vivarium | CALHOUN HOUR

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You may not be a flower but you are human, you know." Hershel pointed out, raising his brow at Heiji. You aren't escaping worry, dude, he's keeping an eye on you.

Hershel glanced between them again with that smile before squashing it pointedly, listening to the various rooms, frowning a little. "Coffins?" He asked uneasily. "I probably don't even want to know... I've seen the sauna, that room with those dolls- have you seen anyone else around here, Heiji? I'm a bit worried about some of them."

"Well, all you really gotta know is that you shouldn't try to grab anything in those coffins, or you'll have robots to deal with," said Heiji.

"Let's see, I ran into you two, plus Sasuke, Wirt, Clive... only people I ain't seen so far is Alfendi and Kuzuryuu. Speakin' of which, when I'm done exploring, I'm gonna stick around that room with the food, near the chalkboard room. Just in case we get separated."

Why would I ever want to mess with those robots ever again? Once was enough. *And yes, Heiji did sound different when talking to him. Warmer. It made Snake smile.*

"Agreed." No more robots. No more robots ever if need be. "Oh, is that where you got the shovel?"

Shockingly hearing Kuzuryuu and Alfendi haven't been around made Hershel look worried. "I haven't seen Kuzuryuu at all, Alfendi's around though... I'm going to go see if I can find either of them soon." He decided. "You should rest though, Heiji- maybe Snake can actually convince you to." His tone is just a liiiitle bit amused, I wonder why.

"Yeah, there were actually a couple of 'em. They didn't seem to care about those, though, just the stuff inside the coffins. I found a cell phone, but it was broken." Not even going to mention the robot hands bursting through coffin lids unless of course someone asked about the robots...

Heiji sounded a little flustered. "Wh... what's that supposed to mean? I can take care of myself just fine! Anyway, I'm almost done mappin' out this maze. I can rest after that."

*Snake, however, understood exactly what Hershel was about and turned his head to face him.* I know exactly what it means.

*Is it possible? Could it be possible?* Hershel, correct me if I'm wrong but your tone suggests that you seem to be quite pleased that both of us are together. Would it be safe to assume that you somehow knew something neither of us did not?

Hershel glanced at Heiji a moment, still a little amused as he turned back to Snake and answered. "Well... it wasn't exactly hard to spot, if you were paying attention." He admitted.

"I mean Heiji was as obvious as you could get-" Friendship. You're welcome Heiji. "-but Snake, you were so... defensive, I suppose? With everyone for a very long time, maybe even now. Not with Heiji, not in the same way, so..." He trailed off, well there you have it. "I'm really very happy for you both, I'm glad something good has come out of all this."

Hershel, you shitlord wanker!!

Heiji glanced over at Snake. "Well, I guess you're right about Snake, at least. I ain't even know how he felt. Try playin' poker with him sometime."

Was Snake really that guarded with everyone else, though? He almost always interacted with Snake alone, so he hadn't really noticed...

I'm glad we could be a source of entertainment for you, Hershel. We'll have to work out our schedules to provide you with a proper showing. Perhaps even charge admission. *It nettled him to think that someone else had everything figured out before he did.*

Heiji tapped Snake on the back of his shoulder with the palm of one hand -- quickly, but without force.

"Don't get too steamed. He was the one who told me to talk to you." Even after Snake had told Heiji he'd rather forget about everything that happened. In that sense, Heiji owed Hershel quite a lot.

Hershel looked surprised a moment before he answered, sounding a tad guilty. "Snake... you're right, it really wasn't my business in the end. I'm sorry, I hope I haven't made you uncomfortable."

He stood there pretty awkwardly for a moment, rubbing his arm. "Maybe I should go, I really do want to see if I can find Kuzuryuu and Alfendi, I'm worried they may have gotten stuck somewhere. Is there anything I should look out for nearby that you know of? I don't think I've been around this area all that much."

*Snake made a little noise as he exhaled. He supposed he couldn't really do anything about it now. And in the end, Heiji did talk to him and all was well. So instead, Snake smiled.* I'm afraid I'm the wrong person to ask what things look like.

I suppose you did meddle, but in the end, it was for a good cause. Otherwise myself and Heiji would be angsting in our separate corners for no reason whatsoever.

Heiji leaned forward and ruffled Hershel's hair, ruffle ruffle, wow what a monster. "If you go over in that direction, you're gonna come to a room where you gotta push this button. One person does, anyway. They're the 'winner' and the other person's the loser and suffers the 'consequences'. I dunno what would happen if you went in alone, though. Maybe you'd win by default?"

When Snake smiled, Heiji looked away a little. Snake had better watch out, or he was going to get a kiss when Hershel went off to find Alfendi and Kuzuryuu.

"Right." Hershel still looked pretty awkward but he smiled at Heiji for his monstrous hair ruffling. "Alright, I'll keep an eye out for that one, I'm assuming the 'consequences' aren't very pleasant."

And with that he stepped back, raising a hand. "I'll see you both late, alright? Try to be careful out there." And off he went in search of idiots, surely nothing bad will happen and no one will be in comas etc etc.

Heiji waved to Hershel. "Alright, see ya! Watch out for any traps!"

Once he was gone, though, he'd take Snake's hand. When he spoke, his voice was lowered slightly. "...You know what he said to me? Hershel, I mean."

No, what did he tell you?

"He said I should talk to you about how I felt, 'cause there's a chance we won't make it out of here." Heiji glanced over at Snake for a moment.

"...I get what he was tryin' to do. And say. But that guy worries too much. I ain't interested in dying in here with you. I want to get back outside with you."

I plan on escaping here too. With everyone I can take with me which better be you. *Good Lord, Heiji, how do you casually say things like that with a straight face? His stomach flips around.*

How did you say the things you said, Snake?

"Well... good," said Heiji, smiling a little. "'Cause I'm not letting you off the hook. You'd better show me around your place."

CALHOUN HOUR - ESCAPE

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