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

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[He's got a comfortable perch up here, though it probably helps that he knows how to distribute his weight so he isn't in danger of falling off.]

It's probably more interesting to watch us running around like this than waiting for someone to stab another test subject. [Ugh...]

[Hershel really had to wonder why Sasuke seemed so comfortable in trees, of all things. Maybe he was imagining it...]

I suppose so. [Sigh, poor Sasuke, he had to harass him about this stabbing stuff but apparently he'd do that later so he lets it go for now.] If Calhoun is an AI what do you think will happen to him after we escape? It's not like you can really arrest artificial intelligence.

[Maybe it's the same reason he's so good with knives.....]

An AI? [That would be difficult to work with, wouldn't it...] If he really was, wouldn't we just need to delete him somehow?

[...

He is admittedly not a tech wiz, so that's about the best he can do here unfortunately.]

[He's a big game hunter who sits in trees and knifes his prey?? Nailed it.

Hershel wasn't much better so he just shrugs.] I suppose so, I can't say I know much about programming, let alone something as advanced as this. That's assuming he actually is one.

That's sad in a way, isn't it? If he is an AI he was programmed to do this, that's not an existence I can say I'd wish on anyone. [...] Then again he does seem quite gleeful about his job most of the time.

[Totally, yes.]

I'm not sure what else we could do... What if someone else found him and used him as a base for a similar system? [That's... definitely something you can do, isn't it??? How does programming work.]

[Grim, but a real worry. Hershel frowned as he spoke.] I suppose they could, and easily. I'm assuming it would at least take a lot of money to have the equipment necessary to do so, but...

I guess that could mean maybe Calhoun's programming could be changed to actually make him try to help rather that... well, this. [He smiled wryly.] Too bad I doubt any of us are programmers with that kind of ability. [If it was even possible, what is science.]

I'm only making guesses. I don't think I know anything about programming. [Nothing in particular is coming to mind, that's for sure.]

...It might be hard to delete him if none of us do, though. How do you delete a program that doesn't want to be deleted?

Not easily, I imagine. [Nothing ever was, in this place.]

What do you think of Calhoun, Sasuke? I suppose that's a bit of a vague question, but I've never heard your thoughts on the matter.

[That... is pretty vague, yeah. Well, to start with, he'll pull from the hypothetical Hershel just presented:]

...I think if he really is an AI, it's going to be a lot more difficult to do anything about Zero. Calhoun by himself could probably run the whole operation if that's the case.

[He may have even been programmed to run all of this solo. After all, how many times had they ever actually seen Zero?]

Sometimes it seems like he does, doesn't it? I still think- [That they should test the whole can Calhoun be in two places at once thing but. Yeah probably better not to say that outloud just in case. Soon.]

For all we know Zero could be offsite, the more I think about it the more I think his appearance in the elevator was just a video, he didn't seem very responsive otherwise.

...It also might explain how he's able to bring in new people whenever someone becomes sick. Unless he already has a large number of people captured, but... we should have noticed if we were unconscious for so long, shouldn't we?

[Stiff or atrophied muscles, that sort of thing. But if Calhoun was running the show, the true mastermind was free to drag people in from the outside.]

I imagine we would, we would at least feel weaker, wouldn't we? Paler, something. [He frowned.]

Then again, look at the technology here. I suppose we can't really assume anything.

I can't think of any other way to do it... Even if you freeze people, don't you have to drain their blood first?

[He feels like he heard that was a thing. And if that were the case, it would practically be as if they had died...]

[Morbid, dude. Morbid.] I really don't know... maybe we should ask Ema or Heiji if it'd be possible, they seem better about this sort of thing.

[He shook his head.] I suppose if we do escape we'll be able to find out from the facility itself. Zero must have records somewhere.

...I wonder how detailed they are.

[Because that could also actually be kind of creepy considering the guy apparently has all of their memories at his fingertips.]

CALHOUN HOUR - SURVIVOR

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