week seven: trial

[cyclists]

Week Seven: Trial
9 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, Squall, Kaoru, Grim Eyes and Milla'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. They hesitate less this week, looking back at Lune for a moment before they square their shoulders and face the participants again.

"It's going to be harder this week than last, especially with so few of you. But I'll be handling things today, so...please ask for whatever you need. I'll do my best."

✩★✩

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the seventh trial!

Things will proceed as normal, but for this trial and the next all NPC interactions will be via Sol while Dana is out of town! This means questions and locations will be handled by them.

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

[cyclists]

[Well. As they're both looking around, they'll find two sets of footprints running across the city-scape indicating the parties were on the move. Storefronts are crashed through, burn marks mark the area and there are a few pieces of debris split in half like they got in the way. A closer look will also reveal that there are some blade marks mixed in.

There's also a lot of blood. Nice. It seems to be spread about, but after some looking they'll come across a large puddle of it, seemingly dried but burned by now.]

[unfriendliest]

[ kara is going to take a closer look at the blade marks - do they all look like they're from the same blade? or are they different?

then he'll focus on trying to follow the footprints to see where they lead. ]

[televised]

[The blade marks... Are any of them recognizable as hailing from Milla's sword? Or is it difficult to tell without a direct comparison? And speaking of which-- Does it look like anything could be hidden beneath the debris? She's keeping an eye out for Milla's weapon, specifically, but...

On that note: Is the puddle of blood large enough that it looks like someone laid there and bled out for a while? The footsteps are interesting, too, and she'll trail after Kara if there's nothing else to be seen here.]

I don't suppose you have anything to draw on? I have eidetic memory, but it would be better if we had something to show the others.

[Speaking of which: In comparison to Kara's foot size and North's own foot size, what do the footprints look like? North's the same height as Milla, so.]

[cyclists]

[The blade marks look to be from larger blades, and it's hard to say which without a comparison, but it's possible that they could have come from Milla's sword. The marks don't appear to be from the same blade all the way though. The blood puddle looks large enough to indicate that someone maybe bled out there, yeah. Yikes.

Nothing's hidden beneath the debris, just a lot of rubble, but as they look at the footprints they'll see that they're all over the place, though one set of prints seems to have entered the area alone from a different direction. Following them, they can see they seem to come from the village itself.

In comparison to their feets, the footprints are closer in size to North than to Kara.]

[unfriendliest]

[ okay - two different blades, then. although that. doesn't really narrow it down much, huh.

anyway kara pulls out a folded piece of paper, to hand over to north. when she unfolds it, she'll find a list of everyone and their elemental alignments in kaoru's writing, but the other side should be blank. ]

This is all I have.

[ meanwhile he's eyeing the blood. maybe milla died here, but is there any indication of what happened after? was she cooked here, or taken somewhere else? maybe to one of the burning buildings? ]

[televised]

[Are they both around the same general size? Or is one of them smaller/larger than the other, without quite approaching Kara's size?]

Thanks.

[WELL. The list is outdated, anyway. Sorry, Kaoru. She crouches down near the footprints in order to do as a roomba does, and jot down what she sees like she's a photocopier. It's fine. She carefully folds the paper up and stuffs it away once she's done, before looking around the area once again.]

Do you see anything else? We might have to come back here later if we want to compare the blade marks to something.

[It's easy to tell that at least one of the people involved came from the village, but is there anything showing where they could have gone to afterward? What about anything that points towards elemental manipulation of the non-fire kind?]

[cyclists]

[It's hard to say what might have happened afterwards, though the burned blood indicates that whatever happened, the fire probably came after.

Somewhere beyond the grave, Kaoru pouts about no longer being useful. The footprints are about the same general size, yeah, though a little hard to pinpoint. The footprints leading from the village don't seem to go anywhere else, but there's another set of prints heading out of the area that they can probably follow. No other signs of manipulation either.]

[unfriendliest]

[ kara's getting that back from her later or so help him

anyway he's going to see where the other footprints lead! even if they have to go back to the hall first, he'd like to have some indication of where to send the next group. ]

[televised]

[I can't believe Kara's going to have to mug North for the note later.

Anyway-- Yeah. She'll give the area one last glance to make sure she didn't miss anything. If that's all there is to be seen, though, North will follow the footprints as well to see where they lead.]

[cyclists]

[Well. If they head out and follow, they'll find that the other set of prints head toward the main fire region. Oops.]

[unfriendliest]

...We should go back before checking following them - make sure everyone knows.

[ back to the main hall, then! ]