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

SELECTION.

[kingmakereffect]

If you've heard enough, let's move on.

Like last time, select the title of the person you believe is responsible for Devoted's death. Majority rules.

It's time for someone to take responsibility.

[cherryblooded]

AQUEOUS

[There's nothing left to say.]

[uro_cyon]

AQUEOUS

[notjustawriter]

....

[There's nothing he can say now, is there?]

>Aqueous

[goingdigital]

AQUEOUS

[garudynamic]

Sorry, Caren.

>Aqueous

[captainobnoxious]

[Can't waaaait to deal with damage control at any after gathering.]

AQUEOUS

[prismbloom]

[ ... ]

AQUEOUS

[lackinginfaith]

[uh... just gonna. drag herself back to the podium. on her hands and tail.

so there is a water-and-handprints trail like the one in the laundry room making its way around the circle as Caren goes back to her podium.

this could take a while.]

[garudynamic]

[...]

Here, hold on to me.

[Let her have a little dignity, damn it]

[lackinginfaith]

...Okay.

[well it doesn't matter if he's gonna chuck her in the pit because she's going down there anyway so might as well believe that he's gonna help so. grabbing on]

[garudynamic]

[In her human form he could have lifted her without much issue, but with the muscular tail it's a bit more of a fight. But he manages, carefully walking them both to her podium]

[lackinginfaith]

[Pause.]Thanks.

>AQUEOUS

[garudynamic]

Is there anything... anything we can do? Anything you want before...

[lackinginfaith]

[Caren opens up her shell pendant again and tugs the piece of Pearl out, leaving the purple lowercase-p pearl inside. The white piece goes onto the podium.]

Keep that with the sandwich bag. She should go with all of you.

[wokeupdead]

[Lynne presses the button and turns around to face the darkness of the room, leaning back against her podium. If the execution is going to be just as gruesome she doesn't want to watch. The kingmaker doesn't get to see her distressed this time.]

AQUEOUS

[penduli]

[ ...he knows he's no different than Kamui or Caren when it comes to White, especially not now, when she's the only thing he has left.

That's why this decision is still easy, even if it means damning someone else's sibling.

(He hopes Kamui's brother and Caren's sister stay safe, at least.) ]

AQUEOUS

[ignorantly]

[ ...Her sister, huh... Shirazu hesitates, for a moment. ]

AQUEOUS

[amygdalae]

[Bruce spends a moment to glance at Pearl's podium before raising his eyes above to the darkness that surrounds all of them. This is all going to what the Kingmaker wants, isn't it? Put all these incentives, get them to kill each other...

It's cruel. It's cruel and terrible and Bruce just wishes he could be better and think of a way to end all of this.

But for now--]

AQUEOUS

...I'm sorry.

[Two more deaths to add onto the guilt.

As if he needed even more reasons to hate himself.]

[devastation]

AQUEOUS

[...We're so sorry that we weren't able to make you trust us more here, Caren-san.]

[pokexplorer]

AQUEOUS

[It's so unfortunate. Two trials with big biological reveals that will go nowhere now. ...Colress' priorities.]

[goodforsomething]

> AQUEOUS

[capyper]

> AQUEOUS

[ratingspoint]

[There's a lot about this trial that isn't really sitting right with him, though hell if he can really identify what's bothering him. That involves thinking about it for any length of time, and why in the world would he ever want to do that?

There's no sense in getting guilt involved.]

>AQUEOUS

[bloodisthicker]

[...why the fuck is it always siblings so he can't even be properly mad.]

AQUAEOUS