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

[deadplating]

We didn't.

[If anything he was MEANER to Yuri then he was with the others. She reminded him too much of himself at her age. Quiet hiding a manic desperation. He didn't understand how the others didn't see it.]

Not really. I'm not a detective.

[ensiforme]

[ It gives a thoughtful him through another sip of whisky. ]

A shame. Without someone capable to lead investigations, we may all die before too long.

[ said in a tone of voice I can only describe as :) ]

[deadplating]

Probably.

[He takes a long drag on his cigarette and blows it to the side- not in her face, but not caring to ask if it was okay with him smoking period]

If I tried to take over there'd just a repeat of tonight. I'm not exactly popular.

[Another drag]

Plus, I don't give a shit. This was a killbox from day one.

[ensiforme]

[ With a deep nod: ] That's wise. She favours those who have no fear of Her.

[ siiiiiiiip. ]

[deadplating]

[It takes him a moment to catch up from what he said to what it's saying: even just one whiskey in and he's already feeling slow.

Ah. That Death stuff. They've been here long enough that it's not new]

I... wouldn't say I'm not afraid of it.

cw for someone else's immortal suicidal ideation ig??

[ensiforme]

You'd prefer not to die. Most wouldn't.

[ As she's gotten used to remembering since arriving here. Death as she knows Her is a kind and inviting thing, a restful end denied to the one who forged her. It'd taken some time to clue back into the idea that even knowing there was a quiet epilogue wasn't enough to take the sting out of that fear.

It's never asked Vince exactly what he thinks, though. ]

Does no one wait for you at the end?

[deadplating]

No one.

[He says that without hesitation. No regret or grief at this either]

[ensiforme]

Then what exactly do you have to fear?

[ It's making... uncomfortably direct eye contact. ]

[deadplating]

[He stares back. He can almost hear Rody's trembling, yelling voice in his ear:

'YOU KNOW EXACT WHO'S WAITING FOR YOU!'

He waits to feel some of that imagined horror. Guilt. Something.

There's nothing there but a dull pleasure at remembering that man's face. Of seeing, and like in a mirror experiencing it through his extreme reactions.

That was all.]

Nothing.

[He pauses, and realize how his words might be construed]

Dying and feeling nothing scares me.

[ensiforme]

[ It takes a little bit for her to understand - or to put the pieces together, rather. No one is waiting for him. He fears nothing. He fears a lack.

Eglantine hums thoughtfully into its drink. ]

You fear having nothing but yourself for all eternity.

[ Quite casually, it refills their glasses. His first. ]

[deadplating]

[he snarls, his placid affect dissolving for the truth: hatefulness]

Ugh. The more you talk the more I DO want to be alone for eternity.

[Is she wrong though? He hates people. Despises looking at them almost as much as he is revolted by eating. Yet still he yearns. Covets.

At least that hate is something. If it was just him, what would he have left to want? What would make his throat sizzle and let him pretend he feels something other than pain?

He should stop drinking. He knows that. He already feels nauseous and fuck does he hate the sensation of throwing up. But he takes the drink anyway, tosses it back to feel the burn. His impulse control is in shatters. Has been since he lost what made him human. Some delicate part of him- his brain, his soul, his mind- destroyed along with his sense of taste.

Vincent, very suddenly but with an extreme assuredness, want to wrap his hands around it's throat]

And what the fuck about you then? If you love your Death so much why don't you hurry up and meet her?

[ensiforme]

[ Infuriatingly, she laughs. To make matters even worse, she has a particularly pretty laugh. ]

I don't know that I love Her. I just know that when my sheath rots away, I would want her to wield me until the stars go out. She is the only one I could entrust myself to entirely and be satisfied.

[ She says it's not love but with such a warm, honeyed tone to her voice and such a soft expression... what else could it be? ]

But if I rushed to be by Her side, She would hate me for it. She loves that I live without fearing Her.

[deadplating]

[He puts the glass down with a harsh click]

...must be nice.

[ensiforme]

It isn't unpleasant.

[ It takes a long pull of its own whisky before setting its glass down in turn. ]

Are you jealous?

1/2

[deadplating]

[How dare you fucking call him out]

[deadplating]

No.

[ensiforme]

You say that, but you're seething. Why would you be so angry if it wasn't a case of jealousy?

[ freak on freak hostility. ]

[deadplating]

[He stands, hands shaking, smearing out his cigarette on the counter]

We're done.

[If he doesn't walk away now he's going to-]

[ensiforme]

[ There. Heat and violence. It recognizes that kind of spark — how could it not when it sees the same thing reflected in its own eyes in the mirror? He's been doing his best to smother it these past few weeks but she knows what those embers feed on.

She knows how easy it is— ]

Perhaps.

[ — to stoke them. ]

Walking away won't make it untrue.

[deadplating]

[For years this urge had just been... something itching in the back of his mind. It was not exactly that he wanted violence, so much as whatever part of him was supposed to reel in his first impulses was missing. It was something he learned to control. To feed into his other passions. Obsessions.

Shortly before Manon and Rody, that control had started to slip. Those damn reviews. The skittish eyes of his sous chefs. Everyone around him could sense it on instinct. Terrorizing his employees, slapping Rody-

-killing Manon.

Oh there was something beautiful in giving in to these needs. To eat and eat and eat. Why shouldn't he? Why shouldn't he take everything he was denied- those around him never appreciated their lusts. So he would make them his own.

And now this... this thing... was mocking him with it's own fulfillment, when his own had so cruelly denied him, marinating him in tears and blood and cooking oil and leaving his wanting-

(the fucking tease)

This thing waves a steak under his nose when he was still So. Fucking. Hungry. Starving. Emaciated from the lack. Never full.

He hates it so much.

So, he can't be judged, he thinks, for lunging at it. No weapon- he can't even begin to think that far ahead. All he wants to to tear it's throat out before it can insult what little pride Rody hadn't burned out of him]

strangulation cw

[ensiforme]

[ For as open as Eglantine is about its nature, none of them have ever actually seen it fight. Surely it must know how, for all the pride it takes in itself as a blade. If that was the case, surely it would know better than to rile a man already on the verge of violence. Surely it wouldn't let him actually lay his hands on her.

And yet, when Vince lunges, Eglantine doesn't move. She just smiles, as if he's admitted his own loss. She staggers back against the bar, hitting the side of it hard enough that the glasses rattle and the whisky bottle threatens to topple over. Under his hands, its neck is especially slender and delicate. Whatever marks he leaves will be livid on her skin.

If she lives long enough to bruise. ]

[deadplating]

[If he was in his right mind he would realize what he's walked right into. But all there is, all there can be, is this red heat of rage and indulgence.

Too bad it's not-

-well, no point wishing, huh?

His hands are longer fingered, scared and strong. Not a warrior's hands, certainly, but they've seen their fair amount of cuts and burns. Callous from blades and cello strings. More than enough to choke a thin a neck as this.

Vince's teeth are bared, lips pulled back like a beast's as he presses as hard as he can. Investigations and trials and the like are far far away from his mind.]

[ensiforme]

[ So he does have the guts to kill. She'd wondered if the spark was all he had and it would flicker and die once the outburst was out of his system. She'd underestimated him, it seems. There's the makings of a great forge in Vince, too.

Too bad for him that she's long since been made. ]

I told you.

[ Its voice is strained and ragged as it should be - but it's calm, too. Too calm. At last, its hands snap up to grab his wrists but instead of trying to pull him away, it seems to be anchoring him in place. ]

I won't rush to Her side.

[ That's all the warning he gets before she kicks his legs out from under him. ]

[deadplating]

[in another life he might have been able to take something broken and make it new. To lovingly scrape off the rust and buff out the nicks of abandonment. To, with a firm hand, give purpose to something so openly desperate for it.

But he was too eager. Too inexperienced. A teenager fumbling in the backseat of a dark car. It couldn't be blamed for bitting him instead. The jagged scars on his neck are testaments to failed patience.

His legs collapsing are also proof of it. Still, his fingers claw as he loses his grip, desperate to cause damage even as he completely fails to kill it. She's been forged too well for someone like him to ever damage. He hits the ground with a frustrated yell, kicking out in impotent rage.]

[ensiforme]

[ It returns the kick in kind, with interest — right to the gut and hard enough to knock the air right out of him. The bar rattles again and so casually you could almost think it had planned this all along, she reaches back to wrap her fingers around the bottle of whiskey. ]

Stand up.

[ A smile tugs at her mouth, even as she spits the words out like a command. ]

If you still can. Or you can roll over and show your belly.