supergaybabyjail | THE MASTERMIND AU MEME

THE MASTERMIND AU MEME

THE MASTERMIND AU
AMBIDEX EDITION

With Round 3 now over, it's about time we had the mastermind meme!

To those who aren't familiar, this is essentially an AU where your character is the one responsible for Round 3's Mutual Killing Game, and all of the carnage that came with it, from the kidnapping to the motives to the trials to the executions! And now, they have chosen to reveal themselves before the remaining members of their class at the final trial!

As such, you are free to play around with this as much as you would like; did your character make a contract with Kyuubey, or did your character put everyone in the Killing Game for a different reason? What is your character's motivation for bringing despair? What do they intend to get out of this seemingly senseless killing? And what does the rest of the class have to do to stop the madness and go home?

There's probably going to be quite a bit of AUing from your character's original canon happening here to make them into the best harbingers of despair they can be, so feel free to go as nuts with it as you want to! And, of course, feel free to tag others with your character's reaction to their classmate's big reveal; it doesn't matter whether or not your character made it to endgame, have fun and mix up the survivor pool as much as you'd like!

Oh, and feel free to describe your character's sweet new Monobear-themed duds, too!!

Original meme text borrowed and modified from loveisanopendoor!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Duster blinks in shock, but Harvey's snappy reply is forgotten in favor of that mysterious shadow. Is Harvey controlling it? What kind of power does he have?]

What do you mean..."fail"? [His gradually takes on an accusatory tone.] You're not talking about the game, are you?

I wasn't talkin' to you.

[He's definitely recovered his composure now, at any rate. If anything he just seems tired.]

What do you think I mean? Keep the rules in mind, kid - you can't just vote without figurin' things out a little more.

Then who?! [Now is now the time to be quiet. Duster leans on his podium, still staring at Harvey.] Of course we won't let you win! We can't let you get away with this!

[Duster glances at the shadowy figure from the corner of his eye. Wasn't there something in the papers he found that referenced something like this...?]

[The notes they found were mostly in unfamiliar handwriting - a point against Harvey's involvement, for a while. They seemed to be compiling information on previous murder games, mostly focusing on the psychological effects borne by those inside. There was a lot about how long the games took, eventually dovetailing into a collection of theories on how to compress them into a shorter timeframe while still getting the same effects.

One of these theories may have mentioned an entity known as a shade. There wasn't much information on it, simply that its presence seemed to cause heightened anger, paranoia, feelings of hopelessness, and violent outbursts in humans after only a few weeks of contact. The notes had ended with plans for further investigation - which may or may not have happened, because all the following pages were torn out.]

Sure you won't. You've gotten the farthest out of any group I've had. [It's hard to tell if he means that as encouragement or sarcasm.]

Edited 2015-08-17 04:56 (UTC)

[And it got to Harvey. That explains how he was panicking the day after the second motive. Duster assumed it was because that file had a picture of his son...but was that all a lie, too?]

Are you already admitting defeat? [He gestures at the Shade with his head.] Has that already gotten to you?

That thing's been here a lot longer than you have, kid. Some days I don't even... [He stares dead-eyed at it for a moment before shaking his head and turning his attention back to Duster.] No, I ain't admitting anything yet. You know that ain't how the game works.

[He sighs and rubs at his temples.]

Come on, let's walk it back a minute. What do you think you know so far?

[And you know what Lu wrote up some case notes because she can't keep her shit straight mentally, you may as well have them.]

[Duster looks down. Focus, don't think about the karaoke room. Don't think about mourning his death the entire weekend. Forget that fatherly person, you don't need him.]

You were trying to copy the first two games, right? You found some sort of notebook, written by J. [He feels like the full name is somewhere in the evidence. He'll need to think it over more.] But...the Shade got hold of you. That's why you had those medicine bottles. I did the same thing too, when I ate those gummy bears. That's how I was able to make it through the week.

...You were fighting it, weren't you? Or were you just hiding it long enough for us to trust you?

[Harvey doesn't answer at first, staring down at the cigarette burning away between his fingers.]

...I wasn't hiding anything from you.

[Duster stares at the cigarette. He took up the habit briefly to deal with his grief, but after he bonded with the others, he never touched a smoke again.]

So those weeks you were with us...that was the real you? The Harvey that wouldn't set up a killing game? Is that why the console was littered with empty bottles? Because your mind was changing?

[He looks Harvey in the face, daring him to look him in the eye.]

Who are you? Harvey, or a Shade?

...I wiped my memory.

[Harvey can't hold his gaze for long; instead he looks down and breathes in another puff of smoke. He'd complained of missing memories in the hotel, of course, claimed that he'd lost weight and gained scars. But anyone can lie about a thing like that.]

Just like you guys. Thought it'd help. But I ain't been like that for a long time now. I don't...heh, if you can't tell, I sure as hell can't.

Tell what? That you were a good person when you were with us? That we loved you? If that's how you were before, you can be that man again!

[He gasps for breath. Harvey looks so sad, it's not the real him, how can Duster bring himself to hate him?

He glares at the Shade.]

It's that thing, isn't it? That's what's really behind all this.

I was not - [This time Harvey catches himself snapping, stops and takes a breath.] - I wasn't a good person. If I was, I would've been able to keep it out. Why else would it pick me? I don't have any magic! It took me ages to work out all this robot crap! Any of them could've done this better, but it was me!

[He's shouting again. Just like he shouted at them, before he killed them. Harvey's hands curl into fists, and his voice is barely audible:]

It couldn't have done it without me.

No, you were! You looked after us, you wanted to protect us. This thing [He pointed to the Shade beside him.] could've gotten to any of us.

[Duster is holding onto of J's notebooks in his hand, and he lifts it up for all the see.]

It says here that this was created to cause people to fall into despair. Have you seen what's been happening these past two months?! Good people, people who didn't deserve it, they were pushed to their limits. We've all broken down at some point.

...Harvey. I don't know why you think otherwise, but you're normally a good person. You have to come to your senses.

You don't - I don't see what so hard to understand about this! None of those folks would've broken in the first place if they hadn't been here! Their blood's on my hands.

[Harvey rests his chin on a fist, studying Duster's face.]

It would've been better if I hadn't gone in. This would be easier for you.

It's not your fault, it's not your fault...

[He buries his face in his hands.]

We have to free you. There has to be something in the journals!

You know as much about those as I do now.

[He doesn't have any secret key or magic fix for this. There isn't one. Harvey leans forward, torn between sympathy and a brewing frustration he's not entirely sure is his own.]

Listen, kid, you've got two options. You wanna hear about the vote now?

[Duster keeps his head down. He can't let the others see him cry. He has to be strong not only for the survivors, but for Harvey. They have to save him from the Shade, the real culprit behind all this!

He takes a deep breath and looks up. His eyes are red.]

What are they?

[Harvey sees those eyes. But there's nothing he can do about that now. Who wants comfort from their captor anyway?]

You can vote Despair. I'll send you all home, or wherever else you wanna go, but there'll be a new game after you go. I - [He winces and shakes his head sharply.] - I think I can take you all out of the running, you won't get picked up again. But I can't promise much else.

Or you can vote Hope and put a stop to all of this.

[Duster eyes the two buttons. Hope obviously is the right answer, but the lack of explanation worried him.]

How will it end this? [If anything, he wants an option that defeats the Shade.]

[Harvey was sorta hoping Duster wouldn't ask. Figured he would, but...]

By execution.

[Duster digs his fingers into the wood podium. They're starting to hurt, but he doesn't care if they bleed. The pain distracts him from clouding his mind.]

No. I don't want to let this happen.

[Deep breaths, Duster. He lets go of the podium. His fingers are throbbing.]

What will happen to the Shade if you die?

If we're lucky, it'll die too. If not... [Harvey lets out a bitter, hollow chuckle.] ...then I'll have fucked all of you over again, won't I?

[It'd find a new host. That's what it does. How can he do this to them - how can he have done any of this to them? It'd be better if he just pressed that button right now and spared them all livin' like this, he should just end it early -

- no. Focus.

He clasps his left hand over his right, nails biting into skin.]

Maybe it will. It's startin' to get real tempting to just kill you all now. [Still suffering this delusion that he's a good person?]

[If they're lucky. They can't kill him in the hopes of killing the Shade, too.]

...But you'll live if we pick Despair, right? We'll be able to find a cure together!

[He won't believe Harvey is anything other than a good person. Being possessed can change a person, much like eating hallucinogenic gummy bears. They all have to live. What's so bad about despair if he thinks of it like this?]

...what? Why - why would you do that?

[Harvey's voice is disbelieving. He can't figure out how he feels about this. He'd meant for Hope to win, but now that he's here, he doesn't want to die (except that's the Shade talkin', isn't it?). He'd thought they were too good to buy into all this.]

No. [He speaks quickly, afraid that he'll change his mind if he waits. He's losing control of this.] No, you can't stay. I'll send you wherever you want, but you can't stay here.

Because we want to save you, Harvey! We can't let you die and have the Shade find someone else!

[Duster looks at him straight in the eye. He may not be good at making difficult decisions, but the choice was clear: save everyone. Defeat the actual evil twisted thing. He won't let another puppet die needlessly.]

Why not? We won't be staying here forever.

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