A/N: wrote this about a million years ago, so it's filled with old memes. apologies to any who cringe. hope you enjoy, though! also s/o to callane and Lord Gaius, for working on this with me.
Many see games as simply a form of entertainment. Useless. Wasteful. Detached from reality. But what happens when you take a game and turn all of its twisted concepts into reality? What would be the goal of such an experiment? Knowledge, of course. Knowledge is always the goal. The psychology division of a prestigious university was looking for high school students to test for data on the difference in choices between perceived reality and fantasy. Serenes' Hope Academy, with its inordinate amount of Mafia players, was a perfect place to bring the game "Everyone is Mafia Mafia" into reality. A simple flyer was handed out, advertising the game. In the span of two days, applications and waivers were completed and submitted. The players were selected and informed of their acceptance with an email.
Despite the fantastic experiment that was about to commence, the setting of the game was rather tranquil, much like the calm before a storm. Surrounded by a forest with a small river flowing within walking distance, it mirrored places such as the zen gardens of Japan. The school was almost its own city, with several restaurants, coffeehouses, and other such commercial businesses within its borders. However, the 'city' was always extraordinarily clean, as rules prohibited most things that could harm the environment, punishable by hours spent cleaning up any contamination that one might have caused. The residents and the visitors worked together to protect the cherished home of the 'Serenity Chinchillas'. The headmaster of the school was an eccentric man who knew of the danger the world was in and fought it the only way he knew how: educating young adults about it. He believed that if the youth of the world could make their own decisions, unsheltered from the horrors of the world but nudged towards environmental preservation, the world would save itself though the actions of the next generation. Believing that the game would cultivate his students' leadership skills, he supported the creation, so long as it didn't interfere with their grades. After receiving the headmaster's approval, the team set up their experiment, selecting their subjects from a complicated selection process.
The selection process aimed to narrow the fifty four applicants to around twenty to thirty. Looking at many different factors, including but not limited to grades, previous Mafia win-loss record, and reputation, twenty six contestants were eventually selected. These twenty six received an email and a small package. The package contained a horseshoe-shaped metal arc, and a note to read the email first. The email read:
"Congratulations! You have been selected to partake in the first ever game of Everyone is Mafia Mafia, hosted by Serenes' Hope Academy! The objective is simple: stay alive! Enclosed are the rules, which we are sure you have already read. However, please make a note to read them again, as there have been additions to the rules.
Rules
Your grades must not drop below a C- while partaking in this game. If they do, you will be expelled from the game unless there are extenuating circumstances.
When talking to anyone in a chatting format, please add the host to the conversation.
When interacting with other players in real life or in a video call, your avatar must be activated. Instructions and tips on avatar construction are included in an attached PDF.
Your username must not be inappropriate.
You may be aggressive, but you may not be a jerk to other players. This is a voluntary activity, so stay friendly!
All actions and shots will target aliases, not usernames or names. The aliases and usernames playing will be listed when the game starts.
All shots have a chance to miss.
Day One is 72 hours. All Days following it are 48 hours, unless otherwise specified. Night phases start with a 6 hour timer upon phasing into the VR school.
Keep real life and game life separate. Don't actually kill anyone. Shots and actions will pass through a filter to ensure target and subject anonymity.
You will have two bulletproof vests (BPVs) given to you by the host. You will not be able to get more BPVs. One BPV will protect from one shot. Everyone has one faction shot. If you are targeted by more killing actions than your BPV count during a night, you will die.
Once 'dead', do not reveal information or talk to living players. You may, however, rant in the graveyard.
Have fun!
The game will start 6 days from today, on Friday, October 27th at exactly 6 PM. Before then, please send an alias to shacontactEiMM . .us, set up your avatarLinker and avatar, and begin preparing for the game! If you have any questions, please send them to the same email address.
Sincerely,
Serenes' Hope Academy Faculty"
~x~
The classroom wasn't particularly loud, despite the fact that it was lunchtime. Many of the students chose to eat outside when the weather was nice, to take advantage of the picturesque surroundings that the school was so renowned for. The students who had access to a vehicle occasionally traveled to the dorms or nearby shops for food. Altogether, students were largely left to their own devices when it came to lunchtime. The faculty believed this to be the best way to encourage responsibility.
The students who did choose to remain in the classrooms could be easily classified into three distinct categories. The first category consisted of the overachievers, the students who studied through lunch, and as such, spent their lunches in the classroom. The second category held all of the lazy or overworked kids, who chose to nap in the classroom. The last category contained the clubs. In this case, it was the Mafia club, who found the cafeteria far too noisy, the outside far too bright, and the dorms far too inconvenient. Every day, they would go to classroom 2-A if they felt like playing Mafia. Today, there were uncommonly many for a Monday, due to the announcement on Friday of the realization of Everyone is Mafia Mafia, or EiMM as it had been dubbed.
"Hey, does anyone know who got accepted?" someone asked the half-full classroom eagerly.
"I heard Julius got an acceptance email, but I dunno. We'll find out when the player list gets posted, I suppose," replied another.
A guy in a grey blazer with spiky white-blond hair shrugged his shoulders with an oddly cheerful grin. "Julie was accepted? Ah, I guess I'm not surprised. Have you seen the guy's scum rollrate? It's insane."
"Shut up, Verse," retorted a taller girl with dark brown hair, her arms crossed. "You've rolled scum more than a fair few times yourself." Despite her words, she gave a small smile to let them know she was joking.
Smiling awkwardly in reply, the spiky-haired blond admitted, "Ah, I suppose that's correct, Lane, but at least I'm not any good as scum, right? That's the difference between Ju and I."
"Scum rate doesn't equal acceptance rate, though. That's what I'm saying." She sighed. "Eh, whatever, you understand my poi一"
A wave of discomfort abruptly settled over the classroom, causing the dark haired girl to pause and glance towards the door. The edge of the door opened ever-so-slightly.
The spiky-haired guy murmured, "Speak of the devil, and he shall come."
The door slid open with an ominous creak, and the room in shadows was bathed with an equally foreboding sunlight. A silhouette shrouded in light stepped into the mafia room, making several people squint as their eyes were assaulted.
An irritated female voice broke the silence. "Julius, close the damn door or you're going to give us all migraines from light overexposure.
"Sorry," the silhouette responded, and the door slid shut, revealing a rather average male.
Lane hissed, "Verse, how did you know it was him before he even opened the door?" Several pairs of eyes turned to the blond, wondering the same thing.
Verse waved a hand dismissively. "His aura is so distinctive, it was like telling apart fire and fire. It was easy."
"Or maybe you just stalk him too much," she muttered to herself, but it was too quiet to hear. The rest of the room was focused on Julius anyway.
Julius looked around, noticing the stares. The conversations started up again, and he shrugged and walked over to the girl with strawberry-blonde hair who had spoken earlier and sat down next to her. He decided it really didn't matter if something happened and just chilled in his chair.
The door slammed open and seemed to quiver in its frame. A distinctly male figure walked in, concealed by a hood over their head. Taking a seat on the teacher's desk, the figure removed his jacket, revealing messy brown hair, a warm smile, and brilliant green eyes behind square-rimmed glasses. Immediately, the chatter quieted down (not that there was much of it in the first place). Calling people to attention, somewhat unnecessarily, he clapped and smiled again. "Good morning, everyone!" he greeted cheerfully. Although he had a commanding presence, his voice was rather soft.
"It's lunch, Tinker," a guy complained, mock-frowning with his hazel eyes and breaking the silence that had reigned for a few seconds.
Shooting an exasperated look at the owner of the voice, Tinker sighed, "Figure of speech, Kalen."
He received only a shrug in response. He shook his head and continued. "Let's begin today with a vote, shall we? Should we play a game or should we discuss this new game, Everyone is Mafia Mafia, I believe it's called?"
The chatter that had died upon his entrance started up again as the mood relaxed.
Sparkling unnecessarily, a brunet with starry amber eyes waved his hand around in the air, enthusiasm infusing his every pore. "Do you really have to ask? I'm putting my vote for the new game, of course~!" he said, smiling blindingly. Instantly, the tense atmosphere dissipated, and many of the smiles that were killed by the successive arrivals of the two officers were revived. It was as if his smile was contagious.
"praiserufflets," another person, who was residing underneath several blankets, said in agreement. Sticking out a sleeve-clad hand, a thumb flipped out in the thumbs-up pose as he placed his vote for "new game" as well.
"Ya, definitely new game," responded the strawberry blonde, staring intensely at her phone screen. Her hands clutched at the rose gold device as if expressing a perpetual internal scream. "Pokemon Go is a new game and it's mostly awesome. Therefore this new game should also be awesome. Unless it has, like, insane waiting times."
"I'd like to know too," commented another girl, who was sitting next the strawberry blonde. Upon further examination, she looked like a carbon copy of her neighbor, albeit with shorter and more naturally colored hair. "I'm interested in knowing what this new game is all about. Especially since I'm not super experienced with this Mafia stuff yet." She smiled, as if to remind the room that she was still entitled to the newcomer lenience despite her previous connections to the community.
"I suppose hearing more about stuff is always good. I mean, being too informed is never a bad thing, right?" a black-haired male said with a slight smile in his eyes, managing to sound both stoked and very, very bored. He fiddled absentmindedly with a pair of sunglasses in his hands and flipped his hair out of his face as he voted to hear about the new game.
The other 24 people in the room responded along the same lines, most assenting to the "new game" discussion.
"Let's see, there's… 31 of us. I wonder… how many of you got an acceptance letter and would like to share?" Tinker asked. Twelve people raised their hands, including Julius, the sparkly guy, and Tinker himself. Looking at the people who raised their hands, Verse sighed under his breath, "Why am I not surprised…? Not only the Scumlord and the Leader, but the Cyan, the Charmer, the KKK, and the Crow too. Just my luck."
Tinker smiled and said, "Well, first of all, congratulations! I look forward to playing you, for those of you that got accepted. For those that didn't, well—" Abruptly, the door slid open yet again, albeit just a sliver this time, and a brown-haired male wearing a beige blazer slid smoothly through the crack, clearly trying to be unobtrusive and just as clearly failing. He saw them staring at him and smiled sheepishly, then rapidly strode to his usual spot. Oddly enough, the next few seats beside him were empty. Tinker blinked and mentally shrugged, continuing. "Shall we go over the rules first? They apparently added a few rules in the acceptance letter."
"Ya, sure, but has anyone figured out how to use this thing?" the strawberry blonde asked, holding up a horseshoe-shaped arc of metal. "I tried turning it on yesterday, but like aside from a light that blinks really really quickly on the side, it's been more unresponsive than the Pokemon Go servers, and that's impressive."
"Rose," the girl sitting next to her deadpanned, "You've spent more time playing Pokemon than you have trying to work the avatarLinker." She took the metal arc, slid the power icon instead of pressing it, and handed it back to the girl with longer hair.
"avatarLinker? Is that what it's called?" Rose muttered to herself, absentmindedly taking back the metal arc and turning it back off. She began defending her decisions. "Well, whatever it is, it's not my fault if I find a CP 710 Charmeleon that refuses to get into my Pokeball!"
"By the way, Rose, uh, what team are you?" Verse called out awkwardly.
"Team Valor!" she replied enthusiastically, pumping her fist in the air.
Briefly, there was a moment of silence.
"Oh, um, sorry about taking over the dorm 3 gym then," said Verse apologetically.
The words hung in the air for a couple of seconds before a quiet voice asked, "Mystic or Instinct?" Heads turned to find the owner of the voice, a calm-looking girl with a high ponytail, sitting casually by the door.
Before Verse could respond, Lane loudly whispered, "I'm betting on Mystic."
The spiky-haired blond turned to the ponytailed girl with a frown and lightly swatted her shoulder, calling out, "That's no fair, Lane! You already knew."
"Wait, so you're in Mystic?" Rose looked utterly betrayed as she rapidly scooted forward into the light. "HOW COULD YOU." The way she whispered it wasn't a question. It was a threat only barely veiled by her pretense of casualness, and everyone could pick up on it. "VALOR! It's got to be Valor!"
From his seat, the previously-mentioned unobtrusive brunet stood up and pumped his fist up in the air. "VALOR!" he echoed enthusiastically.
"I'm in Valor as well," the girl who had been sitting beside Rose said slowly. "But don't you guys think you're taking this too seriousl—"
"VALOR!" the brunet screamed, cutting her off. The other members of Team Valor in the room stood up, chanting, "Val-or! Val-or!" repeatedly. The temperature in the room started rising with each person that stood up, until the room grew so hot that the other, previously unnoticed occupants of the room frowned, strode over to the windows, and opened them all, letting the buildup of hot air release into the sky. Abruptly, a gust of icy wind blew through the open windows, making many of the standing Valorians shiver involuntarily.
"Valor is trash, Mystic all the way," a voice called out from underneath the pile of blankets.
"vALOR!" screeched the brunet.
"Mystic," countered the currently disembodied voice.
"VALOR IS FOR THE STRONG, MYSTIC IS FOR THE WEAK BETA NERDS," the brunet screamed. He had an impressive vocal range.
"Cipher, fight me. Not right now, though. I'm sick," the voice sneezed.
"ONE V ONE ME, RUFF, I'LL CRUSH YOU," the brunet said loudly. "But later, I guess. For now—" he raised his voice again, along with his fist. "VALOOOOOORR!"
The other Valors in the room took up the chant again. "VAL-OR! VAL-OR! VAL-OR! VAL—"
"MYSTIC!" the girl sitting by the door shouted, in a rare fit of volume. Verse, Lane, the dude beneath the blankets, and several others took up the call, chanting "MYS-TIC! MYS-TIC!" and intermittently throwing insults like "Valor sucks!" or "Red is the color that'll be spilling out of you when we finish you!"
"VALOOOOOOORR!" the Valorians roared back. The classroom deteriorated into a mass shouting match, with Julius, Tinker, and the sparkly guy just staring at the mess. While Julius shook his head in disappointment and Tinker looked on incredulously, the sparkly guy chimed in, "Well, how about Team Instinct?"
The shouting paused. Both sides considered.
"Instinct is okay. I have no quarrels with Instinct—"
"Instinct's memes are great. I have respect for Spark, to be honest."
"—but Mystic sucks," the brunet argued. "Mystic is a bunch of WEAK blue-blooded lizards."
"Glad you're part of Team Mystic then, Cipher," a towering male with dark-hair said, smiling slightly. His oddly young features contrasted sharply with his height, but no one was paying attention to that. The quiet jibe was far more noticeable than mere matters of tallness.
Despite being approximately half a foot shorter than the other male, Cipher started. "Puny nerd—" Unfortunately, he was interrupted by another voice. The voice of the blanket guy.
"Come at me," he challenged, then subsequently sneezed. Several people looked at him in pity before ignoring him completely. A moment of silence ensued, like the calm before a storm. Then, simultaneous shouts of "VALOOOOORR!" and "MYSTICCCCCC!" reignited the fight. The noise grew to a crescendo, almost destroying everyone's eardrums before an irrationally loud clap paused them.
"Okay, okay. We get it. Pokemon Go is a disease, now please, back to the topic..." As the crowd slowly dropped back into their chairs, Tinker rubbed his temple wearily. "Umm, where were we again?"
Pulling out a yellow legal pad, Verse cheerfully twirled a pencil around, having seemingly forgotten the fight in a matter of seconds. "We were at a twenty-seven to four vote in favor of discussing the new game, and Rose wanted to know how the avatarLinker worked, but Lavender seemed to have resolved that for her, right?" The blonde pair nodded in unison.
"Shall we begin discussing the rules, then?" Tinker said in a cheerful tone.
"Oh, I printed out twenty copies of them, if anyone doesn't remember or… didn't read them," Verse said in a tone that promised hell to anyone who admitted to that blasphemous mistake. When no one confessed to the the latter, Verse smiled serenely and began handing out the copies.
"I've been curious about rule number 8, to be honest. The 'thou shalt not commit physical harm' one? What sort of filter would preserve anonymity to that extent?" the ponytailed girl sitting by the door said.
"Probably the same filter that conceals our identities behind an avatar with a simple metal arc. I mean, if the teachers have this sort of technology, who knows what else they have access to?"
"Actually, I asked one of the teachers. Apparently the avatar is just a simple light projection made possible by water vapor and the diffusion of light. It's really only a couple of algorithms solved to calculate for the refraction of water droplets. It's basically a projection on water, with compensation for the color. I checked it out already, and it's really nothing fancy, Alice," Lane interjected.
"Wait, you know the teachers who are hosting it?"
"Yeah, when my English teacher emailed me with corrections for my essay, she included a note at the end saying, 'Regarding your last essay, Gatsby was not in the mafia. However, speaking generally, some do feel as if people in life are out to get them. Just remember that life isn't a game, so feel free to ask me questions anytime.' The funny thing was that our last essay was about Hamlet, not the Great Gatsby, so I assumed she was making a reference to the mafia game and asked her covertly about rule #8."
"I see. Did you ask about anything else? Anything you'd like to share?" Cipher asked.
Lane gave him a look and said, "I asked about avatar creation. Did you know that you can customize your avatar? You can also make them androgynous. It's pretty cool. The best thing is that your avatar only shows to people in the game due to a detector for other avatarLinkers. Plus, the metal arc automatically censors another player's name if it's said. However, a few select individuals who didn't quite make the cut, but were close to being selected were also given Linkers. The Linker censors those names as well."
"Lane, who do you have for English? I think we should all be able to access equal resources, right? And that includes sources of information," said Rose, smiling apologetically. "I'd love to be able to ask the questions myself."
Frowning at Rose from his desk, Verse said disapprovingly, "You could just email the contact email the staff sent with the acceptance letter, you know. You don't need to know who Lane's English teacher is to ask questions. That's why they made a contact email in the first place—"
"Verse, you just gave yourself away," hissed Lane just loud enough for the blond boy to hear, "I thought we were keeping our acceptance quiet?"
Continuing on as if he had heard nothing, Verse proceeded with his lecture. "Didn't you read the email? Or did you think that because you had seen the rules already, you wouldn't need to read it again? If you had reviewed it, you would have seen the contact email, and the added rules."
"Hey, I was going to read the rest of the email, but I got it at 3 AM and was legit super duper tired, okay? Sorry for not reading the rules again, I didn't realize that you were so offended by it," Rose apologized, holding her hands out in the universal placating gesture.
"Yeah, it's fine," Verse mumbled, still slightly miffed.
"Well, then, does anyone have any questions? We could compile a list of them and send them to the staff, so they can answer them in one fell swoop, instead of having to answer the same question ten times. I'm sure we're all curious about the mechanics of the game." Just like that, Tinker had control of the discussion again.
The class delved into chatter about the game and by the end of lunch, they had compiled a list of seven major questions they wanted to ask. When the first bell chimed, the Mafia community rose together and began packing up, closing the windows and moving the desks and chairs back where they belonged. After all, despite their many differences in personality, they were all two things: a Serenes' Hope Academy student and a Mafia player.
~x~
Long after school had ended, a shady figure traveled by the light of the setting sun, maneuvering their way quietly to classroom 2-A. The figure observed the surroundings, then allowed themself a small smile. Taking a chair and setting it next to the storage locker in the back of the room, the figure climbed onto the chair and picked up a recording device lying haphazardly on top of the cabinet. Pressing the button painted with the black square, another smile spread across the figure's face. They slipped the device into their pocket, replaced the chair in its proper place, and walked out of the room. The figure strolled casually down the hallway to the stairs, attempting to make it out of the school without being seen. Unfortunately, another person was at the bottom of the stairs, so the figure took their hand out of their pocket and waved a greeting in an attempt to seem natural. As they got closer, the figure recognized him as Leo Cosmos, a member of the student council. It seemed that Leo was performing a routine checkup of the school's cleanliness, a duty all student council members did every week, with a different person assigned to each day, including Saturdays and Sundays. Though he looked a bit skeptical, Leo didn't question the figure, and merely nodded to them and walked past them to get to the second floor. Mentally sighing in relief, they got out of the school as quickly as they could and walked rapidly to the dorms. Only in the safety of the room, with the door locked securely behind them did the figure reach into their pocket and realize. The recording device wasn't there. Icy blue eyes flared in frustration.
"Goddammit!"