WEEK 2 TRIAL

[probe]

POPULATION: 28

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.

Proceed to 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, Greed, Wrath, Despair and Sloth patiently wait as the TV above them displays a message.

Victims: Vlad Masters, Steven A Starphase, Luca Valentino

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

Greed is seated at the end of the table with a series of papers in their hands. Wrath is sitting sideways in a chair, leaning against Despair, feet in Greed's lap, with their phone out, taking selfies. Despair seems to be holding still to allow this. Sloth is dead asleep, head down on the table and snoring. When some of the last few people enter, they startle awake suddenly with a yelp which gets everyone's attention.

"Ahh, I'm up! Wow, it's time already?! You guys have 9 long hours to figure everything out!"

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

Hello, and welcome to your third 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

MING YI'S BLOOTS

[headmt]

[these is red bottoms, these is bloody shoes]

Alright, the boots. Seems as if they're relatively undamaged - certainly haven't been soaked and dried off or anything like that - just have a bit of blood on the bottoms as if someone stepped through blood. Smeared, not soaked in. Blood's fresh, but that could be magic as much as anything, since it couldn't be wiped off yesterday.

Here's my thinking: perhaps someone took them off of him in the night when they stole the shovel, and tied them back on Ming Yi's feet too tightly? Hence the pinching. Or, because it was an illusion, a hint to indicate whoever messed with them had bigger feet than he did. Just spitballing on this one.

[shiftingwinds]

...that would make sense to me. If someone took them and then put them back, they wouldn't know how tight he normally wears them.

[...]

And I can confirm it wouldn't come off. He said it wouldn't, so I tried it, and, well - [she shows off her sleeve, which has no blood on it] Nothing.

[bonetiddies]

So it was illusory, but - perhaps in the same way the things we see on Fridays is illusory. We can't see the whole picture or disturb anything.

[shiftingwinds]

[she nods]

It definitely seemed unnatural, so...

[bonetiddies]

If the problem was only that they were tied back on too tightly, Ming Yi should be able to tell us that now, by trying them on again.

[maelstroms]

Mm, I would be willing to - I can do just one if we want to keep the blood evidence on the other as it is, or both.

[bonetiddies]

We can take a picture of the blood evidence. You should do your best not to disturb it, but if you do, we won't have lost our ability to inspect it.

[sengokus]

[ . . . . he tilts his head.]

So... Well, we thought that Vlad-san took Ming Yi-san's shovel to maybe defend himself, right? But that doesn't track. Why would he need Ming Yi-san's shoes too? Unless you think that he decided that he'd frame him in advance. Either way, I think we should consider comparing our shoe sizes to Ming Yi-san's.

[headmt]

I don't know that he didn't plan to frame him in advance. From the message he sent Shi Qingxuan, I'd almost lean towards that than self-defense.

[bonetiddies]

Hmm?

[sengokus]

[ . . . he just looks a little uncomfortable.]

.... I'll say I don't want to vote for anybody who did it in self-defense.

But I also think that if that was the case, they should say so sooner rather than later, so we can focus on something else because there's two other bodies. I also think the more we say 'self-defense' the more we get distracted from actually looking at the evidence and finding out what happened.

So.... I'm okay with the theory again, but we should be careful. I don't think Vlad-san had the same track record as Grell-san either. I don't know if he went out of his way to hurt anybody.

[shiftingwinds]

If he was trying to frame him on purpose, I'll find a way to bring him back just so I can punish him myself!

[HUFFS]

[maelstroms]

There's not many people taller than me here, so I'm not sure what the numbers for possible suspects would be from the group that remains.

[ Unless someone out there just has some big ol' feet despite being shorter or closer in height. ]

I suppose a check would be in order, while we're waiting for more evidence... [ why more feet crimes ]

[toesies]

Hey, question. Did you take off your shoes to try and stop the pinching at all, or have you been letting them pinch away this whole time?

[maelstroms]

I tried fixing them normally by adjusting at the bottom where the pinch was, and that was when I saw the blood. When the blood wouldn't come off, I was in transit from the garden to my room to take them off and looking for my shovel, when I showed Qingxuan the soles. After that, I took them off to bring them today. I haven't put them on again since.

[bonetiddies]

First, why don't you try putting them on as you normally would, and see if they still pinch?

If not, then we must accept that they either shrank or an illusion is at work.

[headmt]

Plenty of folks have got big feet out there.

[toesies]

I can see someone tying them on too tightly. Though, you'd think we would all get the same sensation if it was another mass hallucination.

[gamerbrain]

Maybe they had to tie them tight because the shoes were too big.

[liuli]

Those are both good angles. The illusion in particular's interesting, especially if the blood wouldn't move.

[ hmmm. ] Sounds like we need to find that shovel, and have people searching for footprints, too.

[headmt]

That we do. Best to check all the locations that have been made obvious to us and then start considering where else we might look. Place isn't that big.

BLOOT CLARIFICATION

[bonetiddies]

[After speaking with Greed about the bloots - ]

For clarification, the reason neither Mi Ying nor Shi Qingxuan were able to wipe the blood away is because of an effect, once curfew ends, preserving evidence until trial.

Had the blood being wiped away before the end of the night, it would have been possible, but afterwards, the blood would have been preserved until now.

Two points I think are obvious - first, that this means the blood was likely left on the boots intentionally, and second, if there is no evidence to find in the biome, I don't think it possible someone walked on soles soaked into blood back into the biome. They must have been carried, and tied onto his feet in there.

[dotcom]

[ a nod. ]

There's no way someone wouldn't have noticed the blood, so it being left intentionally makes sense. The only other reason I can think besides stupidity is if there was no time to wipe it off, but even then that's still hard to prove with what we have.

[shiftingwinds]

...then they were put back onto him to make him look guilty.

[maelstroms]

That's good to know now, for this week, as well as any future Saturdays we find ourselves spending like this.

Thank you, Harrowhark, for getting clarification for us. I was starting to think the same, when we were barred from going to the biome again.