CALHOUN HOUR - ESCAPE

[vivariummods]

When characters begin to wake up, instead of finding themselves in the usual warehouse, they will instead find themselves in an a very unfamiliar area. Maybe they'll wake up alone, or maybe they'll wake up with someone else. Either way, the biggest point is that they're in God-knows-where and it's the start of a new Calhoun Hour. Within seconds later, a familiar voice booms throughout the loud speakers. "Ahem, testing, testing! Hello, can you all hear me?" It's, without a doubt, your favourite robotic mouse, Calhoun. As usual, he sounds a cheery as ever. "Wow, isn't this familiar? It's almost like the first time we've met, you know. Test subject in a new location, maybe alone or maybe with someone else, my charming voice rings throughout the room, trying to drown you all in an elevator. Good times!" "Well, anyway, welcome to your new Calhoun Hour! You can see that I've taken the liberty to move you all to a more suitable location. You may not know it, with how small your brains are, but you're all stuck in a maze! I've had my fair share of running around in mazes, you know, being a mouse and all, so I want to return to favour to you humans! So, you know the drill: explore, look around, try to escape, blah blah blah, I don't need to explain all this! Just get to it! Who knows, maybe the exit here is an exit out to the real world. I might be generous like that, if you manage to find it. If not, well, I guess you can all starve here!" He snickers, then pauses. Suddenly, a loud gunshot-like sound rings throughout the speakers, and Calhoun screams again. "Let's get started!" BASIC INFO ✖ ESCAPE ✖ POST-EVENT MINGLE ✖ TURN-IN

Comments

do the indiana jones boulder and possible bad food room with me x-38 a-40

[puzzlinglad]

[Hershel's going to literally run into Clive, because why the fuck not, right, probably in the hallway just outside of the x-38 food room.

He's dazed a moment before realizing-] Ah, Clive! Are you alright?

[fairsfair]

... Way to go, Heiji. Hitting that dead robot in the face woke it up.

Straight out of a horror movie, the robot slowly sat up, creaking all the way. It certainly wasn't as fast as the robots back during the Survivor event, and it was a lot more noisy, but it was... somehow more menacing this way, especially now that it was crawling out of its coffin.

"Great, did you want to deal with another one of these things?"

[detectiveofthewest]

"Well... no..." said Heiji as the robot creaked its way up over the lip of the coffin and slammed down onto the floor. Maybe it wasn't quite as coordinated as before, either.

He grabbed another shovel. "BUT MAYBE YES."

m13

[puzzlinglad]

[In the room outside m13 is Hershel, who probably just got in via riddle or something. He's just going to sigh and dust himself off- traps where the worst, mazes were the worst, he is full of teenage angst over this predicament. Meaning he looks slightly frumpy and not all that alarmed given it's a fucking murder game.]

Bloody Calhoun... [He mutters, apparently deciding to talk to himself because why not.] Alright, where to next? Is this really even a maze, it's more like a bunch of rooms...

[He's just going to have his back turned to the rest of the room so I can have an excuse why he might not notice someone else there, a+ tag]

[puzzlinglad]

"H-Heiji!" Well shit. Shit shit shit. Polite british word for fucking hell. He scrambles over to the side and-

"Spiders?!" Oh, well. That explained why it was familiar. God. Damnit. "Heiji, are you alright? Just- for goodness sake..." How the hell was Calhoun literally the worst thing alive.

"Heiji, see if you can climb up, I'll try to distract them!" He called, which. frankly his bumbling was probably already attracting some of the spiders to see what the heck was going on over there.

[skyentificmethod]

[Ema has entered from the south, possibly damp, possibly hungry, you know life is filled with uncertainties--however, that accent is something easily enough recognized even if it isn't quite as rainbow-colored as before. And well, if she's somehow not going to be noticed...]

Boo!

[detectiveofthewest]

"Okay, but they have... sneakers?" Yeah, he didn't even know what was going on there, but that's what they were wearing. The one closest to him was wearing like red Converse All-Stars or something, it was ridiculous.

Heiji started to climb back up, avoiding the spiders as best as he could, but they had the benefit of excellent traction. "There a torch up there or somethin'?"

SPIDERS HATED FIRE, RIGHT.

[puzzlinglad]

"... what?" Okay, seriously what, are you kidding me right now Calhoun. Hershel tried not to dwell, he had more important things to do like beat a spider away with his shovel because, you know, why not. This is a life they're living.

Unfortunately there's not a lot of room to maneuver and he almost fell into the hole himself, landing pretty gracelessly on his ass instead. "I- maybe?" Hershel called, looking around. He was a little worried they'd set the whole room on fire somehow if he did find one, but- "No, nothing like that..." What kind of Indiana Jones is this? Where's Jake and his lighter when you need them? Why are they wearing shoes??

He glanced to the pit, eyes narrowing. This really was pretty similar. "I think... they're moving in a pattern? Heiji, try to stay to the left." Puzzles, man. Welcome to Miracle Mask.

[puzzlinglad]

[Revealing herself to be the true monster in Vivarium all along Hershel jumps, covering his heart because he's an 80 year old grandmother and staring at Ema a moment before letting out a huffed sort of sigh.]

Ema you- you are not funny. Have I told you you're terrible lately? [Probably. Once he's not having a heart attack he straightens, going from surprised grandma to worried grandma at mach speed.] Are you alright? You haven't been hurt, have you?

[detectiveofthewest]

Unfortunately, Heiji couldn't see the pattern too well because he was busy BEATING OFF SPIDERS WITH CONVERSE ALL-STARS, but he was grateful for the help. He started climbing to the left; hopefully Hershel didn't mean his other left.

He smacked his fist into part of the spider web, sending one of the spiders off-balance. It fell into the pit and landed in the dirt head-first, flailing its sneakered legs angrily in the air. "What now?"

[skyentificmethod]

Fine, fine. You okay? I didn't actually think I'd catch you.

[puzzlinglad]

Hershel took the time to homerun a spider back to the bottom of the pit, hopefully killing it or something so it wouldn't just go after succulent Osaka detective a minute later. Okay Hershel, focus.

"Um- Ah, go straight up, there's a rock jutting out over there, do you see it? When you reach that go right, you should miss them if you're fast!" He called quickly, taking a moment to pick up some stray bit of dirt or rock, whatever was lying around, and throwing it at a spider too close to Heiji.

[puzzlinglad]

I'm fine, everything's been nonsensical but mostly harmless so far, besides the traps. At least they aren't impossible to avoid.

[sigh] We should try to stick together, two heads are better than one, right?

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji scrambled up to the rock and sucker punched a spider on his way up, yeah take that jerk. A little more and he was pulling himself up to the lip of the pit, though the dirt was soft enough that he was having trouble getting enough purchase with his feet to make it over the top.

This sucked. Everything about this sucked.

[skyentificmethod]

[tossing off a fine or no, she still looks him over for anything too blatant, then pats him on the shoulder. maybe she almost feels kinda bad for scaring him, though 99% she'd do it again given the chance. She leads him to the west door, raising her eyebrows]

That's how the saying goes. And it always helps to have a witness or two. Shall we?

[vengefulyears]

Clive stood across from Heiji, peering through the doorway from the other side and watching the robot's back moving further and further away from them. It was pretty unlikely that they'd be able to make it all the way down the hall, but getting to that door on the left seemed pretty doable.

So, unless Heiji stopped him, Clive was just going to slip past him and start quickly tiptoeing down the hall. SMELL YA LATER, LOSER

[vengefulyears]

[Meanwhile, Clive enters the room from the AJ-37 entrance and is surprised to see Snake standing nearby and looking a bit... out of sorts.]

Snake? Are you alright?

[puzzlinglad]

Don't worry buddy, he's got you. Hopefully he'll do a better job of it this time but you know. He smacked another spider down the pit, rushing over as carefully as he could to kneel down and help Heiji as best he could in getting up. No falling down a ravine on his watch, no sir.

"Bloody... spiders!" He muttered, kicking out at one that was trying to get close. This sucked so bad. "Hold on..."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Clive...!" he said under his breath. Goddammit, Dove. Well, whatever; it was too late to stop him, so Heiji pursued him instead. As soon as he stepped into the room, though, the door locked itself.

"Oh, great. Not another trap."

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji scrabbled back onto safe ground with Hershel's help, namely because he wasn't a shitlord who wouldn't let go of the stupid mask. Stupid spiders, stupid pit, stupid sneakers. Everything about this was UNACCEPTABLE.

After he took a moment to catch his breath, he'd just grab Hershel's sleeve and start pulling him out of the room. "C'mon, let's get outta here. Maybe we can find a bug bomb or somethin' and toast them later."

[puzzlinglad]

[he's a bit perplexed by the pat but smiles, assuming she was being reassuring about the situation instead of vaguely sort of guilty she spooked him like a haunted house worker. friendship.]

That... seems rather morbid in some respects. [he headed for the west door, inspecting it for a riddle of some sort before turning to her, shrugging and opening it.

The room seemed normal enough as he entered, which was probably suspicious. Clearly it wouldn't lock them both in immediately after she entered, that probably wouldn't happen.] I don't see anything really...

[vengefulyears]

[Clive is dazed for a moment as well because he was definitely not expecting that to happen at all, but when he realizes who it is, he smiles.]

Oh! I'm fine. Just try to be more careful from now on, will you? [Despite his words he clearly isn't angry or anything at all.] Anyway, I'm glad to see that you're safe.

[puzzlinglad]

And in just a few moments Heiji proved himself a greater human being than he who shall not be named. Hershel sighed in relief when Heiji was up, more surprised than he should have been when he was dragged towards the door even though he was pretty quick to follow.

Once he was through the door and it was clear the spiders didn't plan a mass invasion of the warehouse he slowed, grasping Heiji's sleeve. "What on earth was that? Why did they have sneakers?" He really didn't sound impressed at all, I wonder why. "I- ah, the shovel, I think I left it..."

Would he go down a spiderpit for a shovel again??? Would he?? Actually he would it was Heiji's so he'd feel too bad not to.

[puzzlinglad]

Ah, sorry, I wasn't- [Gonna trail off awkwardly.] I'm glad you're safe too- some of those traps seem rather nasty. [Thankfully he hadn't been stabbed again. Yet. The night's young.]

I haven't been around here before, have you seen any of these rooms yet?

[detectiveofthewest]

"No. We are not goin' back down there, Hershel; I don't care how much you want that shovel!" He knows you, dude. He. Knows. You.

"We can get another one in that coffin room. Or I'll give you the one I got from the incinerator." He was just going to tug Hershel into the next room: AF-14, the one with the aquarium. "What the heck is this? You mean there were all these fish in here and we still gotta eat gruel?!"