vivarium | CALHOUN HOUR

Entry tags:

CALHOUN HOUR - CHOICE

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

[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...]

[ 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.

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]

[ 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. ]

[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.

[ 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. ]

Oh. Oh. Oh.

[finally getting it, she starts off for the elevator because tear gas and stairs seem like a bad combination, though her footsteps are slow and loud enough to follow. The babbling, too]

You know that stuff's absorbed through the skin? And you can't really wash it off, you need like, soap or milk of magnesia or something. Come a little more to your 9 so we can elevate. You know we got gassed in that one room? It totally...

[she pauses, her slow, random patter trailing off. A breath later she starts moving again and picks back up, a little more distant and no more helpful but luckily they're soon enough to the garden so he can get to that blessed cold water]

[ Well, now he's starting to suspect something. Ema's weird, but normally not this weird. It's not like he knows everything about her, but he feels that he at least knows her enough to tell when something was up. ]

[ He follows behind her, at best as he can, and once he hears that familiar sound of running water, he doesn't hesitate to start pulling off his clothes so yeah, that's a thing, hm. He'll talk while doing so, though. ]

What's with you?

[no edge of sarcasm, just faint confusion]

...Nothing? You asked to come upstairs, we're upstairs. Is it okay? Maybe a shower would be better?

[ He throws up a hand to wave off her questions. Hot showers apparently aren't good ideas for tear gas, so this isn't a matter of him just being stingy about coins, it's just him going with what he thinks is best for this: cold water. ]

[ Once down to only his undergarments, he slowly slips into the water. He's sure he's going to go numb real soon in this, but he'd rather be a frozen popsicle than deal with the burning sensation on his skin. ]

[ He splashes some water into his face and rinses his mouth. ]

You trailed off earlier. Sounded like you were really getting into it as well.

Oh? ...Uh, well, you know.

[honestly, she doesn't know; thinking of what she'd apparently been getting into is kind of a hassle so she doesn't, frowning into the middle distance instead. she starts a couple replies...maybe? maybe not? it's hard to focus on so maybe it's not that important...]

[ He washes his neck and focuses on his hands, but he tries to face the general direction that Ema is. ]

Know what?

[ Don't make him more concerned than he is. ]

Chicken butt.

Is it working?

[pshhh nothing to worry about here, everything is good, we got this]

[ Giving the look in the icon right now. ]

Haha, real funny. Did you get drugged or something?

[:'D]

Your face got drugged. Seriously though, is it feeling any better?

[ she is so mature. how is she older than him ]

A bit. [ meaning not a lot. He still has his eyes shut closed and that burning sensation hasn't disappeared at all. His throat is hoarse as hell, but that's not going to stop him from talking. ] ... Come here for a bit.

[ He moves a bit closer and slightly out of the stream. He holds one hand out as well, whether he has it for her to take or just to gauge where she is by moving his hand around, it's unclear. ]

[It's important to maintain a youthful soul]

Please don't dunk me, all this stuff takes forever to dry.

[but she does go over, staring curiously at his hand before eventually just lightly giving him five?]

[ there's a fine line between youthful soul and downright childish though ]

[ He doesn't make a comment about that, or the five. Instead, he takes her hand, pulling her closer (hopefully not into the water though) and using that as a basis to get a general idea of where she is. With his other hand (while still holding on), he hovers it over her head, awkwardly patting her once, then moves his hand down over her forehead. He then holds it there. ]

[ What he pretty much wanted to accomplish was to check if she has a temperature by feeling her forehead, without having to awkwardly wave his hand around to find her face, but this might already be a bit awkward... His hands are wet and cold from the freezing waters, so enjoy. ]

[semantics!]

[she voices a surprised little exhale; headpats are one thing (one...strange thing), but a giant cold hand over her face for no apparent reason is another. Compared to the chill of the water she probably feels like she's on fire, though she really isn't that warm. On the other hand, he feels like the ice bucket challenge, and she shivers accordingly.]

What...what're you...? [theres not much (or any) bite to her tone]

[ He continues to hold his hand over her forehead, actually hoping that his hand would warm up enough so he could get a more accurate temperature from her. Hmmm... ]

Checking if you're sick. [ Saying that in such a 'god can't you even tell??' tone. ] If you are, Zero's got some explaining to do.

[ She seemed okay before they went into voting. If she's acting weird now, then Zero totally went back on his punishment-for-the-losers thing, and Jake would not be a happy camper at all. He didn't choose to get himself teargassed so she could get fucked up too. ]

Why do people keep-- I'm not, no thanks to those ice blocks you've got for hands. There's a time and a place, you know.

[now she tries wriggling away, before she gets too annoyed (or actually does catch a cold) since then the jig is up.]

Shouldn't you--put on pants or something? Speaking of illness.

[ He'll let her wiggle away, not like he really wants to keep on holding on her, so he lets go of her hand and pulls away from her forehead without much hassle. ]

Hey, you're the one acting like you're in a daze or something. [ gosh, don't blame him for anything. ] And with what pants? That pair is covered in teargas, if you didn't know.

[ He left all his other pair of clothes in the lockers in the gym soooo... ]

[she sucks in a long breath, valiantly keeping from saying any of the snide comments that come to mind. of course, the coming to mind part is the issue, so things go a little wavery for a while she honestly can't put a duration on. frustration at this only makes it worse. man, she'd been doing so well, too.

placidly, if dazed]

That's a bummer.

...You should've at least voted for yourself.

[is this really the time to get into this, when she feels too cloudy-headed to reliably ask about the weather? but hey, maybe that makes it all the more the time for getting feelings off one's chest and like...letting go of your anger and opening your mind. yeah.]

[ Questionable time to do that... Jake doesn't reply back right away. Instead, he steps himself out of the cold water and carefully finds a patch of grass he can sit down on. ]

So you could be teargassed? Like hell I was going to take that risk.

[ Granted, he had a feeling that no one was going to vote him after they saw he was paired up with Ema, but he didn't want tempt fate. ]