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

[cherryblooded]

[He could say 'you could have believed us' but it's too late at this point. But, even so...]

There was always something else you could do.

No one made you make this choice. It's not like the Kingmaker's trials where you're guaranteed to die if you don't condemn someone to death. You could have tried to escape with the rest of us, found out if there was a way from any of our worlds to find a missing person. You had a decision, and this is what you settled on.

It's not one I don't sympathize with. Far from it. But you did have the choice.

[lackinginfaith]

Noel is the only family I have. If I couldn't save my own people and I couldn't trust my own kind or the other captives in here, then maybe I could take a chance on the incentive and maybe that could at least save her.

[cherryblooded]

I might have done the same, in your place.

[No one knows better than him how important family is.]

...I'm sorry things came to this.

[lackinginfaith]

I shouldn't have. I didn't know what else to do.

[cherryblooded]

[He knows. But there's nothing else to do now, really.]

I hope it's over quickly.

[lackinginfaith]

[She can't even give him an answer, just shutting her shell pendant (still with the piece of Pearl wedged in beside her own pearl) and clutching it.]