110th ♫ | all the things making us sick and tired turn into bubbles and disappear

[phaiinein]

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

[friendwich]

'Need me to play errand boy again?' he thinks, bitterly. But "Turo" saying he trusted him above anyone else with this makes his chest warm, so the two conflicting feelings cancel out, leaving him saying nothing as the AI spoke.

He took the binder, flipping through it.

"'Course you were working on something like this..." He's actually impressed. But the AI giving it to him was making dread fill his guts.

[fionnuisce]

[If nothing else he'd probably have cracked a smile at the Doctor Who jokes, growing up in the Peter Davison era'll do that.]

I can venture a few guesses as to how that might be possible, but all of them are heavily layered in arcane magic bullshit that would make most anyone else's head spin. [The fact that the vending machine being a Reality Marble was the most likely explanation was the kind of thing that was so beyond absurd that it looped right back into almost reasonable.] But if that's the case, they're most likely fine. Call it stasis, basically.

[fionnuisce]

I seriously doubt I'm likely to resort to murder in any universe, Flat. I'm not exactly Zelretch, but I'm pretty confident in that much.

But I don't think there's a whole hell of a lot I can do to fix this.

[gonepostal]

It isn't stupid, I'd say. Sounds like somethin' important that you're doing.

[turingturo]

The AI wouldn't have begrudged Arven for the first thought, but perhaps been surprised at the second.

"Hopefully it will be useful to your endeavours."

He turned away from the young man, facing the direction of the large, steel doors that were keeping them trapped, having memorized the facilities map in his own data bank.

"After synthesizing all the information available, I've concluded that truly, the only means of leaving this place without following the Mastermind's desires is through those doors. But they are magnetized shut and we don't have a means to open them."

He glanced down, scanlines appearing on his irises as he ran through the probability again, just to be sure.

"Yes...95.5% chance that it is your only means of escape, without more bloodshed or loss of life. At the very least, it should be hiding the last information you need to solve this mystery. There's no way forward but through those doors."

A pause... And Turo reached into his labcoat pocket, pulling out a make shift remote, holding it up for Arven to see.

"...So I made you a way to get through them."

Rudifell deStratos | Fallen London OC

[deliciousfriend]

Name: Rudifell deStratos | The Citizen | Champion of the Gracious Widow
Age: Unnecessary | Species: Human | Occupation: Trickster
Likes: Urchins, rubbery men, probing (but not too probing) questions, being a connoisseur of neathy delights
Dislikes: The game of Dagger or Flint, unnecessary roughness, the rich and affluent who have no pity for the poor, Mr. Eaten
Traits: Inescapable, sagacious, irresistible, compelling
Trivia: Rudi has written a series of competent-to-compelling short stories

[If any of the scenarios take place outside/where there is the ability to be outside, boy, Rudi sure...is going to not know what to do with that. With sky and white clouds that pour down drinkable water and The Sun? They'll spend most of their time inside, thanks.

They are friendly to a point, ask questions about everything, and like to stalk and follow and watch from a distance. Writes a lot. Writes a lot. Their notes could be useful in a trial! ...Depending on what Rudi's decided is important to jot down. It's clear wherever they're from works on ssssssomewhat different rules than one might be used to.]

[worthprotecting]

[Steven makes a little humming noise. Yes, probably would make his head spin, don't start spouting arcane magic bullshit at him, thank you.] Like...cryostasis? Like they say they did to Disney? [He rubs some coins together and moves on from the thought.]

Sorry, I've interrupted, haven't I? Were you going to...?

[fionnuisce]

Something like that, but without the alleged decapitation.

[why are you like this]

You didn't interrupt anything. I'm trying to determine how prepared I am to risk it, hell if I know what might come out of this thing.

[worthprotecting]

That's the point, innit, that you don't know. 's why people spend mad money on mystery machines like this. Are you that worried something bad's gonna come out? Something...hm, something for murder, I s'pose?

[fionnuisce]

[he may have visibly winced at that. god. where did you get that accent.]

I'm half expecting a gun, an explosion, or something like a pissed off feral cat. None of which are things I want thrown at my face.

[detectiveforhierophant]

You and me both.

['Civilian' was anyone who didn't deal with police protocol and investigations in Dojima's mind, regardless of rank or social standing. Probably part of the reason Dojima wasn't higher up in the police ranks; he was respectful to his superiors, but didn't worship the ground they walked on.

That, and he'd never really want to be in charge as much as work his beat.]

With the head so... damaged, it'll be difficult to ID the victim with 100% certainty until head count, but based on clothing--

...

[Dojima's stomach turned again, taking in that black leather jacket-]

... I think it's Noctis.

[worthprotecting]

Aw, but you can't get too mad at a cat. I'd be right ticked to Timbuktu if I was stuffed in there, even with stasis.

Tell you what, why don't I go first? That way, anything happens, then you know. And if I die in a cataclysmic explosion, I hope no one thinks you did it.

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn froze solid at that, what little color was in his face swiftly leaving it.]

That's...

[-impossible. Sure, Noctis had barely been able to stand him for reasons Ardyn couldn't quite understand, but the child with his last name and his brother's face had been the kind of person that was easy to like. Not just by Ardyn, but most if not all of them.]

...that's not...

[fionnuisce]

Oh, yeah, because I really look like I've got dynamite in this fucking thing. [tapping his cane lightly on the floor]

But sure, go ahead. If it blows up it'll likely get us both anyway.

[friendwich]

It felt like he was just slapped by that last revelation. Enough that Turo might hear a half bitten off Hostia puta! from Arven, too surprised to censor himself in front of his "dad". He almost stumbled from the surprise, but Mabosstiff leaned against him, keeping him up. A good thing too- the lack of food had him weak and the shock put him in a near faint, his knees knocking. He was doing better than some due to his youth and good health... and because he was pretty sure some of the adults were slipping him and the other teens extra rations when he wasn't looking to call them out. Though part of that was going to Mabosstiff- pokeball stasis can only go so far. But even so he'd lost weight- had been from stress even earlier- and was getting the sunken eyed look of the starving.

"This... this thing will get the door open?!"

[696_9]

Let me guess, because magic can do anything it wants?

[detectiveforhierophant]

...

[Dojima wasn't... good, at this sort of thing. That line between professionalism in a case and the desperate need to compartmentalize his feelings was a struggle he was usually confident in, even involving death. So he could come off harsher than he meant to, in an effort to be objective.

Yet... still, he placed a hand on Ardyn's shoulder, giving it a small squeeze.

To steady him, to console him? He wasn't sure.]

If you need to leave, do it.

[He was never sure of the relationship between Ardyn and Noctis; Ardyn didn't seem to know or remember, and Noctis avoided the subject like the plague.

But Noctis was a good kid. Definitely no one who deserved to die like this...

But he had to be objective. They couldn't save Noctis, but they could at least find his killer.]

...This sort of force isn't something a normal human could do. We'd be looking at either a machine, super strength with a blunt object as the murder weapon or magic.

[The last two were said with a certain amount of discomfort on Dojima's tongue. He was a pragmatic, rational guy, alright? And magic didn't exist in his world.]

[scourgingstars]

...I will, if that is a risk you should wish to take.

[696_9]

Important... yeah. I was just going along with the whole 4:44 ritual thing for fun. I didn't even want to join the club. And we do almost die, like, a lot. But I dunno. It feels important. Not that I usually do stuff that is. It's better if people have no expectations for you.

[scourgingstars]

...no. He is of House Caelum the same as I, and I would know what happened here.

[He took a slow breath, shaking his head. Ardyn had never been much for concealing or repressing sentiment, but he recognized well how to prioritize what needed to be done over focusing on how he felt about it.]

I know of little magic capable of this manner of force, and less still of machines.

[scourgingstars]

[haha oh no absolutely not, inexplicable hallucination!]

[if his eternal brainworms want to play that game, fine, he'll avoid her just as much!!]

[divisors]

No. Magic has rules to it, too. But to perform feats deemed incapable by "normal" means, one would need to fall back on such power.

[696_9]

And know their way around it a lot better than people who are just kind of winging it, huh.

[turingturo]

"Arven--?"

The AI turned quickly, hearing that swear, but far more concerned about how Arven's vital signs dropped.

He reached out--

...Tried to reach out with his free hand, on what he could only call an instinct, but his arm was completely loose and unmoving.

Right. He hadn't updated his system yet to recall he couldn't use it anymore.

So instead he shoved the remote back into his pocket, and grabbed hold of the young man's shoulder with his good hand, trying to help steady him.

"--I apologize for shocking you. Are you alright?"

[friendwich]

Between Turo and Mabosstiff he managed to get his footing back to mostly steady, rubbing his head.

"Yeah. Just dizzy. Don't-"

Worry? Touch me? He didn't get out whatever he meant to say as he eyed the still limp arm. Before he had assumed it was due to the robot's odd movements but now... he reached out to grab it, lifting it up (its heavier than he expected, honestly) and watching it drop limp again. His eyes darted to where Turo tucked the remote- they didn't really have much tech they could safely take apart here... he might not have inherited the real Turo's genius, but he was observant enough.

"What... what did you do?"