vivarium | THE HEART OF THE MATTER

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THE HEART OF THE MATTER

Sometime early in the morning (or at least what feels like it, considering that there aren’t any clocks around), Calhoun will scream into a megaphone to wake everyone up. He won’t explain what’s going on, but he will say that he has a surprise for everyone. What is it? Well, they won’t know until they get up! So, everyone line up by the hallway’s door!

He’ll be calling everyone into a “☆ SECRET ROOM ☆” one by one, and spending a few minutes with them. In this room, it’ll be nothing but a table, two chairs, a metal cabinet, and a lone lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Anyone who’s seen enough cop shows will notice that this is an interrogation room. Granted, there’s a sleeping pod in the corner of the room (rather similar to the same device that returns memories) and this room is a pretty fictional interrogation room as the real things aren't so hardboiled, but Calhoun is a fan of cop dramas and he only has so much power, so this is what he went for.

Anyway, in here, Calhoun will do one of two things:

1) Reveal an unpleasant secret about them. Of course, it might sound fictional at first, but then he’ll go into his little cabinet and pull out a folder to back up his claims. These reports don’t look fake, and well, just think of what the others might think if they heard of this. Sure, you can deny it all you want, but what about your fellow test subjects? How can they ever see you in the same light again? Even if you attempt to convince them otherwise, this will forever linger in the back of their minds. They might even start turning against you, and while Calhoun’s a pretty nice mouse, he can’t do anything to stop you silly test subjects from doing something dramatic.

2) Grant them the fragment of a memory. What a kind mouse Calhoun is being, giving you a freebie! They’ll be placed in a pod, as per the usual, and given part of a memory. The problem is this freebie cuts off at the worst possible time, and any begging, threats or inquiries into the matter are only going to be met by Calhoun’s snickers. It would be awful if something happened and you could never find out if your dear friend Timmy ever got out of that well, right? A real tragedy. Oh well, too bad for you, buddy.

Once Calhoun has called everyone one by one into this “☆ SECRET ROOM ☆” of his, he will gather all the test subjects up, stand on counter of Calhoun’s Corner and make an announcement.

“Listen up, test subjects! While yesterday’s round of Bingo was all fun and games, it’s time to spice things up around here! This is starting to get really bland, like oatmeal bland, and my Master has given me the go ahead to shake things up.”

“Some of you, I've told you a dark, spooky secret, while for the rest, I've shown you a little memory! Who got what, though, no one knows! But you know who you are and you know what you have to lose.”

“So what was the point of all this? Welllllll, like I've said, it’s so boring here, that I’m giving you the chance to redeem yourselves of this sinful dullness. How, you wonder?”

“Give me a show.”

“I think you all know me well by now, what entertains me and what I like to see. So, give me the performance of a lifetime by the end of the next AB Voting round! Of course sooner is better, because you never know if I’m gonna like these plans of yours, but go ahead, take your time! I mean it’s not like there’s much I can do, excepppppt…”

“I can just reveal those little secrets of yours to everyone! Don’t think you can just shrug it off as something I've made up too. I’ll spread out those reports and all the evidence for everyone to see, and we’ll see how long it takes for them to turn on you.”

“And those with a memory, don’t sigh in relief, because you’re not safe either! I’ll ensure that you will never get the rest of that memory I showed you. You can wonder for the rest of your lives what really happened. If you think it’ll be as simple as just asking around when you get out, think again. You’ll never know the whole truth unless you remember it yourself, since this mouse can get his paws in the outside world’s evidence.”

“What if one of you manages to entertain me? Well, not only will you get your full memory back, but everyone’s memories and secrets will be safe! They won’t be getting anything back, but maybe one day, and you’re the one who did all the work, those ungrateful cads!”

“Well, I think that’s about it. Toodles! You know where to find me if you have any questions or love letters for me.”

He winks at the crowd (looking at you, Zelos), then hops off the counter, back into the safety of his shop.

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A while later, probably a few hours after that dramatic announcement and all the fun of that morning, Hershel went looking for Heiji. The truth was he was worried, there were quite a few people he trusted and liked in the game but Heiji was one of the highest up there. Maybe it was his attitude, maybe it was how he let Hershel pick ally that round- regardless, once he calmed down Heiji was one of the people he wanted to check in on immediately.

When he did find him he walked up slowly, still feeling pretty shaken about everything but much calmer now that he forced himself to relax and focus on something else. "Heiji, how are you doing?" He asked as he approached, trying not to nervously pick at his sleeve just for something to do with his hands.

Heiji had his hands in his pockets; he seemed a little more subdued than usual. "Could be better," he said. "You get a memory? Or is that rat tryin' to blackmail ya?"

Some of his turmoil from before had subsided, but that didn't actually make things better. Facts, as they said, were facts.

Hershel hesitated, glancing away for a moment before finally answering. "Blackmail." He didn't seem like he wanted to say much more, even saying that was probably a bad idea. Still, outwardly lying wouldn't do him any favors, and saying he didn't want to say would probably be the same as admitting it was blackmail.

"What about you?" He asked after a beat, looking back to Heiji.

"A memory," said Heiji. He paused for a while, as if deciding whether or not to say anything further.

"...I think I mighta killed someone."

Hershel said nothing but he was clearly shocked. It took him a moment longer to even think of what he wanted to say, glancing around to see that they were alone before focusing on Heiji.

"Heiji... if you did wouldn't he have made that blackmail too?" He tried. "I don't really understand how seeing these memories must have worked, but maybe you're just misunderstanding what you saw."

He stopped again, struggling before he sighed. "I don't think you're capable of something like that. Maybe it's naive, but you're a good person. Whatever it is I- I don't know."

"No, that's not it," said Heiji, looking frustrated (rather irrationally, honestly, considering that it was a perfectly reasonable misunderstanding).

"I was... it was because I wasn't paying attention. I was thinkin' about something else -- a case. She was there with me, and..."

Edited 2014-08-19 22:14 (UTC)

"So... you think you made a mistake and-" Jesus that was rough. He wasn't convinced that it still wasn't a misunderstanding of some sort, he certainly couldn't say given how little Heiji seemed to be willing to say.

He hesitated a moment before gently putting a hand on Heiji's arm, trying to show some support, even if he wasn't sure Heiji wanted it or not. "I'm sorry, whatever you saw must not have been easy. For what it's worth I don't think whatever happened was your fault. If it was in any small way I'm sure Calhoun would have tried to lord it over you."

"I don't think it, I know I made a mistake. I don't know for sure if she got hurt or not, but there was a cliff face down below us, and only a narrow river down below. If she took that fall, no way she coulda made it out okay."

Heiji took a step back and leaned back against the wall. "So what about you? You think you really did what it is that rat said?"

"So... she could still be alive?" Hershel asked, starting to understand how the memories must have been. "I see... Do you have any idea who she was?" Not that knowing that made it better, it might make it worse.

He took a step back, considering. "I... don't know. The evidence was-" Pretty damning, in his opinion at least. He rubbed his arm nervously. "Heiji, do you think when we get all our memories back we'd be completely different people?"

"Not really, but the way she just jumped to save me makes me think that we knew each other pretty well. That, or she had some real backbone. I saw her in the other memory, too -- the one with the first murder. Maybe we're related or somethin'?"

Heiji smiled a little, took off his cap, and placed it on top of Hershel's fluff. "Nah, I don't think so. Not you, anyways. You've been here from the beginning, tryin' to help everyone out. You know, people do all kinds of things when they're backed into a corner, but I know you're a good guy. If something bad went down, I know you did your best to stop it."

"She must care a lot about you to do that." Hershel considered that for a moment before continuing. "I know it's not easy but I'm sure if she cared about you that much she wouldn't want you blaming yourself too heavily for whatever it is that happened. Hopefully... hopefully we can find some way to entertain Calhoun and find some answers."

He frowned- of course Heiji was here as long as he was, he knew what Calhoun was like. "I'm... worried. Calhoun probably isn't going to be happy with anything short of betrayal or violence. If someone gets desperate things could get really bad."

And he was a little surprised at the sudden cap, glancing up at Heiji as he spoke. He stared at him for a long moment before looking down and touching the hat gently. It took him another moment to speak. "He said... I killed someone."

It was a dangerous thing to say, and he knew it. He knew from the moment Calhoun started threatening him in that interrogation room that it even if it was a huge lie it could put him in a position where people would no longer want to ally with him. More so, if it was true, well... it made him sick to think about. Heiji was smart though, he clearly had some real investigative sense, and if he did end up condemning Hershel for it maybe that meant he was right to.

He finally looked back up, a little pale. "He showed me a testimony from the... victim's- the person's father. He was howling and screaming about how I killed his son-" He shook his head. "Please don't tell anyone about this, it may come out anyway but..."

Edited 2014-08-20 01:27 (UTC)

"Yeah," said Heiji. That's what made it so awful, Hershel! "But if she was someone close to me, then I shoulda been there to make sure she was okay. Instead I was spacin' out, and she fell instead. You can say I'm a cop or a P.I. or whatever... but I don't even have the right to run a basic investigation."

He lifted himself out of his bleak mood, however, to listen to Hershel's story. The longer it when, the more intense his expression became. "Hershel, I'm sure I don't have to tell ya this, but witness testimony ain't evidence, no matter how compelling the story is. Especially considering the source. Witnesses can misremember things; they lash out at people they think are responsible. Unless this guy saw you knife his kid in cold blood or something, I don't believe it for a second."

"You don't have to worry about me tellin' anyone, but... does this have some connection with the case ya told me about before? Where the boy died?"

"Heiji..." Man, so rough dude. Hershel wasn't sure what he could say, there really wasn't anything that could make it better if she did die. "For what it's worth I think you have the right to. Everyone makes stupid mistakes, sometimes at the worst possible moment. If you can learn from it and become better that's the best you can hope to do." He looked a little sheepish for such a cliched sort of speech, but hey, shounen logic, right?

Hershel tried to look like he could believe that, but it wasn't very convincing. Logically he knew Heiji was right- logically some of the things he had been telling Heiji could apply to him too - but in his gut he felt like something was so very wrong with all this, and just maybe Calhoun's story and evidence weren't entirely wrong.

"Oh, I'm not sure." He said after a beat, brow furrowing. "I think it must be, I remember- well, when Clive came to visit he looked for me because he thought I knew something. I remember a lot of people seemed to blame me too in some way, though I wasn't sure about the details. That boy who died..."

Why couldn't he remember his name? He remembered talking to Clive, surely they said his name, surely the father in that testimony did too, but for whatever reason he just couldn't think of it.

"I can't remember his name." He muttered, before looking to Heiji again. "Um, thank you, for... everything. I wasn't- I was afraid if I told anyone they might just think I was a monster."

"Thanks, Hershel," said Heiji, smiling a little. "You know what? I'm willing to make mistakes, if someone's gonna learn from 'em. I guess I should try not to let it affect what's goin' on here -- however it turned out, it's not like rememberin' is going to change anything..." He sounded a little like he was trying to convince himself, but at least he was considering what Hershel said?

"Guess we're kind of in the same position." He laughed weakly. "Anyway, just kinda try and remember the person you are. You ain't a monster, and even if you were caught up in his death somehow, well... just look how you're reactin' now. That's not exactly the reaction of a cold-blooded killer."

He shook his head to try and clear it. "Okay. Goin' back to what you said before -- you sure that betrayal and violence are the only things that rat enjoys? I think there's at least one other thing: he likes to see us dance and work at odds with each other. Like during that bingo game, the squares didn't all consist of punchin' each other. A lot of them were just making us do whatever he wanted."

"We got six days, right? So we should start off with the options that'll do the least damage for us. Of course, that's if we're aiming for Calhoun's goal." He looked thoughtful. "So let's say everyone in this group's got something hangin' over us, just like you and me. You think it's really that important that everyone keep their secrets? Or keep the possibility of getting their memory back? I'm just trying to look at the worst-case scenario right now. Maybe it'd be better if our cards were all on the table. If things keep going as they are now, won't everybody be suspicious of each other anyway?"

Hershel offered a small, kind of shaky smile for that but hey, it was a smile at least. "I'm glad. You've done a lot of good here, Heiji, don't forget that, ok?"

And he nodded- Heiji had a point, and his own advice to Heiji was valid. Beating himself up over whatever happened wasn't going to really help anyone, even if he was having a very, very hard time doing anything but that.

He was glad when Heiji started to focus on what they could do, trying to clear his head and listen carefully to each word. Heiji had a point, trying the smaller, less dangerous things first was a good plan, and he nods. "We should definitely try a lot of things, gauge reactions. As much as I don't think anything but violence or betrayal will work it's worth a try if no one gets hurt."

Hershel's brow furrowed as he continued. "You have a point, logically the best course of action would be giving Calhoun and Zero as little power as possible, and revealing secrets, at least, would do that. I'm a bit worried though, if we did that it could upset Calhoun and make it harder for us to entertain him. The people with secrets would be fine, but everyone else... He seems really serious, and this could haunt you all forever."

He sighed. "Also I'm concerned about the tensions that could rise- I'm... I'm willing to tell everyone my secret, if it would help. I won't say I'm not scared to but the safety of the group comes first. It's just- if we bring everyone together, ask them to tell their secrets or memories, if anyone refuses it could cause a lot of tension. Everyone's nerves are already high, making anymore rifts like that could be dangerous, especially if people get singled out or start to feel desperate."

Heiji nodded. "Yeah, and I'm sure we got a couple here that'll try to put on this "show" regardless. I'm just sayin' that even if no one succeeds in entertainin' him, well... it ain't necessarily going to be the end of the world. And either way, we're still going to be stuck in this experiment."

He considered the options. "I wouldn't really hold it against anyone to clam up about whatever it is they got to hide. Maybe what we should do is talk to a couple of the others, see what their take is on the situation. That way, we'll get a feel for who's gonna be going all out on this."

It was surprising how well Heiji seemed to be able to bounce back from the threat of betrayal, violence, and murrrderrrr. Maybe it was just that doing something about it made things seem a little less dire.

"Honestly I agree, it's... less than ideal but it may be something we need to accept as a valid option. If it's clear Calhoun won't accept anything short of someone getting seriously injured- we can't allow that to happen." Hershel answered, frowning. He wondered if Calhoun's threat meant his secret would be told and he'd never be able to learn the truth- if it didn't he wasn't really sure the people with memories didn't have it much worse. Of course people's reactions to secrets remained to be seen, but trust could possibly be regained, these memories, apparently, couldn't.

He nodded. "That may be best. I'm fairly certain Akiko and Colette will agree, they seem very ah... well, they seem to care much more about the group as a whole than themselves." Good, good girls those two. "I'm not sure Jake will agree... I'll try to talk to him but I doubt he'll be very comfortable sharing whatever he's been threatened with." He got uppity about saying who he kissed, probably not going to talk about this. "As for the others I really don't know. What do you think?"

Honestly Hershel was feeling much better too now that they were focusing on something constructive. It sure beat agonizing over whether you're a horrible murderer scum or not.

Heiji thought it over for a little while. "I think most of the others can be reasoned with, at least," he said finally. "Kinda hard to predict how people will react when you don't even know what they've been told. But so far, everyone's managed to put their personal worries on hold for the last few rounds. I guess the one I'm most worried about is Clive. He took that first betrayal pretty hard, and he ain't really let up on it much the last time I talked to him. I think trust's a big issue with him, too. If he feels like he don't have anyone to trust in the game, then..."

~~Clive: MURDERER?~~

"Ema kinda plays things close to her vest, but maybe she'd be willing to talk things over with you. I can see what Snake says, I guess." So many poker players in the group! Heiji was... not really on the secretive end of the spectrum himself.

Hershel's shoulders slump a little at the mention of Clive- yeah, that situation wasn't ideal, Clive still basically hated his guts. If Clive found out his secret he was worried he'd lose any chance of getting Clive to forgive him for that round or ever trusting him again. "He seems close to Aoi at least, it must be hard for him since they both have no idea what's going on with Mr. Kaguragi..." Poor Clive, what a life he was leading.

"Oh, I'll try to talk to Ema then, I'm not really sure how she'll react... I think if she agrees this is best for everyone she'll consider it, at least." Ema was pretty bro, she seemed to believe more in them as they were now than their memories at least. "I'm not really sure if Kariya or Mr. Enjolras will want to, they are new, they don't have as much reason to trust the group as a whole." Maybe one game of bingo gave them some solidarity? We could dream.

"If it helps," said Heiji, "I think most people will understand that they can't do anything too drastic. It's 63 BP to get out; pullin' something really heinous is only gonna guarantee that no one's ever going to trust them again."

Or maybe inspire another person in the group to stab them. There was already tons of stabbing to go around!

"You're right." Though if they did it in secret... Hershel shook his head. "There's not much they could really do without getting caught, I mean the warehouse isn't all that big..."

He rubbed his temple, brow furrowing heavily. This was such a bad situation. "Heiji, if someone gets into a fight or gets really hurt... we're just not equipped to deal with that. Little cuts and the small stabs and bruises- they're bad enough, what if someone breaks something?" Or worse, really. He closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, I can just see so many ways this could go so horribly wrong. We've come so far, what if we manage to get through this without trouble and Zero decides to do something worse?"

Heiji nodded. "Yeah, it could get pretty serious. And I ain't holding out much hope that our captors will intervene if that does happen -- before, there was a threat we could all come down with an illness and get knocked out of commission. One or two people, though..."

He trailed off, then shook his head again. "We can't just worry about what might happen, though. Let's try and focus on doin' what we can."

"You're right, it's no use fretting over what if's right now." As much as he totally still was. "I think... well, maybe our best course of action would be talking to everyone and trying to see who's the most tense. At the very least we can try to keep an eye on where tensions might bubble over."

"That and maybe convincing everyone to talk about secrets and memories as a group, like you said." He still wasn't too sure how that would go but Heiji had a good point there. "It's something, right?" Part of him wanted to suggest preparing for injuries but what could they really do? It wasn't like they could go out and buy first aid at the store.

Heiji nodded; some of that old interest was back in his eyes. "All right. Let's talk to a couple of people and meet back up in the lounge. I ain't gonna sit around and do nothing!"

Hershel was glad to see it, that's the investigator he knew. He nodded, glancing to the crowd. There were a lot of people he wanted to see- Akiko, Ema, and Jake especially. Maybe he could catch them now and start working on this.

"Ok, I'm going to try and talk to a few people- I'll um, I'll see you later with news." He turned but then paused, glancing back. "Thank you again, Heiji, and please be careful."

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THE HEART OF THE MATTER

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DUN DUN DUN

MURDERRR

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