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

[lackinginfaith]

You mean to say that you think they both went into this to win?

[happysweets]

Do you think it really could have been, like, a fight to the death?

[prismbloom]

It could have been a challenge of some sort.

[cherryblooded]

Zagi would easily have agreed to that.

He may not have even intended to kill his opponent, at least at first.

[prismbloom]

Judging from his profile and his likes, especially "fighting" and "bleeding," it's not impossible for it to have gotten out of hand.

[lackinginfaith]

So they met up prepared and decided to fight for fun, but they both ended up with intent to get out.

[cherryblooded]

Most people, when they realize that someone is trying to kill them, are much more willing to kill that person.

[lackinginfaith]

I'm not saying that's not the case.

[cherryblooded]

It's just that you seem fairly bitter about a dead person, that's all.

[amygdalae]

If we are going with that angle, then exactly who would Zagi have gone to challenge?

[cherryblooded]

Someone strong, certainly. Zagi was undefeated - he wouldn't have wasted his time with anyone he didn't think had a hope of beating him.

Who is that, in here?

[prismbloom]

I agree with Cherryblod. It would have been someone Zagi knew could hold their own against him.

I have combat experience, but I have no way of accessing any of my abilities or my weapon, and other than the storage room I had no access to anything that could be fashioned into a weapon.

[cherryblooded]

I'm normally reasonably strong, but unarmed combat isn't my expertise, and nothing I have is weaponlike.

And I've been feeling weaker than normal since I got here. I'd lose.

[captainobnoxious]

Me, obviously.

[sigrun.]

Otherwise, someone that's lived a long time, bombshell over there, and anyone with an interesting power. I guess. The rest of you are too normal.

[cherryblooded]

I think we can rule out Mettaton on account of lack of blood to get on that chair.

[Which is good because he'd be really really upset.]

[amygdalae]

The only thing I have is this [gestures to his own head]. I don't have anything else besides that.

[AKA he's a remarkably average human.]

[ratingspoint]

Maybe. Maybe not. A lot of us like to fight! A few of us have said we'd fight people here if we got bored enough. So maybe a fight got out of hand for all we know.

On the other hand, it's like I told the detective. A lot of us like to kill things.

Maybe he just found someone else who likes to kill things.

[He shrugs.]

Who knows! It's hard to say for sure.

[goingdigital]

Right! Right now we need to focus on the how and who, more than why.

[He pauses.]

There'll be time for that once we get to voting.

[lackinginfaith]

You're not exactly being helpful, are you? All you've done this entire trial was talk about how pointless this is.

[ratingspoint]

Well, am I wrong about that?

[...apparently he is just not going to stop being a fuckhead i am so sorry]

All I'm saying now is that we shouldn't assume anything was self-defense.

[lackinginfaith]

We already know it doesn't matter to the Kingmaker either way.

[ratingspoint]

So why don't you do us all a favor, darling - stop whining at me like the basic, bitter person you are, and get back on working out who did this so we don't all die a lot.

Sound good?

[captainobnoxious]

Well, it is. I'd rather be giving my brother burial right now than just standing around talking in circles about who could've gotten the better of him and listening to dilly-dally open his mouth.

[lackinginfaith]

Brother, huh?

[captainobnoxious]

He reminded me a lot of home, the people that I lived with there and myself, there's not a person here that I would call that now. So he's my brother.