vivarium | CALHOUN HOUR

It has been two and a half days since the end of the virus takeover. The power, lights, and heating has been turned back on. All the newer areas have been sealed, BP is once again required in certain rooms, and it appears that everything is returning back to normal.

Asides from Calhoun.

Whether characters have chosen to give pieces of Calhoun to Zero, to hold onto them, or to destroy them, it does not matter. There has been no indications as to when he would ever be back, so there has been a robotic mouse void within the warehouse. Zero has refused to leave any information as to the status of rebuilding Calhoun, but they have left this one message for everyone shortly after the power restoration:

"While you may be left alone to your devices, do not trick yourselves into thinking that there is a way out of here, or that you can do as you please. I will always be watching."

It has been two days since Zero has left these parting words before entirely disappearing. When attempting to call for them, everyone will only be responded with silence. It's clear that they're still watching over the facility though, as any kind of rule breaking or suspicious activities would automatically be rewarded with an injection of Soporil β. True to their word, Zero is somehow monitoring the behaviors without saying a single word.

It is not until the morning of Day 72 does everyone hear again from them again, through the speakers throughout the warehouse.

"Good morning, Subjects. Today, you will be partaking in another experiment of mine. It has come to my knowledge that my assistant has been throwing these so-called "Calhoun Hours" every three days to keep everyone stimulated between his rooms. Don't assume that I will do anything similar of the sort. This activity has far more care and thought put into it than this camping nonsense, so let us begin."

"The rules are simple: every test subject will be paired up and placed against each other. The collective will then have to vote for one of the pair. The one with the fewest amount of votes will be subjective to a punishment of my choice. The one with the most amount of votes will continue their dull experimental lives until the next set of events."

"Any petty attempts of rebellion will be met with serious repercussions, so I would suggest that you rethink any sort of plans."

"Now, best of luck, Subjects. We will talk again soon."

BASIC INFO ✖ MINGLE ✖ VOTES ✖ RESULTS

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Heiji sat down across from Jake~~, watching in disbelief as he ate his pizza and didn't share it with Alfendi at all, wow~~.

"Hey, Jake? What do you want me to do for your pair?"

~~Jake will gladly share it with the comatose Alfendi, shove it down his throat.~~

"You seriously gotta ask?" He said while not even looking up from his delicious and nutritious meal.

~~do it do it, he'll wake up strangely refreshed~~

"Well, I'm going around askin' people in general. You sayin' you want to be the exception?" Wow, Jake, how forward. "I figure if it's Hershel, you'd want me to vote for him. And if it's Alfendi, that guy can't take much more before he just keels over for good. But if you got anything in particular you want me to do, then tell me about it."

~~Jake was way too good to Alfendi: carrying him around, bandaging him up, sharing pizza.~~

"An exception would be nice. It's make me feel special." Hahaha. "Asides from you and Snake, you're probably better off voting for me. You can do whatever you want if it comes down to us, or me and Snake."

He wasn't trying to be all heroic or shit. He was still self-centred but he actually cared about Hershel and Ema, so he wouldn't want them to lose. With Alfendi and Clive, they were injured so it would be a pretty jackass move to have him placed over them (and your image was pretty important in this game of trust...). Then with Sasuke, he suspected he was the youngest of the group and, well, he felt like he owed him something for being a good sport about his whole PTSD nonsense in the Grey Room so that was something. With Snake, they weren't particularly close or anything, since they didn't really talk, and with Heiji, he figured Heiji could handle whatever punishment Zero sent his way.

~~redhead wavelength????~~

"Yeah? Maybe I'll get one of them gold stars from the store for ya... whenever that's open again." Wow, Jake, look how far you've come, so self-sacrificing. Sort of.

"...Okay. I guess half of us are injured already, anyway, so that kinda makes the choice a little easier. And I figure you know what you're gettin' yourself into." Heiji rubbed at the back of his neck, not looking too pleased about the situation, regardless of what he said.

"Clive asked me to protect the other half of his pair. 'Even if I'm paired with Jake', he said, so I guess ya are a special case, after all." There you go, Jake. He thought you should know that much at least.

"Yeah? Aren't his knees all busted up?" As far as what he probably saw real quickly of the idiot. They didn't really talk but there weren't a lot of people in this warehouse anyway so it was easy to keep up with everyone else.

Heiji nodded. "He can't walk right now. I think... he doesn't want to weigh anyone down. He said something like that to me before, before the camping stuff happened. Told me to leave him behind if he ended up being a burden."

If he had any gruel at the moment, he'd be poking at it. MAYBE HE COULD POKE JAKE'S. "I guess I can kinda understand his reasoning. Seems a little early to be throwin' in the towel to me, though."

DON'T YOU DARE POKE HIS GRUEL god, keep your dirty hands to yourself.

"He's asking for trouble if this 'punishment' turns out physical. Heroic sacrifices aren't going to do you anything but get yourself killed." Figure that Jake wasn't too big on that stuff. "We'll see if anything actually happens though." He kind of had a hard time imagining that people wouldn't vote for Clive after his knees are all busted.

Get serious, Jake. You think you own that gruel? You think anyone owns it? Man is an ephemeral creature by nature, who knew when his gruel would be poked. I like how we're really running with this gruel thing even though there's other food probably.

"Yeah, I guess." He looked up at Jake. "That's why they call 'em sacrifices, though, innit?" Jake, you must hate the movies...

Let's be real here, gruel was probably the best thing around here. After Original Green Team found a human head in the freezers behind the cafeteria, eating anything but gruel seemed to be a good idea.

"Yeah, but you can call it a suicide mission as well." Jake, the super optimistic...

God why didn't anyone tell Heiji about the totally awesome human head in the freezer, I mean the terrible, tragic head in the freezer. Maybe the robot that he and Sasuke trapped in there was at this very moment reenacting that one scene from Hamlet with it. THINK ABOUT IT.

Heiji crossed his arms and leaned back a bit in his seat. "...Hey, is there anyone you'd risk your life for?"

Alas, poor human head! I knew him, Zero; a fellow of infinite experiments, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gripping now? Your BP? Your whining? Your flashes of suffering, that were wont to set the table on a roar?

Jake stopped eating and looked up cautiously. "What kind of question is that?" And why did he want to know?

God, Jake, it's called conversation. Heiji just sort of looked at him, puzzled. What sort of question was it? A... question question?

"You're always talkin' like you think it's a bad idea to stick your neck out for other people, right? But you do it anyway, once in a while. I guess I just wanted to know more about ya."

CALHOUN HOUR - CHOICE

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