The Chambers MMBC is a Murder Mystery Bachelor Challenge - is, in fact, the first of its kind, at least under that banner. Run by socialjusticesimblr, it can be read from the beginning here
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Max Chambers has been quite unlucky in love for some time, flitting from partner to partner through (mostly) no fault of his own. A cold streak like this can only last for so long, and eventually he decides to go for the last resort of any eligible bachelor: hosting a bachelor challenge thereof! Unfortunately, one of the people who enters for him turns out to have a more potent fatal flaw than most, namely being willing to kill to win the day... or influenced into killing to win the day, depending on who you ask. To persevere and find love despite it all, Max, his best friend Dublin Hartell, and the percent of contestants who remain innocent must keep their wits up, their hearts closed, and their eyes very open indeed.
Deaths and Survivors (spoilers)
- Clarisse Prevot - fire
- Emmy Gnubb - starvation
- June Dandelion - drowning
- Ollie Pond - electrocution
- Gregory Chiltington - eaten by cowplant
- Alexis Grovesnor - toxic jellybean
- Dublin Hartell - head trauma
- Junior Mc Cabe - falsely flagged for ranting about Death
- Nevaeh Lynx - adverse reaction to botched aging elixir
- Charley Flynn - being shoved off the roof
- Harrison Borders - stabbed in the stomach
- Charlie Fuentes, murderer
- Annie Kayse, winner
This MMBC provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: According to production notes, the random person that cold-called Charlie in Episode 5 was meant to be connected to one of his old victims, and make more appearances within the story; however, her presence was forgotten as the author got "more entrenched in his motivation".
- Artistic License – Engineering: the time-delayed electromagnetic bomb in Episode Eight.
- Asshole Victim: Downplayed with Junior Mc Cabe. He is mean-spirited, and frequently misgenders Charlie Fuentes, but it's hard to determine what is just part of his usual temperament and what is exacerbated by the stressful death-filled circumstances.
- The Butler Did It: Averted with Gregory Chiltington.
- Callback: Just before Dublin enters the picture, Max calls him asking to talk, saying "I need to hear your voice". Episode 15 has him repeat the need to Dub's grave.
- Character Overlap: Max Chambers is an original character made for the Die Anstalt fandom, and Dublin Hartell a humanization of a canon character from the same. This makes sense if you keep in mind that
the author also did A Posse Ad Esse. - Cross-Referenced Titles: All even-numbered episodes (bar the twentieth) use lyrics from ABBA's Lay All Your Love On Me; all odd-numbered episodes (bar the first) use lyrics from Emilie Autumn's Time for Tea.
- Death by Falling Over: Variant. Dub's head is smashed into the wall, and the killing is deliberate, but it's just as swift.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The writing/publishing style is very off-the-cuff and improvisational compared to its modern counterparts; hence, events like the retconned drowning of Max in Episode 6. There is also a much greater emphasis on physical evidence as opposed to simply contradicting alibis.
- Eyed Screen: In Episode 20, before the murderer reveal.
- Fair Cop: Hello, Alexis~ She blends this with Spicy Latina.
- Funny Foreigner: Annie Kayse, and to a lesser extent Nevaeh Lynx. Annie in particular has a running quirk about putting 'cafe' into sentences where it makes no sense in context.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Max and Dub.
- Interactive Narrator: Rep, who serves as camera-person, event organizer and mastermind behind the murder. Can overlap with Lemony Narrator depending on how involved it wants to get.
- I See Dead People: Inverted - everyone can see and communicate with the ghosts of the victims except Max. Dialogue from Emmy suggests, and future such projects confirm, that Max is among a handful of anomalies in this regard.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: A platonic example. While Dub and Max are best friends rather than a couple, the murderer gets quite jealous of their extended interactions together...
- Non-Specifically Foreign: Annie Kayse again."I know you’re French - or Russian, or Swedish - it’s a little tough to tell, and you’ve never been very specific?"
- Not the Fall That Kills You…
- One-Steve Limit - averted, albeit with spelling differences: Charlie Fuentes and Charley Flynn.
- Taking the Bullet: Max for Annie in the finale. He doesn't die, but he does have the bullet stuck in his shoulder from then onwards.
- Trans Tribulations: Discussed. Max expresses particular fear for Charlie early on, noting that his being a Hispanic trans man makes him an easier target. Charlie dismisses this, noting that he hasn't lived as long as he has without developing ways of defending himself. Considering that he himself is the murderer of the piece, and it's implied that he's killed before using that justification, he's not lying.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Clarisse Prevot.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Charlie deliberately falls off the roof himself after pushing Charley off, in order to break his arm and make it look like he was a potential victim of the same case. Few bought it.
