TRIAL 03

[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

[schrodingers_man]

I don't remember her saying Sakura's a Citizen. She said she didn't have an important role. Sounds to me like that just meant she's not the Inhibitor or the Scanner.

I don't remember Rin making any strong impressions that first day, either. There's no stronger reason for her to have been converted than simple sentiment.

This isn't limited evidence. It's a lot more damning than having a short temper and a big mouth.

[in_plain_sight]

...I still think the timing of Greed's death made you look bad at the time... [moot point Murks just let it go]

Anyway, I'd say Communist is a pretty important role... but I guess I don't know how she meant it.

[thefaceofjustice]

If that's true, maybe we should target another suspect and remove Ms. Sakura at the next trial instead. We might catch the scanner or inhibitor... and the sooner, the better. The loyalty officer is undefended without Mr. Kimbley.

[schrodingers_man]

And who should we target, Detective? Mukuro's right about one thing, at least; we should avoid voting without anything strong to go by. Sakura's our safest bet. Her sister should return to us one this trial's finished, and if everything's gone like we've hoped, she should bring the names of the other three with her.

[thefaceofjustice]

I agree, we shouldn't make this kind of move without a really good idea of a second suspect. ...So I'm wondering if we might have one. We can at least discuss it.

Ms. Rin wasn't allowed to give their names to us. Do you think that will be lifted?

[schrodingers_man]

We can hope it is. If she's not a Communist anymore, then hopefully the rules won't treat her like one. Even if she can't just come out and give us the three names we need, she should at least be able to tell us if we're barking up the wrong tree. And we need that. Our Loyalty Officer is powerful, but they have to guess the right names first.

[standbyrival]

--and pass up getting rid of a Communist that's practically being handed to us on a silver platter? Come on. Who would you even go for?

[thefaceofjustice]

Saving it for the next trial isn't passing it up; she's not going anywhere.

You said yourself that Ms. Anthy was suspicious for being defensive of Mr. Newman. So that would make Mr. Newman suspicious as well.

[standbyrival]

And I still think she is. However, it's not guaranteed yet.

Keeping a known, active threat around is dumb. She may not have a role, but there's no telling how she contributes to their team. For all we know she could be their real brains. It's best to get rid of her now.

[thefaceofjustice]

I already voted for Ms. Sakura, but I can change it to someone else if this trial reveals convincing enough information about another suspect.

Do you have anything to add as a witness about Mr. Newman or any other suspects?

[standbyrival]

Not at the moment, but I'm sure I could make something up if you're that eager to off another kid. Is that it, detective? Are you that kind of corrupt officer?

[thefaceofjustice]

Mr. Newman is 18, that's old enough to be tried as an adult.

We don't have any lawyers here to read into anyone's testimony, so I'd rather you stuck to the truth...

[standbyrival]

Wow, he's a runt. [says this guy]

In that case, the only truth you need to know is that voting for Sakura makes the most sense. If we're wrong, then wow, one up for Tohsaka.

[plentyfriendly]

Her exact words were "Sakura doesn't play an important role in this game."

[what, her memory's gotten a real good workout okay?]

I don't believe there are any roles in this game that aren't important, but that does point to Sakura being a Citizen.

[in_plain_sight]

That's how I took it, too... if we think of an "important role" as one that can do something other than just vote at each trial, then even the normal Communists should count.

[plentyfriendly]

Then who would you vote for?

[in_plain_sight]

...I have no idea.


[Agree with the decision or not, Sakura might be their last lead, especially since the loyalty officer outed himself the day the defense officer died.]

[schrodingers_man]

If Rin didn't mean to be an only child by the time she came back, she would've been a lot clearer about establishing Sakura's innocence. Don't tell me she couldn't have done that. She made it completely clear that Kimbley and I were innocent and nobody can argue she wasn't telling the truth about that.

Sakura isn't even trying to argue for her own innocence. Kimbley said it yesterday: guilt complies, innocence flips out. Look at her, she's already accepted how we're going to vote. Don't waste your breath fighting for someone who won't even fight for herself, Phi. You're just going to paint a target on yourself, and I don't mean for the Communists. I can't speak for the Loyalty Officer, but I'm done playing nice. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who doesn't vote for Sakura tonight isn't to be trusted.

[plentyfriendly]

True, but except Rin, who was by her own admission indoctrinated, all of the "Communists" were just people that got unlucky enough to be assigned that role. They may not have had a choice to avoid killing.

I'm still going to vote for her, though. We don't really have any other solid choices; as much as I'd like to see certain other people here gone, one is provably an ally and the other seems like they wouldn't accomplish much..

[fullonbraced]

That... kind of makes sense, man!

[plentyfriendly]

But on the other hand, we don't have any other ideas as to who the other three Communists would be.

Who would you vote for other than Sakura?

[fullonbraced]

They must be hiding it really well, man! We need to look extra hard before anyone else gets murdered!

...Well, I guess I'd vote for Rin! Since she's supposed to come back to life, right? She could still be a communist!

[plentyfriendly]

Well we can't vote for her now, since she's still dead. You'd have to pick someone else.

And there are a couple people that are probably hiding a lot, simply by saying hardly anything.

[fullonbraced]

Oh yeah, they're a ton of people not talking a lot!

[Robin has to think on Phi's question for a moment. She honestly didn't want to vote for anyone, so it was a rather tough decision all around.]

Well... I dunno. Maybe that Paul guy? He lied to Yomiel, man!

[plentyfriendly]

No good there. He's an asshole, sure, but he didn't know Anthy was a Communist so he has to be an ally.