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]

Only because she was there. You could have easily lured any one of us over instead if you needed to.

[A lot of them did trust him, after all.]

[ratingspoint]

...She was an opportunity, that was all.

[amygdalae]

As was each and everyone of us.

[As much as Bruce can relate to not having anything there's a reason why 'betrayal' is on his dislikes and this? This is a huge betrayal, alright, and as much as Bruce wants to be angry... he knows this is the end. There's no use being angry.

He just had a visceral reminder earlier in the week of what being angry did, after all.]

I suppose I'll never get to meet this Dr. Alphys of yours, now.

[ratingspoint]

[...That...yeah.]

She's dead, anyway.

[...]

That's my fault, too.

[amygdalae]

[...Bruce just takes a moment and closes his eyes, sucking in a quiet breath. He wants to be angry, god, but he can't bring himself to it. Not like this.]

...If she really is like how you described to me, down to the similarity... [Trails off here, and just... looks sadly at Mettaton.] I don't think she would have blamed you.

[ratingspoint]

...I didn't kill her, but it was my fault. I'm not going to get into details, but...we always tended to be terrible to each other, anyway.

[...]

I'm not surprised you're telling me all that, though. Your soul is green, by the way. I tend to see that in kind people.

[amygdalae]

[...somehow hearing that gets a really bitter look from Bruce, for some reason. Green, huh. That's fucking ironic.]

...green's the color I disagree with most, actually, but--thanks for letting me know.

[And kind... yeah, after this, Bruce highly doubts anyone would think of him that way.]