thevine | ✦ WEEK ZERO: TRIAL

✦ WEEK 0, TRIAL: VICTIM ARCHETYPE

TRIAL

REMAINING

WUH-OH?

Rise and shine, superstars! It's a brand new day and a brand new opportunity to prove that you have what it takes to win this season's grand prize. Didn't manage to sleep well after yesterday's grisly discovery? A shame. But filming schedules are a cruel mistress, and they don't care to wait for the sleep deprived. As soon as the clock strikes 11:30AM, an announcement will play from the numerous loudspeakers hidden around the island:

THE REAL WAIFUS OF STREAMY VALLEY SEASON 11 RUNNER UP

All contestants, please report to Gold P. Beach. The next segment of this week's thrilling sudden elimination round is about to begin. I repeat, all contestants, please report to Gold P. Beach. The next segment of this week's thrilling sudden elimination round is about to begin.

... Hey, doesn't that voice sound familiar? Is this what they call a celebrity cameo? Huh. Ignore the announcement, and you'll soon find yourself accosted by the local mascots — namazu, loporrits and gestrals alike following after you and trying their damnedest to haul your ass to the beach. And if the pleading stare of these adorable(?) creatures is still not enough to get you moving, then worry not! Because at exactly 11:59AM, if you still haven't made your way over to the beach, a trap door will abruptly materialize under your feet and drop you right into the path leading up to the beach! Better stick your landing, or millions of viewers across the galaxies will watch you belly flop onto the ground. Embarrassing... The path leading up to the beach has been lined with torches, carving out a direct trail that leads right into the bowels of The Council — an old, abandoned ship that rests on the island's south shore. Whether it's the real deal or a fantastic piece of art from this season's set designers is anyone's guess, but you should probably avoid rubbing up against the rustier looking bits and bobs just in case. Inside the bowels of the rotting vessel, you'll see a circular area with enough benches for all of the remaining contestants to lounge about, and several long stone slabs that look a little less empty than usual. And while the sun shines bright above you during the daytime, you'll find that the torches surrounding the ship will soon become your only source of illumination once the sun sets and you are plunged into the murky darkness of the night. Well, with the sole exception of one torch that will remain unlit the entire time. At the far end sit three thrones with a rather peculiar display behind each one, and currently occupied by Live, Laugh and Love. A large LED display has been hung up behind them, which simply reads:

TIME REMAINING
09:00:00:00

As soon as it's officially 12:00PM, the LED display will begin to count down until it hits 00:00:00:00 at the very end of the trial. To the left of your hosts, there's a large beach cooler filled with all kinds of chilled drinks — from water bottles, to juice pouches and sodas, and, yes, even half bottles of wines and other alcoholic drinks. There's a plastic table nestled a couple of feet away, where the remains of the ship shield it from the sun, covered in a spread of sandwiches, baked goods, chips, dips, and what appears to be leftovers from yesterday's lunch and dinner. None of these items are fresh and most of them look like they came right out of a vending machine, but it's the thought that counts...? Welcome to your very first trial, superstars! Better get nice and comfy, because you're going to be here for a long, long while.

☰ VICTIM(S)

Will

☰ OOC NOTES

✦ It's trial time, baby! Over the course of the next nine hours, characters will have the opportunity to discuss, investigate and theorize about this week's murder. Characters will have time to examine the body of the victim and explore relevant locations. ✦ There will be a one hour tag break starting at 4PM EST/1PM PST. While players are allowed to keep tagging through the hour, all mod tags will pause and players are encouraged to take a break, eat and hydrate. ✦ The voting page is now unlocked! Please read through the post carefully for more information about how voting will work in this game. Note that voting is not mandatory in The Vine, and it is up to each character to decide if they wish to cast a vote before the end of the trial or not. ✦ Characters will be unable to leave The Council until the end of trial, as they will be blocked off by that same translucent barrier that prevents them from entering the currently locked segments of the island and a small gaggle of some very determined mascots. You wouldn't want to make them sad, right...? Exceptions will be made for the purpose of investigations, of course, where characters will be accompanied by an NPC escort.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Thanks for the recap. [ Sincerely. ] The sky getting weird is another thing that bothers me, but... we already know the people we're dealing with can manipulate things however they want. So maybe less weird in the grand scheme of things.

You really were rewound though. Wonder if that explains why we couldn't investigate further yesterday.

Might be an effect of them playing with time like that..? I dunno. You guys are more familiar with the kinda stuff it's... mimicking? And you're all just as puzzled.

[ she's just throwing spaghetti at the wall. ]

It could be. And, I mean. We're here now? [ gestures at their surroundings ] Still nothing, except for him.

My investigations have never really gone like this, I'll tell you that much. [ Which is what's agitating him a lot. ]

We're here now, but... there has to be some sort of trigger to this thing. Something we need to discover first, or somewhere we need to go first.

Mine, either. And we had to work fast sometimes, but not this fast. [ it's been years since it was her actual job to deal with this kind of shit and she's just like GREAT COOL BAD. ]

Love said that we're expected to do investigations, look around for clues and stuff. That we can do that and we should be able to access stuff now. So... if we've got nine hours, we'd better get started.

[ He gestures to the giant LED screen with their countdown, but he also doesn't elaborate, like, why he's doing that. So thanks. ]

I'm right behind you. Pick a place and I'll come with if you need extra eyes.

[ thanks, traumaboy! rawiyah does not understand any deeper meaning to this, just nods. ]

Let's check out the beach or The Council itself. [ mods confirmed blood will just be on the slab ig so there's that. ] I want to find that path again and see if the arrow is back, and that goddamn line in the sand that we didn't get a look at.

Whichever you think is best. We can always send another team to cover whichever one we don't take ourselves, there's enough of us here and that means everybody's gotta contribute.

[ looking around them, thinking... ]

I want your fresh eyes for the beach. We need to get a closer look at that line, and The Council's not going anywhere - we'll come back to it.

Sounds good. We'll see if anybody else wants to come, too. There's enough ground to cover that a third's not a bad idea.

[ "No less than three, no more than five...? Hah." ]

There's only so many places they could have gone, right? The beach sounds like the best way to connect the dots when the others return...

Yeah, I think so, too. And unless you're in the surf, the sand's gonna leave traces for a long while.

Sticks to everything too... just something else we'll have to keep in mind, being careful of people who just walk the beach on the regular.

[ even getting here - except for aaron who flew out of the sky. ]

It felt like warping.

[ She does not elaborate. ]

Is... warping something you can usually do?

I usually get sent to a different environment when it's time for testing, so warping happens to that location.

[ ... ]

I can't do that on my own though. It requires the use of a machine.

[ He thinks about what he's told her about herself and he sort of nods along. ]

That makes sense. That's... getting a little too out of my depth for me to be thinking about if we're all in a giant machine somehow, but I have been wondering if this island's been using things from our own worlds to incorporate into the show.

From our...

[ Hm.

Hm!

Narja isn't very good at hiding the feeling of very much not liking that. ]

... I see.

[ He holds up both of his hands. ]

It's just a thought, there's no proof that's happening. We don't have to worry about that right now.

I hope it stays that way... then we'll only have a single corpse to worry about at the moment.

[ "How do you always say something so concerning with zero hint of irony...?" ]

One corpse is plenty, yeah. Let's... keep it that way.

Mm.

[ Looks at the distressed people. ]

... I'm surprised, that there are many people who are distraught over someone they barely started to learn about.