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

[reaperrabbit]

...

[He doesn't have anything to say to that.]

Can't it be a trick? Like how they try to tempt or threaten us into killing. I don't think amnesia works like this, there's no reason we'd all "remember" something at the same time.

[But that doesn't account for the X's.]

Did something... trigger it?

[finalflower]

...The only thing I can think of is the trial. None of us have been through these before, have we? But every trial...

[reaperrabbit]

I thought it was familiar stuff that triggered forgotten memories, though. You know, what is it... déjà vu. And I've only ever seen it happen immediately, not a whole day later.

[finalflower]

Is that how it works?

[She runs a hand through her hair and thinks.]

I've heard a few things where I'm from, that transporting through spacetime is supposed to take a large toll. After all, it requires a lot of specific elements, especially with certain rituals. Sometimes it goes wrong. It's never happened to me, of course, but my mother used to tell me to be careful because if it went wrong, you could lose nearly all your memories, and they'd only come back over time.

[reaperrabbit]

...So you think it's something like that.

[They were, after all, certainly all transported through spacetime to get here. Right? If so, that's one more point in her favor, that whatever vision they experienced last night is actually memory popping back into place.]

Would that explain it coming back to all of us at the same time?

[finalflower]

I don't know. Unfortunately, the only ones who would aren't likely to actually explain anything.

[this is a shoukyokusai "charlie" tenichi callout post]

If this happens again, and we get another memory afterward...

[reaperrabbit]

Then if I’m right and it’s being done to us, it’s like a fucked-up reward system for participating in the program. Or… one more thing to keep tensions high.

And if you’re right, and it just happens naturally, then… I don’t know.

[finalflower]

It might come out to the same thing either way. Whatever they're running this for, they won't be checking any gifts they're given for imperfections. Gifts, of course, being anything that troubles us.

[reaperrabbit]

Yeah. …Do you think this’ll make people more likely to turn on each other?

[finalflower]

It depends.

[She folds her hands and looks him over with a frown.]

Mostly on what they remember.

[reaperrabbit]

…

[He ignores the message of her frown by taking a good, long chug of his diabetic disaster of a drink. When he finishes, he sets it down, sits back in his chair, and crosses his arms.]

Guess that makes sense.

[finalflower]

I'm sure it does. [She raises her eyebrows.] Say someone found their life was better than they'd thought before, and thus more worth killing to return to. Or that it was worse, and then an offer comes by to escape.

[reaperrabbit]

Yeah. Imagine.

[He holds her gaze levelly for a few long seconds.]

I'm not gonna talk about it.

[finalflower]

After you went to the trouble of asking about me. That doesn't seem fair, does it?

[reaperrabbit]

Fair or not… even if I wanted to talk, I can’t. If it was real, talking about it would go against the arrangement I made with my boss. He’s not someone I want to piss off.

[finalflower]

What, so that means you're under a contract? Probably a magically reinforced one, if you're afraid of it extending even across worlds. And one with consequences. Given you're in the business of death, likely permanent ones, I would suspect.

[reaperrabbit]

…Yyyyeeeah?

[Oh, man, she’s trying to work it out herself from what he says. He has no idea what he’s in for.

Brook may be stupid.

Bottom text.]

I dunno if it’s magic, but yeah, that’s more or less right.

[finalflower]

[Annu is the smart one in the family. Though that might not mean much if you met her siblings. Or her parents.]

That would seem to be commonplace. Well, I may be a medium, but I'm not in the business of leaking anyone's magical nondisclosure agreements, if you can put it that way.

[She raps her fingernails on the table. Her hands look weird with the gloves off, like the tips are stained with black ink fading into purple.]

So if you don't know if it's magic, I suppose your organization uses a power that it calls distinct from magic. Like how Arven and Turo's creatures just have "natural abilities."

[reaperrabbit]

[It's not that he doesn't notice the stains. They just don't register to him as terribly strange.]

Sure. It's whatever you wanna call demon and angel stuff. We usually just go with "powers."

[finalflower]

Some would agree with you.

[She seems to remember her breakfast is there and getting cold, and takes another contemplative bite.]

After all, there are worlds with different sources of abilities, and they only call some of them magic. How is it magical when an enchanted tool only works for the pure of heart, but not magical when a machine made by mundane humans can alter a person's genes, even if the result is the same power?

[reaperrabbit]

...So you're saying it doesn't really matter what it's called, magic or powers or technology. Fine, I can agree with that.

[Smartphones definitely aren't magic, but they might as well be for all he understands how they work. Her logic checks out.]

Point is, yeah, I made a deal, and yeah, it comes with consequences. That's how deals work.

[finalflower]

Generally, unless one of the parties is either very good or very bad at them. That goes without saying. But I'm not sure it doesn't matter, just that the worlds are more complicated than any of us give them credit for.

[reaperrabbit]

Okay. Fine. Whatever.

[You win, Annu. You win. At least they're not talking about his memory regain anymore. Everybody wins!]

So it was magic, then, that made your hands like that?

[He finally acknowledges the darkness tinting her fingers by inclining his head at them.]

[finalflower]

Dark magic is not for the faint of heart.

[She recites like she's heard it somewhere, though she doesn't look all that sorry.]

I've only been practising for a little while, relatively. Someone who's done it all their life will look worse. I can't imagine what my professor looks like by now. He hides it, like I do with my gloves or kimono sleeves.

Of course, I hide it because I don't officially have permission to study in the restricted section, but that's another matter.

[reaperrabbit]

Does it hurt? Or make you stronger?

[Asked like those are two possibilities, not the only options. They might feel like or do nothing at all, except tell on her for sneaking into the Forbidden Zone.]