vivarium | 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.

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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."

Well, it's probably deliberate. You're more likely to get a group of men to fight rather than a group of women.

"Maybe under normal circumstances. But we don't even have that many fights, anyway. Besides, the main question is whether someone's willing to hit Betray, right? I think if the threshold for harming someone is lowered to pressin' a button, it evens things out a bit."

After two days of having no idea if Snake was going to wake up in the next minute or in the next week, simply sitting near him and having a conversation was a comfort to Heiji, whose entire manner had now relaxed. "Speakin' of fighting... do you know how? I mean, you blocked Sasuke's knife that one time and all."

Edited 2014-11-22 16:40 (UTC)

I do feel confident in my ability to defend myself so...I must know a little bit about self defense. Perhaps I took a few classes. *Apparently they were all how to swat projectiles out of the air.*

"A little bit, huh?" Heiji said, a little teasingly. "You know, most people wouldn't have been able to swat a knife out of the air. Especially considerin' how exact you have to be with the timing."

He rested his chin against the palm of his hand as he leaned over the tabletop. "I wonder if I could get my hands on a bokutou. There's only shinai at the shop, but..."

A what? Is that something else for that kendo sport?

"A bokutou. It's a wooden sword that's shaped like a katana. They used to use 'em for kendo training for a long time, but eventually they switched over to shinai like the one I got now. Too many injuries."

Heiji seemed rather happy discussing kendo, about which he again seemed to know a lot of random facts. "You ever heard of Miyamoto Musashi?"

He wrote a book about combat, didn't he? It's quite famous. *He can't recall if he read it but it sounded familiar.*

Well, color Heiji impressed. "Yeah, The Book of Five Rings. He was a famous swordsman, too. One of his most famous duels was the one with Sasaki Koujirou, his longtime rival. Story goes, Musashi showed up to the fight late and looking like a total mess. Instead of a sword, he carved a bokutou from a boat oar and used that instead."

*It's a book, Heiji, of course he knows about it.* So he used psychology to defeat his opponent?

"You could say that, I guess. By the time he arrived, there were rumors he'd chickened out and run away. And of course Sasaki was furious. He drew his sword and tossed away the scabbard."

"So Musashi goes, 'If you've no more use for your sheath, you are already dead'. And he was right. He killed Sasaki in that duel."

Yes, that sounds like he defeated his opponent soundly. *Death being quite final and all.* I don't think I'd be much of a swordsman.

Heiji shook his head. "Yeah, I guess so. Though after that, he swore off any more duels to the death."

"...Why not?"

I know I can defend myself...to a point. I don't think using a sword would work. I wouldn't be able to get my arm to function to that degree.

"Yeah? Well, it's definitely true that in kendo you need both arms. Usually, your left arm performs most of the swing and your right arm guides the movement. And I guess it does require some finesse..."

But he hadn't expected Snake to be so quick to say he couldn't do something. How strange...

"It's really fun, though. Hershel and I have been practicing, and Sasuke even joins in sometimes!"

I'll let you have fun bashing each other with your swords. *Count him out, thank you.* That would involve intense concentration, even for me, to do any good at that sport. I'd prefer chess.

Wow, Snake. RUDE.

"You like chess?" Heiji perked up at the mention. "Hey, me too!"

*Par for the course.*

It's too bad we don't really have a set here. Unless we try stealing one from a room.

But not very gentlemanly...

"Well, we could always improvise one, right? Or play mental chess." Which go figure, Heiji could do just fine. What a weirdo.

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