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]

[A young... woman stands at a podium. She's wearing all red, and missing a certain brace that should have been on her, since it almost always seems to be.

But, this was what Robin Newman really was. Not some hotheaded boy - although that was a part of it - but a girl.

And it looks as though the gloves have been taken off. It was time to see what eighteen years of training would do.]

I know I've been apparently outed as a communist by the loyalty officer, who mister Yomiel claims to be. But, I believe that's not true. And, I've been working on a theory all afternoon to try and prove my innocence.

[And that's where this comes in. Robin swings her arm out, pointing a finger at the ghost detective.] Mister Yomiel. I accuse you of being a communist as well, and building a deep network of trust to protect yourself!

[standbyrival]

. . .

. . .

...............................

[who the fuck is this??????]

[fullonbraced]

[...oh hey. you.

....

Waves!!]

I came up with an argument! Like you said!

[standbyrival]

. . .

[like he said?? goes through his head trying to remember who he even talked to--oh]

[OH]

[.......................squints at her]

. . .

Did you die and come back in a different body?

[fullonbraced]

Tee hee! Do you think so? Do I really look that different?

[she smirks. why thank you, paul.]

No, truth be told, I was a girl all along. THAT BRACE WAS KEEPING THE GOODS DOWN MAN!

[staunton]

Oh, so you're starting with your pawn.

Tell me, little girl, why the hell would Yomiel send three fellow Communists to their death? You should know that the smaller their faction is, the longer they have to play -- after all, they need an equal number of Citizens and Communists to win!

[fullonbraced]

Of course I do, man! But, it's all part of a strategy!

Think about it, he knows who the other communists are because he is one. And then, he goes after a few of them to gain everyone's trust in his judgement. By the end, there's only a few communists left, and everyone listens to whatever he says.

[She waves a finger in the air.] It's like when you give up a few pawns, or checkers to make sure the queen gets away.

[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.

[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!

[in_plain_sight]

Even if he were willing to kill half his teammates and the citizens who trusted him most already just for an alibi--how would he convince the real loyalty officer to let him get away with lying?

[fullonbraced]

It's easy. The loyalty officer wants to be protected, right? If the loyalty officer was someone that trusted Yomiel enough, he'd totally let Yomiel openly call himself that.

And think about it. Why is mister Yomiel the only person to say that he's the loyalty officer? And why now?

[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.

[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]

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.

[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.

[stinkingdeadendjob]

Here's an idea.

[That's a bottle of whiskey he's pouring into a glass. The man's upgraded from algae to whiskey just now.]

What if you were both communists? I think given the web of deceit you both have been laying out for the jury, that's a fair notion.

[fullonbraced]

What's the point of that? Anthy already tried that with Yomiel. Why would I?

[stinkingdeadendjob]

I'm glad you asked, sport. It's simple.

[He takes a sip of his liquor, smiles, and... remains... ever so still.]

[schrodingers_man]

What happened to trusting Greed's judgement?

[stinkingdeadendjob]

Well, there is that. But isn't it possible that he could have made a teeny little mistake?

[He holds up his whiskey glass.]

You gotta admit, the little, err, lady's argument makes sense. Gotta crack some eggs to make nog and buddy, life is the finest nog you can make!

[Clay makes a tiny hiccup.]

[harshwords]

Then... can I ask you a quick question? Why did you decide now to reveal that you're actually a girl?

[fullonbraced]

My parents trained me to be both a boy and a prosecutor for eighteen years. I've been wearing that brace for a long time, maaaan!

But, a few days before I ended up here, I was gonna admit to everyone back home that I was really a girl. But, when I ended up here, I forgot about it for a while

[She smiles. Honestly happy.] Since Yomiel is putting blame on me, I had to be totally focused! It's like there's a giant weight off my shoulders, man!

[harshwords]

I see. I suppose I can sympathize with that, considering the fact that I hid the fact that I was a magus until I was here.

[ She won't judge since she doesn't really care as long as they off someone important. ]