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

[puzzlinglad]

[Woooo Hershel's top level, he'll be starting around big room J3 so have at.]

spider piiiit

[detectiveofthewest]

Where had Heiji gotten a shovel? Duh, from one of the zombie rooms, of course. As they stood outside the door to the spider pit room, however, Heiji handed Hershel the shovel.

It felt... right.

"I feel like I been in here forever," Heiji said.

[puzzlinglad]

Hershel took the shovel, feeling strangely comfortable having it. Maybe it was that memory where he had one, it just reminded him of an excavation trip that clearly ended in a way way better way with no casualties and only parties and friendship. He stared at the shovel for a moment, sharing a deep sort of moment with it. Shovel, he understands, he too is simply an instrument passed around in the unending tides of fate.

Clearly he had been in this maze way too long.

He snapped out of it for a moment, regarding the door they were to enter. "So do I, this is absolutely ridiculous." He sighed, bringing the shovel closer. Not for comfort, shut up. Shut up. "Should we try here? I don't see any obvious traps on the door at least."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Yeah, might as well," said Heiji. "By the time this is over, I'm gonna know every room in this joint."

The door opened, he stepped inside and almost immediately found himself pinwheeling his arms for balance on the very edge of a very deep hole.

[puzzlinglad]

"By the time this is over someone's going to lose an eye on those traps." Hershel sighed, obviously not a fan of that shit. What a shocking surprise, really. "Do you think-"

Whatever he was going to say died when he he stepped forward, almost falling into the hole himself. He threw an arm out to try and make sure Heiji didn't fall either, taking a step back against the wall. "Blimey, what-" He stared a moment, frowning deeply. "This... seems strangely familiar."

[detectiveofthewest]

Too late. The edge of the pit broke off, sending Heiji skidding forward down the side in a cloud of dust. He didn't fall too hard; the pit wasn't that deep. But now he had spiderwebs all over himself, and...

"Spiders!"

[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.

are you ready for the HEAT

[fairsfair]

[ Okay, back here at U-25. He was in this room earlier with Sasuke, but now he's here with his best buddy Hershel. Nothing will go wrong with these two. ]

Stick clear of that door. Don't even attempt to go in.

[ Pointing to the one without a puzzle. Fuck that door, just FUCK IT, so come here to this nice puzzle door. It's calling for you, Hershel. ]

rated pg-13 for jake's gross body over here

[puzzlinglad]

[Hershel followed pretty obediently after, seeing as he hadn't been around this place and frankly Jake was weirdly adept at this sort of shit. He was a weird dude.

He glanced at the evil door, giving Jake a curious look.] What's in there? [He asked, heading over so he could see the totally nice puzzle door with no problems at all.]

Ah, a riddle. [Why does he seem happy about that??]

wow you're just jealous your body isn't as sweet as jake's

[fairsfair]

Some timer.

[ He's just going to keep that vague because, well... he didn't know what happened if the timer went down to zero, but he's guessing nothing good. So, he'll just step aside for Hershel to take a look at the riddle. ]

Yeah, your specialty, so it's all yours. Can't believe you're this happy to find one.

the rating system is just trying to hold jake back

[puzzlinglad]

I see- I'll take that as I shouldn't ask. [He muses, taking note of the door for future avoidance though who knows what will happen, the world is a mysterious place.

And he shrugs.] Riddles can be quite fun. [Is his very lame answer to that, stop the presses and prepare a locker, nerd alert. He considers the riddle for a moment before answering:] Fire?

[After a pause hey, he's right shocking twist. The door unlocks and he smiles.] Ah, there we are.

ass if it can hold him back and i typo'd as with an extra s but i'm keeping it like that

[fairsfair]

[ fucking nerd, jake can't believe his first friend is some puzzle loving hippie but bam, looks like the door is open. Time to walk in and push Hershel in as well, c'mon, he doesn't have all day. This was a waste of a push though when it turns out that it's just an empty hallway. Boringggg. ]

Looks like a dead end. Head back ou--

[fairsfair]

[ Aaaaand that's when the door slams shut. The heat will come in a few seconds. Just let Jake be Very Unimpressed right now. ]

I'm getting real sick and tired of all these doors.

you're a hero and i salute you

[puzzlinglad]

[Hershel was going to scold him for pushing because come on dude, rude they'll make a gentleman out of you yet, when the door shut. He turns, looking nervous as he glanced to Jake.]

Well... I can't say this was too surprising. [He sighs, looking around in the vain hopes maybe there'd be another puzzle to get them out.]

... and no obvious way to get out at least. Bloody perfect. [he frowns.] It's a tad warm in here.

0-13 then into the water trap room?

[blind_badass]

*Snake wandered into a hallway, keeping a hand on a wall since it seemed safe enough. Until the wall started to bleed or something else insane, anyway.*

[puzzlinglad]

[Several things happened at once, and every single one of them were stupid.

The first is that Hershel entered a room, a largely empty one and the one riiiight next to 0-13. He was about to ponder how he had been here before when he almost lost his footing on a piece of floor that wasn't quite right. Doing so pressed that piece of floor in, and suddenly from the wall came his best friend flying knives.

A lot of them. Thankfully none hit him since he tripped, the worst just slicing a not too serious cut over his temple as he did. Of course head wounds bled a lot, annoyingly, and he had to wipe at his forehead as a second round of knives came and shit- alright, had to get out of here.

That led him to scramble along the floor to an exit, into the hall Snake was in. Well, shit.] Snake!

[He couldn't tell if the door would stay open, if another round of knives would come, so without really thinking too much about it he grabbed Snake's good arm and pulled him through into the precious water room.

When the door closed behind them he let out a sigh.] Ah... I- I'm sorry, I set off a trap and-

[He glanced around. Wait a minute.] Oh no...

[blind_badass]

Why did you just say...? *Then it happened. Snake felt water start to pool at his feet.* Hershel? Can you please tell me what's going on here?

[puzzlinglad]

Um- [Before he could the announcement came up- do a 'show' or drown. Hershel sighs, rubbing his face with both hands for a moment before turning to Snake.]

I'm so sorry Snake, I set off a knife trap and I didn't want to risk you getting hit and- [Ok, calm down with that rambling, bucko.] I guess we have to do something 'entertaining.'

[blind_badass]

Entertaining? Well, I seem to lack anything to juggle, unless you have something hidden inside that mane of yours. *Not that Snake could juggle, as was evident by the sarcasm in his voice. He would probably have trouble attempting to a tie a shoe, let alone try to juggle.* Knowing the flavor of "entertainment" Zero prefers, we're going to need to do something drastic. *Snake took a breath.* Herhsel? Punch me in the face as hard as you can.

[puzzlinglad]

I'm afraid unless you can juggle a water bottle and a roll of bandages... [His tone is dry, yeah, this was fun. He was just getting started trying to think of something when Snake offered his idea.

Have a stare for a moment before he raised his hands.] I- no, I couldn't do that, Snake. It's too- [Honestly he didn't have a good reason not too, he probably wouldn't hurt Snake too badly if he was careful, and Snake was right, this was probably the fastest and easiest way to get out of this. He had already dealt with this room once and he had no doubt Calhoun wasn't going to let him go all that easily.

Of course that went both ways-] Hit me instead, alright? I can't... just, I think it would be better. [He finishes kind of lamely.]

q21 i think

[lameton]

[so Hershel and Alfendi have been roaming the maze for a while now, and it has been going about as well as one would expect. lots of complaining about puzzles from alfendi, mostly. when they enter the winner/loser room, alfendi has to stop himself from loudly talking over the recording giving them instructions, because fuck recordings and fuck instructions.]

Well. [blank stare.]

Maybe we should just stay in this room until it tries to kill us.

[puzzlinglad]

[Hershel sighs after the instructions were called, rubbing his arm because this was just. bullshit. fuck off, maze.]

I doubt Calhoun will do much more than let us starve here. Maybe we could try hitting it at the same time..?

[He trails off, sighing.] There's no way that will work. [And after a long moment he glances over at Alfendi, serious business.] You should press it, Alfendi. You haven't been eating and your wrists still don't look as well as they should, you can't risk being stabbed or worse.

[lameton]

Hitting it at the same time? Letting me press the button? When exactly did you hit your head, you stooge?! You're not even trying to think!

[he points at the button as aggressively as he can, mostly to hide the rising blush that always seems to climb up his neck whenever someone treats him like an actual person. look at that, hershel, making him feel wanted and cared about on a basic human level. disgusting.]

You press it. It's about time you got out of here, anyway. I'm sick of looking at you.

[puzzlinglad]

I am thinking- it makes the most sense! [arguing is hard but hell he'll try. he'll try really hard to be stubborn about this so help me god.] How long has it been since you ate, Alfendi? You're already injured on top of that, you look like you've barely been sleeping- it'll be too easy for you to get sick, or get an infection! We still don't understand this illness that goes around, and even more so we don't have the resources to handle an infection.

Just- Alfendi, please, you're far more at risk than I am here. We can't risk your wellbeing like that, not when it'll likely be days before you'll be able to have a steady food source.

[lameton]

You know damn well that I'm not going to press this button, Hershel! [alfendi points at it again, shaking his finger for good measure, before sits down in the middle of the floor to prove his point. but. his stomach growls which sort of. i mean. it's not like hershel's wrong here]

Do I really seem like the kind of man who gives a damn about-- about risk? Whatever happens, I can deal with it - we've already decided it's my job to look out for you while I'm in here! [and by "we" he means "i" but whatever]

I'm not going to let you get yourself hurt on my watch, that's ridiculous. You're acting like an idiot.