Take Responsibility.

[kingmakereffect]

And after a given amount of time, those elevator doors at the end of the first-floor corridor open up; as it was last week, the ride down is smooth and quick-moving, even if there are less of you this week. (Technically, you're only down by one in the elevator; Bruce has ensured that Pearl is with you in some way, albeit unconventionally and by the grace of Ziploc.) However, when the doors open up to the podium circle standing in the middle of that black void of a courtroom, there's no mistaking the fact that there are fewer people present than there were last week – Kamui and Pearl have joined those with podiums draped in black, their framed profile portraits watching the proceedings in shades of grey. It's still impossible to tell exactly where the Kingmaker is watching the proceedings from, though it's obvious that he is; he'll wait until everyone is settled before he speaks, his voice coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. "Devoted has been taken from you. All of you know what the stakes are now, but this happened anyway – looks like someone's determined. Whether they succeed or not is up to you." Twenty-four Survivors remain. We'll see how many are still standing by the end of the day.

Comments

1/2

[garudynamic]

[Well that wasn't what he expected. At all]

...whoa

[lackinginfaith]

Music powers, which I don't have here. I tried them on the elevator our first week in. The water in the laundry room was just water.

[garudynamic]

[ANYWAYS]

Okay, so Pearl made it really clear that she was always out at night. We all knew that. So she was an obvious target. Thanks to our sound proof rooms you would have plenty of time to cover your tracks.

[cherryblooded]

...So I guess that promise is off now, hm. Alright then. Let me take a crack at a theory.

You were looking for a way to get out, as usual, and you tried the laundry room's pipes. Weak points - the water has to come from somewhere.

Pearl, who was up for her usual reasons, came in and, understandably surprised to see you with a sledgehammer, spilled water on you.

This happened. You panicked. You had a sledgehammer, and there was that incentive...

Afterwards, you panicked some more. If the stories about sea foam are true, you couldn't let anyone associate this murder scene with Aqueous. So you mopped up what you could with the towel, hid it in the storage room you thought no one would care about, and picked up what pieces of Pearl you could to stage some other murder scene. Any other scene.

How am I doing?

[sleepingkogoro]

What else is left to prove? The dust in your bandages, the fibers that must have come from those too, the inconsistencies in your behavior, all that is enough already!

How can't you have done it?!

[prismbloom]

[ There's so much wrong with this. All of it. ]

... Caren, where did you get that cut on your arm?

[captainobnoxious]

[... Wow.]

I've heard stories of mermaids -- the Danes are pretty fond of them for some reason, something about how one of the oldworlders wrote about one -- but seeing one's unreal. I guess we do have a pretty unusual crop here.

[First vampires and now mermaids.]

Well, seeing as you're left to our disposal right now, I personally have no qualms of turning this hammer on that tail of yours until you fess up. I'm sure the others won't let me though.

[Torture's always a good option to get people to confess.]

[capyper]

... That's cool too! [ is now the time and the place ] Did she find out about your identity? I mean... there was some spilled water in there. You admit that much.

[pokexplorer]

[Colress had been watching with disappointed silence while the others questioned Caren about her sketchiness, but uh.

What just happened.]

Miss Caren...what are you, exactly?

[HE'LL GET BACK TO THE TRIAL SOON ENOUGH BUT-]

[lackinginfaith]

I wasn't going after her specifically. I didn't even know you couldn't kill her normally. The target on her head was a last resort.

[lackinginfaith]

You don't even know what happened. If you get this wrong, you die, don't you?

[ratingspoint]

[...Well, you know what, just for the sake of playing devil's advocate here- ]

Simple, darling - it's possible she witnessed something and is trying to cover it up. I don't think it's in her nature to do it, but it's possible!

Isn't the point of detective work to solve things beyond the shadow of a doubt?

[garudynamic]

Just anyone that was out or...

[Something hits him, and he has to know]

...was she out looking for someone?

[He doesn't know Pearl well- did she have anyone that she would kill for?]

[lackinginfaith]

I wasn't trying the pipes. I should have, but I had something else on my mind.

[notjustawriter]

Caren.....

[After the trial last week, he's not as surprised as he could have been. Really, he's more upset about the cut.

And the fact that Caren has very likely killed someone.]

Don't all of us here have somethin' worth protecting?

[cherryblooded]

But it did start in the laundry room. It really doesn't matter why you were there to begin with, considering what happened.

[ratingspoint]

[Oh, that's hit him wrong for a good number of reasons.]

Don't. Even.

[lackinginfaith]

I don't know if she was. She seemed like it. When I got the second hammer from the machine and you all only knew about the one, I had to go even if I couldn't use it, but she went after me too. Who wouldn't? If they had someone to save.

[amygdalae]

What was it then? The basins?

[There's not a lot of things in that room, Caren.]

[prismbloom]

Sigrun, no.

[ in the mom voice, of course. ]

[lackinginfaith]

...She wanted to get out of here, too, didn't she?

[notjustawriter]

Y'know, torturin' people is a great way to get false confessions.

[Not that he thinks Caren is innocent, far from it, but]

[amygdalae]

[BRUCE JOINING THIS TRAIN WITH METTATON SO FAST.]

Captain Eide, please--don't.

[ratingspoint]

...I'm pretty sure it was the person that she was after, sweetheart.

[captainobnoxious]

[Strike two, huh. Sigrun narrows her eyes and picks up the hammer again anyway, resting it on her shoulder.]

Give me a reason why not.