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

[cherryblooded]

Fair enough. Hard to prove what someone knew or didn't know.

[lackinginfaith]

I wasn't particularly. But it could have just been an educated guess, too.

[capyper]

Uh... just wondering, but were the fibers more... on top of the pieces? Or mixed in with them? If it was possible to tell...

[amygdalae]

Looking at it probably could have accomplished the same thing.

[But at least you're okay, Sigrun.......]

[notjustawriter]

I only spoke to her once.

[wokeupdead]

Do we know anyone else who received sledgehammers other than Caren? I'm trying to keep track of the weapons from the vending machine but I can't stand by it every day...

[she is but one woman.]

[prismbloom]

The water.

[capyper]

Right! I don't think that the person who did this needed to be strong... If Pearl were on the ground, then they could've just kinda half-swung half-dropped the hammer on her, you know what I mean?

[garudynamic]

Or they used something white to carry the pieces to the stairs... but I doubt anyone grabbed anything white from the sewing room to compare?

[cherryblooded]

On top of the pieces, if I remember right.

[prismbloom]

Unless our culprit is very good at sewing--remember, one of the rooms we found after last week's trial is a sewing room, with many options for fabric.

[capyper]

The... water? Maybe I'm just picturing this wrong, but isn't it kinda hard to leave a print in water? The water would just wash it away...

[sleepingkogoro]

They were mixed with them! The chances of they being a red herring of any type is very low.

[garudynamic]

...!

You... think they might be a plant?

[amygdalae]

Not on my end, no. I admit that the week hasn't been the best for me.

[Between that dream, the incentive the Kingmaker so kindly offered and his apparent phone... yeah he hasn't been in the best shape.]

[captainobnoxious]

Yeah, yeah. If no one's against the method, we can see if this sledgehammer can actually split the bigger chunks of her and who's best at swinging it though. Or even lifting it up.

[Considering most tend to be 10-20 pounds, it's easy enough for Sigrun herself to lift the hammer she's got. Still a little weighty but. IT's fine.]

A test of strength. We'll narrow it down that way.

[lackinginfaith]

Like they were snagged by them?

[pokexplorer]

I hadn't spoken to her prior. Hence, quite a bit of this information about her is news to me.

[sleepingkogoro]

I went there but I found nothing to report. Besides most of the fabrics there are of those garish neon colors.

[ignorantly]

...Siggy, why.

[cherryblooded]

Like that.

[capyper]

Could be, I guess! But there are other ways that fibers could've ended up on the pieces after they were already broken. I was just tryin' to figure out when the pieces got there.

[garudynamic]

...if the gem is Pearl's... self... maybe the killer didn't expect that? Like they attacked her and there was a struggle when she didn't go down like they expected?

[captainobnoxious]

To see what it was.

[penduli]

[ Like, Pearl's already dead and she's not getting any deader, but-- ]

There's probably not enough pieces left for us to get to everyone, and--that's a little disrespectful, isn't it?