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

[liedol]

[ It takes a few moments for those words to really land but when they do, they plunk her heart down into her stomach like a stone dropping into water. Something inside her wavers and ripples in the wake of it and she realizes that

oh

Brook is the same as her. The place he'd thought he could return to might not be waiting there for him anymore.

Her throat is so tight she can taste copper on her tongue. But somehow, she manages to get some words out anyway. ]

Okay. [ Her voice is sweetly, deceptively gentle and her words alarmingly matter of fact for what she's suggesting – as if there's no other potential decent option to offer him. ] Then you can go back with me. My world's pretty big, so I'm sure there's somewhere you can make a place for yourself.

[ More pretty promises she doesn't know she can keep. But in the face of Brook's anguish, what else can she say? ]

[reaperrabbit]

["Can't" go back is a somewhat inaccurate way to put it, actually. Brook can go back. It's easy to assume he has to, eventually. Functionally immortal or not, kidnapped to another dimension or not, he made a deal with the devil himself with an unspeakable sentence on the line.

What Brook's remembered is a taste of what the rest of his eternity might have in store for him--or something like it. Satan had nothing to do with it. His own overconfidence collided with the vilest, most dispassionate, cold-blooded ingenuity humanity had to offer, and as a result--

As a result--



Brook can go back. He just can't take what he believes awaits him on the other side of that cold table.

The fierce squeeze of Ai's arms around him does a lot to assure Brook that he's here. The pressure of them defines the solidity of his back; the fabric of her top is a different texture against his eyelids. The softness of her voice is a stark, stark contrast to the clinical part-narration, part-interrogation that accompanied his waking nightmare, and he only smells cloth and human being and shampoo, not--there's no smell of his own--none of those sharper smells are here. What is here is a Hoshino Ai, a sparkling young woman, holding him and holding him up--eschewing songs and stage lights to support him with something real. Promising that here, now, and in the future can be real again, for him.]

Your... world?

[His words still come broken up with small, hiccupping sobs. One hand lets go of her so he can ball it up and wipe at his eyes.]

Wh-what would I... do there...

[That's not a no. It's a question. A plea for direction.]

[liedol]

Hmm. [ Her thoughtful hum is a little playful – maybe a little too playful in the face of Brook's tears but a moment like this is exactly when an idol needs to shine her brightest. What good are stars if they can't light up the dark, just a little bit? ] There's lots of things. Maybe we could hire you at Strawberry Productions. If I told Miyako-san about your blog, I bet she'd have you on as a social media intern in no time. Or maybe you could be a bodyguard? You're tough. Being an idol can be scary business sometimes, but having someone like you on our side might make things a little easier.

[ She pulls back, just a little – just so that when she shakes her sleeve down over her hand, she can gently dab at his face and clear some of those tears. ]

Or maybe... you could travel up and down Japan and see it for yourself. You could even blog about it – people overseas get really excited about travel vlogs and stuff like that. I bet you'd get back up to a hundred followers in no time. Or maybe you'd decide you just want an easy life and you start a nine to five at a convenience store.

[ She underlines that with a little grin. Playful again, but softer and sweeter. ]

What I'm trying to get at is... there's lots of things you could do. You don't have to decide right now. But whatever you do decide on, I'll do my best to make sure you can make it happen.

[ Because anything in her world has to be better than whatever fate could reduce Brook to tears like this. ]

cw: implied torture/eye trauma

[reaperrabbit]

[Startled, he makes a small noise, hunching his shoulders and blinking quickly as she blots at his face. It takes him a moment to parse the gesture as the kindness it is. It's different, so different from the nightmare he's just remembered, that sick fuck of a doctor pinning his eyelids open with the expression of a child who likes to break toys. Instead, Ai is talking softly and cleaning him up, like. Like.

Mothers do that, right? Brook doesn't remember his, can't recall if he even grew up with one. He thinks that's something they're supposed to do, though. Take care of you when you've been hurt or had a bad dream.

And Brook, though he's lived Ai's lifespan at least six times over, though he's a cold-blooded murderer housing a demon in his undying flesh, though he has no excuse to seek comfort from a smiling, sinless woman like her--he lets her. He lowers his hands, wraps his skinny arms around himself, and sniffles as she dabs away tears, because he's miserable and terrified and can't stand not to be touched like this, like he's something soft and undeserving of that horror.

The sobs don't wrack him like they had. He's standing on his own feet, shaky but upright. Her sweet normalcy does its soothing work; the story she spins for him of her lively world is a thread of hope just bright enough for him to clutch at in the dark.]

...Okay. Okay.

[He snrfles again and actually starts trying to collect himself, to calm his breathing.]

It sounds... n-nice. I'll--I'll think about it. If you're really sure.

[He'll miss Scarlet. He'll miss Chase and his doofy cat, too. But he did what they asked, got them what little information he found, and it's like the doctor said: They have no reason anymore to come back for him.]

Re: cw: implied torture/eye trauma

[liedol]

[ She doesn't think it would occur to anyone else to make the comparison but stood here and looking at him Ai once again has the thought that Brook is just like her. There's something about him that's a little untouchable, for fear it might break if not handled gently enough – or handled too gently.

It's sad. It's frustrating that she doesn't know what the right balance to strike is. But he seems a little steadier now so she thinks she might be on the right track. ]

Of course I am. You don't think I go around saying things I'm not sure about, do you?

[ She gives him her best attempt at a grin – it's a little dimmer than usual, but not bad considering the circumstances – and then offers him her hand. ]

Come on. Why don't you wash your face and then we'll go get breakfast together? There's still all kinds of leftovers that need eating.

[reaperrabbit]

[The memory strikes him suddenly, as Ai holds out her hand, of doing exactly that himself: reaching into the ninth circle of hell and drawing out his first and only friend.

This is the same. What Ai is doing right here, right now, is pulling Brook out of hell.

He meets her eyes, swallows, and thinks, I will do anything for you.

And he takes her hand.]

...Only if there's something sweet.

[He doesn't try to smile. It'd be pathetic, and besides, he's not sure he remembers how. But he lets her lead and follows after, lifting the over-large collar of his T-shirt to scrub the remaining tear tracks from his face.]