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

[happysweets]

It's true that there wasn't a body anywhere else, but..

[cherryblooded]

I see. Thank you, that might be important.

Attn. Kingmaker

[garudynamic]

If we need to maybe we can do a room sweep later?

[He looks up at the ceiling]

Can we leave the trial room once we're down here?

[amygdalae]

I can speak up for her - I personally helped her to move the sledgehammer she got from the machine into her room a few days before.

[Yeah, he had been wondering about that when he saw Sigrun with the sledgehammer. That's a relief.]

[captainobnoxious]

[...................]

I licked a bit of it.

[wokeupdead]

Oh...

She did say something about how she wasn't human when I first met her.

[Still doesn't mean she should have been smashed to pieces though.]

[garudynamic]

If we're assuming the gem is her... real self? I would guess not? I dunno how we could even check...

[captainobnoxious]

Rock dust. Dust from a rock. The remains of a stone.

[kingmakereffect]

No, you can't. Once you're down here, you're not allowed to leave until a decision has been reached.

[ignorantly]

...She told me that it contains her consciousness, thoughts and memories and stuff. Her body was just a projection or something to interact with the world.

[happysweets]

So we should look for someone who's wounded again?

[ At least we all know we bleed normally this time. ]

[captainobnoxious]

[Yup.]

[capyper]

Oh, I see! So you ran back and grabbed your own, 'cause that's one people already knew you had, right? That's pretty smart.

[cherryblooded]

That's true. Normally, you'd try something a little simpler than a sledgehammer to kill someone - so it was probably someone who knew about the rock... But that could have been anyone, really. We all knew she was an alien.

[notjustawriter]

That's lookin' likely, at this point.

[garudynamic]

Yeeeah I thought that might be the case.

[captainobnoxious]

So you can destroy the body, but unless you broke the pretty stone on her head she'd just come back?

[... Immortals are so weird.]

[cherryblooded]

[It's a shame they didn't get to her last week when they did the bloodletting.]

If we assume that, the injuries would have to be from her attacker.

[happysweets]

Oh! Misa-Misa gets it! So the pearl is her real body, and the actual body we see is, like, just so she can walk and talk and stuff!

[cherryblooded]

It wouldn't hurt.

[isafraid]

So it really was her...

[Speedwagon grit his teeth.]

A thing like that on the front of her head would make for an easy weak spot....

[amygdalae]

[Sigrun why.]

You do realize that's not really a good idea, right?

[lackinginfaith]

[Nope. It's clean.]

[wokeupdead]

Yeah, it is pretty hard to believe. It doesn't sound like anyone else knew this either so how did the culprit know?

[it couldn't just be a lucky guess, right?]

[notjustawriter]

The murder weapon, in other words.