Take Responsibility.

[wordsmithery]

Again, the elevator is waiting for you after the allotted time for investigation is over; it idles almost patiently at each floor, waiting for everyone to be on board before sending all of you up to the courtroom high above. Over a third of your original number is dead. The losses are made all the more apparent by the addition of several greyed-out portraits around the podium circle at the center of the room; Kira, Mercy, Judy, Nick, and Kimbley have all joined the ranks of the deceased, their podiums draped in black. Meanwhile, the lectern above stands empty. The Wordsmith waits for everyone to find their place in the circle before he speaks; once that much has been done, his voice can be heard easily throughout the room. "Welcome back, Apprentices. The past several days have been troublesome indeed, and I need not point out that your number has dropped significantly. But a matter even more pressing requires your attention at the moment. In accordance with Rule Seven, the guilty seeks to leave the university and rewrite history. If you wish to prevent that, hold them accountable and have them take responsibility for the fate of Incendiary." Nineteen Apprentices remain. However many leave here at the end of the day is up to you.

Comments

[uncouthhatcher]

Before he could kill all of us. And if it wasn't for us findin' him in the first place, only you'd be standin' here, you big rock!

[sportadork]

You would have killed all of us, too! If your plan had worked and you got away with murder, all of us would be dead! All for something you don't even know the Wordsmith can even give you!

[plegia]

[ohhhhhh damn, you go sport holy shit

the peanut gallery will actually keep his mouth shut for once but daaaaaaamn]

[feistytrader]

It wasn't some heroic act, but it still worked in your favor, so shut it.

[byday]

You have absolutely no right to talk.

[feistytrader]

I'm sure you're the bastion of moral superiority because you wouldn't murder a handful of people that are out to get you killed for an entire world you love.

[sportadork]

... Is that really all we are to you? All anyone here is? Not fellow people, not people you might care about and be friends with? We're just... rivals?

[feistytrader]

If you're rivals, I'm waiting around to die.

If you're friends, I'm waiting around to lose everyone I care about.

We had to move.

[neverheardofhim]

[While everyone else is distracted, Varric will try calmly approaching the boy in front of him.]

Show me your hands. This is the last time I'm asking nicely. I'm not going to attack you like Elda, but I have ways of finding what I want.

Please.

[sportadork]

[just... lets out a shaky laugh.]

You didn't... Neither of you, you didn't have to...

... I would have helped you. Why does everybody here do things so quickly...

[byday]

More than you, I imagine.

You played into all of this, just as much as your peers. There are better ways to do this.

[feistytrader]

That's right. We finally took our lives into our own hands, and because of that, we didn't die to Kimbley's gas in our sleep.

I'm done playing nice with all of you. I shouldn't have bothered from the start. It's just like back then.

[byday]

Back then?

[matchbreaker]

No, you don't capo! Why don't you go torture them into a confession?!

[byday]

I think he's doing that for himself.

[matchbreaker]

Then if you won't be useful, shut the hell up. I'll torture you myself.

[byday]

That wouldn't work out too well for you.

[sportadork]

Do you really think having to watch either of you-- both of you, maybe-- do you think having to watch you die for nothing is in our favor?

... Would you tell Lusamine that this is working in her favor?

[feistytrader]

You didn't suffocate, did you? Are you saying that's nothing?

[sportadork]

You didn't stop him to save us. You stopped him to save yourself.

[uncouthhatcher]

Like I said, we did you a favor. Just shut up.

[sportadork]

... No. You don't get to pretend this was for anyone but yourselves.

[uncouthhatcher]

I'm a selfish guy. I always have been. I don't believe in doin' stuff for justice's sake, I do stuff for fun or if it's to protect things that are important to me.

[But he pauses here, fidgeting with the hand still bandaged and then redoing the other.]

... But if what I end up doin' benefits someone else, if it helps 'em live last a week I end up dyin' [with or without Silver, it's starting to sound like] then that's fine. Kimbley wouldn't have been put on such a big trial, he wouldn't have givin' you guys the chance, but we ended up givin' you guys that.

I ain't gonna say it wasn't just for ourselves, 'cause between you guys and the world we love, we've lived in? Definitely choosin' the latter. But considerin' you guys know now, I'm glad to be seein' the people I've become attached to bein' able to live another week. Got it?

[elepe]

Don't you dare say that.

[...he already did but wow did that hit a nerve.]

[iaspis]

Don't pretend you're doing anyone a favor.

If you had succeeded in keeping quiet, everyone would be dead!