vivarium | DOUBLE BLIND

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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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Fine. Let's finish up in here, if we don't get moving soon, they'll be making that stew out of us.

[she stuffs another few bottles and jars into the overflowing bucket, piling on some of the less-distressing looking bags of frozen stuff as well. after some consideration, she takes the head, though at least she doesn't put it with the other food.]

Hopefully some of this stuff'll be useful, or at least edible....

[ Jake gets to seeing if he can stuff any cans into his pockets to help, since that bucket isn't going to hold as much as they want it to. He does notice that Ema takes the head and cue icon. ]

Those are my gloves you're using to pick up that head, you know.

[ dude, now they're going to have dead guy on it. he needs those ]

What are you even doing with it, anyway? I was joking about the human stew.

If it is real we should... you know, bury it. Or something. [that'd be a fun thing for some poor unsuspecting person to dig up in the garden, so why not. what could go wrong.]

[she has the grace to look at least a little sheepish]

One, it's in a bag, so calm down. It is very unlikely the bag is made of people. Two, I thought I might try to autopsy it, if whatever it is survives defrosting. Maybe there's some sort of clue. [honestly she doesn't sound very confident on that point but continues anyway] Either way, do we want it in here with what they're presumably feeding us?

...That was what I was thinking, at least.

[ yeah, hershel, that's such a great idea. let the new test subjects come in and dig it up. nothing wrong there ]

Fair enough.

[ he does have to admit that leaving it in here with the rest of the food is an idea he likes. he looks around a bit more, seeing if he can grab anything else, then notices that, oh... well... look at this, it's an arm. what is the best way to respond to this? scream? yelp? ]

Then you want to grab this too?

[ nope, just point to it casually. ]

For goodness's sake- maybe we should just make a collection of bodyparts? I don't really like leaving them here but-

[He's got nothing. sigh.] Can we at least be careful the others don't have to see these if we do bring more out? Everything's unpleasant enough.

It's pretty dark, no one has to see them. But if they're real, they should be destroyed, not in here potentially contaminating our gruel.

--And yeah, I'll take it. I could use a hand around here.

[you asked for that, jake, pun and all. she walks up to grab the hand

it grabs back]

[ that was awful. he knew that she should have left ema out of this, no matter how handy she was. in fact, he was about to groan about it, make a comment or a pun in return because that is his life, but then attack of the hand starts. ]

What the hell--

[ he doesn't waste any time to grab onto the other end of the arm to pull, but it's as effective as, well, trying to pull off a gripping hand. hershel, get to work and pry these fingers off ]

[yeah, why wouldn't this happen. hershel stares a moment before hurrying forward to try and unpry the fingers. that works great, since it's a robot, and sorry ema but it probably just makes the hand dig in tighter.]

Sorry! Um, well- [??? what do they do about this]

[Ema works to catch up more than just 'wtf just happened' and 'ow'. eventually thinking happens]

Try--grabbing its wrist, I think I can wriggle out of the glove.

[she hoped she could, at least... time to work her arm back and give it a try]

[ great, that's one glove that he's going to lose forever in the grips of Thing. he does what she suggests though, and tries to grab its wrist to yank it off, but do you know is worse than just one hand? ]

[ multiple hands ]

[ enjoy that robotic grip on your ankle, hershel. there's probably more around so just go crazy ]

Oh for goodness's sake... [yeah, about expected that. he stumbles back against one of the shelves, probably making some of the things drop, general clatter. there's not a whole lot he can do besides try to kick the stubborn thing off, since it didn't seem to realize he wasn't what they were looking for yet.]

Jake, there's more of these things, be careful! [what if one found a knife and stabbed a shower curtain at them.]

[why this, why is it always robots]

[she's finally able to pull her way out of the glove, stumbling back and hugging her hand to her chest. seriously, robots are the worst]

You okay--

[a foot comes kicking at her next; how many of these things are there?]

We need to get out of here! Can you get the door?

[ jake throws the arm down and stomps on it for good measure (he doesn't dare to go and pick up his glove). he also has these asshole hands clinging to his legs, but really, he'll get the door first then worry about pulling them off. just like last time, it's no problem to get it open but he can't hold it open forever. get you and your dumb mop bucket out of here. ]

Hurry it up!

Hershel, you go first, this thing might take longer to get through.

[the bucket is rather unwieldy, especially for people covered in handsy, angry robot parts that seem to be twitching towards the exit even as they are completely uninterested in removing themselves from whatever limbs they're attached to, how rude]

Fighting bloody sentient feet- [What a life. He looks like he's about to argue that ema should go first but he only hesitates a moment before deciding maybe he should waste time arguing about it. so with his friend the arm trying to crawl it's way up his leg and trip him up he hurries through the door.]

[once he's out he turns to try help her through for whenever she decides to try joining him. with half a torso with one arm trying to get closer you two better hurry up, it's getting increasingly horror movie in there.]

[with Hershel's help, she shoves the bucket of food forward, the disembodied foot kicking right after and actually forcing it the rest of the way through the space. At least those things are good for something?? Ema slips through after, ignoring any other hangers-on.]

C'mon, Jake!

[ with the two of them through, jake slips himself through and lets the door shut loudly behind him. he still has to deal with the two grabby hands on him, but he's working on that right now, trying to peel them off his legs, get off you fuckers ]

Fucking Christ-- you two all right?

Yes, just a few... passengers. [at least they weren't real arms, that was kind of a plus in his book.]

What exactly are we supposed to do with these? They're a right nuisance. [he finally managed to get his stupid arm off as it was trying to further climb up his leg, holding it elbow out and far away from him as it's fingers flailed about, looking for something to grab.]

Save them for Zero? What even happened, those things were turned off!

[with a grunt she kicked the robot foot that apparently had a thing for his shins; they had been working together so well before, how quickly these alliances are ended. It flies a few feet, before working itself upright and hopping off in a different direction from the three of them with a rather intent sense of purpose for a disembodied limb.]

...?

Maybe you can ask our friend Zero once we get out of here.

[ he tosses the limbs onto the ground, stomping on them for good measure. it doesn't have a large effect on them as they flip themselves over and start crawling in the same general direction as the foot. maybe the hand that hershel is holding is attempting to follow them too, who knows ]

... Who wants to see what's up with that?

[ following the disembodied limbs seemed like totally a good idea ]

[Hershel let the hand drop just to see if it would follow the others, and it did. strange and probably unpleasant. he glances between Ema and Jake before offering a small smile.]

Was there ever a chance we'd do the smart thing and leave them be? [and he starts following. blame curiosity. you two coming?]

Tsk, I thought you were a gentleman. Letting your limbs go wild in the dark is never the right thing to do, Hershel. At least, not without confirmation it's okay.

[nope, no situation is too dire for potentially scandalising poor Brits. she grabs the mop--never hurts to be armed against...arms ugh whatever--and follows after these roaming hands, it is time to grope towards the truth]

[ jake wants to make some sort of comment on how a mop isn't going to really help them against robotic limbs but he will just keep his mouth shut (for once) to follow behind the two. ]

[ at the end of this nonsense, there seems to be a small fight among the limbs. the hands are all trying to pull "something" towards themselves while the foot is just going well fuck i'm a foot how do i partake in this. ]

[ this "something" looks like a very familiar paw of your favourite rodent ]

[glad to see your priorities in order, as always. he most certainly turns a little red when the implication sets in] ... what- oh, Ema, don't be so crass.

[now that he's properly scandalized he can notice the thing their friends the sentient limbs are going after. he squints, stares then realizes-] Is... that's Calhoun's arm, isn't it? [and he thought this couldn't get any weirder]

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