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

[scallopstrategist]

[Before this moment, any fissures in their group were hairline cracks. Simple to live with, easy to ignore. Obviously their "sentences" were meaningless, given what they were brought here to do. Snap. Crack. Their dear overseer, of course, was never going to let that stand. She doesn't want them to play nice. She wants them to play her game.

Jay tucks his hands into his front pockets and, less idle than he looks, taps the toe of his shoe against the floor; even this little motion sends the bells he wears softly ringing. They are, of course, annoyingly empty. Honestly. This girl wants them to kill, but she took away all of his throwing knives. What a waste.]

All right. [Although Jay himself isn't getting any odd looks at the moment-- it really is hard to compete with Brook's 35,000-- it's hard to miss the dawning looks of horror that are being thrown Brook's way from some of their group.] I don't think there's anything valuable left to learn here, now that she's said her piece and all the relevant information has been sent to our watches, so there is no reason to stay. They're just going to bicker about the content of the secrets.

[And that's that. He turns to leave the room and its increasingly sour atmosphere, although not so quickly as to leave Brook behind.]

[reaperrabbit]

[Brook follows not far behind. Until they gain some distance, he keeps a watchful eye over his shoulder, minding their backs. He doesn't need knives to be deadly.

As they get further from the others, though, the tension in him shifts, going from uncomfortable and wary to more... just uncomfortable. It strikes him belatedly that going off alone with someone immediately after they've been urged to commit a murder is somewhat worrisome behavior.

Like, everyone saw him leave with Jay. It's not like he'd get away with it. But still. He breathes out.]

It's just because of my job. I didn't kill anyone before I became a Reaper.

[Not that that's necessarily comforting, since he is a Reaper now and all. But maybe it's. Better?]

[scallopstrategist]

[As they walk along, Jay adjusts his pace to match Brook's; if not for his very jingly accessories, the sound of his footsteps would be almost if not completely hidden in Brook's. This is not a new habit. Jay always does this if he happens to be walking along with someone, despite the contradictory fact that his bells make noise whenever he moves.]

Hm? Killing is killing, isn't it?

[Brook's admission takes him a bit by surprise. It's also a bit confusing. He isn't sure what the point of the distinction is, other than the fact that "after" means it was because someone else told him to do it.]

Oh. Are you concerned that I'll see you differently, now? [He reaches up to brush a stray strand of hair, a little too short for his bobby pins to catch, back into place with the rest of his part and mildly continues.] Don't worry. I don't trust you any more or less than I did an hour ago.

[Which is to say: not at all. What Jay trusts is that it would be an extremely stupid move to kill him now, given that they were seen leaving together, or in their cell, where there is no one else Brook could try to pin the crime on.]

Besides. Technically speaking, you did tell me this already. I just hadn't thought to do the calculation myself. It didn't really seem relevant.

[reaperrabbit]

[Huh. Jay may be right about that: killing is killing, whatever one's reason. That's what Brook's learned for sure after a hundred years at the Reaper gig. Neither the Sinner's Mark nor Satan care all that much about the circumstances thereof. When he kills someone marked with an X, they go to hell. It's simple as that.

Of course, never having killed anyone--or committed any big-time sins, really--before he died, Brook never had a Sinner's Mark of his own. Originally, his soul was placed in...

Well, that's neither here nor there. It's not something he's talked about.]

...I guess I thought it might make a difference to someone else. Whether I did it while I was human or not.

[Some would judge him differently, he suspects. In what way or why, exactly, he's not sure, but he's had it pointed out to him that his sense of morality's kind of janked after all this time. Who knows what other people think.]

Your thing isn't relevant to us here, either, is it? Except that it's important to you, like you said.

[scallopstrategist]

It might to the others. I’m not a good frame of reference for this particular subject, I’m afraid.

[Jay’s tone is light, but his expression is a bit more complex. He’s well aware that this is a problem. It is the problem with him. He knows that his way of thinking isn’t normal; that there is something deeply and fundamentally wrong with him. But what can he do? It's simply how he is, how he has always remembered being.

"You said that without battin' an eyelash. Come on, it's gotta bug you a little." "Not particularly. If I decide to do it, then I will." "You gotta have ice water runnin' through your veins."

What an annoying insult, from Moses of all people, to still be bothering him. It just goes to show that a broken clock can be right twice a day; that even someone as stupid as Moses can blunder his way into actually getting under Jay’s skin, if he’s careless enough to hand over the blade.]

It annoys me that everyone will know, now, but there isn't much the rest of you can do with it while we're still imprisoned. [Jay's mouth briefly settles into a thin line. Under normal circumstances, he would simply lie. But Brook was close enough to him to hear his initial reaction. There's no point.] Yes, it is. I go to a great deal of trouble to communicate with clients strictly by anonymous letters-- that's why I'm called "the Unseen". There aren't many who can connect my name and my work to my face.

[He used to be able to count the people who knew who he was and what he did on just one hand. There still aren't many (even after everything, he's managed to keep the total below twenty) but every new introduction brings a little more risky. It's sloppy. He's become complacent, after joining Senel and the rest of his ragtag little group.]

[reaperrabbit]

[The admission earns a thoughtful glance. Brook rolls that new context around in his head for a moment like a marble or a hard candy. In the meantime, they walk perfectly in step, his footfalls silent, Jay's ringing.

Okay.]

My last boss told me not to go out in public without a mask for similar reasons. Most of the Red Spades wore masks on duty, but... well, I guess I was always on duty. And it was better for her if I was a secret weapon.

['Huh? You're sending your kid after me?'

He got reactions like that a lot.]

You're your own boss, though, right? So it matters more if you get found out. It'd be a problem for the whole operation.