#exploratory despair

1) Head over to https://ed-investigation.tumblr.com/

2) Read the FAQ. You must submit at least once with what your character found! This is the ONLY part of the game where I require submissions. No submission, nothing found.

3) Start is, well, where you start! 

Have fun investigating!

About 4:30 AM, four days into the motive...

Everyone's tablets start going off, and the hidden speakers start going off too, for a few minutes. There's no chance of anyone sleeping through it - weary and tired, everyone is woken up to that masculine voice from before.

"Will everyone meet Miss Meier in the courtyard? Five minutes! Hup tup!"

The moment everyone is in the courtyard, accompanied by their stones, Bina looks around, tiredly, before nodding. She claps her hands, a startling, resounding sound, and everyone's stones suddenly stop - mid-sentence, even, and clatter to the earthen ground.

"This motive is over. One of our classmates is dead." Bina says, the words simple, straightforward.

"Um... there'll be more on this later, but now you'll have to find the clues to find out who killed them, and then we will head to a trial... where either you'll vote correctly and punish the murderer, or as punishment for failing to put it together, someone else will be punished in their place. In the future, we may not... summon you; one of you may find the body, but..."

The masculine voice cuts in, smooth as butter.

"We've opted to give you a bit of a hand this time around. You'll only have about sixty minutes to investigate; you'll know when time is up."

Bina nods.

"Please, follow me..."

She steps into the dining room.

Trigger warnings under the cut for written gore, blood.

Around 10 AM on Day 8...

Over everyone's tablets comes a quiet announcement from Bina, who appears on the screen looking anxious. There's honestly not too much about that that's unusual. Thanks.

[♩ ♪ ♫]

"Will everyone come to the dining room, please? Thank you..."

Once congregated in the dining room, everyone sees Bina standing at the front of a table, which is lined with fourteen boxes - five white, five red, four blue. There's a imprint where a fifth blue box should be, but Bina herself is holding it - a navy blue box with an embossed ball of yarn on it.

"As mentioned when we all woke here, this is a ... competition, to figure out who the best and brightest is. Now, as no one has seen fit to..." She trails off, shudders, and goes on, "As no one has seen fit to kill anyone else yet, it seems that you shall all suffer from a motive; something to try to spur one of you to kill. Please observe."

Bina opens her box, and two small stones fly out of it, hovering around her head. One is glassy black with a stylized closed eye carved into it, while the other one is milky white with a stylized open eye carved into it. You can all hear a voice from the Open Eye stone - not Bina's, one similar to hers in accent and warmth though, noting: "You're doing very well for what you're having to do." The Closed Eye can be heard if everyone's quiet enough- "You can leave. Just leave."

Bina shakes her head at them, and touches the stones, guiding them back into her box, where they immediately quiet. "Unlike mine, yours will be talking essentially non-stop until someone murders. If you do not open your box, I will have to open it for you." She trails off, looking back at the tables.

"Please, come get your boxes."

In the realm of White... Elisabeth, with an embossed sewing machine. Kimiko, with an embossed crescent moon. Lucien, with an embossed   Midori, with an embossed Yo, with an embossed golf ball.

In the realm of Blue... Coco, with an embossed hairbrush. Jet, with an embossed paintbrush. Jinan, with an embossed punch glove. Lucian, with an embossed pair of what are fangs.

In the realm of Red... Haruka, with an embossed treasure chest. Morcades, with an embossed gavel. Ryo, with an embossed paw print. Sen, with an embossed gun. Tetsu, with an embossed knife.

--- OOC:

The Open Eye speaks insistently but infrequently, adopting the voice of someone the student respects or is inclined to obey, and tries to guide them down a path that is morally sound. Psychologically speaking, it is the Superego. It censors itself and does not talk about things that the student would not want others to overhear.

The Closed Eye speaks constantly and in a hushed whisper, in the student's own voice, and tries to guide them towards the things that the student wants (even if they're fleeting desires). Psychologically speaking, it is the Id. It does not censor itself and frequently speaks about things that the student would likely not want others to hear.

Both stones can be overheard by other students, although the Open Eye is louder than the Closed Eye. The Open Eye is more likely to be overheard across a room, while the Closed Eye is only likely to be overheard in close quarters or where the room is otherwise silent.

With that, chapter 1 has started with no information, just waking up in a strange locale!

Everyone wakes up in a comfortable armchair, surrounding a fire pit. Fifteen seats, fourteen people, at least until Bina stumbles out of the eastern door, shaking heavily. The young woman has a silver collar on, matched with two wristbands, one on each wrist.

A voice echoes over the group, another one no one knows.

"Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the next stage of your life. As a part of changing reality, we must have the best and the brightest. Up to that point, that has been the fifteen of you. Up to this point, you all have been chosen by others."

A poignant pause.

"Now, it is time for you to choose, though. This is no ordinary place; only the truly best, brightest, most brilliant will make it to the final part of this. Only those will live. That's right. You've been decided upon. Now it is your turn to decide who will survive-"

"And who will die."

The voice is oh so pleasant.

"Now, Miss Meier has been chosen as the odd person out, and she is 'released' from this world. She has been truly the chosen, for what grace or harm that gives her. She'll have the rest of the details on this game as time goes - for not even she knows, at this time. Do not harm her. She will not harm anyone - not that I think she would anyways, think what you will about that."

"Please look to your personal devices - barring Miss Sato - and you'll see a local map and a special dot on the back, which will allow you access to your shared dorm room. There is an attached roommate listing."

Bina quietly hands Elisabeth a small, Braille-lettered object.

"Congratulations to the Forsaken Fifteen; for the Ending Eight, your time awaits."

The microphone cuts off, and Bina immediately starts up.

“I don’t know what’s going on, they just slapped these on me and someone shoved me back out here! Don’t ask! I have no idea who that voice was, or if what they said was true!”

Three voices, all muffled, none of them quite matching anyone anyone talked to so far.

Person 1: "You can't be serious. That's the plan?"

Person 2: "I don't think they'd lie about that. That's not how they are."

Person 3: "... and that's the best idea you could come up with?"

Person 2, uncomfortable: "... it's the only thing we thought that would fit."

Person 1: "Fan-fricking-tastic, you know I love how this goes."

Person 2: "Sarcasm gets you nowhere."

Person 3: "I could do it-"

Person 1 and 2, in unison: "NOPE."

Person 3: "So that's plan beta, got it."

Person 1: "That's plan if that happens we're all really, truly fucked."

Person 2: "They've got a point..."

Person 3: "... I tried."

Person 1: "So... yeah. Game plan. Good luck, you two."

Person 3: "I think I need it the least, and yet the most..."

A nice lunch with everyone in attendance, and Haruto Ito declared it was time to head out. Everyone had packed out onto a small bus - just big enough for everyone to have their own seat - and taken off to the nearest airport, where a private plane awaits. This is no ordinary trip, though, as everyone is assigned the level of a first class cabin for an overnight trip - those little room-like suites, very fancy, very comfortable.

Everyone gets a drink of their choice after lift-off, but one by one, no one can quite keep their eyes open...