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

[garudynamic]

ANYWAYS. So you didn't fight her, but SOMETHING happened to her?

[ratingspoint]

It certainly seems that way from here, doesn't it? Now can we get back to the rest of the trial and working out exactly who happened to her and why, given that it wasn't me? This has been a really nice intermission, but...

[garudynamic]

Well alright then if it WASN'T you then you can tell us everything that happened between you two. It might give us a clue about who DID attack her.

[penduli]

That wouldn't be exciting for the audience. [ ...this is a show, Yosuke, Mettaton's made that really clear. ] There's no tension if he just tells us.

[ Sort of like Yato, if he thinks about it. ]

[garudynamic]

Even if it'll give us something that'll prove him innocent? Actors I swear to god.

[ratingspoint]

If that's what you'd like, darling!

Aqua came into the music room late last night. I didn't ask why she was there, the point is that she was. I've been teaching her how to sing, and sometimes we'd spend time together at night, so I guess she couldn't sleep or something. She noticed the toolkit and asked what I was doing with it - I think her first question was if I was trying to tune the piano? Anyway, I told her that I've been having some difficulties, and she asked me if I needed help with them, because they're probably pretty hard to do on myself.

So I let her fiddle with things for a while. Afterwards, she talked to me for a bit and convinced me that it was probably a good idea for me to write to my cousin, because I told her I'd been missing them lately. I agreed to it, thanked her for it, and left.

That's pretty much it. I spent the rest of the night writing letters, getting ink on me, and then apparently accidentally implicating myself in a murder.

[garudynamic]

Wait! If you were writing letters why did you wash up all the way on the third floor?

[ratingspoint]

I told you, I didn't. I have the hydrogen peroxide in my room, actually - I took it from the second floor. I've told Colress that I'll show it to all of you once we're done here.

[garudynamic]

But why go for proxide instead of bleach? The first floor laundry was closer.

[ratingspoint]

[...That's. Uh. That's a good question, actually...]

Well, I...guess it just didn't occur to me, that's all.

[captainobnoxious]

[...]

How wouldn't it, Mettaton? You're a fashion person. Bleach would definitely have helped more, since it... lightens or whatever, what you said during Misa's trial, and it's not like you have to worry about being burned under your gloves.

[She's cracking a little.]

[ratingspoint]

It just didn't?

[...]

So what is the accusation here, then? Aqua helped me fix what I needed her to and I...what? Kicked her in the face? Really.

[garudynamic]

...well you have pretty deadly looking legs. She'd be below you, perfect attacking angle.

[ratingspoint]

[...Oh my fucking god- ]

You can't be serious.

[garudynamic]

I'M JUST SAYING!

[isafraid]

At this point it's about as fair an explanation as any.

[ratingspoint]

And then I suppose I just wandered up to the sixth floor and grabbed a wrench to finish her off with once I'd knocked her out with my supposedly deadly-looking legs, and I bruised her up for good measure. Really.

Who the hell does that? Any of that!

[captainobnoxious]

I wanna know what the wrench was doing in the restroom, honestly. Her head was pretty caved in and we know that it's the most probably murder weapon.

[...]

You were the last person to see her, you do have her phone, and yours smells a little like the peroxide on your gloves, as fried as it is, and it was left at the scene of the crime.

I believe you for the most of it with the music room and the repairs, since I can see you doing that. It's the everything else that's messing me up. But I know a few things for certain:

You don't hate her, but you could kill anyone... or mostly anyone if you needed to. The incentive might've not been for you, but for someone else entirely. And you're putting on this big show instead of answering right out if it was you or not -- and you've never done this before, Mettaton, you've never made a spectacle out of it like you have now, so as much as I-- I don't want to lose you, what am I supposed to think?

[ratingspoint]

[...]

Think whatever you want, Sigrun. At this point, I don't know what else to tell you, and I know you're going to believe what you want to believe because you're just like that.

It's not a bad thing. It's just how things are.

[captainobnoxious]

[Sure feels like a bad thing. Leader first, leader first, if Mettaton's innocent then it's important to be a leader still because letting her feelings get in the way won't help prove that any more.]

If you come clean, either one of us is going to be sitting on the summit or both of us. And I want it to be both of us. But if you really did kill her, for whatever reason-- I know you can't show me my soul without your magic, but maybe you could still try and see if they're around a little after death like they are in your world?

[It feels a little like a longshot there and her face shows it, but she decides to go with it. As tired as she's feeling.]

[ratingspoint]

[He's quiet for a moment, and he doesn't...quite understand where she's going with this, to be honest.]

...Human souls linger after death here.

I've seen them. I won't speak for Aqua's, but I know their souls are still here in some way.

[garudynamic]

After last trial I dunno if I really buy that.

[You Ellie'd Misa, he knows better man]

And if you were trompimg up and down the stairs you could have heard Aqua being attacked- the Music Room has great acoustics, after all. Everything they did had to take a long time- how did you miss ANYTHING suspicious?

[ratingspoint]

...How long do you really think it takes to kill someone? Just as an estimate.

If the timeframe was wrong, there's plenty of opportunity.

[garudynamic]

Not just the killing though, but cleaning up, changing her clothing, setting up the items in the workshop. You're right, it's a thin time window that you'd be out of your room but it's worth asking.

[pokexplorer]

Indeed... There was an entire process to this, not simply the killing itself. That is what I was getting at earlier, when I was initially questioning you about your "adventure".