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

[ratingspoint]

[Well, this is just going to get another one of those really put-upon sighs, followed by Mettaton just...idly leaning forward over his podium.]

So, seeing as we're all just going in circles, no one knows what the murder weapon even is anymore, and frankly I'm getting bored, can we either move on to figuring out who actually did this, or get a recap of the sequence of events that you're all yelling at me over?

...paging kingmaker

[cherryblooded]

[No because fuck you.]

Gracious Kingmaker, do we have a time limit before you just call for the vote?

[kingmakereffect]

There's no time limit, no.

[cherryblooded]

Good to know.

[...he was kind of hoping there was just to get this over with.]

[captainobnoxious]

[... Not that she think is really worth a shot or anything but uh.

Sigrun's gonna take this moment while he's busy to check his fantastic boots for blood.

You know. Just in case. She'd probably be able to smell any of that peroxide or cleaning thing while she's down here. sorry dal]

[ratingspoint]

[...Sweetheart, are you legitimately just going to - ]

...You don't have to get down like that, you know, if you want to see my boots you could just ask.

[captainobnoxious]

I didn't want to draw attention.

[Honey. Honey. You going down is drawing enough. Uh. She'll stand.]

Okay, let me see your boots.

[ratingspoint]

[Don't worry, he'll gladly kick one of his legs up onto that podium and let you get a good look at it.

He couldn't do as good a job as he would have liked with the hydrogen peroxide, because it really is a pain trying to do this sort of thing on yourself, flexible though you may actually be. So there's...definitely traces of blood where the heel joins the rest of the structure, there.]

I think that answers your question, doesn't it.

[Along with all of this.]

[sleepingkogoro]

Well that settles it.

[Just...Mouri is tired now. He had finally grown to trust Mettaton and then this mess happens.

He can only imagine how badly Cherryblod and Sigrun may be taking this]

...did you have any reason to change her clothes?

[ratingspoint]

[He's kind of quiet for a moment before he continues, tossing his head a bit before he does so.]

I did like her a lot, you know. It really was a matter of just..."She was there." She was out late, and I saw an opportunity and I took it.

Because I liked her, I didn't like seeing her covered in blood like that. I...wanted her to be beautiful. That's it.

[goodforsomething]

That's why you brought this necklace back to her room too, huh.

[ratingspoint]

...Yes.

[goodforsomething]

I'd say that was nice, but it ain't worth much to her now.

I just wish you'd made it quicker. [Like he asked, way back when he found out about your murder shows and predicted you killing everyone someday. Just when he'd started to think maybe he was wrong.] Hell of a way to go.

[ratingspoint]

...The first hit killed her. It is almost three hundred pounds centered on four-inch heels; she didn't suffer. We did fight a bit, but the actual killstrike was quick.

[goodforsomething]

You could've killed her without her ever knowin' you were doing it. It hurts just as bad when people you trusted turn on ya. Hell, look around.

But I guess that's better than nothing.

[isafraid]

[Speedwagon just.... he can't.

He can't look at you, Mettaton.]

[amygdalae]

...she was.

[Aside from the caved in skull, that is. But... she looked peaceful enough, in a way. And after everything, perhaps that is all that he can ask for.]

This whole thing... we were never meant to solve it, were we.

[It's not... really a question, but Bruce can't help but wonder, anyway.]

[notjustawriter]

...Christ. You're right; this was meant to kill all of us.

[amygdalae]

Mettaton said as much earlier - that we'd 'die here, or simply die trying'.

[It was--just one giant trap.]

[garudynamic]

If... if we hadn't checked the phones...

[He goes white cheese colored, leaning hard on the podium. All because he has suggested it on a whim. Because he wanted to show off the things he knew]

[notjustawriter]

....You had a good hunch, Yosuke.

[sleepingkogoro]

[Yeah. It wasn't exactly remorse, but as Mouri said:

It did make it worse]

After all these weeks I refuse to believe you didn't think about refusing to play the Kingmaker's game, accomplice or not. If you already lost everything you had back at home I wish you could have found something new to live and fight for.

Many of us here were willing to give you something new to live for.

[ratingspoint]

...I thought about refusing sometimes. And I...know. There were plenty of people here that I've come to really care about.

But sometimes things just don't work out that way.

[sleepingkogoro]

Maybe you should have gone ahead with killing me back at the third week.

At least at that point those people you care about wouldn't have gotten so attached to you.

[Mouri is not suicidal. He is just empathic enough to know Mettaton's confessions must be causing havoc among many people here. The emotional blow for them may have been slighter back then]

[ratingspoint]

...It's probably terrible to say that I'm glad I didn't, given what's happening now. But I suggested you back then because I was still angry with you.

I know the feeling's not mutual, but I'm glad that I got to talk to you a bit more before all of this.