week three: trial

[cyclists]

Week Three: Trial
22 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 the glass boxes perfectly centered before the benches in the room. Now that the trial is in session, Swift Wind and Hisoka'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. It's only when everyone has gathered that Sol speaks first.

"We've got a lot of ground to cover today. Don't give up."

They stop, glancing at Lune and gesturing for them to say their piece.

"Face the truth directly, and don't turn away from what you may find."

✩★✩

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the fourth 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

[twinsightful]

...I can if you'd prefer. [He doesn't mind, he was just asking tbh.]

[stillstands]

It's fine. It's better I keep it all in one place anyway.

[ Hold on, she's finding a pen. ]

[twinsightful]

So to summarize...fires are you, me, Axel, Valvatorez, Milla, and Ookurikara, and lavas are North, and Minato. That's all eight of us, amazingly. Waters...Shirasu and Shess, with Emma, Lili and potentially Feral having ice. Earth we have Naminé and Cinnabar with plants. Four I believe is earth as well. Akane is Air, though I don't know what branch.

We know that our deceased have all been water, air, or earth-aligned. I believe Hisoka was plants, we know Swift Wind was also water.

The rest are unknown to me.

[stillstands]

[ She's diligently writing. And then she taps her pen against the paper. ]

... Akane would be lightning. All the air users are dead. Or that's what I've heard.

[ ... ] It's taken us so long to get this all out in the open. I wonder how much easier it would have been from the get go if we'd had all of this information after the first trial.

[unfriendliest]

They've all been too afraid to share.

[ if he sounds judgy, it's because he's judging. ]

[stillstands]

I know that? And it's entirely understandable when you have people setting up crime scenes to implicate you or targeting you because of it.

But I can still wonder.

[globs]

I kept saying we should just come forward about this.

[ cinnabar stands in solidarity with oookurikara ]

[unfriendliest]

I never saw the point in keeping it secret, especially if it can help us in the long run.

[ not. that he had much of a choice about this own. but he wouldn't have bothered hiding it even if he did. ]

[twinsightful]

Infinitely, but none of us trusted each other enough to be so open. It apparently took stabbing a man in public to unify everyone.

[Glancing around, he's still watching this.] ...Squall's earth. So's Xion, from the looks of it.

[i.e. everything I'm seeing on flatview that he could see in real time.]

[stillstands]

Extreme things usually do. But the fact it has to get that far at all.... [ She glances over to where Milla has Shirasu all herded and trapped, anger clear on her face. ]

It's frustrating. But I get why people were keeping it secret.

[twinsightful]

And even knowing the element, that doesn't change anything about not knowing people's additional skills either. We know a few like Shirasu, Emma and Shess, but others we're clueless about.

[stillstands]

And asking doesn't help, that's the real problem. Until we get some evidence, or someone uses it in front of us we have no idea what powers are used or even if any of them are in play.

There was nothing saying we all had to have different abilities.

[twinsightful]

Considering a lot of us seem to have similar ones or the same? That's entirely possible. What if all of us only have one or two of these powers and they're spread out among the branches?

[televised]

So let's fix that. We need to know who used Toxicity, right? So lets ask the water and ice aligned we have left to demonstrate their skills.

[foodbin]

Right now, Lili is the only person we know for certain who has it, right? Other than Swift Wind. Or am I forgetting somebody?

[foodbin]

Shess, Shirasu, Lili, Feral and I have all used our powers during this trial, so... I think it's someone that we don't know for sure yet.

[globs]

Or someone is lying.

[foodbin]

...Someone did change their power this week, I guess. It was probably whoever did this, so - the fact that Lili can still summon poison means she's clear, right? Like Shess said, he knows I've had Evaporeon for weeks, and I know he has as well.

[autocatalysis]

With Swift Wind and Junna counted, that makes for seven waters in total. One water isn't outing themselves, assuming that there's also eight waters as there are fire.

[twinsightful]

...have we accounted for all of the earth and airs? With those who have died and who's left. If someone's withholding information, then the numbers should be off.

[televised]

You haven't outed yourself either, you know.

[JUST SAYING.]

[autocatalysis]

If it becomes relevant-

[ he sighs. ]

Fine. Process of elimination by this point should make it obvious anyway. [ ... ] Are you any more conductive than the average human being, by the way? I assume you're properly shielded and grounded, but I might as well cover my bases.

[televised]

[...]

If it's electricity, keep it away from me.

[THAT'S A YES.]

[autocatalysis]

[ ... ]

Good thing I asked, then.

[ but sure, he'll demonstrate with the two pocketwatches instead to keep from having any accidents that might've come if the electric decided North would make a good lightning rod as soon as he released it, or something.

they're fine, they can take a decent beating. there's a faint sense of static in the air near him as it ionizes briefly- hey! that's where that ozone smell came from, feral. you're welcome- before a small arc of lightning flickers out from one of his hands and into the pocketwatches he's holding in the other. here we are. tada. ]

[televised]

[She watches the demonstration, before letting out a small huff. Lightly:]

Thank you for your cooperation.