trusthell | Take Responsibility.

Take Responsibility.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I think Mr. Tarrlok's death might've been an accident.

[ It's not just conjecture either! He's brought his notebook today, and in that notebook, there's... some scraps of paper. They're almost too signed to make out, but Black'll lay them flat on his podium as best as he can manage. ]

Yosuke and I found these in the incinerator—which was turned on by the way. I guess we were lucky that we got there in time before it all got burned up...

[ But again: why would you ever use the incinerator. ]

There's not a lot to make out except for two words: TARRLOK and ACCIDENT. [ which is why he thinks it may...be an accident, congratulations Black, you did the fucking detective work. ]

Idiot...did you think the culprit wrote a note saying it was an accident and then decided to burn it?

[...no, that won't fly]

I think it is more likely that paper is from something like, I don't know, the secrets the Kingmaker gave a week or so ago.

Hey! There's no reason to snap at the kid.

[TWINS GOTTA STICK TOGETHER in the absence of their actual twins and/or a good relationship with them, lawl]

...Maybe someone was investigating.

[Mettaton, what- ]

Wasn't the body moved a bit? Maybe someone found it before we did and was looking it over. Making notes for later.

You're thinkin' Lynne found him?

...it's a possibility.

[But if so, then...]

Then it brings the question of why the announcement didn't happen.

I don't see why not.

[...that's probably why not.]

I honestly feel like if people were going to burn their secrets, they would've done so by now. Or, you know, eaten them or something. That's a faster way to get rid of things you don't want anyone else to know.

[ Or like, put them in the bottom of your trunk with a bunch of weapons you keep getting you have no use for. ]

I ate mine. It wasn't very tasty.

... But that aside, that is a really long time to wait for the burny machine, and just to burn the note? I don't know, doesn't seem right to me.

There's matches in storage, you'd be better off even just burnin' it yourself. That incinerator seems kinda like junk.

It sort of is. I'm not really sure why people get going to it first chance they get—it's really obvious when it's in use, since it gets pretty warm around there, and it takes forever to start up in the first place.

[ Thankfully for Mr. Sucks At Smalltalk over here, it doesn't take forever to cool down to a reasonable temperature. ]

It should be rather easy to burn away a few papers anyway.

But if it was merely an accident, that doesn't explain why the body was even moved in the first place.

[Since its at least clear that the position he was found it definitely didn't come from a fall down the stairs.]

There's also too many gaps to make it concrete.

[Actually, wait--]

Can I see the paper?

[ Because no one wants to step on a dead body, guys!! Oh my god.

But yes, Black'll go carefully deliver these scraps. Be careful; they are pretty heavily singed, and that makes it pretty hard to read. ]

Here you are, Mr. Banner.

Thank you.

[He will be the most gentle, don't worry--and now Bruce will make a valiant attempt to look at the pieces and see if there's anyway to recognize the handwriting, or if its too singed to really be able to make out anything.]

[Well, it certainly doesn't match Tarrlok's, but that's a given.

It does match somebody else's, though. Misa's.]

[...considering the last time he saw Misa's handwriting was last night...]

...this isn't Mister Tarrlok's handwriting, as far as I can tell.

[But what does this even mean...]