#dr:toh

[shslliteraryeditor]

Playing the Victim

Chie was awake, but her eyes had not yet opened. She had been having a tumultuous, dreamless sleep, and her head was pounding. She wasn't usually prone to headaches, but she felt like she'd fallen and hit her head on the floor.

Floor.

Her eyes cracked open, and her breathing immediately accelerated. Now she remembered. Oh, shit, now she really remembered.

There was red everywhere. It was on her clothes, in her hair, on her face, and all over poor Yoku Yoshida over there. Had she slipped and fallen, too? No. No matter how naive Chie was, she knew better than that. She lurched to a sitting position, and looked around again. Her head was swimming. Her stomach felt sick. 

A sob escaped her lips, and she covered her eyes with her hands.

"No..." she murmured, her small body shaking like a leaf. 

Yes, Chie Ishihara was alive and well, but she wasn't quite sure she wanted to be anymore.

[shsldirect]

And so it begins... [TOH Body Discovery]

"A murder..."

The announcement came on as Takayuki had left the dormitory for another day of aimlessly walking around the campus, poking heads into cabinets and going on toes to look over shelves. It wasn't long before he'd taken a good look at every square inch of the area, getting familiar enough with the buildings to know them like the back of his hand. 

In all honesty, he was getting a little bored.

Of course, the motive managed to stir up a little excitement inside him, but what was the point if no one went for it? Despite that thought, Takayuki only considered going for it himself for a moment, before coming to the conclusion that if anyone were to take action first, it wouldn't be him. Fortunately, or more fittingly, unfortunately, he was indeed correct. Someone had fallen prey to Fuwa-chan's words.

Noticing the shrieks coming from the Café, the director raised an eyebrow in curiosity, with an ill-timed smile beginning to form on his face. A murder, happening, right here! I'm impressed! I didn't think anyone had it in them!

However, the somewhat reassuring thought that all of this could be staged sat at the back of his mind, hardly coming to light. Takayuki wouldn't think of himself as someone who would want to encourage the act of taking away someone's life, but nor would he want long, peaceful, uneventful days to go on for weeks. He wondered who had the guts to stop their train of ordinary days right in its tracks. 

"Ah... That's definitely... a murder..."

Despite everything, Takayuki still had to force himself to take a look at the victim... Or in this case, victims.

The smell of blood was strong enough to make him pull his sweater up to his nose while he inched closer to the scene. This wasn't the first time he'd ever seen a crime, if you counted cheesy mystery film ones, but it was the first time he'd ever seen the real deal. It wasn't a pleasant thing to experience, anyone would say that.

"A-Alright then-" He coughed, closing his eyes as he stood above the bodies. "-an investigation is in order, apparently..."

Forcing his eyes open and being careful to avoid bumping into any distressed peers, he steadied his breathing. The gruesome scene in front of him made his face pale, but he managed to compose himself, probably before any normal human would have. Clasping his hands together, he began to scan the room.

"Let's see... an investigation..."

[danganronpatestofhope]

Instructions for Investigation

Although we loathe restricting your path towards justice and discovering the true culprit, and eventually mastermind, we feel as though some may have difficulty figuring out how to start. So, some quick tips, pointers, and suggestions for how to go about investigating in Test of Hope.

The first step, obviously, is roleplaying. Interact with your other students, and question them. One of them definitely did it, and might be acting a little funky. Use your detective skills on them while you peruse the scene of the crime!

Speaking of scene of the crime, I'll go into the more technical stuff. We would prefer if you sent us actions, instead of questions.For example, instead of saying "Where are the wounds on the victim's head?" say something along the lines of ">Investigate victim's head." It leaves room for us to be specific as possible, and it shows that your character is completing the action instead of saying what they'd like to know into thin air.

These action cues can be sent into the blog, or sent in privately to the mods. Questions can be asked, as well, if our descriptions don't sound complete enough for your tastes! 

As for a Fuwa-File, which details cause of death, time of death, etc etc, there are some things you must do before we can distribute that!

Fuwa, being very upset at the state of things, hasn't been exactly responsible in her duties. Each of your characters must address her individually in order for her to update your file, and allow you to know what went on. In order to address Fuwa-chan, leave an ask in the blog's inbox beginning with the word "Fuwa," as though you were speaking to her. Otherwise, we will respond as mods instead as a fluffy, murderous alpaca.

Good luck, and please do have fun!

[danganronpatestofhope]

The speakers throughout the premises of the university grounds crackle to life after days of being silent. Nobody has seen hide nor hair of that pesky bi-coloured alpaca, and nobody has particularly wanted to, either. Her voice was grating, her countenance disturbing, and despite her cheerful colours, she reminded them of the inevitability of death. The ticking clock of the death of every man, woman, and child in Tokyo shone in her eyes as she spoke to you, and it made no one feel comfortable.

Still, days had gone by without a murder. Everyone seemed to be existing fairly harmlessly. Sure, they were bickering, and some small tiffs had broken out in the duration, but primarily...all was silent. All was well. They were proving that even under the most strain, they were above the base act of murder.

And yet the speakers crackled. 

A voice was to tell them that, no, they had not passed the test. They had failed.

"I...I can't believe I'm saying this..." rang out Fuwa's voice, distilled by the tin of the speakers. "One of your classmates has committed a murder. The most dreadful act one could imagine, and one of you has done it."

There was a pause, as if she could hardly believe what she was saying.

"You are tasked with investigating the crime. Find out which of you is so cruel, so basic, as to have killed one of your friends. A trial will be held when enough evidence has been gathered. Investigation: Commenced."

---

Crime Scene as Discovered by Kotaro Kuroda

Crime Scene as Discovered by Aichi Karada

[shsl-roboticist]

Two Bodies Have Been Discovered [TOH Body Discovery]

Aichi had finished lecturing Kuroda on the finer points of wiring a hydraulic arm when the smell hit him. His eyes widened with horror behind his thick glasses as he took in the scene before him. "The fuck..." He staggered backwards, his breath coming in panicked gasps, and through a numbness shock and confusion he felt his back hit the wall. Dead...two of them dead already...He slid down, letting out a sound that was not quite a laugh and not quite a sob. His family was safe. Two girls were dead. Two fewer targets for the alpaca's twisted torture. "Fuck!" And for all he knew, the murderer could still be nearby. He shuddered and squeezed his eyes shut.

[shsl-roboticist]

Keep Calm and Flip the Fuck Out

Every nerve in Aichi's body was screaming at the tinny voice crackling over the speakers. Bombs? Missiles? Tokyo? No...no, it had to be a lie...He thought of his father's office, in a tall white building overlooking a park, with just as much of a perfect sunset view as any of the nearby luxury condos. Of his brother's middle school, surrounded by high-rises and convenience stores, in a shabby little neighborhood where the cigarette-butt-lined roads got too narrow for cars to fit comfortably. His hands clenched for his long-absent penknife. It had to be a lie. It HAD to.

A voice in his head whispered: was one life so much in the face of all those to be saved? Aichi's blood ran cold. Statistically, no, it was not...but was it worth getting blood on his hands for a probable lie? He didn't trust whatever mastermind enough to believe that it was real, but certainly it was someone used to pondering these big questions. And they were probably relying on the students to reach the most cynical of outcomes

Fuck it. Fuck all of it. Aichi yelled a stream of curses and slammed his fist hard into the nearest locker, leaving a small dent. He turned and bolted toward the common areas, hoping he would find a sympathetic soul, or at least a more optimistic one.

[shslgardengirl]

What in Carnation | Yuriko Mitsushita

When she heard the announcement, Hanako had been standing on the path stretching from the dorms to the campus's other buildings, both to lament her failure to find a single phone and to admire the trees--she was reluctant to say anything vaguely positive about Fuwa-chan or whoever else was behind this whole situation, but she could certainly appreciate their skill with trimming leaves. 

Naturally, all of this was forgotten when she heard her woolly headmistress proclamation. 

Hanako's gut reaction was fear--those poor people! How could anyone even consider doing something like this? How could anyone even talk about it? How could anyone even joke about it, much less try to make a legitimate threat? And to students, no less?  As Fuwa-chan continued, and the sheep's own painfully exaggerated moans of concern began to make Hanako's look like apathy, she began to change her mind. Their "headmistress" was a talking children's toy, after all, and even if the threats about keeping the students locked away from the outside world were proving to be true, there was no way a single sheep--or any entity, for that matter--had the power to do something so horrible and drastic. 

"Obviously, she's just making it up, then," Hanako said, reassuringly, to nobody except the Juniper in front of her. "She exaggerates a lot, doesn't she? There's no way something like this could ever really happen, so she has to be making it up."

[danganronpatestofhope]

Death to Tokyo

Oh, oh my...I have dreadful news for you, my beloved students. The worst! It seems...it seems that s-someone doesn’t want you to stay here and play with me for the rest of your lives. My lessons just...they aren’t good enough for someone out there.

There is currently a rocket pointed directly at Tokyo City, I’m so...so sad to inform you. And someone, the person behind all this, behind me, too, I suppose...is going to shoot it off and kill every last person in Tokyo City unless one of you k-kills another…

An entire city’s population...is it worth defiling yourself in such a way? I...I could not say...I am just too sad to speak of it…

Leave me alone, will you?!