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

[keyringwitness]

[ Yasu startles and begins frantically gesticulating, as if searching for an invisible lifeline that would save her from her embarrassment. ] It w- was- um- she- motorcycles- well not- but- um-

[ She dips her head to hide her blush.

look yasu's almost a teen now which means she's stumbled headfirst into a weakness for confident, athletic, slightly masc blonds

The first thing Ai said finally registers, giving Yasu a way out of her predicament that she takes without thinking. ]

I wasn't talking about... here. [ She curls up and clenches her fists. ] T- This isn't the first time I've been trapped in a game like this.

[ The words rush out before Yasu can stop them. She's been trying to keep a lid on her past since she's arrived, but now... ]

[liedol]

[ Ai's smile – changes. It doesn't do anything quite so obvious as fade or flag, but it's like the light behind it snaps off. For a brief few moments the coils are still illuminated enough to give off some scant light, but then everything goes dark.

Yasu's small. She's young. And for this to be the second time she's in a game like this, for her to have any kind of experience– then–

Ai stares at her and at last, the smile slides off her face. ]

... when you say... like this... [ She's audibly trying to tread carefully, but her gaze is a little... ] Do you mean exactly like this?

[keyringwitness]

[ A flicker of recognition sparks in Yasu's eyes as she sees Ai's smile lose its vivre. It's odd. She should be wary, but that hollow smile is familiar enough for Yasu to timidly step out from the crack in her heart. It sounded like an old friend.

The board doesn't look quite the same... [ Yasu turns to stare out the observation deck's window, gazing down at the lifeless planet below. ] But the rules are identical. [ She got the feeling that the "murdergame" was popular among witches. Beatrice's game was already a hit in the senate, so a game that stripped its format down to its bare essentials and gave witches license to toss in their favorite pieces yoinked from whatever Fragments they were fond of would naturally take off.

Part of Yasu wanted to cackle at the irony, but she was still human enough that the misery of being put through this particular wringer for the second time vetoed the motion. ]

...we were 'enrolled' in the Principal's school against our will. He brainwashed us for months to make us perfectly obedient, but Kakuya snapped us out of it. [ The fox kit in her lap stirs, and Yasu gives her scritches. ] The Principal almost killed us all the moment he found out... then Kakuya helped us out and gave us a stay of execution by proposing the 'game' as an alternative to slaughtering his students immediately. The Principal found it funny, so...

[ Yasu's shoulders slump. ]

The first thing he did was tell us that if we didn't kill each other, he'd help our enemies back home. Reika was a magical girl, a- and she thought that nobody back home could handle it if the villain of her story came back. So she- w- well.

Like I said. I should've known not to trust a magical girl. [ Yasu gives Ai a pained smile. ]

[liedol]

[ Some kind of horrible knot ties itself into place around Ai's heart – it strangles her lungs, her throat, silencing her so completely that she doesn't know that she could make any words come out even if she knew what she wanted to say. It was already an act of unimaginable cruelty to bring a girl like Yasu here, but in between everything else this place asked of them the sharpness of that cruelty had dulled its edge somewhat. But now it pierces her again as she looks at Yasu and thinks – to bring her here not just once but to steal her after she'd already survived another when she's so small and she's so frightened and–

And what it must mean for the rest of them, that even if they escape from this then there's no way to be sure it's all over. Even if a game is packed away, it can be laid out again and the pieces forced to reassemble whether they like it or not. The thought that Ai could someone survive this, reclaim her future and return to Aqua and Ruby, to have that miracle granted only to return to a hell like this again–

Ai opens her mouth. No words come out, so she closes it and swallows before trying again.

Her voice rasps on the way out. ]

... Then... h–how... how did you get out?

[keyringwitness]

A miracle. Everyone working together, dead and alive, to get out of Closetland and back to... an Earth, at least. I don't know which one. We all went to our homes, after that.

[ Yasu grows distant, staring past Ai, past the station, into a sparkling sea. An epiphany had been circling her for the past few weeks like a shark in the water, and with this conversation with Ai, it finally smelled blood.

Yasu smiles Ai's smile, or something very much like it, back at Ai. ]

Don't worry, Ai. You'll escape and go back home. You're a real person, after all. I'm sure you have something to go back to.

But I'm not. A game like this... it's the closest thing to home for a witch's piece like me.

[liedol]

[ Something about the way Yasu is talking makes her stomach churn. It takes a second for her to understand but then Ai realizes – it's because she recognizes it. It's the same tone of relieved resignation her thoughts take on during the moments she loses hope. The idea that this place is where she belongs now because she has nowhere back home to go to and that even as miserable as things are, she should be grateful for them because as unwillingly as it was given to her, every single breath she takes in this place is a gift.

And Yasu talks as if she's the same.

And if Yasu is the same, then– ]

I don't.

[ She blurts the words out almost before she even realizes she's going to say them. ]

I– don't have anywhere to go back to.

[keyringwitness]

[ Yasu freezes at Ai's words. For a moment, she wonders if she's run into another abandoned piece, but it's doubtful that Ai is a metatextual castoff like her.

That leaves only one possibility. ]

I'm... [ For all that Yasu has been through, she doesn't know how to comfort someone grieving over her own life. ] "Sorry" doesn't seem like enough, huh.

[ She curls up, hugging her knees. ]

Empty platitudes like that only make it hurt worse.

[liedol]

[ She makes a noise that comes out as a good approximation of a laugh. ]

It's kind of funny. [ It's really not. ] When bad things like that happen, the only thing you end up saying an apology, even if it had nothing to do with you. But I guess that's why we call them platitudes, huh?

[ There's no bitterness pointed at Yasu, at least. Which isn't quite the same as there being no bitterness at all. ]

It makes me glad to be here, in a weird way. It's not quite a second chance, but... maybe it's a chance at a second chance. So I'm grateful.

[keyringwitness]

...you're the only other person I've met who's understood what that's like, Ai.

[ Maybe Ai really was the person best suited to sort something human from Yasu's guts. ]

For me, it's the same, but, um, different. It's hard to explain.

[ Give her a moment, Ai, she's not quite a natural at the complicated metaphors part of witchery yet. ]

Imagine that when you wake up somewhere like this, everything feels wrong. Your body isn't quite the same as it was, your voice is different, you can't even say your own name...

But people are killing each other, so you don't worry about it. Until you find the stageplay script for you life.

It's all there. Everything that's happened to you, everything that will happen after... even a cast list, every actor in the play and the character they're playing. You're on there, too, playing yourself until a pivotal moment comes and you're replaced by someone else.

Um... [ She fidgets. ] This is where the metaphor stops working, I guess. Because they're- I- aren't actors. We're pieces, instead, like in a game of chess. And I'm a piece that was made to play the role of the "real" me when she was a child.

I don't think... I don't think there would've been anything left for me after the play finished and the gameboard was put away. Not even death. Just... nothingness.

So I'm grateful, too.

[liedol]

[ It's funny. Yasu makes it sound like such a horrible thing but Ai can't help but think that it'd be a weight off her shoulders. The uncertainty is always the thing that's frightened her the most, never knowing exactly what performance to put on to make sure that everything turns out alright in the end. She's a born liar, after all, so having a stage of set directions to follow and making the leap to being an actress would be simple enough. Even if it was still a bad ending, even if she still had no other role but as a tragic heroine, having a script to follow and knowing how it would all turn out...

Maybe it would be easier. Maybe that way she could make her peace with it.

She lets out a breath. ]

When you put it like that, playing around in someone else's game doesn't sound like such a bad idea. Maybe I'll give being a Witch a shot if we ever get out of here. It can't be any harder than being an idol, right?