subdivided | WEEK ZERO TRIAL

Week Zero: Trial
31 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, Tsurumaru's coffin is open, and his body will be available for examination.

Lune and Sol are seated in their thrones, patiently waiting for the last participant to settle. Before Lune gets a chance to speak, Sol draws everyone's attention.

"Yesterday…something really bad happened. The instability of the core has manifested into something bigger than we thought, and it's hidden among us. Today, it'll be your job to find it, and determine what to do with it."

They gesture to the open space between them and the participants then.

"Lune and I will help you as much as we can. But the final decision is yours and yours alone."

With that said, they settle back in their seat.

"Oh. And you have nine hours…let's get going."

Incidentally, anyone who did not dance with their partner during Wednesday's party will soon find that they are now sharing a new article of clothing. Congratulations.

✩★✩

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first 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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Isn't it a little weird that it's only the top half that was really damaged to such severity?

I don't know much about animal mauling, but I do think it's odd. You'd think they'd go after the whole body instead of doing this.

Is it weird...? When you fight, your arms and face are at most risk for damage. Could just be that.

Hm...

Why do you think there were bite and claw marks on his legs?

...If he'd fallen, the legs are stronger than the arms, as a last line of defense...?

If that's what happened and he was fighting back, shouldn't they have sustained the same amount of damage?

[ Minato shrugs, because he doesn't know how well Tsuru fights, nor does he know how well anybody else here fights either. ]

If it's an animal, we'd have to find it to know more. If it's a person... sometimes they don't get hurt the same way a human does. Or they could fight better. Or had armor, or a shield.

Some wild animals like going for the extremities, to cripple fleeing prey. [ Wolves, and such, or whatever wolf-adjacents we have in Xillia bc I can't remember the contents of the entire monster book. ] Could simply be that.

[This is mostly to himself, but he does say it aloud.]

Was he prey or a threat?

If he was a threat and the monster or animal decided to be aggressive rather than flee, then I don't see why its hunting tactics would necessarily differ? [ Chasing down and crippling a threat so it can. Stop being a threat, or chasing down and crippling prey so it can be eaten. ]

... But, also, I don't really know enough specifics about this particular subject to say one way or another, especially with the possibility of Earth powers muddying the waters.

[Guess who does know about animal mauling]

Not really. Going for the head and chest is the best way to end it quickly. Limbs are attacked only if the prey is fighting back, and even then any self-respecting hunter would try to end it as fast as possible instead of having a long fight.

[Granted, looks like what she knows is skewed because, well, she's a hunter and not a wild animal, but still, she also speaks from what she knows from real feral animal attacks]