vivarium | ambidex voting #13

Entry tags:

ambidex voting #13

A M B I D E X V O T I N G

Another round, maybe this one will end better? Less blood and gore even? No? Well, here are the conditions regardless.:

For anyone who chooses Ally, well, if your opponent chooses Ally as well, then 2BP for each of you and blah blah blah, predictable. Bore him to tears why don't you.

For anyone who chooses Betray, and gets a Betray in return, everyone's BP stays the same and one of you gets fifty coins! That'd be fun, right? A cheeky little gamble. The rest get a pat on the back and that warm feeling of a vote well voted.

Last but certainly not least: for anyone who chooses Betray and their opponent chooses Ally, same deal as last time, two whole memories! Eh, eh? Come on, that's a pretty good deal, right? Take the offer! And the ally person well, they get the usual.

So, happy voting! Calhoun will see all of you later with the results.

BASIC INFO ✖ VOTES + FORMS ✖ RESULTS + REACTIONS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes, yes, everyone's telling him he needs to be able to run very quickly. But here in the present, it's time to fuss over you, Sasuke. Heiji rummaged around in the first aid kit, pulling out some antibacterial ointment. Gosh, hmm, what could have caused something like that...

"I guess I'll have about a week since we did our room, so I'm a little better off than you. Turn over this way."

They're so subtle with these hints. Hershel tried to stay out of Heiji's way for now, glancing over Sasuke's wound with a grimace.

"I had a feeling..." Yeah, this was not making his concern that Heiji was going to be okay any better. At least no one lost an arm or whatever. "Shouldn't he sit down? Your leg must be in quite a state, we should check that too." I'm sorry, Sasuke.

He will obligingly turn so Heiji can better reach the gash. Is it a claw or a tooth mark? We just don't know.

"I can deal with the stab wound. It's just my shoulder that's hard to reach." So. You know. You guys really need to stop worrying about it.

"What about you two? You were in the Grey Room-- are you alright?"

What is Bluebell? We just don't know...

He started applying the ointment.

"Yeah, we're fine," said Heiji, grimacing a little at the mention of the grey room. "But you should look out. You took that last one pretty hard, didn't you? I guess we can't really warn you 'bout anything specific, but don't be afraid to reach out for help if you need it."

We really don't, just you wait Heiji.

Hershel was about to mention the possibility of Sasuke opening or aggravating his leg wound but, miracle of miracles, he just sighed and decided to let it go for now. Sasuke didn't seem to be bleeding out on the floor in his death throes, he could relax a bit- aka give his leg a few worried glances- for now.

He nodded to Heiji's assessment of the grey room. "It's... emotionally trying more so than anything else. I suppose that's all you can be prepared for." He tried, that was the best he could add under the constraints at least. "Calhoun likes riling Ema and Jake up, so you'll likely be in for a good deal of tension."

Sasuke winces at the ointment, but otherwise doesn't move. He has good pain tolerance, but after running around a room with an already wounded leg and newly wounded shoulder, he's reaching his limit. What a shocker.

Emotionally trying... well, given the themes of the previous rooms, it's not exactly surprising. He'll just have to brace himself...

"I'll try to be careful. But you two should make sure to look after yourselves, too. The next rooms might be difficult." Heiji has already gotten a number of hints as to why for the red room, but Hershel... his personality isn't suited to a room like that at all.

Hmm, yes. Hershel, stuck in there with Snake, who generally tolerated stress fairly well as long as it didn't personally affect him... and Alfendi, the raving murder otaku who under strain flatlined into a personality that was almost comatose. Hmm.

"Not much I can give away about your room," he said, looking at Hershel. "Just be prepared for anything. And if things go wrong... just try not to blame yourself too much." He grabbed a roll of bandages and started to wrap Sasuke's wound.

Edited 2015-01-23 15:28 (UTC)

"I've already hounded Heiji quite thoroughly about resting and healing up." Hershel answered with a small smile, though yeah, still worried about how that was going to go, especially seeing how Sasuke faired. There wasn't much they could do now anyway besides hope it'd work out, which was always the most annoying phase of these rooms in his humble opinion.

"I see..." Well. That was cryptic, about as cryptic as all the other nonsense he kept hearing about this room. "What do you both think about Alfendi and Snake in this room, should I be worried for them? Jake and Clive seem to have done well."

"It ain't Alfendi and Snake I'm worried about," said Heiji. "It's you."

If things went south, Hershel's fragile non-murdering psyche might not be able to handle that guilt, man. At least Snake and Alfendi had defense mechanisms.

Okay, he can deal with this better than the ointment, even if it's still pretty uncomfortable to move his arm so it can be bandaged.

He gives only the slightest nod in agreement with Heiji's words. "It's a tough room. I don't know if there's a way to do it right, so don't stress out if you think you've messed it up." That... should be vague enough, shouldn't it?

"Why- nevermind, I doubt you'll be able to answer." Hershel corrected himself quickly, shaking his head. "I'll... be careful? I'll try to let Alfendi and Snake take the lead, at least." That might help? Who knew? They'd probably do a better job of shit anyway so he's fine with that.

"How's your arm feeling now?" He turned to Sasuke, apparently over not motherhenning him and getting right to it again. I'm sorry.

"I ain't sure that's the best idea, either," said Heiji. Certainly it might make it easier on other people, but on Hershel? Hmm. He might just end up feeling guilty about not participating.

"But you've got a pretty good head on your shoulders. I think you'll do your best. That's all anyone can ask of ya."

"It's still a type of puzzle or riddle, so just try to treat it like one of those." He's probably going to need to shut up soon at this rate, but he hopes the message can get through. Riddle; it isn't exactly as it seems.

Man this room is sounding more and more concerning. He nodded, still not really understanding exactly what they were trying to get at- maybe it was a moral thing? Or involved fucking over his teammates in some way? Either way, not really looking forward to that.

"Well... I guess we'll all have to try our best then." He settled on, shaking his head. "We should probably stop talking about it, the last thing any of us need is Calhoun deciding we've gone too far and punishing someone."

Okay, bandaging done to Heiji's satisfaction. He inspected his work for a moment, then nodded. "You should be good. Now we just gotta find Alfendi and make sure he didn't reopen anything."

Which. You know, quite possible.

Cool, he can finally put his shirt back on, even if the motion kinda hurts. At least the blood doesn't show on the black...

"I was worried one of us would come out like Alfendi, but we managed to avoid it." Honestly, Bluebell had been much slower than expected. If it weren't for that wound...

But then, how the heck did Alfendi get injured that badly? Even Snake had managed to escape its grasp...

"Are you going now? Neither of you need a break first?" Though really, there's one in particular he's concerned about...

"Alfendi..." Hershel paused, trying to think of a way to sort of explain how the hell that nonsense happened to Sasuke without giving the room away to Heiji. What a puzzle. "Let's just say he took a somewhat aggressive approach to the room." He punched Bluebell. That's what happened. He's an idiot.

"I'm glad the three of you didn't take a similar approach." He was pretty sure Snake and Sasuke would be good, Ema... well, she had her moments with life choices.

And clearly he's worried about Heiji because that's who Hershel's worried about. "Sasuke's right, you should rest here, Heiji, I'll go try to find Alfendi, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," said Heiji, not without a bit of grumbling. He sat down in the grass and looked over at Sasuke. You see what he had to deal with, Sasuke? At least you weren't BFFs with this guy.

"I got something to tell ya anyway, Sasuke. About Clive's room."

An aggressive approach, huh... He's not sure if Alfendi is brave or just very, very reckless. It... does explain why no one got hurt nearly as badly though.

Although he looks curious at Heiji's words, his eyes flicker back to Hershel. Specifically, his wrist. The board hadn't escaped his notice, but he'd wanted to get that gash cleaned out as soon as possible, considering where it came from.

"Mm... But make sure you take it easy yourself, okay?" He doesn't know exactly how long Hershel's been going without food, but he's got a feeling it's been more or less since that first room this round. He'd mentioned giving supplies to Alfendi-- had that been it?

He offered Sasuke a smile. "I will, hopefully I'll be back soon enough with Alfendi."

And with that he nodded to them before heading off to adventure aka idk probably not finding Alfendi and getting distracted by stupid things, enjoy. If you want him back at any point you know where to find me.

"Don't let him get too excited," called Heiji, waving as Hershel left. Not... very likely, in his placid state, but one never knew with Alfendi.

Then he turned back to Sasuke. "I talked to Clive about the blue room. He said it happened almost exactly the same way it did in our room. He described a girl that looked and behaved just like Alessa. And the other girl, she looked the same, too. I mean, they gave him the exact same story and scenario..."

He nods as Hershel leaves, even if it's with only the barest frown. Hopefully he'll actually take that to heart...

The news from Heiji, however, clearly has him confused. "Alessa went through all of the same motions again?" But... that would mean...

"--It was faked?" But... how? And why? Had they just been actors, working with Zero all along? Or was there something else going on here?

"I don't know," said Heiji, looking thoughtful. "She's clearly a good actor. But... why would she agree to play along with a scenario like that, what with puttin' the bracelet on and everything? And exposing herself to danger with that hair dryer? I suppose the bracelet coulda been fake. And the other girl coulda been in on it, too. But her expression seemed so convincing..."

"There are a couple other possibilities, I guess. You know how Calhoun can erase our memories. I don't think it's that far-fetched to assume he can take away specific ones just like he can give us back whichever ones he chooses. If he wiped their memories up to a certain point each time, they wouldn't even know they were repeatin' the same scene. I doubt they'd act exactly the same each time, but most of the responses we had to choose from were canned..."

"She did know more than she was supposed to, erased memories or not." As Heiji had pointed out before. "...Would the hair dryer have even worked? Zero could have just shut off the power if she needed to stay safe. Or if she works for him, he could have told her that's what he would do." Even if he didn't need her alive, that didn't necessarily prevent him from convincing her of as much.

"Maybe, maybe not. It did work when it needed to for the puzzle. I know if it were me, I'd need to be pretty damn sure I wasn't gonna get electrocuted before I'd even think about buzzing around a setup like that. And it goes without sayin' that I wouldn't trust the word of someone who's a kidnapper and accessory to murder." Of course, Simon had cooperated, but Simon had actually seemed to like Calhoun or Zero, for some sick reason. Alessa had mostly seemed keen on escape...

"Oh yeah. Not everyone knows this, but a lot of modern hair dryers have an immersion protection device, precisely because they posed an electrocution hazard. 'Course, that particular model didn't seem likely to have those features."

"Anyway. There are a couple of things that are botherin' me about that room. Clive said that they called her on that other girl, just like we did. And she promised to 'return the favor' and stormed over into their room, just like she did with us. But in their case, Jake hid behind the door. She saw Clive and went for him, but then Jake showed up and knocked her out from behind. Instantly, was what Clive said. After that was when they all got put to sleep by Calhoun.

"Only, don't that strike you as a little odd? Jake was injured pretty badly in the second grey room. Granted, that was about a month ago, but I saw the explosion. I doubt he's completely healed yet. He did have the advantage of strength and surprise, of course..."

Heiji crossed his arms. "But she got both of us without too much trouble, didn't she? And not to brag, but we ain't exactly the world's biggest pushovers. That level of physicality ain't normal for a girl her size. And why'd she come after us at all, instead of just tryin' to escape? I'm willing to believe she ain't know exactly who to find in our room; she had a western name and most westerners don't know which Japanese names are male or female. But that's even more reason to back off. She didn't seem stupid, so she must've had the confidence that she coulda taken us, no matter who we were."

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