Take Responsibility.

[transmittable]

Four people were found dead this week. With that many down, it's difficult to ignore the drop in your numbers - you've gone from just under two-thirds to exactly half of your original number in one day. And given the way things tend to work around here, there are going to be even fewer of you left by the time the day is over. Is it wearing you down yet? Even if it is, the investigation period comes and goes, as it always does, and those doors in the center of the second corridor slide open for the sixth time in as many weeks. The fluorescent overhead lights of the operating theater fill the room with light, bright and steady, as soon as the first person walks in; as always, those seats surrounding the podium circle in the center of the room remain unsettlingly unoccupied. Six more have joined the ranks of the deceased this time, their absence glaringly obvious; Nozomi, Krauser, McGillis, Corrin, Rose and Rin have all had their absences acknowledged in the usual way, their greyed-out portraits set atop their black-swathed podiums, observing the proceedings with unseeing eyes. Once everyone has found their place in the circle, the public-address system crackles its way back on; the Transmitter can be heard throughout the room shortly thereafter. "Composed, Sororal, Gracious, and Courageous... They've all been killed. ...You guys know what to do. The number of victims doesn't, uh, change that. Put together your evidence, find whoever's responsible for these deaths. You know what'll happen if you can't. Good luck." Fifteen Patients remain. We'll see how many leave at the end of the day.

Comments

[carnivorously]

I've given a couple to the Doc, but he smoked them. I've also given one to Montgomery.

[preciousking]

That all? And nobody's stolen any from you?

[carnivorously]

Yeah, that's all. No one's stolen from me, either.

[preciousking]

Huh. [ That's it, that's all he wanted to ask. ]

[yourpiecenow]

-- What the fuck, don't just call me by my last name like that! It makes me sound like some kind of fucking Victorian manservant! [THAT'S WHAT IS IMPORTANT HERE RIGHT]

[carnivorously]

I refer to everyone by their family name...

[A sigh.]

[yourpiecenow]

My family sucks. Call me Madison.

[carnivorously]

No.

[That was a pretty curt reply...]

[yourpiecenow]

[UGH] You're such a dick.

[carnivorously]

It's a culture thing, I'm sorry. I'm uncomfortable calling you by your given name.

[yourpiecenow]

And I'm uncomfortable being referred to anything but! So, either get the fuck over your deeply ingrained cultural norms, or... like... I don't know. Call me Mistress. That's acceptable.

[carnivorously]

Miss Montgomery.

[That's it. That's all he's budging for this.]

[yourpiecenow]

Or we could just never speak ever again. That's a good compromise.

[carnivorously]

I'm fine with that.