Take Responsibility.

[wordsmithery]

The ride up to the courtroom occurs, as before, after an allotted period of time for investigation; the elevator waits patiently for you at each floor - third, second, first - before sending you upwards and on your way to the courtroom high above. As always, the trip is a smooth one; granted, after everything that the morning had been, any small comfort that fact may bring is likely not helping much. There are three less of you this time around, a fact reflected in the podium circle standing in the middle of the room; Alani, Milla and Chiyuki have all joined the ranks of the deceased, their podiums draped in black and their portraits in greyscale keeping a watchful eye over the rest of the trial circle. There's still no one present in the lectern above; however, once everyone has found their place in the circle, the Wordsmith's voice can be heard throughout the room. "I can see that matters are beginning to seem dire for you, Apprentices. I am sure that you all cared for Sympathetic in some measure—all except the guilty party. And now it falls to you once again to determine who that is. For your own sake as well as Sympathetic's, hold her killer accountable and have them take responsibility for their actions." Twenty-four Apprentices remain. We'll see how many remain at the end of the day.

Comments

[feistytrader]

Probably to frame Lord Explosions.

[avoidcomplications]

That's an unimaginable risk to take just to frame someone. As I said--they would have to know what they were doing with a chemical like that.

[feistytrader]

So someone knows more about chemicals than they let on. It's only been three weeks. It's not like we all intimately know every detail about each other.

[foundfate]

...intimately know...

[Suddenly, Watanuki has a thought.]

The motives. If whoever did this has been keeping their chemistry skills quiet, then they probably have been keeping their secret quiet too. That would explain taking the time to make a bomb too: it's not a crime that happened in the moment because of an argument, this was planned. Probably because of the motive this week.

[plegia]

That's a pretty solid theory, actually. Who here didn't take the motive well?

[gangrel why don't you pay attention to these things...???]

[avoidcomplications]

Most of us, to my recollection.

[plegia]

Well that's boring.

[gangrel]

[tsugomori]

Well there were quite a few people from what I remember, but someone does stick out to me.

[ HERE HE GOES... ]

Kira is one, isn't he? He did look troubled by the motive.

[plegia]

...Really? Him? What could someone that dull have to hide?

[HE'S NEVER SPOKEN TO KIRA]

[introspects]

A lot of people seemed troubled, Munechika-san... What makes Yoshikage-san stick out?

[alchemicals]

Kira's also entirely too much of a fussy bastard to leave everything in disarray like this.

[avoidcomplications]

I'm far from alone in that, but you're correct. I was somewhat rattled when we received those letters, but it's not an issue I would kill over.

Besides, I told Kimbley my secret outright. It's no longer a complete mystery to everyone present.

[foundfate]

Most people didn't take it well. When Elda asked for everyone to share on Tuesday, almost nobody did. I certainly didn't. But I told a couple people I trust, and I wouldn't be surprised if others did the same.

Maybe that's where we should start? I certainly don't think everyone would just say their motives, but maybe we could see who can vouch for who? Because if the secret is enough for the killer to kill over, I bet they didn't share it with anyone.

[plegia]

Seems like a good place to start, anyway. I spoke with Silver about mine. I can't see Silver killing anyone when that would get Gold killed.

My secret is particularly nasty, but I don't know the first thing about chemicals and explosions that aren't caused by magic, so I couldn't have done this.

[neverheardofhim]

I shared it at the meeting. It's like I said -- no one here would care, but back home it would be a pretty big deal...

[introspects]

I talked about mine with Silver-kun, Hanyuu-san, and Watanuki-kun.

[alchemicals]

I showed both Silver and Kira mine. It's the sort of thing that'd paint a target on my head if it got out.

[avoidcomplications]

[surely this is fine]

[elepe]

[...Lusamine pauses a bit, staring off to the side.]

I...did not share my secret when this motive came up. But Silver and Gold are the only ones I've shared it with.

[officerhops]

I didn't share my secret with anyone.

[...]

But if it would be necessary, I'm...I'll say what it was.

[She doesn't look too happy about it, though.]

[iaspis]

I didn't discuss mine with anyone.

But that doesn't matter; what was written on it wouldn't matter to anyone here. No one would believe it where I'm from, either.

It's not worth killing over.

[introspects]

Is it possible that we can also rule out people who don't know how to mix drinks? If the alcohol that Varric-san made for Gold-kun tasted that good, and it was the same thing in the glass found in the billiards room, then it would have had to have been made by someone who knew what they were making, right?

[feistytrader]

I can vouch for some people in here, then. Around a third of you shared your secrets with me. Several were directly from the envelopes.

[plentyfriendly]

I'm still not sure what to think about the one I got yet. I have enough context for it to have looked awful, but after thinking about it some more I'm not so sure.

[tsugomori]

[ He'll laugh from over here. ]

It'd be quite a surprise if we did.