117th ♫ | aren't i filthy? why won't you kill me?

[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></center>

Comments

[thermals]

[As fate would have it, Tobias doesn't know this. Obviously. He doesn't know that Jay had plans to kill someone and- in turn- there's a theoretical future in which Elfangor was spared. Someone else could have died, but the fact remains it wouldn't have been Elfangor. He's not a target Jay would have chosen.

But that remains unknown. Unspoken. It's probably for the best, though it's unclear what Tobias might even do with this knowledge. Would he do anything at all? He honestly doesn't know. Because the moment his last familiar tether left him, he started to realize that whatever sliver of hope remained was quickly slipping as well.

He didn't want to be here anymore. He didn't want to do this anymore.

He should have expected his question to be turned back on him, rhetorical or not. Yet, despite that, it takes him a moment to come up with an answer.]

< At this point? It's just something to do. Saves me from having to ask if I missed anything. >

[He knows how this place operates. It's just as liable someone could die during one of these parties, and the only way you can have an alibi for such a thing is if you're clearly accounted for when it happens.]

< ...you're right, though. Maybe they give the others closure, but from up here it just looks like more spectacle for the bear to gawk at. >

[scallopstrategist]

[Jay sighs. Tobias isn't wrong. It is something to do, to fill up the empty hours. Some weeks ago, there was in fact a party-- that joke of a wedding-- that turned out to be disadvantageous to skip. But that was when more of them were still alive; his absence hadn't even been noted in the trial.]

< Or whoever else might be watching us. >

[The back of his neck crawls with disgust. Instinctively, Jay tucks his hands into his pocket. Even after six years, his fingers curl around the bell-- was it always this small?-- to hide it in his hand. Not that it provides him any comfort. It's simply evidence that his time ran out a long time ago.

The bell is a message: Found you. And: Did you really think you could hide from me?]

< This can't last much longer. Our headmaster is running out of students. In a few more weeks, he won't have anyone left to play with. >

[thermals]

[Tobias shifts restlessly on his perch, from one talon to the other. He wants so badly to fly, but these small rooms and cramped hallways do not offer him much room to stretch his wings. Even in the larger areas that do, like the courtyard, it's still not enough. It's not the open sky.]

< If we could just resist killing each other for more than a few days, maybe they'd have to come up with a new strategy. >

[But it isn't as if Tobias doesn't understand what's happening, here. It isn't just a case of "don't kill anybody". These weekly motives are forcing people to kill by pressing onto the worst parts of them. It's easy to say you wouldn't kill, until it's you under the knife.

Tobias? At this point, he's simply on guard at all times. It would be easy for someone to target and kill him, assuming they were able to see him as only an animal for as long as it took to take him down.]

< Every day I scan the perimeter. Trying to see if there's something we've missed...some small gap or flaw in the building I could get through, but there's nothing. And even if there was...I'm not sure they wouldn't try to kill me before I made it outside. >

[scallopstrategist]

[From the beginning, Jay has been wary. He doesn't venture out of his room at night. He doesn't allow himself to be alone with a single other person. He doesn't like to eat food prepared by the others, unless he has seen them eating it too. He's well aware of the relative size difference between himself and most of the rest of their group; while he's far from defenseless, it's a marked disadvantage in a physical confrontation. Especially without his eres and usual weapons to compensate.]

< ... if it would help in your search, I've created maps of each floor. You can have them. The most likely locations for an exit to this facility would be the first and last floors. >

[Tobias isn't the only one who has been searching. Or at least-- he wasn't. For the first few weeks one of the most common tasks to find him at was meticulously examining the walls and layout of their prison; when asked, he brightly remarked that he was looking for hidden doors and passageways. But it's been a while since he's done that. For whatever reason, Jay has given up on it.]

< Do you ... > [His thoughts falter. Even in his own mind, he can't escape the stutter of his childhood.] < Assuming we find a loophole in the rules, or some sort of opportunity arises, and do escape.

What do you think we'll find outside? >

[thermals]

[Tobias falls silent- or as silent as one can, given the way he speaks is through his thoughts- as he shifts his weight from one talon to the other on the rafter he's perched on.]

< It's better than nothing. I'll take a look. >

[Maybe there's something Jay found out that he missed. He isn't so proud as to think he's gotten everything. After all, he's a bird of prey, now. If he could get miles into the sky and look at this place from above, he'd have it all committed to memory, but...being stuck indoors like this? It's like he's living in a shoe-box. It's impossible to do much of anything.

But then, before he can muse for too long, Jay's thoughts are wandering...and Tobias' own are inclined to follow suit.]

< I don't know. I keep imagining we're in the middle of nowhere. A desert, or...a sprawling forest if we're lucky. Somewhere someone could do all of this and get away with it without arousing suspicion. ...kindof sounds like a bad horror film, but I'm inclined to believe anything at this point. >