vivarium | one post for the price of four

Entry tags:

one post for the price of four

T H E W A R E H O U S E

【 day 16 - 4:00AM 】

For all "old-timers" and "somewhat-old-timers", it'll be another typical night sleeping on the warehouse floor. It's not great, but perhaps you're getting used to it now. Maybe you're just making due. Maybe some of you are in a deep sleep because you've adapted. Whatever it is, you will be rudely waken up by... the sound of sirens?

A sense of deja-vu might run through you as you wake up and look at what's going on. Right in the middle of the warehouse, Calhoun is wearing a bike helmet on top of his gas mask, and standing next to one of these.

Well, standing isn't exactly the right word for it. Struggling to pick up Kariya and onto the stretcher is more accurate...

【 day 17 】

To the newcomer, welcome to the 【 Warehouse 】.

Once you escape your elevator, you will find yourself here. It's strangely empty for a warehouse. Aside from the elevators you've come out of, there's nothing else here. In fact, the longer you look around, the stranger everything looks.

Every window has been bolted shut, with no way of removing the steel coverings. The only source of illumination comes from the florescent lights above. Along the walls are numerous amounts of surveillance cameras, watching every bit of movement and listening to the sounds of everyone and everything. Every door is locked up tight, with no clear way of opening them, and there's one giant door with a 9 painted on it. It's a rather strange place, and there seems to be a lot of people here, so go introduce yourselves?

For the "old-timers" and "somewhat-old-timers", come meet your new fellow test subject and, oh, look! You can take another bath with that elevator open! Isn't Calhoun such a nice mouse, letting you bathe?

【 day 18 】

A M B I D E X R O U N D

After those two busy days, it'll be nice to sleep in, right? Well, too bad you're all test subjects, it's time to wake up! Itttttt's time for another Ambidexxxxxxx Round!!

Oh, but where is it going to take place this time? Not on this floor, that's for sure. Everyone, head out to the hallway, line up in front of the elevator! We're heading up to the second floor of our warehouse! Amazing, right? Who would have thought you would stick around long enough to see the second floor, huh?

The elevator, that was once non-functioning, turns on and allows everyone to head to the second floor. How many floors are there? It's unknown, as all the buttons are hidden under a single large metal sheet, asides from 'L2'. Well, don't worry about that, welcome to the next level. It looks identically to the first floor, asides from a few differences:

There are no Ambidex Rooms on this floor, nor is there Calhoun's shop in the corner. However, to make up for that, there seems to be four coloured doors, rather than three: Red, Blue, Green, and Grey. Yes, that's right, Calhoun has decided to add a fourth Ambidex Door, just to accommodate the new number of people. So, look down at your bracelets, you'll see what teams you're in.

The rules are the same: Go in, solve the puzzles, come out, vote! It's as simple as that, so line up in front of your doors, he doesn't have all day.

Oh, speaking of days... Before everyone enters, Calhoun will start to snicker uncontrollably. He hopes you haven't forgotten what today is?

It's the last day to give him a proper "show".

So far, all we've gotten were two lousy attempts at a show:

Some fake drama, hosted by the Blind-And-Dumb Test Subject (Snake) and Should-Probably-Drug-Again Test Subject (Ema)? Talk about yawn. You two get a 1/10. Half a point for getting two dumb teenagers all riled up about it, and another half a point for some form of effort.

The other was some sword fight by the Needs-A-Haircut Test Subject (Hershel) and Probably-Hiding-A-Bald-Spot (Heiji) in the lounge. Not as boring, but sheesh! Do you really think just something like that will entertain him? You didn't go in there with the proper intent of hurting each other, just some practise! Most of all, you've destroy Charlie, Calhoun's pot plant, so you only get a 4/10. Better than the other show, but not good enough!

And that's it, only two dumb shows. It looks like you guys really don't care about your secrets or memories. Maybe he should just end the contest here early and get this over with. He'll just reveal your secrets, destroy your memories, and get this over with. You clearly aren't bothered by it, so why keep this up any longer?

But you know what, Calhoun's a nice mouse. He believes in second chances, so he'll give you all until tomorrow morning, 6AM, to come up with something, or you can all say goodbye to everything!

Chao!

GOODBYE ✖ NEW ARRIVAL ✖ MINGLE
BASIC INFO ✖ TEAMS + ROOMS ✖ ESCAPE

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Heiji blinked. "Maybe I what?"

Sorry, man. You were just going to have to spell it out for this dummy.

Oh yeah, Hershel's pretty sure he's got it now and how did he not see this before. He's torn between slight exasperation and and amusement, you shounen hero.

"Maybe you like him in a different way than a friend?" He tried, very curious to see how Heiji was going to react to that. "Did his show with Ema bother you at all?"

"Well, I dunno if bother's really the right word," said Heiji, frowning a little. Clearly this was going to require some deep concentration.

"A different way than a friend...?" Suddenly, Heiji's face cleared. "Oh, you mean like a best friend?"

... Oh my god Heiji. Hershel stared for a moment before slowly shaking his head. This... was going to be a bit harder than he thought.

"Um, no, not exactly like that. I mean-" He faltered, how could he spell this out without being crass, life's rough. "I mean in a romantic sense, I suppose." That was safe, right?"

Heiji blinked at him, then burst out laughing. "Ha ha ha, no way! Snake's a guy! Besides, wouldn't that mean I liked you, too?"

Oh, Hershel, you and your theories!

Hershel's still gave him a curious look because yeah dude, not convinced. "Well, I suppose you have a point, if our- um, if that wasn't any different from Snake's."

"Still, you did seem pretty flustered about it even when Akiko and I were asking." He considered a moment before smiling. "Ah well, mystery solved, I suppose?"

"Well, of course it wasn't exactly the same," said Heiji, looking a little annoyed -- though not at Hershel.

"I mean, he was bein' a real jerk about it just 'cause I didn't do it fast enough. Besides, you were all embarrassed when I was grillin' you about kissing Akiko, right? And just now your face was all red. Anyone'd be flustered about that!"

ADMIT IT, HERSHEL.

"Y-yes well that-" Look here he was flustered at the mere mention of kissing that doesn't count! "That's different!" Strong argument, so solid.

He shook his head. "Um, there's nothing wrong with liking Light- Snake, I mean- if you do, you know. It's certainly a strange situation to meet someone but-" They're teenagers, these things happen. He offered Heiji a smile. "Don't worry so much about it, Heiji, I'm sure you'll figure it out, whatever it ends up being."

"It's totally the same," said Heiji, sticking his tongue out at Hershel. "I mean, it was part of the game both times, right?"

He looked at Hershel a little skeptically. "No way, not that guy! He never smiles, he's got only bad things to say.... and he's got premature gray hair!"

Gray hair, Hershel!!!! I mean, come on!

"Yes well we hardly made a contest about it." Hershel pointed out, you gotta admit that, Heiji...

And he'd be more amused if he wasn't trying to be reassuring. "That may just be his natural color, you know, and he isn't always so negative. He has good things to say about you."

Where's that boombox, Hershel needs it. At this point he'd kind of half serious half teasing sorry this was fun.

"That wasn't my idea!" Heiji protested. Come on, man, it was clearly Snake's idea! He was the one who started it, GOSH.

He was, however, interested to hear that Hershel and Snake had been talking. "Yeah? Like what?"

"Still, don't you think it's a little strange?" Hershel's trying to be gentle here and not laugh, I swear. "You seem more interested in making sure you 'won' than the fact he may or may not have made it into a contest. Then again you do seem competitive..."

Hershel considered for a moment. "Well... during bingo I had a chance to talk to him more when we did some of his squares. He mentioned he was willing to take a chance that first round because of your influence, I believe. In general he seemed to just find you worthy of his trust, which I think is probably not an easy thing to win from him."

Heiji crossed his arms. "Well, if he ain't want to make it a contest, maybe he shouldn't have been baiting me the whole time." HMPH.

"Anyway, once you're in the running, it's obvious that you wanna win, right? I mean, otherwise, why be in it to begin with?" Where was your competitive spirit, Hershel? He knew you had one; he saw you swordfight and clearly these things were totally alike.

"Anyway, guess that's true enough. He and Ema both like keeping their cards close to their vest. Not anywhere near as much as Jake, though." Or maybe it was just that Jake didn't talk very much, period.

And you took the bait... Hershel politely doesn't point that out and just gave him a somewhat wry look. Competitive was fine in fencing, kissing though. Heiji. "Well, that's one way to look at it. I wonder why he wanted to bait you, though." Riling Heiji up was kind of funny but still.

"Whatever happened the first round you must have proven yourself to him." Hershel wasn't surprised, Heiji was a pretty openly honest person, maybe Snake responded to that. "I think he's more defensive while Jake's... well, distrusting as a rule, maybe. How was your first round with Snake? You were in the incinerator, right?"

Heiji shrugged. "He's probably got one of those personalities, you know. An S." If he was more the type to bait people himself, he probably would have had a better answer... but even when he was making Hershel's life difficult, it was mostly just in the interests of getting him to have some fun.

"The incinerator...? Can't say too much happened in there. Mostly we just solved puzzles and shoveled garbage. We talked more in the voting room, though."

Maybe Snake just wanted you to have fun too, Heiji. Wait this sounds like a fanfic, abort. "... an S?" He wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but he sort of got the gist of it. "Maybe he thought it'd be funny to get you worked up, you are rather ah... expressive."

"That was when you had to convince him to ally, right?" What a fun song and dance that always was.

"That's what I mean!" said Heiji, raising his voice and thus only reinforcing Hershel's point. "He's just tryin' to get a rise outta me! ...Wait, you sayin' I shouldn't react as much? That's kinda..."

It was kind of a reflex; Heiji wasn't even sure if he could change it because he was full of FEELINGS okay. He'd probably be an entirely different person if he did.

"Yeah, that's right. He said we should protect ourselves and vote Betray. Well, I gotta admit I didn't think Zelos was gonna pick Ally in the first place, but I also figured we weren't going to be able to all work together if we were at each other's throats from the start."

You're learning Heiji! Hershel smiled but shook his head. "I would recommend that, but I get the distinct feeling it wouldn't work. You are who you are, Heiji." Though it may not sound like it that's totally a compliment okay.

Hershel nodded. "You aren't wrong, I've been trying to tell Jake that since we met." A long, uphill road. "I wonder what it was that you said that made Snake decide to give your way a shot. Maybe it's your earnestness."

Heiji... completely 100% took it as a compliment, jabbing a thumb into the center of his chest and proudly flashing the full 120-watt smile.

"You got that right! I'm the one and only Hattori Heiji!"

As for what got Snake to change his mind, well... even Heiji wasn't sure about that one. "I ain't really sure. I know I told him I'd do everything I could to get him outta here alive. Maybe I got through to him somehow."

Hershel had to laugh a little, you were something else Heiji. "Someone who Snake likely finds very entertaining to get a rise out of." He supplemented. "Even I have to admit the banter is pretty entertaining."

"That's a pretty grand declaration. You must have impressed him." Hershel can't help still sounding a little amused, he could almost imagine Heiji saying that to an impressed despite himself Snake as water rose around them. "And you've certainly kept your word as well as you could so far."

Heiji apparently didn't take offense to Hershel's laughter, either. Water off a duck's back, dude, look at how chill this guy is.

"Yeah, well, I ain't too keen on going back on my promises," said Heiji. "But it ain't really all that grand, is it? I figured most people would try to do the same. Like you, right?"

He's the chillest, look at that hat. Hershel smiled at that. "I hope most people would try to do their best, but not many would make grand gestures like that. It's rather heroic, I think it's more evidence you probably work for the police."

Fighting crime, chasing criminals, solving mysteries and saving damsels aka Snake in this case, quite the life man.

"Ya think so?" Well, now that Hershel mentioned it, Heiji supposed he was right... but why? Clearly loudly declaring your intentions was the best strategy, right?

"So who do you work for, then? Y'know, I think you'd make a pretty good counselor. Maybe a teacher or something. One of them people you'd go to if you were in a real jam."

P.S. Please call Snake a damsel in distress to his face Hershel that would be A++

Subtly and Heiji, not two things that often got along... "I'm fairly certain, yes."

Hershel laughed a little, shaking his head. "Maybe... well, actually in my last memory I found out I was applying for an archeology program in a school in London. I guess that means I might have been trying to become a professor, most archeologists are if memory serves. That's close enough, right?"

Get him drunk one day and it'll happen, I promise you.

Look, when he pretended to be someone else, people made fun of his accent ok. One of these days a Japanese character was totally going to give him shit for it

"An archaeology program, huh?" Heiji looked rather excited about this bit of information; it sounded totally awesome. "What kinda specialty you interested in?"

one post for the price of four

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)