tropicalgetaway | week one: trial

WEEK ONE: TRIAL

Morning dawns bright and early the day after the announcement of the dead, and as the sun tracks its way across the sky, the voice's message is likely not far from anyone's mind. The fire in the ruins still burns, though as the minutes tick by into hours, the flames slowly begin to subside.

Finally, the sun reaches its highest point just as the flames in the ruins sputter out. A low, deep thrumming sound echoes throughout the entire island, which turns into ringing, a drawn-out signal that grows louder and louder until it seems as though all other sounds on the island fall to a hush.

It is then that the lighthouse beacon becomes illuminated, drawing them all to the southern beach. That same voice as before rings, audible throughout the entire island.

"There are those of you who hope to escape from this with clean hands... well, I suggest you discard those hopes. You are all participants in this game, and you will all be complicit in the sacrifices that take place here, or else you will not have earned your passage home.

You have until the sun vanishes beneath the horizon. Choose your next sacrifice, and choose who will dispatch them. Speak the names of your choices into the conch. Failure to cooperate will result in a fate worse than death.

...perhaps you should investigate the deaths. Would it ease your conscience to condemn someone to death whose hands are already stained with the blood of a sacrifice? The bodies are out there, and the evidence as well... but you will have to find it yourselves.

Tick-tock, tick-tock! Your time starts... now."

Once the entire group has gathered, the lighthouse's beacon flickers out.

It is time to choose the next sacrifice... and hopefully, to catch a killer.

Good luck.

OOC NOTES

Welcome to your first trial, everyone! This trial will take place from 9am PST/12pm EST/4am NZST, and will last until 6pm PST/9pm EST/1pm NZST.

There will be a one-hour trial break from 1pm PST/4pm EST/8am NZST to 2pm PST/5pm EST/9am NZST. We recommend that you use this time to get something to eat if you haven't yet already, play some Animal Crossing, or even just take a quick nap. During this time, no mod tags will go out; we also ask that players refrain from starting any intensive threads such as interrogations, strip searches, hair or injury comparisons, etc. While we're not going to say you're not allowed to tag during this time, we also don't want anyone to miss out on anything important during an official break.

Please remember to have your character cast a vote on the voting page! Voting is mandatory, as it functions as the activity check for the game. If you do not cast a vote by the time trial is over, your character will be killed off. Please contact the mods prior to the end of the trial if something comes up and you are prevented from voting (i.e. 504 errors, etc).

If you have any questions, please go ahead and ask! Your mods and fellow players are always here to help. And most of all... have fun!

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was the middle of the night, yeah. So we find who was awake, and we probably have our culprit.

Mm. The question is how do we find that out when we were all asleep?

I don't know. There aren't any clocks or anything, and unless one of you knows how to make and read a sundial, I think we're out of luck.

... How would knowing the time help at all?

Figuring out when we fall asleep might help us keep better track of who is and isn't asleep? As long as we're with at least one other person when it happens? I don't know.

[Hm.]

You're talking as if you anticipate this happening again.

Well, whoever's running this thing wants sacrifices, right? At least eleven of them. We're already down, what, five? If that's right, it'll want at least six more, and that means it'll probably keep happening until eleven are gone.

... I don't think that's right. The voice said we only had two weeks, right? We probably have one more week of this, and then — I don't know. Something will happen to us if we don't find another way before our time's up.

[ shrug! ]

Probably. But who said this won't just happen again before the two weeks are up? Isn't it better to assume it will and be ready for it, just in case?

[...]

Now that you mention that... Isn't it strange that all these people were killed at the end of the week, and not sooner? Is that a coincidence, or... Did one person do all of this?

That's what we're supposed to find out, right? Maybe once that group comes back from the ruins, or if we figure out who those footprints belonged to, we'll finally be able to get the ball rolling here.

I hope you're right about that.

[well that's. gruesome to imagine.]

Would a single person have had time to do this...? Anaido was found, but the other three...

[her voice trails off.]

...unless... was the fire meant to dispose of the other bodies?

I don't know... But that was my first thought when I heard the voice yesterday morning. If they set fire to the ruins, they must have been trying to dispose of something, right?

[It's super gruesome to imagine, either way.]

I really wish we had more information to work with.

That is likely the case... why else would they have set fire to the ruins?

[i mean, some people are just arsonists, but.]

(no subject)

muragas - 2020-05-02 18:30 (UTC) - Expand

fishingforcompliments - 2020-05-02 18:40 (UTC) - Expand

lacking - 2020-05-02 18:34 (UTC) - Expand

lacking - 2020-05-02 18:50 (UTC) - Expand

[ Flayn raises a solid point about the fire—perhaps it was not distraction, but to destroy something—but so little of it makes sense altogether. ]

Anaido was still alive when we found him, however briefly. I am not sure how long he could have been there, but whoever left him must have had time to return to camp before we were all roused awake.

[ maybe a timeline of sorts would be useful, but it's hard when everyone was asleep. ]

fishingforcompliments - 2020-05-02 18:38 (UTC) - Expand

overruns - 2020-05-02 18:41 (UTC) - Expand

fishingforcompliments - 2020-05-02 18:44 (UTC) - Expand

From my records, at least, my systems powered down at exactly 2300 hours local time.

...And in normal human time, that's, what, eleven at night? So maybe if we try to stick together around that time, we'll have a better chance of keeping track of all this. Somehow.

That seems an excellent suggestion, Miss Rachel. If there are indeed some malevolent forces at work we'll be much safer as a group.

Safer, or just a bigger target?

[ there's merit in having hope, maybe, but rachel prefers realism. ]

I'm just saying it might help to be able to call out where we fell asleep and whether anything's changed when we wake up, if this happens again.

I believe such a thing would be far easier to do were we all together. Especially if there is some malevolent force at work attempting to sacrifice people.

Can't say I disagree. The question is whether everyone will actually agree to it.

I am certain that they will see reason, Miss Rachel. It is the most logical thing to do, after all.

Is your camp quite safe?

It's in the middle of the jungle, but I don't know. It's good enough, I guess? But it definitely won't survive another storm like that.

Well that hardly sounds safe. [sassbot!] Who knows what could be lurking in there?

You'd be much better off where we are, near the waterfall. It's quite a fortified position, surrounded as it is by water and the cliffside.