vivarium | DOUBLE BLIND

Shortly after the conversation with Zero ends, Zero opens the doors of the Garden and allows everyone to leave. However, the rest of the warehouse isn't better than the Garden:

The lights are still off, leaving everyone surrounded in darkness. The temperature just keeps on dropping, reaching near freezing point. The air feels more and more polluted, making it difficult to breathe without coughing, and nothing seems to be working as they should be. The electronic doors refuse to open without any power source, cutting off access to the cafeteria and dorms. At the very least, Zero has managed to open all the doors leading to puzzle rooms and has informed the group that new areas are now accessible to them, but they're on their own should they want to enter any other rooms.

Before the screens in the Garden turn off, Zero finally informs them that a new feature has been unlocked on their bracelets: any test subject wearing a bracelet may communicate with one another with the bracelet acting as a communication device. Holding onto the left button will enable the line to open just like a walkie-talkie. As long as test subjects are in the warehouse, they will have no troubles speaking with one another. What if they wish to talk to Zero? Zero's time is not be riffled, but they were generous enough to appear whenever anyone found a screen and pressed the on button a total of three quick successions.

And with that, Zero disappears from the grids and finally leaves everyone in complete darkness, leaving only one last piece:

"Best of luck, Test Subjects."

BASIC INFO ✖ MISSIONS ✖ MINGLE

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The atmosphere was positively horror movie, and it was probably telling that even with all they'd been through and continuously went through that the air made Hershel a little uneasy. He was about to make a comment to Heiji to that effect, maybe get ribbed a little for being a big baby, but then something caught his eye from the pool and-

"Bloody h--" What was he going to say? We'll never know, because in order to dodge this ridiculous nonsense he pushed himself to the side, forgetting the wet surface of the area around the pool, and slipped straight into the water. This probably left poor Heiji defenseless against the vengeful arms seeking purchase on the edge of the pool, climbing, searching, knowing it's prey was near.

IT WAS HIM

IT WAS THAT SHITLORD WANKER OCTOPUS, Heiji didn't know for absolutely sure of course because all octopi pretty much looked the same but he was pretty confident in his deduction because several of this octopus's arms looked a bit shorter than the others and also it was apparently out to get Hershel. He went for Hershel at once, but slipped on some of the water that had splashed onto the tiled surface around the pool and fell.

Through the pain, he realized that he'd instinctively grabbed at the pool net. They couldn't fight that aquatic menace, not on its own turf (HOW DID IT SURVIVE IN THE POOL WEREN'T OCTOPI SALTWATER MONSTERS). But maybe he could drag Hershel toward the shallow end where they'd have a better chance?

He thrust the net end of the pole into the water. "Hershel, grab onto the pole! I'm gonna haul you to the shallow end!"

"How does the bloody thing survive in chlorine?!" That was the important thing Hershel decided to yell when he surfaced. It may not have been the most logical use of his energy but it had to be done. He was so done with this octopus. So done.

After sputtering a bit- at least he could apparently swim, that was good to know- he turned to where he heard Heiji. "Yes, alright-" He answered, grabbing for the pole.

The octopus wasn't done with you yet though, dude, it reared its fearsome tentacles and tried to wrap around Heiji's leg, any attempt at getting a grip on him to... who knows. Nefarious purposes, no doubt.

Maybe if Alessa hadn't STABBED HEIJI IN THE LEG EARLIER, Heiji could have gotten out of the way faster. As it was, though, now he had an octopus half-wrapped around his calf and half-wrapped around Hershel and this was not ideal. He nearly tripped over the thing, but managed to keep his balance and drag himself toward the shallow end of the pool, which was still tranquil and nice and ended in stairs that went up maybe and did not yet know the horror that was octopus fights.

Luckily, it seemed like he could make fairly good headway with the octopus dividing its attention between the two of them. It wasn't pretty but... maybe it would be all right? At least until the octopus thrashed around angrily and squirted ink at Hershel's hair. Now it was just being spiteful.

Hershel, meanwhile, was trying to pry the damn thing off one of them at least. Preferably Heiji, given the situation, but besides sputtering and just punching at an octopus there wasn't all that much he could do. Shockingly hitting the octopus only really made it spit ink around, so yes, what was a helpful thing he did.

Ink in his hair at that. This was the worst thing ever. At least in the shallow end he was able to pull himself out of the pool, looking like a drowned sheepdog that somehow got covered in ink, picture that for a second. "Heiji, hit it with the-" He tried, and was immediately shut up because of ink. Seriously man. He hoped this shit washed off.

Heiji got the picture and smacked the octopus with the blunt end of the net. Under the combined assault, the octopus reluctantly began to loosen its grip. Heiji was able to pull free of its tentacles, at least, and he continued bludgeoning the angry cephalopod as best he could.

"C'mon, give it up...!"

The assault sent ink everywhere, so enjoy that buddies, but eventually the shitty little thing fell back into the water. Hershel immediately pushed away from the pool and up onto the wall, half expecting it to come back. When it didn't immediately he let out a sigh.

"That can't be a real octopus! It must... it must be one of those robots or something." He said after a moment, shivering as he stood. "For goodness's sake... are you alright? It didn't aggravate your leg, did it?"

"I think I'm okay," said Heiji, hiking up his pant leg a little, wow what an awesome adventure. "It just grabbed my calf. Great, now there was ink everywhere.

He tugged at Hershel's sleeve. "C'mon, let's... let's get outta here." God, it was like things got worse every time they ran into that thing. He limped away from the pool, looking over his shoulder just in case the octopus was up for round two or something.

"What about you, you hurt?" It was... hard to tell, Hershel was kind of drenched.

"I'm covered in ink." Hershel answered, as if that was an actual, useful response and not just complaining. He sighed. "No, I'm quite alright. Besides the ink." Octopus was a fucking asshole.

"Heiji-" He started as he got up, carefully trying to make his way to the entrance without anymore adventures. "-we are not going near bodies of water here again without a gameplan. It's too dangerous."

"I don't understand how it could even survive," said Heiji. "Octopi are saltwater organisms! It got eaten by a shark! What's it even doing here?"

And why

wasn't it

DEAD?

He just didn't even have anything insightful to say, just nodded. Agreed, dude, no more bodies of water. Who even knew when they would next encounter this menace.

DOUBLE BLIND

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