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

[captainobnoxious]

What're the chances of the fight just being moved upstairs? It's not like the laundry room is that far from the stairwell.

[cherryblooded]

In that case, you'd see some of the smaller pieces up there. The pieces that were in the stairwell were only ones big enough to be carried.

[amygdalae]

I can attest to that.

[Since Bruce, you know, actually picked them up to put in the ziploc bag.]

[notjustawriter]

Were there any smaller pieces anywhere?

I wonder if they were crushed into dust.

[wokeupdead]

I think Yosuke proved that he found dust in the laundry room. He has a scarf covered in it.

[which is gross, that's her body.]

[notjustawriter]

If the killin' happened in the laundry room, it wouldn't make much sense for the.... for her remains to be moved, would it?

[prismbloom]

If the fight started in the laundry room and ended upstairs, how is it that pieces of her pearl were crushed into dust? I'm not sure it's easy to make powder from a gemstone.

[notjustawriter]

You'd have to be pretty damn strong, I'd think.

[amygdalae]

Pearls - as in the gemstone - are relatively dense, but not impossible to break. A sledgehammer with enough force might be able to do the trick.

[He's no expert though - this really isn't what he's proficient in.]

[captainobnoxious]

Unless Pearl took up that way to get the higher ground. The water could even have been her attempt to slow the attacker down, as long as we're throwing theories out there. There's no reason for them just to toss some rocks up there even as a decoy, I'd think they'd just toss them someplace no one goes, like the incinerator. That's all.

[notjustawriter]

Started in the laundry room, continued at the stairwell.

You're right, that's probably the course of events we're lookin' at.