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

[cuttingremark]

If you'd said that a few weeks ago, I would have laughed. [He takes another drink and notices his own glass is emptying far faster than he would have liked.]

Hopefully not too upset. Not sure I deserve that many tears.

[brandingproblem]

You were actually nice to some of them. Or at least funny. Guess you needed to find some way to make people like you that's not mind control. Maybe if you tried not being a dick, you would've made more friends back home.

[cuttingremark]

...Maybe. [Not that it had ever worked out for him in the past.

He downs the rest of his drink.]

[brandingproblem]

[He motions with the bourbon.] You wanna go sit down by the water and feel sorry for ourselves, see if the dead can get drunk?

[cuttingremark]

[Loki considers Clint for a moment. He has absolutely no reason to be nice to him, even less reason to listen to Loki wallow in his own self pity. Yet here he is, offering to share a drink and be...sad together?

Weird. Not bad, just...odd.]

Why not. [He grabs two bottles, the one labeled 'white rum' and one labeled 'absinth']

Not like we can drown.

[brandingproblem]

Might try, but wouldn't be my favorite way to go. [The sand is warm and soft and clean, feels nice, even down to the edge of the water, right before the sand gets wet and clumpy where he plops down.] If you could pick something that's not old age, how would you wanna go?

[cuttingremark]

[Loki sinks down next to Clint. He wonders if it is odd to the human that he chose to keep his sturdy leather boots on, but he has other things to think about in the moment.]

I suppose 'quietly in my sleep' doesn't count? [He thinks for a moment before answering.] Stabbed through the heart. Nice, clean, quick.

[brandingproblem]

[Hey, some people don't like sand. Or feet.] Don't have any of my weapons on me. That's a shame.

[cuttingremark]

You could always break the bottle, but that would be a terrible waste of alcohol.

[The white rum isn't Loki's drink of choice, but he takes a swig all the same, face contorting as it burns down his throat.]

What about yourself?

[brandingproblem]

I don't know. Something just as quick. Explosion, maybe. Big one, so I don't have to feel it. Or a nice subtle poison.

[cuttingremark]

[He takes another long swig.]

I am well versed in both poisons and causing explosions.

[A wave of his hand and a dagger appears. With a smooth motion he flips it over to grip the blade and holds it out to Clint.]

[brandingproblem]

Guess not really being fully aware of what was going on was a pretty good way to go, physically. I'm just assuming I broke my neck in the fall.

[He drinks, and the burn is good and tingly even if the flavor kind of sucks. Loki's magic is in full bloom, and he leans away with concern. It's a knife--a dagger.] I'm not- [But he doesn't finish the sentence. Stares at the offered handle. Takes another swig. Grabs the offered weapon.]

You make this up, or is this one of your personals?

[cuttingremark]

It's unclear if my magic actually works here, or simply acts as I expect it to, so it's hard to say if this is, or is simply modeled after, one of my personal arms.

[It's sharp, well weighted, fine Asgardian craftsmanship.]

You did say you wanted to test it.

[brandingproblem]

[He feels the weight of it, the balance. Tosses it in the air in a few neat little flips and catching it once more.]

I'm gonna need a little more in me for that.

You'd think you'd be blue, in death.

[cuttingremark]

Good thing the alcohol is seemingly endless.

[Loki lets out a harsh bark of a laugh.]

Do you mean you expected my body to turn blue after I was killed, or that I would appear different in the afterlife?

[brandingproblem]

[He gives an impatient little motion with the bottle and not (thankfully?) the dagger.] As I understand it, you're not naturally white as the driven snow.

[cuttingremark]

No, but the All Father's enchantment is strong. If it survived his death, I'm not surprised mine as well.

[Oh shit, the rum is gone. Welp, time to start on the absinth!]

[brandingproblem]

[...Well, Loki sure does drink like he's related to Thor. Clint is still only human, so the bourbon is going slower. But going. He extends a leg out far enough to get his foot lapped by the water.]

I'll never wrap my head around the magic bullshit. None of it. It's all fucking weird.

You know what happens to people when they get got here? Do they just suffer their mortal wounds the whole time? Do they die and pop back up clean as a whistle?

[cuttingremark]

[Loki snickers at the magic comment.]

Not sure. They just said they tried it and it didn't work.

[brandingproblem]

Okay, well. We'll find out soon enough.

...You did a good thing, you know. Sucks that it still counts as murder.

[cuttingremark]

[Loki shrugs.]

A death is a death. We had little chance of finding who the poisoner was, and I was able to spare her more pain.

And you got to relax for a week.

[brandingproblem]

And look where that got me. Jesus, look, of course I hate your fucking guts, but if I was going to kill you, I'd have done it first thing.

[cuttingremark]

Was it the threat of everyone else dying that stopped you?

[brandingproblem]

It's the threat of being a monster in my own right. I'm trying to be better than I was. Trying to...put some bad habits behind me.

[cuttingremark]

Is a monster killer also a monster?