WEEK FIVE - TRIAL

[hellscapes]

Hello, deadlings. Ready to work double-time?

You may have been wondering what you could possibly do in the aftermath of yesterday's beek. Your demons weren't entirely helpful, and it seems that there were no answers to be found. But on Saturday morning at 11am, you'll soon hear a sound coming from the dock. There's a large ferry waiting for you, and even if you resist you'll eventually find yourself compelled to climb aboard and set off on a short voyage. The islands around you look fairly blurry, but you don't go very far before you stop at a slab of land with two large buildings stationed. The Execution Bar is locked tight and you won't be able to head in that direction. Instead, once again, your feet navigate you to the building on the right as the door creaks open.

Inside is a bar. It's dimly lit in several places, but bright enough for you to see each other and navigate without running into the furniture. Tables and chairs are scattered around in front of the bar counter, and the floor is far less sticky than the bar on the other island. Stained glass windows decorate the walls depicting images of humanity's suffering, and concrete crosses and tombstones are gathered in the corners. The bar itself is fully stocked with all types of alcohol and mixers, along with an array of bar food to help keep your energy up.

At the head of the room lounging among the statues of saints and the Blessed Virgin are Bloody Mary, Cosmopolitan and Midori. With them is also a cut-out of Guy Fieri, dressed as a (sexy?) samurai with a bunch of cool flames cut out of construction paper glued to his back as he walks away from an explosion. He is also holding a sign that says "YOU CAN SOLVE IT!" However, there are now paper tears glued to his face as well. And he looks ready to fall apart.

The second, fresher Fieri is also still here. Why.

Above them hangs another hand-painted banner, sloppily thrown together.

CONGRATS ON YOUR TRIAL!
12pm - 9pm
Vote or suffer eternal damnation

You can try to leave, but the door to the bar has been locked. All of the windows are reinforced, and there isn't another way out. You've been called here for one reason...let the misery begin!

Hello, and welcome to your sixth trial! Over the course of the next nine hours, characters will have the opportunity to discuss, investigate and theorize about this week's murders! Characters will have time to examine the bodies 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, we have a voting page for characters to vote on the culprit! Please be sure to read this page carefully and that your vote is in by the time trial finishes (9pm EST/6pm PST).

Good luck, and have fun!

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Comments

FOREST BIOME

[engineers]

[ and we’re back! zelgadis and lu bixing return with midori, carrying lots of evidence and a little smoky but unharmed. yay. bixing will take off the mask he put on and offer it back to tuuri and then report their findings after clearing his throat. ]

Alright, so. When we first arrived at the biome area, we saw a trail of blood drips that led into the forest biome, and when we opened the door, there was a fire, just like we thought. It was consolidated to one spot near the door, and Zelgadis said it smelled a little like wine, which makes me think it might be ethanol…? There were broken test tubes like I mentioned in the text, too - one with an E, and then one with an L. The E tube was near the fire, along with a piece of burnt wool.

There were lots of footprints, but it was kind of hard to tell because they were so chaotically arranged, like it was during a scuffle, or at least a chase, but as far as I can tell, there was a pretty wide range. Kon’s pretty tall, so, there’s that to keep in mind. I took as many pictures as I could, if someone else wants to take a crack at it. Zelgadis also found a bit of pink gooey liquid in one of the footprints near the fire - we’re pretty sure it’s strawberry ice cream - and then, there was some blood over by the ice cream shop as far as we could see, too.

[ so yeah go inves team!! ]

Beyond that, we found a spudger buried in the dirt - likely from his tool kit - among all the footprints. That’s where the L tube was, and there was a piece of coal, too. I followed the footprints over to near the window, and found an impact in the dirt - I think it was where someone fell, likely Kon. There was a lot of blood soaked into the spot, and I found his phone, which - I think I know the passcode to. [ he glances over at dva wherever she is when he says this, and then back to the crowd. ] If we wanted to try it.

And - we also found something a little strange. On the glass of the window, there was a shape, sort of like a reversed L. I’ll draw a picture of it, and I took a picture, too, but it was kind of hard to get a good shot. It was made of something white and powdery, with a little liquid. We grabbed a sample of the white powder. There were also fingerprints, at either end of the L - the prints were roughly the same size as mine, if not a little bigger. I took a print of my own to compare the size, so we can at least check Kon’s to see if he was the one who made it.

[ so. there you have it, though, after, he adds, a little more tiredly: ]

And...please don’t mess around with the chemicals too much. I can go check them out and try and figure out what they are, but we should really just assume they're dangerous and take extreme caution.

[ ok that's all ]

[preordain]

So it sounds like we'll have to do a few checks...

[ feetsies... ]

Maybe we can get Itto to taste whatever the white powder is.

[engineers]

Ryo.

[ WHY ]

[preordain]

It's been working out so far.

[outsidebones]

[she nods in agreement.]

[selfdestructs]

Thank you, both, sounds like you found a lot. [ they've seen some shit.

she locks eyes with lbx and nods. ] I can take a look at it.

[ wanders off.......

bends time and space for this :stressed: ]

[engineers]

[ he gives her a little squeeze on the shoulder when she comes by. :( ]

Okay. Let us know what you find.

[cavaliered]

[she has washed her hand, but. she shows bixing her finger.]

This is from the L tube. It's similar to Kon's. Not exact, but similar.

[engineers]

[ he gives her such a worried puppy look as he examines it, taking her hand. like, it's that "looks like a dog in an aspca commercial face" ]

...How long did you have your finger in there? Just a second or so?

[outsidebones]

[the deepest sigh.]

Griddle, show it to me. We may as well get use out of it.

[onlythans]

I can help when you examine the chemicals, if you need a second opinion. I've some practical field knowledge of such things.

[engineers]

[ he nods. ]

I think I have an idea of what the L one could be, but I'm not sure. It would've helped if he just used the molecular labels, at least... but, I think I should be able to suss it out. I have a couple ideas for tests. [ and then, more teasing: ] Thanks for being my lab assistant.

[failbo]

At this point it sure seems like doing certain checks is necessary protocol for these trials.

[We do what we have to do]

If it turns out somehow that Kon didn't make that L then I really gotta wonder why someone would make it. I mean, sure seems like it was on purpose.

[If it was Kon this all sure seems to him like an attempt to give a message of some sort, really, but if it wasn't him...then yeah, something must be up]

[polyglotti]

[She looks a little confused here.]

If he was being attacked, why would he stop to make an L on the glass?

[voidshift]

When you say it had fingerprints at the end- were they aligned with it?

[engineers]

Do you mean like they drew it? As far as I can tell, yes.

[teufelshund]

I recall he was carrying chemicals with him on our... excursion a few weeks ago as well, but unfortunately, I'm not certain what any of them were.

...Though I do know that at least one of the ones he had then was flammable.

[ thousand yard stare ]

[engineers]

[ he nods... ]

Mm, he had some in his room, too. Ethanol's highly flammable, and Gideon said that the L chemical burned her even with a second contact, so it's likely something pretty caustic. When we check for injuries this week, we should definitely be looking for burns.

[greatvalue]

[i hope the white powder is anthrax and we all die

anyway, he holds up his thumb and index finger in the shape of an L... can't believe kon was murdered by smashmouth.]

The liquid was mixed in with the powder, and didn't have any color to it?

[engineers]

[ he nods. ]

Not that I could tell. I think it was more like turning a powdered substance into a thicker one, like a poultice - something that would stick.

[outsidebones]

Kon was carrying the chemicals, and Kon also appears to have had ice cream on his foot.

[so, hmm.]

It sounds as though there was not much blood. It may have been the cut on his forearm that bled, but the fatal wounds to his back came later.

It sounds as though Kon and his killer must have come this way from the ice cream shop, given the ice cream tracked on the ground, and Kon used his chemicals to set a fire to defend himself.

The L is very curious. If there were prints at either end, is it possible part of what was drawn there was erased...? Kon's fingerpads were also quite burnt - so he may have touched a chemical or something hot at some point.

[engineers]

Mm. Just the blood where he fell - there was a lot, there, enough that it soaked into the dirt, but not a lot leading to it or outside of that spot. It could be where he died, and if that's the case, it's interesting to me that it was right next to the spot with the reverse L, too.

Just based on the size if not the circumstance, to me, it seems likely that the symbol was him. Kon also only had one hand, so it had to be that kind of motion. [ he gestures quickly with his index finger, horizontal and then vertical, vertical than horizontal. ] It's hard to tell if it was done in a hurry, or not, really, too. Logically, it could be, but if your theory's right, maybe he had a bit of a head start? And was able to hunker down in the biome, itself.

[ so many questions ]

EVIDENCE UPDATE: burnt wool

[hardrocklife]

Took a closer look at that burnt wool that was near the fire. Couldn't make out much about it... looks like it might have been a piece of clothing, off-white in colour, but it doesn't have a distinct shape now.

Didn't look like it was bunched up and burnt on purpose [as another culprit seemed to do in a previous case] so... I don't know. Maybe it caught fire while someone was wearing it, and they discarded it on the spot.

There wasn't any other damage or stains on it, besides the burnt parts.

[failbo]

[Looking up at what Lu Bixing said...]

Any strange smells on it? Like...uh, lye or wine?

[You know, to kickstart the fire]

[eleusinia]

How burnt was it? Wool is pretty flame-resistant by nature... so it might have just been a bit that got torn off, instead of just being the leftovers of something that someone tried to get rid of on purpose.