TRIAL 01

[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 (Seryu-R-CIT-1 is grayed out), plus the word “ABSTAIN”. The trial begins now!]

[[Vote Here.]]

Comments

[plentyfriendly]

It's not impossible for that to be true. We do have a lot of people with their "home sector" listed as California or L.A., and two from someplace called Fuyuki City. That's probably in Japan somewhere. But it would have to be one of those people.

[ossifragant]

I doubt you're the only one who wants her far away from you.

If no one comes out as a bigger target, I'm sure she'll be near the top of the list.

[alchemicals]

Well, unless you know who Johnny is or have any other bright ideas...!

[His patience is getting really short here, Greed. As is probably evidenced by the yelling.]

[plentyfriendly]

Yes, but that discounts the possibility that Fulbright is a Communist. Although, can you really say that any of us are actually good at this sort of thing?

[ossifragant]

That does narrow down the list quite a bit if those are our only options.

It's also entirely possible it was someone the Indoctrinator met here.

1/2

[cantarellacookie]

[do you know how hard it is not to say that if she was a boring toy it's only because nothing you can do to her compares to the million swords of hate

do you know

kashira kashira gozonji kashira]

[alchemicals]

Look, I don't know if you're just naturally kind of dense or if you're fucking with me, but you're being obtuse as hell and it's really pissing me off.

2/2

[cantarellacookie]

I see.

[ossifragant]

I'm saying it's not a real clue!

It's a meant to throw us off!

What's your idea?!

[plentyfriendly]

And, if the Indoctrinator is one of the people with a unique listing there, it would have to be. That includes you, myself, Logan, and Curly.

[murimurimuri]

Uh...

Maybe they drew names out of a hat?

[alchemicals]

If I had one, don't you think I would have done something about it?!

[alchemicals]

With how this is going? That wouldn't surprise me, either.

[plentyfriendly]

Well, that's the point. As far as any of us know, we know next to nothing about each other. And the lists of skills could be incomplete, because I know mine isn't.

[fullonbraced]

Was... it because she was so into justice, man?

[ossifragant]

This is a little outside of my area of experience...!

Does anybody here have an idea what "Johnny" could mean?

[ossifragant]

[.....]

Going by location alone isn't enough to narrow it down, that much is obvious. There's too many variables at the moment.

[alchemicals]

...You know Fulbright, right?

Why don't you tell me which you'd go after?

[alchemicals]

Not to my knowledge?!

[And once that's out there he will just be segueing into some rather frustrated silence; he's gripping that podium rather hard, but at least there are no further arguments for now.]

To the Computer!

[standbyrival]

--okay this is getting dumb. Computer or whatever, refresh our memory. There wasn't any blood on the dead body's left hand, right? Or on the fake arm that was "choking her." Just wanted to confirm this.

If not, we should just think 'Johnny' is irrelevant. The dead couldn't have written it. The only ones who could have written it would be the Communists, or someone with a dumb role that sucks at getting messages across.

[plentyfriendly]

Yep. Either way, it won't become relevant again, so we should treat the Indoctrinator as a normal Communist from now on.

[ossifragant]

[And after that is over with...]

Does anyone here know what "Johnny" could be referring to? My understanding of slang isn't the most current.

We should rule out whether or not this is a real hint or something meant to throw us off.

[schrodingers_man]

[ Hey look who's calmed down enough to butt into other people's conversations. ]

I thought the same thing as Greed at first, but Simon's got a point. Even if a Communist wanted to convert a friend of theirs, the best strategy is still to wait until a convenient time for conversion presents itself. That's a potential hole in Knightley's theory, too. Even if they thought it was a given that they'd lose someone right out of the gate, why waste their one special chance so early? The most Communists we can eliminate in one day is two, so they wouldn't be at risk of losing even if they dropped to four this early.

There's only one reason I can think of that makes sense. The person they think they might lose... is the Indoctrinator themselves.

[thecomputer]

I'm sorry, Citizen! Investigation of the crime scene is left in the hands of the participants.

[There was a lot of blood around, but it didn't specifically seem to be on any of the fingers. If anyone remembers the scene that well.]

[ossifragant]

Right. No arguments here.