What's all this business about Trials?

The LULU Signature Gag comes with a series of Trials of Silence that the sub can undergo (or be made to undergo by her owner). Successfully completing each Trial will see the sub progressing through various Circles (Novice, Adept, Slave and First Slave), with each higher Circle unlocking more capabilities in the gag (for more details, see related articles below).

HOW TO START A TRIAL

A Trial is automatically started whenever all three of the following become true:

• the Signature Gag is locked (via the LULU Real Key).
• the "ban talk" command has been issued (either "/1g ban talk", or via the gag menu).
• if there are no outstanding breaches/alarm (cleared by "/1g reset alarm" or via the gag menu).

Say the gag has been locked, and there are no breaches. The moment the "ban talk" command is given, the gag will say "A new trial has begun." Conversely, if the "ban talk" command is in place, and there are no outstanding breaches, locking the gag will start a new trial. Finally, if the gag is both locked and "ban talk" is in effect, clearing an outstanding breach (via "/1g reset alarm" or the gag menu) will start a new trial.

While a Trial is in progress, the gag menu will display the button "check trials". This will show the progress of the Trial.

HOW TO END A TRIAL

The Trial of Silence ends the moment any of the following occurs:

• the sub speaks on channel 0 or 8. It also includes emotes that are violations (e.g. "/me thinks" or "/me says" are violations as they are talk substitutes - there is no way another person can see what a sub is thinking). Emotes that are valid actions or body language (e.g. "/me cries" or "/me looks hurt" or "/me nods" ) are allowed.
  
  Beware of attachments or toys which speak on channel 8 or 0 --> this will end your trial.
  Also beware of saying "ponygirl" at the Secret Warehouse.
• the "unban talk" command is given (either "/1g unban talk" or via gag menu).
• the gag is unlocked.
• the gag or HUD is detached. Detaching the HUD for any reason will end the trial - even for HUD force reset or for saves.
• After the sub has leveled, missing a No-AFK prompt will end the Trial.

Mostly the Trial ends in the same way as the Trial is started, only in reverse, with the additional methods of HUD/gag detaching and No-AFK breaches.

HOW TO LEVEL UP TO THE NEXT CIRCLE

Each Circle requires a certain amount of online time spent in Trial, without breach. This time excludes any offline time - so it is safe for the sub to log off and come back in and continue from where she left off.

The sub will level up the moment she meets the time requirement for the next Circle, and the new gag options will be available immediately.

However, the Trial will continue, and will not end until either a breach occurs, or "unban talk" is issued, or the gag is unlocked. This allows the sub to go for a higher time highscore. This is useful for listing on the Signature Gag Top20 Scoreboard (in the LULU Secret Warehouse).

But staying on will not count towards time for the next Circle. Subbie can only level once per Trial.

NO AFK

Starting from Signature Gag v.4, all Trials will include No-AFK prompts so that subbies can't simply sleep through the experience, if you know what I mean.

If subbie fails to enter the correct prompt in time, either one of two things will happen. If she is caught before she has levelled to the next Circle, the time required to level will be lengthened accordingly. She will be worse off than if she had not been caught napping, but she can still level in the current Trial. Beware: it's not a good idea to set the lock timer when going on a Trial. This is because once there is a no-AFK breach, your time required to level might exceed whatever timer had been preset on you.

Now, if she is caught after levelling, the Trial ends immediately and the highscore counter stops. So if you're going for the Scoreboard, you have to be extra vigilent.