALLY ASK THE KINGMAKER WHAT WE'RE DOING HERE but]

No. Really. For all we know this is just going to be used to turn us against each other later – see who accuses whom of murder and all! So why don't we just cut out some of the guesswork?

PAGING KINGMAKER, AGAIN

[cherryblooded]

Not a bad point.

[Phrased kind of dramatically, but.]

Kingmaker, why are we required to do this? What would happen if we all just stood here and refused to speculate?

[kingmakereffect]

If you all refused to attempt to determine who the culprit is, then eventually I'd call for a vote. Obviously you all would most likely be wrong in your answers, so the culprit would win. They successfully murdered someone and got away with it.

...But you really don't want to do that.

[cherryblooded]

What exactly would happen if they did?

[kingmakereffect]

They would get to leave the Vault, as I've said. The rest of you would die.

[cherryblooded]

...ah.

[Cherryblod takes that fairly stoically.]

I see.

[ratingspoint]

...Well, that's good to know.

[...HE SAYS, LIKE THIS IS LEGITIMATELY A GOOD THING TO KNOW AND NOTHING ELSE.]

Thanks for the answer, darling.

[isafraid]

[There's a chill creeping up the back of Speedwagon's neck, and he's not sure why.]

Oi! And what do you mean by that, then?

[kingmakereffect]

[WELL THAT SURE IS A THING]

[lackinginfaith]

We know there was a fight, not just an ambush, and that Zagi was taken down by a clawed creature. Unfortunately, we're stalled trying to prove who the one with such a power was. Not to mention the duct tape disaster in the library. It might have been an attempt at some kind of ritual, or just to distract the Kingmaker so he'd have to clean up the mess and the one who did it could get to something against the rules or try to break out.

[sleepingkogoro]

I still think Zagi-san may have been the one to do the mess in the Library. He wouldn't have been afraid of inconveniencing the Kingmaker.

The culprit must have caught him in that moment and the fight ensued in the Dining Hall. THe Library and the Dining Hall are pretty close, after all.

Then after the fight the culprit returned to their room, bleeding all the way and...took a chair with them...? There was a chair in the hallway...I think?

[That chair confuses Mouri. Yay]

[goingdigital]

I wouldn't say the dining hall is close to the library though.

The kitchen is though.

[sleepingkogoro]

It is closer than the hallway, at least. No other place than the hallway had blood or signs of anyone getting attacked.

[lackinginfaith]

You know none of that makes sense.

[amygdalae]

Let's try to take this from the beginning again.

[Alright guys, we can do this. Especially now that we know how much is on the line.]

The fight ended in the dining area, that much we know, but what about before that? What happened in the hallways and the library?

If we go one step at a time, we should be able to start piecing the information together.

[lackinginfaith]

I think it started in the library. Not only is it the end of the complex, somebody was clearly busy with their duct tape art project for a while beforehand.

[sleepingkogoro]

It all actually started in the Library. The culprit and Zagi-san went from there to the Dining Hall, where the fight and the murder happened, and afterwards the culprit bled all the way to the Hallway.

[Mouri is quite confident he has cracked the order of events]

[cherryblooded]

The chair in the hallway was from the library, I believe. So whatever happened in the library, the fight started there, and the chair was the best option for a weapon in self-defense until Zagi could get to the kitchen knives.

[amygdalae]

That sounds about right.

But the entire hallway had blood, didn't it? Does that mean the dining area wasn't Zagi's first place to go to?

[ratingspoint]

Wrong!

[HE SAYS, CHEERFULLY, GODDAMN.]

The kitchen is locked at night, remember? So Zagi probably already had the knives on him.

[wokeupdead]

[You know. Since nobody has said it. And it's been on Lynne's mind.]

Isn't there chance that the duct tape thing was a dare?

[It's so dumb and literally the same night as the truth or dare party.]

[lackinginfaith]

Wouldn't somebody remember it?

[wokeupdead]

If both people involved were Zagi and the murderer then who else would know the dare? It could be a reason they were alone together if anything.

[This is probably reaching.]

[prismbloom]

I'm not sure. Zagi was dared to follow my orders for the rest of the night. I would have known if he had been dared to do something like that.

[lackinginfaith]

But what if it wasn't Zagi who did it? I've been thinking Zagi interrupted someone else.