thevine | ✦ WEEK ZERO: TRIAL

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trial

✦ 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.

🔗 FULL NAVIGATION

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ hmmm. before he does that, he'll lift up the torso of the body to get a look underneath. does the hole go all the way through, and if so, is it a similar size? ]

[ first, is he like, lifting will up off the table just by the torso? how is he doing this, like grabbing the shirt and pulling up or lifting him gently like a baby, or... ]

[ grabbing hold of his shoulders and pushing him up as if in a seated position (but not all the way up, just enough to look. a reclining position.) ]

[ neat!

okay, first - he's wearing this, so you have an idea of what the outfit looks like. bucky does this, and it's more difficult than you'd think. seems like he was kind of plastered to the slab a bit by the blood. will's head lolls back a little more grossly than it probably should, too.

the huge hole specifically doesn't go all the way through, no. the back of his jacket is sticky with blood and coated. there's sand mixed in there, too. ]

[ what do you MEAN "more grossly than it probably should"!!!!! okay, i guess once bucky has confirmed lack of back hole, he'll start checking will's neck for signs of damage! things like, is his neck bruised as if he was choked, or any kind of wound on it? since he already has will propped up, he's doing a full 360 neck check. ]

[ you have confirmed a lack of the hole going through all the way is what you have done.

anyway, his throat is slit. i'm not gonna be coy about this, bucky knows what that looks like. ]

Edited 2026-02-28 19:08 (UTC)

[ oh, yippee!

checking the slit throat more closely--is it a clean cut or ragged? single cut or choppy with multiple cuts?

and does it look like the hole or the neck bled more? or is it about even? bc if one isn't v leaky, it may have been a post-mortem injury... ]

[ clean! one slice.

the neck looks like it bled more. the blood from the throat wound looks like it dripped straight down, rather than off to the side.

the hole in the chest bled less. i mean, there's blood because it's a hole in his chest, but yeah, it might not be wrong to assume it's a post-mortem injury based on that reasoning. ]

[ dripped "straight down" as in from the neck towards the chest, right? does that mean that the hole in his chest bled as if he was already laid down on his back, down either side of the chest?

and is there anything else amiss? any cuts or damage to his clothes (beyond the blood-soaking), or any other injuries in the head-neck-chest zone? ]

[ yes! from the neck to the chest. the hole in his chest does seem to have bled as if he was already laid down. it is perhaps a little strange that there's that much blood on his back if that's the case, though?

he's still clothed, and it's like, a lot of layers and a lot of blood and sand, so it's hard to tell just by looking it over at a glance. give me specific places he's looking and if he's keeping the clothes on or off. ]

[ while i would love to immediately start stripping corpses, unfortunately, no. he would not unless evidence implied it would be necessary.

So let's just start with the jacket! sure, it's soaked in blood, but any cuts or burns or singing to it at all? If the jacket has pockets, he's rifling through 'em. ]

[ it's mostly soaked in blood on the back of it. there's the hole in the chest but again you cannot see it super clearly with the jacket on. you don't see any obvious burns or singing. are you patting the jacket down or just looking with your eyes?

there are outside pockets on the jacket! in one of them, there is a notebook. in another, his gloves, and his phone. ]

[ doing a gentle patdown!

anyway, yippee, he will set the gloves, phone, and notebook aside for now. ]

[ on the back, there's a slit in the jacket when he presses in. mid back. ]

[ hmm. interesting. presses in a lil harder. is this a slice all the way to the flesh, or a nick that only got the clothes? ]

[ looks like there is a wound at the flesh but again it's! hard to see! because the jacket is on! ]

[ welp, STRIPPING IT IS! starts peeling off all his top layers. any other fun injuries we didn't notice before? is that indeed a knife wound at his mid-back? ]

[ hell yeah.

okay, the jacket comes off. it's a little difficult because it - this is a gross description, but the hole in the front catches on the fabric here and there, like perhaps someone made the hole while the jacket was still on. you can see with his white jacket off that he's missing his gloves, which you found already. there's something on both hands. i'm assuming you left his black undershirt on so you can't see skin as it's a long sleeve shirt.

as you're taking off the jacket it's like, weird, because there's a lot of sand between the jacket and the shirt. kind of... shoved up there? some of it is also under his long sleeved shirt high up, too. it's all around his back and neck, just on the back. it doesn't look intentional like someone fisted a handful of sand up his jacket or whatever, it's just all scrunched up there.

there does seem to be a stab at the mid back, straight into the spine. again, i think bucky would realize this is meant to be debilitating, rather than a random stab. ]

[ nope that undershirt is coming off too now

straight into the spine though, yowza. does that mean that the stab looks narrow on the flesh, like it was just an in-and-out type deal rather than a more side to side slash?

also what's on them hands? other than blood, i assume. ]

[ off it goes! he's got some bruising on his upper right shoulder that you can see right off the bat. there's also more to look at on his face but you can get to that in a second.

but yeah it does look like it was an in and out deal. it's narrow. clean stab.

on the hands, you've got both of them. on the left, his whole palm has blood on it, and the pads of his fingies. you know how you make arts and crafts turkey handprints? like that, but blood. on the right hand, his whole pointer fingertip is covered in blood to like, the first joint.

also, can we assume bucky put stuff from will's pockets aside for people to look at? ]

[ oh yeah let me go drop those in evidence, huh

hmmm interesting. is the right hand otherwise clean? does the left hand have blood anywhere else on it, or just the palm? any injuries on either of them, sand under the fingernails? ]

[ they're both otherwise clean, but it's not like, abnormally so. there's probably little unimportant splatters and smudges here and there. it doesn't look like someone cleaned the blood off everywhere except those places.

i'm glad you checked because yes, there is blood under the fingernails on his right hand. probably some sand too. no injuries on either hand though, weirdly enough. ]

[ blood under the fingernails, plural, of the right hand? so only the pointer finger tip is covered in blood but the rest also have blood under the fingernails? Does the left hand have any blood under the fingernails? ]

[ yes! it's under all of them on his right hand. only the pointer tip is covered, but they all have blood under the fingernails.

the left hand does not. ]

[ fascinating.

anything on the arms, other than the right shoulder bruising? ]

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