CALHOUN HOUR - CAMPING

[vivariummods]

It's another day, it's another start of Calhoun Hours. Bright and early in the morning, Calhoun marches into the middle of the first floor lobby and shrieks into his megaphone. "All right, up to the Garden with all of you! C'mon, hurry up, I'm not going to wait for you lazy bunch!" He impatiently taps on his paw on the ground, but then stops. "Hmm, actually, nah, take your time. I'll just meet you all there in a jiffy!" And with that, he rushes off to take the stairs to the Garden. Listen to him and slowly make your way, or rush up, it doesn't matter. After everyone assembles in the artificial room, Calhoun is standing by the waterfall, staring off into nothing. He just nods to himself a few times and doesn't even seem to notice the presence of the test subjects though. It's not until about ten seconds later that he turns and tilts his head. "Whoa, don't sneak up on me like that, test subjects! Sheesh, trying to give this mouse a heart attack?" He huffs but then slides back to his regular mood. "So! Today's event will be called camping! Yeah, I got no clever name for it, sue me, but whatever, go set up a tent or other prep-work. I couldn't bring in all the supplies for this so you'll just have to make due until later tonight." He runs away from the waterfall, but manages to trip on nothing a few steps in. He stays on the ground, as if trying to trick everyone that he's going to stay there for a while, but then pushes himself back up to make his way to the centre of the Garden. He then raises his arms out, as if he's presenting something. "Even though I didn't manage to grab everything, I hope you like what I did to the place! Sure looks like a real campground, huh?" Asides from a few tent kits scattered around, there... isn't actually much at all. A few of the screen grids (that normally display the sky) are either turned off to a boring black colour or in a constant static display, but asides from that, everything looks exactly the same. Calhoun doesn't seem to really care though as he keeps on talking. "Soooooooooooooooooooo, get to it, or something. Do whatever you test subjects do during events like these, chip chop chap!!" BASIC INFO ✖ MINGLE

Comments

[detectiveofthewest]

"Only recently. I wonder if this has anything to do with him leavin' on that 'vacation' of his a little while ago. I assumed whoever made him was gonna do some maintenance on him, but he came back pretty quick."

Halfway through the instructions, it looked like the author had simply given up and started dumping random pictures and arrows on the paper. "Damn, these are worse than origami instructions. I think it's upside down."

[not_that_sasuke]

"I hear he froze up when he... overheard me. Back when I think you, Hershel, and Snake were at the shop." Because obviously Heiji couldn't have known what Sasuke was up to at that time, that was definitely a thing he did of his own initiative that was completely unrelated to the others' presences.

"Is it?" Figures. Like Calhoun would make this at all easy on them. Hopefully if they can just figure out at least one of them, they can just disregard the instructions for the rest.

[detectiveofthewest]

"He sure did. Which probably means he's got some kind of wireless communications setup. Fun, huh?" The tent pole Heiji was holding did its absolute best to snap up and jab him in the eye. It was like this thing had a mind of its own. Heiji ducked and scowled ferociously at it.

"Or... actually, no. Even if we turn it over, it don't have those pockets on the side. Hey, are these instructions for a different model?"

[not_that_sasuke]

Ohhh boy. Calhoun would, wouldn't he?

"...For now, shouldn't we focus on the stakes? There's loops on the top, so I think that's where the poles go." Probably. One hopes?

"Wireless connection... so if someone-" or something "-notices something up, they can transmit it to him?" Interesting that it appears to throw him off for a moment, though.

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji sighed. "I think we were supposed to lay out the tarp first." So... here he was, trying to find a patch of ground that was less lumpier than the other patches.

"I think that's the idea, yeah. Though that just leads to the another question, don't it? What exactly was he receivin'?"

[not_that_sasuke]

"...Will there even be space for all of these...?" It's not like the garden is super huge...

Well, at any rate, he'll grab the tarp, looking for a good place to put it.

"None of us had time to do anything. Maybe he noticed something elsewhere."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Trouble somewhere in the rest of the warehouse, maybe?" He didn't doubt it was a possibility. After all, if any of the other robots were as troublesome as Alessa...

"Seems like it'll be pretty tight. I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I can't believe this was why Calhoun shooed us outta the garden. I'd rather sleep in here than on the floor outside." Hmm, this patch of grass looked un-lumpy enough. "Hey, bring that tarp over here. This should do."

[not_that_sasuke]

A nod. "But I wonder what could have caused it...?" A problem with some of the other technology? Even the screens seem to be struggling today, for some reason.

He'll bring the tarp over however, helping to spread it out as best as he can. "It seems like he kept us out for a much longer time than it should take to give us all of this, didn't it?" All he did was toss around some camping supplies. Even the sleepover felt more elaborate.

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji laughed. "Wouldn't it be just perfect if what ended up bringin' this place down was technical problems? But yeah, he did seem like he took an awful long time. Maybe he was installin' something else in here?" He frowned, looking around at the garden. If there was something out of place, it wasn't immediately obvious...

Aww yeah, tarp spread. "And what're we supposed to use these tents for? We're already indoors. Some kinda game...?"

[not_that_sasuke]

"I wouldn't be surprised if he did." There's got to be more to this than setting up tents. "And knowing him, if there really is a game, it isn't going to be pleasant." Because apparently Calhoun's ideas of games generally includes pain and embarrassment, what a surprise.

"Technical problems could just make it worse for us, though. If something happened to the power and all the doors stayed locked, we'd starve." As much as he hates this place, he'd like it to continue being functional enough that they can survive - or at least have a shot at escaping.

If something happened to the surveillance equipment, on the other hand, he'd have no complaints.

[detectiveofthewest]

God Sasuke and everyone in this warehouse, way to be a downer. "If it makes ya feel better, I actually don't think it's all that likely that the power'd go down. Even if somethin' did happen to the main power source, everyone's got a back-up generator these days. I think it's more likely there'd be glitches in the warehouse -- like what we're seein' now. If there's one we could take advantage of, though... that's the one I'd be interested in."

Heiji threaded one of the poles into the sleeve along the outside of the tent. Aww yeah, check out this... mediocre tent construction job. Whatever.

[not_that_sasuke]

As if realizing something, Sasuke pauses in tent set up for a moment to glance over in Calhoun's direction. Hmm...

Crouching by the tent itself, he grabs another pole and gets to work putting it through the fabric. "It looks like he's spacing out again..."

Does that mean he's receiving information right now? Or is he distracted...?

[detectiveofthewest]

"Been doing that a lot today," said Heiji, frowning. "Big trouble in the little warehouse, maybe? Snake and I tried to talk to him before, but we didn't get anything outta him."

The tent was looking a little lopsided, but they could probably straighten it out.

[not_that_sasuke]

Yeah... probably.

"What did he say? Was he still acting weird when he spoke?"

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji frowned. "Not much. Just your basic vague insults, and then he just kinda stared off into space again. It was pretty creepy."

He tugged on the tent. Now it was lopsided in the other direction, but less lopsided overall than before. If one were to assign its lopsidedness an absolute value, that number would be less than it was originally. Perhaps it had been a -7 originally and was now a +5. That was an improvement of 2!

"It's... good enough, maybe?"

[not_that_sasuke]

"Strange... It doesn't seem like him to be so obviously out of it." Not with an entire group of people waiting for an opportunity to attempt an escape, that's for sure.

"...Well, if he sends robots after us, we probably can't do anything no matter what, but..."

He'll just. Tug it in the other direction again, trying to get that +5 down to maybe a +2 at the very least.

[detectiveofthewest]

"Yeah, except try and fight back the best we can. The worst part's the waiting." At least no one was asking them to smooch robots? Yet.

It was a +3 now. DID SASUKE WANT TO TEMPT FATE

DID HE

[not_that_sasuke]

IT'S ALL OR NOTHING

LET'S DO THIS.

Albeit more carefully than the hotblooded fervor of capslock may imply.

[detectiveofthewest]

THE TENT WAS NOW AT +2.5

BUT AT WHAT COST

Part of the tent sleeve holding the poles ripped. It was only on one side, and probably it wouldn't affect the structural integrity of the tent. After all, it was a fairly small tear.

"I hope no one'll mind," said Heiji. Look. No one had to know about this. AGREED?

[not_that_sasuke]

....Oops. He moves over to investigate the source of the ripping sound, frowning slightly.

"...Think it'll be okay?" It's just a small tear, but somehow, he feels like he just seriously screwed up something important.

[detectiveofthewest]

"Probably, as long as no one prods at it too much. Besides, these things are designed to take a little beating, right? Bein' outdoors, gettin' rained on... it's all part of the camping experience."

Probably.

"Speaking of camping, I'd trade Calhoun for a grilled fish." Maybe a saury, or a mackerel...

[not_that_sasuke]

Hopefully...

"They didn't really have any at... 'Christmas,' did they?" And... let's not even talk about the stuff in the maze, that was kind of crappy if you weren't careful. "You'll have enough BP for the dorms soon, right? After that you'll be able to get good quality food." If it takes so much BP, they've gotta have fish there.

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji shook his head. "Nah. They did have goose and ham and all that, though. Nuts, huh? I knew Christmas was important in America and England and so on, but it was somethin' else seein' all that fancy food piled up like that. Me, I'd be fine with a normal breakfast..."

God, Sasuke. Don't mention normal food. He wanted it so much you have no idea. "You should be worried about that, too, y'know. I bet that gross gruel ain't gonna help put many inches on ya."

[not_that_sasuke]

...?

"You managed to grow just fine with the cafeteria food. It doesn't taste good, but it seems to be enough." But then, height isn't a super huge concern for him, honestly.

[detectiveofthewest]

"Yeah," said Heiji, "But I eat a ton. You don't, so you should at least eat better quality food! Right?"

Shh Sasuke you need to grow up to be a tall handsome bishounen ninja.