Take Responsibility.

[kingmakereffect]

The allotted time for investigating comes to an end, and those elevator doors slide open at the end of the first-floor corridor; it's a bit of a walk down from the fifth floor, but at least the ride down is swift and smooth. To say nothing of spacious. Your numbers are running low. The podium circle, as always, stands out against the black-walled courtroom where it's encircling that pit in the center; Mettaton and Shirazu have joined the ranks of the deceased, photographs in greyscale watching the proceedings from their podiums draped in black. The Kingmaker, too, is watching all of you; as always, it isn't until everyone has settled at their podium that he speaks, his voice sounding out through the room for all to hear. "Sacrificial has been taken from you. Maybe this time the guilty party is going to actually succeed at Rule Seven - but of course, whether they manage it is still up to the rest of you." Eleven Survivors remain. How many are still standing by the end of the day is up to you.

Comments

[captainobnoxious]

Easy peasy. You used it to grab his attention, stabbed to stun, clubbed him, and dragged him over to the sauna.

[... Easy peasy, she says.]

[uro_cyon]

How did I activate it? It has no buttons and no wires.

[pokexplorer]

Remotely. You claim to have no remote, but that seems to be the only way it could be activated from what I see.

[uro_cyon]

Then you should find it, if that's the case.

[pokexplorer]

Who's to say you don't have it on you right now? Perhaps you should empty your many pockets and ease our suspicions.

[uro_cyon]

[ He gives Colress a look, and then a simple nod of acknowledgement.

Well he empties out his pockets to his room key, and another cellphone. Said cellphone is very different from the Kingmaker given ones, it's very modern and with a touchscreen.]

Sometimes, no matter how you play the game you still lose.

[pokexplorer]

[Well what's this now?]

Please pass that phone to Mr. Banner so he may inspect it.

[Judging by what Aiden said, he's pretty sure he knows what Bruce will find.]

[uro_cyon]

You won't be able to get into it. [ Because Aiden is a pretty good hacker. He's not T-Bone sure but he has taken down the entire network of Chicago with some help.]

But I'll tell you, if you want. [ He's lost at this point, and he knows it.]

[captainobnoxious]

Spill.

[Oldworld technology was never her thing, but she could admit they made some pretty neat stuff.

This is now tucked under "neat stuff".]

[isafraid]

I bet we'd all like to hear about it now.

[Put him down for "confused but increasingly interested".]

[notjustawriter]

I doubt there's anyone among us who isn't interested.

[uro_cyon]

It's my main weapon of choice. It can interact with everything electronic in Chicago, which is 99% of the city at this point. Bridges, cars, traffic signals, the subway, bank accounts, police communications... [ He could go on, but he won't.]

I don't have access to the network here, but that doesn't mean I couldn't make something to interface it with. The bomb wasn't set off remotely but the lure was. [ He'll point at the strange device, which now has a name finally!]

It was just a distraction.

[captainobnoxious]

[!!!]

I was right!

[... Maybe these stilettos have got something in them hot damn she's wearing them to the Kingmaker's door when they find a weak point.]

[isafraid]

That's... amazing! [And impossible from his point of view. What the hell is a Chicago.]

In a future like... that, you could control anything.

[amygdalae]

[Starkphones His phone is also nigh impenetrable as well, so Bruce doesn't expect anybody less from a hacker. All their most important data is stored in their electronics, after all.

So yeah, he doesn't really look much into it. There isn't a point, anyway.]

We've all been here for long enough. You should know better than to fall to his pushing.

[uro_cyon]

[ About that...]

When I first arrived here, the first thing he showed me was her being kidnapped by my ex-partner. Anything he offered me at that point was moot, because she could still be trapped in that situation.

Last week he finally showed me that she wasn't. I've achieved everything I wanted to do [ His revenge back home, as it were.]. If I did nothing, and he actually had her here, then I couldn't risk her being injured.

If she's still safe, then it doesn't matter. I forced her to move far away, so she wouldn't see me anymore regardless.

[amygdalae]

[...

'They could be fake', he wants to say, but he also knows its probably a moot point. Aiden is smarter than that.]

...why him?

[Why pick off Shizaru?]

[goodforsomething]

Quit talkin' like the Kingmaker. Have you been practicin' those lines?

[So dramatic, Aiden]

[uro_cyon]

[ Just... frowns. It actually sounds like something Damien would say, but it's the truth.]

[isafraid]

You're a hacker, right? Surely you could think up something.

[Not that he.

Understands any of this.]

[uro_cyon]

[ A small smile, you tried Speedwagon, but yes that much is true.]

[isafraid]

[He's trying so hard goddamn.]

[captainobnoxious]

You don't need buttons to turn something on, honey. Sometimes it's as easy as the flick of a switch or a turn of the dial.

[Which these radios have (one of) at least.]

You'd just have to be lying in wait with a radio. Can't say how you kept him under, since the blood was dry but he obviously wasn't, but that's as far as I am.

[uro_cyon]

Neither of those things. [ See this, because Aiden is a control freak.]

[captainobnoxious]

[Aiden, please.

Same.]

... Then did you mess with your phone enough? Whether it's the one we all have or... your own... I don't know, but if it's to save your sister, then even a short truce would've been good enough.

[She knows a few people, both alive but mostly dead, who would've taken this for the exact reason. It was Misa's reason too, after all.]