week five: trial

[cyclists]

Week Five: Trial
18 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, Shirasu, Lili, Miki and Minato'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.

"Nine hours. Don't forget."

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 fifth 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

[unfriendliest]

[ hm okay. following the ice now, but kara will pause just short of the water to look around once more for anything else. are there signs of a struggle, maybe? anything fallen around the area? ]

[foodbin]

[She's looking down at the ice as well - how big of a path is it? Does it look like something that one ice user could have made on their own? Also, does it seem pretty intact, or are there chips/cracks/other damage in it?]

[nonbelligerent]

[he's going to head straight to the water, since kara and emma have the surroundings/ice path looked at.]

[cyclists]

[There are no signs of struggle on the sand, but out a ways into the water they may see something floating. As for the ice path, it looks like an ice user could have made this path on their own leading straight into the ocean. On the sand, it looks pretty solid! But as it stretches to the water, it begins to look jagged and less in tact.

As Shess approaches the water, he'll see a few dark shapes floating in the water...and a looming dorsal fin. Hm.]

[unfriendliest]

[ well since there's nothing out here. kara looks back out to sea and starts to wade into the water when he sees... whatever that is out there. after eyeing the ice path for a moment, he turns to emma. ]

Can you make a path like this?

[ so, you know, the squishy people don't actually have to fight a shark, hopefully. ]

[foodbin]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can. If you're going to use it to come out here, make sure not to slip.

[She starts to walk carefully out onto the ice path, making sure with each step that it's going to hold her weight and looking down at it for anything else notable.

When she gets far enough out that it can't reliably be walked on, the path extends and strengthens. She's trying to get it close enough to whatever's floating out there in the distance that they can grab it, without accidentally freezing whatever it is.]

[nonbelligerent]

[well, actually.

before emma tries that, since shess got here first, can shess just manipulate parts of the water to carry the shapes and bring them to the shore.]

[cyclists]

[I'm crying, thanks Shess. He'll be able to bring the shapes closer which means the following:

a.) they bring forth a lot of chunks of ice
b.) one of the ice chunks is vaguely knife-shaped
c.) there's a shovel for some reason??
d.) there's also a shark.

They just brought a whole-ass shark to the shore. Congrats.

This shark does not look amused.]

[unfriendliest]

[ a whole ass shark. nice. kara's gonna ignore that.

so he goes for the other pieces. the knife, mostly? what kind of and would it look familiar? also i guess, does the shovel look like something from the farms or whatever? ]

[foodbin]

[She starts walking out onto the ice path and then just watches as the stuff she was going for glides past her through the water, including an entire shark, apparently. She deeply considers just staying here for a few seconds.]

Cool, that's happening.

[But no, she's heading back to the shore and also ignoring the shark. Good luck, Shess. She's glancing over at the knife as Kara holds it - does it look like it might be the same size as Shirasu's stab wounds?]

[nonbelligerent]

[...]

The shovel was Miki's. It was her item from home.

[you all suck, so shess is carefully approaching the shark, but stopping a safe distance so that he can move if it lunges at him (from the beach?) or whatever. he waves a little. is it going to try and kill him.]

[cyclists]

[To clarify, the knife is made of ice so it's more like a shape that was used for weaponry. It's not an actual knife.

The shark watches Shess approach and thanks for not attacking. Shess waves...and the shark grins? Or, like, it bares its teeth which are bloody as hell and seem to have something shiny stuck between them.

Hm.]

[unfriendliest]

[ oh, well okay then. so lili gave whoever went after her a good fight, or tried to. alright. he's going to hand that to emma as their designated ice person so she can keep that intact as evidence.

then he'll leave the shovel where it is for now to head over to the shark, hand on the hilt of his sword in case it decides to attack. what the fuck is in its teeth. figure it out, shess. ]

[foodbin]

[Ice knife, get.

She approaches the animal, too, and she's going to make a piece of ice materialize in its mouth (without touching what's already in there) to try and prop it open enough that Shess can see whatever it might be. Sorry, shark.]

[nonbelligerent]

[IS ANYONE GOING TO LOOK AT THE SHOVEL

but shess approaches, one hand in his pocket for some reason. he won't try and grab the thing immediately, instead again waiting to see if the shark attacks, but if it doesn't, he'll gently try to retrieve it...?]

[cyclists]

[Ice in the shark's mouth pisses it off a little and it promptly tries to bite down on it, but it doesn't get very far. Whatever is in there is shiny and ornamental, really. Amongst all of the blood.

The shark is busy trying to deal with its mouth being frozen, so it won't attack...which means that Shess can reach in and pull out Lili's hair ornament.]

[unfriendliest]

[ okay, cool. since the shark can't attack like this, kara will let emma and shess handle this while he goes back to take a closer look at the shovel. is it damaged in any way? any blood on it? ]

[foodbin]

[She'll just be here, holding this ice knife and making sure the shark can't bite Shess' hand off while he grabs the hair ornament.]

You got it?

[nonbelligerent]

[ornament, get!

he takes out his hand from his pocket, at least, to just. pat the shark's teeth. there, there. but now he's leaving, bye.]

Yes. Should we return it to the ocean now?

[cyclists]

[Please return the shark to the ocean oh my god. It looks at Shess, eyes sad and pleading. "Free me", it says.

As for the shovel...it looks completely clean and untouched. No blood, no damage.]

[unfriendliest]

[ well that gave, like, no clues at all but thanks. not that kara appears all that bothered by this; he simply gives shess a nod. ]

If it doesn't have anything else, there's no reason to keep it here. What was it?

[foodbin]

[She'll wait to remove the ice until the shark is safely back in the ocean so no further chomping will occur, but she gives a nod.]

Yeah, go ahead and put it back.

[And then she's giving another glance to the area to see if there's anything else notable around.]

[nonbelligerent]

[then, with a sweep of water, back to the ocean the shark goes. farewell...

he'll go and look at the non-knife ice pieces. anything about them?]

[cyclists]

[That's about it. The ice pieces are just broken chunks like they fell apart from the path heading out to the water. Emma will notice the footprints seem to stop halfway down the beach around where the path starts and don't seem to go anywhere else.

The shark swims away to sulk, sadly.

And that's about it!]