WEEK FIVE: TRIAL

[guestservices]

W̴͍̎E̴̝̊E̸͚͝K̸͕̿ FIVE: TRIAL

Rise and shine; you know how Saturdays go. Even if you'd rather sleep in, you'll find yourself waking up and getting out of bed. Once you're out of your room, a door appears down the hallway, compelling you to walk towards it. Upon entering, you'll discover a room that's familiar if you've gone exploring this week or possibly from even before then:

EMPORIUM (THE REALM)
The exterior of the building is welcoming, with windows lined with various eye-catching trinkets, ranging from stuffed animals to t-shirts. After stepping inside, the very first thing that will greet guests is a statue made out of L*gos. Yes, the black bar is somehow there.

The interior is filled with row upon row of shelves filled with different items. There is a collection of stuffed animals, ranging in size from small enough to hide in your pocket to some as big as a toddler. There's a wide range of other toys as well, like dolls, L*gos, puzzles, and more. Different display cases show off pins, lanyards, keychains, sunglasses, jewelry, and other accessories. Participants may even find one of those keychains with their name on it...?

If you consider it a typical souvenir item, it's here. Cups, shot glasses, pens, t-shirts, hats... Everything is stacked neatly, proudly displaying the silhouette of a castle. There are also now items featuring tigers, rabbits, goats, swans, wolves, and foxes. However, there is no one at the cash register, so it seems like participants can't purchase anything.

There are a few tables in here behind room dividers. One is labeled 'Evidence' while the rest are covered in white sheets. Elsewhere in the room is a table with pencils and slips of paper for voting.

✦✧☪✧✦

Welcome to your sixth trial! Over the course of the next nine hours, characters will have the opportunity to discuss, investigate and theorize about the murders. Characters will have time to examine the body of the victim and explore relevant locations.

There will be a mod-tag break between 4pm EST to 5pm EST. While the trial may continue and players can tag each other, mod-led threads such as questions and investigations will be on hold.

Finally, we have a voting page for characters to vote on the culprit! Please be sure that your vote is in by the time trial finishes 9pm EST. Voting is mandatory in this game.

Good luck!

N̸A̵V̴I̶G̶A̶T̴I̴O̸N̷.̷

█ LOCATIONS █ STATUSES █ PROFILES █ AUDIENCES
█ REPORTING █ PRIVATE CONVOS █ MURDER

Comments

[guestservices]

[watch yourselves, boys. cloud can check out the larger marks and leave jason to suffer. anyway, the marks in the dirt are a little hard to see. there appear to be a little...clawed? they're pretty large, clawed on the end and embedded a little in the dirt leading up the path and into the mountain itself.

there are no craters, but the grass is a little flattened in some areas. it's glistening in some places? the blood is small splatters, nothing very large, and seems to be moving inward toward the mountain.

there's also what appears to be two sets of footprints heading up into the mountain. meanwhile, since there is truly only one path on this godforsaken mountain, they will also notice a few things: there's a set of partially bloody smudges heading off of the path and out of the area, and a set of slightly scuffed imprints heading off the path. likewise, there are a few drag marks from the path heading out of the area as well.]

[skyagain]

Think he had a thing to make his wyvern bigger? There's claw marks here.

[ the marks are on the ground, right? does it look more like a swipe at the dirt or like tracks? also about how big are they compared to the animals in game?

also he'll check out the two sets of footprints and compare them to his own foot. they don't have a camera but... ]

Jay, think your notebook is big enough to measure these?

[ and lastly about how big are the drag marks?? person size or smaller? "zia are you just leaving all the blood stuff to anna" yes ]

[unrecked]

[Gli...stening...? Magical girls... He will check out the glistening. Is it something else, or just blood shining ominously in the light?]

He might've, unless someone else was going animal. There's some blood over here, but not much. Some flattened grass. I can bring you my notebook and we can try.

[He will bring Cloud his notebook afterward, but also use his own foot to judge whether one from each set is bigger or smaller too. Hmm.]

Looks like a lot is going on over there. We might have to send some people back if we can't get it all. We going up the mountain or out away from the path?

[guestservices]

[yes the marks are on the ground! they are like tracks, and they're pretty big? not very large but bigger in comparison to some of the animals in-game. looking at the prints heading into the mountain, cloud can gauge that one set of prints is smaller but one set is larger. the drag marks appear to be maybe possibly person sized! since he's here, he may also notice that around the drag marks the bloody smudges and the scuffed imprints look like partial footprints. terrible.

jason can look at the glistening! it's not blood? it's hard to say what it is since there's no color or anything to it, and if he looks at it differently it's easy to miss. likewise when jason checks the prints cloud checked, he gets the same results as cloud. one set is smaller, one set is larger.

what are you two doing now?]

[skyagain]

[ closes my eyes at all these FEET.

clawed track marks on the ground, cool. and these are also going up the mountain trail? same as the footprint trail?

separates my questions by evidence: do the drag marks and partial footprints (:unamused:) look like they were going up or down?

can cloud like do a drawing of the full feetprints that is approximately size accurate in jason's notebook... ]

Let's try up the mountain for now. Looks like a lot of stuff down that way anyway. We've got tracks, footprints, and drag marks all at once.

[ speaking of is the approximate size of the partial prints close to either of the other prints. i hate feet so much. this is how i know a femblem was here there are feet involved ]

[unrecked]

Yeah, I'd say we go up and come back down for the rest if we're able or have time.

[It's a pocket-sized notebook so it might not can get feets bigger than even his own. This is what Zia gets for leaving me the blood. The feet.

Jason will go back to the glistening really quick. Is it on some grass he can take? You know what, to hell with it. He will get it on his fingers to rub together to see if he can tell what it is or whether it's oily or powdery or anything. I can't stand Spoon if this was her doing. Hope it's poison or something gross.]

[guestservices]

[yeah me too.

anyway yes the clawed tracks are going up, along with the two sets of footprints. the drag marks and partial prints are heading down.

sure? cloud can do that, but he will find that one set fits fine and the other is a little bit of a stretch to fit it all in there. however you cannot get size of the partial prints, just that they are both larger than the smaller prints going into the mountain.

jason can take grass, sure, and he gets treated to something kind of oily so that's gross. have fun with that.

aquarius eventually gets bored and begins heading up the mountain since they're talking about it. bye.]

[skyagain]

[ stares at the too large feetie marks ]

... Emet-Selch...?

[ anyway feet and gross oil done he will climb up the mountain following the foot prints also partially because of aquarius already leaving them behind. what do they find on the path!!!! ]

[unrecked]

Could be... A few people might have feet bigger than mine. Found something oily over by the blood and flattened grass. But no shards of anything. [This brat. Also, he puts the grass in the notebook, sorry Cloud.] Aquarius! Stop going too far. Wait for us.

[Can't stand someone out here acting exactly like him. Tch... He will follow Cloud up the mountain after Aquarius. He'll keep an eye on the marks since Cloud is dealing with feet.

What hellscape is on this path!]

[guestservices]

[aquarius doesn't turn back to look at either of them, happily ignoring them as they walk up this path. they do eventually let them pass them though so they can go explore and they can keep an eye on them.

heading up the path...there's more plantlife! wow! it's so many nice flowers and grass, and also some trees. some of the trees look like they have some markings on them though? there's something on the ground near one of the trees as well, just peeking out from behind it. the grass is trampled, flowers are wilted, etc.

up the path, there are more small blood splatters leading into the mountain.]

[skyagain]

Something oily...?

[ gross. anyway, wow! so many nice flowers. are any of them wisterias.

i'm going to continue this trend of hilariously leaving blood to anna and looking at the tree marks and what's on the ground next behind one of said trees. he is just a friend of the trees now. it also means he can put a hand on the trees and lean on them for no particular reason while he is doing that. this is just how you look at trees. ]

The hell happened here...?

[unrecked]

Yeah. It was clear, kind of glistened depending on how you looked at it.

[Lube... (no)

He has accepted his blood fate and will go to check out the blood spatters to see if they're any worse or still light like the one he saw before. Are the claw marks anywhere except the trees?]

[guestservices]

[they are nice flowers. anyway cloud can go investigate the tree marks! there are a few of them that seem to have markings in them? if he squints, they appear to be...letters. one of the markings spells "BAR", and one spells "SK?". there's another marking, and while it's a little hard to tell, this is a very messy carving. it could be a multitude of letters or numbers made up of three lines.

cloud also finds a razor blade on the ground by the trees.

the blood splatters are about the same, and continue further up the path. there are no claw marks present! but the large clawed prints in the dirt also continue onward for a bit.]

[skyagain]

... Someone left us tree messages.

[ he is just going to write down BAR, SK? and ... just... do that thing where you kind of put a piece of paper on something and trace it for the third. sure. why not. it's not like it'll ever be identifiable but it's good to have it. thanks for your notebook forever jason.

he's not wearing gloves, but he is wearing long sleeves, so he wraps his hand in the sleeve to crouch and pick up the razor. ]

And a gift.

[ do the markings look like they might have been made with a razor, per chance. but once that's checked he'll keep going up with jason if jason does i've realized i left anna nothing ]

[unrecked]

[He frowns from where he's at about the BAR and SK. Sasuke?? Sasuke is here.] Great. It's like I never left Riddler's Gotham. [He also frowns at the razor blade.] Be careful with that. [He means cutting yourself, not messing up evidence.]

Claw prints and blood keep going up. Did anyone find Claude's pet? Might run into off-brand Giga Porridge, if it's even up here. So be careful.

[He'll wait for Cloud and Aquarius by walking kind of slow, but he's already starting to go up.]

[guestservices]

[cloud will maybe have to check the razor when they get back to the trial room. anyway, so up they all go. aquarius is following and letting cloud walk ahead, mostly being silent and observing.

as they walk up the path and a little further into the mountain...there is a lot going on here.

for one thing, there's a very large blood splatter in the center! it's a lot. that is a fuckton of blood, little bits of bone matter in the center of it. there's a pool of blood as well. not too far, there are larger blood splatters. a trail of blood leads back down the path, and the drag marks from earlier seem to originate from here.

there also appears to be a set of footprints over by the blood splatters, leading its way down the mountain.

aquarius kind of steps off to the side, letting them get a better look.]

[skyagain]

I know how to handle a blade.

[ i'm being SO good to this evidence and not letting cloud eat shit and stab himself right when he says that. but just know this was the hardest thing i've ever done in my life. anyway, yikes to that giant thing! but since i got the big evidence last time i am going to go look at ... sigh... more feet.

how big are these... feet... prints... ]

[unrecked]

Not a small one you do-- [Jesus CHRIST.] ...n't.

[The very same energy of the cut between A Girl Worth Fighting For and finding the massacre over the hill is here in this thread.] What the fuck happened up here? Who has this much blood? Emet-Selch? [He--GOD.

Is there any way he can inspect the bone from a distance, or is the splatter too big? He will dodge the pool and splatters. He's going to have to go through it to get to the bone pieces in my next tag, isn't he? He's going to have to carry someone's noggin pieces back...

Are the drag marks here large?]

[guestservices]

[yeah this is a lot isn't it. wild. so here's the thing.

jason can inspect the bone, but it's like. bone fragments? it's not like a whole skull or something, it's just bone matter. the drag marks are probably about body-sized, though it's hard to say.

the prints cloud is looking at start out small! however, as he begins to look and follow, they begin to...gradually grow a little bigger. and also from one point go from being a shoe print to an actual bare foot print. they grow from small, to a little larger, and still a little larger down the path and heading back toward the entrance/exit where they can't see from their current position. it seems like some of the partially bloody prints also begin here and head down the path, along with some droplets of blood.

while they're here...they also will hear a faint rumbling in the area. hm.]

[skyagain]

[ the girl worth fighting for vibes mean cloud does not answer the jab. he is staring at these prints in a kind of uhhhhh moment ]

... Think someone had a little bit of a transformation moment.

[ do the larger bare feet look like... human feet still the whole time.

and then, hrm. rumbling. ]

... And you might've been right about giant Porridge. [ where is the rumbling coming from exactly? help? ]

[unrecked]

Well, someone big got enough blunt-force trauma to bust into the bone. They were here for it long enough to pool? I'm guessing. We'd need to figure out if--

[He pauses, twisting his head and torso to glance around. Rumbling...??? Where? Hope it attacks them.]

[guestservices]

[the larger bare feet do in fact look human, yes.

the rumbling seems to be coming from above! and that is because there is a wyvern sleeping on a ledge higher above them. having a nap. blissfully unaware of what's going on at the moment.]

[skyagain]

[ looks... up. hm. ]

Uh. This thing tamed?

[ HOW ARE THEY BRINGING IT BACK this is jason's problem for now as cloud decides to do the notebook thing on the smallest size of feetie prints for now. while they are wearing shoes. references, whee. ]

[unrecked]

Great... Stay here.

[Like Cloud is going anywhere, he's dealing with feet. Jason will...

go over to the ledge to start trying to climb it to get up to the wyvern. It's fine probably. It's sleeping. Can he get up there?]

[guestservices]

[cloud can do that!

jason can not because aquarius seems to zip over to him out of nowhere.]

Absolutely not. Finish checking whatever you want to check.

[and so aquarius, not being injured from a CYOA like these two morons, begins to scale the mountain to get to the ledge and pick up the wyvern. theirs now. somehow the wyvern stays asleep.]