trusthell | Take Responsibility.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[And that...honestly, that just gets another laugh out of him, low and soft and brief and hollow; he has no idea why that's what finally makes something tick over in his head, but he's just going to smack his hands down on his podium and abruptly push away from it, and he's going to make his way over to Kira in the calmest manner he can muster, and as soon as he's there he's going to draw back and punch him in the fucking face.

There's a surprising amount of strength behind it, the sort of punch with almost no followthrough; just a solid hit fully intended to try punching the goddamn David Bowie off his face.]

You could have fucking told me that, you absolute asshole.

[...OKAY HIS PRIORITIES ARE STILL SHIT but at the same time he is going to pull back like he's going to punch the guy again, does anyone care about the state of Kira's face because- ]

-?!

[Kira swung a punch of his own in response; wild and untrained, but it would be a solid hit if it connected.]

Did you really think I cared?! You're even more foolish than that idiotic hair of yours if that's the case!

[He's fast enough to ensure that it connects with his shoulder as opposed to anywhere more devastating, but still, ow? Ow. He stumbles a little over...what appears to be nothing, but he manages to catch himself.

He's a soldier trained in hand-to-hand combat, salaryman, you wanna fuckin' go - ]

Do you think I give a fuck if you care?! I know damn well that no one does - but you're fucking bomb materials just like everyone else, don't think for a second that you're not!!

[YOU KNOW WHAT. HE HAS NAILS AND HE'LL FUCKING SCRATCH AT YOUR USELESS FACE, KIMBLEY.]

And you're just another pair of hands with a constant aggravation attached to them!

[Ahhh, that's going to connect and it's not going to be pleasant, but if you think his response to that isn't going to be to try to knee you such that reproducing won't ever be a problem for you, married or not - ]

I got you a fucking nail file, you jackass, the least you could have done was used it!!

I did, you stupid bastard!

[...his nails just do that.]

[and now i guess we're just fucking dancing around each other trying to tear the other's throat out]