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

Someone help pls

[toogoodforhim]

[Lefou grips his own headstone on either side of the keyboard, shoulders tense and eyes clenched shut. He can't do this, he can't send someone to their death for an accident, it's not... It's not fair.

But he has to. He promised her he'd return her father's armor, tell them how brave their daughter was.

He really needs to learn to read...]

[folkscallmewander]

[Wander is here to help, and that means doing what makes him uncomfortable so that as many people can live to see another day. He approaches Lefou, doing his best to hide the panicked look in his eyes.]

I can write it for you.

[Or he could spell it out, but that would make Lefou feel guilty.]

[toogoodforhim]

I need to do it myself.

[He's been to war, he has blood on his hands anyway. He won't be absolved of this.]

[folkscallmewander]

[Wander looks at the typewrite. Anything but Lefou's face.]

M. U. L. A. N.

[Spoken slowly, letting Lefou take as much time as he needs.]

[toogoodforhim]

[He's thankful for that, because as he presses each button the tears fill his eyes and begin to slide down his cheeks. He feels like a little boy again, being tested on his letters, but this is so much different than the Headmaster with his cane and the laughter of his schoolmates.

It gets typed, eventually. There's only one letter in there that doesn't appear in either of the two names that he can still vaguely recognize when it's spelt.]

...Thank you.

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa.... Elsa's already done it, and she feels worse than she's felt in a very long time. But seeing some of the other struggle... it tugs at her. Pulls her a bit out of the wallowing depression she's familiar with being sucked down into.

She sees Lefou staring down at his typewriter, and it only takes one bad start at attempting to talk before she calls out to him.]

Lefou, do... do you need help?

[toogoodforhim]

I want to do it myself, but I...

[He hates to admit this. Somehow he's gone this long without saying the word, at least here, where everyone seems to take reading for granted (in the village, it was a joke, everyone knew him, the boy who'd never had time to do his studies, always bullied by the headmaster and the other kids for being slow, wasn't he so lucky that Gaston looked out for him]

[defyingfrigidity]

[It feels weird to move, like her body is all locked up, but she makes her way over to Lefou, putting a hand on his shoulder. She doesn't need any sort of explanation, and the last thing Elsa will ever do is judge someone over something like this.]

It's okay.

[Her voice shakes, proving that it's clearly not okay for anyone, but she still reaches out. Her hand shakes even worse this time, but she manages to type out the name for him.]

Fa Mulan

[And then she'll just. Grip his shoulder even harder. She's still not very good at hugging people outside of her sister, but she can still offer comfort somehow.]