week 1 - day 1

[productions]

murder manor week one



monday

30 players remaining.

This is a general mingle post. Please put your character's name, the time, and location in the subject heading of their comment. Players may also thread in logs, either posted to murdermanor or in a private locked journal post filtered to include productions. Plots for this week's crime are due Monday by 9 PM EST.

Setting & Rules
Private Conversations
Plotting

Comments

Re: Susan Sto Helit | Study | 10AM

[scratched]

[pacing hallways, nervously winding his hands around a tie, twisting his fingers into tight knots when the loud curse startles him from outside in the hall, leaning in to peek at her]

The hell?

[inthebones]

Hell isn't nearly good enough. I was thinking of damning them to an eternity of damp underclothes and overenthusiastic songbirds outside the window at 4AM.

[Susan has recovered quickly it seems.]

I'm fine, if that's what you wanted to know.

[scratched]

May their hot pockets always be frozen on the inside, mixing up their shampoo and conditioner with toothpaste, etc.

[stepping into the room slowly, still playing with the tie in his hands, knuckles white.]

Yeah. I mean, if I'm being honest, just checking you weren't being murdered or some shit, which you clearly aren't, so that's cool.

[inthebones]

If I were being murdered, I'd like to think I would say something more interesting than 'damnation'. Perhaps we should start planning for that - our last words, I mean.

[It doesn't take a genius to note Dave's obvious unease.]

...Is there a reason you're holding a perfect weapon for strangulation in your hands?

[Susan is a helper.]

[scratched]

Jesus-- no, I was just wearing it, then I walked past a mirror and realized it looks like shit [and that he could be strangled with it], Christ, I'm putting it away.

[stuffing it into a pocket, moving to start chewing off a thumbnail instead.]

[inthebones]

...I wouldn't wear any scarves they give you, either.

[Her voice is softer now. Whatever her previous concerns, she can recognize someone who needs attention when she sees it.]

Sit.

[A gesture towards a chair.]

Don't fret. I already know who I'd want to murder first if I were murdering anyone at all, and it isn't a teenaged boy.

[scratched]

[bossy chicks are familiar and that makes it alright to totally come to the conclusion to sit in the chair of his own accord and put on his best totally cool with everything face.

it looks like he has some serious gas pains.]

Well, frankly, gonna have to disagree with you, because we are pretty much the fucking worst.

[inthebones]

[She will find it unimaginably cool to the point of intimidation hence why she turns away to give a slight cough. It certainly has nothing to do with the smile crossing her face.]

I don't recall saying otherwise. But I should like to practice my swing first before I start in on the real menaces in this manor; it would be quite disappointing to botch it up when it counted.

[As she expects they can go on like this all day, Susan will exercise her magical schoolteacher talent of changing the subject there is probably a pun in there somewhere.]

Frankly, I would rather there weren't any teenaged boys at all. You aren't children, but I don't see that you have any business in this place.

[scratched]

[his words are muffled as he continues to chew off his thumbnail, gassy expression turning to sulky teen instead.]

I can handle my shit. Self-defense wise. Pretty sure no one has any business here, but people are gonna go for it anyway.

[inthebones]

As talented as I'm sure you are, I find it objectionable. And it isn't self-defense I'm worried about, exactly.

...But you're quite sensible. Even a sample of thirty bystanders off the streets is likely to yield at least one who would be happy to play such a game. Let alone 'contestants' they selected purposefully.

I think we all know what will happen by week's end.

[scratched]

[he just grunts a response at first, a hand coming up to rub at where the sunglasses sit on his nose, eyes squeezed shut.]

I can't die yet, anyway. Still got shit to take care of. And I don't mean that in a dark, tortured hero way, I mean it in a I'm serious, it's fucking important and I'm pretty certain I'm the only one that can do it way.

[inthebones]

Oddly enough, you aren't the first to express that sentiment. As important as you are to your world, we all have things we need to do.

...Unless you suggest we compare notes and murder whomever's least important.

[Perhaps that would be most pragmatic. Susan turns back now to... well, to not meet him in the eyes with a grave expression.]

When you consider it... it's an ingenious plan. At some point along the way, it will be too much. Rewards, incentives, unfinished business - the value of your own life. And you'll decide that yes. Yes, the cost of another human's life, a perfect stranger's, can't compare any longer. For the more narcissistic amongst us, that point will come sooner. But there is a point, I think, for everyone.

[scratched]

It's probably practically a fucking prerequisite to think you're too damn important to piddle around in this hellhole. If the memory thing wasn't enough to kickstart your murder jets.

[letting the sunglasses drop back into his hands, pulling them off his face for once, flipping them over and over in his hands. It's blindingly annoying how he can remember they're important, but not fucking why.]

For the record, this is probably the worst pep talk in history.

[inthebones]

I was leading somewhere positive. ...When I start dashing teenaged boys over the head, I shall begin with the impatient ones.

[Susan and positive don't generally belong in the same sentence, as a rule of thumb for future interactions.]

In any case.

What all of that means, practically, is two things.

The first - there are, amongst us, people who will kill without provocation. They enjoy it. They'll be very good at hiding it. Ideally, we'll be able to identify them before any murders happen at all, but denial never got anyone anywhere helpful. We find them first.

The second - there are, amongst us, people who will kill as the pressure intensifies, for their own sakes. This is liable to occur later down the line as the weeks set in; it may happen accidentally in a fit of nerves, or it may be planned with the desperate hope of escape. But it will happen. What we must do, then, is offer hope. If the only hope of escape is murder, then why shouldn't they go along with it? But if we can offer the hope that we can all escape together, if we can identify the breaking point and deny it, then another option - a preferable option - has presented itself.

[A slight pause.]

And when I say 'we', I mean 'I', as this is the brilliant plan I created last night around midnight whilst staring at the ceiling. You can help if you'd like now you know all my secrets.

Practically speaking, of course, self-defense never hurt anyone, either. I suppose I should learn deja fu.