trustfelled | Take Responsibility.

The door at the northwestern corner of the foyer is open.

It's hard to say when it opened, but the fact of the matter is that it seems to have; it leads to a separate hallway that seems to run alongside the dormitories. The hall is long and dimly-lit, but it's illuminated well enough to make it plain that the walls and floor in here are different; they're far less designed to give off an impression of grandeur - if anything, it's claustrophobic back here: the walls are close and darkly-colored, and the entire area is barren until it opens up into the room serving as your destination.

The room is circular and high-ceilinged, covered in more of the exposed wood that lines the rest of the building; there aren't any visible lights, however, which is...odd, given how bright the place is. It lends the entire area a sense of unreality; it's easy to distract yourself from it, however, once you notice this place's centerpiece.

In the center of the room is a circle of podiums, thirty in total, arranged so that everyone standing at them can see each other. So everyone can look each other in the eyes, if they so choose. The podiums are interlocked - there's no cutting across the center of the circle, and for good reason, it looks like there's a lot of nothing down there where the floor should be - and each is bearing the title of the person who's assigned to stand at it. No names, just adjectives, emblazoned across two brass panels on the very top and the front of each podium.

Affixed to the podium itself is a panel with buttons on it, and again, there are thirty in total; next to the buttons are smaller strips of engraved metal to serve as labels, bearing the titles of everyone that's been present in the facility, living or dead.

All of the podiums are identical, except for the one intended for Sayaka. The podium that should bear Attentive's title has had a black cloth draped over it, and a copy of Sayaka's profile photo is sitting on top of it, framed and colorless, an image in greyscale.

Juri is nowhere to be found in here, but that doesn't mean you're alone down here; the feeling that you're being watched is strong, and he'll wait until you've had time to take in what you're looking at before he addresses you - over the public-address system again, from the sound of it.

"Attentive's dead, and somebody's to blame for it - but you guys get to decide whether Rule Seven's carried out or not. It's your job to hold them responsible for what they've done. Good luck in doing it."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No, it's not your fault that somebody pulled the trigger. But you gave them the gun.

And most people go their entire lives without murdering anyone, regardless of how many opportunities they have to do it.

You can keep trying to blame me, it's not going to get you anywhere. Whomever this was knew what they were doing when they did it.

Because "most people" are never put in the circumstances to do it, you fucking asswipe.

Aren't they?

People who murder always have a reason, even if that reason doesn't make sense to anyone else. Some sort of backstory thing. Access to a gun and "I hate Mondays." Things like that.

Everyone's put into a position where they could. Most people just don't.

We're in a glorified hostage situation and have been told that the only way to get out and ever see our families again is to kill each other. I suppose you think the fact that somebody died here is just coincidence.

I know that it isn't.

At the same time, you can't act like there's no element of choice in the matter, either.

"Oh, yes. Let's wait out the rest of our lives in a tackily-decorated complex and let ourselves rot in anticipati-" you'd just love that, wouldn't you?

You know, for someone who's so outraged you're being really useless in actually making any kind of progress toward working out who just killed that kid.

[okay point.]

I'm trying to see if you have at least one single solitary human emotion in your entire body.

I'm often told that I don't. For obvious reasons, probably.

Either way, we can yell about the philosophy of it later. Maybe.

No, no. We're doing it right NOW.

[DON'T YOU CUT HIM OUT HE HAS TO HAVE THE LAST WORD.]

So this actually is more important to you than working out who just killed the girl.

What comes first to me is beating that slimy tone out of your voice.

(no subject)

andexecutioner - 2016-07-09 17:19 (UTC) - Expand

bluemeanie - 2016-07-09 17:21 (UTC) - Expand

My, how disrespectful to Sayaka. Haven't you a heart, Walter?

[he will beat your flamboyant ass in and pretend its juri's]

Are you telling me you actually think Sayaka would have died regardless of what you did here.

[...Normally this would be a good point but, uh.]

I'm telling you that whoever did this might have killed regardless of what I did here. There's a difference.

Maybe. Or maybe they wouldn't have killed a child if it wasn't for you.

Maybe. Maybe not. It's actually hard to say, knowing some of you here.

[ Over here, laughing at this.]

[Terumi do you want to get kicked in the balls by a woman with stupid strong legs]

[ She can totally try! He's quite good with his legs too though, having kicked his fair amount of people until they're dead.]

[I mean.

Yeah, fuck Ferid.]

It didn't have to be Sayaka.

If it hadn't been a child, or if it had been someone you didn't like, that would have been totally fine, then? It really is good to know that most of you actually aren't angry that someone died here, you're just self-centered.

...The fact you still don't get why we're angry speaks volumes right now.