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

[pokexplorer]

I'm also quite impressed. Let's see if you're right.

[capyper]

Aw yeah!! I'm gonna hold you to that, then!! [ TWO THUMBS-UP ]

And I think so... but I think we said near the start of the trial, most of us could at least lift it, right?

[penduli]

Paper dissolves in water if it stays in it too long, so it couldn't have been wet that long.

[trustharder]

[Nice try, but no dice. Nothing shows up.]

[amygdalae]

[Bruce goes over to where Yosuke's podium is, producing out his phone and opening the flashlight app after turning it on (need to save battery, after all).]

Alright, just let me know what to do.

[penduli]

[ Ugh... ]

The one cool thing to come out of the vending machine, and it's just useless.

[garudynamic]

Huh, guess not... but does that mean it wasn't used after all or that the pieces were washed...?

[captainobnoxious]

[... The urge to lick the towel just to make sure is strong, but Sigrun will resist.]

So maybe the towel's like the duct tape last time, nothing big. Maybe cleaning up a spill from washing or something.

[lackinginfaith]

["Pretty much untouched since it came out of the machine a week ago" clean. The one Sigrun licked is clearly the real murder weapon, sorry.]

[cherryblooded]

If you were cleaning up, why wouldn't you clean up the blood first?

[cherryblooded]

[Darn it.]

[lackinginfaith]

[Caren takes another sip of Ramune.]

I don't know, there's usually food in there too.

[captainobnoxious]

It's a white towel, so it'd be too noticeable. If they had to clean it up it would've been with something that's the same color or their clothes that they could hide away.

[... Maybe.]

[garudynamic]

Might not have been the killer that did it at all. I mean, if Pearl was doing laundry... there's no real way to know for sure.

[wokeupdead]

Or they could have run out of time and just threw the water on the ground hoping it would wash everything away while they escaped.

[isafraid]

And quite a bit of clothing, actually.

[amygdalae]

Considering that the towel is white, cleaning up blood with it would easily leave a stain.

[Although that doesn't really explain anything...]

The first step might be to figure out what the towel is actually used for, or if its relevant to this incident at all.

[lackinginfaith]

Who knows. It was vampires last time, we have no idea what's going on with the water and towels.

[capyper]

Uh... This might sound kinda dumb, but was the towel damp? Because it was mentioned there was a handprint in the water earlier, right...?

[captainobnoxious]

Since it's devoid of anything we need, I'd say it's totally unrelated. As an outsider who didn't see where it was in the first place.

[That is Aqua and Yosuke's territory.]

But I can lick it to see if there's anything unusual on it if you want. Cleaning supplies included.

[penduli]

If her body was just a projection, wouldn't her clothes be part of that? Like a hologram. [ Or something. ] She wouldn't need to do laundry.

[ ...he's setting aside his awkwardness for now, you should too. ]

[garudynamic]

Hey, we can't turn away from any possibility, right?

[Even if it didn't work out this time]

[penduli]

Are you trying to poison yourself, Miss Sigrun?

[cherryblooded]

...This may be a difficult question, but do you remember how big her hands were compared to yours?

[There's the possibility the handprint is Pearl's - which would make that fairly useless as evidence.]

[ignorantly]

Please don't lick the evidence.