Entry tags:
✦ WEEK ZERO: TRIAL
✦ WEEK 0, TRIAL: VICTIM ARCHETYPE

TRIAL
29
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:
... 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:
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.

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.
TIME REMAINING
09:00:00:00

☰ 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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the lines are the same width and they're like... the same continuous line. so like. from the mansion, to the beach, all the way to the council. it does not stop at all, it looks like one singular pull. sometimes it does look a little wider? and there's one certain spot where it looks like a snow angel that just keeps on going forever. there's blood smudges all along this.
to the far left from this line, there are separate marks in the sand.
the kicked up sand has a few things about it. there's a bit near the waves that has two sets of partial footprints. both of them are getting washed away by the water so you can't get a sense of size other than one is smaller than the other. the smaller set digs a bit into the sand, and turns. the other set is behind it, following along. these are separate from the other two things.
also further down the beach is something sticking out of the sand. ]
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Check both ends of the line where you can, there's some marks to the left and I'm not sure where on our timeline it falls. Looks like we've got footprints, too, but after this many hours we might not have a lot of luck gauging size. It at least confirms two people... not that we needed to know that.
Anything stick out on your end?
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There's blood smudges all around the sand. I'm kinda wondering if this was a body drag? Not necessarily a corpse one.
[ he'll job up towards the mansion and try and look at the start, or closer to the start, of the lines there, see if there's anything at the possible start of all this. ]
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[ can he carefully make his way over to take a look at the weird snow angel shape? is there anything in it at all, is it shallow or deep? ]
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up near the mansion you can see that this connects to the line that was leading out of the dining hall and through the mudroom. you can't go into the mansion, but you can intuit this fine.
nothing much else down the beach, except for the thing sticking out. junpei can see it's big. it looks like little stick legs? perhaps an ass. ]
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[ Hello, ass. You're looking mighty flat today. How about we plump you up a bit and try to pull this object out/up? ]
And what... are you? [ Pulls carefully so he doesn't break or disturb whatever this is. ]
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[ oh william metaphor. okay, back to the Disturbed Area. what're these separate marks to the 'left' that were mentioned? ]
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[ is the spot that looks like a snow angel somewhere in the middle of this one long line? or at the beginning of the line? off to the side of it? just trying to... sand... ]
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i have drawn you a map. the lines you are looking at, aaron, are partial footprints, on the far left of the image. you can't get a size off them, but you can tell it's two different sizes. these seem to be walking towards the beach from the mansion. where the disturbed section is, that's where those end. then the middle line on the map seems to be footprints moving towards the mansion, from where the disturbed sand is. the last line is the drag mark, which is the continuous line from the mansion steps to the council.
the snow angel is just in the middle somewhere of that long line but it's not like, violent. it just looks like maybe a limb flopped out while being dragged. ]
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Anyway he also screams in fear, except his instinct is to tighten his hold on the little thing. I assume he can't actually look at the gestral until they get back so he's just over here screaming. ]
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'oh, it looks like they came down to the beach for some gosh darned reason, something happened, and then they went back up to the mansion! that would jolly well explain the sand in the kitchen forsooth and lackaday -- and then our poor william's corpse was dragged, bleeding to his final resting place!'
but then this gestral and this junpei start screaming so he just whirls around ]
What the fuck?
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How'd you end up out here -
[ hello!? is the gestral gonna behave and just scream or are they fighting for their life... ]
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aaron stares at junpei getting turtleslapped after his revelations. valiant also stares. love also, also stares. ]
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Oh, sure, so he did listen to me!?
[ WILL THIS IS SOMEHOW YOUR FAULT!!!!
Anyway he's going to try to get this gestral to stop beating him up and hold onto it, let's get back to looking at other stuff.
Speaking of, is there anything else in the sand around where he just pulled the gestral out? ]
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[ have fun with that junpei he's going back to the tracks and examining them for any clues or hidden secrets. hairs? conveniently dropped items? ]
Kinda looks like they came down here, went back to the mansion, and then whatever happened there ended with Will getting dragged to the Council. [ probably dead. ]
no subject
[ eh, he'll be fine...
is there anything inside the lines going toward the council besides just streaks of blood along the sides? anything in the sand or on it inside the shape itself along its path? ]
no subject
there's nothing else in the sand where the gestral was, no, it just was ass up in there. it does actually eventually give up and just go limp.
across the way, love yells: ] Do you want me to hold it, or.
[ aaron looks at the disturbance. there's nothing really here, but it does sort of look like the footprints in the middle set leading towards the mansion are much further distanced apart, like a longer gait for both sets. the left side has gaits that are much shorter.
nothing in the lines! just the smudges of blood in the middle of the line on the right. they are not outside the line. the blood smudges are inside the shape itself along the path, perhaps where someone's back might have been dragging. ]
no subject
The gestral goes limp and he just shuffles over to where Love is. ]
You mind? It'd help to have my hands free until we figure out what else is going on here.
[ Deposits this baby into their arms. Can he go back to the marks that were to the left of the path? Did Aaron check those, just confirming. ]
We talked about it on Thursday because he's been coming out here to look at the stars. I told him to take somebody with him next time, and he said he'd grab me. And if he couldn't grab me he'd grab Rawiyah. And if he couldn't grab her, he'd take a Gestral. So... there's that. We should take a closer look at it when we get back.
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[ wow.
anyone else feeling early onset depression here? ]
What else is there to look at? There's the prints up to the mansion, and we figure the wider drag mark is from Will's body. There's signs of a scuffle, and that thing.
no subject
- And that's all there is for the drag marks leading to the Council, though.
[ just a bit. can he peep at where the water meets the footprints/where they're starting to be washed away? is there anything in the water at all here being washed out a little or is it just feets? ]
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love takes the gestral. it makes a protesting noise and flails. love throws it fireman carry style over their shoulder.
aaron did check those marks on the left, those are the footprints on the map to the far left. i have told you all my footprint secrets. there's nothing out by the waves either, just feets that cannot be fully perceived.
love speaks up again. ]
You guys wanna look at the trial area too?
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Knowing they aren't at the whims of the island-wide knockout's good to know for the future, I guess. [ He looks toward Aaron and Valiant first before back at love. ]
We're already out here, so... worth a look? Now that we have an idea how the path went.
[ Let us wander to the trial area! We can take a field trip and keep our eyes peeled for anything weird. ]
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Let's get going.
[ wahoo! x2 ]
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you can look at a lot of things here. there's the slab that will is still on, which bucky looked at earlier. there's blood on the floor about... two or so feet from the slab, and then it just turns into drips rather than smudges. there's also the thrones that the hosts have been sitting on. currently, only live is chilling over there.
love follows behind carrying the gestral, though they don't put it in evidence just yet. ]
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