WEEK FOUR: TRIAL

[cluedin]

WEEK FOUR: TRIAL

OCCUPANCY: 23

Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey.

Despite the events of the day before, when you wake up on Saturday it almost feels as though nothing is out of place. Breakfast is still served at 7am on the spot, the house is still peaceful, and yet the distinct feeling that something isn't quite right continues to follow you wherever you go.

It soon becomes obvious that today is a different kind of day. One by one, all of you will begin to feel the urge to return to the ballroom where this event began. Try as you might, you'll find that these feelings can't be easily ignored despite your best efforts. Should you find yourself still resisting by 11:55am, a strong unseen force will guide you straight into the ballroom.

When all have gathered in the room, the doors will lock behind you at 12pm sharp. The feast table has been set to provide guests with hors d'oeuvres and beverages, but that's not all. In the center of this table rests a large wooden box and two baskets of crayons and notecards.

And of course, seated in front of the wall of profile plaques are your three lovely hosts. Peach, Plum and Pumpkin wait patiently for all to gather before drawing attention.

"Someone here is a murderer," they say, pointing up at the plaque of the house rules.

🐾 🐾 🐾

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the fifth trial!

We'll go over a few notes briefly as we will be playing this trial a bit differently than other games.

While there was a mini-investigation on Friday, today is the day participants can really dive in to investigate areas in the game setting, check over the body and review evidence that they find! Please see the toplevels in this post for more information. To help with the ease of the trial and for IC mechanics, only one location may be visited at a time. One of your hosts will also be accompanying you on these visits.

Most importantly, before the trial is over, please place your character's vote over on the voting page. Voting will close at 9pm EST/6pm PST, and will serve as our activity check for the week, so please be sure you get your vote in before it ends unless you have contacted us previously. Please also be sure to read the voting page carefully, as we're trying a fun new bonus mechanic this game!

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locations 🐾 ic profiles 🐾 murder proposals 🐾 audience requests 🐾 statuses 🐾 private conversations

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TALK TO PUMPKIN

[cluedin]

[ despite wearing a cute new accessory and looking otherwise all right today, pumpkin seems a little... sad? hm. ]

Huh? Oh, yeah—questions and stuff. That's my job today.

EVIDENCE AND EXPLORATION WITH PLUM

[cluedin]

[ she's sitting down at the table nearer to the doors, and this time she seems to be sewing something blue? hm. she looks up when approached ]

Was there somewhere you wished to go?

BODIES

[cluedin]

[At the head of the room just before the glass doors rests two flat tables. A white sheet covers each table from end to end, covering the bodies from sight.

If you would like to examine the victim's body, please reply to this toplevel and specify which body in the header.]

INVESTIGATIONS

[cluedin]

[Once a location has been requested, a sub-toplevel will go under here for all investigations to be threaded out and to keep things organized ♥ Please pick one member of your group to be in charge of your investigation radio feed.]

RADIO COMMUNICATION

[cluedin]

[As each group investigates a location this week, one member will be given a small, old-timey handheld radio. This radio will filter audio back into the ballroom for the rest of the guests to hear while they wait. However, this radio may be a bit faulty and information won't always come through clearly!

Please select one person from your group to make a sub-toplevel under this header. They will be tasked with updating the thread with any information, screams, and funny out of context commentary they wish to provide. All comments in this sub-toplevel will be considered IC knowledge!]

[burningrescue]

[Nyooming to Phoenix's body to block it off for Beau!!]

AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

[survivaltricks]

[OKAY WELL. THE FIRST THING AKIRA DOES is stand up and bang his crutch against the table to get everyone's attention]

Hey! I've got something important to tell everyone. It's not related to the trial, so I wanted to get it out of the way quickly. Don't let it distract you from investigating Nick and Four's murders, but please keep everything I say in mind going forward.

So here's my PowerPoint presentation--

[it's not a real PowerPoint presentation. it's a bullet point list with each different bullet point being written on a slab of cardboard from the drawing room. every slab of cardboard is decorated with glitter and fun little chibi drawings of Plum, Pumpkin, and Peach!! he spent a lot of time on this]

[anyway, the slabs of cardboard are spread out across the table in order for people to read]

A BULLET POINT LIST OF THINGS EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW:

- As of Wednesday, Blue started answering people when they ring the bell near the bedroom. I don't know if Blue will answer for anyone, but as of right now I'm aware of three people who spoke to them face-to-face: myself, Akechi and Ken.

- Blue likes peeps chili, by the way. Feed them peeps chili.

- The mansion is its own entity. Weird things happen here because the house is alive. It is probably some sort of god.

- Blue is a god, too. Probably.

- We were brought here because both Blue and the house are trying to prove a "point." The house is doing it badly. I don't know what that "point" is, on either side. Some kind of competition, maybe? Nick thought maybe the house was trying to prove that humans suck and will kill each other given the opportunity, I don't know.

- Blue has been trying to help us. The people who can check us each week and determine who has "rabies" or not are directly under Blue's command. No, they haven't met Blue in person. And according to Blue, there isn't anyone else in the mansion with special privileges like this.

- Blue was invited here by the house themselves. I don't know what happened to them afterwards, but I get the feeling they're just as much of a captive here as we are.

- The reason Blue keeps inviting people here is to satiate the house so the house doesn't invade our worlds itself. That's why there have been several rounds of people who were brought here before us.

- Despite that, Blue wants to stop the cycle of violence. They said in order to do that, we have to find the "source" of the house and all of the bad things it's been causing. I don't know what the source is, or where it is, but Blue gave me a few hints: it's closer than we think it is, access to the "source" is available for those who seek it out, and the heart of the matter is what's most important.

- Apparently we have to separate Blue from the mansion if we want to leave? I didn't talk to Blue about this specifically, I heard it from a few other people. Maybe that's related to the "source?"

- To whoever killed over those stupid DVDs: o(-`д´- ｡) You suck.

- Seriously the last thing Blue wants us to do is kill each other so maybe let's not do that?? Okay???

[oathic]

... Are you feeling okay, Pumpkin? Nice hat, by the way.

[survivaltricks]

[he has no questions, but!!]

[hot chocolate with plenty of marshmallows coming her way '-']

[madburnout]

We were told to work together. That is clearly the point. The house incentivizes us to kill and betray each other, and resisting that is likely the key.

[burningrescue]

[He fell asleep reading this.]

[madburnout]

[ELBOWING HIM.]

summary............................

[miscakes]

[Welcome back to the ballroom, naughty murder children... Assuming the chalkboard is still here, Akechi will.......... side-eye Akira and then start using the chalkboard to jot things down.]

Good afternoon, everyone. If I could have everyone's attention— [Pleasantries first.] We have gone through this process several times already, so I will cut the the chase. Phoenix Wright and Four have been murdered. The cause of their death is still unknown, but I trust that those who volunteer to examine the will report their findings. For now, this is what I was able to discover by speaking to several of you.

Nicolas-san, Luna and I fell asleep in the music room last night. When we woke up, all three of us... Well, presumably, woke up to the same song stuck our heads. [He lifts a notebook, waving it a bit.] I have written the lyrics down if anyone would like to review them. Hunter, 45-san, Beauregard-san, Carbide-san, Jin Ling and Nie Huaisang all spent the night in the closet. When they regained consciousness, they immediately noticed two things were amiss. One, there was a heavy smell of perfume. Unless proven otherwise, I assume it is the same smell I perceived while speaking to Hunter, Beauregard-san and Nie Huaisang. However, the second effect was more troubling. Their fingertips were burnt. If this "effect" has not disappeared overnight, two possibilities remain. [So, uh, the members from that group should confirm if anything has changed.]

Meanwhile, Fotia-san and Thymos-san slept in the library. Thymos-san could not pinpoint the effect they received, but Fotia-san stated that his own knowledge of fires was deeper than usual. Additionally, Fotia-san's flamethrower went missing overnight. It supposedly has no gas left, but we will have to search for it. Kuji-kun and Agatsuma-san fell asleep in the astronomy tower. They, too, experienced an effect similar to that of last week; their sense of balance was off. And the group that spent the night in the war room... I was unable to speak to Ayabe-san and Kunihiro-san, but Agni-san noticed morse code on his wrist. All it say is "ha ha."

... If anyone woke up to another effect, please come forward and let us know. This will allow us to build a more comprehensive list of locations we may need to investigate.

[So... That's lovely. Once again, Akechi will make a list of these locations on the chalkboard for reference.]

Moving on, Hunter, Shima-san and I discovered blood and flour on the kitchen floor. I was unable to determine at the time the direction the drips of blood were headed, but that is something we should revisit today. Furthermore, the blood itself looked fresh. In the garden, Brilith-san found that the garden shed had caved in. She claimed it looked as if something fell from the astronomy tower. Finally, Missile-kun found a mess on the fourth floor. The beauty salon was inaccessible, but water had spilled out into the hallway. There was a heavy smell of flowers, as well... [A sigh.] It seems like Plum-san, once again, has her work cut out for her.

[Plum is the true victim of every week. Someone please let her go on vacation.]

Regardless, that is all I was able to learn yesterday. If you have any additional information, the floor is yours.

[survivaltricks]

[nods at Lio!!! vigorously]

Yeah, exactly. And I think if we do work together, we'll have an easier time of getting the hell out of this place.

[burningrescue]

Hi, Pumpkin! You okay?

[survivaltricks]

[HE EVEN MADE THEM SPARKLY AND CUTE :(]

[infire]

[ oh of course he's a god ]

[survivaltricks]

[I KNOW RIGHT]

[OF COURSE IT'S GODS]

[burningrescue]

[Waking up!]

So we have to fight the house and win! Got it!

[madburnout]

Galo had an effect. It was the same as mine. I tested it later.

[recrypt]

'"Humans are the ultimate enemy" is such a tired cliche,' huh...

[ said like she's quoting someone else she knows, and going 'god i can't believe she's right'. ]

How very quaint.

[burningrescue]

[Listen. It was just so long. Waking up after being elbowed, though.]

Fight the house! Team Blue! Got it! I wonder if it transforms into anything. . .

[voidbreaker]

So they don't just send you increasingly cryptic notes every time you ring the bell anymore?

[pornography]

Your PowerPoint would have been better with animations and slide transitions.

notes.....

[counterclocked]

Hey. Before we get started... You know how I showed everyone that note about the DVDs a few days ago? There was something else with it, but I thought it made more sense to wait until now to show everyone.

[He's pulling some paper out of his pocket, and closing his eyes for a second before he shows everyone another picture and a note along with it. He is suffering.]

Just, you know, so everyone's on the same page. We probably don't have to worry about these two.