Mr. Smile's Happy Hour [M looking for F, Low Sci-Fi, Kinda Dark]

[TheVillain]

This mysterious snuff internet program somehow survives the efforts of any sort of law enforcement attempting to shut it down. Of course it's not on the official lists or searches but anyone who spends any real time on the dark web has seen the mysterious smiley faces, if they don't know what it means.

What's known for sure is that there's been 14 "seasons" of "Mr. Smile's Happy Hour", a sort of snuff game show where players complete challenges for their freedom. One would be forgiven for thinking at first they were watching an Urban Brawl knock-off, except that the deaths of players are not only common place but expected. An episode of Mr. Smile's Happy Hour may rarely be an actual hour but the host with the Smiley-Face Avatar "Mr. Smile" promises that someone will die every episode. In fact, he guarantees it. Previous seasons have ended because Mr. Smile decided to set off the cortex bomb in his player to punish them for not enough on-camera deaths.

The most horrifying part is that the "contestants" have always been, as far as anyone can tell, unwilling corporate wage-slaves that have been kidnapped just to be on the show. Seasons usually start with a lethal "Game" where a group of potential candidates, usually between 4 to 8 but there has been as many as 16 for the 10th season special, are forced play until there's only one survivor. The candidates usually don't have to kill each other directly, but that is often a consequence of "scoring a point" or breaking a rule. That survivor is then designated "The Smiler", and Mr. Smile says that if they survive 11 more "episodes" they win "fabulous cash and prizes", up to and including having the bombs removed from their heads. IF being the key word, Mr. Smile likes it when someone dies during the episode. Not necessarily the Smiler, or even as a consequence of the Smiler's actions - but during an episode someone has to die.

He says he'll remove the bomb and let them go if they survive the full season. Which, could be true - nobody knows. Because nobody's ever survived a full season of Mr. Smile's Happy Hour...



Hello! Had this idea floating around in my head for a bit and thought I'd get it out.

The setting is what I'm calling Early Cyberpunk, 20 minutes in the future where the technology we know and love from cyberpunk dystopias is present but still fairly rare. It can definitely go full Neuromancer/Shadowrun/Cyberpunk 2020 but that hasn't quite happened yet.

The basic premise is that MC was such a corporate wage-slave whose been kidnapped by an unknown psychopathic podcast producer known only as "Mr. Smile". Mr. Smile claims that he's put cameras, microphones, and a surprisingly large bomb in my character's head. The bomb is ticking down a 72 hour timer, but - for now at least - the timer will reset back to 72 hours every time he kills someone or fucks someone. Mr. Smile further claims that he'll remove the bomb if he gets enough footage to create an entire season of "Mr. Smile's Happy Hour", afterwords MC can go free.

Of course the problem with that is that Mr. Smile has been known to kill his "contestants" for not getting enough death on camera. In fact, so far there have been no survivors of "Mr. Smile's Happy Hour" at all.

Post if you're interested, we'll talk details.