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]

[Loki listens quietly.

And drinks.]

Not the worst thing you could have done with your pain. [As if he has experience in something like this.]

[brandingproblem]

No, but. Still dealing with the fallout. Might never be done with it.

[cuttingremark]

This-[he gestures around at their general surroundings.]-seems to be the very definition of 'done with it.'

[brandingproblem]

No. [He frowns, shoves his bottle into the sand such that it doesn't fall over.] I don't know that I really believe that. People are looking for us. And I really thought something a lot more mundane was gonna take me out than whatever the fuck all this was.

[cuttingremark]

[Loki snorts.]

What, the great Hawkeye, ended in a car accident?

[brandingproblem]

Yeah. Drunk driver barrels through the stop sign at quarter to ten in the evening. Or literally anything other than 'kidnapped by an intergalactic weirdo putting on a murder show'. Crushed by a chunk of demolished building. Shot by a neo-Nazi. Not [with more flipping of the dagger] any of this.

[cuttingremark]

Likewise.

[Loki watches the dagger as it is tossed up, flips elegantly, then caught by deft fingers.]

I never gave my own death much thought until...shortly before we encountered each other. It seemed too far off to worry about. Until suddenly it wasn't.

[brandingproblem]

[The next time he catches it, it stays still, gripped tight.]

You ever tell anyone? About why you did what you did.

[cuttingremark]

...I don't think it really matters at this point.

[brandingproblem]

Does anything matter, at this point?

[cuttingremark]

You have a point. [Loki raises his bottle before taking a deep gulp.]

Thanos found me half dead. I don't know how long I had drifted in the void, but it was long enough. I'd like to say he had to exert force to get me to do what he wanted, but he didn't. Didn't have too. I was half-mad, too far gone to see what an utterly terrible idea it was, and too angry to care.

So really, you could have done much worse with your pain.

[brandingproblem]

Didn't exactly have the means to yeet myself off my planet and drift in the void.

[cuttingremark]

[Loki pauses, bottle halfway to his lips.]

...'yeet?'

[brandingproblem]

Something the kids say. [no one says it anymore honey] Like, chucking, throwing, tossing.

[cuttingremark]

Interesting. [A chuckle. Languages evolve, he knows that. He's experienced it, but it never fails to amuse.]

So, think you've had enough liquid courage to try using that yet? [Loki nods towards the dagger in Clint's hand.]

[brandingproblem]

I think so. [He sucks in a few steadying breaths.] Just trying to psych myself up. Hard to trust anything after everything that's happened.

[cuttingremark]

I trust you can muster the will to push past it. [It's odd how giddy Loki is about the prospect of being stabbed. Why is he suddenly so down for this? Is it his own morbid curiosity? A sense of guilt and the need to be punished?

Loki moves, almost snake like, so sit on his knees in front of Clint. Any closer and he'd be straddling the man's lap. His hair is in slight disarray and there's a bit of a flush to his cheeks from the now empty bottles of rum and absinth.]

Time to find out if we can die twice.

[brandingproblem]

[Loki moves, and Clint starts, a little sluggish and delayed. He's so into this. And stupidly it takes a moment to realize why that is.

It makes Clint burst out laughing.] You asshole. You really want me to stab you, huh?

[cuttingremark]

I figure I owe you at least a little.

[Loki smirks]

And I'm curious what will happen.

[brandingproblem]

You're an idiot. I didn't kill you back then, what makes you think I'm gonna try and maybe-kill you now?

[cuttingremark]

You didn't try to give the dagger back.

cw: attempted suicide

[brandingproblem]

No. Cuz we're both gonna find out.

[Hey Loki, ever see someone slit their own throat before? No wonder Clint had to psych himself up. But something unusual happens instead.

Oh, the blade cuts nice and clean just fine, slides into skin and along. There's no blood that spurts out. His neck doesn't become a sheet of blood. Clint does not start choking or bleeding out. When the dagger drops into the sand, there's only a slight sheen of red as the evidence that it punctured anything at all.

There's otherwise nothing there. No wound nor blemish.]

[cuttingremark]

[Reflex has Loki lurching forward to grab the dagger, eyes wide, but his mind is quick enough to stop the motion when he notices the distinct lack of blood. For a moment he thinks Clint faked it, that he isn't actually slitting his own throat. He crouches there frozen, practically on top of the human, as he watches the blade slice cleanly through the skin. It is clearly sunk into the skin, but no blood or even blemish follows in it's wake.

Without thinking he reaches forward to gently touch two fingers to Clint's neck where the cut should be.]

[brandingproblem]

[It's the strangest god damn sensation that he doesn't even react when Loki's touching him gently and basically sitting in his lap. His eyes are wide wide open, breaths ragged and stuttery and pulse in the veins and arteries that he's pretty sure he at least nicked pounding away wildly.

He opens his mouth to speak, but there's nothing that comes out. He clears his throat once, twice, makes a wheezing sound and coughs. What does eventually come is weak, but present.]

I don't recommend that.

[cuttingremark]

[Loki marvels at the smooth skin under his fingertips, the feel of Clint's throat bobbing as he clears his throat in an attempt at speech.]

So you felt it?