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]

But it'd have to be someone she spoke with enough for them to know the rock was her weak spot!

[isafraid]

You licked the murder weapon?!

[lackinginfaith]

Right. I reported it in that meeting last week.

[garudynamic]

So either the person who used it had to be very strong or Pearl had to be off her feet. I mean, she's wasn't SUPER tall, but getting a hammer that high can't be easy?

[lackinginfaith]

That's disgusting.

[penduli]

[ ... ]

What if it'd been rat poison or something?

[cherryblooded]

Can't say I knew her well enough to know that, or to know who she spoke with often.

[ratingspoint]

[...]

So how many of us actually knew that, before today? Outside of you, Shirazu-darling.

[lackinginfaith]

I'd certainly think she'd leave a body, or that she could be killed some other way, but apparently not.

[happysweets]

I was thinking that maybe, um..the only way to make a body really disappear would be the incinerator, right? But there are no signs anyone used that, as far as Misa-Misa can tell...

[garudynamic]

It wasn't a lot of blood though. It could pretty easily be from just a nose bleed or if she hit them in the mouth. It can't *hurt* to check though.

[bloodisthicker]

Honestly, I feel like it doesn't take advanced knowledge of alien biology to guess that hitting someone in the forehead with a sledgehammer would probably kill them.

I think the more pressing question is who would have the arm strength to accomplish that.

[lackinginfaith]

So let's hope we have all the evidence down here, then.

[amygdalae]

Essentially, we can assume that the gem is like a brain - or in Mettaton's case - the motherboard, or his 'soul'.

[Whatever makes the most sense. Although...]

Though considering just how badly the damage was... does that mean that the culprit too was aware of the importance of the gem?

[captainobnoxious]

Why not?

[wokeupdead]

She told me she made her own body but I assumed she was a robot just like you.

[a safer assumption than magical gem bodies, let's be real.]

[captainobnoxious]

It's just dust. I wouldn't have licked it if it was blood or anything like that, that's just asking for trouble.

[capyper]

Noooo offense to anybody this applies to, but... that handprint wasn't too big, right? So the person it belongs to probably isn't super tall! I think it's more likely to be that she was on the ground or something like that.

[captainobnoxious]

[.......]

Well, it wasn't.

[notjustawriter]

.....Trust me, we'd know if someone used the incinerator to get rid of a body.

[It'd be really, really gross]

[happysweets]

It was probably someone who knew her...maybe a friend?

[ Which makes this whole thing even more gross... ]

[isafraid]

We should hope so!

[ignorantly]

I guess? [ Aliens sure are weird. But it'd make sense if it was just a projection... ]

[cherryblooded]

It's not that you wouldn't know it would kill her - it's that it wouldn't be my first choice to kill someone. There are no shortage of weapons here, and a sledgehammer is not the most practical.

[amygdalae]

Apart from it being unsanitary, it is evidence.

[Let's just not touch on the subject that you basically licked a dead person, Sigrun.]