122nd ♫ | phosphor burned a silent mayday, my hand slipped with a dirty splash

[phaiinein]

The Murder Game Meme



You know the script. You wake up in a place you've never seen before, with a whole bunch of complete strangers and there's a mysterious voice or a mascot or what have you ready to let you know how things are going to work around here.

The rules are simple: You're trapped here, with no hope of release or rescue. You've been provided with all the basic necessities you need to live comfortably, and all you have to do is settle down and live out the rest of your days here in peace. But if you can't do that -- if you're really so desperate to escape that you'll do anything -- then there's one teeny tiny thing you have to do first.

All you have to do is kill somebody.

But it's not quite that simple. Every death will be followed by a period of investigation, followed by a trial in which the survivors will attempt to solve the mystery and out the culprit. If the survivors guess correctly and out the culprit, the killer is executed and life goes on. But if the survivors guess wrong, then the culprit is free as a bird and everyone else is executed.

Even with the promise of freedom, can you really bring yourself to kill so many other people?

tl;dr: it's a murdergame meme. TIME TO HAVE A BIG OL' MURDERGAME BLAST.


Settings

1. High School A classic! Doesn't matter if you're too old or too young to be in high school -- you've been enrolled and the only way for you to graduate is to kill a fellow student. But hey, the faculties are nice!
2. Tropical Island Weren't you just hankering for a nice tropical vacation? No? Too bad! You're going to have a nice sunny vacation at the beach and if you don't like it, just kill someone and go home. Simple!
3. Prison It doesn't matter if you don't remember committing any crime; you've been tried and found guilty of something or other and now you can go ahead and rot away in jail. If you ever want to see the sunlight again, better put that criminal mind to good use and get rid of your inmates.
4. Mall A huge mall stuffed full of stores, places to eat and all the regular amenities like deadbolted doors and the threat of death. It's like Black Friday but even worse because you can't leave and all the rest of the shoppers might actually kill you for real this time.
5. City Holy shit, you've got the run of a whole city this time around! Maybe with all this room to keep out of each other's way, you'll be able to make sure no one starts killing people. But probably not.
6. Cruise Boat YOU'RE ON A BOAT, MOTHERFUCKER. The accommodation is all five star, even if there's no one around to act as wait staff. The only snag is that you still have this whole murder thing hanging over your head – but on the plus side, they have those little drinks with the umbrellas in, so...
7. Space Station THE FINAL FRONTIER... Maybe you're familiar with space stations like this or maybe all this future tech is fascinating to you. Not like it matters either way, of course, because you won't be getting out of here unless you lay down a murder on someone.
8. Wildcard! None of the above scratch your murder itch? Go wild and come up with your own setting!



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?
8. Wildcard YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO


OPTIONAL FUN

Lots of murdergames have in-universe public profiles for other characters to get the skinny on yours. If you'd like to fill one out to post with your toplevel, peep at the code below!

<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</ul></center>

Comments

[sugarnaut]

Name: Satoko Fukui | Champion Survivor | The One That Got Away
Age: 20s | Species: Human | Occupation: Pâtissière
Likes: Baking, flowers, aquariums
Dislikes: Murder games, royalty, the smell of chalk
Traits: Hot-tempered, warm, sharp
Trivia: This isn't her first rodeo!

( info/perms needs reworking entirely whoops. the long and short of it is that satoko is a baker who has already survived a murder game in her teens, being the righteously furious leader/"protagonist"... and she's less than thrilled to be here again, doing the same fucking shit.

despite wanting to be cynical and closed off, satoko also desperately wants to believe in the best in people so she's both surprised and deeply hurt when the game begins properly. torn between tearing her fingers into a leadership role and wanting to rely on others, satoko decides not to spearhead anything, but to take the time to take care of others instead, but her cunning mind that lead her through the first murder game hasn't dulled a whit in all the years, and she chases after leads like a vicious wolf might.

she keeps no secrets- her brother was the first victim, her best friend the first murderer, she's the one who killed the first game's mastermind, she wants to see her brother again but the idea of rewriting reality or even just plain old necromancy sickens her. no motive impresses her, and she saves her most savage fury for their hosts. simply put, she's straight-forward, immensely caring, broken-hearted, and




tired. ... but that quick wit and guarded nature won't keep her safe forever, will it? )

Brother was the first victim, you say?

[journalingstink]

[If we're being honest here? Raphael Hamato was not taking the situation seriously. Don't get him wrong, he knew it was bad, but like - this is what villains do! Kidnapping heroes and civilians and forcing them into crazy situations like this! And sure, the fact that the magic weapon thingies were taken wasn't exactly good, and the many humans in the area found them terrifying at first, but they got over it pretty quickly! And plus, they were heroes! They did hero stuff! Even if was just him and one of his brothers, they could do this!

The motive came and he brushed it off without a second thought. A billion dollars was a lot of money, yeah, but any one of them killing? And for something like that? Clearly, it was nothing to worry about.

Then Friday morning came.

Raphael is kneeling in front of a corpse.

It seems like he's not even breathing, frozen in place.

All he can do is stare at the turtle in front of him.

Michelangelo Hamato, Got Mad Skills, is dead.

oh raphael we're really in it now

[sugarnaut]

( history has a habit of repeating itself in the worst ways. he wasn't killed the way yosuke was, and that's perhaps the smallest of mercies or she'd be a bit more useless, but- it always is going to be brothers first, isn't it?

satoko is a small woman, but the situation makes it too easy for her to give the younger boy a hug, warm and protective and maybe a little desperate- like she's asking him not to follow his brother, just in case. because yes, there's work to do. but there's also a broken heart that's in need of care and no one's going to understand this better than her. )

Raphael... do you want to step back for a second? Not the whole investigation, I won't ask that of you. But just enough to breathe?

sorry for limited icons, working with what I got

[journalingstink]

[He flinches at first contact. For a split second, he convinces himself it's Mikey - this was all a prank, a stupid cruel one, and he realized it, and he was about to get apology after apology, and it would take him half an hour to even care, because it was okay, he wasn't a failure of an oldest sibling, his baby brother was still okay, he was still alive-

But no. The frame of the person hugging him was small, but still bigger than Mikey's small form. He felt skin against his scales. And the voice that he could barely hear wasn't that of his littlest brother.]

I-I...he...

[Even still...]

He...he's not...h-he can't be...

[He won't accept this.]

don't worry hon bc same. s a m e

[sugarnaut]

I know. I'm sorry. I- I get it.

There's no hell like this. My brother-

( she inhales sharply, shaking her head. it's not the time, and if they have this conversation right now, she knows they'll both be useless. )

Raphael, listen. We'll find who did this. I promise.

[journalingstink]

B-but I...I-

[A breath finally enters his lungs, but it sounds more like a choked sob. Even that much feels like a struggle as stutters a sentence out.]

I...what do I...

What am I gonna tell Don and Leo?

[Because even when his heart is shattering - even when he's struggling to breath - to think - even when the thought of moving from this spot is impossible...he's still thinking about his family first.]

[sugarnaut]

( what am i gonna tell mom and dad? i- we're twins, we were supposed to-

she remembers that day more and more by the second and she wants to run away. but she can't, not for the life of her. she won't do that to him. )

The only thing you can- the truth. The truth, and that we found the one who did it. I'm not gonna let them walk away from this- and you don't have to face this alone.

( her words feel awkward, clumsy and heavy on her tongue- she can't remember what the others told her, all those years ago. just the sound of her own blood rushing through her ears, the ringing in her mind. it's-

it's hard. she wishes that if it had to be anyone, it wasn't the siblings. but... )

CW: Suicidal Ideation-ish

[journalingstink]

[It's hard. Thinking is hard, breathing is hard - trying to just exist is hard right now. It feels like the entire world is ending but keeps turning despite it. He can't move but the rest of existence just doesn't care.

He wants to scream.

He wants to die.

He doesn't even touch the tears running down his face.

His head tilts lower, but his eyes are still on his brother's body as he speaks.]

H-how do we-how...

Whadda we do?

[sugarnaut]

There's going to be evidence- there always is. We just need to find it. After that? We'll figure out exactly who did it.

It's hard. I know it's hard. But we'll do it. I'll do it, if I have to.

( despite her being so much smaller than him, delicate even, there's a fierce resolution in her eyes and in her voice. )

[journalingstink]

[It's funny, almost. She's small, but so strong. Meanwhile he's a giant, and he's shattering for all to see.

He'd let out a laugh, if he wasn't fighting to keep his sobs inside.]

I...okay.

[He takes in a breath - it's wet and shaken but it's air in his lungs and that's about all he can do right now - before he raises his head.]

Thank you.

Vending machine... on an island resort!

[catsgothistongue]

[He's really starting to hate this place. Getting kidnapped? Annoying, but not anything new. Almost getting impaled at the little "orientation" their kidnapper set up? Frustrating, but again, nothing out of the ordinary for him. Ending up in some killing game? That pisses him off, for one reason or another, but whatevs.

This?

This is the greatest disservice this place has done to him. He had racked up enough coins to burn on the gachapon, and soon as he put a coin in, it spat him a kitty hairpin. Cute and meaningless trinket to anyone else, but to him, an object deserving nothing but acrimony.

Okay, it's cool.

Nothing to blow a gasket over.

Just put in another coin and--]

You've gotta be kiddin' me...

[Another hairpin came out. Exact same design outside of the cat's colors. What the fuck.

Pop another coin in... and out pops another.

If Satoko was hoping to use the gachapon, or if she's simply passing through, she'll find the teenage martial artist surrounded by tens of cat hair pins, with the darkest of grimaces on his face.]

C'mon, thirty-eighth times the charm--!!!

[Take a guess what came out. Hint: Nothing he's excited over, cause he's crumpling to his knees in utter despair.]

... Thirty-nine. Thirty-nine's the lucky number. [He mumbles under his breath, slowly reaching to put another coin in the slot. Please stop him.]

Re: Vending machine... on an island resort!

[sugarnaut]

... Ranma. Back away from the vending machine, right now.

( satoko is not a martial artist or an acrobat. she is a baker.

a baker with a commanding voice and the strength to chuck a table overhead, but still.

don't make her do this, ranma. )