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

[aboyandhiscar]

[SURE WHY NOT Mike does lean over to inspect his shoes more. It's almost a relief--besides, the culprit's shoes wouldn't be quiet as grimy as everyone else if they cleaned themselves up. Anything to note?]

Yep, mine too. But given it's the music room we're talking about, I wanted to make sure.

[arpeggiositar]

[Demyx pretty much jumps off the tombstone, landing on the ground and stumbling]

Yeah. No. There's nothing.

[With some luck you did notice that the boots looked a tad too...damp? Even the dust and dirt covering it is sticking a bit too well]

[aboyandhiscar]

[Well first Mike has to help him with that stumble--MANNERS, even during accusations. But as his boots bump Demyx's. . .yeah, that's a little noticeable.]

Guess not--dude, did you step in a puddle or something?

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford's watching all of this cautiously, but when he hears that, his brows knit together.]

Are his shoes damp, Mike?

[toogoodforhim]

...There was nothing on the floor.

[amadeusrockette]

[Sawdust and grease, soap won't always remove grease from clothes but -]

Did you wash your shoes, Demyx?

[aboyandhiscar]

[?????]

A little, yeah. But he's still dusty as anyone else.

[arpeggiositar]

...yeah. In the Laundry Room. It was all full of puddles. Of course my boots would get wet if I got there.

[It's a bit amazing how he can contradict himself without changing his tone]

[outsidethecircle]

But Lefou just said the floor there was dry.

[arpeggiositar]

That's--that...

[...oh. Demyx shuts up, most of his coldness leaving him. Instead he falls silent]

[sixfingeredstan]

...Demyx. If there's anything we should know, I think it's best you come out and tell us now, before we go any further.

[WHAT THE FUCK, HE THOUGHT YOU WERE CHILL....]

[kindaruledatit]

...Dude, you're nervous, aren't you?

[She knows that look.]

[outsidethecircle]

You broke WALL-E!

[arpeggiositar]

Wally was a robot. A machine. Fix it later and it'll be like nothing happened.

[Yeah, Demyx still isn't big on empathy and the such]

[sixfingeredstan]

So you admit it, then? You...you murdered him?

[arpeggiositar]

...yeah. I broke it.

[Still not calling it a murder, though. It was a machine. He bets it didn't even have a heart]

[outsidethecircle]

This...this bastard doesn't care about it!

[aboyandhiscar]

. . .

[bruh.

Still, tentatively, Mike reaches out to put a hand on his shoulder.]

You're. . .not totally wrong, man, but it doesn't work like that. Not here.

[arpeggiositar]

[Well he doesn't move, he's just giving up. You could hit him with a cello and he wouldn't react]

I thought it was a better target. It's not like I killed someone who is here, alive and all. It was just a machine.

[He shrugs]

I don't even know why I panicked while I was doing that. I just--pushed the table on it and ran away. Didn't even think it wasn't completely broken yet.

[terribibble]

Unless you make it so he can't be fixed. It -- by the rules of this place it probably wouldn't've counted otherwise.

[He isn't even... angry, exactly. He agrees with Demyx to a degree, even, but WALL-E wasn't just a machine.

He's just... tired. Wrung out. He doesn't have the energy to be furious anymore.]

[arpeggiositar]

Surely you'll get something out of that vending machine that'll get it fixed. You'll see.

[Demyx doesn't really care if it gets fixed or not. He got caught, he'll be executed, what does that matter]

[capulion]

Disgusting.

[That isn't how it works! It isn't how life works!]

[sixfingeredstan]

...But you told Lefou there was nothing on the floor, did you not?

[toogoodforhim]

[Um.]

I was in the laundry room, too. The only water was in the basin and the machine.

[aboyandhiscar]

Okay, yeah, guess that's legi--[WAIT NO THAT'S NOT LEGIT AT ALL!!]

. . .

Dude. . .