aworldwithoutboxes | mistletoe meme but people die-

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. CHRISTMAS!!!! - The holidays really can be murder! Welcome to some kind of cozy Christmas-themed residence, and remember: they're your present this year! Because the only other thing you're liable to get is fucking murdered.
8. 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

Yeah. Sorry you didn't get a shot at him.

[She rests her hand on his shoulder as he checks her wound, giving a small squeeze. Much as she'd like to retreat into the usual bubbly optimism and free-association, it's been too long here to even pretend to not know what happens next.]

How's it look?

[Pretty bad, if the blood wasn't indication enough- the exact severity being left as an exercise in yes-anding, how tragic are we getting here?]

...

[It takes him two beats too long to answer.]

I'm no doctor, Cal.

[What he wouldn't give to be Jude Mathis. It's not the first time he's longed for spirit artes, or for any ability to heal--to stop people from slipping away right in front of him.

Face tight, he guides the pillow back into place and holds it there with her, his hand over hers.]

...I'll--get supplies from the nurse's office. Once we slow the bleeding. You need stitches, I know that much.

Wouldn't love you as much if you were.

[Is this the first time one of them has said it? It feels like it. Too late, too little, but it's been said.]

[She places her free hand over his, squeezing.]

I'll- I'll come with you. You shouldn't go out alone.

[ha.]

I mean- no. I'm not leaving you alone. Not. Not yet.

[It'd hurt less to be shot in the gut. Alvin breathes in sharply, the all-too-familiar tang of blood burning his nostrils, the simple use of a four-letter word lodging below his ribs like a bullet. Swallowing doesn't keep the rawness from his voice.]

Cal.

[Calypso has a solid three inches of height on him and, with no boosts from his Lilium Orb, more sheer strength, but Alvin gathers her close and presses his face into her hair anyway, as though she's someone small and soft to protect. As though there's anything he can do to protect her now.]

I shouldn't have left you alone. Damn it, why am I like this? I always end up doing the wrong thing, when what I wanted--what I want--

[--Is to be with her. To be good enough for her. To be good enough for something good, someone good, for once in his damned life.

To be with her even if he isn't good enough.

Alvin stayed in tonight because he didn't want to be tempted. To be flung to another world, again, one even more incomprehensible and hostile than Rieze Maxia--one where, even if it didn't immediately kill him, he'd be alone again, even more alone than before, ripped away from someone who made him like the person he tried to be for her--

--from someone who loved him--

--was too much. He didn't trust himself not to ruin that newly budding, precious thing he'd begun to recognize he felt for her. And now Cal's being ripped away from him anyway.]

...Forget it. Don't worry about me. [He swallows again.] What... do you want right now? You want me to stay?

[He doesn't want to leave and find her gone. He wants that almost as little as he wants to feel her slip through his arms.]

[There's a short pause, as the feeling of being held- being the one shielded for once, like she was someone worth wanting- sinks in.]

Please.

[It comes out softly, a half sob. She buries her face into her chest, tears flowing as the reality of it all finally crashes in. The thing about refusing to look back is, sooner or later you can't avoid looking ahead to the inevitable end.]

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[Her fingers wrap into the fabric of his shirt and cling desperately, almost childlike, as the painful sobs wrack her body.]

Always- [sniff] -always kinda thought this might be how I got retired. Never thought it'd last long enough for me to regret it.

[Another short, choked sob.]

...I'm gettin' snot on your shirt.

[She can't apologize to him. His traitorous throat just gets tighter, and the heat in his eyes threatens to spill wetly over. Alvin breathes in the scent of her hair and and lets it out in soft words, barely shaking.]

I just said not to worry about me.

[The arm he has around her moves so he can rub her arm, up and down, a soothing rhythm. He doesn't wear his gloves to sleep, so it's just his bare palm.]

Besides, who cares about my shirt? The scarf, now--that cost me a month's pay.

[He's not wearing the scarf, either. His trademark coat's hanging on the back of the desk chair. Right now, it's just Alvin holding her, no layers of half-truths and outright lies to peel away.]

You know you have nothing to apologize for, right? Cal, you... you're the best person here. You've done more for us than anyone.

[Alvin's hold around her tightens.]

You've done more for me... than I deserve.

You deserve the fucking galaxy.

[She sniffs again, still clinging.]

Don't- don't forget that, okay? After- don't forget how much you matter. Please.

mistletoe meme but people die-

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Well, I rolled for wound severity and got a 7 out of 10...

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i have no actually appropriate icons for this

Yeah I had to go MAKE icons, how dare you do this to me

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