Take Responsibility.

[transmittable]

The past several weekends have been an unrelenting barrage of death in particularly disturbing manners; either the method or the number of people, sometimes both, have been particularly extreme. This week has seen fewer dead than the last; however, the way that that one kill seems to have happened... It's not a particularly good tradeoff. Either way, however, expectations still need to be met and investigations still need to be carried out; once the allotted time has passed, those doors in the center of the second corridor slide open once again, the sight managing to be at the same time familiar and unwelcoming. The fluorescent overhead lights of the operating theater beam down, flooding the room with bright and steady light as soon as the first person walks in; the seats surrounding the podium circle in the center of the room remain as empty as ever. Four more are gone, their absence notated by their portraits joining the others in watching the proceedings through greyed-out and unseeing eyes, Kogami, Madison, Sakura Matou, and Osomatsu's podiums all draped in black. Once everyone has found their place in the circle, the public-address system comes to life once again in a light crackle of static; the Transmitter can be heard throughout the room shortly thereafter. "Fraternal is dead. You guys...you know what to do. Put together what you've found and try to seek out the guilty. You know what'll happen if you can't. Good luck." Eleven Patients remain. We'll see how many leave at the end of the day.

Comments

[doctorize]

[... umm??]

Why are you shouting?

[positivespin]

[ She just smiles at that.

One second later, she lunges at him with incredible speed, readying a punch to the face...except that's a feint where her true aim is to kick his legs out from underneath him once she gets close enough.

Whatever happens, she's counting on the rest of you to help deal with the aftermath! ]

[doctorize]

[... About that.

Danny honest to god jumps backwards out of the way of both the punch and the attempt to kick his legs out under him.

However, there is one thing QQ's attempt does accomplish: the moment she turns her head to look, she will now suddenly be face to face with the end of a gun, pointing at her from where he had pulled it from the inside of his lab coat.

Unfortunately, QQ is too close to avoid potentially getting shot in the head here, for now, as Danny suddenly smiles. It's not a nice smile, and his tone changes to an unpleasant one that has never been uttered from his mouth before until now.]

Now now, let's not be so hasty, hmm? There was no need to try to attack me like that, but if you are all that incapable of talking things out reasonably, of bringing a killer to justice... I wonder if I should just shoot you, since you're all just so eager to throw me under the bus anyway.

[But, he does tilt his head a little here, reconsidering.]

Let's try this again. If the rest of you are willing to stay put and talk about this like reasonable people, then I'll reconsider. But if any one of you move an inch, even just your hands... then I guess I will have to kill someone here, just as you all seem to want of me.

[Maybe now some of you might realize that Danny has had his right eye closed this entire time during the trial, but now it's a slight slit when he speaks.]

Now then, back to the matter at hand: who here can come up with evidence that actually implicates me, and only myself, of Osomatsu's death, that isn't something that can be explained by having examined the body.

[georgeous]

The anatomical knowledge required to make the non-lethal stabs. Someone who intended to kill would have gotten fed up and cut his throat instead, but the killer left it at just that... intentionally.

[ Not moving though because ha ha this is bad. ]

[doctorize]

[That gets a slight eyebrow raise.]

You're joking, right? That would also support the theory that the killer didn't know what they were doing and just aimed for wherever they wanted. That's not something that can be considered substantial evidence of my guilt.

[georgeous]

A killer who doesn't know what they are doing isn't so methodical. The profile doesn't add up.

Knocking him out, chaining him, sewing his mouth... even setting him on fire... These are all calculated actions.

I agree the evidence is not conclusive, but a deliberate act is still the likeliest possibility. And frankly, you're the only one acting overtly suspicious here.

You'll die if you kill her. You'll die if we wrote wrong. We'll all die. So playing with open cards is the only safe option - as long as you're not guilty.

[doctorize]

Or they're the actions of someone who, so far, is succeeding at distracting you people from their own sloppy work.

[Seriously, come up with something better than that George, surely you're smarter than that.]

[crywiththesaints]

Your version of things is stretching the limits of plausibility, Dr. Dickens. The distractions were taken care of; breaking the bottles in the storage room to spread out the investigation, things like that.

[crywiththesaints]

One can still easily assume that slitting somebody's throat kills them. What happened here was deliberate torture, not a sloppy attempt.

[doctorize]

... Torture? Ah, so... what, you think that I'm the heartless type of person to do that.

[At that, Danny's expression suddenly splits into a rather unsettling smile.]

There's just one problem with that theory: Despite his injuries, Osomatsu did have one thing that was still intact, for the most part.

[georgeous]

... you'd not be stupid enough to take your victim's eye here, would you?

[journalname]

[That, admittedly, was a pretty stupid thing for QQ to have done. But that does not change the way Asgore's lips immediately go back into a snarl at seeing the gun fall level with her head.]

Lower your weapon. [That was nice when we could have a reasonable conversation huh]

[positivespin]

...Don't think that will happen. Let's focus on getting to where we can vote.

[ Unicorns are nice and all, but at least they can actually get somewhere with this. ]

[journalname]

[Uh, no, he doesn't even care about that right now.

But he will be moving to shield you with his considerable bulk.]

[positivespin]

[ For a girl with a gun pointed at her, she looks much more unconcerned than she really should be. But getting a gun pointed at her isn't new. Hell, being shot at is normal. She got shot the day before she arrived here! But Iria healed her right away, so the pain didn't last long.

So obviously, her normal meter for this sort of thing is damaged beyond repair. Someone's still operating under JRPG logic. Once she realizes what happened, she calmly looks at where he is aiming, waiting. ]

...He smells of rum.

[ Faintly, but it's there. She's faintly smiling as she says this, but it doesn't reach her eyes at all. ]

[ossifragant]

You did good, kid.

[If he can, he's going to be preventing Danny from shooting QQ.]

[positivespin]

Thanks. Sorry, didn't think he'd hide a gun instead of scalpels.

[doctorize]

[Danny sighs, sounding like he's talking to a toddler for a moment.]

Which I was literally about to tell Asgore before you decided that vigilante justice was the only way to get what you wanted. And it's like I've been saying: I closely examined the body. What was left of the alcohol transferred to me as a result.

[positivespin]

Something had to happen for us to finally get to the bottom of this.

[ Just, you know, it'd be nice if it didn't involve a gun. ]

Blood is on you, the smell of rum is on you, and you had the knowledge necessary to stab him non-fatally and sew his mouth up. What else do you want?

[doctorize]

An actual god-damn motive for starters, which I don't have: Doctor, remember? What reason would I possibly have for contradicting my line of work and killing someone?

[georgeous]

You're throwing the word 'doctor' around as if it would nullify all the prior times we've seen you attack someone.

Doctors are human. Doctors have human flaws.

[arebetter]

... is your eye okay there today, buddy?

[doctorize]

... My eye?

[That seems to trip him up for a second there, the hand not holding the gun almost coming up toward it by reflex, before forcing his hand back down.]

I don't know why you want to care about something like that right now. It's not important.

[arebetter]

Then open it. If nothing else, you might have... a wound in there or something you're not showing us.

[doctorize]

[There's a long pause, before...

Danny finally opens that eye. An eye, with both red and green pupils, is now looking back at everyone.]

Happy now?