aworldwithoutboxes | we don't choose who lives or dies

THE MURDERGAME SHIPPING MEME V1.2

This is probably too straight to accurately represent most murdergame ships but like. We take what the stock image industry gives us.

So, you've been put into a murder mystery game where you're going to have to fight for your life! Every week another body or two, surrounded by strangers- Wait, you knew that? You actually kind of have your bearings? Well fine, here's a different problem - see that person over there? Yeah, that one. Wouldn't it be a really terrible idea if you fell in love with them right now?

This is a meme for that sometimes most fun of bad choices in murdergames: shipping. Leave a toplevel with info that might be in your character's profile (recommended, so everyone knows what your character is About), maybe a murdergame title (optional but encouraged), and any extra info you want to give along with whatever your shipping prefs are, then either pick from the prompts below or wing it and go tag around! Profile code and some prefs options below. Remember - unexpected murdergame ships are the best kind! Don't be afraid to tag out and across canons!

SETTINGS (note: absolutely not an exhaustive list)
1. Shopping Mall - Live your teen movie romance dreams! Sure, someone seems to get mcfucking murdered in the Starbucks every week, but that doesn't mean you can't go on a coffee date, right?
2. School - Live the... other party of your teen movie romance dreams! It's a little hard to be romantic when the only place for a dinner date is the cafeteria, but in fairness you are also constantly overcoming bigger problems than that here.
3. Generic Facility - Looking for romance? Try scenic Sealed-Off Building Full of Rooms! It's themed in some way - science, underwater - but the concept is the same. Surely there's some kind of bar or inexplicable amusement park in here you could use for a romantic evening, right?
4. Spooky Mansion - You know what they say about going on dates to scary movies, right? What if the scary movie was uh. The whole thing. The whole place. Where you live. And die, sometimes.
5. Romance Zone - I mean hey, maybe you're stuck somewhere literally built for both romance and murder! Pleasure and pain. Life and death. Smoochin' and stabbin'.
6. Musical Theater - Sing a love song! Whether you're playing from a specific musical or not, live your romantic duet dreams!
7. Other - If you can block off an area, you can put a murdergame there. Get creative!

PROMPTS (ship scenarios)
1. Confession (Fun) - Ah, the start of any good murdergame relationship. Maybe you've been dancing around each other for a week or two, maybe over the course of one thread and a lot of screaming your players decided you're gonna kiss. Time to figure out what these feelings mean while you're, you know. Here. Can be combined with some of the other prompts too, if you like.
2. Dating??? - Where do you even go to date in a murdergame? Is it even worth trying to hang onto this kind of normalcy when either of you could die any day now? It's probably fine.
2b. Dating+ - Can be combined with any other prompt, but somehow, some way, one of you is taking the lead in this date and getting a bunch of emotions in... because you're deathflagging. You're deathflagging hard.
3. Afterparty - Hey, that was a rough trial! Whatever it was! But you're both alive, so... better try to comfort each other, huh? Enjoy whatever kind of snacks you guys have available.
4. Confession (Unfun) - Oops, uh. One of you... seems to have confessed to murder. Better get whatever last moments in that you can before voting ends and one of you gets brutally executed!
5. The Couple That Kills Together - Okay, so maybe you did or didn't actually kill someone together. But at least one of you did a murder, and the body hasn't been properly discovered yet, so... time to talk this through? Make bad choices for love?
6. Deadland Romance - Maybe you've just reunited in the land of the dead, or maybe this is where you're trying to get your relationship off the ground. Either way, there's gotta be some weird emotions to "we're dead and trying to make it work."
7. Golden End Reunion - Great news! You beat up the mastermind (or befriended them, I don't know your style) and got all of the dead people back, including the other half of your ship! That's gotta feel good, seeing them again after however many weeks.
8. What now? - The game is over, it's time to go home. But... which home? If you split up, is there going to be a chance to visit each other again? Can you work that kind of long-distance?
9. Smut Option - Look. It's not generally onscreen, but hookups happen. Did you have to kick roommates out? Is this the fabled... you know, variant of option 5? Basically look, if you wanna use this meme for smut I'm not gonna say no, just tag appropriately.
10. Anything else! - Look, one of the fun things about murdergame ships is how many ways they can go in the emotional crucible inherent to them. I can't account for a lot of things ahead of the basics, so plot with your thread partner and have fun with it! Hell, maybe bring a good ol' murdergame polyblob into the mix, I'm not gonna stop you! Go with ur heart, assume other characters, live your truth!

PROFILE CODE (pilfered from the general murdergame meme):

PREFS CODE:

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Ryoko lets that sink into her heart, her stomach and wonders if she has the courage to read whatever it is Amiguchi had learned about her. It must he something truly wretched to have brought him here, practically coming apart at the seams with the desire to do something to help. And that thought, knowing it must be terrible without knowing exactly how terrible makes her feel a little sick.

Eventually, with what feels like an incredible effort, Ryoko stands herself up off the bed and pulls open her bedside drawer. Hidden there like a dirty secret is the envelope she'd been given in turn. She fishes it out and with a quick breath in, she turns and offers it to Amiguchi.

Perhaps surprisingly... it's unopened. She hadn't been able to bring herself to peek. Just in case she didn't like what she saw. ]

Here. I haven't read it yet, so I have no idea whose it is. [ It occurs to her, that it could even be Amiguchi's. Somehow, it wouldn't surprise her. ] I want... I want you to tell me what it was you read about me.

And then burn both these envelopes.

...

[Yeah, Do Not Want is written all over Amiguchi's face. But what else can he do? He takes the unopened envelope and gives it a long, grim stare, then closes his eyes, letting it remain unopened.]

It said... that Ida made you install some kind of code to sabotage the Sentinels. Something that messed you up, and I think Kurabe-kun, too...

[How many Juros could there actually be in the world, you know? Or at least, how many in their world? Who else could possibly be involved in this sci-fi B-movie shit? There's that Ei Sekigahara person, too, but Amiguchi has no clue who the hell he is. Bringing up someone he doesn't even know feels like just piling on the guilt, when all he wants to do is be gentle with her.

He bites his lip, looking at Shinonome.]

Senpai... you know something's wrong with your memories, don't you?

Edited 2021-10-02 15:26 (UTC)

[ At first, she just blinks at him. The leap of logic in the conversation seems to come from nowhere and she can't quite follow him. ]

I... my memories, they're...

[ And then, as she had at the door, Ryoko just... freezes.

It strikes a familiar note in her head, jangling and discordant and she feels a horrible sense of deja vu. A code installed inside the Sentinels. Not just any Sentinel, Ei-kun's Sentinel, because Ryoko had– had wanted to show him he was wrong, wanted to show him Mr. Ida could be trusted, wanted him to know that she wasn't a fool to offer her heart up on a plate as she had.

She's white as a sheet and her hands curl into fists clenched so tight that they start to shake. ]

M... Morimura told me... it was because I was overusing the gates. Or... s–something to do with spending too much time inside the Sentinels. That... I'd recover, with time.

Hey, hey.

[Before he can really think about it, Amiguchi finds himself reaching for those trembling hands. He stops himself, hesitating, but then completes the motion, slowly sliding his hands under hers to support them and to offer the solidity of a squeeze. The envelope she gave him is in his pocket, safely stored away with the note he read about her. He's got her.]

You still can, right? Not that I know anything about it, but you've seemed... a little better, here.

[Though, maybe it's just him. He says, not quite lightly enough:]

I mean, you didn't totally forget me after a day this time, so...

[ Ryoko starts at his touch and it seems like she might jolt away from him at first. But then, her tense hands relax just a little in his grip and her fingers curl around his, just barely. Her hands are always cold, it feels like and she's sure they must be icy compared to Amiguchi's – but his hands are warm and having something tacticle to focus on helps to slow her thoughts, whirling in a panic as they are.

The breath that comes out of her is slow and a little pained, but it's still easier than the ones that came before. ]

... I don't know. [ The confession of weakness makes her feel prickly and uneasy, but she pushes on. ] My headaches have still been coming and going... and I've still been taking my pills for them, when I get them. And... things aren't slipping away as easily anymore. At least I don't think so. But I have no idea how long it'll last. Or if things really are getting better.

Maybe it's like the magic people's powers, and the code, or... whatever's doing that to you, it's offline right now, so you're actually getting a chance to heal.

[He wants to reach up and touch her temple, to carefully tuck her hair behind her ear, to do something to fix the wish for her recovery physically in place. He felt the way her hands twitched in his at the contact, though, and he leaves them where they are, touching her face with no more than his gaze. Contact brings home how small she really is, even compared to him, just a first-year. She's so hurt.]

It's not your fault. It's his. And you can depend on me to help for as long as it takes to get better. And when you are-- [He gives her fingers the littlest, gentlest squeeze.] --we can help Kurabe-kun and whoever else, too. Once we get out of this crazy place, of course.

[They're going to get through this. He has to promise himself that, and her, and then make it happen. The hardest things are that simple, sometimes.]

Sound good, Senpai?

[ She twitches again in surprise at the gentle squeeze. It feels so mixed up and strange to be sat here, having this conversation with Amiguchi of all people – her heart is beating hard in her throat and there's a warmth there that feels foreign and familiar all at once. Is this feeling even hers? Her memories of Amiguchi from before this place are so jumbled up that she has no idea anymore.

But... his hands are warm. And he's here, asking her to depend on him. And it's scary. It's scary because Ryoko just might believe that she really can.

She squeezes his hands in return and nods. ]

Yes. Alright.

[ Things aren't alright yet. Maybe they won't be for a while. But she thinks if they can hang on a little longer, work a little harder and survive this, they might be eventually. ]

we don't choose who lives or dies

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