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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Hershel had made a wise choice that day. Kuzuryuu was gonna have none of that, injuries or no injuries. No doubt that they still hurt, and there was a good chance he was at least going to rip the one on his torso open by doing this but whatever, he was fine.

He pulled himself up onto the first branches with the ease of someone that must have done this many times before. Not waiting for Hershel like a jerk, wow, he continued to climb up onto the next set of branches. Despite the situation it seemed like it was kind of enjoying himself.

Man what an uncouth shit, not waiting for his buddy, Hershel. Hershel was too busy being privately amused to care, he hadn't expected Kuzu to be so good at climbing a tree. Maybe it was the suit, he didn't seem like the type who knew how. I made a note to maybe bug him about doing so again when things weren't as awful and climbed up higher as well.

He sighed once he got a decent height, going too high probably wouldn't be a great plan at this point, incase they needed to make a hasty getaway. It was surprisingly comfortable, at least. "I wonder if Calhoun made these robots just for this or if they really are just malfunctioning models." Both answers were kind of disturbing.

Once Kuzuryuu reached the higher levels, he sat down properly on one of the branches. His expression was rather satisfied, even though they didn't really know whether or not they'd we going to be successful with what they'd come up there to accomplish.

"What were those things used for if they're just malfunctioning? Can't just be maintenance or something simple like that. You wouldn't need to make them look like how they look. They could've used more generic looking ones. With wheels or something."

"I don't know, maybe they used to set up the puzzle rooms?" Hershel took a guess, swinging his feet a bit as he thought it over. "They must have had some sort of synthetic skin to disguise them at some point, it's a little frightening to think they may have really looked human, once."

Hopefully no secret robots in this murder game, that'd be some weird shit.

"So... are you saying they needed to look human once to set up puzzle rooms?" Kuzuryuu questioned, wondering about the implication of such a thing. "Were other people around watching them?" Kind of a silly thing to think but.... what else could it be?

"Kinda reminds me of something Hattori was talking about a while ago. How this place might've been used for medical purposes, since apparently parts of it still are." Which is where the subjects seemed to go if they got sick. "Maybe those robots were... nurses or something. They couldn't catch diseases like people could."

"That's a good point, well... some of the puzzle rooms have a strange narrative, papers and such. Did you get to go into the Music Room? There were a lot of transcripts of recordings and such hidden around the room, like Calhoun and Zero were trying to make a point. The Confinement Room had some things like that too, so did the Infirmary."

Hershel frowned, steadying himself against one of the branches. "I wonder if maybe they were more than nurses, then. Maybe they were guards for whatever was going on here, assuming something was going on before we got here."

"No, I haven't been to any of those places," Kuzuryuu replied. He hadn't even heard of them before, never having been able to solve the puzzles within them. "What'd these transcripts say?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. Kinda scary to think about, though. Who the fuck would want something like that around, even if they looked human?"

"It's hard to explain, I suppose it was a conversation between two people. It seemed like one ended up killing the other." How pleasant. Hershel looked thoughtful after a beat. "You know, we could go and you could see for yourself. This might be the only chance for you to see some of the rooms."

"Maybe the kind of person or people who kidnap others." He said a touch dryly, fuck Zero though. "I agree though, they're a bit... disturbing. Maybe they weren't as bad before."

That'd definitely caught Kuzuryuu's interest. "Sure, I'd like that. Might as well take the chance to explore while I can. This place is normally boring as shit." Excluding Calhoun hours and puzzle rooms, of course.

And with that he moved to get down from the tree, once again not waiting for Hershel like the true prince he was.

Prince Charming. Hershel followed after, glancing around as he landed clumsily. No robots. "There's a few places you might want to see then, it may be your only chance. The first floor puzzle rooms- we can stop by those, if you'd like."

And he headed to the door, glancing around again before nodding that the coast was clear. To the Music Room!

"Alright, lead the way, then," Kuzuryuu said, following Hershel to the door.

He had no idea where he was going since, well, he'd never gone to these rooms before. In all likelihood he'd have gotten lost if he hadn't had a guide, really.

Sneaking and shit, no robots were ruining this adventure. After some time there was the Music Room in all it's glory. It was actually really nice, even clean, with a big piano and fresh flowers and all that jazz. Hershel took a moment to wonder why on earth they kept refreshing the flowers for a room that should be done but decided not to question it. He was sure he didn't want to know.

"They were in these cabinets, let me see if I remember the puzzles..." He said, heading to the left cabinet. Take a look around, Kuzu.

"This is... actually pretty nice," Kuzuryuu said, running his hand over the grand piano. It was a little mysterious why the room was so nice, in fact, when compared to the rest of the rooms he'd seen.

He moved over to the remaining comfortable sofa. Honestly, it was unbelievable that anyone had the audacity to steal a fucking sofa in the first place. "Y'know, this wouldn't even be a bad place to hang out if it was open all the time. Especially if anyone knows how to play these instruments."

"It is, comparatively, but-" Hershel glanced at the piano with a sigh. "Well, there's a human arm in the piano. That was an extremely unpleasant surprise."

At least the rest of it was clean. "You know you should try the piano, maybe you know how to play it." Kuzuryuu, concert pianist.

He opened one cabinet, collecting the notes before going to another and doing the same, then the last. When he had all the notes collected he walked over, holding them out to Kuzuryuu. "Here they are."

And they read as the following:

TRANSCRIPTION OF LO    , AUG

53: -if we only just-

4A: There's no point and you know it! I can't         , don't ask me.

53: You know they're wrong! We're      than           ! Didn't this mean anything? Tell me               nothing.

4A: ... It doesn't. Still-

53: Then      ,

4A: It's           . I'm sorry.

[Audio                    ]

--

TRANSCRIPTION OF LO    , AUG

4A: What do I- What can I-

[several minutes of silence]

4A: I'm sorry,     , I'm so-

[off camera racket]

4A: I have to hide the     , I can't let it         Not like this.

4A: You'd appreciate this, right? Wouldn't you?

--

TRANSCRIPTION OF LO    , JUNE

4A: Come on now, you're kidding.

53: Would I lie?      and        are ridiculous like that, I'm telling you.

4A: I wouldn't put it past them- say, play that again?

53: I'm surprised you like this              of all things.

4A: Shut it       , even         can enjoy a nice melody.

53: Right,              it is.

Edited 2014-10-25 16:01 (UTC)

"Ha, are you serious?" For talking about a severed human limb, Kuzuryuu's tone was far too casual. "Wonder what happened to the poor bastard this belonged to." He tapped the top of the piano. If only he had known whether or not it was a left hand; 'they're all right now' jokes could've been made.

Truly, a missed opportunity. He glanced over at the piano keys at Hershel's suggestion, giving them a few experimental taps in an attempt to make a melody. It is abundantly and immediately clear he has no idea how to play the piano.

"Nah, don't think that's one of my talents," Kuzuryuu said, in pretty good spirits despite that as he turned away from the thing to take the transcripts away from Hershel. He took a minute or so to read them over. By the time he'd finished he was frowning. "Were they... hiding the arm? That seems sort've weird."

Hershel was pretty amused at Kuzuryuu's show of music fervor over there, what a regular virtuoso. "Next we'll have to try drawing, you never know, right?" He asked as he walked closer to the piano, glancing it over. For a moment he was kind of curious if he could play but nah, that's impossible, let's just focus on fun things like arms and shit.

His smile lessened some as he nodded. "The implication is... strange. Actually-" He glanced over to one of the end tables. On it was a picture of two people you couldn't really see the faces of, and he went to pick it up and bring it over to Kuzuryuu. "I think this is supposed to be them."

Kuzuryuu gave him a look. "Kinda have the feeling I'll be even worse at that," he said, before his expression softened to something more amused. "But, hey, drawing you'll be easy enough. Just a stick figure with a big puffy bush on top of it." Wow, incredibly rude.

But back to serious things. He looked at the picture, frowning. "It's hard to tell what they actually look like."

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