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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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]

If you didn't make such great faces, I wouldn't have to be.

[a girl has needs, and hassling kids in red vest ensembles is one of them. however, staring at this robohand party ema's smirk fades into a grimace]

And here I thought it'd be something useful. I feel doubly cheated. Let's go see if that fruitcake was edible.

[ what a good conversation you guys are having... jake will not say anything and just make a face at the paw. ]

Yeah, what a waste of time. Let's go back an I'll go set up a fire and we can have a big feast.

[ toooottally not interested in getting that calhoun part. zero can go fuck himself ]

You're impossible... [his life is suffering.]

[but on the subject of things that aren't that, he kind of glances between them.] Shouldn't we at least try to get it? [he's not really calhoun's biggest fan but he kind of felt bad for the asshole, being groped by a bunch of weird legs and arms. also apparently being ripped apart probably wasn't great either.] Not that helping Zero in any way seems like an appealing idea.

Nope. It actually sounds like the complete opposite of an appealing idea.

...Guess we could burn the whole lot? One of those bottles had to be cooking oil or booze, right?

Gonna have to agree with her with this one. Burning it sounds way more appealing, so check if we have anything flammable in the bucket.

[ he's talking to you hershel, get busy ]

I'm not really sure that's a good idea either, to be frank. [when it's clear Jake's talking to him about that he sighs but doesn't put up a fight. truly he did all he could to stop this from happening so it's fine.]

[he rifles through the junk they found, pulling out a bottle that looks like cheap cooking oil in a noxious yellow color.] We have this, it looks both flammable and toxic. [he holds it out to whoever wants this prize]

Don't be silly, this is an excellent learning experience. Now, let's start our experiment of how fire affects semi-sentient robot limbs.

[flipping down her glasses, she'll take the oil and make some generous splashes over the pile of robot limbs, which seem much less interested in her now. Then she pours a little "wick" of a trail back towards them for easier lighter usage.]

Light it up.

[.... hm.]

She's a little terrifying sometimes, isn't she? [he doesn't have a lighter, have fun there, Jake.]

You kidding? She's way more likeable like this.

[ he seems a bit too pleased that he gets to do the honours of setting these things on fire so he grabs his lighter and away we gooo. ]

[ the arms and foot frantically jump and roll around the given area in an attempt to put themselves out. they don't have much success however and the fire seems to do the trick for two of the hands, rendering them motionless. as for the foot... well, it starts to hop towards the group like it has some fiery vengeance towards the culprits. it's still very much on fire so uhhhhh ]

Fascinating...

[though as much as the flaming foot's impression of the evil T-1000 is interesting to watch, it's still coming towards them, on fire. So she grabs her mop and swings it like a golf club, knocking the foot over and leaving a slight trail of flames where the oil dripped off. Then she just tries whacking on it because fuck robots, honestly]

You're both mental... [Hershel wasn't really sure what to do at this point besides hover and watch Ema beat up a flaming foot with a mop. not really on the top of his list of things he ever expected to see but she seemed to have it covered. mostly.]

I wonder why the foot was able to keep moving of all things. [fascinating is right.]

It tried to get one step ahead, but going toe-to-toe, I shoe'd it what for.

[ema steps back to see if the foot has calmed itself down any, or if her mop had caught fire, or is someone else wanted to beat up robofeet idk you take the entertainment you can get in a murder warehouse]

[ ... well, that was one hell of a sight. Watching Ema beat a foot to death, hm, well, still probably not the weirdest thing Jake has ever seen. The foot is defeated, but the mod is indeed on fire. It's not too big of a deal, though, or at least Jake doesn't think so since he just groans at Ema's terrible jokes. ]

You're getting a real kick out of this, aren't you?

Oh for goodness's sake, are you two done? [he's never been more disgusted in his entire life probably. then:]

I think your mop's a little- [he gestures to it. you know, on fire. better take care of that before more puns are to be had.]

DOUBLE BLIND

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