WEEK FIVE TRIAL

[grigori]

week five: trial i want to speak to a manager

23 Remain

Good morning, everyone! Hopefully you're well-rested, because there's a long day ahead of you.

The start of the day is yours to do with what you want, but come 11:45 AM, your daemons will feel a compulsion to lead you to chapel and will ensure that you're up and moving to head there. You can certainly resist it, but by the time 11:55 AM rolls around... you'll find your feet taking you there, regardless, if you aren't there already. There's no exceptions—it seems that this gathering is mandatory, as you'll find that your fellow travelers are all heading to the same destination as you.

Waiting in the chapel for your arrival are Satariel, Rameel, and Yomiel. Tables for offerings sit at the front end of the room. They've been left empty for the day ahead - save for one, where plates, bowls, cups, and cutlery have been stacked neatly for later in the day. Some snacks and drinks have been provided for the early portion of the day, and proper food for later. Come noon, once everyone is within the chapel, they'll find that the doors close and lock behind them.

Sporting a bit of a different look with their long blonde locks gone, Rameel will be leaning against the podium upfront with a lazy smile on their face. Their wounds and injuries from yesterday seemingly healed up completely sans one more permanent injury. And even though it looks as if they were going to say something, they ultimately don't and pass their turn.

Yomiel looks much better than yesterday, wounds healed, broken wings set, and clothing repaired. Speaking too much seems to be a bit of a strain, though, as their voice is still scratchy and rough. "You've don't have much time to find Mikotoba. Don't waste it."

Satariel is curled up in one of the pews, wrapped in their cloak and a blanket and looking tired. But they are paying attention, and their daemon paces slowly nearby as a bear, snuffling at anyone that comes close enough as though checking them over as well. It still does not touch. The Watcher sounds - quiet, for once. "Let's get started. And, while it won't matter to the trial... for your numbers, Miss Rika was a Celestial."

Every hour that passes, the chapel bell will ring out with the time. The pressure's on, good luck.

Trial start

Business stops for no one! Welcome, everyone, to our sixth trial. For the next nine hours, characters are expected to investigate the setting, compile and examine evidence, locate any unalive and unaccounted for members of their group, and theorize about the going ons of Thursday night/Friday morning that lead up to this point.

Mod breaks will run a little differently than they have in past games. There will be a three hour block starting at 4 PM EST/1 PM PST and ending at 7 PM EST/4 PM PST, where we'll be cycling one mod out at a time to take an hour long break while the other two remain to keep tags going and answer any questions players might have. We encourage players to take a break at any point during this timeframe, but the player-designated break will be at the traditional 5 - 6 PM EST time! Reference our timezones if need be.

Voting is mandatory in Chasma, acting as our activity check for the week. Please ensure that you've submitted your vote before 9:05 PM EST/6:05 PM PST, unless you've spoken with the mods previously, as we'll begin tallying votes on the dot.

If there's anything that you need from us, IC or OOC, please let us know how we can help!

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Comments

Questions

[grigori]

[ unlike previous weeks, rameel will be seated near both yomiel and satariel. they keep their single wing mostly tucked away but do end up adjusting it every so often. while not in "good spirits", they'll give a small wave to anyone who walks by but will not speak unless spoken to. it also looks like they left their black box of musical wonders at home.

your favorite space heater is back. yomiel doesn't speak again if someone approaches them, instead waiting to be spoken to first. their daemon, still in the form of a marbled polecat, is curled up at their side and watches expectantly.

satariel is staying where they are on the pew for now, and the bear daemon does eventually settle next to them. but they do sit up when approached, and are very alert even with the obvious exhaustion, trying to keep track of everyone and see what is needed.]

(( please be kind to your mods and let us know which one you're addressing ))

[senjinrouha]

[ reaches up, tugs rameel's hood down further over their eyes. binch. ]

Not hiding any lethal injuries we should all know about?

Location Requests

[grigori]

[ comment here if you're looking to leave the trial area to investigate another location. ]

[voltadomar]

There's no time to waste. Can you take us to the ice maze?

[He looks over his shoulder to see who's gonna come. It's gonna be Kim, Yuri, and Alisaie.]

Body

[grigori]

[ once her body has been retrieved, susato is laid carefully on one of the tables that has been brought out for trial. for privacy's sake, it's moved behind the ruined alter, and she's been covered with a sheet.

comment here if your character wants to exam the body for evidence. ]

[voltadomar]

[... Welp, we have a body after all.

Kim's not doing the examination, he's just going to drop off the usual things:

a pair of rubber gloves, a scalpel, forceps, and scissors (non-medical).]

Investigations

[grigori]

[ once a request has been made, one of the watchers will take you (and whoever else is coming with you) to the location in question. ]

ICE MAZE + GARDEN

[gregore]

[greg leads them off to the great outdoors...

he is very cold, hopping along, but he powers through. immediately visible are two sets of footprints, leading this way from what appears to be the sauna! will you follow them?]

Evidence Report

[grigori]

[ once you're back from the investigation, please report all evidence acquired here. if you're turning it in willingly, that is, and not keeping it. ]

[voltadomar]

Evidence from the Ice Garden:

- sword
- coin
- a pony?
- sharp shard of ice with Dust on it
- approximate measurements of two sets of footprints: one small, one medium
- a chilly lil robot

Examine Evidence

[grigori]

[ to examine any evidence brought back from investigations or given during trial, please comment here and not to the report. ]

[allyship]

[rochalizo is pressing the button on the bot friend!]

Walkie Talkies

[grigori]

[ you have two permanent pairs to utilize for reporting back on investigation, contributed again to the group at large. a temporary third set can be acquired if needed.

reply here to update one another via walkie talkie when a group (or two or three) is out on investigation.

as a new function, through hard work, the two permanent sets are now on the same frequency! you may tune the temporary third set, as well, but this will allow investigation teams to communicate with one another as well as with the trial base. ]

[yueshen]

[ skrrrt over the frequency: ]

There is blood everywhere at the storage shed.

what's the matter? can't handle the cold (open)?

[callalilies]

[ kaeya steps up today, wearing a sleek turtleneck and his hair pulled up into a high ponytail. his left shoulder is once again slack, and the turtleneck he’s wearing is darker in the general area today. it figures this one fuck you wound would show it’s ugly head again. in any case, once everyone has entered, polaris will howl loudly to bring everyone’s attention to the front of the room. behind him, he has all of the delicious town hall notes regarding our previous locations. any notes regarding prior cases are sequestered away, but are still accessible for later. they have a primary objective: susato. ]

Good morning everyone, we’ve got a long day ahead of us so I won’t keep you long. Let’s get down to brass tacks. Susato Mikotoba is missing and we’re on a very tight schedule. We can’t waste time sending just one team out, so I’m suggesting we take two teams outside first, one team to explore the ice maze, the other to explore the ice garden. The song indicates that she’s been lost out in a “winter wonderland” so to speak, and if anything fits that description, it’s the maze and garden. Miss Alisaie has given Xie Lian a map of the maze, which should help us in navigating.

[ he gestures to xie lian at his side, who has said map! ]

Both teams should bring warm gear as well as extra gear in the case that either of them recovers Susato. We’ll bring medkits as well in case there are any wounds we need to triage.

Meanwhile, those that are here should start with our usual check—items, weapons, strip check, etc. I know we’re all covered in various wounds, but we’re looking for wounds that are fresh and do not elicit the echo effect of this week’s wounds. I know that’s… a difficult task, but we need to persevere and do what we can. We know that Miss Susato had her sword on her person, which means if she was able to fight back, she may have gotten a few blows in on the perpetrator.

Leave no stone unturned. Ask questions carefully. And try not to ask too much of our Watchers today. After what happened yesterday, we should make sure that they’re well rested for when we do need them.

If you have suggestions of other locations to search, speak now. If you have trial tools that might help us early on, speak now so we can clarify their uses before we need them. We can’t afford to wait until the eleventh hour to pull out all the stops.

In any case. Let's get to it.

[allyship]

[rochalizo glances at kaeya and xie lian.]

As I informed certain people, I planted an item in the ice garden. Whoever heads there should make sure to retrieve it.

ITEM AND WEAPON CHECK

[sponsoredby]

Since we need to make better use of our time, let's get our items and weapons check. And if people need to get things from their rooms, we're not scrambling.

I'm going to pat people down, if you'll let me. One of the girls can help with the females if you're more comfortable. Please warn me about any injuries that I should watch out for, since I don't think any of us want to deal with reliving past scars.

WEAPON CHECK

[sponsoredby]

[ Insert knife emoji here. Please respond even if you don't have a weapon. ]

HELPFUL TRIAL ITEMS

[arcsplainist]

Your attention, for but a moment.

In the hope we can avoid what happened during our previous trial– [ Misunderstandings.... ] –I believe we ought to organize what our more helpful items that can assist us are. And, pray, let use be clear and precise on the purpose they hold.

I have my novel again, for example. [ And indeed, Alphinaud lifts up a book! ] As multiple kills have not happened this time—or so I sincerely hope, and ideally none—I may use this to narrow down what our most imperative piece of evidence of the day is, once we have collected it all.

What else is available to us today?

[greatdeduction]

Once again, as last time, since I did not use it, I have something I can do that will allow me more information regarding objects or events. I have to get close to the item or person in question, though, and I will not give details on it, given that if known, a culprit may try to avoid it.

SUSATO ANNOUNCEMENT

[veraltwin]

[A minute or so after Kaeya reports, Alisaie steps up to the front of the proceedings, where the day had been opened.

There's no attempt at a field bellow today, no loud daemon cry to demand attention--instead, Alisaie just claps her hands together once, loudly. If they don't listen, they don't listen. She doesn't care.]

Kaeya just reported in. He and Xie Lian found Susato.

...we were too late.

[malewife]

[ WELL, HE EXPECTED HER TO BE DEAD AND HE WAS RIGHT. Sometimes you don't want to be right, though. ]

ICE GARDENS and MAZE

[senjinrouha]

[ well, here's yuri. he's cradling something against his chest, and looks cold because it's still a damn tundra out there. ]

So. Ice gardens.

[ let's go. ]

There were two sets of footprints leading away from the sauna – if we've not checked out there, we might need to add it to the list. One set was small, the other was medium sized. Getting an exact measurement was rough because it's still snowing, so the sizes were obscured a bit. We found glitter in the medium footprints as well.

There was some evidence of daemon footprints too – but only really small ones, like a rabbit?

The whole area was a mess. Six statues had been destroyed in what was probably some kind of fight-- we found footprints and splatters of blood scattered around the area generally. [ he's got notes, and he reads off them: ]

Bear - had a slash across the chest. Pretty steady looking one?

Lynx - had a slash across the chest too. This one was messier. Also, the legs on this thing are wrecked to the point it looked like it was about to fall over.

Snake - broken in two, with haphazard damage.

Swan - wing broken off, but the cut in the ice looked clean.

Angel - This one was... really bloody. There was a stab-like hole in the torso, with blood all around it. Some of the blood on the statue had leaked down to the base. It looked a little like the angel was bleeding, but obvious it wasn't. There's a slash on one of the wings too.

At the base of the statue we found a coin, a pony... figure? Or something? A sword – according to the conversation Kim had with Xie Lian over the talking devices, it's Susato's. And finally a very sharp shard of ice, with Dust on it. Kim reckons it's not a fatal amount though.

After the ice gardens, we looked in the maze. There's evidence that the two ran through here as well, although the smaller prints seemed to vanish after a point. The prints seem to start from the other side of the maze, and go to the centre. Then the smaller ones vanished, and the medium prints continued out into the ice garden. I'm guessing, but it's like the smaller person just-- jumped? Right out of the maze and into the gardens. There's no evidence of wall climbing as far as I could see.

We might need to check the hotel, as that's the direction the prints started from. There's an impact mark on this half of the maze as well, which – honestly? I think Susato tossed whoever was chasing her, like she did the other week to Alphinaud. The smaller prints seemed to dig in, and then there's just a body print, so someone absolutely ate it.

[ and finally: ]

Rochalizo – [ and he digs out whatever he was cradling against his chest. it's a little robot friend. ] Present for you. I'll leave it to you to see what it's got for you.

[ he glances at kim. ]

I think that's everything.

[allyship]

[well everything is depresso right now but he'll take the bot friend.]

... All right. Your efforts are appreciated, Yuri.

FEET CHECK AND ???

[voltadomar]

We have some footprints to compare, so I'd like to get a measure of all of your feet, if you don't mind.

Also... [He holds up his weird ass device he got from Satariel? It's a... temperature-gun-ticker-tape-machine dealie? The fuck?]

I'd also like to ask everyone's cooperation in getting scanned with this.

[Comment to let me know if you're offering feets and/or accepting scans, or not!]

[greatdeduction]

[sticks foot out]

[also, scan me, daddy]

STORAGE

[yueshen]

[ there is a jingling sound coming from the outside of the ice chapel, and when the door opens, everyone gets to see a big sleigh led by a reindeer.

tragically this is not santa claus, and if it was, he would have the worst present ever, as xie lian carefully steps out of the sleigh and into the chapel. he's carrying a girl in his arms, wrapped in a white silk cloak, the fur collar tucked warmly around her neck.

xie lian takes a deep breath as he glances down at the girl in his arms, and then turns to look at the crowd to address them as a whole. his face is red; it looks like he might have been crying, but he holds himself steady, and his voice does not falter, even if his voice is just impossibly, impossibly sad. ]

...we found Susato outside, beyond the shed. It was thanks to Rin that we were able to find her, quickly, but... we were too late.

[ a pause, there.

he shakes his head, swallowing, and carries on. ] ... There was blood everywhere at the entrance to the storage area, and a trail of blood from the gardens to the storage area. There were many overlapping footprints, enough that it was unclear so we couldn't get a good copy of the print - however, one set was larger than the other.

A sleigh was missing from the storage area, with some blood where the sled used to be, and sleigh tracks that wound instead of moving in a straight line beyond the shed. Along the path we found several keychains, some with letters and phrases- charms that may have come from the Gift Shop as I stated over the talk boxes. Kaeya gathered them. At the end of the path was the sleigh, led by a reindeer. Inside the sleigh, the blankets were covered in blood, and Kaeya also found a ribbon.

[ .... ] I think that he fell out of the sleigh, too.

[ anyway. ] ...Away from the path, we found another keychain, and... there, beyond the shed, we found Susato. There was blood, and gold dust; she was likely curled around Ryutaro.

[ san lang, who is now in the form of a rabbit once more, is pressed close to xie lian's legs - he turns his head to hide his face against his legs, and he looks down one last time to susato in his arms. ]

...that's all.

[powerplay]

[ Ritty, in black fox form, comes padding over to rest and lie down at Xie Lian's legs, just follow him around until Power is out of range. This form of Ritty knows about the grief of death in snow. That's all. ]

GIFT SHOP

[greatdeduction]

Yes, hello. We're back.

[Sholmes gives a curt nod to the rest.]

To report - Kotetsu and I went to the gift shop, where we found that it was in a state of disarray, as if someone went through to quickly grab things and leave. I noticed that in the middle of the floor there was a damp spot with white glitter around, with no evidence of broken glass or the like.

Kotetsu has discovered that several things are missing, which correlate to what was found at the crime scenes. Namely, keychains, including the stuffed animal ones, and correlating to the B, C, H, I, N found. There were also snow globes, bracelets, t-shirts, and a big winter coat missing. That is all. I have obtained some of the glitter and a snow globe to see if the glitter is similar.

[Very matter of fact. No flourishes today. He's all business.]

[malewife]

[ (becci in the voice chat) Kotetsu and I went on a date to the gift shop. ]

Interesting that there are no signs of glass despite the damp spot... We will have to see if the glitter matches.

[ i fucking have to put content into my tag to put becci's narration on trial ]

body results

[allyship]

[rochalizo is not a happy camper because he did not want to look at susato's corpse, thanks. but here we are!]

... First, there's her head wound, which I assume to be from this week's effect. Putting that aside—

There is a slash on her arm, as well as her shoulder, but neither appears deep. There's a deeper slash wound on her side.

However, what appears to be the mortal wound is a stab through her chest. With that said, it didn't look as though it hit anything immediately vital, and so she may have been alive for some time after receiving it.

All of the wounds seem like they were made with a sharp blade. We'll have to compare weapons against them. Make sure that every blade we know of is accounted for.

[...]

Finally, she had a letter on her. From the dead, it seems.

[he'll take it out and show it.]

[rerouter]

[... She furrows her brows at that note, but.]

You didn't find any glitter like the one on Xie Lian and Power?

★ STRIP CHECK.

[afterword]

[ you ever hear an arctic fox howl? now you have. Jin does it a few times ever louder and louder to get the attention coming in. ]

Just as it happens in the previous weeks, we'll need to check one another for injuries.

If you have someone to account for them make sure to let us know right away and have them confirm so we aren't wasting that much time.

It'll be a little messy this time around with this week's effects so be sure to refer to which one is your phantom injury and unfortunately expect to have it confirmed through touch. [ Maybe a look of sympathy here.] We need to be thorough here.

I'll run by the men and someone else will be helping with the rest, and of course have someone be sure to check our own injuries as well. Let's try and do this efficiently and quickly.

[ Can't really say painlessly here huh. But with that! Here we go! And thanks to our unpopular demand Rameel, there will be electric blankets, heating pads to stand on and hand warmers to keep you cozy during the checks. ]

★ REACTIONS/CHAT.

[afterword]

[ keep the chatter in here! or, you know, the scoping (respectfully) of others. comments and such. ]

COIN CHECK!

[yueshen]

[ hello everyone. xie lian here! again! san lang shifts to a qilin to roar to get attention, and then he continues in a calm, clear voice. ]

As we have been scolded for missing a check of coins in a week before, it is imperative that we make up for those mistakes and continue to be thorough. If you would please show your coin and the amount of feathers on it, that would be most helpful.

If you are missing any feathers, please share when you used it, and have someone corroborate your use of power. Thank you.

[ he bows his head. ]

[lefthandpath]

Just for record-keeping...

[he holds up his coin--five feathers]

One each week, and I used one during the trial last week.

EVIDENCE UPDATE (that you definitely didn't see anywhere before): Ice Shard

[voltadomar]

I examined the shard of ice that was found near the sword, coin, and figurine... which was also near the angel statue with the high concentration of blood.

It's jagged in shape, and there is Dust concentrated on one of its points. It looks like it may have been used to stab a daemon.

[lefthandpath]

Are you able to tell if it was carved into that shape or...?

WEAPONS 2.0 + A comment

[sponsoredby]

[ He's going to be calling out for everyone's attention. ]

Can people that mentioned weapons before get theirs from their rooms? Also, if we don't have everyone coming clean, we'll look harder. Check rooms, until we find a match. The wounds are similar to the swords, but none of them were a match. So, not a kitchen knife this time.

[ He realizes the evidence could still be out there in the other places, but. Please. ]

Also, this person hasn't killed before.

[voltadomar]

[Kim crosses something off in his notebook.]

If we want to search rooms for undisclosed weapons, we could focus on the people who match the footprints and haven't otherwise been cleared.

[That's: Kim Dokja, Scheherazade, Power, Rochalizo, Kim Kitsuragi, Spike.]

Trial Items

[perfectdistance]

I still have my glasses.

So... if we wanna follow Monika's forest and leaves analogy, I think usin' 'em on the people with glitter's a good idea.

It's one use only, so we can clear one person.

Any thoughts?

[voltadomar]

If you can only clear one person, I would suggest... Miss Power?

Out of those who were in the sauna, only she and I are among the matches for the footprints.

DINING ROOM

[bloodread]

Me and Allen checked out the dining room. There was cake and tea out, green tea and chocolate cake. The cake had SUS written on it. Allen spent a long time looking at the cake, so if you have questions ask him.

There was also a cat under the table that got into a fight with the frog that brought us there.

[ He looks so deadpan as he says this. ]

There was another table that had a notebook, letters, and a pen. The notebook looks like it was Susato's, there's a list of her power notes in it. She wrote down what she had on her coin too:

summon one meal
blindness (2 days)
temper tantrums (1 day)
camouflage (1 hour)
flight (10 minutes

Blindness was crossed out.

[yueshen]

[ !!! ]

Wagahai!!!! [ AAAAAA ]

LETTERS FROM SUSATO

[callalilies]

It seems Miss Susato has left some letters. If you hear your name, please step up and I'll give them to you.

Herlock Sholmes, Xie Lian, Rochalizo, Alisaie, Rin, Yuri, Nero, Flat, Kim, Monika, Alphinaud, Power, and Spike.

[allyship]

[...

he looks a little like he doesn't want to know what susato left him, but he'll take the letter aND THEN DUNK IT IN THE TRASH (no).]

SAUNA REPORT

[quiz]

Hey.

[ Reze and Monika have returned with information! ]

Monika and I went over to investigate sauna. There, we found out that someone had actually used a ski pole to block the door to the locker room and even on the inside of the sauna.

Inside the locker room was pretty normal... with the exception of pieces of rope as well as one of those I L*VE NERAK t-shirts. We also found drops of blood on the shirt as well as on the floor where Monika had found it. There didn't seem to be any pattern to it.

The door to the actual sauna seemed to be busted in, the door jamb was janky and the strike plate was torn right off. We also found five snow globes and a couple of teddy bears in the area. We found more blood droplets to the window but there was nothing on the windowsill or in the snow. We... um...

We also found a note from Susato, we assume, with a kitchen knife. I dug through the towels and found a fingerprinting kit, so... I wanna say that she wanted to leave us with something to help.

[rerouter]

To be exact, the blood on the shirt seemed more like... hm, it might have been pressed against something bloody?

Anyway, the kitchen knife looks like they one she's showed us before. But we brought back as much evidence as we could carry.

Bloodmetry

[bloodread]

I read the blood from Susato's sword, and the blankets.

From the sword, I heard a female voice saying dear friend, and "I" got thrown into the snow. Saw one of the ice sculptures get wrecked too.

From the blankets, "I" climbing into something, it was windy and cold and there was an ache in "my" torso. And then a falling sensation before the memory cut out.

[quiz]

[ ... ]

Dear friend, so someone she was close to.