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

[yup, totally nailed it, acting normal as can be. you're killing him here, he kind of hovers for a moment before standing.] Here, stay there, I'll get you some water, alright?

[off he goes to get water and food for the clearly not well Ema if she was blankly staring instead of yelling about Calhoun. in a few moments he's back, placing the tray in front of her.] Have some water, do you mind if a touch your forehead a moment? Just in case, if you're coming down with something.

I don't think I'm sick.

[but she submits to whatever fussing he wishes to do peacefully. she's a little warm but not that warm, and maybe her eyes are a little dilated but hey, it's a little dark in here.]

Seriously, I feel okay for the most part. Just relax, don't worry about it.

[he feels her forehead with the back of his hand- hm. well. this would work better if he had any real idea of how this worked. she was a bit warmer but she wasn't burning up so what did that mean?? he'll just frown and decide while she's probably not dying of fever this may be further proof shit isn't ideal.]

Alright, just- [He pauses a moment, then pulls out his bag and rifles through it. remember those coupons you made him? totally using one now, holding it out to her and everything.] If I use this now will you actually make sure to tell me if you get worse, or something's really wrong?

[she frowns, she'd been so careful though gosh]

Look-- look, I'm just feeling a little out of it is all. But I'm not worried about it so you shouldn't worry either. Okay? You're gonna give yourself an ulcer before you can even graduate school.

[life's rough, man] Yes, but- [he stops because okay she was right, he was probably overdoing it at this point. you're very lucky this is before clive tells him she did the lessen punishment thing, thank goodness for rp timelines.]

Sorry, I suppose I'm a little on edge. Being calm before all this was one thing, but now- [sigh.] Could have been worse, really, though I hope Jake's isn't worse than it seems.

It seems pretty rough. We were tear gassed in one of the puzzle rooms, it's pretty... [she falters but doesn't stop, got this] B..but it wears off eventually. And he's stronger than you give him credit for.

[totally got it] I suppose so, just if it caused some permanent damage- [he shakes his head] No use crossing that bridge until we get to it. He's had bloody terrible luck with tear gas and the like.

Ahh...

[she fiddles distractedly with her hair. Permanent would be pretty shitty, especially for something that could've been completely avoided if she'd worked a little harder. ]

Nothing to do but wait it out, I guess...

[and he suddenly realizes maybe he shouldn't have mentioned that, excellent topic to the person who went against jake and was his bud, perfect. he hastily adds] I'm sure it will be fine, it's Jake after all.

Honestly I think Zero just picked things that will make the puzzle rooms harder, Jake and Heiji are going to have a rough go of it at least. [saved? it?? probably not oh well]

[it was a valiant effort but alas]

Not like it's been a cakewalk up to now.

Anyway, I have to-- I'll talk to you later.

Ema, wait- [and here's that part where he thought about everything up until the point of what he'd say if he stopped her and sits at a loss for a moment. perfect, really he couldn't be handling this conversation any better.]

I'm sorry. [well, better than sitting there dumbstruck] Just be careful, alright? Something's clearly wrong.

Don't worry about it. Any of it, okay?

[she musters a weak smile before standing to bus her tray]

And please take your own advice, too.

I- alright.

I always do, I'm the very soul of caution. [have a weak smile back, joking was probably the best way to go about this.]

CALHOUN HOUR - CHOICE

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