vivarium | CALHOUN HOUR

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CALHOUN HOUR - SURVIVOR

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

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"I'm almost done with this one!" said Heiji. He glanced back at the robot, and noticed something strange about it: for whatever reason, every time it meandered into an area just under one of the theater lights, it began to jitter and shudder worse than before.

He severed the rope with one final effort, then dragged it up to the stage... but not before changing the backdrop to one of a peaceful-looking hut. "Ready on this end! Listen, Hershel, do me a favor. When I tell ya, hit the stage lights!"

Hershel noticed that too, glancing up at the lights then back at the robot. Interesting. He probably got a similar idea when Heiji called to him and he smiled over.

"Got it!" Smart boy, Heiji. He hurried over to the stage lights, ready for Heiji's word.

The robot jittered up onto the stage after Heiji, who tossed a bunch of the tangled rope on the floor after him. It moved with surprising speed considering how damaged it seemed to be, but luckily it seemed to be focusing entirely on its quarry rather than on its surroundings.

"One... two... and hit it!"

Hershel immediately flipped the switch, turning to see if this would actually work. It did, in a way, the flash of lights seemed to disrupt the robot's sensors or something scientific Hershel didn't quite understand, and it began to jerk.

Actually, it almost looked like it was trying to do a weird, short dance as it's limbs moved this way and that, obviously trying process whatever mixed up data it got from the flash. One might even say it looked like it was trying to do the robot, which was ridiculous and Hershel refused to make that joke, thank you, he had standards. Hershel hurried over to Heiji though, ready to help get plan Robot Pinata Extreme into action.

Heiji took advantage of the robot's confusion to run a few quick circles around it, tying it tight around the robot's limbs. "I snagged it! Haul it up before it figures out what happened!"

This was going to be some slapstick shit right here.

This is the most slapstick ~~and the latest shit holy hell I'm sorry~~ and it only just begun. Hershel nodded, determined as he took the end of the rope and glanced around. The railing, all right, this would work.

He ran, jumping the railing and falling down, which in turn brought the robot sailing up. Of course the thing was the robot was heavy as hell and almost immediately it went sailing back down, hitting the ground with a loud, painful sounding crack. Yeah, it was probably out of commission now, and if it wasn't it was hardly going to be a huge threat with it's damage. Hopefully.

"Whoa-" Was all Hershel managed as he fell ceremoniously on his ass when the rope jerked out of his grip. He kind of just stayed on the floor a moment, hoping the robot wouldn't suddenly appearing to stubbornly continue it's reign of terror.

The robot creaked and groaned, raising its right hand up slowly, kind of like that one scene where they lowered the Terminator into the lava and all that was left was Arnold Schwartzenegger's robot hand. Then it shuddered to a stop.

Heiji stood over it, nudging it a little with his shoe. "Well, guess that's tha -- "

A clanking noise came from outside the theater.

Oh...

Hershel lifted himself up to watch the robot's last moments. "... that was a touch depressing." Served the robot right anyway, that hurt you metal jerk.

He was about to climb back over when he also heard the clanking, stopping dead.

"... you've got to be kidding me." Well, you did make a lot of noise murdering a flipping robot, teenagers.

Heiji pushed Hershel toward the balcony stairs. "C'mon, let's hide upstairs! Maybe they'll get distracted by the dead one!"

They were robot murderers, fleeing the scene!

Hershel hurried up the stairs, stopping only to make sure Heiji was with him. At least it looked like they weren't seen by the robots- yes robots, two of them, life is never easy- entering the room. He ducked behind the railing of the balcony, watching the robots clank and clang their way around.

"If they notice us we're in real trouble." He whispered, because there wasn't a really safe way to get out of here without probably broken bones or the robots catching on fast. He glanced over to Heiji. "Any ideas? We could try waiting them out, hope they don't see us or investigate."

"We still got the curtain," Heiji whispered as the robots made their way to their fallen comrade (whose hand was still sticking dramatically up in the air I'll be bahhhck).

"We could bring it down on 'em and tie them up while they can't see. That'd work, right?"

"I think so- if we miss we'll be in a lot of trouble though." Hershel considered for a moment before looking at Heiji with a smile. "I guess sometimes you have to take risks, it'll be worth it if we can get two of them out of commission for the others." Besides, they were team teen detectives clearly nothing could go wrong?

He started sneaking very carefully closer to the curtains, glancing down to see the robots apparently just staring at their fallen, dramatic brother. Were they going to drag it away? Did robots have funeral rites? Just more important questions that had to be asked. He doubted they cared since one seemed to be kicking the fallen robot as though it would spark him back to life or something.

"Yeah, it'll definitely be tricky," whispered Heiji. "Plus, the rope for the curtain's on the other side of the theater. If we want to use it, one of us is going to have to sneak over there to bring the curtain down. Well, right now it looks like those robots are distracted, but..."

He frowned at the robots, trying to judge the distance he'd have to run to the curtain ropes. "I think I can do it, if I use the backdrop for cover. Maybe you can confuse 'em a little using the stage lights?"

"I think I can." Hershel nodded as he glanced over to the lights in question. Hopefully the robots hated them universally, otherwise they'd be in a bit of trouble.

When weren't they in a bit of trouble though. "Let's give it a try- listen, Heiji, if this doesn't work I'll be closer to the exits so I'll try to lead them out, okay? Just keep your head down, they probably won't notice you." Such faith in their plan.

Heiji nodded. "Okay. Let's stay sharp and get those robots!"

He crept down the stairs, hiding behind the backdrop as much as he could. Onstage, the fallen robot's head popped off. One of its friends picked it up, stared at it, then held it out as if to say alas, poor Yorick!

Heiji snuck down to the other side of the theater and began to cut at the ropes...

These robots are god damn clowns. Hershel snuck over to the lights, too determined to feel utterly ridiculous like he normally would. He reached the lights just as the other robot started poking the disembodied head in the eye because apparently they had nothing better to do.

Hershel stepped behind the lights, waiting a moment before flashing one of the lights right in the robot's faces, making them both drop the poor head and start jerking a bit. Apparently their sensors really didn't like the lights, but they were quickly adapting, and he tried flashing the light on and off a bit to slow that down.

Meanwhile, Heiji was sawing away at the curtain rope in determined fashion. He was three-quarters of the way there before one of the robots, apparently sick of being at an impromptu techno party, spotted him. It leapt off the stage, bowling into theater seats and actually ripping some of them up on its way towards him.

Why didn't it neatly move down a row and chase him using an aisle? Because ROBOTS, that's why. Heiji abandoned the curtain rope and ran down to the right side of the theater, with the robot close behind him. The rope was hanging by a thread now, and he could see that it would probably take less than a minute for the weight of the cloth to snap through the last of it. The only problem was maneuvering the robots so that they were actually in a position to get caught under the cloth in the first place.

He grabbed the science textbooks out of the prop box and hurled them at the pursuing robot before dashing up to the stage.

Well shit, Heiji was spotted, and the other robot was focused on him, trying to get off the stage. That wouldn't do.

Hershel sighed but dashed over, getting up to the stage in hopes of keeping the other robot in the area they needed it in for this to work. He didn't really have much besides haha, shinai, so he pulled it out, trying to smack the robot back as it lunged.

"Are you alright, Heiji?" He called, trying to stay away from the curtain. When it dropped maybe he could just dash off the stage in a dramatic jump, that was adventurous.

Heiji charged up to the stage alongside Hershel, pressing his back up against his friend's to cover him from the robot coming up the stage steps. The curtain rope gave a promising twang as one of its last threads snapped.

"When they get up here, let's jump outta the way!" he said in a low voice. They just needed to hold off the robots for a few seconds.

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CALHOUN HOUR - SURVIVOR

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