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

[mrhumbug]

[Not well, judging from the way Ebenezer almost physically flinches when Michael makes himself known. He's never been on good terms with the totally-an-angel, and told him so in no uncertain terms. The utter nonsense of being an angel aside entirely, his coddling sentimental attitude towards everyone here and humanity in general was at best naive and at worst fostering weakness and dependence.]

[Today, though? The look he gives Michael is capable of not just curdling milk but killing the cow and its entire herd.]

You persist in this nonsense, then? Pretending to care how my dreams have chosen to torment me?

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael rolls his eyes so hard that it looks painful.]

Okay, you know this whole thing - the one where you're an asshole one-hundred percent of the time? [Woah, he curses now?] You know that's not really a great play in murder school, right? You have to know that.

[NONE OF THAT is what he was actually planning to say! He knows he's trying to be a better person now, at least, but it is still very much a work in progress!]

[mrhumbug]

This is a place meant to turn man against man, I'll not pretend otherwise.

[Okay, yeah, the profanity's new? But Scrooge is either ignoring it or just filing it away as further evidence of Michael's insanity. Either way, he pulls open a cabinet in search of something sealed and hopefully not entirely alien in composition.]

If I'm liable to end up with a knife across my throat regardless, I'll at least go to my grave honestly rather than pretending friendship with those who'd murder me.

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael sighs heavily.]

Maybe there's something to that.

[Honesty - ugh, you know, he's got a new perspective on his recent behavior today, and he absolutely loathes that Ebenezer is sort of right, actually? It's not as though any of the bonds he's formed here are real, with all the lying he's been doing. He hadn't been able to make any real friends until he was his real self with them.

He's a little worried about what's going to happen today. Is it too late now to decide that he wants to be friends for real with the people here?]

Do you really think being yourself and having friends are mutually exclusive things? It's not like people here wouldn't try. People make a lot of stupid choices when feelings are involved.

[mrhumbug]

Don't speak to me of emotions and stupidity!

[It comes hard and sharp, harder than usual; he slams the cupboard, turning on Michael with another withering look.]

The stupidest choice a man can make is pinning his happiness on others, those that try to pretend otherwise are the biggest fools of all.

[eudaimonikos]

You don't strike me as a very happy person.

[Now, maybe this is him projecting. Michael's come to realize that maybe he does that a lot. He's working on it, sort of, it's on the list. But if Eleanor could see how Michael lashed out at others because he was...scared, insecure, any of those things that he's only just beginning to admit...then is Michael wrong when he sees that in others?

Maybe, maybe not. He's a very recent student of empathy.

Standing here just staring Ebenezer down is starting to feel weird. Michael turns to find the kettle and starts filling it with water. It's an electric one; he wonders if Ebenezer might have gone for some tea if he weren't so very apparently incapable of using technology? Well, doesn't matter, this is mostly just something to do with his hands.]

Alright. Here's the thing. I was with you for a long time on these profiles being made up. But now I'm starting to think they aren't.

[He's never made mention of this before. Everything fake about his profile (Likes: his friends, humans) had seemed like the perfect cover story, so he just went with it. But now...]

We all know we've forgotten things, right? Why couldn't it be something massive?

[mrhumbug]

Because my life is my own, MY OWN. My choices, my loss, my pain, happy or not.

[There's definitely hints of lashing out here, to say the least; Ebenezer's previous outbursts have had a sort of chilliness to them, even when laying into the Overseers about the latest motive or being kidnapped, it had felt more like intense annoyance rather than real anger.]

[Now, though, there's an edge in his voice, a wetness at his eyes.]

Not something to be toyed with, by- by Overseers or angels or dreams or ghosts and spirits, as some sort of threat or- as if I'm some kind of child to be lectured and educated on my own experiences. If I've loved and lost then happy or not that is MY life, sir, and I will not have it taken from me so easily.

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael looks up in surprise at the outburst. Maybe he's not particularly empathetic, but of course he trained himself to read human moods long ago. That's important, for emotional tortures. And ah, he hasn't really seen Ebenezer like this. He's actually upset! Last week that would've delighted him, but now he just feels sort of weird and bad about it. At least he already knows the answer to this one - he needs to be nice. Say something comforting, go on. He can do it, probably.

Can he do it without playing a part, though? He searches for words for a moment. When he does speak, his tone is...well, it's not Angel Michael's overweening sympathy. He's trying to be genuine here, and he's just not actually that nice. He's trying, though.]

It already has been. All of us, all of our lives. I don't really get what you're dealing with back home - [clearly, the weird comments Ebenezer occasionally makes about it make no sense] - but here and now, we're all in the same boat.

[He's trying to connect it back to himself, to his own experiences. Right now, it's really the only way he knows how to sympathize. It's true, though - just think, if he'd gone ahead and killed someone last week. It wouldn't have just been a betrayal of everyone here, it would have been a betrayal of his friends. A betrayal of himself, or at least the self he's trying to create. The self that maybe he already became.

Michael puts the pot on to boil and turns to lean back against the counter, arms folded and jaw set. Definitely not even looking at Ebenezer; he's not so far along in his character arc that he can speak about his own feelings so easily.]

I remembered some important things last night. Things that have made me...realize...that I'm not exactly the person I thought I was, yesterday. And I think...I might not be the person I am right now anymore, either. [Head Architect of the Good Place, it said, like he isn't what he is.] I don't know where this is going to end up anymore. I hate that they could just take that away from me...

[This is going a little farther than he intended. Michael frowns hard at the wall.]

...I'm not trying to teach you anything. I'm not qualified. I was only doing that because I knew it bothered you, and I don't want to act that way anymore. [His frown deepens, but he knows what he should say:] I'm sorry.

[mrhumbug]

...Ah, I see now.

[There's the more usual calm anger, that's probably fine.]

This is meant to be some kind of salve on your own conscience then, is it?

[We're so sorry, Michael.]

[eudaimonikos]

My...conscience?

[Michael turns to blink incredulously at Ebenezer for a moment. He knows what a conscience is, of course; he's not an idiot. But it's really more an academic knowledge.]

No. No? Nooooo. [But he apologized even though his friends weren't here to see it? Just because he knew that he ought to?] You can't just...grow one of those, right? No, that's a human thing. I'm just trying to have a conversation here, man, don't make it weird.

[mrhumbug]

Regretting the strangeness of your speech comes far too late, sir.

[eudaimonikos]

Look, I've had a really weird few months! [Michael whines, in an extremely un-Angel Michael way.] All compressed into one really weird night! It's not like you aren't having freaky flashbacks, too, you say the weirdest shit.

[But he's not far enough along in his journey, and also does not particularly care about Ebenezer enough, to really ask about that! If he doesn't wanna talk about it, no skin off Michael's face.

(That's the demon saying. Because of. You know.)]

I don't have a conscience. Come on, you know I'm not really an angel. I'm a demon, I just said that to screw with people.

this is not a gagtag

[mrhumbug]

2/2, okay

[mrhumbug]

Ah! I see. Much more reasonable.

[eudaimonikos]

[Shrug. He's never been that invested in whether or not this guy actually believes that part - the naive idiot part of his previous act was more important than the angel part, really.]

Yeah, I'm gonna start telling folks today. Trying this new thing where I don't lie to everyone all the time. I was getting sick of that whole "oooooh, I'm so sweet and nice!" thing anyway.

[Like, he's gonna try not to be a dick, but there's still some pretty major differences between that and his actual personality.]