vivarium | CALHOUN HOUR

It has been two and a half days since the end of the virus takeover. The power, lights, and heating has been turned back on. All the newer areas have been sealed, BP is once again required in certain rooms, and it appears that everything is returning back to normal.

Asides from Calhoun.

Whether characters have chosen to give pieces of Calhoun to Zero, to hold onto them, or to destroy them, it does not matter. There has been no indications as to when he would ever be back, so there has been a robotic mouse void within the warehouse. Zero has refused to leave any information as to the status of rebuilding Calhoun, but they have left this one message for everyone shortly after the power restoration:

"While you may be left alone to your devices, do not trick yourselves into thinking that there is a way out of here, or that you can do as you please. I will always be watching."

It has been two days since Zero has left these parting words before entirely disappearing. When attempting to call for them, everyone will only be responded with silence. It's clear that they're still watching over the facility though, as any kind of rule breaking or suspicious activities would automatically be rewarded with an injection of Soporil β. True to their word, Zero is somehow monitoring the behaviors without saying a single word.

It is not until the morning of Day 72 does everyone hear again from them again, through the speakers throughout the warehouse.

"Good morning, Subjects. Today, you will be partaking in another experiment of mine. It has come to my knowledge that my assistant has been throwing these so-called "Calhoun Hours" every three days to keep everyone stimulated between his rooms. Don't assume that I will do anything similar of the sort. This activity has far more care and thought put into it than this camping nonsense, so let us begin."

"The rules are simple: every test subject will be paired up and placed against each other. The collective will then have to vote for one of the pair. The one with the fewest amount of votes will be subjective to a punishment of my choice. The one with the most amount of votes will continue their dull experimental lives until the next set of events."

"Any petty attempts of rebellion will be met with serious repercussions, so I would suggest that you rethink any sort of plans."

"Now, best of luck, Subjects. We will talk again soon."

BASIC INFO ✖ MINGLE ✖ VOTES ✖ RESULTS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Alfendi just fell into a coma again, too, didn't he?" Is he really going to be alright...?

"...We might just need to be ready to pool our BP. I don't know if either of them can survive getting hurt again in conditions like this."

Heiji nodded. "Yeah. But tell you the truth, I'm really more worried about Clive. He asked me to vote for whoever the other half of his pair is. His reasoning was that he already can't walk, and if his partner ends up hamstrung, too, they'll both of them be outta luck.

"...And I can understand that. If I was in that situation, I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt on my account. I'd wanna take all the risk for myself, 'cause I'd know I'd be able to take it. Still..."

Sasuke doesn't look especially pleased to hear that, for some mysterious reason.

"What will we do if it takes him out completely? Even if it doesn't kill him, it could mean trouble when he has to do rooms again. He already can't walk... and with the way rooms have been lately, that's a huge disadvantage."

Heiji shook his head. "I don't know. I'm sure Hershel'd say, 'Look how much Zero's invested in us already, he wouldn't kill us for no reason'. Ema slept right through our room, and she came through that one unscathed. Alfendi was in a coma and didn't get injured till he woke up and decided to punch Bluebell. But that Enjolras fella, he got stabbed by a trap while he was out. It's a gamble, ain't it? What he's askin'. He could end up fine... or he could end up a lot worse off than he is now.

"...But I do know that Clive knew what he was askin' for when he made that request. He ain't a dummy, and he knows what he's risking. That much I can say for him, at least." Honestly, Heiji was kind of impressed with Clive's resolve, even if it was completely nuts.

"The question's what to do about it, yeah? If he and Alfendi end up paired together, either one of them could be hosed."

"My guess is worse. I got hurt by that... thing, just because I was too slow. Besides that, don't you think it seems like the rooms are getting worse with each round? The first one I did had traps, but those were easier to avoid with logic than the monster." ...Nevermind that his group didn't really do much on the logic side for that room, on top of accidentally setting the rest of the traps off.

"If he ends up paired with Alfendi, that's one thing, but... I don't think it's worth it to risk putting him in more danger than he already is. Zero might not kill us himself, but I don't think he'll help us if one of us is in danger of dying from our injuries."

Heiji sighed. "Honestly, I don't think the previous rounds are our problem. The real issue is who's running 'em now. Which is Zero, of course."

Eat shit, Zero.

"...No matter what we do, there's no way of making sure it turns out okay. We don't know what the punishment is, after all. I don't think Zero'd arrange things so that there'd be a puzzle group consisting of only the ones who're comatose or can't walk, but I wouldn't stake anyone's life on that."

"Things have already changed pretty drastically from Calhoun's games." Not that those were always a walk in the park, but they weren't like... this. All of them could, in theory, make it out unscathed. And if this is what the break period is like...

He really isn't looking forward to the rooms, either.

"...I think I'll still try to vote for anyone who's injured. As much as I can, anyway." The dreaded Alfendi vs. Clive matchup would really screw that one up, but he'll make the attempt at the very least. He'd really prefer not to risk it if at all possible.

"And I gotta talk to the others... if it turns out both sides of a pair want different things, it's gonna be a problem."

Yeah, Clive/Snake pair. How dare you!

"How have people told you to vote so far?" He doesn't expect it to affect his own votes, personally, but...

"Well, Jake told me mostly just to vote for someone else. Probably pullin' some tough guy routine. Hershel said the same thing, but you know how he is. He's worried about Alfendi and Clive, too."

What a bunch of losers, all asking to save someone else...

"...In a way, that's good though, isn't it? It means no one is falling for Zero's trap." He has no doubt that this is supposed to turn them against each other, but there's only so much you can do when everyone seems to agree that they would be willing to take the fall for the others instead.

Heiji sighed. "Yeah, but I don't think anyone would. If there weren't any injuries, it'd be a little different... but I still don't think it'd change anyone's mind too much. That's the thing about Zero showin' himself like this. It gives everyone someone in common to dislike."

"...It may be that his timing is too late. We've all had a lot of time to learn to trust each other, and none of us trust Zero at all."

If he had approached the group with something like this from the start, maybe it would have been different, but as it is... It's hard to goad a group that's already been able to build bonds.

Well, not except for Simon, anyway, and look what had happened to him...

"I'm sure Zero's going to do his best, though, regardless. I think it'd be a good idea not to relax about it." Keeping up morale and supporting each other was an active task; Heiji knew this firsthand.

Look, we just. Don't. Talk about Simon.

"I don't plan to. Especially when we have no idea what those punishments are going to be..."

It'd be nice if they were the type that could be treated with medical kits, given how much BP they'd all amassed by now, but somehow he isn't the most hopeful on that front.

CALHOUN HOUR - CHOICE

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