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

[goodforsomething]

[Stan scans the conversation for a moment and hands it back.]

Yeah, looks clean.

[penduli]

[ ...thanks for not incriminating him, Yosuke. He appreciates it.

It's taking him a good bit time to find a text to show though; seems someone is having an impromptu trip down memory lane or something like it, frowning softly... but eventually he does, and he'll let Yosuke check it out since he's closest.

it'd be easier to live here if i at least had my sister.

...given Black's main concern has been White literally every day, there's no doubt that this one's his. It's a very old one—from their first week here, more or less—but! It's his. ]

[notjustawriter]

Looks clean to me.

[He'll hand it back now.]

[amygdalae]

[...Bruce looks a bit uncomfortable about all of this, but he knows that he can't not say anything since it'd just make him suspicious.]

I've only texted him a few times myself. Most of them are from much earlier--I haven't really bothered at all for the last few weeks.

[Still, he takes a moment to find... the best text which he'll pass it over to Mouri. It's pretty much a text all the way from the very beginning, where Bruce is apparently asking for tea and clothes from the Kingmaker. His name isn't on it, though.

...and he trusts you to not scroll down to see the others, Mouri, because, uh. There are some things in there best not seen by other people. Especially straight-laced people like Mouri.]

[garudynamic]

Still, there has to be SOMETHING on there that's okay to show. Just... you know, to keep things consistent.

[ratingspoint]

[...Ah.]

Well, it's...true that you wouldn't. But that would hardly be my first priority if I'd just killed someone.

[cherryblooded]

Right.

Mettaton, someone's going to need to see your phone.

[cherryblooded]

I know, dear. Because you'd be trying to get away with it, so plans for if you failed would be secondary.

[pokexplorer]

[Colress doesn't really comment about his contact with the Kingmaker, but he does have a sample text to pass along to Black (considering the podium to his right is, uh...empty...)

It involves the Kingmaker asking what frivolous item is being requested from him, and the response is hair gel.

Considering Colress' hair issues lately, it's a decent indicator that it's his.]

[ratingspoint]

That's personal.

[amygdalae]

[Welp thanks for reminding him about that, Cherryblod.

He's just going to take a moment to just... yeah.]

[cherryblooded]

And someone is dead, Mettaton. More could be, if we get this wrong. You could be.

Is that less important than your privacy?

[cherryblooded]

[He's sorry.]

[ratingspoint]

Do you think I don't know that? Aqua was -

[...]

She was one of the five people I told you about that week that you've so kindly brought up in front of everyone.

[amygdalae]

We know that our rooms can muffle sound very well, but the other general areas don't usually seem to have that.

[Not saying anything but... just as a reference...?]

[cherryblooded]

[...]

Your phone, dear. If you can't trust anyone else with it, surely Sigrun can glance.

[ratingspoint]

It might have been after the murder, for all I know. Things would be reasonably quiet then, right?

[...]

Also "bloody" is a really unfortunate euphemism right now, sweetheart. Just saying.

[captainobnoxious]

[... Ah, same. Aqua became one of those for her, too, and Sigrun taps her fingers against her podium.]

That week aside, since none of us liked it... I could check it if you want. It's not like there's nothing I don't know about you at this point, I think.

[They've shared enough personal things, haven't they? Just an offer.]

[sleepingkogoro]

I'm sorry, Mettaton-kun. It may be a hassle but it is necessary to clear all suspicion on you.

[Sorry for butting in, Cherryblod]

[isafraid]

As we've been thinking, feels like a mess like that would take a while to put together. But anything could be possible.

[....Ah]

Sorry. Only a figure of speech.

[ratingspoint]

[...As little as he likes throwing electronics, he'll throw it across the damn room anyway. It's a brick, it's not like it's going to hurt it if Sigrun completely nat-1s her dex check and goes total butterfingers with it.

That said, though, there's no record of any texts on it.]

[isafraid]

Well it's... 'open' in a sense with the stairs and all that. You can hear what's going on in a room if the door is left open.

[penduli]

[ ...considering Colress' hair issues lately...

This checks out, yes. Black'll hand it right back over, no snooping any further here. That's rude. ]

You're good, Mr. Colress. [ ...and also sorry that the Kingmaker doesn't consider hair gel necessary. ]

[uro_cyon]

I haven't bothered to talk to him much. [ Not after certain events went down.

But Aiden will hand over his phone with a text several weeks ago about trading brownies for goods. If you've seen Aiden in the kitchen it's pretty obvious that he's good at baking, even if he's not named in the conversation.]

[garudynamic]

[Aqua liked baking too, but he doesn't see her trying to barter them. So he'll take it as a clear]