SIXTH TRIAL

[splitaseam]

[The whole trial thing must feel like the norm to everyone right now, and one can't help but wonder if this will keep happening until everyone has died.

There are three new epitaphs for Star Butterfly, Maui, and Fiddleford.

Here lies Star Butterfly
One of our most toughest girls
Went out with a pretty twirl

Here lies Maui
Claimed to be a great demigod
But it turns out he was a fraud

Here lies Fiddleford McGucket
He tried to wipe his mind
And ended up getting left behind

Well you all know what to do by now, huh?]

Don't spare any of the gory details.

Comments

[kindaruledatit]

[Wendy's here, as always. Although now that she's looking around the trial area, it's suddenly becoming very obvious that she's... kind of alone on this side. There's so few of them now.

But they can't stop, and they won't stop.]

...Alright, so, if whoever did this would like to come out with it now? That'd be great. [Save them the time, get it all of their chest? No? She shrugs, and starts pulling out evidence.]

So, the kitchen was basically torched. Looked like there was a fire in there last nice, and there were burn scars everywhere. I think someone might have been trying to put it out.

[...After a moment, she pulls out the journal she found on the table there.]

I found this on the table. I'm pretty sure it was Mcgucket's. [She looks to Ford, apologetically.] And, I also happened to find... a half-empty bottle of bleach in the kitchen too.

[outsidethecircle]

Is bleach flammable?

[sixfingeredstan]

No, actually. Not on its own. It's combustible when combined with certain other chemicals, though. So it could have been mixed with something.

[kindaruledatit]

Yeah, that makes sense. Plus I found the bottle of it open and hidden under the sink, so...

[She glances at Ford.]

Hey, do you remember that jar you found?

[sixfingeredstan]

Hm—oh, yes. It smelled like there were traces of alcohol inside. I'd assumed at the time it was the last dregs of Fiddleford's moonshine...

[kindaruledatit]

Yeah, I found the lid for it.

It had some bleach on it.

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford's brow furrows, and then clears.]

Then it's possible that the two were mixed, somehow...and combusted.

[Fuck. He knows it couldn't have been Fiddleford—he'd have known better than to combine volatile chemicals.]

[kindaruledatit]

Whoa, whoa, hold on a sec. You mean something could have... exploded last night?

[outsidethecircle]

So...it couldn't have started it?

[What is chemistry can you eat it]

[sixfingeredstan]

Not unless it was mixed with ammonia, or turpentine, no.

[chainbroke]

Do... we have those here?

[outsidethecircle]

[Hmm...]

What about alcohol?

[sixfingeredstan]

Well, that would make chloroform, which...

[Which, when mixed with acetone, is highly combustible.]

His mouth. And the jar. They both smelled like ethyl acetate. That would cause an explosion, certainly.

[kindaruledatit]

We sure do have a lot of that.

[Bunch of alcoholics is what we have here.]

[toogoodforhim]

[Anyone who looks at Lefou as Wendy goes through her evidence will see the way he slips away, even while he's still standing there. He can't. He can't be here right now. He found things that need to be shared, he needs to tell everyone what he found about Maui's body, but how can he when all he wants to think about is the last time Maui swept him up in a hug, is the last kiss that they shared when Lefou wished him luck on his patrol, is the way that Maui had laughed and Mini-Maui flexed proudly as he said "I don't need luck, short-stack, I'm way too awesome."

He pushes that down, puts his head forward, and follows through.

Je t'aime]

Maui was... There was no sign of struggle in the hallway. It looked like he was just... like he laid down and fell asleep.

[Like he was trying to get back to their room.]

The floor around him was burnt like he was already-- already on fire when he laid there. And... there was a wound- [He chokes.] On the bottom of his foot, like he'd stepped on something sharp. I don't know if anyone else found anything it could have been, or any blood...

[sixfingeredstan]

There was...

[Ford's voice catches, and he pulls out something wrapped in a handkerchief. Unwrapping it, he holds up the knife he'd found; it has faint traces of blood on it.]

This. Next to Fiddleford.

Mods?

[toogoodforhim]

[He takes the knife gently. He knows how cleanly a knife can cut, even to be nicked with.

Does it look like it might be a match?

[grimgrinningghosts]

[It does.]

[toogoodforhim]

[Oh happy dagger! This is thy sheath, there rust and let me die-

Ok no but he is hanging onto this.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[The appearance of Fiddleford's journal makes Ford's gaze rise from the horizon he's been burning a hole into, and direct instead toward Wendy. He'd been too busy mourning to notice much else going on in the kitchen, but he's glad that if anyone had to find the rest of the evidence, it was Wendy.]

Was there anything...anything off about his journal? Anything that seemed like it didn't belong?

[He's tired, he's so tired. He doesn't want to do this. He wants to lock himself in his and Fiddleford's room and grieve, but he has to do this. For Fiddleford. For Maui. For Lefou. They have to figure this thing out.]

[kindaruledatit]

[She sets the thing out on her tombstone, somewhat hesitantly flipping it open. She'd be more cautious if she hadn't already been rubbing her face against it earlier.]

Well, there was one thing... I found it open to like, the last page, and part of it is smudged?

[Aha, she finds it.]

It's like if something was spilled on it, or something.

mods!!

[sixfingeredstan]

[That's...worrisome. He goes over to inspect the smudges, and then, because his sense of smell has already been vital in determining evidence, leans in to take a sniff of those smudges.

What's it smell like?]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[It smells like alcohol.]

[sixfingeredstan]

Alcohol. Which explains the ink smears.

[How does this all come together? How does the puzzle fit together in a way that ends with his husband dead and Maui gone, too?]

[kindaruledatit]

Ooookay, so maybe Mcgucket was having a drink and spilled a bit?

[She doesn't want to be rude but man do they drink a lot around here, good god.]

The smears are kind of weird though, don't you think?