This time, just after the intercom's jingle, the faint sound of a radio or a television could be heard in the background as the Head Doctor began to speak.

"I hope everyone enjoyed their meals this fine morning! In fact, it looks like the whole day is going to be beautiful, which is part of the reason why I think you all should enjoy some rays of sunshine in... well, the Sun Room!

"Of course, mental health – unfortunately – cannot only be cured by an uplifting atmosphere, which is why some of you will be seeing your doctors this coming shift. Our nurses will escort all patients scheduled for therapy as they leave the cafeteria, and..."

He paused and then laughed.

"Well, I think you all know the drill by now. As (almost) always, we have some new patients coming in, so please treat them with the utmost kindness and understanding. Thank you!"

The intercom clicked off.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post. Please abide by the room assignments listed there.

Post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. Thank you! ]

Stegman breezed into his office following his own breakfast, coffee in one hand and medical magazine in the other. Why was it always such a fight trying to get the latest issues of any of his subscriptions here? Backwater idiocy...

And speaking of, he had more of his patients to see today. As always, one of Landel's ever-cheerful nursing staff was waiting with the day's files and folders. Sometimes, he just wanted to hit them. Just wipe those incessant smiles right off their faces. They didn't have the proper amount of respect. And they didn't watch their own patients close enough. They were almost as bad as the staff back at Kingdom...

"Yes, yes, thank you," he grumbled, snatching them with the hand that didn't hold his coffee. Obviously, the vapid little thing had been waiting for a response. "Bring in the first," he muttered, as he took his seat behind his desk.

Maybe he'd be lucky. Maybe he'd go home with only a small headache today.

The files for today's patients were waiting on Makiko's desk when she arrived, left in an untidy-looking heap that drew an irritated frown from the doctor. It was a pity she hadn't yet had the time to deal with the nurses here as she had back in the hospital at home - none of them would have left her office in anything but a pristine state, not if they wanted to remain comfortable in their employment.

Ah, well, the things she had to put up with in return for lying low for a time. Such as, for instance, dealing with such incredibly tedious patients. She frowned at today's selection: not only was she supposed to deal with two in one shift, she'd been assigned another pre-teen. And all three for today were once again male, so it was unlikely there would be much of interest about them.

She sighed inwardly and poked the 'play' button on the CD player with slightly more force than necessary, then settled back to skim over the files before the patients arrived.

Jizabel was hardly looking forward to his first sessions this morning. The fact that he again would be seeing two in such a short time was difficult enough as it left less time with each, and what was more was that he had yet another woman listed. At the very least this one was coming with some warning to him, but Jizabel did not have to be accepting of the idea of counseling one. Ms. Walker had been a terrible trial of endurance with how she'd hung over the subject of her Captain.

But those were hardly reasons for a therapist to complain over, and Dr. Disraeli only smiled as a nurse presented him with the information he would need that morning.

What really bothered Jizabel was that he would be delayed in a far more interesting session due to the two new names on his list. Today was, after all, the first and only of his sessions where he had met with the patient the previous week. How fitting for it to be Sean that remained, the only one who had been able to maintain Jizabel's attention throughout the entirety of that introduction. The boy was just so similar, yet so lacking... Jizabel would have been dismayed to have lost the chance to speak with him once more.

Unfortunately, he would be forced to endure through the others before getting what he wanted. The nurse was already rapping on the door with his first patient. The doctor focused his attention both towards and away from his goal before calling for entry.

That really hadn't been the breakfast she'd been expecting, but Yuffie couldn't bring herself to complain. The kid made for good company, and was, if nothing else, pretty entertaining. She could've just done without the whole choking thing. That… That had been embarrassing. A bit. Okay, a lot. Yuffie was starting to get a feeling that this day was -- for once-- actually going to ping on her ‘interesting!’ meter.

Whether or not that was a good thing, she didn’t know.

By the time she’d reached the Sun Room's bulletin board, a kitten on her shoulder and a pen twirling between her fingers, Yuffie was starting to put her finger on why she had that weird, nagging feeling. Though on second thought, it was less like putting her finger on it and more like it had jumped up and punched her right in the nose; the feeling wasn’t just about waffles, magicians, or tricky candy thieves. Sagara hadn't answered her bulletin post; he hadn't answered any bulletin posts. She hadn't seen that stupid, spiky head of his all morning. It was like radio silence without a radio.

Agai-- No, Yuffie cut herself off sharply, frowning. She was just jumping to conclusions. It wouldn't be the first time, right? Right! And yet… instincts were instincts for a reason, and in a dump like this, who knew what could happen?

[for Okita?]

Stepping into his office on this particular Wednesday morning, Wilson had to admit that he was in a good mood. His last session the day before had gone particularly well, and he only wished that more of that patients were as willing to talk as Aubrey had been. Things could never be that easy, though, could they? Then again, considering he wasn't really qualified for this job, he would have thought he deserved a little slack here and there.

Either way, he was hoping that he was on some kind of good streak. Didn't those self-help books always talk about thinking positive? It was a load of bull (the sort of thing he and House had mocked together in the past), but the concept itself wasn't so bad. He'd seen enough dying patients hold on just a day more to see a family member to know that sometimes strength of will alone was enough to make a difference.

That was an internal thing, though. He had no sway over how well-behaved his patients were, but he was allowed to cross his fingers under his desk.

Next up was a new patient - new to him, at least. The man had apparently been at Landel's for a few days. Jude Davis was the name, and he was listed as having a personality disorder. He already sounded like a handful, but Wilson was going to withhold judgment for now.

The office looked quite a bit more cozy now. His books had been almost completely placed on the shelves (including a copy of his father's, which might have been a somewhat risky addition given the patients here, but he couldn't rightly leave it out). The desk was free of paperwork and the patient's chair now matched his own, both being rather simple and inelegant office chairs but serving the purpose well enough without being those horridly uncomfortable plastic ones.

He was feeling a bit more at ease with the situation now. The patients he'd had before had been easy enough to deal with (though he was still interested in observing Alexander without the influence of sedatives). Hopefully the same would hold true of today's group.

That day, Daedalus was mildly disgruntled. Or as disgruntled as the young doctor was ever likely to get in a public setting, which was close to not at all, given the fact that Daedalus rarely let his face slip.

And life was generally accepted as a public setting.

He didn’t need to keep a close guard on his emotions, but he certainly felt a faint throbbing behind his temple. Irritation. Another of his patients--if he could refer to them as such--released without forewarning. One Daedalus had been looking forward to approaching again.

He was personalizing the situation, he knew. He hadn’t expected his new overseer to be any more deserving of respect than the leaders of Romdo were, and he had not been disappointed. Expecting more of those in charge of Landel’s Institute was pointless. Daedalus wasn’t so foolish. He was just… irritated. Irritation was pointless, too, and he made to dispel the emotion as efficiently as he did everything else. Now, absently wishing for Deleuze and Guattari… that was a small indiscretion he could afford himself.

With his eyes closed and his chin resting on the backs of his folded hands, Daedalus let a thin smile touch his lips. He waited for the knock at the door.

Sometimes, even someone like Professor Hakubi Washu just plain had a bad day. One of those days where she just didn't want to do anything, where it seemed like the world was dull and gray and undeserving of her genius. Some days she just wanted to roll over in bed and go right back to sleep, or at least go no further than whatever mad laboratory the mad scientist might possess. Yes, some days there just was no reason to expend any effort on those who weren't going to like it, and when even the brightest mind amongst the other doctors was a dim bulb compared to her- in her humble opinion, of course- it could get so very tiring to get up and bash her head against the wall. Today, instead of her normal cheerful self, perhaps she'd be out of sorts, dispirited, unenthusiastic, melancholy, apathetic to the world and especially to the patients who put her through such endless misery...

...of course not! Professor Washu was always at the top of her game, and today? Game on!