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

...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?