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oddsandends2021-11-26 06:20 pm
mytarget) wrote in oddsandends2021-11-26 06:20 pm
97th ♫ | i'm not lonely at all! i'm not lonely at all, although. . .
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!
a body has been discovered!!!
Age: 16~20-ish(ish) | Species: Human | Occupation: Master
Likes: Baking chocolate, super robot and magical girl anime, art direction and editing
Dislikes: The apocalypse, finances, mage bullshittery
Traits: Lackadaisical, determined, clueless
Trivia: Has personally served a knuckle sandwich to Beast of Disaster and the First Evil of Humanity.
You know, professor, [Ritsuka says as she hunches down, nose wrinkling as she looks at the blood drying on the floor,] for all the stuff you've dragged me into, I don't think we've investigated an actual murder together before. It's always some dumb magic stuff that feels like total nonsense. This could be a bonding experience!
Or, well, um. With other-you. I don't think I've investigated anything at all with you-you. [She gestures vaguely, trying and failing the hide the faint tremor in her voice. No matter how many corpses she's seen gutted like this, it never stops making her feel sick, the nausea amplified by the pit of grief in her stomach by the loss of a comrade.
Ritsuka hopes she never gets numb to it, frankly.]
no subject
That’s Second Magic for you.
[It all came down to compartmentalizing. Ground oneself with the living, break the situation down into what could be done and what steps to take. The emotional response would be later, when it wouldn’t interfere.]
You don’t have to force yourself, Fujimaru. [He lifted the sunglasses he wore to rest on his head, looking over the corpse in what was probably a forced demeanor of clinical calm.] I can find one of the others to help so you don’t need to get your hands quite this dirty.
no subject
[Ritsuka recognizes the look on El-Melloi's face, not only because she's already quite familiar with approximately his face, but because it's the exact same kind of expression that she's making with a few more years of practice (and cynicism) put into it.]
Nah, it's fine. [She waves her hand.] Trust me when I say I've seen worse; I can handle it. Been through worse, too. Did I ever tell you about that cave in Shimousa?
Just... sucks losing people, that's all. Don't think I'll ever get used to it.
no subject
[Kneeling down next to the corpse with most of his weight on his left leg, the professor uneasily started examining the corpse’s hands for defensive wounds. Christ, where was a necromancer when you needed one?]
…You don’t. Get used to it, I mean.
no subject
I'd drink to that if I could. Sadly, I don't think I'm legal yet.
[One of the first skills she picked up in the Grand Order was quipping in highly stressful situations. It's a way to cope. Ish.]
...figures. If I haven't gotten numb to it by now, I probably never will.
[She says that like a scarred veteran taking a sip of awful bourbon with a lit cigar in the other hand, despite looking around the same age as Svin.]
no subject
[As someone who had Seen Some Shit by the age of nineteen, he understood that disposition a little better than he wanted to.]
…It gets a little easier. Eventually. But it never really stops being difficult, same as anything else in life.
no subject
Well, except Diarmuid, maybe. Unless Fionn pressures him into it.
He's more of a weepy drunk in the worst case anyways.
[While El-Melloi checks for wounds, Ritsuka leaves him to his area of expertise (as good as she's gotten at first aid, her knowledge of the inner workings of the human body is scattershot at best), Ritsuka starts rifling through pockets. After the Phantom Incident and the Kogetsukan, she's a bona fide great detective herself, if only by recommendation and not qualification. She might be able to find something others will know what to do with.]
...it was easier early on, at least. I mean, it was always hard, and it hurt, but it was kinda weird since we could get all of the Servants back. Or at least a version of them. So even when regular people died, it felt a bit less real. [She laughs again, this time darkly.] That sounds awful, doesn't it?
But after... [Ritsuka trails off, her words suddenly failing her.]
1/2
no subject
…It…it’s difficult. Harder still to have to deal with things no one should have to especially as young as you are. Believe me, I get it.
It’s a shit reality we’re stuck in, kid. But sometimes there’s still reasons to keep living in it.
no subject
...you know what the funniest thing is? To me, at least.
I signed up for all of this nonsense as a summer internship. Didn't even know I had any Magic Circuits or that magic was a thing until they took my blood and it came back positive for some idiot way up on the family tree messing around with throwing sparks from their hands or something. I figured that, hey, some extra cash for university in a few years would be nice, even if there was a good chance that I'd just gotten suckered into getting my organs stolen.
[She sighs, spreading out her findings on the floor in front of her. Keys, ID, some coins for the vending machine, bloody tissue, lint...]
Yeah. Their memories, too. Nobody who got me as far as I've gone would want me to give up. And I can't not pay them back for what they did for me.
no subject
...I did something real fucking stupid when I was about your age. Thought I knew damn near everything and wanted to make people listen to me, like any idiot teenager. So I committed a moderate amount of theft and went to Fuyuki City. I thought that if I won the Holy Grail, that would prove I had all the talent I assumed I did.
[Broken fingernails, some blood on the hands. Two separate and terrible lines of thought running in his head at once, precariously balanced so he wouldn't lose himself in either.]
Obviously it turned out to be a whole mess I'm still trying to clean up even now. But...mistakes and all, I don't regret it. I can't regret it, because if I did...what was the point, right?
i have wanted ritsuka and waver cr for ages thank you so much,,,
[Thinking about Roman and Da Vinci is still painful. Patxi, Gerda, Asha and Ajai... To distract herself, Ritsuka grabs onto El-Melloi's conversational thread like a lifeline and pulls herself out of this topic.]
The Fourth Grail War, right? 1994. That was a huge mess. I can count on one hand the number of Singularities I've had to deal with a Greater Grail, and it was nasty every single time.
[A small snort.]
I still can't believe Kayneth somehow believed that his niece sponsored us as hired help. She was, what. Six that year?
...though now that I've met Reines, it makes slightly more sense. She must've been a holy terror back then too. Whatever. I still got to sleep in a cushy suite for the first time in aaaaages, and seeing Kayneth's face twitch about some filthy no-lineage commoner crashing on his couch was super worth it.
[MAYBE ELABORATE RITSUKA???]
i love rubbing self-indulgent roleswaps on fate characters thank YOU
[...hol up]
...Sorry, what?
no subject
[Sometimes, Ritsuka forgets that casual time travel isn't everyone's normal.]
I already told you about how Chaldea's job was to pop Singularities, right? The thing is, when Goetia created the main seven, there were weird ripple effects that made the timeline glitch. Places where something like a Lesser Grail could manifest if the timeline went wonky were where and when these happened most of the time.
One of the ones we took care of early on was in Fuyuki, 1994. It's a really long story, but, uh, long story short is that Irisviel von Einzbern and Kiritsugu Emiya never had their starcrossed lovers connection, and so a bunch of things went off the rails from there. Since the you I know was... obviously an expert about that specific place at that specific time, he rayshifted with us to help take care of things.
...he needed it, honestly. Even though he knew the changes wouldn't stick, he kept on changing things to try and get a better ending. It was to clear his conscience, I think. Definitely a weight off his back.
no subject
[What a headache.]
Well, let it never be said that I'm anything but selfishly stubborn at times.
no subject
[The true power of Ritsuka Fujimaru: no braincells, only friendship.]
You might be stubborn, but... I don't think you're selfish. And if you hadn't insisted on trying to save everyone despite it not technically mattering, we wouldn't have been able to save that Irisviel for real. Plus, I think Sakura and Kariya got clear of the singularity's radius, so they might've gotten a happy ending anyways.
...really, without your guiding hand in your entire mess, I don't know if I would've been able to handle the Lostbelts the way I do. I don't want to think about that version of me, honestly.
She'd be a monster.
no subject
…I’m alive at all because of other people who protected and aided me. Because of Irisviel and-…and Lancer. But staying alive sometimes necessitates being an underhanded snake. Or at the very least, being someone you just don’t like to be. But it’s better to live long enough to hate yourself than not.
waver and ritsuka cr really is just waver looking at her and getting awful flashbacks
I learned pretty quickly that it's useless to compare myself to Servants. [She snorts, finally sitting down. They've found all the clues they can on the body at this point, the only thing that's left is praying that everybody else is doing their jobs and waiting until trial.] When even Billy Shakespeare is a faster runner that you—and I was on the track team!—you learn that no matter what, you're never gonna be able to stack up.
[Didn't stop him from complaining whenever he had to pick up the pace, but it was still true.]
So having someone who was just... a regular human being and just about as awful a mage as I am—at least when Kongming isn't hijacking your body—still do all the stuff you managed to do made it easier to believe in myself, as cheesy as it sounds.
I mean, I had to do all kinds of crazy, reckless stunts whether or not I thought I could and it was TERRIFYING each time, so believing in myself didn't factor into success that much, but it kept me from wallowing in self-pity on bad days.
[She's quiet for a few moments.]
...better to let someone sacrifice themself so you can beat yourself up about it later than letting the opportunity they gave you slip.
That's another lesson I learned early on, ha.
And sometimes that means throwing sand in the face of a Beast so you can get that last bloody knuckled punch in.
[She shrugs.]
Would've gone for a nutshot too, but I'm not sure if he could even feel anything down there.
‘what is wrong with you stop being me’
[He got to his feet with some effort and support from the cane he carried with him, leaning back against the wall.]
And then sometimes it’s desperately throwing an alchemist’s firebomb at your ex-professor that’s out to kill you just in case doing the stupidest thing imaginable keeps you alive.