FOURTH TRIAL

[splitaseam]

[To what I'm sure is everyone's joy after a sad investigation like that, after everyone reaches the Stretching Room, Oogie's voice can be heard.]

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

[Well at least he's honoring Ghostave's memory, except he starts laughing, almost tauntingly, after he says that.

In the very least the graveyard seems identical, with three new epitaphs for our dearly departed.

Here lies Lea
Slaying bugs he made a name
And got sent to the deadliest game

Here lies WALL-E
They were our dearest friend
But that didn’t help them in the end

Here lies Tarzan?
????
?????


... Ok then.

Oogie speaks before everyone can get to their tombstones.]

Don't keep me waiting!

Comments

[toogoodforhim]

[He shakes his head but doesn't look up. He has to give an answer because Fidds is right next to him.]

Magic doesn't care about people, even when it pretends to.

[It's mumbled into his knees like a child.]

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa doesn't say anything at his outburst, but she does look down at her hands at that. It's true that, in the year since her coronation, she's been using her magic to help her people and make them and Anna happy... but what had her magic done before that? Caused her a lifetime of depression, stress, and anxiety, distance her from the people she loves, hurt the people she loves...

Even the trolls... they didn't try and explain anything about her magic to her parents. They heard what her father planned to do, and they did nothing to try and help...

He really has a point, doesn't he?]

[terribibble]

So then... it shouldn't care about us, right. It just cares about the rules of this game it's got set up. So... so it wouldn't give us a puzzle that's unsolvable.

[Everything since they got here's been about rules. About following them. As a very superstitious man he has to believe that magic follows rules even if they're not fair ones or easy to abide by.]

There is a solution. There's always a solution, we just... we have to find it.

[This is all he's got. And it hasn't worked for him yet today but he needs to be able to fix things, he needs to, or there really is no hope at all. He can't be positive, not anymore, but he can push stubbornly forward until he drops.]

[sixfingeredstan]

Fiddleford is right. Even if they are playing games...every game has rules. And we can't let ourselves lose hope. The only way to get through this is to keep trying. No matter how daunting the task before us.

[PEP TALK, GO.]

[capulion]

Even if they keep changing the rules...

[Someone is a very sad kitty.]

[sixfingeredstan]

I know. Even so.

[It isn't fair, but it's what they've got to work with.]

[amadeusrockette]

The rules haven't really changed, though: find who did it, bring them to justice. Everything else is window dressing.

[kindaruledatit]

It's not even changing the rules, is it? They're like, adding rules to the other rules, making it harder to do stuff. [Groaaan.]

[She runs a hand through her long hair, tugging on strands.] This is the absolute worst.

[toogoodforhim]

[He looks up, but doesn't stand yet. There's something hard and distant in eyes that have only been soft and emotional for the last five weeks. There's an iron core under the marshmallow.]

We need to narrow down who it was instead of just talking in circles. It wasn't me. I wouldn't hurt Wally. I don't even know how to use those machines that I found, and I was with Maui all night after the wake.

[He knows that that's. Not much of an alibi (sorry bae he loves you but you sleep like the dead). But it's what he has and he says it with conviction.]

[terribibble]

[YEAH THERE'S THE BOY

JOIN HIM IN THE 'DONE WITH THIS SHIT AND LOWKEY READY TO KICK SOME ASS' CORNER]

We still need to decide conclusively if the cello was the murder weapon or just intended to look like one. That's goin' to go a long way toward figurin' out who did this.

[toogoodforhim]

You said it broke something... inside him. That would have "killed" him. A lot of the instruments were in kind of rough shape, do you think that a cello could have hit him hard enough to break that?

[terribibble]

If someone swung it with enough force, maybe. They'd have to really be tryin' to hurt him. That'd explain why the cello was all in pieces, but it doesn't explain why some of it was chewed up to sawdust unless pieces got-- got caught in his machinery, or somethin'. Which is a distinct possibility.

Someone could've just as easily smashed it after the fact and planted it.

[He works very hard not to look at Mike and his long metal staff, which could easily batter a robot to death and smash a cello.]

[capulion]

That is... an interesting point. Is a ch-ello strong enough to break the stone Wally was made from? He was... dented.

[toogoodforhim]

...If he was still alive when we found him...

Wouldn't it have to be someone who knew when to stop?

[terribibble]

... Yes. Someone who'd recognize signs of a breakdown startin'.

[wannagetsmote]

Pretty sure an instrument could kill one of us. You almost broke my face on a manjo. [ He tasted blood for hours, Fidds. Hours! ]

[terribibble]

Oh, sure. I keep Betty in tip-top shape though is the thing. The instruments here aren't bein' looked after near so well.

But that's why I wouldn't rule it out as a possibility. A cello could do that damage if it was still sturdy. And... and it's like I said earlier, the obvious answer's sometimes the right one.

[Which is not usually how his brain works. The obvious answer to him is usually the one he discounts first because his brain likes to leap to the wildest conclusion and go from there. But he can't do that here. He can't. Jumping to conclusions almost got Star killed last week. No more.]

[sixfingeredstan]

You're right. We have to step back. Look at all the evidence. The fact remains that, you're right. You don't even know what that machine does, let alone how to work it.

Which leaves, of the people whose handprints match...Mike and Demyx. How can we narrow this down?

[toogoodforhim]

[For once being an idiot pays off in his favor.]

...Who had the most to gain?

[sixfingeredstan]

...Well. What do we know about either of their video clips? Did anything stand out in particular about either of them? Anything especially motivating?

[arpeggiositar]

Mine was nothing special, just me playing music, sitting around with people I know, fighting evil creatures, that kinda stuff.

[amadeusrockette]

[She frowns.]

That doesn't mean anything. All my clips were me playing music, but they had no context. None of you would know why they upset me.

[capulion]

[Yeah that's right!!! You tell 'em! Kiara purrs and shifts to put her head in his lap where they're sitting.

She believes you.]

[wannagetsmote]

He definitely was. I... totally would have known if he left.

[ Yeah, bullshit. ]

[toogoodforhim]

[That's what gets him back on his feet, if just so he can give Maui a small, but grateful smile.

Thanks, babe.]