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

[ossifragant]

It's just an idea; it doesn't mean I'm correct.

What makes you think that couldn't be it?

[murimurimuri]

Not that it couldn't, exactly... but if you were a Communist and had somebody you knew and trusted on the other side, it would make more sense to leave them as a Citizen, at least until you find out if they have a role or not. That's what Horace and I decided.

[ossifragant]

Still, it seems a little early in the game to be making a move like this.

And yet here we are.

[murimurimuri]

H-here we are...

[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.

[dictator_ko]

Moge-ko would love to be something fun like that. Her role's boring.

[schrodingers_man]

You don't think the Indoctrinator's too boring for you? You talk to someone once and then after that, you're just the same as the other Communists. If we take the rules literally [ because that's worked out for him well so far ], the Communists don't even kill anyone themselves. It doesn't really seem to your tastes.

[dictator_ko]

It's better than having nothing to do at night.

[in_plain_sight]

...


[/re-examines the rules... he has a point, it doesn't sound like they personally kill anyone...]

Uh... now that you mention it... if the Communists just asked for Ubiquitous to be killed and didn't do it themselves...

...Doesn't that make thinking about the clues left at the crime scene pointless?

[plentyfriendly]

They might be able to specify how they want their target to be killed, but a lot of the details are probably not worth dwelling on.

[in_plain_sight]

Even if they asked for the body to be left the way it was, there'd be no clues that could do anything but lead us in the wrong direction. They wouldn't ask for a cause of death that could be linked back to them.

[ossifragant]

I've been wondering about that.

If true, the clues aren't even meant to throw us off. They're just there for decoration.

[in_plain_sight]

That would explain why she was strangling herself in addition to being shot.

[That's been bothering her for a while. She knows a morbid sense of humor when she sees one.]

[schrodingers_man]

It depends on how much of a sense of irony our computer friend has. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that there's one real hint hidden among everything else.

[ He didn't really get a good look at the body and crime scene during all his freaking out, but a few salient details stuck in his head, and he's gathered there was some weird nonsense from all this discussion about "Johnny." ]

For example, there was an arrow through the kid's heart, and only one profile lists archery as a skill. But it could just all be nonsense.

[ He's not really accusing Sakura of being a Communist. Maybe. Probably. Yomiel you've proposed like three potential Commies this trial already, slow the fuck down. ]

[in_plain_sight]

I can fire a bow.

[Yes, perfect, insist you be counted as a suspect! Get back on topic, Ikusaba.]

...Anyway, how would we weed out the fake clues from the real one?

[alchemicals]

...You make a scary amount of sense when you're not paranoid.

[That was a compliment. Probably.]

[ossifragant]

You raise a good point.

[plentyfriendly]

So you think Moge-ko is the Indoctrinator... interesting.

[staunton]

Nice, nice. Good thinking there, Mr. Yomiel.

[standbyrival]

I haven't heard any better theories. Why not?

[schrodingers_man]

If anyone has a better theory, I'd love to hear it.

[standbyrival]

I've got squat. Either you're on to something, or you're a really convincing liar.

[dictator_ko]

Moge-ko has something to add. If she thought she would lose, she wouldn't care about converting anyone. She'd be dead anyways.

[schrodingers_man]

...

[ Yomiel has to admit, she's right. It seems pretty uncharacteristic of her. But Yomiel also knows how much the dead can care about things, how, under the right circumstances, they can do more than just care. As far as he's concerned, there's no reason being dead means not having a stake in how things turn out. ]

I wonder if that's true.

[dictator_ko]

You know what I would've done earlier today if I thought I would've lost? I'd have gone on a bloody massacre.