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

[folkscallmewander]

[If someone close to them hadn't just died, Wander would have complimented the ghosts on their work in decorating the room. There was a lot of thought put into the aesthetic, but for now, the tombstone is in bad taste. Everyone is in poor spirits, and this isn't helping.

That's what he's here for, right? To help. There's children that need comforting, friends that need a hand in keeping it together. Wander takes a deep breath.]

No matter what happens here, we're all doin' this together. All twenty-four of us. We'll find out what happened to Karolina, and from now, on we're not gonna let this ever happen again.

[He watches the others in the circle, pausing at each person to offer a soft smile.]

We got this.

[defyingfrigidity]

[This whole setup had been pretty ominous, and it was really getting to Elsa. But her fear had snapped away when she saw Karolina's grave, and that limerick on it. The fear is replaced by disgust, and she just shakes her head.]

Is that really appropriate?

[ilovepuppies]

[a mere 24 hours ago, Star would have found this set up incredibly cool. But now it's just creepy.]

Why do we all have a tombstone...?

[whistlenotchirp]

[He tugs on his collar uncomfortably.]

This is, uh.... A bit much, don't you think.

What exactly are we supposed to do here?

[kindaruledatit]

[This is definitely not how she wanted to get outside. Wendy's gaze instantly slips to the high fence overlooking this area... and then to the tombstone circle.

Normally, she would be stoked to be in an area like this, but given the circumstances she's feeling a little down. To say the least.

Karolina's bracelet is burning a hole in her pocket as she takes her spot behind her tombstone. "Wendy Blerble Corduroy". Heh, not exactly the way she wanted people to learn about it.]

Yeesh... Guess we're really doing this, huh?

[wannagetsmote]

[ This whole thing felt weird. The stones with marked depressions? The decorations on Karolina's stone? The fact that she was dead, and he was in the room with her killer, expected to find them with a "trial." Maui wouldn't even pretend to know what was going on. ]

Let's make this quick. This isn't right.

[aboyandhiscar]

[you know, he'd be really excited about FINALLY being outside and seeing a real gd moon for once holy crap!!....but the atmosphere kinda ruins it. He finds his tombstone and leans on it.]

Let me get this straight. You guys gave us a motivation to murder someone--another innocent person--and now someone finally did what you've guys been wanting, but now we're holding a trial to find said murderer? Look, whoever did it, it's awful, and they need to be found out, but when they are. . .

What's gonna happen to them?

[sixfingeredstan]

[Like many of the others, Ford would normally be very interested in this sudden new development—

—but the combination of the fresh murder of Karolina, combined with seeing a gravestone with his name on it, is really putting a damper on that. He stares around the circle, looking each person over for a long moment, wondering how they're supposed to condemn someone for this death. He finds it hard to believe any of these people would have done it...]

Perhaps we ought to be discussing the evidence we've found before we....'vote.'

[outsidethecircle]

[Anna's been quiet this entire time but speaks up.]

I found something in the women's bathroom...

[She pulls out the blood-soaked fabric. She lays it on her tombstone with disgust.] I don't know if it'll help but since it was in the women's room that probably narrows it down. It doesn't look like it was torn off anything, either.

[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.

VOTING TIME

[yourghosthost]

It seems as though we have reached a consensus. Thus, it is time for you to input your vote.

[the keyboards along the top of the tombstone glow a ghastly blue.]

Input the name of the guilty party. While I have previously stated that I will tolerate mispellings and such, I will not tolerate intentional misvotes. Those of you who vote wrong shall be punished alongside the culprit.

Should you reach a majority vote, the culprit will be punished and the rest of you shall go back upstairs.If it's any consolation, I imagine you'll be seeing those two around the mansion soon enough.

EXECUTION: A Life For A Life

[yourghosthost]

It has been decided. You have discovered the guilty party, and thus, we shall commence our execution.

[A large stage appears at the edge of the graveyard, and Mulan disappears. The lights come on on the stage, and she is there, kneeling before the proceedings. She hangs her head low, allowing her natural hair to flow freely. Barbed chains fall around her knees and hands, drawing blood in the process. Even with these, she doesn't look like she wants to run anytime soon.

All of a sudden, hazy voices come through, as figures rise up above her. Skeletal figures, decaying and wearing traditional clothing, judge her from above. One carries a staff, appearing to be the leader, and their voices rise as they speak of her with disdain.]

"She is a failure!"

"She has brought dishonor to us all!"

"Dishonor on her whole family!"

"She couldn't even kill the girl properly!"

A cacophony of voices rise all around her, each offering their own disdainful opinion of her. Yet, despite this, she does not react. She hears you, Reverend Ancestors. She hears you all.

Admist the own conflicting advice to their "descendant", a ghostly steed appears from the back of the stage. A silhouetted soldier steps off of the horse, his gait more resembling the slow shuffle of the undead than the honorable swagger of a soldier. A sword is loudly pulled from a sheath on the soldier's side, carrying with it it's own distinctive sound. His cape floats about in the wind as he approaches Mulan from behind, dragging his sword on the stage below.

Loud boots mark his arrival, and although Mulan might hear the sound, she kneels and does not react. She must die a soldier's death. For herself. For her family. For honor. There might be tears in Mulan's eyes as the cachophony of voices reaches their highest peak, as the sword is raised up.]

"A woman!"

"High treason!"

"Ultimate dishonor!"

"Deception!"

"Disgrace!"

[The sword finds its mark. The voices go silent.

Mulan's head rolls off to the side, her experssion a terrible visage of pain. It bounces along the ground with sickening terrible thuds every time it lands. A river of blood begins to pool up around the scene. Her body goes limp and falls forward, blood soaking the rusty chains that bind her.

The scene goes silent. All the onstage actors freeze.]