vivarium | CALHOUN HOUR

At the crack of dawn, presumably, Calhoun gathers everyone in the first floor warehouse to make an announcement.

"That's right, it's time for another of my special events!" He seems pretty pleased with himself. "I noticed you lazy, fat test subjects really let yourselves go last round! It's like I don't feed you here or something."

"Well, I'm worried about your health, always lazing about and not getting proper exercise. So, I decided to be the change I want to see in the world, and so we're going to do something a littttttttllllllle different this time."

"To stop you guys from getting soft from all the fun you're having here, it's time for a little workout."

From one of the doors Calhoun never lets anyone go through there's a loud, metallic banging sound repeating, as if something is trying to get out. Calhoun does not seem troubled at all by this. In fact, he seems pretty excited.

"The rules are simple, everyone's getting sixty coins to use as they see fit. You'll notice the vending machines on both warehouse floors. Anyone who isn't caught will even get a memory back." But what does that mean?

"So go on, survive for 23 hours, I'll even give you a five minute head start. Good luck!"

And with that he scurries off. Should people hang around they'll get to witness that same door open five minutes later. From the door comes several figures, human in shape but something is very, very wrong.

They seem to be robotic, skeletal humans. At one point they must have had some synthetic skin over them but most of it seems to be melting or ripped off. They don't move very fast, mostly they shamble about until they focus on a target. Better hope it's not you!

BASIC INFO ✖ FIRST TEN HOURS ✖ LAST HOURS ✖ POST EVENT MINGLE

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jake kind of figured that punching robots weren't such a great idea after doing it the first time, so hello, he was here trying to figure up a game plan when Heiji arrived. Hm, Heiji was pretty bright, so he probably had a good idea in mind.

"Yeah? Better be a way to get rid of those robots," he said in a hushed tone. Lead the way, Jake will follow.

Heiji grinned -- now they were talking! He headed off in the direction of the Incinerator Room, taking care to move as quickly and quietly as possible.

"You remember those incinerators, don't you? I still remember how them valves work. Whattaya think would happen if we stuffed one of those robots in there?" That was kind of a rhetorical question; he really wanted to torch one of those robots okay.

Heiji had already ditched his new outfit and stashed it away in favor of the old, worn stuff he'd been wearing when he came in; now he reached into his pocket and slipped on a pair of the thermal gloves he'd stolen from the room earlier on.

Oho, the Incinerator Room. Jake didn't exactly have super fond memories of this place, considering how the air was here and all, but the idea of using these incinerators to their advantage?

"Why don't we try it and find out? Shouldn't take too much to throw one in, so get the fire ready." He was going to check to see if he can grab a pair of thermal gloves as well, and put away the new gloves he was given in his second outfit. He didn't get the chance to change, but he liked his new new outfit better for this kind of stuff: easier to move in and shove robots into incinerators. Plus, that jacket of his would have killed him from the heat.

~~Nice suspenders, dweeb~~

Heiji grabbed the handles from their hiding places and set to work activating the cooling system. He apparently really did remember how exactly how to solve the valve puzzle; it barely took him any time to get the system set up. "Okay, we're ready to go. Only thing is..."

And now he was going to dig through one of the trash piles, looking for something. "Them things like rotten meat, right? I remember there was a bunch in here last time. We shouldn't waste coins on stuff like that if we can find it for free."

~~You're just jealous you don't have any~~.

Jake already had his new thermal gloves on and ready to go, so it was good to see that Heiji already got everything set up. He got to work by picking up a trash bag, ripping it open to look inside, then repeating with others.

"Yeah, so empty a bag or two, and fill it with rotten meat. Easy enough to make a trail and lure a few in, or distract it." Though ha, distractions, Jake didn't need that to fuck up a robot.

~~Just waiting for Clive to come over and snap them~~

This shit was gross, but at least he wasn't handling skull fragments left over from one of his friends this time, so there was that. It wasn't long before Heiji had a reasonable collection of rotten meat, and as long as they played things --

He heard metallic footsteps outside the room.

Oh. Well, maybe they were drawn to this area even without a rotten meat trail. Heiji quietly picked up a shovel, then pressed himself up against the wall, right next to the doorway. He motioned for Jake to get ready.

Snap his suspenders and he'll snap your neck

Jake was halfway through one trash bag when he also looked up at the sound of footsteps. Looks like they were going to get through this a lot sooner than he thought, but he nodded at Heiji and got up. He didn't need to grab something like a weapon, he was kind of too cocky and self-confident in his strength to take it on without it, but he still stood on the other side of the doorway.

All right, time to make some noise and attract it in.

"Hey, asshole, over here!" He yelled, hitting the closed door with a fist, creating a loud thump. With this, it took no time to hear the footsteps stop and for them to suddenly quicken in pace, as if it walked halfway down the hall and then turned to the source. Not a second later, the door slid open and a decaying robot rushed in, taking a step into the room. Go for it, Heiji, stun that fucker.

Heiji had maybe half a second to decide where he wanted to hit the robot, so when he saw a section of exposed wire right on the side of its neck, he went for it. With a short kiai, he whipped the shovel into a sideways slice, severing a bunch of the wires with the blade of the shovel.

The tool pulled free, and the robot reached for him -- only now its left side wasn't really working too well. Heiji leapt backwards and it started to shamble towards him, albeit sort of pulling awkwardly to the right now.

Jake took this moment to get behind the robot and grab it by its sides, taking care of avoiding any exposed parts. With that, he took a deep breath and lifted it, using his weight to his advantage to throw it sideways over the platform's railings and onto the ground with one big yell. With that, it stayed on the ground, twitching and trying to figure out how to get up (and kill you both).

He panted, letting out huffs as he rubbed the upperside of his hand under his chin, to get rid of any sweat. That definitely took a good chunk of his energy, considering how heavy these robots are and already being injured (owowow, his side, he hopes it didn't reopen), but he just nudged his head to knocked down machine on the ground. "Think you can lift it up?" Toss it in the incinerator before it got back to destroying shit.

"Let's hope so!" Heiji grabbed the robot, careful to avoid any exposed areas. He wasn't super ripped or anything, but he did have some crazy upper body strength. He heaved the robot's front half up and luckily the incinerator's door was plenty wide enough to start shoving it in.

Once the first part was through, the rest followed fairly easily (fairly because it was still heavy as shit). With one last shove, he closed the incinerator door and activated it. The furnace came alive in a blaze of light and heat; Heiji backed away from the glow.

Inside, the robot flailed and beat against the walls of its prison, but not for long -- the intense heat was melting all that delicate circuitry inside. Its outstretched arm slowly slackened and dropped.

Jake made his way down the stairs and towards the incinerator to watch it trash around. There was a sense of satisfaction watching it die after all the shit it (or the others) put him through. He couldn't help but be smug about it.

"Guess we can add robot-burning to our resumes now," he smirked while rubbing sweat off his brow. In other words, HE'S PROUD OF YOU, HEIJI. You're cooler than you look. You'd be a good merc.

"Yeah, guess -- "

Just as the robot's struggles seemed almost over, it banged hard on the side of the incinerator door with one creepy, skeletal metal fist. Then nothing.

Fuck robots, man.

From outside the incinerator room came the sounds of heavy, nonhuman steps approaching. More of the robot's friends?

"...we should get outta here," said Heiji.

CALHOUN HOUR - SURVIVOR

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