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]

W-wait, Misa-Misa is confused...the rock bits that we found, that was her actual body?

[cherryblooded]

Unless anyone else found a body, it's likely.

[happysweets]

I had just assumed it was from the top of her head...but then, the culprit would have to know that breaking the rock would kill her, right? Unless they just assumed hitting her in the head with the sledgehammer would do the trick...

[ But there are easier ways of killing someone, aren't there? ]

[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.

[happysweets]

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

[cherryblooded]

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

[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.

[wokeupdead]

[Lynne looks just as bothered. Please don't tell her Bruce really carried a body down here-]

I remember that she had a pearl on her head but I thought it was just something decorative... It was actually connected?

[ratingspoint]

It's possible that it contained her soul. Or something like that.

[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.]

[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.

[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.]

[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!

[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....

[ratingspoint]

[...]

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

[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?

[notjustawriter]

That's lookin' likely, at this point.

[happysweets]

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

[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?]

[happysweets]

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

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

[notjustawriter]

I didn't find a body when I was lookin' earlier.

[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...

[notjustawriter]

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

[It'd be really, really gross]

[happysweets]

So that's out, then. Unless it was in one of the dorm rooms or something, but...

[pokexplorer]

It...would explain why she never turned up.

[Colress also looks mildly concerned about that. Pearl's biological makeup must have been very unique.]