92nd ♫ | the quietness, profoundly consuming silence

[mytarget]

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. Mall A huge mall stuffed full of stores, places to eat and all the regular amenities like deadbolted doors and the threat of death. It's like Black Friday but even worse because you can't leave and all the rest of the shoppers might actually kill you for real this time.
5. City Holy shit, you've got the run of a whole city this time around! Maybe with all this room to keep out of each other's way, you'll be able to make sure no one starts killing people. But probably not.
6. Cruise Boat YOU'RE ON A BOAT, MOTHERFUCKER. The accommodation is all five star, even if there's no one around to act as wait staff. The only snag is that you still have this whole murder thing hanging over your head – but on the plus side, they have those little drinks with the umbrellas in, so...
7. Space Station THE FINAL FRONTIER... Maybe you're familiar with space stations like this or maybe all this future tech is fascinating to you. Not like it matters either way, of course, because you won't be getting out of here unless you lay down a murder on someone.
8. 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. The Corners of My Mind So as it turns out, your lovely hosts have been fiddling with your memories. Maybe you're just discovering this now or maybe you've had a particularly upsetting memory regain you're dealing with.
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


OPTIONAL FUN

Lots of murdergames have in-universe public profiles for other characters to get the skinny on yours. If you'd like to fill one out to post with your toplevel, peep at the code below!

<center><b>Name:</b> NAME | <b>TITLE (Super High School Level, Ultimate, Champion, etc)</b> <b>Age:</b> AGE | <b>Species:</b> SPECIES | <b>Occupation:</b> OCCUPATION <b>Likes:</b> LIKES <b>Dislikes:</b> DISLIKES <b>Traits:</b> A HANDFUL OF NOTABLE TRAITS <b>Trivia:</b> A PIECE OF TRIVIA</ul>

Comments

Briar | OC

[imaginaive]

Name: Briar | Champion Protagonist
Age: 15 | Species: Human? | Occupation: Apprentice Imaginieer
Likes: The smell of fresh ink, Camellia, sunrise
Dislikes: Dust, nonfiction books
Traits: Creative, curious, capable
Trivia: Briar has never once uncorked a bottle of ink without spilling at least some of it.

[ Full info post here! The TL;DR: Briar is a self-aware fictional character from a world called Libretto that serves as a sanctuary for characters who have been abandoned by their authors and narratives. Once the hero of a turn-based JRPG, Briar decided she didn't particularly like fighting and hurting people and is now the apprentice Imaginieer who will one day be responsible for keeping Libretto alive and functioning. Scary stuff!!

Despite not really diggin' it when it comes to all the death and despair, Briar does her best to hold her own and be of help when the chips are down. During trials, she will be one of the first to start pushing for people to nail down timelines and potential motivations for any of the murders. Has probably at least once figured out who the murderer was purely by breaking down their motivations and matching it to someone at the trial.

For the first few weeks, she may occasionally gush to you about her teacher, Camellia, and how cool Briar thinks she is but as time goes by and memory regains come in, she mentions her less and less... ]

somehow i missed this

[fallmushrooms]

[Velda is... weird, it's been established. She talks people's ears off, dresses like the reject pile at the thrift store, and can regularly be found exploring the facility for places to hide, not to mention sometimes mushrooms just grow on her. And today, Briar has walked in on her climbing on top of the prize machine, struggling to get up.]

Ah -- [She suddenly startles and falls off the machine in a heap.] Ow... oh, it's just you, Briar! Hello. Are you trying to get something?

[imaginaive]

[ . . .

She just came to use some of her coins but where does she even start with this. ]

Um, yes... I just came to spend some of these coins, but... [ Okay she can't NOT ask. ] What exactly are you doing, Miss Egan?

[fallmushrooms]

Oh, looking for escape routes! Or... [looks around the room] Well, also just trying to find someplace to hide. You never know when you'll need somewhere no one will follow you to, right?

[imaginaive]

[ Oh, she... kind of wasn't expecting such a sensible answer? Not as a knock to Velda, of course, but there's just always some nonsense or other going on around here, so... ]

It might not be bad as a hiding place, so long as they don't think to look, but I think it'd be easy enough to get to you up there if someone was really determined.

[fallmushrooms]

If they see. That's usually how things work. Once they find you, they're going to follow you no matter what. That or just run off laughing, and then the next thing you know, people who weren't even there are making fun of you about it. That happens too.

[imaginaive]

... I think in a place like this, if someone was chasing you... rather than hiding, you should come and find one of us where it's safe.

[ Just to, you know, not get murdered. ]

[fallmushrooms]

I guess you're right. Especially since powers aren't working the way they should. But it's better to be prepared, isn't it? Safety is a multifaceted thing.

[imaginaive]

Mm...

[ Briar doesn't respond right away and the expression on her face is uncharacteristically troubled. ]

Do you... really think we can be safe in a place like this?

[fallmushrooms]

[Velda contemplates this. She finally pulls herself up off the ground, dusts herself off, pulls a mushroom out of her sleeve with a wince, and tosses it in the corner where someone's made a garbage heap for their lube drums and hand bras.]

I hope so. I mean, statistically, at least someone can, right? And a lot of people will have somebody looking for them.

[imaginaive]

Mm. I know that's how it works in theory, but...

[ She trails off, an unhappy look on her face. ]

It's rare... for stories like this to have a happy ending...

[fallmushrooms]

[Velda isn't going to say "but this isn't a story." Briar's heard that from everyone else just about daily, and it's not going to help. Telling people their reality is a ridiculous delusion never does. She'd consider herself an expert.]

Rare, but not impossible, right? And if this is a story, we don't know everything about it. Isn't that why we're investigating? Finding out how everything works and why.

[imaginaive]

W–well, yes, but...

[ It's so hard to explain all this to people who don't seem to get it. She tries to hold her tongue most of the time – she knows the others don't like to hear it and it isn't helpful to rile them up. But here, with just Velda, the words come spilling out. ]

Finding the truth... isn't always a good thing. It doesn't always guarantee you a happy ending. S–sometimes... looking for the truth is the worst thing you could do.

[fallmushrooms]

[She blinks once, tilts her head, and blinks slowly again.]

Maybe that's true. But it's going to come out sometime, probably, and then you're going to be miserable either way. And if you know before, maybe you can do something to stop it? Then again, a lot of the time, that doesn't work, either. But between thinking you have a lot of friends who just always have excuses to not be around you, and knowing everybody hates you, they both kind of equal the same thing except one's more depressing. I mean, everybody doesn't hate you! They like you. But that was the first example that came to mind that wasn't about murder.

[imaginaive]

[ ... That's a really specific scenario to come up with, huh.

Briar opens her mouth and then closes it again, pretty transparently trying to decide whether or not she should say anything for a moment before just going for it. ]

Is... that the kind of thing you worry about, Miss Egan?

[fallmushrooms]

The truth? Murder? People secretly hating me? I mean, yes to all of those. They're all constant kinds of things. I mean, except the murder, but it's here now, so I'm including it.

[imaginaive]

I see...

[ Briar gives her a slightly strained smile – though her discomfort is more self-directed than at anything Velda has said or done. ]

You always seem so bright... so I never would've expected you to be worried about those sorts of things.

[fallmushrooms]

Do you think so? I just find that when I don't worry about them always seems to be when I should worry about them. And probably should have been worried for a while. Which, I guess, brings us back to what you were saying about how maybe hiding isn't the best way to escape from somebody who's trying to kill you? I'd amend that to "if they find you." If they don't, then they'll go off and do something else. But if they do, then there's no getting out of that, usually.

[imaginaive]

Hmm...

[ Briar was ready to dismiss this as Velda being... Velda, but when she says it like that... maybe that's unfair. It's starting to make a little more sense to Briar now and her brows knit together in thought. ]

I wonder if there'd be a way... for the two of us to make a hiding spot, and keep it a secret from the others? Just in case?

[fallmushrooms]

Do you mean, like, build something and hide it somewhere? Camouflage it with the wall or something?

[imaginaive]

Yes...! And maybe we can find a spot that people wouldn't think to look in, or would be hard for them to reach and keep it between the two of us. Just in case one of us needs a place to... run to.

[fallmushrooms]

Hmm. Then that would mean making a false wall with a hidden door! I do wonder, though, people would be likely to notice... unless it was somewhere nobody really looks. Like where?

[imaginaive]

Mmm...

[ Her brow furrows just a bit as she mulls it over. ]

The library, maybe? The room is so big, I'm certain there are blind spots that aren't used as much that we could manage something in.

[fallmushrooms]

Oh, that's true! And surely a study carrel would be easier to reconstruct than an entire false wall. Then again, we didn't really have carpentry shop at my school. Or very many practical classes that weren't about magic, they keep saying, "Students here don't have a reason to learn that because someone will do it for you."

[She puts on an impression of a pompous old person at that.]

[imaginaive]

Mm... I'm not certain I'd be all that helpful either. The only thing I'm good at with my hands is writing. Ahah...

[ Her smile and her laugh are both a little self-deprecating. ]