WEEK 5.

[trustfellows]

WEEK 5 Tabitha Smith, Sigrun Eide, and Solf J Kimblee are all dead. Regardless of what you think of the trial or the events leading up to it, there's no denying that you can feel the dent in your numbers now. After all, ten people are gone now. It may be hard, but all you can do is keep going. Saturday is given to regrouping and sleep; come Sunday morning, the clock chimes the hour at seven o'clock and there are no dead bodies to be found, so it can be assumed that all of you are safe for the time being. That said, you'll be feeling a little groggy when you wake up; it seems you've regained something that you didn't realize you'd lost... What with Jericho's excitement at the last trial, it's evident now more than ever that the new floor that's opened up to you is a gift, a reward for a job well-done. Because while surviving is something that you'll continue to try to do of your own merit...well. Let's say that he's so, so very proud of you. PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 25 PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 24 PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 23

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week five of Trustfell! Feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget to save those threads for coins and the activity check!

If you'd like to get in contact with the Coordinators, you can do so through private meetings with Alena!]

Comments

Investigation

[heritrix]

[Rin starts her day off in the gym this Monday, where you can catch her doing some upside-down crunches. Normally she'd prefer to get her workout in her own room, but after yesterday, she needs to burn off some energy. In her room, there's only so much she can manage with the bathroom door, her mattress, and a few hand weights she snuck out from the gym a week ago. So yeah, she's taking advantage of the rest of the equipment now.

Later in the day you might encounter her in various places, though unless spoken to she doesn't stay in them for long. Namely, she pops into the kitchen and art studio for different kinds of supplies. Those get taken with her to the chemistry lab, aka Rin's new favorite place and where she'll be spending most of her day.

Among things like salt and ammonia, there's a lot of thick construction paper, which has been cut up and gotten everywhere around the room. Those cut-outs are getting folded up so that they stand on their own inside the lab's petri dishes, and what they look like will depend on how early you encounter her into the project.

Early on? There's probably just one or two, and the craft projects might resemble barren trees. Given time, however, there'll be a few more that look like that, but the "trees" that have sat the longest appear to be growing foliage. Close inspection will reveal these leaves to be crystals, some puffy and spiky, and blooming in various colors.

The best looking among the crystal garden resembles a sakura tree. It gets set a little bit aside from the others. Anyone who tries it or the other trees will get a gentle warning.]

Careful. It was tricky getting them in the dishes, so they're fragile.

[This is a project with a lot of waiting time, so as the hours pass by Rin also occupies herself with an investigation. She was already in here yesterday, marveling over the various supplies and glassware on hand, so now that she's gotten it out of her system maybe she can... focus. Let's start on this table in the center of the room! It has drawers like in the picture, right?]

[trustfellows]

[Unfortunately, there isn't anything to be found in the chemistry lab! Sorry about that.]

Lab

[ninehundredlives]

[Susan, admittedly, came in here to say something derogatory about the chemistry lab. What, they don't have enough poisons lying around? But her attention is grabbed pretty quickly by those tree-crystal things.]

Oh, wow...those are really pretty. [She bends down to look closer at the sakura, though she doesn't make a move to touch it.]

[heritrix]

[Susan is admittedly someone she expects would be careful, so she's greeted with a cheerful grin and no warning. Rin props her elbows on the table, delicately trying to work a new tree to stand upright in its petri dish.]

Aligula was talking about throwing another party, so I was practicing. Since they're so simple to make, I thought they could be fun decorations.

[Not that she's asked Aligula permission for this, she just thought she could bring them on her own if it happens!]

[ninehundredlives]

Oh, that’s good timing! She was talking about a Christmas party. You could make little firs.

[heritrix]

You read my mind. [Rin laughs.] People could decorate them, too. There's probably enough supplies in the art room for that.

[ninehundredlives]

It'll be good for us to have some more color in here, I think. It's not good for us to be inside so long.

[heritrix]

What I wouldn't give for a blue sky...

[ninehundredlives]

Yeah. I didn't really appreciate the possibility, while I still had it.

[heritrix]

Speaking of that... [She fiddles with the tree she's working on a little more, sprinkling water over one that's just starting to bloom crystals.] We spoke after the trial, but we didn't really talk about what happened at it.

Lab

[brandnewday]

Wow, this place looks like a headache!

[Hibiki yells that as soon as she enters the lab? She hasn't even seen Rin yet, so she turns her head...ah. For the second time that day.]

Haisai, Rin! What's this room for?

[She didn't check yesterday.]

[heritrix]

[Hello again, Hibiki! Rin huffs a little as she looks up, because come on, it's so great??]

It's a chemistry lab. I think it's pretty homey myself. You don't like it?

[brandnewday]

Chemistry...gyah, my nemesis!

[She eyes all of the cupboards now like they're out to get her.]

It's not that I don't like it...I just won't know what any of this stuff is. I can feel it. But it's fitting for you!

[heritrix]

You probably only think that because no one's made it fun for you. [Rin pats a stool next to her.] Would you like to make a tree? I can give you a lesson.

[brandnewday]

Has anyone ever made numbers and formulas fun?

[Hibiki slides into the stool so obediently. It's clear who the teacher is her. She notices the trees now...woah.]

How'd you make all these? Is this, um, mage stuff?

[She's certainly heard the word enough times now!]

[heritrix]

[Hibiki's question gets a nod, which rolls into her explanation.]

My father made it fun. [This is Hibiki, so Rin realizes she needs to keep it simple.] Magecraft is somewhat different from what most people would suspect magic to be. It's more akin to magic science. A mage has to have a thorough understanding of how things work, in other words, so we can take a shortcut.

[Which in practical terms, to get back to answering Hibiki; Rin gestures to the Sakura tree.] When I was little, I used to practice with real crystals, growing and shaping them. An experiment like this is built on a similar but different process, but anyone can do it.

[brandnewday]

That sounds really complicated! [There's a ring of disappointment in her voice. Maybe, just maybe, she thought it'd be cool to learn magic.] Learning so much stuff isn't somethin' I'd be able to do easily...of course, I'm the idol who can do everything, so maybe if I tried really hard...but probably not.

[She turns her eyes back to the sakura tree. It's really pretty; she can't help but "ooh" at it a little.]

When I was little, I was playin' on the beach with my dad instead of studyin'. So! How does it work? How'd you make this tree? They don't like the kinda crystals I usually see.

[heritrix]

That's because they're salt crystals! [Rin reaches for a bottle of ammonia, along with some of the other supplies set out.] Would you like to make one? Maybe you'll have an easier time understanding the process if you can visualize it as it's happening.

[spiritform]

[Being unfamiliar with what all one can do with the things in this room, she's quite intrigued to see what Rin's done here.]

What are they made of?

[heritrix]

These? [She points to one that came out looking more like a pine tree.] They're salt crystals.

[spiritform]

Salt crystals? Incredible... how were you able to make them grow like that?

[And there are different likenesses too. Milla looks them over, quite fascinated.]

[heritrix]

It's pretty simple. [Rin pushes over a petri dish she started recently so Milla can see. If she looks, the cardboard is actually sitting in some sort of liquid.] This is a salt solution I mixed up with some of the ingredients you see on the table. As the cardboard sits in the dish like this, the solution is absorbed into it through capillary action.

[As she says this, Rin points to the base of the tree.] See? Where the color is darker, you can see how it's traveling up through the cardboard. Pretty soon, the entire tree will be wicked.

After that happens, the water in the solution will begin to evaporate from the cardboard's surface, which forces the salt to crystallize outwards.

[Though to add colors you have to do something else, otherwise the crystals would just be white.]

[spiritform]

Fascinating.

[It is both simple and yet seems as though it requires a decent amount of patience and steady hands.]

They're quite beautiful.

[She'll get closer but she's very careful not to disrupt them in their little dishes. In particular it's the cherry blossom tree colored tree she's drawn to.]

What are you going to do with them when they're finished growing?

[heritrix]

[It came out very nicely. Following Milla's gaze, the look in Rin's eyes sparkles not with pride, but something strange and quiet. Nostalgia, maybe.]

That one I was thinking of taking back to my room and maintaining. The others... Mm, what do you think? Should I decorate around the building, or would that be obnoxious?

[spiritform]

No, I think it would be a lovely touch.

[It doesn't go unnoticed. Milla looks at the tree and then back at Rin.]

Is this one significant to you in some way?

[It is a lovely hue.]