TRIAL 04

[thecomputer]

Attention, Citizens! You have ten minutes to proceed to the Loyalty Chamber. Anyone who is late to the Loyalty Chamber, or who brings any weapons into the Loyalty Chamber, will be immediately executed.

[Once you arrive, you will find a large chamber, with twenty podiums spaced around the room in a circle. On the ceiling, a massive screen showing the digital eye of The Computer, turning to look at whoever is talking.]

You have one hour to come to a consensus about who to eliminate. Ties will be broken randomly.

[The floor of the chamber begins to split apart, eventually only leaving the twenty podiums as safe places to stand, above a seemingly bottomless abyss. Each podium lights up with a touch screen showing twenty user IDs (the dead are grayed out), plus the word “ABSTAIN”. However, ABSTAIN has now been grayed out as well. The trial begins now!]

[[Vote here]]

Comments

[fullonbraced]

Oops! Hee hee, sorry.

[fullonbraced]

Well, that remains to be seen, doesn't it?

[staunton]

It's still a weak strategy. Like opening a game of chess with f3, which does nothing useful and irrevocably weakens the white king's defense.

[ Knightley, now isn't the time for talking chess-- ]

Sacrificing less important pieces is a viable strategy, I'll give you that, half the team this early into the game?! Nobody with half a brain cell would do that.

[standbyrival]

I'm just going to stay out of this while you make whatever case you came up with now.

[fullonbraced]

[...She doesn't know chess that muDOESN'T MATTER]

You'd only need a few, specific pieces to win a match, don't you? And, with Mister Yomiel getting so many allies, he had to have figured out who was who. Then, he'd be able to strike easily!

[fullonbraced]

Alright. Thanks.

[staunton]

Of course I do -- Detective Fulbright.

[in_plain_sight]

If he's telling the truth, he outed himself because Keyes's death proved he wasn't really the troubleshooter. Do you think something else is strange about the timing?

[She's more than willing to be talked out of defending Yomiel. It makes her feel a bit unclean.]

[fullonbraced]

Yes, I do. If my theory is correct, Yomiel has been talking with the real Loyalty officer, who's been laying low to protect themselves.

Then, after his plan to fool everyone into thinking he was the troubleshooter failed, he followed a backup plan. Which was to say he was the loyalty officer and therefore still innocent.

[schrodingers_man]

So I got rid of three of the less useful Communists to make sure all the Citizens believed I was one of them, right? Here's a question for you then, kid. I investigated Anthy Himemiya because she was trying to talk people into believing I was a Communist. If we were both Communists, why would she do that? The trust plan you're proposing only works for one person, and a passive girl like her never would've been able to swing it.

[standbyrival]

That's a surprise. [said very flatly]

So what do you have on him, and why does the order of who goes out matter right now?

[schrodingers_man]

I agree with that. That guy's been suspicious from day one and I'm tired of watching him squeak by behind bigger targets. If I get to pick which Communist I take down with me tonight, I'd rather it be him than the kid.

[fullonbraced]

That's right. It only works for one person, and never for her. But, I don't think that was the plan.

Anthy was the Indoctrinator, right? And she already indoctrinated Rin, so her power wasn't working anymore. So, because she couldn't help anymore, you got rid of her in a scenario that showed that she was really a communist, and got everyone to believe she was lying!

You already said that you were the "mastermind" of the whole event. Didn't you?

[schrodingers_man]

That explains why I'd get rid of her, sure, but it doesn't explain why she'd accuse me of being a Communist in the first place. Give me a good reason why she did that.

[fullonbraced]

Hmm... [Looking over her hands like they were holding a fresh, clay pot...]

...She didn't like you. I said that you keep killing communists to build everyone's trust in you. Maybe she thought that was a bad idea and tried to stop it. She did look pretty surprised when you met her in the food sector.

[staunton]

...Let me explain to you what happened. Tohsaka said they'd probably scan him next. He was probably scanned for a role and Mr. Kimbley was killed, who turned out to be the Defense Officer. Only the Loyalty Officer and the Troubleshooter remained.

He knew he'd be targeted next if he didn't do something, so he decided to pretend to be the Troubleshooter in order to trick the Communists into not killing him immediately - the Loyalty Officer is a much larger threat to them than a Troubleshooter who's already fired his single bullet.

But the cat is out of the bag now that we all know Simon was the real Troubleshooter. Yomiel's going to be killed tonight and he knows it, and that's why he outed himself.

[lexicalscope]

But wouldn't the Loyalty Officer have scanned Mr. Yomiel before trusting him?

[She's not too sure about this theory. Sorry. ]

[schrodingers_man]

Throw me under the bus to save Sakura and Rin, huh? And when I got the Troubleshooter's trust, I used it to take her out of the picture, is that it?

[fullonbraced]

HOLD IT!

[Robin shook her head.] It's been revealed that Mister Keyes was really the troubleshooter... but that's a fact. The only person who has said that they're the Loyalty officer is mister Yomiel himself.

We already know that mister Yomiel lies a lot. How can we believe that?

[fullonbraced]

Sakura, Rin, and whoever the other communists were. And, after Rin came back from the dead, you immediately wanted her back on your side!

[thefaceofjustice]

Huh?? Why do you think I'm one?

[schrodingers_man]

That's right. If I'd known they scanned Simon instead, I never would've suggested it.

[ And they had to have scanned Simon; why else would they target him? ]

[fullonbraced]

Maybe. I' not sure why he hasn't been scanned yet.

[schrodingers_man]

Rin? Hah! That girl's no help to anyone but herself. I don't care what she does.

Here's another question for you, let's see if you can come up with something cute for this one. I was working with the Troubleshooter to convince everyone I had his role. That plan wouldn't have worked otherwise. So I obviously knew who he was. Then why would he be the Communist's very next victim? It's not like Simon was a threat, so why not let him live to the very end so my trick would never be found out?

[staunton]

Remember the second trial, when Yomiel made his argument? He tried to cast suspicion on Kimbley using that message as "evidence" and completely refused to back off until Tohsaka confessed to being a Communist. He's a detective, he should realize that a message like that is completely worthless as evidence here.

Also, the timing is pretty suspicious. Rather than trying to make a case on why we should suspect Kimbley early on during the trial, he chose to wait until Yomiel just made a convincing argument that narrowed it down to Tohsaka and Matou -- who both were later confirmed to be Communists. The way I see it, it was a desperate attempt to avoid getting a teammate killed.