I.R.I.S. here again, and we continue to hope that you are enjoying your temporary stay at Landel's Institute! We hope that our staff have proved adequate for your needs so far, and we are now ready to showcase an uncommon – but vital – aspect of the lives of our future patients. Once every week, we will allow 'visitors' from the outside world to interact with our community and assuage any fears our patients may have. Perfectly tailored for each individual, these visitors will in fact be graduates of the very program that you are surveying now, and a testament to how the methods of Landel's Institute will truly usher in a revolution in the Next-Wave programs.

In order to allow you to see the quality of our work with your own eyes, we have arranged for a handful of our original test subjects to return and show you how profoundly they've been re-educated in such a short span of time. We hope that you are satisfied with what you find, and as always, direct any questions you may have to your console.

Thank you!

Once again, the nurses went about ushering assigned patients into the two waiting rooms as if Martin Landel was announcing with his same old shtick. Non-assigned patients were allowed to remain in the same public room of their choice or to move to a new one.

Spending all of brunch talking to a "Vulcan" and pretending he was just as much of a hardcore fanboy as Spock was one way to start a day.

Hey, at least the guy was coping. Different strokes and all that.

As much as it'd been half awesome, half totally awkward to hang out with some Trekkie over more free food (he still wasn't sure if he could keep down brunch 'cause of last night), he really did have other things he needed to do. What he really needed was to get back into Kisugi's office; the only advantage he had over Sam right now was he actually knew which door it was. Any other day, he'd be tryin' to figure out how to get himself one of those orderly outfits, see if he could make it far enough to her office to destroy "his" patient files. Dangerous? Hell yeah and he'd probably get caught, which would've been worth the risk if he thought he really could make it that far. Wasn't like he had anything to lose with that year, right? Problem was he was gimped, what with all his healing injuries and bruises all over his face drawing attention to him as a patient, and despite tryin' to see if he could get to a lone orderly, they seemed to travel in pairs. One guy, he might have a chance against, even like this.

A team, though...

Dean might jump the gun sometimes, but he wasn't stupid. These weren't odds. He wouldn't even make it to that bitch's office without gettin' his ass jumped, probably sedated again.

He supposed he could have Sam check out the other doors while he popped into Kisugi's tonight. Might work. He'd also only have a few minutes, way he figured it, unless Sam went through every single file in every doctor's office, which wasn't gonna make sense when they were just trying to find theirs. If Dean was "Eric Derringer" and filed under Kisugi, then it made sense Sam's could be too, with their "cover" also as brothers. He'd want to check Kisugi's before everyone else's.

Too bad he'd just been shunted outside by Hello Nurse. She claimed it was 'cause he needed some fresh air, but he had a feeling his stunts in town and slugging Slappy in the face probably had a hand in putting him in a wide open space where they could keep an eye on him and not in a closed space, like a room, for now. Dean was just glad at least after all that BS, it'd been worth it when he looked at what they had today that they didn't yesterday.

Now they just needed accelerant and they could torch the corpses upstairs.

The recreational field looked pretty much like it had the couple of times he'd been here - okay, one of them didn't count when he didn't remember it actually happening - a field with almost no pointy edges and that vine covered wall you could climb that'd lead to the courtyard on the otherside. Dean wandered about the fence, hands in his pockets as he surveyed the area, keeping it cool as he checked for any thing they could use, glancing at the wall as he passed by the shed before sweeping around. They could probably use a bat, although he wasn't sure if they could turn it into a stake or if anything needed staking here in the first place. It probably wouldn't even be the right kinda wood.

What he wouldn't do for his own arsenal again. A guy got spoiled on being able to just pop the trunk and pull out whatever weapon he needed for a job.

Dean missed his baby. He still had no idea what they'd done with the Impala. The idea of her gettin' stuck up on blocks or something was just another nightmare he didn't need.

Then there was the fact Sam had gotten bitten by something right outta the movies. Dean wanted to say it was nothing, just a bite they needed to make sure wouldn't get crazy infected, but he didn't want to take chances.

Peh. "Graduates." Who were they trying to fool? It's not like anyone here believed them, and no one ever visited the institute. What was the point in keeping up this sad little charade? To add to the realism of it? Well, whatever. If they wanted to continue this exercise in futility, that was fine with Porky. All it meant was that they spent more time focusing on the day instead of the night, which was definitely a good thing. Now, who was Porky supposed to meet in the Game Room again? Ah, that's right. Porky didn't know...

No matter. It's not like they would be able to hurt Porky or something in broad daylight. Then again, there were some more...savage patients here. Well, Porky was sure that none of them would be interested in meeting with Porky anyway.

While he waited for his mysterious contact, Porky grabbed a gameboy and started looking for a game to pop in.

...No Zelda, no Mario, no Kirby...What was wrong with Landel? Did he have no taste whatsoever? Porky kept looking for something he had actually heard of before, and eventually settled on...Tetris. How dreadfully boring. Well, no matter. As long as he didn't have to play a board game or something, Porky was content. After turning on the gameboy, Porky merely sat down and played, eagerly anticipating whoever had asked to meet with him.

[For Eva, I think~]

Once again, Endrance's nurse interfered with his plans. He had been planning to look around the Game Room, but the moment he began to move towards the Sun Room, she had taken him by the arm. "Your family has asked that we make sure you get as much fresh air and sunshine has possible, and you won't get that by staying inside playing video games all day."

He had thought for a moment about protesting, but decided against it. After all, if what had happened to Haseo was punishment for having spoken too strongly the day before, he didn't want to make that worse somehow. So, when given the choice of going out to the recreational field or the courtyard, he chose the latter.

There were a few reasons behind the decision, the most salient being that he wanted to see what the area looked like for a second time - this time without the threat of a brainwashed patient surprising him. The second reason was just as strong as the first, and it had to do with the presence of a second former Demon Palace Emperor. As energetic as she was normally in The World, he couldn't imagine Alkaid not wanting to spend some time outside.

Just as before, he sat down under a tree by the side of the pond, keeping one eye on the door.

[closed to Alkaid]

It would have been impossible not to see this coming, but after the night he'd had and seeing Euphy in the cafeteria-- hadn't the past twenty-four hours been enough? He couldn't do this anymore, not after seeing her walking around as if nothing had happened and knowing that Suzaku was going through a similar ordeal. His knight-- no, former knight now-- had been so transformed by her death, and having to behave now as if none of that had occurred had to be-- but it was out of Lelouch's hands now. Both of them were, and although he would have liked nothing more than to speak to her again or tell Suzaku why he couldn't tell him what had happened, he couldn't do that to either of them. It would be easier for them this way.

For him, however, the torment was just beginning. There was a wide variety of people the institute staff could have chosen from that would have a deep impact on him, but when the most obvious choice would have the worst-- he couldn't do this! He had spent almost all of his time here carefully shutting out thoughts of Nunnally after Suzaku had told him what would happen to her, but if he had to come face to face with her-- the walls were already beginning to crumble, and if it hadn't been for the fact that he knew his nurse would have grabbed and probably sedated him the instant he tried to bolt, he would have done so immediately.

As things were, he allowed himself to be led placidly through the Sun Room and the main hall, eyes downcast and shoulders beginning to quake ever so slightly with barely contained emotion. Nunnally-- he hadn't had a conversation with her-- a real conversation, not something rushed over the phone that hid more from her than he ever wanted and not something filled with lies and false reassurances, but a real conversation where he could ask how her day had been and lightly cradle her hand in his as she excitedly told him about the latest tidbit Sayoko had told her about Japanese culture or expressed worry about something in class she hadn't fully understood or sweetly smiled at him as she--

Lelouch shut his eyes tightly, barely hearing the nurse as she left him in the lobby to find a seat and somehow keep himself preoccupied while he waited and tried his hardest not to remember what the rest of his conversation with Suzaku had held that night. If he did...

Slowly, he began to walk over to one of the chairs, all but collapsing into it once he'd reached it and sagging forwards so that his elbows rested on his knees and only barely kept him seated upright. He didn't know how much more he could take, and if his visitor was Nunnally, then-- then what? He wasn't sure. And Nunnally-- what was he supposed to tell her? What could he even say? How could anyone expect him to talk to her now as if everything was normal when he had to-- when there was no way he could--

He stared down at the floor and waited, face blank. He would just have to get through this somehow, and after that-- he would deal with that later. He had to.

Well, today was certainly turning out to be... interesting. A few things seemed to be going as planned, for once! Soon, he might not have to deal with so many actual meatbags quite so often! It made his personality core very nearly glow with excitement.

And the latest comms message was intriguing. So, he was going to be meeting a 'graduate' of this wretched place? This all confirmed the theory he'd had within his first minutes trapped within this facility: brainwashing was one of the goals of this place.

Well, whoever he was supposed to meet, he would make sure they'd leave trailing shattered pieces of their composure and sanity! HK settled down in one of the chairs in the lobby to wait expectantly.

Honey's tummy was growling loudly by the time he was finished talking with Tsubaki.  It'd been an eventful morning, but he was glad to see that his friends were safe.  The nurse led him to the line and he filled up his tray with as many sweet-imitations as he could.  Fruit, juice, pancakes, whipped cream, muffins, the works.  But when he got out of line, none of the members were there yet.  Well, that was alright, he could still stake out a table and make sure there were seats enough for everyone. 

Humming softly to himself, Honey set his trap up on a table and pulled himself into a chair before starting in on the syrupy sweet breakfast food.  Usa-chan sat beside him, saving at least one of the chairs, while he kept a careful watch on the door for any more hosts.

[Host Club! :D]

The princess felt a little better after her talk with Soma. It cheered her up to have made a friend - from what she was quickly learning about this place, the more friends you had, the better off you were. It gave her a little more hope, after what had been said about the Head Doctor. And if there was anything in this world she was good at doing, it was holding on to a spark of hope as long as possible.

She didn't particularly pay attention to what room she walked into as she crossed the Sun Room, and was a little surprised that it looked like the room her art classes took place in back when she was a student. Well, that could be a little fun, couldn't it?

Euphy took a few pieces of brightly colored paper and a set of markers and sat down at one of the tables, then started idly doodling.

[free for playing with glitter with.]

Kibitoshin left the cafeteria in what could only have been described as a state of sheer, unleaded anxiety. Why did he have to be the one Dory had spoken to first? With everything he’d said and failed to say she’d probably ended up with a reverse education. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she came out of it knowing even less than she had when she arrived.

Hopefully- and he really did hope, more than anything- someone else would be able to start over and tell her what she needed to know, especially since she hadn’t exactly seem altogether… well… there. To be fair, she had been a fish until today. Expecting her to be perfectly normal was maybe a little much.

What he needed now was some peace and quiet. Maybe if he had a chance to calm down he wouldn’t make such a fool of himself in his meeting later that afternoon. The library would do for that, right? If he was lucky (which he never was, but he had to be positive) they’d have that book he hadn’t quite finished in Doyleton (even if he couldn't think of the town without shuddering), the odd one about Lady Esmeralda (which hadn't been very good anyway, but...). A quick scan of the shelves on arrival didn’t turn anything up, but he did manage to find a battered old book called ‘Alice in Wonderland’ to settle down with. Apparently, it was about a girl finding herself in a strange new world. Why did that ring a bell...?

Satisfied, he took a seat and began to flick through the pages.

[free for unlimited poking!]

Edgeworth had originally planned to go to the library this shift, but decided against it in the end. There would be more time for books later - what he wanted to do now was think, and in a place where he could largely shut out the rest of the world. It was easy enough in his own office; people knew not to bother him when classical music could be heard behind his office door.

There wasn't a convenient office to hide away in, but there were sofas and portable CD players, and - ah. Mozart's Piano Concerto #20, in D Minor. That was good thinking music if he knew any. He turned on the music, then sat back on one of the sofas, reading over his own notes.

Graduates, IRIS, the conspicuous absence of the Head Doctor. What does this mean?

[free, as far as I'm aware.]