45th ♫ | you let out one last breath and you died

[shiritai]

The Murder Game Meme



You know the script. You wake up in a place you've never seen before, with a whole bunch of complete strangers and there's a mysterious voice or a mascot or what have you ready to let you know how things are going to work around here.

The rules are simple: You're trapped here, with no hope of release or rescue. You've been provided with all the basic necessities you need to live comfortably, and all you have to do is settle down and live out the rest of your days here in peace. But if you can't do that -- if you're really so desperate to escape that you'll do anything -- then there's one teeny tiny thing you have to do first.

All you have to do is kill somebody.

But it's not quite that simple. Every death will be followed by a period of investigation, followed by a trial in which the survivors will attempt to solve the mystery and out the culprit. If the survivors guess correctly and out the culprit, the killer is executed and life goes on. But if the survivors guess wrong, then the culprit is free as a bird and everyone else is executed.

Even with the promise of freedom, can you really bring yourself to kill so many other people?

tl;dr: it's a murdergame meme. TIME TO HAVE A BIG OL' MURDERGAME BLAST.


Settings

1. High School A classic! Doesn't matter if you're too old or too young to be in high school -- you've been enrolled and the only way for you to graduate is to kill a fellow student. But hey, the faculties are nice!
2. Tropical Island Weren't you just hankering for a nice tropical vacation? No? Too bad! You're going to have a nice sunny vacation at the beach and if you don't like it, just kill someone and go home. Simple!
3. Prison It doesn't matter if you don't remember committing any crime; you've been tried and found guilty of something or other and now you can go ahead and rot away in jail. If you ever want to see the sunlight again, better put that criminal mind to good use and get rid of your inmates.
4. Wildcard! None of the above scratch your murder itch? Go wild and come up with your own setting!


Downtime

1. Excuse Me, Who Are You? You've just woken up in this weird place and you have no idea what's going on. But hey -- maybe this stranger's more informed than you. Or maybe you can put your heads together and investigate what's going on.
2. Social Link Go! Well, if you're going to be stuck in here for however long, you might as well get to know the people stuck in here with you. You've got plenty of rooms to explore together and there's enough to do to keep you occupied. How do you plan on passing time without killing each other?
3. Vending Machine Woes Somewhere in this place there's a mysterious vending machine that spits out all manner of bizarre items and occasionally dispenses items that belong to you and the other people trapped here. You've got a fat stack of tokens and nothing to lose.
4. Wildcard! GO WILD AND BE FREE (or as free as you can be here, anyways)


PUTTING THE MURDER IN MURDER GAME

1. Motive Your mysterious overseer has decided there's not nearly enough murder going on and so they've ~helpfully~ given you a little push to do the deed. Maybe one of your loved ones is in danger, maybe they're offering more money than you could ever dream of or they're threatening to reveal your deepest darkest secrets. Whatever is it, would you kill for it?
2. Murder WELL APPARENTLY, YES. Are you a killer or are you being killed? Either way, someone's not walking away from this alive.
3. Body Discovery Rise and shine, murdergame! It's a brand new day and someone's dead. Better get investigating!
4. Trial You know how this one goes. Line up all your evidence and sniff out the killer -- or sit there and sweat and hope no one works out you're the murderer. Will they go down with a confession or put up a fight?
5. Afterparty You've survived another trial, but more of your friends have died. Even without the executions, trials are a stressful enough affair. It's time to destress and lick your wounds and support each other.
6. Mastermind It's the end. It's time to uncover all the mysteries behind this murder game -- and find out just who trapped you here. Are they really an unconnected party, or is the mastermind someone among you...?
7. Freedom Just as it says -- you're finally free, but at what cost? Have those you love been returned to you, or are you still reduced to just those who made it to the end? Are you on your own, or is anyone here to help you? And more importantly, how the hell are you going to get home?
8. Wildcard YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO

Comments

[rhododendronhoney]

[Cori appreciates people liking her cookies enough to save them for later, honest. She actually ends up taking them to somewhere most people don't go. She leans against the wall, weaving her fingers together behind her head.]

...you probably got enough people yelling at you about that punch, didn't you? [Cori wasn't one of them, but she did join the group trying to pull them apart.]

...what would you say if I told you I wasn't going over there to stop you from punching him again at first? [She smiles bitterly.] No one looks twice at me having a knife. I was already starting towards him when you did that. Maybe I'd have done something I regretted if you hadn't acted first. [It's the first time she's outwardly expressed anything implying hatred since she arrived here. Before she's been nothing but cheerful and friendly towards everyone by default.]

[righthandstand]

I don't care. [There were several horrified gasps from the others before the adults began to scold him.] There's only one way to get people like him to understand.

[He rolls his left shoulder, waiting for Cori to lecture him but hearing something unexpected.]

Huh? [Did he hear her correctly? He was blinded by rage to even register any knife.]

[rhododendronhoney]

[She smiles a bit more genuinely.] Yeah, I expect you'd say that. Ryota's like that too.

[She blinks, then reaches down and pulls up one of her pant legs, revealing a garter with a knife sheath tied to it.] Made that pretty early on. I like having a weapon on me at all times, you know? I wasn't really thinking about using it on any of the culprits at first...but I fucking hate asshole bastards like that shithead. [This is also the first time she's actually cussed since she got here.] I don't get why some people were still trying not to get him executed.

[righthandstand]

[His eyes widen. He's lived in dangerous neighborhoods with Keicho for a good portion of his life where he met dudes and chicks that always had a plan to kill anyone that was stupid enough to pick a fight, but they dressed themselves with that message. Punks and delinquents and criminals were the sort of people he's expect to carry a knife on their body and swear like a sailor.

Not a cute girl that bakes.]

You ever stabbed someone before? [That would be pretty scary but kind of cool.]

[rhododendronhoney]

[It's worth noting that Cori's starter Pokemon was a Foongus-a poisonous creature that disguises itself as something innocuous. And you'd be surprised how many swears you can hear just working in customer service.]

Sadly no, but not for lack of trying. Would have stabbed this asshole from my past if killing him wouldn't have messed things up even more. [She sounds quite disappointed about it. But when Arceus himself descends from the heavens to tell you not to stab someone, you kind of have to do it.] Used him as a pie plate instead. [If you can't kill someone, humiliation is fine too.]

[righthandstand]

[But Cori is a cute girl!!]

You know that bastard? Why'd you never say anything?!

[rhododendronhoney]

[A cute girl with this as her theme song.]

Ah, not that one. I meant another asshole, even worse than most of the killers here, I guess. Was called Missingno or something like that, I guess. Wanted to become god and reshape the whole world in his image. I would definitely have warned everyone if that one showed up.

[righthandstand]

That's f--[He temporarily bites his tongue - swearing in front of a cute girl feels wrong in his heart, but he tells himself that if she can swear, she won't mind if he does.] That's fucked up. But you kicked his ass, right?

[rhododendronhoney]

[A wide, cheerful grin.] Oh, we kicked it all the way up and down the ends of the earth. And then a few more times just for good measure. He underestimated us way too much and that was his downfall.

[righthandstand]

...Man, that sounds pretty awesome. Wish I coulda seen it.

[Cori is now the best girl he has ever met, though she does scare him a bit.]

So, like, you stabbed him a bunch?

[rhododendronhoney]

[She would be happy to know she can be intimidating, honestly.]

Stabbed, punched, kicked, poisoned...our team had a lot of varied abilities. Although in the end it was one last punch that put him down.

[righthandstand]

[Abilities? That sounds more like powers. Superpowers like--]

You have Stands?

[rhododendronhoney]

...Stands? Um, I don't think so...we had Pokemon? [I mean, sometimes they kind of look like the same thing?]

[righthandstand]

Poison sounds like the kinda thing a Stand would do.

[Maybe. He doesn't know much about them.]

What's Pokemon?

[rhododendronhoney]

They're...creatures from another world, I think? They can look like all kinds of things-animals, plants, even inanimate objects sometimes! And they have different powers-Fern looked kind of like a mushroom, and she was really good with poison. [Toxic+Sleep is a Valid Strategy in PTU and they put that to good use.]

[righthandstand]

Aliens?

[Squint.]

So they're real? [And not just some elaborate joke people like Mikitaka like to play up? Speaking of which--] Are there Pokémon that change how they look?

[rhododendronhoney]

I guess you could say that? Apparently they're also from a game or something. Kenta or Everett would know more about that part, though...

And oh yeah, there are! It's called "evolution" or something like that...most of the time they just get bigger.

[righthandstand]

Huh...kind like how Echoes works.

But what I mean is -- is there an shapeshiting alien? Like it can turn into a pair of binoculars or turn its hand into ice cream.

[rhododendronhoney]

Huh, I don't think so...but there's a lot of different Pokemon, so maybe we just didn't meet one that could do that. [Sadly Everett never got the chance to tell her what Ditto were.]

...oh, wait! There was Iris, but she could only change between a few similar forms, I think. Not objects or anything like that.

[righthandstand]

[Okuyasu sighs. It's not an answer confirming if Mikitaka is real or full of shit, but whatever. He's probably just a Stand user.]

So what did yours do?

[rhododendronhoney]

Oh, Fern could poison our enemies, absorb their energy to heal herself...and she also had this ability to reflect the damage they did back at her. [Cori smiles nostalgically.] And I could put whoever she poisoned to sleep and keep us safe that way.

[righthandstand]

[That certainly sounds like a Stand ability.]

That sounds pretty strong. You could basically be unbeatable with that thing.

[rhododendronhoney]

[She blushes a bit at the compliment.] Yeah...we can't do it too often, though, so usually we save it for the biggest, toughest foe.

[righthandstand]

Naw, I get you! It's like your ultimate secret technique that you can't show off just yet 'cause the enemy's not too strong. And then right when he thinks he's won, BAM! You win, right?

[rhododendronhoney]

[A chuckle] Yeah, that's pretty much how it works. Even better when he assumes it won't work on him and then it does anyway. [Is she still smug about that? She's still smug about that.]