trusthell | Take Responsibility.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Caren's brought along her own sledgehammer today, which means she's either taken a hint from Mr. Carrying-Throwing-Knives-Around in ways that don't involve mopping up evidence or she's just been to the vending machine recently. Considering that she's also got a bottle of Ramune that she's sipping very carefully, it could be the second thing. With bandaged-up hands from Thursday's fiasco with Sigrun and the bottle, she hefts the hammer onto her podium so she doesn't have to deal with the weight and frowns, looking around the room.]

Well, it looks like you've brought a... number of things in. --Sigrun, I'm not even going to ask about that hammer.

...I thought you said you couldn't lift that, Miss Caren.

Barely. It's possible for just about anyone, just inconvenient. Bruce can attest that I have trouble. Either way, I saw when we were all walking to the elevator that there was one in the evidence, and I wanted to eliminate myself either way.

Edited 2016-03-12 17:08 (UTC)

I see. Good thinking.

[So her sledgehammer isn't dusty?]

[Nope. It's clean.]

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.]

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.

Right. I reported it in that meeting last week.

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?

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.

Yeah, point. Though after Kamui we can't 100% assume anything about how strong anyone is. But, heh, let's not get into powers unless we have to. That's just asking for more crazy.