FIFTH TRIAL

[splitaseam]

[As the Stretching Room descends, there is a long pause before Oogie says anything.]

What? You wanna 'nother speech? You ain't getting one!

[New day, brand new epitaphs for our dearly departed awaiting in this graveyard.

Here lies Demyx
All he wanted was a heart
But he ended up torn apart

Here lies Kiara
Our most beloved kitty
Now ready to sit pretty

Here lies Tip
She wanted to think ahead
And ended up torn to shreds

Only a dozen of you guys left, think you can figure out whodunit?]

Come on, I ain't gettin any younger here!

Comments

[sixfingeredstan]

[Six weeks. Six long weeks, and their number has halved, and it keeps growing smaller. Ford's emotions have tipped from worried to sad to angry to pure frustration at this point, because as the weeks go on, things make less and less sense, and to a man who relies heavily on logic and pattern, that's very frustrating. This is a kind of weird he wasn't prepared for: the slow entropy of order and rule.

His hands are white-knuckle tight on the edge of his tombstone, his head bowed slightly.]

Did...anyone find the rest of her?

[Of Kiara, he means.]

[toogoodforhim]

...Of Tip?

[Guess who doesn't know about the skinning...]

[toogoodforhim]

Well, um, first of all I think we can all agree that no one here would have done this.

[Lefou doesn't go to his own podium, stopping instead to stand with Maui. He's circled back around from visibly shaken to pissed, and there's something hollowed and furious in his gaze.]

[splitaseam]

Pssh, don't be so quick to dismiss your friends just yet, tubby.

[sixfingeredstan]

Do we know that for sure? [Ford purses his lips.] I'd like very much to believe it, but I also wanted to think that nobody would have done any of the previous murders, either...

[aboyandhiscar]

[Mike is just. Gonna put Tip's wrapped head on her tombstone. Nothing weird here and totally worth phone tagging.]

[ilovepuppies]

...Please don't tell me that's what I think it is.

[outsidethecircle]

[Anna is just. Going to stare at that but she's not going to touch it.]

[whistlenotchirp]

[He straightens his jacket uncomfortably. He's the body guy today, huh? That's a new public speaking routine for him.
Fun.]

For those who weren't aware... [Since some didn't know about Kiara.] Tip's body was found in the piano in the ballroom. She was headless which, uh, the Frenchman has made... clear...

[A quick nod to Lefou.]

He body is covered in claw marks. Particularly on her arms. I believe this suggests she was defending herself in a struggle. Her neck was covered in splinters, which, uh, sort of incriminates our munching piano friend. I mean, obviously, so... yeah.

[He's losing his nerve someone else talk now please.]

[sixfingeredstan]

Claw marks.

[That's...troubling, and has some rather unfortunate implications if you think about the other victim. Ford clears his throat.]

The piano doesn't exactly have claws, but...is it possible Kiara was involved in that somehow?

[terribibble]

[Alright. There's... well there's a lot to discuss with regards to Kiara's body.

The half of it they found.

Fiddleford is the one who took the closest look at her, so he supposes it falls to him to bring that information forward. He really doesn't want to, but at least if he had to find a body he found one of the few bodies he can talk about without going nonverbal with trauma. He feels like he should feel bad about that, but at least here it means he can sort of be helpful.]

So, ah. I found Kiara -- I found her skin. In the trophy room, under a whole pile of those lion pelts we kept gettin' out of the slot machine.

Whoever skinned her did a real good job. I've seen enough animals skinned in my day to know when it's done well. Whoever did this knew what they were doin'.

[Which points to it being intentional and not something that was done in a panicked rush, which worries him a good deal. Someone really wanted to skin Kiara properly.]

There were also marks on her. Lots of scratches, real shallow ones, so not claw marks or knife marks, nothin' like that. And a... a bite mark. A real big one, so I don't know if it could've been any of us.

[He didn't bring the skin with him. He couldn't. That would've been too much even for him. Maybe Wendy did, but he... well they're just going to have to take his word for it.]

There were also the splinters in her paws, which I've already mentioned, and ah -- blood. Could've been a handprint? But it was too smudged to get a good read on it.

And we don't -- unless nobody's mentioned, we don't -- we don't know where. The rest of her. Is.

[mmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMM]

[sixfingeredstan]

[Okay, well, there's a whole lot of information to deal with here. He's determined to make it all fit together logically if he can. But something's niggling at him.]

The bite mark. Could it have come from the piano, maybe? If it...if it bit Tip's head off, it might have gotten a nip at Kiara, too...

[ilovepuppies]

The- the rest of her?

[kindaruledatit]

[Wendy, who's totally been here the whole time guys, goes over to the tombstone beside her... and puts down a bundle wrapped in her suit jacket.

It's totally fine, you guys. It's just their friend's skin.]

[outsidethecircle]

Anyone who can skin an animal raise their hands.

[Anna isn't taking any of this. Who killed Tip?? And Kiara. If she can find who skinned the lion then... then it'd be easy to find who killed Tip.]

She couldn't have done it to herself!

[sixfingeredstan]

[These folks over here.]

[aboyandhiscar]

[Mike lets out a WHISTLE to get everyone's attention--and also the skin and tip's head (both wrapped) are on display if anyone needs to re-examine them.]

Okay guys, we're getting no where fast. We gotta figure out who did this, or who's trying to frame us if this is another ghost trick.

First up, it's sounding like the piano was used at the murder weapon, or at least for part of it. Splinters and wood bits were around the area, yeah? Did anyone find any other wooden bits or any other evidence that hasn't been mentioned?

A working theory right now is that maybe, Kiara was trying to get Tip out of the piano. That's how her skin got all those scratches and bite marks. Meanwhile, Tip had her head bitten off, and was also covered in claw marks and bite marks around her neck. Her actual head was found outside uh. . .in a bubble. It popped.

Anyway, we know someone skinned Kiara, but not why. There's a blurry smeary handprint that's prooobably human. The culprit could have skinned Kiara to hide how they killed her, maybe? Don't know.

Finally, we know only 5 of us know how to skin animals. Ford, Fidds, Wendy, Lefou, and Maui.

So.........okay, that's not much at all, but let's try to focus a bit here.

[outsidethecircle]

A bubble? Do... do you think it was washed?

[Sorry. She's just. Going to try to not hyperventilate here.]

[terribibble]

Only five of us would admit to it, anyway. Knowin' how to skin animals. It'd... someone could've just kept quiet.

[Though looking around the circle he can't imagine many of the rest of them having such skills. But... how would they know for sure? His brain's doing that thing again where it throws up so many red flags he honestly can't tell which are worth paying attention to.]

[amadeusrockette]

I found broken lightbulbs in the ballroom near the piano. [She looks down and notices the broken broom she set down earlier.] Which may have been smashed with the broken broom I found? I have no idea why.

[ilovepuppies]

[Every time Star glances at the pieces of Tip and Kiara, she turns a little more green.]

Do those have to be out on display like that?

catherd 2: electric boogaloo

[amadeusrockette]

[She doesn't have a banjo this time, so instead Julia just kinda. Yells.]

We have a problem! Nobody -
[Why aren't ya'll listening.] WE HAVE A PROBLEM, NOBODY HAS FIGURED OUT WHY THE LIGHTBULBS WERE IN TWO PLACES.

[Hopefully you're all listening now.]

Additionally, we don't know why or what Kiara was skinned with and we don't know how [She swallows.] Tip's head ended up in the graveyard. It's useless to figure out who did it before we even know what happened. And . . . I have a question: would Tip have a reason to look in the piano?

[outsidethecircle]

No, I don't think so. Unless someone lured her in. We all saw what it did to Tadashi.

[Her bae wasn't a dummy. Besides...]

Do we even know how Kiara died?

[ilovepuppies]

I didn't. I didn't mean for this to happen. I tried to fix it. I tried to fix it!

[she's gripping the sides of her tombstone.]

[sixfingeredstan]

Star, just...tell us what happened. I promise we aren't accusing you, we just need to know what's going on so we can clear this up.

Voting Time

[splitaseam]

"First of all I think we can all agree that no one here would have done this."

[He says in a mocking tone while looking right at Lefou.]

Time to vote you poor fleshbags. And if you've forgotten, a misvote gets ya killed, and I think a certain someone doesn't want more blood on her hands.

[A laugh.]

[aboyandhiscar]

[aaaaaAAAAAAH]

There's gotta be some way outta this. Any way.

C'mon, Bugsack! There's no exceptions? No loopholes? Even you said you don't play fair!

Execution: A Star is Born

[splitaseam]

[The lights on the stage turn on, and Star Butterfly is standing there. Ropes are tightly wound around each individual wrist and ankle, making her look like a living marionette. Star examines them in disgust and goes to untie the ropes, but before she reaches any of the knots, her wrists are yanked up by an off screen presence.

As she tries again to undo the ropes, whatever is controlling her suddenly forces her to dance. It’s an overly cutesy and princessy dance, and this causes Star to feel even more disgusted by all of this. All the sudden, a song starts to play.]

Who is the maid with the buttercup hair?
Who sleeps on moonbeams and dances on air
With tears made of honey and a heart full of bunnies
Whose infinite virtues are known near and far
It's Mewni's own sweetheart, our dear Princess Star

And under the shimmer and rubies and pearls
Lies hidden a fierce and adventurous girl
The forces of evil that lurk in the night
Will cower in fear when this shooting Star...
...ignites!

[But as the song picks up, a couple of animatronics appear on stage and surround Star, looking vaguely like monsters and all carrying weapons. It’s very clear of their intention: to kill Star. Star catches onto this too and quickly prepares for battle, kicking and punching every animatronic gets close. She does a shockingly good job at defeating the “monsters”, all going down with a single kick and punch.

But all the sudden, as she’s about to punch the last animatronic, the rope around her wrists pull hard in the other direction, nearly knocking her over. She is dazed enough that the remaining animatronic picks up his axe and swings it at her.

Her leg is chopped clean off by a saw, and Star screams in pain and terror. She starts flailing in an attempt to get up, to fight back against the animatronic, to do anything. Admits all the screaming and flailing in horror, the animatronics get back up with a vengeance and surround Star again. She attempts to fight them all off once again, but with Star quickly losing a lot of blood and desperately trying to maintain her balance, she can only take out a few of the animatronics before they completely overwhelm her.]


Royal secret – one last to tell
A princess under true love's spell


Who is the boy in the earthly attire?
The prince of the princess's deepest desire
I don't need to show it, I think we all know it
But just to be certain, I'll say it again-

[Her screaming pierces through the song, echoing across the trial room until it suddenly… stops. It’s hard to see what the animatronics were doing to her since there were so many of them, but as they back away when the song ends, there is just a pile of bloodied mush where Star once stood, with the ropes binding her being the only thing that shows that the gore was once Star Butterfly.

The mass of animatronics turn towards the audience, completely silent as they do so.]

[splitaseam]

[And they start to sing.]

There's a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day
There's a great big beautiful tomorrow
And tomorrow's just a dream away

Man has a dream and that's the start
He follows his dream with mind and heart
When it becomes a reality
It's a dream come true for you and me

So there's a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day
There's a great big beautiful tomorrow
Just a dream away

[The stage rotates away, leaving nothing left of Star Butterfly.

How much more if this can you take?]