Lyndon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
paranomasias) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
aworldwithoutboxes2024-11-17 03:00 pm
paranomasias) wrote in aworldwithoutboxes2024-11-17 03:00 pm
mistletoe meme but people die-
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!
PREFS CODE:
kabru | dungeon meshi
Age: 22 | Species: tall-man | Occupation: adventurer
Likes: Peoplewatching, humans, tomatoes.
Dislikes: Monsters, dungeons, selfishness. Elven cakes.
Traits: Perceptive, charming, pragmatic, egalitarian, duplicitous.
Trivia: Kabru's first cause of death was basilisk poisoning!
[ What's On The Table: a pathological people pleaser with profound survivor's guilt, a self-assigned mission to better the world, and the trained ability to instantly analyze and murder any human being his moral code makes the call on....... is not the person you are initially going to get! He's an absolute trainwreck, as anyone who saw WCB r6 knows, but until The Horrors start to shake his masks off he's a trainwreck with exceptional external presentation. Kabru presents as a friendly, nonthreatening little guy who's eager to get to know and help others. He's considerate and kind, if kind of a flirt, and will do his level best to play off all the deeply concerning facts in his profile as a natural consequence of dungeon diving!
But, if you're observant, you might notice that, while he's putting on the same general act for everyone, he switches his demeanor up among different groups of people depending on what the vibe is. His approach to any individual is always going to be tailored to what he sees as their specific needs, the better to make himself a confidante. He's always, always watching the others, looking for something, and when he has to do anything athletic he is strikingly adept at moving really fast and predicting other people's movements! Once the killing starts, he proves himself to be useful at trials... and a combination of weirdly excited about getting to put the pieces together and unnervingly cold to any selfish murderers? And then he just puts all that aside for the afterparties? Yeah, this is fine, you should trust this guy with your life and backstory.
Looking for: honestly I can't see him as suited for a monogamous relationship until well post-canon and possibly even then, but that doesn't mean he won't get deeply attached to people! Gender doesn't matter, and as long as a character is above eighteen age isn't much of an object either, but he has monster trauma that will make visible nonhumans (by dunmeshi metrics, which means if your character is just an elf or a person with horns or whatever he'll be like "no that's fine" but if they're, like, Robin Hood from the Disney movie he might start freaking out) a tough sell, at least initially.
Kabru is always trying to understand others, so people who present a challenge to his observation skills or have some particularly intricate Stuff going on he needs to unravel are basically the equivalent of one of those toys where you put treats inside and the dog has to get them out! He's good at cutting to the heart of a character with a lot of secrets, though he may not immediately voice that, and will do just about anything to get on an interesting person's good side. He tends to (dungeon) mesh with people who are similarly suspicious and perceptive, but on the flip side he also works well with people who're blunt! Basically anyone who'll enjoy the yaoi mind tennis or immediately bypass it and force him to be honest. His love of people is genuine, and he has a strong moral code, so any long-term romance with a villainous or amoral type is unlikely, but can you even imagine how funny it would be for him and someone who's also a secret fake bitch but for worse reasons to have a back-and-forth flirtation thing where they're trying to suss out each other's intentions and use each other and they just keep yes-anding? I think it would be peak comedy.
Also this is frankly incredible since it's a character I'm playing but, tragically, he fucks and it's not in a deranged and violent way! Just normal-ass casual hookups with people he's attracted to. He had too much to do, was too worried about prioritizing some people over others, and wasn't able to keep anyone at arms length enough to be even remotely comfortable with it in WCB, but that's what memes are for. ]
no subject
Age: 21 | Species: Human | Occupation: Apothecary
Likes: Ale, medicine, good company, helping people
Dislikes: Charging money, standing by when others are in pain
Traits: Chummy, generous, inquisitive
Trivia: If you praise Alfyn too much, his butt gets uncontrollably itchy. Awkward!
[I rolled setting: spooky mansion and scenario: wildcard, so if you have any ideas...? If not, I'll throw something random atcha!]
lord only knows if this is coherent BUT HERE WE GO
The person he's seeking out, on the other hand, is likely in his element right now. Kabru's interested to see what that looks like on him, and he gives himself a moment or two to just observe before speaking up. ]
We missed you at breakfast, [ he says, smiling an easy smile with a dual purpose. On the one hand, he wants to ensure Alfyn knows the remark isn't any kind of reproach, to snuff out the notion that anyone would actually hold this absence against him. Realistically, despite how hard Kabru's pushed everyone meeting up to talk in the dining room each morning, and all his post-trial cajoling of the people that seemed like tough sells yesterday, they missed, like, five people at breakfast! ] Well, not just you... but, of course, that was to be expected. Everyone's still having a hard time, and some of us don't eat to begin with.
[ On the other hand, almost subconsciously, he wants to disguise just how relieved he is to see him. Logically, he knew there was little reason to worry. No motive hangs over their heads now, and killing without a reason, when almost everyone else has an alibi? He's a good judge of people, and while there are individuals here who'd be heartless enough to go for it, he doesn't think any of them are that stupid. Even so, uncertainty's kept a vise grip on Kabru's stomach ever since he took a count of the group and noticed a certain
JRPGtousled blond head missing from the number, and it's only just now beginning to release. ]Then someone mentioned this place, and everything started to make sense. [ The smile is somehow even more intense now?? ] So I thought I'd bring breakfast to you instead. You don't mind, do you?
[ For the record, he has 100% gotten exactly what Alfyn would usually eat for breakfast, down to the most minute details, and is somehow managing to carry it discreetly on his person! Also he brought along a thermos full of coffee for himself because no matter where the murdergame is and what's going on in it, he's gonna Develop A Problem. ]
no subject
As Kabru watches, Alfyn breaks a plant stem with his gloved hand, sniffs it, and leans over to page through one of the books. The pencil in his mouth bobs idly up and down until he makes an affirming noise and grabs it to scribble something down. He's red enough around the eyes to suggest he's been crying sometime in the past twenty minutes, but he's all focus and concentration now. Enough that when Kabru speaks up, he jumps.]
Oh, Kabru! [Chuckling, he rubs the back of his neck.] Sorry, pal, I didn't hear you come out here.
[Or should Alfyn say in here? This conservatory's the closest thing to the outdoors they've had in three weeks, but no amount of wishing and pretending makes the glass walls any less impenetrable. They're still packed in like crabs in a bucket. An eerie, death-mongering, probably haunted bucket.
Even with Kabru's reassuring smile, Alfyn's chin dips sheepishly.]
Shucks. Did I really miss breakfast with everyone? Hope I didn't worry ya. I guess I lost track of time, what with the sun never breaking through.
[Closing his notebook, Alfyn picks himself up and brushes off his pants. He rubs a knuckle quickly, and what he probably thinks is surreptitiously, at the corner of one eye. Yeah, he was definitely crying earlier, but that's no surprise. After the trial, even while he was trying to take care of others, he'd been seen turning to face the wall to wipe his eyes. Or weeping, quietly but openly, with one of the kids.
There are flowers on the table, here in the conservatory. The blue and white ones must be for Lunafreya Nox Fleuret. She and Alfyn had gotten on well, two plant-loving healers in a pod. She, and her killer, are gone now.
Alfyn smiles, diminished but genuine, at Kabru.]
'Course I don't mind. A body's gotta eat, and we all need to keep our spirits up, besides. But you didn't have to go to all this trouble just for me. [He brightens a little.] You'll join me, won't you?
[Alfyn's a companionable sort. He's genuinely sorry to have missed the group meal.]
3+6 if that works!
Age:
262830Redacted | Species: Beastman | Occupation: Manager of Playful Land Amusement ParkLikes: Musicals, apples, math, rich people's money
Dislikes: Spending money, potatoes, reading/writing, rich people
Traits: Enterprising, affable, entertaining, duplicitous, uneducated
Trivia: Reads at a third grade level
[Being sealed in an amusement park should make someone like Fellow feel right at home, but a place like Playful Land was never really his to begin with, anyway. And, as it happens, so was being alive. It's just a handful of the dead here now in this dimly lit park, biding their time until another unlucky creature gets thrown into the pit with them.
Today, that unlucky creature is Kabru. God, he was supposed to be different.
What drew him to Kabru was that time-honored principle: like recognize like. They're both liars. They've both had to make a life of seeing through others in order to survive, to get ahead. It felt threatening at first, to meet someone who is both a mirror and a window, someone you can see through, who can see through you in turn. Every conversation made him feel like he'd been scooped out completely and shoved back together in the same approximate shape. But little by little this place wore away at him. Little by little that blue-eyed terror starting eeking (ugh) more and more truths out of him and it was starting to become a problem, like he as teetering at the edge of some horrible confession. To himself, to his fellow test subjects, to Kabru. Until he died. Then it was bliss because he didn't have to account for this pesky feeling nagging at him like a stray thread.
Didn't have to worry about it until now. Fellow has been avoiding him in ways that he's doing his utmost to make look like pure coincidence. But there's only so much luck one can be afforded. He's taken up residence at one of the bottle-toss tents, sitting on top of the booth table with his legs crossed at the ankles. In his hands is a rag that he's stitching back together, one that Kabru will recognize as Carmen Sandiego's red coat. After an appropriate moment to make it seem like Fellow's just noticed him, that he hasn't been keenly aware of Kabru's steady approach, Fellow turns his golden eyes up to look at the other man. Hands never straying from their work.]
Oh good evening, Kabru! Terribly sorry that ya [clears throat] you caught me at such a moment. Fascinating that you and I are in one piece but our clothing must suffer still. [Carmen's jacket still bears the scar of the swallowing sword that had run her through. For now, anyway.] I'd call it bad business on the part of our captors.
[Anything but to talk about the way he'd looked at Kabru that night before he'd left and never came back. Ironically, the finger of his own glove still has a hole in it.]
Murdergame in Space, wildcard option
Age: 82 | Species: Human | Occupation: Astral Express Strategist
Likes: Astral Express, animation, inner strength, his friends, Earth
Dislikes: Betrayal, Inhumane research, Antimatter Legion
Traits: Astute, Cerebral, Distant, Kind, Nerdy, Self-Sacrificial
Trivia: Welt once went into a place called the Sugars dimension, meeting small creatures that can fit in the palm of one's hand.
[ This mudergame's setting revolves around a spaceship called Theseus - one that has a plethora of various rooms for a myriad purposes. As well as areas that are more or less dedicated to the expected places found in such a vehicle like a sick bay, the typical restrooms, the bridge, and of course the brig. There are some strange places that hold a strange garden filled to the brim with many flowers, most of which are recognizable from Earth, a virtual library, an area filled with high security called the control hub, and other places.
The virtual library is cordoned off from 10PM to 6AM, and the control hub is guarded by two robots.
The Mastermind is a mysterious individual known as "The King", who fashions himself as overly haughty, though he also so happens to have a secondary individual in their employ who acts as an overseer for the trials. As well as general interactions - a person who appears cloaked in black robes, which obscures their face. Something is off about their appearance, but it generally is not known exactly what.
As for the current scenario? Welt has come to Kabru late afternoon on a Sunday, in confidence, when no one else is around him. The last trial was a doozy, to say the least, but if there is something Welt is it isn't ever idle.
But that's why he has to act now, and of all the people he believes he can trust in that could potentially get away with sneaking around, it'd be at least someone who has proven to be level-headed. Not that there is any guarantee of acquiesce or agreement of a sort since it's a bit more involved than just simply 'sneaking around', though from his discussions with the other man, Kabru never struck him as careless. They've yet to delve too far into either of their respective pasts just yet, but seeing as it has been just three weeks...there's still time to know one another better.
(Infiltrating an area can be considered a bonding activity, wdym. At least...this is what he plans on pitching. But, the best plans never survive first contact, right?) ]
...Oh, Kabru. I was looking for you.
Do you happen to have a moment? There's...something pertinent I wanted to discuss with you.
[ This is definitely a good opener, he thinks. Although he feels a little out of his element in normal conversation at times, he can aim for normal conversation. ]
don't look at me