aworldwithoutboxes | we don't choose who lives or dies

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

Name: Ryoko Shinonome | Champion Pilot / The Mechamancer
Age: 16 | Species: Human | Occupation: High School Student, █████
Likes: Mr. Ida, ███████████, and not much else
Dislikes: 426, the nurse's office, headaches
Traits: Crabby, clever, tenacious
Trivia: Ryoko is the pilot of ████████ ███, a giant robot created to fight kaiju.

[ What's On The Table: "claire isn't this just her wcb profile" AND WHAT ABOUT IT??? anyway, Ryoko is a teenage mech pilot with a nanomachine transmitted disorder that is slowly destroying her memories and personality. Fun!!! Because of her situation, she's a pretty crabby, grouchy, antisocial girl who doesn't trust very easily but if you manage to get past her walls then she will love you to death.

Looking for: Other teens! People to get past her massive 'don't perceive me' force field. People who will hear about Tetsuya Ida and want to throttle him to death. REALLY I'M FLEXIBLE. ]

Edited 2021-08-02 16:36 (UTC)

[ Okay, so like. If there was a betting pool somewhere on who Miko Kubota would end up with a crush on, after years of only having eyes for video games, Ryoko Shinonome probably would have been low odds. Yes, even here in the murder shopping mall. But at some point in Operation: Get Ryoko To Actually Smile For Once, it just sort of happened? Like. One day she felt normal about Ryoko, and then Ryoko almost smiled and suddenly her stomach kind of felt like someone was playing a really intense boss fight inside it, and suddenly she realized that no, in fact, she did not feel normal about Ryoko even slightly? But such is the life of a teenage monster-slayer.

At any rate, Miko does a commendable job of being normal about it, or at least as much as is possible given the emotionally heightened circumstances of... All Of This. So it's very normal when she flags her down in the hall - literally, she might as well be signaling in semaphore, she's nearly yelling: ]

Hey! Ryoko! Wanna go hang out in the arcade? I could use a Player 2!

Ryoko-?

[Penny's been patrolling pretty frequently, since it became clear that people were taking the Director's motives seriously. And more determinedly since with each trial.]

[She hasn't even come close to interrupting a murder.]

[Until now.]

[Feels bad, man.]

[Amiguchi's had plenty of time to figure out that Shinonome isn't likely to trust an invitation out--whatever "out" means in this grey, windowless bunker--and so he knocks on her door instead. It's (supposedly) daytime, they're in full view of the hall; if anyone thinks he's here to act on yesterday's motive, they'll see he has no way to get away with it. He's just a guy trying to talk to his upperclassman from home. Nothing suspicious to see here.

He knocks again.]

Shinonome-senpai.

[Rubbing his neck, he sighs and looks down at his shoes.]

There's something... well, I think I should tell you now, before it becomes a problem.

[ For a bit, it seems like Ryoko isn't going to bother opening the door. When she wants to be alone, she's stubborn enough about it that they can go the whole day without seeing her. Especially when it's come time to hand out motives – she'll take it on the chin and then disappear for the better part of the day until she trusts herself to keep composure.

So it's probably a surprise, then, when the door clicks open and out comes Ryoko looking... mutinous, yes, but no more so than is usual for day to day life around here. ]

... Is it something we can talk about out here or not?

[ Do you have to come in? in other words. ]

[He considers.]

...It's about Ida, too.

[ Ryoko's entire body freezes.

Even her breath stops, if only for a second.

Then, hurriedly, as if she can't usher him in fast enough, she steps back from the door to let him inside. ]

... Fine. [ She says it with forced casualness, like she can pretend her voice isn't suddenly trembling. ] You'd better come in, then.

Thanks.

[The guilt for playing the Ida card twists a little in Amiguchi's chest as he enters, but it's not as though this is some jerkish ploy to get into a girl's room. His intentions are as noble as they come. This just isn't something he's comfortable talking about out in the hall.

Something else twinges, too, but he kicks the selfish, jealous notion to the back of his mind once more. So what if Shinonome would let in news of Ida and not him? She's said it before. She doesn't know him.

So Amiguchi doesn't come in far. He parks himself against the wall and stares at the cement floor beneath their feet.]

Shinonome-senpai... uh. [He rubs the back of his skull again, grimacing.] ...What do you know about Ida? Where he's from, I mean. ...Or when.

[ That seems to give her pause. He said he'd come here with information, but now he's quizzing her? It's not quite on the level of answering a question with a question but it still makes her feel oddly nervous somehow. She turns away from him to shut the door over, more to give her the time to mull over the question than anything else.

When she finally turns back, her expression has been schooled into one of careful calm. ]

The when... is 2064, like me. [ Or so she presumes. She'd never... had any reason to pry or to ask any questions. Nor any desire to, really. ] Why? What does that have to do with anything?

[Ugh. This is gonna be harder than he thought.]

It has to do with me. And it's a problem... because what you know isn't the truth.

Senpai, I know we didn't meet before you came to my Sector. But don't I look familiar to you? Even a little?

What are you...?

[ Ryoko stares at him, waiting for him to admit that this is a tasteless ill-timed joke. She can't imagine a single thing that Amiguchi could know about Mr. Ida that she didn't. After all, he was just some high school boy – nothing special save for his compatibility with the Sentinel.

But the longer she stares at him, the longer a little knot of unease starts to work itself into a tangle in her stomach. He's usually smiling and carefree, but when he's wearing such a serious expression he...

He almost looks like...

Ryoko takes a sharp step back, alarm playing across her face. ]

... Your eyes look just like... b–but that can't be...

I'm not him.

[That comes out too quickly and Amiguchi seems to know it, wincing as she backs away from him. He can't regret it, though. Not when, even from the little he "remembers," the little he understands, he knows that being Ida Tetsuya means being the sort of monstrously selfish person that would... would do this to get what he wants. Amiguchi studies Shinonome's expression and feels the secondhand shame clench in his throat, crawl like a shiver under his skin. Blowing out a breath, he drops his gaze so he doesn't have to see whatever face she makes next.]

We're genetically identical, I guess. Clones or something. Similar enough Universal Control recognizes me instead of him now, but--you know what, that's not the important part. The point is, we're different people, but because our DNA's the same, I... learned a lot about him.

[He crosses his arms, but no pose he takes is going to make him any more comfortable sharing this.]

Anyway, I asked because I wanted to warn you about what I found out yesterday. What was in the envelope I got. [He lowers his chin another notch.] Iiii figured you wouldn't believe me unless I explained how I know it's the truth. It's... because I have some of Ida's memories.

[And he won't be Ida. He won't be anything like Ida. He can't, having kept an eye on Shinonome every day since they woke up in this deathtrap. Her soft, splintered fragility is right there under that distant façade of hers. Every time Amiguchi sees her steps falter, his chest squeezes.

He can't let that self-centered son of a bitch he might grow up to be like hurt her any more. He can't. He has to help her.]

Man, this probably sounds ridiculous to you. [Then he sweeps his hair back from his forehead, further emphasizing his resemblance to Ida Tetsuya for a moment, whether he means to or not. As it falls back over his face, Amiguchi gamely meets Shinonome's gaze.] But I'm completely serious about it, Senpai. Even if you hate me for what I'm about to say, I need you to know the truth.

Ida's lying, Shinonome-senpai. All he's doing is using you.

Edited 2021-09-12 18:23 (UTC)

[ It's like looking at some kind of sick optical illusion. Now that she's seen the resemblance, there's no way for her to unsee it. She could have counted a thousand ways in which Amiguchi was nothing like Mr. Ida but the more she looks now, all she can see is a million ways in which they look so, so alike.

They aren't the same at all. Even if what he's saying is true, all this talk of identical DNA and genetics aside – she knows well enough what sort of man Tetsuya Ida is and what sort of man Shu Amiguchi–

Wait a minute. No she doesn't. Ryoko doesn't know him at all, does she? He's one of the compatable ones and an underclassman but that's as far as it goes. So... why does she feel so...?

She doesn't step back again, but she shrinks in on herself a little, one hand moving up to cradle her head as her expression screws up with pain. ]

Wh–what are you... talking about...? [ There's a little bite to her voice, but it's uncharacteristically weak and wavering. ] Mr. Ida would... he'd never...

[ She can't even make the words come out. Why? A horrible pulse of anxiety begins to thrum through her with every beat of her heart and it sharpens the words that come out next. ]

W–what would you even know about me and Mr. Ida?! You don't understand any of it at all...!

I know what he did to you.

[He didn't before. It wasn't one of the memories Miyuki Inaba had had him relive. Today, though, the terrible knowledge burns a hole in Amiguchi's pocket, printed starkly in black on yesterday's now-crinkled motive slip.]

It's his fault. Everything you're suffering comes from his messed-up obsession with a dead woman. Because he can't let her go, he's gonna reset everything--and he used you to start the process.

['To sabotage the Sentinels, Tetsuya Ida had Ryoko Shinonome install a code causing catastrophic brain damage to Ei Sekigahara, Juro Izumi, and Shinonome herself.'

To force them to fail. To free up a body for Tomi Kisaragi's ghost.]

[ Every single word feels like Amiguchi's taking a pickaxe to her brain, mining out pain and hurt with every strike. Why are you saying all these horrible things? she wants to plead with him, like a grade schooler. She knows why. And she knows that, whatever else he might be, Shu Amiguchi is not a liar. She knows that every bit of what he's saying is true.

That's why it hurts so much. ]

Stop it!

[ In the small room, her cry comes out louder and shriller than she means it to – a plea instead of a demand. She's doubled up now, both hands gripping her head. She's certain that if he says even one more word, her skull might crack open like a geode, her hurt and her feelings laid bare as glittering stone.

It takes a while for her to find her breath. Her voice is watery but she blinks rapidly, then squeezes her eyes shut. If nothing else, if she can't even keep her composure then she at least can refuse to show Amigichi her tears. ]

W–why... would you come here to tell me all this...? What's the point of it? What do you even want from me, Amiguchi?!

[With her eyes closed, she can't see the way Amiguchi swallows, wincing, as if struck. He lowers his hands to his sides, his voice to a murmur.]

Senpai.

[He won't allow himself the coward move of looking away from her.]

I wanted you to hear it from me this time. Before... whatever she thinks is gonna happen--can happen.

[Instead of a pop idol's distant pleas or memories of Prisoner 426, what kept Amiguchi lying awake last night were the quiet implications of the day's announcement from the mastermind, growing louder with each revisit, each echo, until they reached a roar.

'Hey, assholes! I reeeeally think you'll appreciate this one, hahaha. It's definitely one of my faves so far. Not only is it a two-parter--so at LEAST double the fun--it's a twist on one of the classics! You have to hand it to me, I bring this death game business to a whoooooooole new level. You're wel~come!

'Inside the envelopes I'm so GENerously providing you today, you'll find a secret! Here's the catch, though: It ain't yours. That's right, dicks and dipsticks--this secret belongs to one of your cute, little buddy-buddies here. It's a secret so hidden, so juicy, they might not even know about it themselves! And if nobody shows some goddamn pluck by the end of the week...

'I'm gonna share aaaaaaaall of them with aaaaaaaall of you. And I'll do it in a way not a single one of you will be able to deny. You'll all know exactly how fucked up the rest of you are, in lovingly. Intimate. Detail.

'Have fun with this one, chump maggots! Ahahahahahaha!'

If Shinonome were to learn what she did--relive it, the way he's had to relive Ida at his foulest, at his most darkly pleased--Amiguchi doesn't know what might happen to her. What she might do.

How much else of Ryoko Shinonome might collapse in on herself like an imploding mine.]

I want--you not to find out about this stuff alone. I don't want you to keep bearing it alone, Senpai. I'm not Ida, but I... I feel like...

[He has to make it up to her. Everything that sick bastard did, Amiguchi needs to undo it, to shield this damaged, faltering, reckless slip of a girl from that black hole of a man.]

Please. [He squeezes his own eyes shut, parting from the wall so he can bow at her from the shoulders.] Please. Just... lean on me, won't you? Don't go on trying to be strong by yourself. I can't--it's my--

[Biting his tongue, Amiguchi sinks his fingers into his hair, holding fast over the nanomachines' entry wound. All his life, everything has come easily to him except finding these words, right now.]

It feels like my fault. All I want--the only freaking thing I can think about is protecting you, Shinonome-senpai. Ida... I can't let him hurt you ever again.

[ The pained note in Amiguchi's voice makes Ryoko lift her face to see his – she doesn't think she's ever heard such raw feeling out of him before, even after being trapped in this hellhole. He makes everything sound easy and light and effortless and Ryoko knows better than to bother believing a word of it. But this...

Ryoko doesn't think anyone has ever pleaded with her for anything. Even the Sentinel Project – they had asked for her participation, pushed and needled her until she agreed, but even Mr. Ida had never pretended he needed her in any way other than as someone to live and die in her Sentinel. She'd been happy with that. She was sure she had been.

This is... something new. Her chest constricts with a feeling she can't identify that makes her want to flee from the room without looking back. Amiguchi wants to help her. Amiguchi wants to protect her. Has anyone ever said such a thing to her before? She doesn't even have to think for a moment longer before she knows that the answer is no.

And yet... here Amiguchi is. The boy who is and isn't Mr. Ida asking her to just let him help.

She swallows hard. ]

What... do you even expect to be able to do? [ The words by themself should sound like an accusation, but Ryoko's voice is soft and almost wounded – if she didn't have too much pride to allow herself to beg, it might almost sound like she was pleading with him in return. To convince her that he was worth trusting. Worth leaning on. ] How can you say that... knowing she might show you something next week that makes you throw me aside?

How am I supposed to trust that you won't?

[Ah. He doesn't look up, but the tenseness between his eyes relaxes. His fingers loosen without dropping from his temple. The way his hand remains up makes him look almost bashful, like he'd hide his embarrassment--except that he isn't embarrassed at all. Not of this.]

...'Cause I never would.

[Those words come much more easily. Not only are they true; they're something he'd like Shinonome to know. He sighs and flattens his hair, turning his face up towards the ceiling so he can say, as matter-of-fact about it as though discussing the weather (but soft, but careful, but sincere):]

After all this, there's nothing anyone could show me... that I'd want more than to be at your side.

[ That strange sense of panic makes her stomach clench again, but this time it's not cold – it's warm and a little fluttery and it makes her feel skittish and caught off guard. It feels all wrong to be hearing that from Amiguchi and yet... he's being so sincere that she finds herself feeling strangely reassured, no matter how hard she stubbornly pushes back against it.

Shu Amiguchi is a lot of things, but Ryoko doesn't think he's a liar. But the thought that he's telling the truth when he says all that is scary in its own way.

She lets out a long, slow breath, trying to get some air around the way her insides still feel like they're tensed and tightened. ]

... You say the most embarrassing things sometimes. [ Her voice sounds a little tight too. Winded, maybe. It's how she feels. ] But I could almost believe you mean it.

[ Which, coming from Ryoko, really is a glowing affirmation. She swallows again, twice in as many minutes, to try and ease the tightness in her throat. ]

And... if you do really mean it, then it might be alright to trust you.

...Huh? Really?

[After a moment, his surprise morphs into a warm, light laugh. Nothing about their situation is funny, of course; certainly not the secrets each of them carries from their strange, fractured history before this prison. It's just delight rising up and out, as improbable a flight as his Sentinel's.

His hand falls to his hip, relaxed even as he blushes. Amiguchi loves this feeling, the rush and tingle of really liking someone, of doing his best for them, of finally noticing the start of something opening up before them.]

Wanna take trusting me for a test spin, then?

[His smile's still softer for her than he's shown to any girl before, more invitational than charming. Even if this weren't Shinonome-senpai with her heartbreaking vulnerability, not even Amiguchi is totally immune to the facility's oppressive atmosphere.]

It doesn't even have to be over something big. [They can set the matter of Tetsuya Ida aside, for the moment. He glances around her quarters and then tilts his head a hair, like a friendly setter. Maybe he's making this up as he goes, but...] Got some minor task you can trust me to handle for you? You know... something to help you feel a little safer?

Edited 2021-09-26 19:59 (UTC)

[ When she sees him smile like that and registers the colour in his cheeks, Ryoko almost averts her gaze. She doesn't know how to deal with Amiguchi giving her such an earnest smile and it makes her feel embarassed to look at it, as if she's seeing something she shouldn't be. Of course, if she went and telegraphed her embarrassment by looking away, that'd make things even worse, so she holds her gaze as steady as she can make it. ]

It's not like there's all that many errands you can run in a place like this... [ There's no bite to her words, really, even if she's trying to force it – the more she tries to cover up how wrong footed she is, the more obvious it becomes. ] But...

The envelope you got today. Do you still have it?

[If it was burning a hole in his pocket before, now his whole uniform must be aflame. Still, rather than allowing himself to be a liar, liar, pants on fire, he reluctantly admits:]

Yeah.

[What's he going to do if Shinonome asks to see it? He hasn't told her the worst of it yet, the truth printed coldly for any to read. He hasn't because it's so much, and he wants her to lean on him--to have anyone to lean on, really--if it turns out to be too much, if she has to let that knowledge slide off so she doesn't break.

Or if she does break, someone will still be there to hold the rest of her together.

Amiguchi started down this road himself, though. He promised her she could trust him. And if he's going to live up to that, if he's going to be any different from him, then he can't lie to her. It's that simple.]

Got it in my pocket right now. ...Why?

[ 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.

we don't choose who lives or dies

Ryoko Shinonome | 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim | spoilers inside lol

well i have rng'd a 1, lmk if this works for u

RNG also says we're in a musical now so have fun with that

3/1 as if they've never suffered GENERIC FACILITIES before, god

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