vivarium | ambidex voting #3

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ambidex voting #3

A M B I D E X V O T I N G

After escaping your rooms, talking with others, swiping your Ambidex Room cards, and entering, Calhoun appears on the screen to very briefly explain how the AB Voting works (45 minutes to either choose to Ally or Betray, you gain/lose points depending on what your opponent chooses), but to also introduce this round's prizes.

That's right, this round has a whole new set of prizes! They're a bit different from the last round, so listen carefully!

For anyone who chooses Betray, they will be getting a standard first aid kit and a can of food. Calhoun noticed that some of you managed to hurt themselves in the puzzle rooms, so he highly encourages you to take advantage of this one-time opportunity for free medical supplies!

For anyone who chooses Betray and their opponent chooses Ally, you will get a memory regain instead of a can of food! After all, you'll have access to the cafeteria so it won't really be necessary. ~~Unless your name is Clive Dove.~~

For anyone who chooses Ally, well, if your opponent chooses Ally as well, not only will all of your BP increase, you'll even get a gold star of friendship! Doesn't that sound wonderful?

If you're the poor sap that chose Ally and got stabbed in the back, well, sorry, you only lose BP, but maybe Calhoun will have something for you. He likes all of his test subjects, so he won't forget anyone here.

But anyway, happy voting! Calhoun will see all of you later with the results.

BASIC INFO ✖ VOTES + FORMS ✖ PRIVATE POSTS ✖ RESULTS + REACTIONS

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She considered this, nodding slowly. "That'll probably be best. If gravity is pulling blood down out of the wound, that seems like a negative."

...Okay, that was a real scientific analysis there. If nothing else, the situation was disproving the hypothesis of her being a doctor real quick. Still, probably everyone had seen a medical drama on TV, so she removed her coat and vest (that much less laundry to do later) and washed her hands for some semblance of cleanliness.

"So here's what'll happen: we remove the knife and tourniquet, take off your pants, replace the tourniquet, try to clean out the wound, then wrap it up? Hershel said you'd nabbed some bandage material."

Out of one of his pockets, Heiji produced some of the torn-up bandages they'd manage to make out of the bedsheets in the infirmary and piled them up on the other side of the sink. "In a manner of speaking. Here, lemme get up there."

He hopped up onto the sink counter, though with markedly less energy than when he'd scrambled on top of the elevator room a few days ago. The knife was lodged in his left thigh, mid-leg, and blood had soaked through some of the denim of his jeans. It did look kinda bad but Heiji was determined to see this through.

"Okay. Ready when you are."

"Here goes nothing."

Ema gripped the knife, gave Heiji a quick look in the eyes to confirm, then slowly pulled it out. It wasn't that she was trying to make it some terrible ordeal or anything, she just wasn't a professional knifer and wanted to make sure she wasn't making the wound worse. Likewise, removing it took a little more force, sounded a little fleshier than she'd expected--

--But then the knife slipped free, and she quickly dropped it into the sink. Right, no problem. A shaky breath, then she could finally risk a glance at Heiji's face.

"Doing okay? Let's get this off."

Funny thing about getting a knife pulled out -- having it stuck in there in the first place hurt, but having it removed was like sitting there while someone slowly and carefully poured boiling oil on him. Heiji made it almost to the end before letting out a scream.

He fell silent after Ema dropped the blade in the sink, but his breathing was shallow and rapid, and he was starting to ooze blood again now that the knife was no longer acting as a plug. Nevertheless, he fumbled for the ends of his makeshift tourniquet to try and undo the knot.

"Let me help with that," she said, already knocking his hands away and working the knot loose; between the cry and the ashy tint to his face, this wasn't the time for relaxing and sharing responsibilities. The ooze of blood got a little more active once the tourniquet was off, so she didn't hesitate to get to work on getting his jeans out of the way.

"Almost done with the hard part, okay?" She had no idea if that was true, but someone ought to say something.

"Y-yeah, don't worry about me," he said. He didn't protest as she worked, which was probably a good thing overall. He did, however, try to help in kicking off his jeans, revealing what someone in the know might identify as a scar where a bullet had once grazed his lower leg.

"Thanks for this."

Edited 2014-08-03 22:34 (UTC)

Her eyebrows rose at the scar, as she could indeed identify the type of scar it was, but rather than comment she concentrated on retying the tourniquet.

"You really want to thank me, don't let this happen again. Next time I'm leaving Jake to stitch you up, so keep that in mind." She wasn't entirely sure she was joking.

With everything else out of the way, now Ema could concentrate on just cleaning the wound (as clean as it could get without any sort of antiseptic or antibacterial anything). Even though it was just water, it probably stung--though who knew, it could be nothing compared to the whole knife bit--still, she tried to be efficient about it.

Heiji laughed, albeit a little weakly. "That's a real threat right there."

By the time she'd started cleaning the wound, Heiji had recovered a little -- at least enough to be able to dunk his improvised tourniquet under the faucet and wash out most of the blood. He wrang it near dry, then replaced it around his leg. Then he tapped Ema lightly on the shoulder. "It's okay, I can handle the rest."

Ema pulled the pile of bandages closer anyway, then hesitated. It was true she didn't know Heiji well other than that he was apparently a bit of a projectile magnet. It did sound like the type of self-sacrificing comment you just had to ignore on a regular basis, but that didn't mean that it was.

...Well, may as well practice the openness crap she'd been preaching to Hershel. "It's not some huge amount of trouble to keep going after coming this far."

Ema hadn't struck Heiji as the nursing type, so he was a little surprised. But Heiji put up his hands up nonetheless. "Well, in that case..."

After all, it would be a little awkward bandaging himself, and she seemed to know what she was doing. Best of all, the sight of blood didn't seem to phase her too much, although maybe that was another point in favor of the Ema's Sordid Past theory...

Were he to ask, she would note that it had nothing to do with nursing, and a lot more with finishing what you started, or avoiding future beadily distressed gazes from Hershel, something along those lines. "It'll only take a minute," is what she ultimately offered, taking the bandages and getting to wrapping. It was nice to have someone around who was neither obnoxiously sassy nor stupidly hard-headed.

"So, how 'bout that last ambidex round," she started, since that was obviously the best sort of small talk.

It was also nice (once he got past the initial embarrassment of having to ask someone else to patch him up) to have someone looking after him.

"Yeah, about it," said Heiji, because when someone was nice enough to bandage you up it was polite to talk about whatever they wanted to talk about. Besides, (a) he could talk all day, and (b) it kept his mind off his injury.

"That Jake fella is tough to understand. I figured he was more the logical type, 'specially after hearing why he decided to betray Clive. And a medical kit or two could make all the difference if more people end up gettin' hurt. But then he turned right around and voted Ally. Didn't seem all that happy about it, either, but he ain't seem too happy about anything."

"You can say that again..." Talking about how people acted in these games was considerably easier than actually getting hurt during them, but the latter was a heck of a lot more straightforward. "But yes, I wouldn't have called it. I was surprised either of you allied, to be honest."

"I was just gonna ask him to pick Betray right from the start," said Heiji. "Figured he wouldn't trust me, and I didn't really trust him, either, after what he did to Clive and Hershel. Heck, that Clive's still steamed, and I can understand why. Wouldn't even explain why he overrode Hershel's vote like that, till Hershel went and begged him." Heiji shook his head.

"But Hershel wanted to go with Ally. Heck, he was promising all this stuff if I'd just agree with him this round. I don't really know how to explain this part, but..." He paused, trying to figure out how to articulate the decision. "He had his line of reasonin', and I had mine. To be honest, I think it really could've gone either way. But y'know when someone gets that look in their eye, like 'I really wanna do this, and I won't regret it no matter what happens'? That's the kind of look he had. Besides, I wanted to see where his deductions were going to lead."

He fell silent for a moment or two -- and then, apropos of nothing, he gave Ema a cheeky grin. "Y'know, you're pretty cute for an older lady."

Ema could understand where he was coming from with that; she wouldn't have trusted Jake either, and he'd never gotten her even a little stabbed. But apparently he found or at least borrowed some sense for a minute. And Hershel, too--he'd certainly looked pleased with himself, but the thought of the boy actually acting without regrets...

And then before she can put anything related to any of these sentiments into words, Heiji continues

"--What."

"Yeah, me and Hershel were talkin' about how you were a little scary, but you ain't so bad," said Heiji cheerily, apparently oblivious to the fact that he'd said anything wrong.

"Scary? Exactly what about me's supposed to be so scary?"

(That last wrap of bandage might have ended up a little tight.)

"Ow ow ow... see? That right there! That was retaliation!" For someone who acted decidedly carefree most of the time, Heiji sure did use some big words.

In any case, he felt a little affronted by this treatment. Especially since Hershel had been the one who started it!

Edited 2014-08-04 04:42 (UTC)

Yet Hershel, in a rare show of self-preservation, had never mentioned such a thing in her direction... She tied off the bandage, equally firm.

"That was first aid. If you're going to be a wimp about it, don't get stabbed."

She turned to wash her hands, movements still fiercer than necessary. Scary! How ridiculous!

Heiji stuck his tongue out at her behind her back, but that was apparently it as far as grudges went; he hopped off the sink and pulled his jeans back on. In fact, now that the cut was taken care of, Heiji had found a kind of second wind, and he was almost his old self as he moved toward the door and well out of range of any bandage-yanking.

"Well, thanks anyway; I'll be sure and remember the favor. Catch ya later!"

And now he was going to run off and tell anyone who was interested. BECAUSE.

"Hey! Don't rip it open already..."

Ah, whatever. Kids. Full of energy... She eventually followed at a more sedate pace to go ~~scare~~ bother someone else.

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