Take Responsibility.

[transmittable]

For several, this week's investigation was a little on the disturbing side, to put it gently; between the live decapitation and the victim's...that, it's been a rough day. But that doesn't mean that anyone is exempt from due process - by which we mean that there's a process, and you're all expected to do it. The allotted time during which everyone is expected to investigate comes and goes; once it's passed full, those doors in the center of the second corridor slide open once again. The fluorescent overhead lights of the operating theater fill the room with light, bright and steady, as soon as the first person walks in; those seats remain empty above you, surrounding the podium circle in the center of the room. Two more have joined the ranks of the deceased; Nachetanya and Wesker's absences have been marked in the usual way, their podiums draped in black cloth with their portraits have been placed upon them, observing the proceedings in greyscale. Once everyone has found their place in the circle, the public-address system returns to life with a crackle of static, followed by the Transmitter's voice carrying throughout the room, at least somewhat composed now, compared to earlier. "Undying is...no longer with you. This is a little...different this time, but the guilty is still among you and you still have to seek them out, if you wanna prevent Rule Seven's completion. Talk it over. Good- good luck" Twenty-one Patients remain. We'll see how many leave at the end of the day.

Comments

[armamenta]

[This certainly wasn’t how today was supposed to go. It was supposed to be just another body, just another trial and then he could move on with his life, just like all the weeks before.

But Krauser’s always been good at adapting to the situation and that’s what he’ll do now. He enters the trial room and takes his podium across from Wesker’s (don’t think about that, don’t even look at it) and for a moment all he does is stand there, one hand on the side of the podium while the other’s still clutching that machete. He’s cleaned it thoroughly of course, but he figured it’d be smart to bring it in case someone wants to try to look at it for evidence or something. Krauser’s grip on the podium is firm and his hands are no longer shaking, but for a moment he doesn’t look up at anyone in the circle.

Despite having just killed the person he was closest to, his expression doesn’t really reflect anything. He looks sort of angry, but that’s usually how he looks. When he finally gathers himself enough and looks up at the room, something seems to have shifted, though it’s not possible to tell exactly what it is.

All that matters now is that he’s ready.

Krauser doesn’t give anyone the chance to talk about what they found first, instead he speaks up.]

You all saw it. I took his head off.

[Battle start?]

[heritrix]

[Well damn, okay.]

You did, but we can't vote for you yet. Not until we know what's going on.

[ossifragant]

[Well. He can't say he's surprised.]

That's right. You did. But he was already dead, wasn't he? It was an act of....

[He trails off, not sure how to even categorize the fact that he watched a man's head get cut off today.]

We should be looking for the person who fatally injured him.

[armamenta]

So tell me what you found. I want to know what happened in there.

[armamenta]

[Krauser scoffs at that.]

Don't say it was an act of mercy. It wasn't. I did what was necessary.

[journalname]

It was still a mercy, Krauser.

[georgeous]

But his first death was not on you.

I hate to argue with Asgore, but that thing you beheaded was soulless. A shell, a zombie.

I do not want to vote for you until we're sure what even counts as the kill.

[dangerousfool]

But Sakura said Krauser was doing a mercy kill, isn't that what happened? That he turned into the killer because he did that?

[Yeah, Wheatley never entered the room to see what was going on, he completely trusted what Sakura said -- mistaken as it was]

[journalname]

I have no arguments. It was soulless - Wesker was no longer there.

[ossifragant]

I didn't say it was an act of mercy.

[To be fair, he didn't.]

It was something in his blood, wasn't it? He was already dead-- does it really count as murder?

[armamenta]

Consider it what you will. I only acted because I had to.

[armamenta]

How should I know? It's not like I planned for this to happen.

[doctorize]

... Were you the one who pushed that statue onto him with enough force to snap his spine?

[Because that sure was a thing we found during the corpse examination]

[armamenta]

[...He knows that, of course, but...]

You said you can see souls. You couldn't see his then?

[armamenta]

No. I didn't leave my room at all last night. Not that anyone can back that claim up, of course.

[ossifragant]

He was dead.

We should be focusing on the person who shoved the statue onto Wesker in the first place. The fact that his body was able to try and get back up on its own shouldn't factor into this discussion.

[journalname]

It...did not linger long, after his death. The first one.

[And he'd been right there when it went, but that's - that's not relevant to any of this, he can think about it later.]

Whatever caused the rest of it, it was not in any way him. It was only a body.

[heritrix]

[Rin will present her evidence then, unwrapping it from the piece of paper she carried it in with as a safety precaution.]

A syringe. On my way to Section 4 I noticed the media room was a disaster zone, so I backtracked to investigate. An intense fight happened there. [She'll let McGillis explain most of it.]

This syringe was the last thing I expected to find. From an examination, I can tell you its contents were blood, but its since been emptied. It's not broken; the plunger is decompressed.

[Given Krauser was warning her to stay away from Wesker's blood, you can understand why she'd be worried, right?]

[georgeous]

Why were you in your room? Wasn't there something about you and Wesker living together?

[carnivorously]

I agree. We're looking for the person who put him in this fatal position and caused his death-- the first one.

[armamenta]

...Yeah, that's how it always is. They're not the same person after death.

[But there's something comforting about being able to confirm that so... thanks, Asgore.]

[aspiringly]

You had an idea that this was going to happen to his body, didn't you? How much were you told about his "condition"?

[journalname]

...you removed your belongings from Wesker's room.

[Which does not really confirm his story, but it lends a little more credence.]

And he was not with you?

[heritrix]

[.....This is not relevant to the trial, but Rin is going to have to ask Asgore more about this later.]

[armamenta]

We stayed together, yeah. He told me to stay in my room last night.

[And that's apparently all he has to say on the subject.]