There's No Place Like Traumabonding for the Holidays

[beebs]

HOLIDAY MURDERGAME WHERE ARE THEY NOW MEME



It's the hap-happiest season of all, and what better way to celebrate than by remembering that one (or more) horribly traumatic experience that permanently changed the face of not only your relationships but possibly your outlook on life itself?

Any character (including NPCs!) who's ever been in any murdergame is invited! Feel free to share with your friends!

Regardless of how you choose to use this meme, there's two blanket rules:
1) Make sure the header of your comment has your character's name, home canon, and murdergame listed. If you used the same account for several murdergames, you can use the same toplevel for all of them.
2) No blank comments! First and foremost this is a chance to catch up with old murdergame buddies, and maybe make new ones if you choose! Thus, your comment should go into whatever degree of detail you like describing what life has been like since the murdergame ended. Did life go back to normal? Did they get married? Have a kid? Move to another universe entirely and start over with their found family? Have they kept in touch? Go into as much detail as you want, just put something!

You can use this meme to set up any kind of "canon" or canon-compliant holiday threads with your castmates, big holiday party or no.

OR... you can pretend that there's an interdimensional all-murdergame nondescript winter holiday party that you've been invited to attend! Maybe the Curtains narrators made sure the Denny's was conveniently empty (don't mind the weird old guy in the woods out back), or maybe there was some other convenient arrangement. Either way, you received an invite, and you're here now! So spike the eggnog and check for mistletoe, because the night is probably going to get wild.

(If you're not down for one option or the other, just note that somewhere in your top-level.)

Have fun, and Happy Holidays!

Comments

"Yasu" | Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (Manga) | Castle Whimsical R2

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu has, technically speaking, been to several holiday parties. Actually participating in one, however, is a novel experience—before her "enrollment" in Ira Academy, Yasu's contributions to the Ushiromiya Christmas functions consisted of frenetic pre-dinner cleaning and looking in longingly at the dining hall like a good Dickensian orphan.

And like any good Dickensian orphan, especially one that grappled with a starvation motive), the first thing that draws Yasu's attention is the scrumptious meal on offer. She hovers by the buffet table, reverent and paralyzed by indecision, until the silver-colored fox kit (with a peculiar collar that has a large sign that says "ON PAROLE" hanging from her neck) that accompanies Yasu everywhere bumps into her leg to signal to her to get a move on... at which point she flinches, overcompensates, flails, and ends up tumbling backwards and into some unfortunate passerby.] A- Ah! I'm sorrrryyyy! [The fox has the decency to look mildly admonished, at least.]

[After Yasu gets her fill, she drifts to the piano as if compelled by gravity. A smile spreads across her face as she sits down to run her fingers across the keys. There's a brief moment of hesitation. Then, the fox kit curls up in Yasu's lap, all awareness of the outside world fades, and Yasu starts playing.

It's hardly professional quality, or even high school band quality. Yasu's just a hobbyist, after all; the only reason why she plays is that she formed a habit after using piano practice as a pretext for secret rendezvous for more than a month. But no matter how good or bad or mediocre she sounds, it's clear from the light shining from her face that she's playing from the heart. When Yasu finishes the playing through the (short) list of songs she knows by heart, it may finally dawn on her that somebody else is by the piano.]

Oh! Would you, um, like to... [Yasu looks down at the napping fox in her lap and trails off.] A- actually, I need a few more minutes. [She smiles fondly, petting the fox as gently as she can so as not to disturb her.]

Falling over

[violence_ensues]

Oop. Yasu!

[Yeah, have a familiar blue bat.]

How y'all doing? Kakuya being good?

[keyringwitness]

S- She's, uh, [the fox kit in question was the one who knocked Yasu over but it really was an accident,] she's doing wonderfully.

How about you?

[violence_ensues]

[Bathugs? Bathugs!]

I'm doing great! I got to catch up with Mao Mao and Badgerclops and fight more crime and bad monsters!

[keyringwitness]

That's good to hear! And how, uh...

[Yasu trails off. "How have the others been doing" is an awkward question given how... contentious everything was between her and most of her classmates after they first "graduated."]

piano

[scribbly]

[Mary is not only by the piano but half-lounging over it, sketchbook placed atop it while she doodles idly on it with one hand, her other arm just sort of stretched across the piano where she's leaning against it. She's pretty focused on her art, but she looks up when Yasu speaks. She's startled, not in the way of someone who has forgotten of someone else's presence, but of someone who is, even after all this time, still so used to drawing quietly with their only company ever-silent.]

Oh! No, that's okay, I don't want a turn. [No effort is made to keep her voice down.] I like your music.

[keyringwitness]

[With all the time she spent doodling gijinkas of her animal classmates (and how, through a series of complicated dominos falling in exactly the right way, that led to her kid-dating the secret mastermind), Yasu instantly feels kinship with Mary, enough so to overcome her embarrassment over hogging the piano. Especially when she gets complimented. Although her experiences at Ira Academy gave her a sense of self-esteem, Yasu is still weak to praise.]

Th- Thank you! I've been practicing ever since I was, um... enrolled. [Her ellipsis carries the weight of the experience everyone in this room has shared, one way or another.] ...do you mind if I look at your drawing? [Yasu cranes her head to try and get a better look at the notebook, but it's difficult to do so without waking up the fox in her lap.]

[scribbly]

Oh, yeah? That's cool. [If Mary feels that weight, she doesn't act like it, remarking on that shared experience as easily as if Yasu meant a more ordinary school, as if the commonality wasn't there at all.] You're pretty good!

[As she sees Yasu lean in to look at her sketchbook, Mary pushes it across the piano towards her. She's far too extroverted to have that "don't look at anything I've ever created or I'll die" instinct shared by many a teenage artist.]

Yeah, go for it! You can look through it if you want.

[It's a large enough sketchbook that there's a few things on the page; idle doodles of roses and butterflies fill up a lot of the space in between drawings—they match the ones clumsily tattooed on her arm. In the center, Mary has been drawing a woman in tall heels and a cocktail dress with no head, posed dramatically, cracks running through her body. It's actually quite well done, considering her age.]

[keyringwitness]

[Roses, butterflies... Yasu lights up as she pages through Mary's sketchbook, finally experiencing that wonderful emotion of finding someone else who, like, gets it, except that someone else is a cool older teen instead of an impostor music room ghost.

She pauses when she reaches the drawing of the headless woman, though, cocking her head to the side. It feels... familiar, somehow? Like some of her own drawings, in some vague sense.]

Who is this?

she protecc

[otogihorror]

[The kit seems a little admonished at her falling over but... well. She's trying to be better but it's still Kakuya. She headbutts the unfortunate passerby. How dare they bump into Yasu! This probably doesn't help at all.

Look at her go, she's being a good girl. Okay, this is a bit silly. Being protected by a young fox is a lot less intimidating than being be protected by a powerful evil spirit.]

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu's embarrassment is Kakuya's fault, but also, how on earth could she be mad when she looked so adorable? Now THAT'S a logic error.]

A- Ah! Kakuya, no... [That "no" isn't very enthusiastic.] Here, let me just... [And scoooop.]

[otogihorror]

[She glares as hard as she can at the random person. It's not very effective. Let her gooo!

But being held is nice. Hm. She doesn't know what to do. Ah. She climbs onto Yasu's shoulder. There. Height!]

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu laughs, scritching Kakuya under the chin. Gosh, she can't wait until Kakuya's approved for a human(ish) form; then they can hold hands for real... and hug... and m- maybe other things...]

bonp

[serrata]

– oh!

[ With the practiced, instinctive ease of a person very much used to getting barrelled into in such a way, when Yasu goes tumbling, Yuuri gently catches her by the shoulders and steadies her. ]

There we go... no harm done. [ On her part, at least. She lets go of Yasu and stoops down a little to give her a smile. ] Are you alright?

[keyringwitness]

I- I'm fine, yes... [This is a horrifically dire situation. Whoever this person is, she easily matches Shannon's Big Sister power levels, if not outright exceeds them. Yasu is in awe.] Sorry about Kakuya, [Yasu says as she scoops the fox kit headbutting Yuuri's shin with all of the force a tiny fox can bring to bear, which is to say almost none.]

She can get, um...

...

...feisty.

[That's one way to put it,]

[serrata]

I can tell. [ Her voice is a little wry, but certainly not unkind. ] It's good that you've got a friend looking out for you at a big party like this, though. They can be a little scary if you're on your own, huh?

[ That's her tactful way of trying to make sure this girl isn't here on her own. There's a few young children running around and Yuuri would usually assume they're a plus one to someone else, but... ]

[keyringwitness]

I'm the one looking out for her, really... she's, uh... [The "ON PAROLE" sign hanging from Kakuya's collar swings back and forth. ] Not really allowed outside without supervision... I had to argue with everyone else to let her come to this party, so I've got to make sure she stays on her best behavior.

Y- You're right, though. It'd be a lot harder to face everyone here without Kakuya. [That's a lot of fondness on Yasu's face as she lightly scritches the ears of the fox kit, who calms down a smidge at the stimulation.]

[thefifthchild]

[Damian's just been standing near the piano, hoping to avoid having any conversations with people he knows or doesn't know. But the fox catches his attention. Mainly because in general he likes animals far more than he likes people.]

Don't worry, you can keep it. I have no interest in exiling you or your companion. [But that's not a normal fox. It doesn't take a detective to notice that.]

That fox. What's it's name?

[keyringwitness]

[Yasu would be intimidated by Damian's mien, but his words reassure Yasu that she's in the presence of another chuuni and she relaxes.]

Kakuya. I wanted to bring her here so she could have some fun, but everyone else insisted on giving her that dumb sign and said I should, um, "keep an eye on her." What do they think she can do while she's tiny like this...

[thefifthchild]

[Out of a family full of nothing but chunni, he is somehow the chunniest.

So, not a fox. From the sounds of it, probably a particularly gruesome murder or a mastermind or collaborator. Not that he can judge. He lead the slaughter of an entire police station.]

Our mastermind is walking around unchecked. I don't see how it's fair that your friend has to wear a sign around her neck.

[He decides to not crowd the fox.]

What were her crimes anyway?

[keyringwitness]

Th- that's the thing! [Yasu outright huffs, almost crosses her arms, remembers that Kakuya is still asleep in her lap, and opts to just simmer in stillness. Looks like Damian's hit a sore spot.] Without her, we'd... we'd all be either brainwashed or dead twice over because of that d- demon that calls himself "Father."

Kakuya's the one who snapped us out of becoming his perfect, um, little sheep in the first place, and when Father finally lost his patience with how closely we were sticking together despite everything, she was the one who turned the tables on him and put him in one of his own monster cages before he could kill us...

A- And when he first realized that we broke out of his conditioning, he was going to dispose of us just like that! If it wasn't for Kakuya, then we all would've died before we got the chance to do anything. [Yasu pauses for breath, then sheepishly appends,] T- T- To be fair, she, um, convinced him it'd be more fun to d- do the death game thing, which is how she got us our, er, stay of execution, and she kept it going even after she locked him up because she was bored... which was, um, bad... but if she didn't care about us at all she would've just let us die, and she wouldn't have disguised herself to try and make friends with us either.

[She sighs, petting Kakuya to calm herself down.] S- Sorry. I guess it's, it's... I know it's weird to say this about someone who trapped us in that awful game, but I'm s- still frustrated that everyone treated her so badly. That's why everything was such a mess in the end, I think...

piano

[noblesnow]

I'd like to keep listening, actually, if that's all right.

[Listening to the music, checking up on Yasu, keeping an eye on Kakuya... Reika's very efficient.]

[keyringwitness]

Reika!

[While Yasu smiles more often than she used to, they're usually small, almost secret quirks of the mouth, like happiness is something she can't afford to waste. But when she sees Reika again, she unleashes a radiant grin.]

It's been so long... we, um, didn't really get to talk much right after you c- came back, so I was wondering how you were doing...

[noblesnow]

[Oh her gosh. Reika is truly blessed.]

I've been well. I was elected student council president, among... other things. [Magical girl bullshit.]

What about you? Have you two been doing well? Behaving yourselves? [As if to clarify the last part, she offers her hand to Kakuya like she's meeting a puppy.]

Fox, meet fox

[redloxy]

Oh, I don't play piano. [Foxy is actually looking at Kakuya with a somewhat worried expression.] Um...is she supposed to be naked?