WEEK 1 TRIAL

[probe]

POPULATION: 33

Rise and shine, little sinners. Did you rest well? Hope you weren't too perturbed by the events of the day before. Things seem to be perfectly normal throughout your morning, but at 12pm, everyone will receive a mass text message to their phone.

good evening, good morning and hello! please come join us in the conference room!

Whether you agree or disagree, soon you will find yourself physically moving toward the conference room on the bottom floor, filing into the room and taking a seat in one of the vacant chairs. Two metal boxes sit at the end of each table along with a collection of pens and colored notecards. At the head of the room, Lust, Pride, Envy and Gluttony patiently wait as the TV above them displays a message.

Victims: Kaz Kaan, Grell Sutcliff

Once the last participant enters the room, the door will swing closed behind them and lock them inside.

For a moment, everything looks completely normal, until you notice Envy slumped face-down on the table, bleeding out from a stab wound in the front. Lust is busy putting a pink fluffy towel under their head, Pride is sitting slouched in a chair twirling a knife, and in that moment Gluttony claps their hands together to get everyone's attention.

"If you would please get started. You all have nine fleeting hours to find out what happened, and place your votes."

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Hello, and welcome to your second trial! Over the course of the next nine hours, characters will have the opportunity to discuss, investigate and theorize about the events of the day before! While mini-investigations were held yesterday, today is the day 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/1pm PST to 5pm EST/2pm PST. While the trial may continue and players can tag each other, mod-led threads such as questions and investigations will be on hold.

Finally, while voting is not mandatory, we do have a voting page should characters wish to vote! Please be sure that your vote is in by the time trial finishes (9pm EST/6pm PST) if you wish to vote.

Good luck, and have fun!

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Comments

[kokytos]

Could suggest someone who is intimately familiar with combat and extreme agility.

[maelstroms]

Especially if the fight was done from a high vantage point, considering the fall that Grell suffered. Someone nimble enough could manage that, but it's hard to say if they would come out of it unscathed against a weapon like that if it could shred even a performance sword.

[kokytos]

[ On top of the commentary about the sword being thrown he gave to Mineo; ]

Burning a body so hard that the bones blacken requires temperatures akin to a cremation.

If she was already dead, then there's no necessity to go that overkill.

Maybe the killer was trying to hide something, or it was a crime with emotional investment in its motive?

[maelstroms]

Mm, typically the only means for that in Zhongguo are through spiritual powers and devices or through an actual pyre. If we haven't found a means for it here...

[ Then it's either hidden very, very well, or may be something from an Avatar. ]

But if they were trying to hide something, it would make sense. Saying that there was an emotional investment wouldn't narrow it down much, I think, considering the fact many were unhappy with her callous personality from last Sunday.

[kokytos]

If it was emotional, it'd narrow it down to someone who not only distinctly dislikes Miss Sutcliffe, but would be deranged enough to burn her body down like that. I do feel like that could narrow the candidates down, though it'd be circumstantial and based on our feelings about each other since I doubt anyone would admit to being able or willing.

But what would you hide by burning her? Physical marks, other evidence of harm?

[maelstroms]

Deranged, or perhaps even panicking, considering that Grell being the attacker has been brought up as a viable option. Without knowing the motives and the feelings of the actual killer, however, we can't say for sure either way. And you're right - to narrow down culprits like that, without evidence, would be falling right back into what we did last week.

But regardless of whether they attacked her, or were defending themselves, further evidence on the body would be my only guess as to why they'd try to incinerate her body. Or thinking that they could hide it. [ That would be two missing bodies... you can see the headache behind his eyes at the thought. ]

[kokytos]

So... someone with a weak emotional constitution just enough that they'd panic and come just short of cremating her body, but strong enough to fend off Miss Sutcliffe.

That would be very specific, maybe too specific.

[maelstroms]

[ he sighs ]

Do we have much else to go on, for either of these murders? At this point, we're all playing guessing games with the evidence we have until something clicks together.

If it becomes too specific, at least we can whittle it down - too vague, and we're left wandering in the dark.

[sengokus]

[he nods]

I do think that it's someone who knows how to fight - especially if they might've been on the tightrope. We still haven't even figured out whether this was self-defense or not.

But so far we haven't had a lot of results when it comes to checking for injuries - at least, I haven't. We could be looking for burns, cuts, or no injuries at all. So I guess we should be looking at that list.

[kokytos]

Miss Sutcliffe appeared extremely familiar with circus equipment like the trapeze and tightrope. I held an entire conversation with her while she was on one.

The bar is pretty high, if that's the case.

What if the sword was thrown at her?

[liuli]

[ NVM I CAN'T FUCKIN READ ]

Do you think she could've hit it away with the chainsaw, maybe? It could've thrown her off balance, I suppose.

[kokytos]

Chainsaws are heavy. You'd need someone with significant upper body strength to throw something like that up there...

[dotcom]

If it's the tightrope, it would also have to be someone with good balance to not have fallen off themselves. Just because you know how to throw punches doesn't mean you'd be fine on something like that.

[liuli]

[ nod nod ] I'd eat shit if I tried.

...Didn't we have some people say they lost their balance, as a skill?

[dotcom]

Quite a few, yes.

[liuli]

That might not be a bad place to start looking closer, at least at injuries, and checking over alibis. Since we're getting down to the end of our time.

[dotcom]

Better than nothing. Although if someone is lying about a balance issue, it would imply this was really planned in advance...

[liuli]

Agreed.

[ the scapegoat process begins ]

[sengokus]

[ . . . . he looks uncomfortable at this part but - ]

... we have to start naming names soon, don't we? Actual suspects. Or else the votes will just... get really messy.

[and he doesn't trust this group enough that no one would vote at all]

At least if we have suspects we can start looking at them more closely.

[dotcom]

If anyone is suspecting someone for whatever reason, they should say so sooner than later, yes.