Take Responsibility.

[wordsmithery]

The time allotted for this week's investigation passes fairly briefly, but not easily - what with the state of the body and the things that have been found, the mood is perhaps oddly sobering. Either way, eventually the elevator will be waiting for you at the exit of your floor of choice, bringing you up to the courtroom swiftly and easily. There are so few of you now. Two more portraits have joined the ranks of the dead, watching over the proceedings. Gangrel and Orihime's images watch over you with with eyes that see nothing, all colored in greyscale and set up on their places in the podium circle, black fabric draped over each setting. As always, the lectern remains empty and unaffected by what's happened here. After a while, however, once everyone has found their place in the circle, the Wordsmith can be heard addressing the group, voice audible throughout the room. "Sacrificing one to save many—that is ostensibly why Harmonious is no longer among you. Truly, that is the most pragmatic of options in a situation with no chance of victory. I may even come close to commending such a decision. But I must also wonder if the dead can be said to have been 'saved', when they have passed beyond your reach in all but mere messages. Unless you should wish to follow Harmonious and join them, hold the guilty accountable for their practicality." Eleven Apprentices remain. However many leave this place is up to you.

Comments

[firstaid]

Why... would someone frame me? I... I mean...

[Her hands fall and she just looks.... sad.]

[acherontiastyx]

Yeah, I don't get it at all. Like, unless part of the deal is you actually have to try and get away with it.

[matchbreaker]

I actually asked Wordsmith about that. He said that his wording was precise but it would be up to us if we believed that the need to "win" the game was implied or not.

[feistytrader]

"If none of you invoke Rule Seven by the end of the week, then your departed fellow Apprentices will be completely eradicated."

[...]

You don't think he'd clarify now, would you?

[He doesn't think it means they need to win from the wording, but... Needing to win would make more sense, wouldn't it? The Wordsmith's an ashsole.]

[matchbreaker]

If anything, it seems more likely he would continue to be silent until this is over.

[foundfate]

He probably wouldn't, but it makes sense, in a weird sort of way.

Look at who's left here. We all get along reasonably well, even if we don't talk to each other every day. And we have been working together to find a way out of here. Maybe we're even getting close, and he's starting to panic.

Would any of you kill someone here just for the chance to escape? I think not. So the motive must have been crafted carefully, with the people left here in mind. While I don't think anyone here now would kill just to go home, especially not since we're figuring out more and more of this place as each week passes, I absolutely believe that many people here would kill to save the dead. Especially if they knew that 'death' here wasn't the end of things.

[acherontiastyx]

...yeah, okay. That still seems really vague and unhelpful, but whatever. That's just been the past couple weeks in a nutshell.

[matchbreaker]

Honestly. Finding answers out of that man is pulling teeth.

[tsugomori]

It is.

No matter what you ask, he tries to dodge clarifying anything.

[matchbreaker]

Truly! Ever have I tried to be civil, and he ignores my every overture!

[tsugomori]

He's just a coward, when you get right to it, avoiding such things and ignoring things like that.

[ ... is this salt... yes, it is salt... ]

[matchbreaker]

[ Coward...?

Yes, she supposes so. ]

Vindictive, at least.

[firstaid]

[Her hands now wrap around her, gripping on to the sleeves of your white dress... that thought... she doesn't like it.]

So... in order to receive the incentive, they chose Orihime... and then you think they chose me to frame since it would have been the easiest give... this last week?

[She shakes her head.]

But... why? I... I don't get it. Why? Who would do this?

[iaspis]

It doesn't make any sense, if it was truly to save the others.

[firstaid]

Because in the end we would all die here in order to save the others. It's a catch-22 if that ends up being the case...

[foundfate]

There's also the possibility that they didn't mean to frame you.

Orihime likes spicy food. It's possible that she made the curry to eat herself.

[firstaid]

Did she? I thought she couldn't cook well...

[foundfate]

Probably not curry, no. But if she was killed by a friend, maybe she asked that friend to make curry for her?

[firstaid]

...who... who else knows how to make curry?

[She really doesn't like where this is going.]

[foundfate]

I do. But before you ask, I wasn't involved in any of this.

[firstaid]

I believe you. There's no way you would have killed Orihime. Even if we all depended on it. I just know.

[feistytrader]

I do, too. But I don't use swords.

[He almost says "just ask Gangrel or Orihime," then looks around the room for a moment. Well, guess you can't ask them.]

[matchbreaker]

[ In the room...? ]

Traditionally, wouldn't that be everyone except me and Mikazuki?

[ That's how cooking things usually go ]

[tsugomori]

Yes, I can't cook a thing at all.

[ he can try but he'll burn shit or something. ]