vivarium | a new arrival

Entry tags:

a new arrival

T H E W A R E H O U S E

【 day 44 】

Hello newcomer, welcome to the 【 Warehouse 】.

Once you escape your elevator, you will find yourself here. It's strangely empty for a warehouse. Aside from the elevators you've come out of, there's nothing else here. In fact, the longer you look around, the stranger everything looks.

Every window has been bolted shut, with no way of removing the steel coverings. The only source of illumination comes from the florescent lights above. Along the walls are numerous amounts of surveillance cameras, watching every bit of movement and listening to the sounds of everyone and everything. Every door is locked up tight, with no clear way of opening them, and there's one giant door with a 9 painted on it. It's a rather strange place, and there seems to be a lot of people here, so go introduce yourselves?

For the "old-timers" and "newly-become-old-timers", come meet your new fellow test subject. Thankfully(?) enough, no one has disappeared for this "replacement" to appear. Lucky you, you can still be a sickeningly happy family without anyone leaving. Calhoun will just pretend to barf over here while you can have your free bath of the week.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You don't remember, huh?" Heiji let go of Snake as soon as Snake started pushing at his shoulders, taking advantage of Snake's temporary confusion to swipe quickly at his eyes.

"Ema said you passed out all of a sudden. What's the last thing ya do recall? You... you been asleep ever since the AB room two days ago. You're feelin' okay, right?"

*Two days? Good Lord. Snake frowns.* I voted and then I just...felt really tired. That's all I remember. So...have I been here on the couch the whole time? Did Clive pass out too? *It would explain why they were both on the couch, but not why they were spooning. That must have been the work of someone trying to be funny.*

Heiji nodded as he listened to Snake's account. That sounded pretty much like Hershel's account had been.

"Yeah, I carried you here after I couldn't wake ya up. I figured it'd be a lot more comfortable than lying on the ground, but..." But he hadn't thought that Snake would be out for days.

"Clive went into a coma during the same round. Jake brought him by a little later."

There really doesn't seem to be a pattern. *With each passing minute Snake's brain came more alive. Only now he noticed he appeared to be wearing something other than his clothes.* ...? *It felt a bit like a thin coat?*

Heiji noticed Snake looking a little puzzled. "Oh, um. I found a lab coat in one of the rooms. Thought you might get cold, so..."

Oh. *It occurs to him at that moment that Heiji might have been a tad worried about his well being. At least if the hug was any indication.* Well, thank you for taking care of me, Heiji. *He was not one for large displays of physical affection, but he has sort of mastered the one-armed shonen hug that Heiji usually employs. Which he uses now on Heiji.*

Nope. You weren't getting out of this that easily, Snake.

Heiji pulled Snake into another hug, though he was careful not to squeeze Snake too hard this time. "...I'm really glad you're okay," he said quietly.

*Snake's heart trips over itself as he's warmly hugged again. He can feel his face getting warm. At the same time he slowly, hesitantly, wraps both his arms around Heiji, copying the embrace.* Me too.

Wow, was... Snake's face warm? Because Heiji could kind of feel that, but the hugging was really nice and. Well, maybe he'd just stay like this for a few moments? Heiji's face was getting rather warm, too, maybe the warehouse was just... a bit toastier than usual...

He might have pressed his cheek into Snake's shoulder a bit just to hide his face, though of course that was silly because Snake couldn't see his face anyway and yeah.

"Oh," he said finally, "Yeah. It's been two days, so you're probably starving, right? Sorry, I totally wasn't thinking. You wanna go over to the cafeteria and get something to eat?"

*What was Heiji doing to him? Other than making him really really regret the fact the Heiji was straight. Thankfully Heiji offers a sensible suggestion before Snake embarrasses himself more.* Yes, let's go ahead and do that. *Gracefully he extricates himself from Heiji and then deposits the lab coat on Clive, who still slumbered on.*

Heiji leaned over to speak to Clive, even though Clive was in a coma anyway and couldn't actually hear them oh well. "Hershel should be around in a minute to check your bandages, yeah? So you wake up soon, too!"

Then he smiled brightly, an expression that was probably audible in his voice as he started toward the cafeteria, hands in pockets. "Okay, let's go! Oh yeah, I was gonna tell ya -- the last round, everyone picked Ally."

Really? *Snake took a moment to check his bracelet with its audio total. He now had 21 BP. Blackjack, baby.* What am I getting closer to with my amount?

"27, access to the sleeping dorms," said Heiji, snapping that information off like it was nothing.

"...by the way, does coffee taste any good after you've refrigerated it for a day?"

Oh that's good to know...what? *The two subjects didn't even go together so it left Snake momentarily confused.* Why? Did you steal a coffee machine?

"Remember that Surveillance Room? Hershel was the last one outta there, so he took some coffee out of the machine. I thought it'd keep better if I stored mine in a thermos and refrigerated it, so... you know, if you wanted any."

Thinking of you, buddy.

...There was coffee in that room?! *KUZURYUUUUUUU*

I had no idea. Although given my fellow puzzle companions, they didn't see fit to give me a layout of the room and I had to figure it out myself.

"Seriously? Wow, what teamwork. You should really stick with me instead." That was. Kind of a joke, seeing as how their times were assigned to them and not actually any kind of democracy.

"Anyway, if you want it, then let's stop at the garden first. That's where I left it. Oh, and um... I forgot to mention. I also saw the tape with you in the Music Room. You know, while I was in there with the videos."

Or at least anyone willing to give me a slight description of what was in the room. *Because he missed out on COFFEE! DAMN IT.*

I don't know if the coffee would be any good still but it would be something different to taste...eh? *The Music Room? What did he do...oh that's right.* Yes. That's where I found out I could play.

"Well, let's give it a shot. It ain't gonna taste too fresh, but it's better than nothing." So off to the garden it was, at which point Heiji would take a quick detour to the pond and fish out his nice, ice-cold thermos. He dried it off and handed it to Snake. "Since the water's freezing here, anyway, I figured it'd be a good way to keep stuff cold."

But the piano-playing. Yes.

"You really can play well. The song was kind of melancholy, though." He just wasn't going to go into how elegant Snake looked while he was playing it, though, because he was pretty sure mentioning that would be weird. But everyone looked elegant while they were playing an instrument, right? Unless it was a kazoo or something. Maybe he was just overthinking it...

Well I suppose I'll find out. *He held onto the the thermos with his right hand. He scrunched his eyes shut a little more, concentrating with his left hand to unscrew the top. Then he took a little sip and shuddered.* Yes that is definitely some caffeine that I tasted. *He rolled the taste in his lips like a wine taster.* This would definitely taste a lot better if it were warm.

I'm not sure what the song was. It was just something that I knew how to play. Speaking of, once Clive wakes up, I'll play a nice British song for him.

"Probably taste better if you weren't stuck in this warehouse, too," said Heiji, grinning. Oh well, coffee was coffee.

In any case, off to the cafeteria! "Like 'God Save the Queen' or something?" Or maybe Snake meant a pop song. Clive didn't seem like a real patriotic guy, honestly.

I suppose my choice was a bit obvious but it is easy to play.

Heiji laughed. "Yeah, maybe. I hope he likes it. If he doesn't, maybe you can play some pop song for him or somethin'."

The gruel in the cafeteria was never actually appetizing, but Heiji hadn't felt like eating much the past few days, so he was particularly hungry by the time they arrived. He set his tray down on a convenient table and sat down. "Oh yeah, another guy showed up while you were out. His name's Wirt."

Really? I'll have to go introduce myself. That and the new woman who arrived. I also haven't had a chance to talk to her yet.

"Oh, Akane? She seems pretty nice." Heiji paused for a second. "But don't you ever wonder how come there're so many more men in here than women? I mean, generally speaking, they're 50% or more of the population depending on age group."

Maybe Zero just liked seeing dudes suffer.

"I mean, not that I want more people to get kidnapped or anything."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject