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

Ai Hoshino ★ Oshi no Ko

[liedol]

Name: Ai Hoshino | Champion Idol | Your New Oshi
Age: 20 | Species: Human | Occupation: Idol
Likes: Secret ❤
Dislikes: Secret ❤
Traits: Savvy, Scintillating, Shrewd
Trivia: The only food Ai doesn't like is white rice.

[ Impressions and permissions here! The dazzling lead singer of the pop group B-Komachi!! Not that it's going to do her any good here... then again, maybe an impromptu live from an idol who made it all the way to the dome will do something for everyone's morale!! An always smiling people pleaser, Ai proves to be a friendly, magnetic presence who'll go out of her way to connect with everyone and make sure their spirits are high. Isn't that what idols are for? Of course, as the weeks go back and things get increasingly dire, a slightly more calculated side of Ai will emerge – while she frequently plays the ditz (and uh, sometimes just is a ditz) it becomes clear that she's much sharper and more observant than she likes to let on. And that ever-effervescent smile might start to look a little calculated – or maybe a little desperate. After all, how come she's so secretive? Why does she never let the facade crack? She's just an idol, so what does she have to hide?

As memory regains and regular regains come in, small cracks will gradually form in Ai's armor and a different side of her will emerge at times – kind and lonely and wanting to connect with other people but being so unsure of how to handle or understand their feelings that her struggles come off as aloofness. She tends to skip out on afterparties because she's not good at comforting folks and dedicates herself instead to setting up memorials and helping out with other post-trial tasks. She puts on improvised live shows to keep everyone's spirits up and does everything she can to keep herself alive and in everyone's good books.

The reason for this eventually comes out during a a 'darkest secrets' motive – Ai will confess to the group that she's so determined to return home alive because, despite being an idol, she has two children to return to – her twins, Ruby and Aqua, born when Ai was just sixteen. Having been abandoned by her own mother when she wasn't much older than the twins, she's determined to make her way back to them and continue raising them with all the love she never got.

... or so she says, anyway. ]

Aqua Hoshino | Oshi no Ko

[selfreliar]

Name: Aquamarine Hoshino | Champion/SHSL B-Komachi Fan | Relieable | Nepoti-son | Screen Reader
Age: 16 | Species: Human | Occupation: High school student, actor
Likes: Ai, Ruby, Kana, Akane, reading, acting
Dislikes: The idol industry, the entertainment industry, bell peppers, getting emotional, acting
Traits: Withdrawn, overprotective, intelligent, driven
Trivia: Though he's worked in acting and film production since he was about 3 years old, Aqua's actually always wanted to be a heart surgeon when he grows up.

[There are two kinds of Aqua you can get!

A: Normal
Aqua comes off largely as his profile suggests: a reserved, kind of gloomy kid with the vast store of trivia that comes from reading a lot instead of going out and having fun. While he has a remarkable gift, particularly for someone his age, for reading people and guessing their intentions after few interactions, he's otherwise pretty normal. While he tries to keep his reactions to himself, they're in line with what any mundane, Earth-dwelling human would feel about the situation--he gets upset about the imprisonment and the mastermind's goading, and is visibly shaken when people start dying. At the same time, he's always pushing down his emotions and trying to think his way through the facts to find a solution that saves them all. (He also possesses a startling amount of medical knowledge for someone who's clearly not old enough to have graduated high school, let alone practice medicine, but let's not look a murdergame-relevant gift horse in the mouth, all right?)

As time progresses, though--if he survives--he gets more and more driven, and more and more reckless, about stopping the game. And if a hostage or "undo X event" motive gets passed out, don't be surprised if he gets a little, how do you say... unhinged about it. If pushed hard enough, Aqua proves himself capable of going to extremes to protect the ones he loves. After all... he's an incredibly devoted fan.

B: If Ai Hoshino is also in this murdergame...
From the very start, Aqua's footing is shakier here. Ai's mere presence makes him less reliably level-headed and sure of his reads of a situation, yet somehow more genuine for that. He is also way more frantic about avoiding mistakes that could lead to their (read: Ai's) deaths. Aqua throws himself into protecting Ai whether she likes it or not--sometimes to a frightening degree. It's like there's some Trauma^TM there or something. But anyway, just don't linger around Ai's door at night and he won't show up in a dark hoodie with a bat! ~★

He's not always with Ai, of course, but he's constantly aware of her presence and who's around her. His concern for her makes Aqua far less conscious of his own safety and well-being, and as the weeks go past, it shows. Is it really okay for him to keep going like this? Hopefully, the murdercoin machine won't enable him with too many nasty energy drinks.]

Viktor | Arcane

[hexalding]

Name: Viktor | The Machine Herald
Age: 34 | Species: Human(?) | Occupation: Scientist
Likes: Order, logic, Jayce Talis
Dislikes: Chaos, violence, solitude
Traits: Brilliant, lonely, dangerously prideful.
Trivia: Viktor pretended to be a Piltover academy student and was only caught after being made the dean's assistant.

[On sight, Viktor's appearance justifies the questionmark after 'human'; from the neck down he's a strange biomechanical bluish purple with the occasional gold circuitry. He often seems so blank and detached that assuming him a literal robot would be understandable, but he isn't so cold as to come off as cruel about it. Mostly he just seems deeply worn out, although trials and other meetings reveal him to have a brilliant mind with not a lot of social skills.]

[He's probably building random shit out of scrap metal and vacuum robots duting downtime, and is approachable enough--get him talking and he'll probably talk about research he did with, quote, 'my partner'.]

ruka kayamori / heaven burns red

[whoopsiegravy]

Name: Ruka Kayamori | Champion Rockstar
Age: [CLASSIFIED INFORMATION] | Species: Human | Occupation: Military Squad Leader
Likes: Chocolate cigarettes and canned coffee, music
Dislikes: The people she cares about dying around her.
Traits: Silly and Stupid
Trivia: Ruka is the former lead vocalist, songwriter and composer for the famous rock band, She is Legend.

[ Ruka is what you might expect from a rockstar: looks cool, acts like a tomboy... but then you realize that she is absolutely ridiculous as she will not hesitate to say or do something that will put her foot in her mouth, which includes her iconic phrase, "whoopsie gravy~"

Is absolutely passionate about music and will try to keep morale up by coming up with an impromptu song out of her ass which is where her skills as a genius in music truly shine and will attempt to keep up morale with her singing.

She's already experienced death in the past and honestly will smile grimly at the idea of dying when mentioned--but there's something about it that comes off a little differently than just the ordinary fear of death.

Ruka will attend the afterparties and might even run some on her own as one of her few rare showings as a supposed leader as her occupation states and is willing to help others in her own way, especially those she gets close to. And also, without fail: she will nickname everybody. ]

[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? )

Ardyn Lucis Caelum | FFXV | hugtopia crau

[scourgingstars]

Name: Ardyn Sidereus | Fatebreaker, Champion Soteria
Age: 35(?) | Species: ??? | Occupation: Daemon hunter/Crownsguard
Likes: His family, physical contact, learning new things
Dislikes: Confinement, sacrifice, Bahamut
Traits: Resolute, patient, tired
Trivia: Ardyn is skilled with most weapons, but favors two-handed swords.

[An unassuming man in black with long hair often kept in a ponytail, Ardyn is in a word strange. While seeming very open and honest, he's also incredibly evasive about his family or personal life in more than broad strokes; a terrible liar nonetheless full of secrets. He goes out of his way to organize strategy meetings and after-trial gatherings, checking in with as many people as possible. Despite being otherwise reticent, for better or worse in meetings and trials he inevitably comes across as someone with considerable leadership experience and authority.]

Alexandra "Lex" Foster | The Hatchetfield Trilogy

[califormia]

Name: Alexandra Foster | Two Titles Not One / Champion of the Black and White
Age: 18 | Species: Human | Occupation: Older Sister
Likes: Smoking, Drinking, Acting, Her Sister
Dislikes: Her Mother, Wiggog Y'Wrath Lord Of Despair, Fortnite
Traits: Bitter, Driven, Caring
Trivia: Lex is a licensed emergency agent of the United States Government, a title she was psychically conferred.

[ a rude, blunt, no-nonsense high school... dropout? who almost certainly tried to attack the mastermind day one over separating her from her sister. definitely cares more about getting out of here than she does about getting close to anyone, but... listen, if you put in the work? she can be a friend! and if she's your friend and someone is shitty with you, you must understand that there is no bridge she won't burn for people she cares about, negative cr is possible and probably difficult to wiggle out of if you're shitty to her.

but if you're nice to her you get to learn about the plot of black friday and learn how she tried to save the world from a lovecraftian elder god that manifested into her reality in the guise of a tickle me elmo knockoff? so that's probably worth it. ]

GLaDOS | Portal (available in WCB CRAU)

[notestforthewicked]

Name: Genetic Lifeform And Disk Operating System | SHSL Baker | The Neurotoxic | Champion of Extremely Thorough Testing of Things Which Have Very Little Actual Scientific Meaning
Age: No | Species: Artificial Intelligence | Occupation: SCIENCE!!
Likes: Testing, cake, not dying, music | Dislikes: Birds, potatoes, idiots, dying
Traits: Meticulous, inquisitive, dedicated | Trivia: In the event of catastrophic failure, the last two minutes of GLaDOS' life are recorded and replayed on loop for analysis.

[She's here, she's been shoved into a small, robotic body, she's not happy about it but somehow still oddly enthusiastic about the entire situation. She's here to snark and run tests, and being a participant here means she's all out of testing initiatives.]

[Only not really, because she's still absolutely fucking with anyone she can in the name of science.]

[Not- really helpful during investigations and trials? She's good at piecing together evidence and figuring out cases, but getting her to actually share any conclusions before the last possible minute is like pulling teeth. When questioned about it she'll probably insult your intelligence and possibly imply, accidentally, that she wants to see how well you idiots all do at putting things together yourselves.]

[Might actually enjoy someone who displays intelligence either in trials or in her random sphinx-like tests; this is probably not a good thing for whoever becomes her favorite.]

Jay Stoneport | OC

[irontemperance]

Name: Jay Stoneport | Champion Craftsman | The Backstory
Age: 36 | Species: Human (Beastkin) | Occupation: Blacksmith, repairman, tinkerer
Likes: Peace and quiet, being busy, his brother
Dislikes: Crowds, loud noises, adventurers
Traits: Quiet, observant, helpful
Trivia: Jay's mother was a famous adventuring mage

[Jay is... very easy to forget. Being selectively mute and generally disliking gatherings, he tends to fade into the background of the group. If his little brother is here too at least he will make sure Jay shows up to things. But otherwise he does as much as the Powers that Be force him to... and things like trials and motives seem to really stress him out. Maybe. It's hard to tell as he has maybe two expressions. Maybe the fact that he hides away in his room after each one and sleeps gives it away.

As bad as he is with groups he is, maybe against his wishes, very useful at trials. Thanks to his very very enhanced senses. His sense of smell can pick up blood and his hearing can notice changes in breathing. If powers are on he even can sense magic without really trying. It also means he tends to wear ear plugs and a hat to ward off the glare of the lights if they are artificial.

And while all this may make him read as stoic and unfriendly... he actually is happy to approach people on their own or in small groups to hang out. He usually just listens, but he's very much There and involved, and has a kind supportive aura even if he's not giving any real advice. And when not socializing he spends the days working. Cleaning, laundry, cooking, tinkering around once a fitting location is unlocked. Even doing repairs if allowed. He just likes staying busy... and without much of that 'stress baking' vibe one might expect.]

body discovery ON A BOAT

[notestforthewicked]

Well. This is just supremely unfair.

[Friday morning, bright and early- and GLaDOS is standing impassively over what would be a highly bloody scene on the shuffleboard deck if there were flesh and blood involved. Instead there's oil and mechanical scrap, which is still pretty unpleasant.]

[Wheatley, Champion of Density, is dead.]

All the time I've spent developing contingencies for eliminating this little idiot and one of you just brute forces it. And the rest of you are going to want to execute them for it.

[A short pause.]

Since I know you're all slow on the uptake, of course I'm going to vote for them as well. Probably. If this turns out to have been a lot more clever than it looks dying might be worth it to let the hero who did this go free.

It's a slim chance but it's there. A snowball's chance in hell, say. Which is actually a very inept metaphor, a snowball exposed to hellfire would melt, then turn to steam, then possibly to plasma. Either way, by the end it's more powerful and dangerous than it was before, I personally would call that a win, but that's human linguistics for you.

[irontemperance]

[Seasons save him, GLaDOS sure does love to talk. He's mostly used to it now, but it makes his ears pin back regardless as he peers down at Wheatley.

Also a chatterbox, who he didn't really like much. But seeing a machine destroyed so brutally is a bit sad, isn't it? He kneels down, nose twitching. No blood of course, but oil isn't much better on his senses. He reaches out to start shifting through the pieces, looking for tool marks that might suggest what was used to smash the little guy.

... no response to GLaDOS, but she's probably used to weird mutes by now]

Karen Aijo | Revue Starlight

[classcrown]

Name: Karen Aijo| Champion Stardust | I'll Starlight You
Age: 17 | Species: Human | Occupation: Student
Likes: Lazing about, baths after practice, umeboshi
Dislikes: Staying calm, stretching, green peas
Traits: Energetic, determined, bright
Trivia: Karen's favorite place to visit is Tokyo Tower.

[Boisterous and cheerful, Karen seems very determined to leave this place. She acts relatively friendly with everyone. Even if she fails, she seems to dust herself off and continue on. As the bodies pile up, though, it'll get harder for her to bounce back even if she always does.

Also, she'll make up nicknames for you. It'll be cutesy. It'll be fun!]

Yakko Sakazaki | Paranormasight

[foolprocessing]

Name: Yakko Sakazaki| Champion Bystander/Ultimate Best Friend
Age: 17 | Species: Human| Occupation: Student
Likes: Her friends, sweets, Michiyo Shiraishi
Dislikes: Studying
Traits: Loyal, extroverted, energetic, quick-tempered
Trivia: Yakko Sakazaki often helps out at her family's traditional sweet shop.

[Yakko’s a girl who is just full of life and energy. During the first week she’s very much Everywhere, though when the real threat of death arrives she slows down. She doesn’t really talk much of what she was doing before she was taken but she does mention she was trying to figure out the circumstances of her friend, Michiyo’s, death.

She does seem to become more withdrawn, more subdued as the weeks pass even if she wasn’t close to the people who die. The energetic girl who yelled at their overseer is no longer there… but she’s not giving up.

Yakko is stubborn and isn’t going to give in, after all. She does end up with a worrying habit of wandering at night but who doesn’t? But when a motive comes up about Michiyo, things will change even more, though. The sudden anger and ferocity might be scary and almost out of character for her.

Yakko will try to keep it together, though, because she’s relatively easy to get along with and she doesn’t want to see anyone get hurt.]

[scourgingstars]

Miss Hoshino?

[Two of a kind, even if neither acknowledged it--ever smiling, ever secretive. Although for how terrible a liar 'Ardyn Sidereus' was--often stumbling over his words with a nervous laugh, to the point people were beginning to doubt he was even honest about his own name--one of them was obviously far more practiced than the other.

[Nonetheless, the light knock to her door came some hours after the motive; the 'Fatebreaker's' own secret folded carefully and hidden in a pocket.]

I brought you something in case you were hungry. Do you like fruit, by any chance?

[notestforthewicked]

[Yeah, she sees you trying to replace her toxic yuri murderer situationship, Jay. She doesn't appreciate it, you are not her hated rival no matter how hard you lineface and stay silent, which is definitely an accurate read on what's happening.]

[GLaDOS joins in sifting through the robo-corpse, baleful yellow iris whirring as she zooms in on the gore-adjacent detail.]

Be sure to find the CPU core and any storage. We'll have to destroy those to make absolutely certain he can't return. A volcanic fissure would be the ideal disposal method, but in these circumstances we can't afford to be picky.

[The parts are dinged up with blunt force damage from something, but there don't seem to be any real breakages at the joints? Wheatley's chassis has certainly been smashed and destroyed, but the actual disassembly seems almost too neat.]

i'll probably tag you with other prompts later bc i'm thirsty but i wanted to be mean first

[liedol]

[ From the start, Ai thinks that this is the cruelest joke she's ever known. She wakes up with the reek of her own blood still rusting the inside of her nose and mouth and she decides immediately, the way you decide on an alibi, that she will tell absolutely no one. Her profile has already introduced her as B-Komachi's Ai, Super High School Level Invincible Idol before she had the chance to be anything else, so she decides that's what she'll be. Everyone loves Ai of B-Komachi, after all. That'll make things much easier.

That's what she thinks, anyway - until she sees Aqua.

She doesn't even come across him on the profiles. She hasn't bothered reading any of them, past her own. She's been too busy staring at herself in the mirror in her little bedroom, practicing her best smile over and over and over and over again until she manages to get it looking close to normal. She doesn't know what's going on here, but what she does know is that the ugly duckling is always the first to be pushed out when a group turns sour. She can't let that happen here.

She rolls that conviction around in her head as she makes her way to the gymnasium they've been ordered to gather in, noting wryly that she hadn't wanted her first time attending a high school to turn out like this. She's thinking about making a joke along those lines and wondering how good of an impression it'd make when she lifts her gaze to look out across the crowd and






freezes.





She should be smiling. She should be making a good first impression. But all Ai does is stand there, wide eyed and staring at the impossible boy in front of her and finds that she can't say anything at all. ]

[irontemperance]

[Very strange. Maybe the bashing is to hide that he was disassembled? Then-]

Probably gone.

[He mumbles, but looks for it anyway. 'CPU' is a term he's only recently learned, but the concept is not so different from Automaton cores that he couldn't understand the purpose.

Anyone that would think to take him apart so precisely likely would also already know at least this much. Would know that 'Wheatley' is as much the core as the body. Maybe more. Leaving it un-destroyed would be a maiming, not a murder.

There wouldn't be a trial. Wouldn't be a reward, otherwise. And this is too violent to be anything other then intentional.

Of course he doesn't say this, though his expression goes from blank to slightly pinched in thought, which just makes him look annoyed]

[hexalding]

[After a particularly long trial, instead of eating like a normal human, Viktor sat alone at a table meticulously dismantling what had formerly been some sort of machinery out of the vending machine. Now it was becoming a carefully arranged pile of bits and pieces, and he glanced over to GLaDOS as if considering something.]

That could have gone a bit more smoothly.

[foolprocessing]

[It’s been a couple of days after the notice arrived. There were a few confessions to get things out in the open—Yakko hasn’t even looked at her own. Something kept her hand away from it though she doesn’t really have many secrets of her own that aren’t readily available.

But there was something that made her want to check on her. Yakko’s careful, approaching like a skittish deer.]

Ah, hey. [She has a small bundle of… cookies? In her hands.]

It’s not much but I was making sure everyone gets some—this week is really rough, after all.

[She’s a little slower than usual. The circles under her eyes are hard to hide but she’s trying.]

social link go! ... on a tropical island!

[sugarnaut]

( hey jay! were you hoping for a peaceful morning getting breakfast? great! there's a wonderful smell of waffles and other delights. ... and then there is the sound of beeping and the smell of non-food related smoke.



it's- it's probably fine? it's probably fine. even if a familiar groan of frustration rings out... at least its not about the murder game shenanigans for once?

by the time he reaches the kitchen, satoko's crouched before the open oven, hands pressed together as she scrutinizes it. )

... Oh- uh. Hey, help yourself. I was gonna pop some muffins into the oven but, uh. There were technical difficulties? Everything else is fine-

[irontemperance]

[The smell of breakfast was very alluring... until the smoke. His sensitive nose and eyes instantly burning from it even before he reaches the kitchen. At least it's not a fire.

He says nothing, but quickly walks to the window to open it to the warm tropical air. Then walks towards her, grabbing oven mitts as he goes.]

[sugarnaut]

Jay, you don't have to! I got it.

( she was getting to it at least. ugh, the food's gonna get cold... and isn't it harsher on him? unfortunately she is very easy to sidestep, but she can at least linger to help. )

... I'm not sure if it was gradual over-use or what, but I only just preheated it so I'm not sure what happened.

[irontemperance]

[He pats her shoulder, giving a slight head-tilt of comfort before reaching in for the poor muffins. They... don't look too bad actually. So maybe...

He kneels back down once they are out of the way, peering in, eyes watering freely.]

[sugarnaut]

( she'll just take those, since there's oven mitts to spare. onto the counter they go! and... ah, they're fine. thank goodness. she's not even sure they started baking, so maybe this can be salvaged at least. )

Need a light or anything...?

[irontemperance]

[He nods, and also gestures towards some near by tongs, hand out to accept them]