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

NPC QUESTIONS // NETWORK // VOTING // BODIES // EVIDENCE TURN-IN // EVIDENCE CHECK // INVESTIGATION REQUESTS // INVESTIGATIONS // LATEST FLATVIEW

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Guess the little guys don't sleep.

- 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? ]

[ ):

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?

[ Okay that is what I thought thank you benevolent modnana... ]

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. ]

[ he just does a lazy salute. yeah, sure let's go. they have so many feet, a gestral and now the chance to rummage around the trial area too. wahoo! ]

[ just gives him a nod at that, tipping his head in trial's direction - ]

Let's get going.

[ wahoo! x2 ]

[ the trial area does in fact have a lot of people in it. like twelve of them are all clustered around one single piece of paper snatching it back and forth? it's wild.

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. ]

[ The fuck are y'all doing there...

Anyway, he will wander to take a look a look at the blood on the floor. Is it just drips heading toward the slab? No obscured footprints or other strange smudges that stick out? ]

Here's my question. Why bring him here to begin with? They could have just sent him out to sea if they wanted to hide his body.

[ having a good time, maybe. wow. ]

Maybe there's some rule about not getting rid of a body completely? Elimination round, sure, but there's gotta be something to solve.

[ hello live. what's going on around these thrones, other than a good time? ]

[ paper party? they look like they're having fun (no). ]

They have to give us some kind of chance, right? A rigged game's boring and predictable... taking something with that much information out of the picture...

[ he will peer at the slab again then since it's just for viewing bodies on. is the blood here only coming from will's body where it lies? anything else here in terms of maybe strange smears/smudges or prints that don't follow bleeding out on this slab? is there any kind of like splashing or spraying here or just a simple ooze... ]

[ it sort of looks like the dragging continued until two feet from the slab. no footprints or anything, just like... the dragging stopped there, and then there's will on the slab. there's blood dripping down the sides of the slab. no spray or splash.

as for aaron, well, they're thrones. what are you doing to them. are you looking at them? are you touching them? are you trying to eat one? are you throwing lime into space? ]

[ ???? ]

... so they were at least strong enough to pick him up and set him on the slab from here. [ Two feet isn't exactly that far. ] Or, they had some weird assistance because there's a very obvious gap here.

[ I know you said Bucky looked at the slab but he's still going to circle it just to check the sides and the floor around it for any sort of mark or dings or literally anything. ]

[ our killer is swole. maybe.

yeah, he's launching lime into space. see ya, space limethey. no, he'll have a poke around. they've got on about paper and notes and paper notes enough, is there anywhere around these thrones where someone might stuff some evidence they didn't want to come to light? ]

[ is the blood dripping down the sides connected directly any blood coming from his body in the center? ]

Wasn't that heavy, was he? His weight said 'scrawny' on his profile. Might not need too much effort if that's the case. But it's a little weird there are no prints between the drags and the slab... just blood...

[ ??? there's nothing hanging overhead right? that'd be silly. ]

[ no dings... no marks. just blood! it's red. it's been red, this is not a new revelation, i just can't remember if we mentioned it isn't bright neon pink anymore. it's been dripping from his body down the sides, like maybe it's been there for a while, because it has.

nothing on the ceiling!

since aaron is just looking around the thrones he finds nothing. ]

[ Christ. ]

... okay, well... I'm out of ideas by now that we've looped here. All we got was the path, how Will's body was dragged, the Gestral we need to check, and that he was dragged all the way back here until suddenly he wasn't. Did I miss anything?

[ ignores junpei (friendly) and extends his search from just the thrones to around the Slab and the other slabs I think there are from what the location description says. he will do a bench search too. he is just too involved in searching.

and for full disclosure, is there anything in the displays on the thrones themselves? like. tucked into the Many Knives? ]

[ jesus is there anything just tossed onto the ground or underneath idk furniture nearby? he will get down if he has to search underneath? what the hap is fuckening... ]

I think that might be it. It finishes the path at least, which we can build off of... [ frowns a little and checks the torches too? anything wrong with them/smeared on them/chipped? idk desperate. ]

[ there is nothing else with any of those things!

how is aaron checking the thrones to tell this information? which one are you looking at? are you looking at them? are you touching them? are you trying to eat one? because it just looks like it's a bunch of knives glued together to form a throne.

however, as you're all searching the location... ]

[live's bad habit of sleeping on the job comes back to bite them on their lime green ass? they shift, trying to get more comfortable against the knife display, and then-]

--Ow?

[they pull away from the knife display with the most bland reaction to getting stabbed of all time, because there is now pepto bismol blood now coming out of a gash on their lower arm. huh? oh. one of the knives on the display is real... oh...]

Ohhhh, so that's where that knife went.

[come get your knife, fruits. live's just gonna pull it off the display for y'all.]

[ He's just staring for a moment. ]

Why not hide something in plain sight? [ It makes sense, and he's looking at them bleeding pepto bismol. ] And seriously, why's the blood pink?

[ One of us will grab knife, but is there anything else or are we outtie? ]