Take Responsibility.

[transmittable]

This week isn't a good week - for anyone, it seems. The death doesn't seem to have gone over particularly well with anyone, whether captive or captor; it's difficult to say, for the time being, what will ultimately come of it - and how well the case will be solved, given that this is yet another hit to your number. There are so few of you now. Even so, there are still things to be done and processes to be carried out; the allotted time for investigation comes and goes, leaving only the sound of the courtroom doors sliding open again in their wake. The fluorescent overhead lights of the operating theater illuminate the room as soon as the first person enters, their light bright and steady; the seats on the upper level remain unoccupied where they're surrounding the podium circle in the center of the room. Danny and Ryoji's greyed-out portraits have joined those indicating the absence of the deceased, the podiums they rest upon draped in black as they watch the proceedings through unseeing eyes. The public-address system crackles back to life once everyone has found their place in the circle; the Transmitter can be heard throughout the room shortly thereafter. She's at least a little more composed, but her words shake. "Amiable's...gone. Figure out what happened, and- and do what you have to. For his sake. Good... Good luck." Nine Patients remain. However many leave here today is up to you.

Comments

[journalname]

Did anyone find anything red? I found this and this in the sewing room.

[He holds up a pair of scissors, a red ribbon, and a spoil of red thread.]

It looked as though someone cut this ribbon and then sewed it to something, perhaps? I had thought maybe Ryoji, but if he was making a unicorn...

[cthulwho]

...I did. But it was not sewed onto anything.

[Lovecraft produces a piece of red ribbon from his coat pocket. He seems a little awkward about it, considering...]

It was on the altar in the chapel... I thought it may have been used as tribute, considering its location.

[journalname]

...I see. Well, the thread was in the machine. Perhaps it was not used?

But what is the meaning of a ribbon in tribute? [Is this a human thing?]

[ossifragant]

...That's a good question. I wouldn't have a clue, on its own.

[georgeous]

[ Beats him as well, he's too Not Japanese for this. Have a shrug. ]

[cthulwho]

[...he'll let Asgore take a look at it because like hell he knows anything about sewing. A closer look will show that it's been sewn off on the ends so it won't fray.]

I am not sure... I have never been offered one, myself.

[preciousking]

Do we need another reason? Leaving something to respect the dead's a good enough one, if you ask me.

Besides, if we're assuming it was a tribute then it means the killer made and left it. That might be all we need to know.

[dangerousfool]

So the killer is someone who'd make a tribute to the person they just killed? Why make it red? He liked yellow more.

[That¿s not the point, Wheatley, but yeah...who here would make a memorial for the person they just killed?]

[preciousking]

Something like that. [ Accurate enough for him, tbh! ]

I think we might be focusing on the why too much here. The exact meaning doesn't matter if we have a general idea of what it was for.

[cthulwho]

[Lovecraft tilts his head curiously.]

Tributes are not just for the dead.

[preciousking]

They're not. Still dunno if we need to give it more thought than this, though.

[crywiththesaints]

It could be an aspect of their own religion. Or something from their own world, such as how the Key where I'm from is often said to use ribbons of aurora, though that's got nothing to do with religion. Given Mochizuki's preoccupation with love, the idea of the red string comes to mind, but ah, he disliked fate, didn't he?

[arebetter]

... Red string of love?

[crywiththesaints]

A silly little story that two people who are destined to be together are connected by red thread. This was a ribbon, not a thread, regardless.

[arebetter]

... Well, couldn't make a tribute out of thread, if that was the point. But wouldn't it be more directly tied to him, then, somehow?

[crywiththesaints]

Or left after he was dead.

[arebetter]

Or that. Regardless, I think that the killer left it there is probably important. I mean they might have gone to the trouble of making it, for... whatever reason.

[preciousking]

All that means is it's pointless to discuss it. There's no way to know what everyone here believes.

[ Not gonna touch the Ryoji stuff because he doesn't feel like it. ]

[ossifragant]

....No, I think it's important.

Because it points to Ryoji being a likely candidate for making a tribute.

Sakura, do you think it's possible the string could have a romantic aspect to it?

[crywiththesaints]

Do you think he would, if he ran into the chapel to escape? Ah, but yes, if it had anything to do with that story, it was about people destined to be together.

[ossifragant]

Then it could have been a sign of the connection between Ryoji and Misty.

Maybe he had it on him, and it fell off?

[georgeous]

It might have been intended to be tied around the unicorn as a present wrapping.

[ossifragant]

Definitely a possibility.

[crywiththesaints]

How, when he died before reaching the altar? Unless you suppose he threw it.

[journalname]

[He has to squint at it a moment, but...]

Oh! This was sewed! Someone took care with this...