keep your shipping instincts sharp in the off-season

[paranomasias]

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, if you want a format to follow. 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):
<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>

PREFS CODE:
<small>[ <b>What's On The Table:</b> Can just be a bio, but feel free to expand in a ship-specific direction! What's your character like in a relationship? Are there any tragic twists or secrets you want to play with? Spoiler tag as appropriate for anything major, but help others get a sense of what's up! <b>Looking for:</b> What are you looking for, oocly? What kinds of characters do you think yours would mesh well with? Think more guidelines than hard rules, just to keep it open for people, but this is where you can put down anything you really want to do! ]

Comments

[deimoscode]

[ i know you said jk.... but what if.... was NOT jk...... ]

[apockatherry]

[Me, chuckling as I type JK at you: Got 'em

Do you wanna do early CR or jump to a more critical emotional moment? You know he'd be such a well-meaning busybody up in her grill all the time, totally immune to her unfriendliness. He's bros with Therion.]

[deimoscode]

[ i have no self control so i would LOVE to slam directly into some of the late game angst and emotions 👀 my immediate thought is some motive to do with secrets or worst mistakes/regrets which would be a great time for the You Know What she has been adamandly refusing to talk about all game to come out ]

Scream-sings I WANNA CUT TO THE FEELING and writes you a starter

[apockatherry]

[When their nameless, cackling kidnapper drops her latest motive on the captives she's got left, Alfyn's righteous anger, surprisingly, gutters. It doesn't go away or anything. What she's doing to them is inimical to every fiber of his being, every stitch and scrape of his healer's heart, and he ain't yet given up the hope of doing something to stop her.

But her offer gives even salt-of-the-earth, good boy Alfyn a second's pause.

'I'm going to give you sadsack losers a chance to be less losery! Remember that one boneheaded thing you did, the move that was a total mistake? You know, the one that ended in tears, blood, or some sad blended drink of both? Deadify one of your friends down there, and you get a redo. Whatever happened, "where making it un-hapen." Lol. Oh, and if none of you go for it? I'm telling eeeeeeeeverybody what you've done. Just a little stick for those of you who don't chomp at the bit for your orangey root vegetables.

'Anyway, why don't I let you morons give it some thought? I bet some of you would die for the chance to take control of your own narrative. So, you're welcome! Hahahaha.'

Later, Alfyn's pensively doing inventory in the infirmary, where he's shelved some plant-based concoctions alongside the modern painkillers and antacids already supplied. He checks expiration dates, studies ingredients, makes sure nothing's gone off-color, and his mind is obviously elsewhere.]

Playing on our biggest regrets, huh...?

[deimoscode]

[ It takes her a few weeks – longer than she'd want to admit – to really accept that any of this is real. The scientist in her is sceptical for a number of logical reasons; they're humans (for the most part) and she knows there are none of those left anywhere else in the universe. The second is that she's put enough time and work into virtual environments and simulated worlds to know first-hand just how real and tactile they can seem no matter how absurd the situation is. The third – less scientific and more achingly, stupidly human despite everything – is that if she admits any of this is real then it means she still has some kind of hope left.

But the passing weeks and the people around her chip away at her resolve – or rather, they erode it gradually, gently, so easily that she barely takes notice of it happening. None of them know much about her aside from the details splayed out on her profile, but a title like Champion of Humanity and a trivia section with the words final surviving member of the human race is enough for them to be kind to her – kinder than she deserves and god help her, she can't bring herself to make them stop. She'd forgotten what other humans felt like, sounded like and the prospect of having it all taken away from her again is...

Well. It shouldn't be a surprise for it to have come to this. Even if she tries to keep her desperation in check, surely their captor would know well enough how to weaponize it against her. She spends the hours following the motive announcement in a daze, going through her routine with the shell-shocked compliance of a person who doesn't know what else to do with themselves. It's late in the day by the time she finds her way to the infirmary and though she should know better by now, she finds herself a little startled to realize someone has already beaten her to the punch. ]

... Alfyn. [ They'd gone from Greengrass-san to Alfyn-kun to just Alfyn at some point in the passing weeks so naturally that it makes her a little afraid. ] I didn't think you'd still be awake.

[ She hovers at the doorway for a moment as if she might excuse herself and leave it there, but against her better judgement she finds herself coming inside and making her way over to him. ]

How are the supplies for this week?

[apockatherry]

[Maybe it's pathetic, but his face genuinely tries to brighten when he looks back at Ryoko. The smile starts, wobbles, and crumbles before it can gain any real traction, but the gladness behind it reaches his eyes before it falls. Even now, as miserable as they've yet been in this nightmare, he's happy to see her.]

Hey there, Ryoko. Just what the doctor ordered, huh?

[His heart isn't in it, though, and Alfyn seems to hear it, too. He sighs, shakes his head, and moves half a step to the side so she can see where he's at on the shelf.]

No change to the "modern" stuff, as far as I can tell. But I'll need to whip up more salve for all the self-defense trainin' folks and replace my easy-sleepin' tincture with a fresh batch. Luckily--

[He trails off, because it isn't lucky at all, but then barrels forward anyway:]

--we've been here long enough for my new ones to finish brewing. ...I ain't ready to sleep yet, so I figured I'd strain and rebottle 'em for a spell.

[Then, faintly hopeful:]

You wouldn't wanna join me, would ya?

[deimoscode]

[ Hm. That's a look she's familiar with. She thinks, for the first time in a while, of Minami – even to the end, she'd tried to wear a smile anytime she ran into one of the others, even as their numbers dwindled and there was barely anyone left to smile for. She wonders if Alfyn will be like that too.

She wonders whether or not she'll be around to see it happen. ]

It's lucky that we have anything at all to work with. [ That word again – lucky. Both of them know none of this is really luck, just another thing for their captor to dangle over their heads... but she also knows better than to say such a demoralizing thing out loud. ] And luckier still that we have someone who knows how to make proper use of it all.

[ She glances up at him and the look on her face is too tired to really be called a smile, but there's a gladness and a little more easiness to it in turn. ]

I'm happy to help, if you need the extra pair of hands. I certainly wouldn't turn down a distraction at a time like this.