CALHOUN HOUR - CHOICE

[vivariummods]

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

Comments

[fairsfair]

[ You know what's great? Tear gas. A ton and ton of it (or at least something similar that gives just about the same symptoms) all flowing right out of Jake's elevator once the doors open. Jake staggers right after and is in nothing but a coughing fit. Typical of being exposed to tear gas, his eyes are shut tight and tearing up in some feeble attempt to provide relief (so if you ever wanted to see him cry, well, happy birthday). Breathing is hardly a thing and so is trying to get anywhere. He may have been stuck in this shitty warehouse for over two months, but like hell he knows this place like the back of his hand. Disorientation and pain doesn't help, so the best thing he can do right now is to try and just stumble away from his elevator and find a wall or something. This probably isn't his first time experiencing tear gas, even if he has no recollection of it, so he at least knows not to rub his eyes or anything, but there is no way that he's used to dealing with this. ]

[ So do whatever you want, find him shortly after he gets out or way later when he's somewhat better. The gas that Zero used is apparently some custom shit so he's going to be blinded for some days. That's totally what he needs in his life. ]

[ (PS: Did you also know that intense anger is apparently one observed symptom of tear gas? Go figure.) ]

[puzzlinglad]

[hey bud, not doing so well huh. have hershel pretty much right after they get out, since there's pretty clearly something wrong over there.]

Jake? What's wrong, are you- [he's just gonna go to jake's side, and holy shit your face looks bad.] Bloody- is there anything I can do?

[fairsfair]

[ Trying to get him to talk while he's having a coughing fit. Yes, that's a good idea, Hershel, but they can play a good game of charades. He cups a hand like he's holding a bottle and repeatedly motions it as if he's drinking. He's not really saying that he needs something to drink, but more like that he just needs fucking water in general. It's not super effective against tear gas, but it's the best thing he can use right now. ]

[puzzlinglad]

[hey, maybe the coughing fit would stop, but charades are a good idea.]

Right, of course. [he answers immediately, pulling out a bottle of water from his bag and taking Jake's hand to place it in it.] Do you want me to bring you to one of the sinks? Or the garden?

[fairsfair]

[ He takes hold of the water bottle. He's not going to use it right now (or really use it at all, since he was mostly motioning that he be taken somewhere with water), but he will grip it like some kind of stress ball, to keep himself grounded. He tries not to stick too close to Hershel because yeah, it's real easy to spread this, so he waves him off. He will manage to croak out an answer to his question though. ]

Garden.

[ Just lead and he'll try to follow... ]

[puzzlinglad]

Right, right- [Hershel reaches out, grasping the end of Jake's sleeve. that was a good enough guide without getting to close, right? After that he carefully tries to lead him to where they need to go, up some stairs that was probably fun, giving instructions as needed.

mostly he was trying to be quick about it, so it probably wouldn't take too long to get to the garden and the water.] Here, it's over hear. [He pulls Jake's sleeve so his hand is reaching towards the water]

[fairsfair]

[ He would have preferred to be lead to the Garden without being dragged along like some child, but with his state... he doesn't really have a lot to say in it (literally). Plus, he supposes it would have been a lot more of a pain in the ass to go upstairs without the help, so he lets it slide for this time. ]

[ He just nods. His coughing has slightly died down, but he remains quiet, so he just dips the tips of his fingers into the water, to confirm that he really is right next to the little stream. With that, using his sense of hearing, he walks towards the waterfall and just... starts to strip. Off goes his gloves, his jacket, his shirt, shoes, socks, everything asides from underwear because he's not a goddamn savage okay. With that, he gets right under the freezing cold waterfall and just stands there, head upwards. It hurts like a goddamn motherfucker and he's absolutely freezing, there is no way that he's not going to catch a cold or something, but he'd rather deal with sneezing and coughing over having these chemicals burn his skin. So, yeah, have fun doing nothing while Jake goes and does this. ]

[detectiveofthewest]

Shit, man. That looked a whole lot worse than pepper spray. But Heiji... couldn't say anything, so. The best he could do was make a bit of noise, hold a water bottle out and bump Jake's hand with it.

Hopefully, Jake was smart enough to realize someone was there and what they were holding. Hopefully, Jake would not just dramatically smack the bottle out of Heiji's hands, sending it flying across the room where it would idk hit Clive.

[fairsfair]

Well, Heiji, smartness did not have anything to do with this. When you were just suffering from some PTSD nonsense a week ago and just got tear gassed, you were slightly more paranoid than normal, so you bet he was going to smack the bottle out of Heiji's hand. It was one thing if it was given to him so he could grasp it, but it was another to just bump it against him.

It better hit Clive in the goddamn head, he deserved it, that punk.

[detectiveofthewest]

This was kind of exasperating, actually -- Jake couldn't tell what he was trying to do, and Heiji couldn't tell him. But he couldn't just dump the contents of the water on Jake's face, right? It would probably just result in a wet, angry Jake. Okay so maybe that was only one adjective off from normal Jake, but the point was Jake probably wouldn't appreciate it and it would be rude.

He retrieved the water bottle, and just to make sure Jake didn't smack it away again, this time he put a hand on Jake's wrist to hold him still long enough to put the water bottle in his hand.

[fairsfair]

Putting a hand on his wrist was probably not the best way to go at this. If he smacked the bottle away when he was only poked with it, what made you think that he would react less severely to being held?

With his other hand, he grabbed onto Heiji's wrist and harshly pulled it away from himself, holding it up in front of him. He thankfully didn't do anything further than that, but he had one hell of a killer grip, so this probably wasn't comfortable at all for Heiji.

[detectiveofthewest]

Look, Jake, normal human beings didn't grab people when they were tear gassed, at best they kind of cried and maybe rolled around a little on the floor GOD why couldn't you be normal for once instead of a big slab of beef jerky.

Heiji didn't have a noodly Hershel gentleman wrist, but this still a) came as a surprise, and b) hurt, enough that he temporarily forgot that he wasn't allowed to talk. "Ow! Chill out, I'm just tryin' to --"

Well, that was a mistake. The bracelet gave him another painful shock at once, and because Jake was currently (heh heh) holding his wrist, guess who was also getting electrocuted?

[fairsfair]

What defined someone as "normal"? Under what customary traditions do we look to see what was considered as an average human being? Were we suppose to look towards religious scriptures, or towards history, for our answers? Tell us, Tetra, just where was the line drawn between normality and beef jerky?

Back to actual matters though, Jake was more than ready to back off the moment Heiji talked, but using electrocution to get him off? That seemed to be a bit too much. He pulled back sharply with a loud hiss, shaking his hand.

"What the hell--" Goddammit, he didn't need this, he was already in pain through the tear gas, aaaaaaaaaaaa.

[skyentificmethod]

[well, worrying about coming up on jake unseen is kind of a non-issue at this point but it's easy enough to hear when ema is coming because that group drag queen alternate outfit request hasn't gone through yet. she stops a bit in front of him, pausing as if contemplating the situation. now, there hasn't been any squawking yet so there is a very low chance of irritable mother henning incoming, though that in itself may be odd.]

Everything okay?

[ask a stupid question...]

[fairsfair]

[ What a very thoughtful question. Jake is still coughing up a storm, standing a few feet away from his elevator but not at a wall just yet, but he'll manage to wheeze out a few words in response. ]

Just fan-- [ cough ] --fucking-tastic. [ cough cough, he spits on the ground ] Thanks for asking.

[skyentificmethod]

It's no big deal. ...You need some water?

[which she digs in her bag and offers, how uncharacteristically straightforward. of course it's not like she mentioned having done it or made any concession to him potentially not being able to see it, whoops]

[fairsfair]

[ He doesn't try to talk anymore than that, more focused on breathing, but he just nods his head. He needs a lot of water than just one in a bottle, but hell, he'll take what he can get right now. Since he can't see anything, she can hold out her water bottle for as long as she wants. He's not going to reach for it. ]

[skyentificmethod]

[they stand there for a while, it's kind of awkward. then the creaky gears start whirring into motion and she presses the bottle into his hand.]

The water fountain is just down the hall. Um, on your 11, I guess.

[fairsfair]

[ The awkward and prolonged silent standing is not particularly noticed by Jake, or of it is, he doesn't seem bothered by it at all. He just takes the bottle from her her and unscrews the cap. He tilts his head upward and pours the water slowly onto his eyes. He lets out a hiss as he does so, and with this small amount of water, it honestly doesn't really help much, but it's some sort of cold relief. ]

[ He coughs then spits on the ground again. He then shakes his head. ]

Stairs.

[ Tell him which direction the stairs or elevator are, so he can head up the Garden instead. ]

[blind_badass]

*Snake wasn't an altruistic person by nature. However, after hearing from Hershel that Jake had been blinded by tear gas, he knew he could offer some unique assistance in Jake's predicament. He found Jake sometime later in the garden with thanks to Hershel.*

I realize you're more than capable of dealing with hardship but I thought I might be able to give you some advice on your temporary condition. If you needed it.

[fairsfair]

[ At this point, Jake has changed into a different outfit (his old clothes probably need to be washed at least three or four times before it's suitable to wear again) and has seated himself next to the opening of the stream. Losing his eyesight has only added to his paranoia that unfortunately comes with recent PTSD nonsense, so he's not going to be super friendly for the next while (not that he was already friendly in the first place). ]

Yeah? Hershel tell you that I need it?

[ He figures it that's probably Hershel only because that guy is like a motherhen so ughhhhh ]

[blind_badass]

He told me I could ask you if you needed help and it would be up to you decide. *Snake didn't remember what he'd done as a child to deal with being permanently blinded but he could guess a high degree of frustration being involved.*

Can you see light and shadow at all?

[fairsfair]

[ Dammit Hershel, he didn't need this motherhenning. Jake wasn't exactly too thrilled to be treated like he suddenly needs help, but he'll entertain Snake for now. ]

Nothing. Can barely even open my eyes.

[blind_badass]

Then keep them closed for now. It may just help them recover.

Zero has certainly outdone himself this time. You can't see, Heiji can't talk, Clive can't hear, who knows what's wrong with Hershel and Zero decided that I needed to know what having a shoulder dislocated felt like. I believe we all could have done without this kind of sensory deprivation.

[fairsfair]

[ He was going to do exactly that. The burning sensation from Zero's custom tear gas hasn't completely disappeared left, so Jake didn't want to try forcing his eyes open. ]

Guess he's trying to show that we can't mess with him. [ Maybe burning Calhoun's paw with the other members of the Original Green Team was a bad idea, oops. ] Hope it's not actually making you miss Calhoun though.