Trial 1

[yourghosthost]

[After everyone has finished their investigations, everyone finds themselves gathering in the stretching room once more. The door shuts behind them. The corpse swings above the proceedings, ominously, and wandering eyes can't help but draw their attention to it.

It especially draws attention when it appears to move upward.

The whole room seems to move downwards, as the walls get longer and the ceiling gets further away. A snide comment from your Host echoes throughout the room:]

Tell me. Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it just your imagination?

Find your place in the graveyard. I will be with you shortly.

[After a few moments, the room stops. A new door opens.

It appears to be an outside area, covered in overgrown plants and moss. An incredibly high gated fence surrounds the whole area, and perpetual darkness (accompanied by a bright full moon) sets the mood. A cobblestone path goads you on through this area, leading to a circle of 25 tombstones, each labeled with a participants picture, name and their birthdate. They're arranged to face each other, ominously enough. On top of each tombstone is a small typewriter-esque keyboard.

The only unique tombstone here is the only marked for Karolina. It's adorned with a red rose and a glass of cognac, and her tombstone is marked with a limerick:

Here Lies Karolina Dean
She might have had a rough life
But she really didn't deserve that knife

As everyone finds their places, the Host speaks.]

The keyboard on your tombstone shall be used for voting who you believe committed this crime. Due to the...nature of some of our participants, I will be forgiving misspellings and accidental presses, but each guest shall only receive one vote, and we go by majority rules.

Take all the time you need, please. There's no turning back now.]

Comments

[sentadaughter]

[ Once the accusation happens, Mulan isn't angry, or upset, or anything like that. In fact, she seems resigned, as if she has already accepted what will happen. What must happen, if everyone else is going to survive. She already has one death on her hands, she refuses to have any more.

But she can't let it end like this, not without the truth being known. They have to know. Then, maybe, this won't happen again.

So she takes a deep breath, and she speaks.]

I know it might be difficult to believe anything I say, but I promise you this: I'm telling the truth. That's what you deserve. ...what she deserves.

I am Fa Mulan, daughter of Fa Zhou. My country called for one man from each family to serve in the army, so I hid who I was and took the name 'Ping' to protect my father.

[She pauses, takes one more breath, and holds her head high as she speaks one last sentence.]

And I did not murder Karolina.

[arpeggiositar]

Because it was an accident and accidents aren't murders?

[Is that what you mean?]

[sentadaughter]

...yes, that's exactly it.

[There's no point in hiding it anymore, she might as well hold onto this courage and speak while she still has it.]

[arpeggiositar]

Alright, I see. Thanks for the answer.

[Case closed, time to relax. Demyx nods and gets ready to kick back -- as much as you can kick back and relax while standing behind a gravestone]

By the way, uh, sorry about what happened with Karolina. That sucks.

[The murdering her part, he means. It was an accident, accidents happen...it sucks that now Mulan is going to die]

[nobodyperfect]

Do you want to tell us what happened?

[His voice is quiet, but deceptively calm. He didn't know either of them well, but... someone's dead, and more are going to die if they can't stop this.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford draws in a deep breath, his shoulders dropping.]

Then we have our answer.

[thetimebomb]

Mulan, I...

[She doesn't know how to finish this. This is just a kid and it was just an accident. This isn't right and she hated how helpless she felt. She was supposed to be a hero, and here she is just sitting by hearing about a murder she couldn't stop where the culprit who is completely innocent and she might die.]

I'm so sorry...

[ilovepuppies]

Hey! He- she said she didn't do it!

[kindaruledatit]

....She said she didn't murder her.

[sixfingeredstan]

[Fords shoulders drop. It seems his hunch was correct. And though normally he'd be all over this, asking a thousand questions, right now isn't the time, and there are more important things at hand.]

Miss Mulan. Are you saying you had nothing to do with her death?

[sentadaughter]

No, I. It's...complicated.

[She does look properly ashamed, though.]

[amadeusrockette]

Did . . . Was there some sort of plan?

[folkscallmewander]

[Good! Good, she didn't do it. It's just a misunderstanding. Everything will be find and--

He recalls what Mulan said to him earlier when he was panicking.]

...You're really brave for tellin' us, but...are you sayin' it was an accident?

[sentadaughter]

[Sorry Wander, she's just going to repeat what she said before.]

Sometimes bad things happen. Even if they're accidents.

[whistlenotchirp]

[That... was not what he was expecting. His questions about this potential gender debacle were already answered and, to be honest, it was what he would have preferred to focus on.]

...Protect your father? Not the other way around? ["Like how society should work" is a thing he thinks but doesn't say.]

[sentadaughter]

[She shakes her head.]

My father is old and ill. He needs a cane to walk. His back hurts, even if he tries to hide it.

Every family had to give one man to the army, regardless of how fit they were to fight. We were at war, everyone had to do their part.

[toogoodforhim]

[Lefou is pale and shaking a little, but he laughs, desperate. If he's surprised, he doesn't show it.]

S-see, guys, he- she didn't do it! It's got to be someone else...o-or an accident-- accidents are nobody's fault!

[sentadaughter]

[Don't fall apart on her, that's going to crack her resolve. She's barely holding onto it as it is.]

I... That's what I would like to believe. I didn't mean for it to happen, I tried to help her, but...

[Well. She's not a doctor.]

[capulion]

I believe you.

[And she does, without resignation.]

But you know something, don't you?

[thetimebomb]

[She's not sure if she feels relieved or slightly frustrated that this "Mulan" isn't the culprit.]

Wait, if you didn't kill her, then... who did?

[sentadaughter]

[No she definitely killed Karolina, it just wasn't murder.]

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa's definitely surprised, yeah. And as she watches Ping - no, Mulan - reveal herself, the one thing her mind takes her to is Anna's favorite portrait in their castle. Joan of Arc; the woman who fought to the very end for her country, the woman who dressed as a man because the army would never accept women in their ranks, the woman who died because of that...

It... it would make sense, why she'd want to keep that a secret.]

I... I'm sorry you had to tell us this way...

[sentadaughter]

I was planning on telling everyone eventually. I wouldn't let you all die for my sake. I just...needed to work up the courage to do so.

[trashcubes]

[Oh, Ping... no, not Ping, huh?]

Mulaaan.

[Now WALL-E gets why you asked if they could say that name too.]

[sentadaughter]

[Okay, that gets a little smile from her. A little one.]

That's right. That's my real name.

[But it's gone as quickly as it comes.]