Take Responsibility.

[kingmakereffect]

And once the allotted time for investigating comes to a close, those elevator doors at the end of the first-floor corridor open up; the ride down is fast, smooth, and understandably tense as far as atmosphere goes. You're down to less than half of your original number. The doors slide open and the podium circle comes into view, standing stark against the black-walled courtroom and encircling that pit in the center; Misa and Aqua have joined the ranks of the deceased, photographs in greyscale watching the proceedings from their podiums draped in black. Of course and as always, the deceased aren't the only ones watching; the Kingmaker will make his presence known once everyone has settled at their podium, his voice sounding out through the room for all to hear. "Resilient has been taken from you. Maybe this time the guilty party will actually succeed at fulfilling Rule Seven, seeing as this is the sixth try and all. Whether they manage it is up to the rest of you." Thirteen Survivors remain. However many will be down by the end of the day is up to you.

Comments

[amygdalae]

Aqua's device was nearby--perhaps the toolkit was used to try and open it up?

[ratingspoint]

Oh, that - I got something on my gloves. Hydrogen peroxide lifts stains if it's applied quickly enough, and I would prefer not to ruin them.

[isafraid]

I can hardly piece together what someone would get from doing that!

[garudynamic]

Makes sense- I managed it with the earrings, but honestly you need a small screwdriver to really do it.

[cherryblooded]

I see. Sorry about this, then.

[...Don't mind if he looks your gloves over right now.

Is that where the smell is coming most strongly from?]

[ratingspoint]

[It is, yes!]

[amygdalae]

I'm not sure either, but clearly something happened - the outside was dry, after all, but the inside was not. Maybe they wanted to dry out the inside too but didn't manage to do it.

[cherryblooded]

Well, it's definitely from the gloves... Do these come off?

[amygdalae]

And the toolkit probably has that.

[ratingspoint]

Not unless you're in the mood to damage my hands?

[cherryblooded]

Never in the mood for that. What'd you get on them?

[captainobnoxious]

Well, that sucks.

[... she may have wanted to try hold his robohand

look at that disappointment]

[ratingspoint]

Sweetheart, if you're expecting me to say "Aqua's blood" or something, I'm going to disappoint you. I was writing letters and got ink on them.

[captainobnoxious]

-- Is one of them for me?

[ratingspoint]

...They're for my cousin. Writing to them clears my head sometimes.

[cherryblooded]

I'm not expecting that.

[...hhhhhh. There's more he should be asking but he doesn't. Know what he should be pursuing here. And a lot of him doesn't want to know.

He looks around back the circle with a 'help me' expression on his face.]

[garudynamic]

Actually, speaking of the phones... are we even sure it's Aqua's?. I mean, we were wondering why anyone would wreak someone else's phone, but if the killer switched theirs after hiding any texts they had it's not like we could tell.

I mean, they wouldn't be able to get back into their own room... but after the trial that wouldn't matter anyways.

[captainobnoxious]

[... Oh... That's fine.]

That's a good way to do it. I still hope I'm mentioned plenty in them.

[Talk about your girlfriend more.]

[ratingspoint]

...Yosuke gave me some music to listen to, as well as my cousin's headphones to do it with. It made me miss them a bit, and the last time I heard from them, it wasn't anything good. So I wrote some letters to them and spent the rest of the night staring at the stars I've got on my ceiling.

That's really all it was.

[ratingspoint]

Darling, why wouldn't you be?

[cherryblooded]

There's nothing I'd rather do than believe that.

...If anyone else has questions, they can ask you themselves.

[He moves on.]

[captainobnoxious]

[Hee. Punchy feelings should not be included in murder trials... though her pleased expression still says all.]

[captainobnoxious]

[... Actually, this gives her an idea.

Like. Longshot of the day. But. She's gonna smell the wrench.

Though she's expecting just blood, yeah.]

[isafraid]

[...]

I guess we should at least ask when you were washing your gloves?

[trustharder]

[Your expectations will not be dashed this day, Sigrun, that is a lot of blood.]