week one: trial

[cyclists]

Week One: Trial
27 in Competition

It may be difficult to sleep with the light shining so brightly throughout the night, but the participants can rest easy knowing they will not be plagued by unwanted, disturbing dreams. Early the next day, a bell chimes and all will feel compelled to enter the main meeting hall.

The hall looks mostly the same as it always has, the two thrones for Lune and Sol at the head of the room and scrolls hanging from the walls. The metal box sits on a table near the front, along with a glass box perfectly centered before the benches in the room. Now that the trial is in session, Tokidoki, Nana, and Junna's coffins are open, and their bodies will be available for examination.

Lune and Sol are seated in their thrones, patiently waiting for the last participant to settle. Sol remains quiet, looking over to Lune to allow them to speak first.

"Even if it is a rather daunting task ahead of you, I hope that each of you will not lose hope. One step at a time, one step at a time. It is not hopeless."

When they finish, Sol sits up a little taller in their seat to address everyone.

"I'm only going to say this once. I know it's not an ideal situation, but...the votes count, and the universe only gives one warning. Can we try not to repeat last week?" There's a pause. "You have nine hours. Let's start."

✩★✩

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the second trial!

We'll go over a few notes briefly as we will be playing this trial a bit differently than other games.

As noted, there was no investigation period on Friday. However, today participants will have the chance to investigate areas in the game setting as they see fit! This can be done by providing the name of the location you want to visit to the host header comment. To help with the ease of the trial and for IC mechanics, only one location may be visited at a time. In addition, these locations can be manipulated and adjusted upon request to test theories and solve puzzles, so please feel free to ask if you're searching for clues! Your host will also be accompanying you on these visits.

Most importantly, before the trial is over, please place your character's vote over on the voting page. Voting will close at 9pm EST/6pm PST, and will serve as our activity check for the week, so please be sure you get your vote in before it ends unless you have contacted us previously.

If you have any questions at any time, please let do us know by pinging us on Discord! Dana and Ty will be in the chat and available for all questions. Thank you, and have fun!

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Comments

SUMMARY

[leaberator]

[ well now that he has his clothes back on and for the love of god someone make sure hisoka does too, lea's gonna clear his throat to get everyone's attention!! pwease!!!! ]

Alright, we've got less than three hours left and we're floundering a little, so let's try an' consolidate what we got. We've got our three victims-- Tokidoki, Nana, and Junna. Their elements were air, water and earth, though we're only kinda sure Nana had water. Anyway, of those three, we know Tokidoki was corrupted before he died. We had three of those total this week-- the two others are still alive. Speaking of totals, we have the same amount of victims as killers, and all those are alive, so either we have a wild killer on the loose [ which is possible, hisoka is here ] or whoever killed Tokidoki knew he was corrupted. Call it self-defense or preventive, either one's a possibility.

Power use for that night was two water and two air. We don't know exactly which or who used 'em, but we can guess two of the killers are water and air to match our two victims with those same elements. [ unless like one of the victims didn't do it but look, let's not lose ourselves in what ifs in this terrible summary. ]

Tokidoki was crushed to death by something large and rectangular that broke his bones and spine. Whatever it was, he was staying pretty still for it.

Junna died of asphyxiation-- we thought she might've been poisoned, but while there's definite alcohol on her shirt, Kaoru... uh... confirmed [ by smelling a corpse. ] that there was no alcohol on her breath or any kind of other, cyanide-y smell. So if there was any poison involved, it might've been in the air and not anything she ingested. She's got some light bruising, but other than that, that's it. Whenever she was killed was pretty early on, since rigor mortis set in already. [ GOD WAIT HE SHOULD EXPLAIN: ] That's when a human corpse's muscles go all stiff and don't move anymore.

Nana's body... [ yikes. ] To quote North: the definition of overkill. Most of her bones are broken, she's got bruises and cuts all over, and there were pieces of light bulbs-- [ ... so everyone is on the same page, he adds quickly: ] those balls of glass that emanate light-- in her cuts.

[ wow i am STILL GOING, HUH ]

For locations, Shess and Emma checked out the kitchen and found some leftover brownies? And... nothing else, I guess. Whoever decided on making sweets left a regular baking mess, but that's it. It was probably Nana, since she still smelled like them a bit.

Another team went on to check the casino, which had a huge, real mess in there. Smashed bottles, overturned tables, and a glass of alcohol with what appears to be cyanide in it was found? That or it just smells almond-y, but no one is allowed to taste-test it. It also looks like a body was dragged around near the baccarat table.

And then we've got the elevator. There were scorch marks all over it, up 'til near the top. There was also blood, but Kazuaki said that didn't reach the top. The lights were shattered and they found her phone and a messed up first aid kit there, as well as a batch of brownies, so that's probably where she died. She was definitely meeting someone. According to the elevator crew, nothing shoulda made it the elevator fall, as all the wires were intact and the hatch at the top was only open a little, not broken.

[ a beat ]

Oh, yeah. Also, we all stripped.

[ that's all on that one. let's not linger on it! ever!!! ]

I think that covers everything, so... Everyone got it memorized?

[ every FUCKING week. anyway that's it!!!! if i forgot something please pretend otherwise!!!!! ]

[compendiem]

[ Minato wakes up at the tail end of this. ]

Sorry. Could you repeat that?

[specialdog]

... Go back to sleep.

[leaberator]

[ he actually repeats word for word exactly what he just said, but i'm not copypasting it all over. ]

[televised]

Just go back to sleep.

[lionharts]

... Really? People are dead, wake up.

[moonprisonpower]

This isn't the time to be sleeping.

[ saix contradicting everyone to be a bitch ]

[quailvering]

... wait, why did you all strip?!

[leaberator]

Injury check.

[ theoretically. ]

[papawolf]

[ good job, hedgie.

though he'll write

Wind Power + Elevator? ]

[stillstands]

...

Could it have been Strike While It's Hot?

[leaberator]

You think someone used a wind power while she was in the elevator?

[omegathree]

[Val nods along to the things he knows he found and all the information he's hearing sounds correct.]

Good work.

[The time of his demise draws ever closer, but this is quality summarization.]

[leaberator]

I'm just repeatin' all the info everyone found.

[ is work really involved for him? no, only for me ]

ANYWAY STRIPPING -

[coastal]

Most people are cleared in terms of injuries - I didn’t notice any fresh cuts that might come from one of Junna’s knives if she fought back. I have bruises and scrapes that are old, but so do Emma and Namine. Ookurikara and Kaoru can report on any injuries from the men. [she refused]

Oh - and Futaba’s hair looks odd underneath the mask.

[there’s your complete report on the ladies]

[quailvering]

Oh, um- L- Lili, do- do I need to strip, too? [bashfully holding the edge of his scarf]

[blackcoats]

What do you mean, "odd"...?

[autocatalysis]

... if the victims attempted to use their powers to fight back, do we know whether either of them might have left traces of any sort on their attackers? Or even what they might have done to try to fight back?

[ admittedly this is a long shot because from the summary uhhh yikes but also. ]

[leaberator]

We don't know exactly who had what powers, is the issue. We've guessed water and Nana, but that's about it. That still gives us a long list of possibilities.

[hashtaghelping]

Shess said Junna was ... slumped, right?

[seriously, thinking about this is making his brain hurt, but they've come so far he doesn't want to just let it go]

What were here hands doing? If you can't breathe, wouldn't you normally, like... [he rears back on his hind legs and tries to make it look like he's putting his hooves up to his neck, but i don't think it's physically possible for a horse to do that] You'd try and do anything to breathe, not juts slump over, wouldn't you?

[forefall]

Thank you. Your summary is very helpful. This week and last.

We've done a lot of investigating, but I'm worried that other than element alignments, we still don't.... have any suspects yet.

[lionharts]

... Good grief, that's a lot. At least it's not... [ he almost says as stupid as last week but manages to not. last week wasn't stupid by the end, it was just sad. ]

Thanks, Axel, for getting it memorized yourself.

[tothemaxwell]

Very well done, Lea. You are a credit to yourself.

[compendiem]

[ Some time later-- maybe Minato only takes a quick nap, I was actually afk bc I channeled my inner Minato and took a two hour nap, I'm gomen-- he sits back and stares at the little glasses of alcohol. Something something about it being found in the casino... ]

...Not all amounts of cyanide is lethal. Let me try it.

[ Let Minato drink evidence. ]

alibis??

[globs]

... Why don't we say where everyone was that night? That might help.

[ they feel like they should try to figure this out for Nana's sake, at least. ]

I know people can lie... but maybe we can catch someone in a lie. [ a beat. ] I was in the Earth caverns.