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

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . Fine.

Hanyuu isn't next to her. Who's going to stop her from sprinting towards Silver to tackle him ]

[oyashiromama]

[Hanyuu may not be next to her, but she's next to the boys. She'll move to shield him.]

Do not!

[matchbreaker]

Then you strip his hands, Hanyuu! We have to know!

[ SHE WON'T DIE HERE. ]

[neverheardofhim]

She's right. I don't want to do this, but we need to take this into our own hands. If we don't, we all die.

[oyashiromama]

I won't stand by and watch this! Not again! [She stands in front of Silver, in front of both of them.] I will not let this reach... I will not...!

[matchbreaker]

You have to, Hanyuu! I won't let -- [ . . . And her tone actually changes a little as she clarifies: ] you die!

[oyashiromama]

I won't! [...and she sounds- actually a little pained by that--] But I won't...I won't let anyone do this by force! I couldn't do anything in a thousand years, s-so-- I won't stand by...I will talk with them!

[Tears run down her cheeks.] I will do something, for once!

[tsugomori]

[ HE'S STILL RIGHT HERE

He'll try??? ]

[matchbreaker]

Get the hell off me! I'm not going to die for their sentimentality!

[ She screams this - but she's also crying by this point. Pained, enraged, afraid. But she's also elbowing him hard in the stomach and trying to break off ]

[tsugomori]

If I did let you go, others would get in the way.

[ And then it'd turn into a bigger fight. He'll grunt and hold his ground for the moment, though. ]

It's no use, we should try to convince them. We still have time.

[matchbreaker]

Who? Who is going to do that?! Capo?! Tethras?! Everyone loves those brats! No one- [ She chokes back her own sob here, actually ] wants to kill them!

[ And now tries to kick him in the shins to dislodge herself ]

[plentyfriendly]

Including you, apparently, but that doesn't change the fact that we have to.

[She likes them both.]

We're playing by the Wordsmith's rules here. Not ours.

[neverheardofhim]

You're right Elda. I don't want to kill him. But I'm not going to let you die, either. I promise you that, Fang.

[uncouthhatcher]

[Gold, for one, fuck you you are not touching his best friend, he's in the way overall.]

Don't!

[matchbreaker]

[ Help but Sword Boy, cut off by Hanyuu- ]

I won't kill him!

[elepe]

Elda, please, stop this!

[matchbreaker]

Do you people seriously think Wordsmith will let them go down together?! We'll die if we don't pick right!

[elepe]

I don't care! Just stop it, please!

[She doesn't want to believe this, she can't believe it, everything is pain.]

[feistytrader]

[Silver's sticking right by Gold's side. That's where it's safe. That's where he belongs.]

[foundfate]

[Since Watanuki is right there anyway.]

Silver. Please.

[He won't reach out and force him, but. The request is there.]

[feistytrader]

No. I won't. I'm not gonna, I-

[He harshly slams his left hand into the podium. Blood almost immediately seeps through the bandages.]

They're gonna kill him, Watanuki, I won't sentence him to death, I don't care if I have to die, if everyone has to-

[uncouthhatcher]

Silver.

[It's firm.]

Show them.

[... And he's got a fond kind of expression, comforting really, resting closer to him. Reassuring.]

Pretty sure they're right, after all, and if me dyin' means you ain't gonna... then...

[foundfate]

They're going to kill him regardless. The rules just say we vote, not that we have to prove anything.

At this point, everything's mostly figured out. Everybody knows he did it, and almost everybody is going to vote for him. Nothing you say or do is going to change that. But you not showing your hands will just get you killed with him. Do you think that's what he wants? For you to die too, when you don't have to?

[He's right there, so they could just ask him.]

[uncouthhatcher]

[... They're all so-- stubborn, and they all want to see Silver's hands. Gold looks down at his; they're burned and he knows it, even as rebandaged as they are, and he'll take Silver's while Elda's being dealt with.]

Silver, [his voice is a little shaken, but he's trying to be confident anyway, bravado in front of it all.] Go ahead. I... I'm figurin' they're onto something, [something he doesn't like,] and you've gotta follow what they're askin' of you.

[plentyfriendly]

[Not Phi! She's going to try to keep him from running, in fact.]