118th ♫ | asking myself over and over – "have i won? has a new me been reborn?"

[phaiinein]

Welcome, Champions, to the Tulipa Residency Station, the #1 top voted temporary home away from home, currently orbiting the beautiful uninhabited planet of Seraphim #52973! You've been given the very exciting opportunity to test out our facilities for free over the next few weeks. All the food fun and relaxation you could ever want alongside a beautiful view, at absolutely no cost! If space makes you anxious, don't fret! We have an on-board therapist, the distinguished Doctor Maruki here to attend to your every need! Oh, you didn't agree to come here? You want to go home? There's a weird rule in your resident ID about murder? Well, I guess there is one teeny tiny catch... Welcome to the murdergame meme: Airlocked Gaiden edition! This is a meme-ified version of the Airlocked sequel/Round 6 AU cooked up by myself and Jess made available for everyone to goof around with. HAVE FUN, GANG TL;DR: we still have airlocked brainrot THE BASICS: This meme is for threads/plots/mingles/whatever set in an Airlocked-based AU as outlined above. You don't need to be Airlocked alumni to play here but some familiarity with the game's vibes and mechanics is useful! The game's setting is Tulipa Residency Station, a high class space station orbiting an unoccupied planet. It's basically a cross between a super fancy hotel and a super fancy cruise liner so feel free to make up fitting locations as you see fit. AND YES, YOU CAN HAVE ROOMMATES. Slap up a toplevel quickly outlining what's going on with your character in the tradition of murdergame memes gone by – you can also outline your character's role in the game, how long they last and maybe give ideas for progressive CR, memory reveals, that sort of thing! TAG AROUND AND HAVE FUN THAT PART IS NOT OPTIONAL PROMPTS: 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? CHAMPION PROFILE CODE: <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</center>

Comments

regains

[finalflower]

[Annu isn't familiar with the exact concept of an idol, but she can see Ai's a dedicated entertainer, and to tell the truth, she can't help but be a little starstruck. No, no, definitely not, she is dignified and has never stared in her life. Still, when she spots Ai at the prize machine, she blinks and pauses for a moment before clearing her head.]

What did you get? I keep ending up with those "My Son" jars. I'm not actually sure if they're cursed.

[liedol]

This time? Nothing exciting. Just some tea and some weird novelty pen. [ How a full sized fishing rod shrinks down and also works as a pen she doesn't quite get but she also doesn't know enough about pens or fishing rods to debate it. ] Just more stuff to give away! I guess!

[ The machine clunks again and coughs out another capsule. Ai scoops it up. ]

And then there's... Hmm, what do you think this one's gonna be? Anything useful?

[finalflower]

I don't know, but I would like to find out.

[Adjusting her gloves like she's going to study it. Annu, you dork.]

Just as long as it isn't something too big to carry.

[liedol]

[ ... pause before she pops the thing open. ]

Hold on. Have people really been getting stuff that big out of these capsules?

[finalflower]

I know some of the things we get can't reasonably fit in them. Those toy cars, for instance.

[Christine III haunts the space station for revenge for her many predecessors.]

Though I don't precisely have information on a maximum size. Who would we even ask? It's not like Maruki-sensei would have the answer, he's a doctor.

[liedol]

Wait, does he not refill the machine? I just kind of guessed that if he wasn't doing anything else...

[ Even I can't tell you if this is throwing shade or not ]

I guess if you have the science to bring people from different worlds into space then putting things in little capsules isn't too big of an ask.

[finalflower]

The implications of that, though! I've never seen a magic like that, and I've seen plenty of different worlds. ...Well, I'll admit, mostly just the two. We haven't had much in the way of school trips.

[liedol]

If you're asking me, everything here seems exactly as magic as everything else.

[ So she's maybe not the best judge here. ]

I mean, how many people can even say they've been to one other world apart from their own?

[finalflower]

Not too many. Back home, my parents tell everybody they've shipped us off to France to study painting. It was my little brother's idea. He really does want to be an artist. I'm not even sure he likes it in the academy.

[liedol]

So you're an old pro at this... [ sigh! ] Sometimes the way you guys talk about this stuff makes me feel like I'm seriously treading water...

[ She continued fidgeting nervously with the capsule. ]

I guess my world was kind of boring in comparison.

[finalflower]

Boring how? I'm sure the life of a celebrity is plenty exciting. You'd barely have the time to do anything else, with how much work goes into it, from what I understand.

[Annu tilts her head, a gesture that could almost look innocent if it weren't coming from the Champion Shady Goth.]

Besides, you've got all this technology I've never seen. When I'm from, people are still dropping dead from lead in their cosmetics. Finding that out explained a lot.

[liedol]

Oh, it's busy, don't get me wrong. But you guys can do all sorts of magic and the way you talk about stuff back from your worlds makes mine sound totally dull in comparison. The closest thing we've got to magic is... I dunno. Cell phones, maybe?

[ 'cursed' is probably more apt there, but ]

Wouldn't a world without magic be pretty boring for you?

[finalflower]

...It might. But that's because I love magic. Not everyone at the institute follows the same path. My sister spends all her class periods reading and writing, my brother wants to be a painter. Wouldn't they do just as well in a world like yours?

[liedol]

Hmm, maybe... but it'd take some getting used to, right? If you'd been doing magic your whole life. It'd be like someone from my world suddenly having to go without the internet or TV.

[ And god forbid we don't have 24-hour on demand everything all of the time entertainment at our fingertips! ]

[finalflower]

Maybe. We do generally hide those things when we go home for breaks, unless we're in the mansion... Tell me more about those. Internet and TV. It works like communication crystals, right?

[liedol]

. . . Well, first you're gonna have to tell me what communication crystals are.

[ They're so far off from what they were originally even talking about here, but. Listen, it's fine. ]

[finalflower]

Oh, they let us send messages between worlds. The local merchant sells them, everyone's parents have at least one and most of us have our own.

[Annu tilts her head a little.]

Though I'm still curious to see what you got from the machine, speaking of buying things.

[liedol]

Your local merchant sounds pretty amazing to me...

[ But, well, the distraction means she doesn't have to try and explain cellphones. She pops the capsule open and– ]

Oh!

[ A folded sheet of paper pops out and goes fluttering to the floor. Ai stoops to grab it. ]

What's this...?

[finalflower]

That's the power of the Merchants' Guild...

[Annu leans in with a curious hum.]

A letter, I wonder? Perhaps it's from somebody's home. Unless they've just gotten lazy and are sending IOUs.

[liedol]

It wouldn't be the first time, would it? Christine-san got that strange ransom note a few weeks– ah.

[ It's not a letter at all. For a split second, she'd mistaken it for a poem of some kind but this is... ]

... They're lyrics. For... a B-Komachi song I don't know.

[ Pop in 2. She's definitely never heard of this song so... what is it? ]

[finalflower]

Really? [She taps her chin.] Maybe something they wrote while you were away. Though I'd have assumed all these things were grabbed when we were, not after.

[liedol]

. . . So they kept on going without me.

[ She sounds... a little hurt, almost. Or at least that there's some pained, complicated emotion going on in her voice. ]

[finalflower]

...Are you upset?

[Her first thought is "does she think they're wasting their time not coming to rescue her," but she doesn't voice that -- it's ridiculous. Annu might not know much about idols, coming from the wrong century, but she's pretty sure they can't be expected to go to space in another world and mount a rescue mission.]

[liedol]

[ There's a pause, just a fraction of a second too long, before Ai's expression breaks into a hasty grin. ]

No, of course not. If B-Komachi's going on without me then that's good, isn't it? It's just...

[ She folds the paper over again. ]

This means things really must be going on without us back home.

[finalflower]

Unfortunate. [She frowns.] I know it's possible to have time stop or at least slow between worlds, relatively speaking. The fact that they didn't do it here is either laziness, malice, or incompetence on their part, and the fact that I don't know which speaks volumes about them.