97th ♫ | i'm not lonely at all! i'm not lonely at all, although. . .

[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

[favoriteanalyst]

[It's a harsh truth, but as far as Mobius is concerned, it is the truth. Mobius purses his lips, thinking back to when he had gotten under Loki's skin deliberately, showing him glimpses of his then-but-also-no-longer-future.

(A different Loki--no, don't go there.)

He takes a seat beside.]

Tell her a lot of things that are a lot softer than what you told her before, when you were being spiteful and trying to hurt her. I'm guessing.

[cuttingremark]

[Loki unconsciously shifts to accommodate Mobius on the seat. He did not know the man when they arrived, even though the human clearly knew him. He was suspicious, but something about his demeanor inspired trust. Normally Loki was more wary of it, not wanting to show weakness, especially in a place like this.

But it's just the two of them, and Mobius has not given any of them reason to doubt him so far.

So he relaxes just a bit more.]

She died thinking I hated her. [That was the real mistake, and that was much easier to fix. Well, "easier" is relative in this case. Despite his best effort, he's come to care about several of the people here.]

You don't have to worry. I'm not going to kill any of them.

[favoriteanalyst]

She didn't think that.

[Does he know that for certain, well, no, not as such. But it seems pretty obvious to him. In a way that, maybe for Loki, being there in that moment, was easier to miss.]

You were her son ever since you were a little ice runt stolen away by Odin. She's one of the only people in your life you feel like ever really loved you, unconditionally. A couple sharp words from you isn't going to make that stop. Think of it this way--and I'm sorry that it's going to sound reductive, but deal with it. It's like her rebellious adopted teenage son yelled 'you're not my real mom' and slammed his bedroom door. [That's...that's really super basically what happened! Minus the door slamming. Emotional door slamming!]

Yeah, even though it stings, I don't think she actually thought you hated her. She raised you; I promise she could see through you.

[cuttingremark]

[He stares at the picture at Mobius speaks, the unoccupied hand picking at his lip. Silence hangs between them for a long moment after the agent is done speaking. Loki doesn't know if he fully believes the man. Mobius may know a lot, but he can't know everything about everyone. In his mind it is still likely his mother died with his parting words ringing in her ears, believing them to be something more honest than what the dark wounds in his mind spit out.

But it is a nice fantasy. She never gave up on him, why should that last visit have been the last straw? Had the attack not happened, she likely would have continued to see him, send him gifts, try to connect with the beast that was once her son. His guilt can't let him believe it fully, but that's never stopped him before.]

Most of the time it seemed like she was the only one.

[He pitches the picture into the fire.]

I have not known you for long, Mobius, but I believe Mother would have enjoyed your company.

[favoriteanalyst]

[A protracted silence doesn't bother him. It's a lot to take in and to mull over, and Loki...also doesn't have much reason to trust or believe him, save that Mobius always seems to be on his side or willing to help him out. An understanding of the history also doesn't hurt, naturally.

He looks away at the comment, like there's clearly something interesting on the floor instead. He's never personally directly interacted with a Frigga variant before, somehow having never needed to in spite of all her powerful potential. Never dangerous enough to warrant his involvement. But he knows enough about her through Loki's eyes and Loki's story. It's...flattering in a way he doesn't think is deserved.

Jane he can understand, Thor's girlfriend, smart as a whip, not afraid but fascinated by the magitech of Asgard. Aside from bopping around time for his job, Mobius is hardly anything special.]

There's a lot in your life that isn't fair, [said in lieu of a thank you or some awkward and mild rebuffing of the sentiment.] Not a whole lot of it was ever really in your control. But at least here, in this space, where we are now, we're as in control as...well, as we're allowed to be, anyway.

[cuttingremark]

[The way he avoids directly addressing Loki's compliment is not lost on the god, but he also finds he doesn't mind. Mobius is humble, he understands how the human wouldn't feel like he could agree, but wouldn't want to disagree and risk insult.]

There's always another puppet master. [He leans forward, resting his forearms on his thighs.] Even if we escape this place, what do we go back to? The TVA? Midgard? From what you've said, we wouldn't make it two feet without being erased by those time soldiers.

[favoriteanalyst]

I... [He frowns, brow furrowed, has to think about it.] I don't actually know. This is...pretty unprecedented as far as I know. And we're all already taken into a new timeline; that doesn't make us the variants, necessarily. The people behind it, sure, but I don't know if that means this whole timeline gets pruned including us, if it gets pruned and we live our normal lives in the sacred timeline, never having met at all this way, if... [He shakes his head. Does not like not knowing, frankly.] I don't know...where we go or what happens after this.

But that doesn't make any of this pointless.

[cuttingremark]

It certainly feels pointless. [Loki runs a hand through his hair, ignoring how it pulls with each snag his fingers hit. He really should start keeping it back in a braid or something if he isn't going to cut it.]

We're ripped from our homes --some for the better, others not-- and brought here to what? Grow just close enough so it is more painful when someone dies?

[His hand fists by his scalp, tugging the locks painfully.]

I'm sick of being someone else's puppet!

[favoriteanalyst]

Hey--

[It's alarming, this kind of reaction. If Loki still had all of his full magical capabilities, he would've probably flung everything around him (and Mobius) away with kinetic force alone. So he has to deal with what he can. But that's still...well, yeah, no shit it's upsetting; welcome to this whole situation.

Mobius reaches, tentatively, to glide a hand over Loki's, try and ease it off.]

Hey. Yeah. Pretty sure the name of the game is suffering. That's why these...motives get dropped on us. But you're still in charge of your own decisions while you're here. [It's not much, certainly not enough, but it's what they've got for now.] I don't have all the answers. Wish I did, then we could blow this popsicle stand. But for now, we just have to keep our wits about us and look out for one another. Okay?

[cuttingremark]

[At first Loki tenses at the touch, but it quickly melts away as Mobius' warm hand remains a weight on his. Slowly he detangles his fingers and straightens up, carefully looking anywhere but the other's hand that he just to happened to grab ahold of.]

And what happens if one of us dies?

[While having someone sounds nice, Loki also knows what a liability connections like that are in a place like this.]

Who watches out for the other's back then?

[favoriteanalyst]

[He holds back his immediate response. Because it's false and unhelpful. No assurances that that won't happen, because it might. Probably will, even. So he takes a centering breath and tries something else, with a gentle squeeze of Loki's hand.]

Then whoever's left has to keep on protecting everyone else as best they can.

[cuttingremark]

[Loki lets out a choked laugh.]

Oh yes, because "protector" is a title I've always worn so well.

[favoriteanalyst]

It's not like I'd want you to go on some killing rampage, Loki, c'mon. I believe in you even if you don't believe in yourself. If you really wanted out and really didn't care, you would've slit someone's throat day one and tricked everyone into blaming someone else.

[cuttingremark]

[Loki looks away when Mobius mentions the very real option Loki had to get out in those first few weeks.]

I don't want to hurt them. [It's weird for him, actually caring about the wellbeing of this many people at once.]

[favoriteanalyst]

I know. Caring...sucks. Because it opens you up to hurt, too. We've already lost a couple, and it hurts. But that's not a failure.

[cuttingremark]

Fells like it. [It's unclear if he's talking about the deaths or the fact that he cares now.

Loki looks around. There's no one else in the library, no one watching save for their jailers. He knows that admiting to attachments where they can hear is a bad idea, but they can hear everywhere, so that appears to be a moot point.

He scoots over closer to Mobius, disentagling their hands so he can pull the other into a sort of embrace. Damn, he's gone soft.]

Tell no one about this.