Take Responsibility.

[kingmakereffect]

And once the allotted time for investigating comes to a close, those elevator doors slide open at the end of the first-floor corridor, offering another of those fast, smooth rides down to that black void of a courtroom Twelve out of the original twenty-seven are dead; there are four less of you present for this trial than there were last week. That's incredibly obvious as soon as the doors slide open and the podium circle comes into view where it's encircling that dark pit in the center of the room; Norman, the King, Tarrlok, and Lynne have joined the deceased, photographs in greyscale watching the proceedings from their podiums draped in black. Of course and as always, the Kingmaker is watching too; he waits until everyone is settled at their podiums to begin speaking, though it's still impossible to tell exactly where his voice is coming from. "Assured and Perceiving have been taken from you. You guys are really getting excited, aren't you? Two people dead in one night... Whether the guilty party succeeds or not, though, is up to the rest of you." Fifteen Survivors remain. However many will be down by the end of the day is up to you.

Comments

[sleepingkogoro]

It wouldn't be the first time a culprit tries to disguise the cause of death.

[Mion's murder comes to mind]

[notjustawriter]

This is disgusting.

[prismbloom]

It... does sound rather self-important.

[goodforsomething]

...people actually use that?

[captainobnoxious]

I'm more surprised by that than any murder.

[isafraid]

It's a terrible thought.

[But totally possible, nevertheless.

Yeeeesh.]

[sleepingkogoro]

Who?

[A valuable clue! Reveal away, Aqua!]

[happysweets]

But where else could he have fallen from, do you think?

[amygdalae]

[...]

Who was it?

[ratingspoint]

...That would actually narrow down who could have done this quite a bit, wouldn't it. Tarrlok-darling wasn't a small man. In the best of ways, of course! But it isn't like most of us could carry him.

[prismbloom]

... It was Tarrlok.

[ She even has the sheet with her! ]

[goodforsomething]

There's not a lotta people here who could even lug the guy very far. He was pretty huge.

[No one has any business being 6'3'', honestly]

[amygdalae]

I did my best to examine the bruises. I'm not entirely certain, but they seem to have happened during the murder itself.

[captainobnoxious]

Figures it'd be him.

[thanks for your contribution, sigrun]

[happysweets]

Wasn't he the biggest one here..?

[amygdalae]

[What.]

Is the sheet with you? [What is he asking, of course she has it.] Can we take a look at it?

[prismbloom]

He was. It would take someone with incredible strength to move him.

[ratingspoint]

He was! So unless someone else here is secretly something unnatural, we've got a narrow set to choose from.

[prismbloom]

Of course.

[ She pulls it out, passing it around for everyone to see. ]

Can someone verify if that's actually his handwriting?

[garudynamic]

...well the dojo mats were moved around, right? Could someone have snapped his neck on the hard floor?

[It's exactly why him and Mouri hadn't done the demo until they had the equipment for it, after all]

[captainobnoxious]

Those stairs are a pretty straight way down, in my opinion. If someone, say, was pushed from a certain amount of floors up, couldn't nature just take its course?

[pokexplorer]

[Colress actually kind of agrees with Sigrun. BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT.]

Then the bottles were from him?

[He squints a bit, thinking this out as Bruce asks for the sheet.]

[notjustawriter]

[.....]

But wouldn't that imply... that doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?

[happysweets]

Well, at least that lets a few of us off the hook for Tarrlok's murder, if we assume he was moved after all!

[goodforsomething]

I might be able to, lemme see it.

[You gotta be able to recognize handwriting if you're gonna forge it, lol]