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

[gonepostal]

[There's almost a routine to it now: the trial ends and Su Fei knows who is most likely to seek her out and who will feel more comfortable talking to Waver instead. More than once, a crutch has lifted up to meet a risen cane with a snarky comment ready to go to defuse at least some of the tension, even if they all know the cane is (probably) coming down slowly. They take turns forcing structure back upon this strange collection of people finding themselves ever more used to violence. Su Fei heard Lord on day one and made her distaste of the nobility clear, but she has found understanding with her fellow cat-herder.

Still, this trial leaves all of them exhausted. They all do, but this time, the survivors barely manage to put together an afterparty, or anything resembling one. Su Fei had delivered her findings from examining the corpse at the trial with her usual steadiness, but something like worry had creaaed even her brow. No one deserves any of this, but some days are harder than others.

But eventually, once all the absentees and wallflowers are fully accounted for, Waver will hear the familiar click-step sound of Su Fei's approach.]

You eaten yet?

[fionnuisce]

Afraid I've rather lost my appetite.

[The distaste, fortunately, had been mutual; though he kept a thousand secrets, the professor's own low opinions of the aristocracy were not one of them. And while he was far more bark than he was bite, the temptation to swing for the fences had been written clearly across his face more than once; a short temper took that much more work to keep in check.]

[With the current miserable state of things as well handled as he thought possible, he'd retreated to sit by himself with a single cup of coffee, sunglasses perched on his head and cane leaning against the table.]

Thank you for your efforts today. I'm...not really all that great with blood.

[gonepostal]

Mm. It is what it is.

[It isn't the first time she's been thanked for her lack of squeamishness; at this rate, it won't be the last. She will be just as dismissive every time. It has to get done, one way or another; she doesn't like to take any pride in it.

Su Fei does what she can to keep herself from staying up on one foot for too long as a rule, but when she pulls back the chair opposite him and takes a seat (without asking, thanks), she doesn't make herself comfortable, like she intends to stay, sat sideways with her hand still on her crutches instead of leaning them against something.]

Starvation's probably the stupidest way to go around here. You should try to eat something.

[fionnuisce]

I will. I don't exactly plan to waste away to nothing, certainly.

[He shrugged, sitting exactly the same way he always did; rigidly straight, weaker right leg crossed over the left. Whether he hated his title or not, the demeanor was too deeply ingrained to truly disappear even when it was unnecessary.]

What about you?

[gonepostal]

[Hmmmmmmm. Considering. Considering real hard.]

I'll give dinner a go when you do.

[Using her own health as a bargaining chip to make sure he does, in fact, eat something that's not coffee??? Yes.]

[fionnuisce]

...That's a real fucking cheap shot, I hope you realize.

[He sighed in exasperation, too tired to be more than mildly irritated about it.]

[gonepostal]

Sure, but is it a shot that's going to miss?

[looking OH SO SMUG as she leans back, free arm over the back of the chair.]

[fionnuisce]

[just deadpan staring at her for a minute]

...Yeah, probably not.

[gonepostal]

That's what I thought.

[And there is why she did not sit herself so comfortably; she made a grand display of taking her crutches and clicking them both against the floor, starting to stand.]

C'mon. Times like these, it's more important than ever to not try to keep going on an empty stomach.

[fionnuisce]

[Sighing in a way that could only be called 'dramatic', the professor picked up the silver-handled cane and started walking back towards the kitchen.]

There's probably something or other left over from earlier, but if not I can cook passably enough to get by.

[gonepostal]

I was getting dinner to some of the kids [everyone younger than Su Fei was "kid" but also good god all of these TEENS] earlier and there was at least enough left to pick at. Worst case, between the two of us, we can probably make something nearly good. ...How's your spice tolerance?

[fionnuisce]

[A brief grimace, because there are so many goddamn children here, then a sigh.]

I'm English, so 'mediocre at best'. Just make a decent effort not to kill me and I'll manage.

[gonepostal]

Dying because you can't handle too much pepper might be stupider than starving, so I'll do my best.

[always sunny titlecard "su fei uses too much pepper"]

[fionnuisce]

I've survived worse.

[local white boy boutta fucking die]

...On the off-chance we have to do this whole nightmarish misery over again, what do you think the odds are we can petition the bastard in charge for a set of chairs? Don't know about you, but if I have to stand at a podium that long again, it's not going to end well for anyone. Mostly myself.

[This Is How We Cope]

[gonepostal]

If we haven't gotten chairs by now, we're not getting them. Fair warning, if and when I go down, I'm not going back up. I live in the trial room from that moment on. Trying to stand up from the floor sucks.

[HASHTAG COPING!!!!]

[fionnuisce]

And if I fall over, everyone's going to learn a lot of new and colorful words very quickly. I vote we just drag a couple chairs along with us. Hell, we can probably get a couple of the kids to carry them if we ask nice enough and play our cards right.

[it's either laugh or scream, innit]

[gonepostal]

Shoulda taught everyone a bunch of swears before today's anatomy lesson.

[the shit she had to say about the horrible things one could do to a human body this afternoon!!!! The face she's making indicates that she's realized that might be too far, though, and she quickly moves along—] Now that's the strategy. Betcha I can ask for two and you won't even have to pretend to stop being grumpy long enough to try wheedling a favor out of anyone.

[fionnuisce]

I am a delightful ray of sunshine given human form.

[yeah, completely deadpan]

[gonepostal]

[snerk]

Yeah, you're a real fuckin' treat. [And, as she enters the kitchen,] Oh, thank fuck there are leftovers in here, standing up long enough to cook coulda killed us both.

[Leftovers means, like, lukewarm soup dredges, but nevertheless.]

[fionnuisce]

With how today's going? Most likely. I don't mind admitting I've just about had it for a day or two.

[gonepostal]

You know what? Fair.

...You holding up all right? Just in general, I guess.

[fionnuisce]

I've seen worse.

...Not by much, but worse. I can handle it well enough for those that can't.

[gonepostal]

Yeah, I get that. [siiiiigh] Hey. Make sure you're handling it for yourself, too. You're gonna go insane if you don't tag out sometimes.

[fionnuisce]

I've been some level of insane for a long time, but I appreciate the thought. What about you, are you doing well enough with all this?

[gonepostal]

I'm being serious, Melloi. [an impressively rare feat for her—but anyway she hasn't got a crowbar to pry his name outta him with so that's what he's been getting!!! the other thing he's getting is her narrowing her eyes at him. don't try deflecting!!!! she worried first!!!!!!]