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

[lackinginfaith]

[Good choice.

There's a bright light when the water hits Caren and a thud as she falls to the ground. When the light fades, you'd be forgiven for thinking that she'd melted like the Wicked Witch of the West, until you noticed her on the floor.

Her hair is bright purple now, as are her eyes, instead of periwinkle and grey, but it might be more distracting to note that she's now wearing a shell bra, some pieces of jewelry, and a cut high up on her arm where one of her bracelets is. There are two strings of beads on the end of her fanned tail. Wait. She has a tail.

Hey, Sigrun, you were right for once when you weren't licking murder weapons. Meet Caren -- Princess of the Antarctic.]

...I guess the stories about turning to foam when your identity is exposed to a bunch of humans were just stories after all.

[She looks up, hands on the floor to support her, and glares around the room.]

But just because you've shown everyone who I really am, it doesn't mean you've won. What kind of murder investigation are you running? You're still going to need to prove if I did anything! I'm not going to sit down and let you accuse me without telling me what you're thinking. If you're right, then you can prove it -- so tell me, if the other people in here are as important to you as what I may have wanted might be to me, what are you going to do to save them?

[capyper]

[ ... He almost wants to ask, "Who is it that you wanted to see?" but there's something else on his mind. ]

Hey, I have a question before people start proving stuff and whatnot! ... Do you have water powers? It wouldn't be that weird, y'know, given your mystery identity.

[ Hey, mermaid princess. Yato's been thinking about this one for a while, actually, after that handprint came up — he did, up until very recently, have a weapon that can manipulate water, after all... ]

[lackinginfaith]

Music powers, which I don't have here. I tried them on the elevator our first week in. The water in the laundry room was just water.

1/2

[garudynamic]

[Well that wasn't what he expected. At all]

...whoa

[garudynamic]

[ANYWAYS]

Okay, so Pearl made it really clear that she was always out at night. We all knew that. So she was an obvious target. Thanks to our sound proof rooms you would have plenty of time to cover your tracks.

[cherryblooded]

...So I guess that promise is off now, hm. Alright then. Let me take a crack at a theory.

You were looking for a way to get out, as usual, and you tried the laundry room's pipes. Weak points - the water has to come from somewhere.

Pearl, who was up for her usual reasons, came in and, understandably surprised to see you with a sledgehammer, spilled water on you.

This happened. You panicked. You had a sledgehammer, and there was that incentive...

Afterwards, you panicked some more. If the stories about sea foam are true, you couldn't let anyone associate this murder scene with Aqueous. So you mopped up what you could with the towel, hid it in the storage room you thought no one would care about, and picked up what pieces of Pearl you could to stage some other murder scene. Any other scene.

How am I doing?

[lackinginfaith]

I wasn't trying the pipes. I should have, but I had something else on my mind.

[sleepingkogoro]

What else is left to prove? The dust in your bandages, the fibers that must have come from those too, the inconsistencies in your behavior, all that is enough already!

How can't you have done it?!

[lackinginfaith]

You don't even know what happened. If you get this wrong, you die, don't you?

[ratingspoint]

[...Well, you know what, just for the sake of playing devil's advocate here- ]

Simple, darling - it's possible she witnessed something and is trying to cover it up. I don't think it's in her nature to do it, but it's possible!

Isn't the point of detective work to solve things beyond the shadow of a doubt?

[prismbloom]

[ There's so much wrong with this. All of it. ]

... Caren, where did you get that cut on your arm?

[lackinginfaith]

...She wanted to get out of here, too, didn't she?

[captainobnoxious]

[... Wow.]

I've heard stories of mermaids -- the Danes are pretty fond of them for some reason, something about how one of the oldworlders wrote about one -- but seeing one's unreal. I guess we do have a pretty unusual crop here.

[First vampires and now mermaids.]

Well, seeing as you're left to our disposal right now, I personally have no qualms of turning this hammer on that tail of yours until you fess up. I'm sure the others won't let me though.

[Torture's always a good option to get people to confess.]

[ratingspoint]

[Oh, that's hit him wrong for a good number of reasons.]

Don't. Even.

[prismbloom]

Sigrun, no.

[ in the mom voice, of course. ]

[notjustawriter]

Y'know, torturin' people is a great way to get false confessions.

[Not that he thinks Caren is innocent, far from it, but]

[penduli]

That's too far, Miss Sigrun.

[lackinginfaith]

You're always thinking with the brute solution, aren't you?

[isafraid]

That's enough. Miss Eide!

[all of this is enough.]

[ignorantly]

...We have plenty of evidence. Is torturing a confession out of her really necessary?

[ He's reminded of that time Sasaki quoted the Ghoul Countermeasures Law at him and Urie. "It is prohibited to cause more pain to a ghoul than necessary."

Caren isn't a ghoul, but... ]

[pokexplorer]

[Colress had been watching with disappointed silence while the others questioned Caren about her sketchiness, but uh.

What just happened.]

Miss Caren...what are you, exactly?

[HE'LL GET BACK TO THE TRIAL SOON ENOUGH BUT-]

[notjustawriter]

Caren.....

[After the trial last week, he's not as surprised as he could have been. Really, he's more upset about the cut.

And the fact that Caren has very likely killed someone.]

Don't all of us here have somethin' worth protecting?

[ratingspoint]

...Well. You're a lot more interesting now than you were before, I'll give you that much.

[...thank you for that contribution, mettaton, we all needed that.]

[isafraid]

...Bloody hell.

[All of this is well and fascinating, but Speedwagon just looks... sad.]

I'd heard the legends of mermaids before, like any other lad... And now I'm seeing one right in front of my eyes! [He wasn't smiling.] This isn't how I ever expected it to go.

[uro_cyon]

So you were the one who was that desperate, huh?