The intercom jingle filtered through the intercom, which was soon followed by the Head Doctor's cheery voice.

"Hello again! I hope some of you have been enjoying the chance to get some fresh air. Those who might be missing out due to therapy sessions shouldn't fret, though! Like yesterday, you're free to go to any approved activity room this shift. Nurses will provide everyone with a sack lunch filled with your choice of chicken or grilled cheese sandwiches, apple slices, a juice box, and a chocolate chip cookie.

Enjoy your meals, and have a nice shift!"

The intercom clicked off.

[As stated, this shift is a FREE CHOICE shift. Patients may go into the following rooms: the game room, music room, arts and crafts room, library, courtyard, and the rec field.]

Perhaps simply claiming 'I don't care' to her nurse was a mistake. Lust found herself in the 'games room' at a handsome table with a sandwich containing nothing but cheese. But following the greenhouse, she honestly hadn't cared one way or another where she was shuttled off to.

Talking with another woman had done little. There was so much to think about and so little desire to. What did it really matter? So the dead could walk here, she'd already known that. So he was here, so what? She had lived many years without even knowing the man existed, there was no reason his presence should shake her so.

And anyway, she would see him again tonight. Perhaps he'd be more accepting of the situation then.

But for the moment she was going to push those thoughts away. She needed to lay her information out in an order that made sense to her. Ignoring the deck of cards her nurse had given her and the instructions to 'make some new friends', Lust opened up the blank book kept in her room and stared at a blank page.

Where in the world would she even begin? Explaining things at breakfast had helped her some, but...

"Even madness begins at the beginning," she muttered as she bent over the journal.

[Loki!]

This free choice thing wasn't all that bad, he had to admit. Harvey had managed to get out of the mandatory time spent outside the previous shift, and now he could keep that up. He'd never had a problem with being outdoors until after his accident, but seeing how he had open burn wounds to deal with, he honestly didn't find it that unreasonable. The fact of the matter was that even if he was good at hiding it (sometimes, anyway), he was almost always in pain. In this place he often had other injuries added on top of his permanent ones, so even small things tended to irritate him. Like the sun beating down on him or the cold making his skin sting. Even loud noises were generally a no-go.

Which was why he was pretty sure that the library was going to be a common place for him to go whenever he was given the option like this. It was sort of boring to go to the same place day in and day out, but maybe he'd try for the Game Room some time. Even Arts and Crafts wasn't so bad, so long as no one got glitter near him or expected him to participate.

Nothing beat the library, though. It was usually quiet -- he guessed that this whole thing about the youth of today not wanting to read actually had some truth to it -- and being surrounded by books was soothing somehow.

Not to mention he was the first one in here today. His nurse was keeping an eye on him as usual, but Harvey sat down with his sack lunch, figuring that he should get his food eaten first and foremost. He'd gotten a decent amount of his breakfast down this morning, which had stimulated his appetite. He was genuinely hungry, and so he took out the grilled cheese sandwich first, ripping it into pieces to make it easier to eat.

[For Barnaby.]

The moment dear Landel-san announced that it was time for lunch, Erika wasted no time and headed straight for the Sun Room's bulletin board to check if there was any response to her message left for her dear friend. Predictably, there was nothing for her on the board, and the detective scowled as she realized she might have to write him off as a loss. She had lost a good number of potential allies in this place, but losing this one was a bit of a blow, if only because he had useful things on him. On the other hand, if he was gone, and that ring was still here...

Perhaps it was not a great loss, then. Still, Erika was mildly annoyed as she wandered away from the board and back towards a nearby couch. She was spending a lot of time in the Sun Room lately, which seemed to be a bit of a waste as she could have spent in going around the Institute. On the other hand, she had a sandwich here that was waiting to be consumed and after spending a week with little access to "real food", Erika was more then happy to enjoy her time spent eating.

Still, at some point she was going to have to manage her time a little more effectively. There was no reason why she couldn't multitask, so Erika kept her gaze on the door of the Sun Room so she could watch people filter in on their way to other rooms. She wouldn't get everyone, no, but perhaps she would find someone useful that she could bother for the rest of the shift. A familiar face, or maybe someone new. She'd decide on that eventually.

[ hau Seishin ready for round 2. /killed ]

Claude was glad to get his sack lunch and practically inhaled his food the second he received it from his nurse. Maybe he should have paced himself a little better, but the meal itself hadn't been that big, and he'd left a little bit of his breakfast on his plate this morning.

Once he was finished, he once again braved the cold and considered doing some laps around the field. If he hoped to make anymore progress with Guy and Anise, Claude knew he needed to be prepared for anything, which meant staying in shape. While he'd done a fair amount of fighting in Landel's, it wasn't as much as he was used to. Generally, he wasn't the sort who trained or exercised simply for the sake of doing so (he didn't have the patience for it), but that didn't mean he didn't at least try to make the effort from time to time.

But first, he should probably relax his muscles. It had been awhile since he'd taken the time to do something like that, and he could probably use the extra time to properly digest his food. With that in mind, Claude began to run through a series of stretches that he'd learned in school a long time ago.

[For Utena]

The "Game Room" at Landel's didn't even have an XBOX. It was more like the kind of game room you'd find at a nursing home, as Jesse quickly discovered on his way in and straight back out. Considering how unfair this whole deal was, with the monsters and all, the least they could do is offer a big screen TV and a place where the patients could play Mariokart or Rock Band together. Or even some little set-up with a decent selection of fighting games, first person shooters, something reasonably distracting. Monopoly and arts and crafts didn't do much to make up for the terrifying situation they'd all be in once again after the sun set.

So he bypassed the boring options and headed straight for the Courtyard that surrounded the cafeteria, back out into the cold air. There was a good reason to stay outside during the day -- getting a feel for these surroundings while it was light out would make hatching an escape plan at night easier. Tall brick walls kept them neatly penned in, but when he got up close to inspect them he realized there were vines crawling all the way to the top.

He gave the plant-life a good tug to test its strength and was immediately accosted by his nurse, who steered Jesse away from the outskirts of the Courtyard with a firm grip on his shoulders.

"Hey!" All it took was one loud protest, and shaking her off a touch too violently, to make her start in on a lecture about his bad behavior today. Jesse shot her a wordless glare and parked his ass on one of the benches in the hopes that it would shut her up.

It worked. In order to save some of his dignity while she shuffled off, his posture dissolved into a slouch, one that made his small body look bigger than it was by taking up more space on the bench than he needed.

[free!]

Now that he had finally been allowed back inside, the warmth from the Sun Room hit him like a heated slap in the face. With ruddy cheeks and the sticky feeling of perspiration from his little walk/job with Niikura made him feel like a sun-burned mess. His nurse was kind enough to take his jacket from him before he went to the restroom to splash a little water on his face.

It also gave him a moment to himself, completely alone and silent so he could think. The water in the sink continued to run, but the older man was more occupied with the mirrors. He stared at his wet reflection as he took a few slow breaths to help contain himself. The longer he stayed here, the more surreal it all felt. Slowly, he began to feel less and less attached to this reality because he believed it was only a matter of minutes, seconds before he woke up.

He couldn't let the sensation overwhelm him. In fact, he picked a hand up from the sink and pinched himself to prove his point. Bizarre or not, this was his situation and he needed to figure out soon just who put him in it. The fact that none of the nurses would even humor his talk of his Hero alter ego said many things to him. Suddenly no one had even heard of him and it was an all too familiar problem that made his blood run cold. In spite of it all, he needed to be on his toes. This was no time to fall apart, he reminded himself. With one last deep breath, Kotetsu put his clueless smile back in place and stepped out of the bathroom with his nurse in toe who gave him a quick tour of the all the places he could go if he chose to.

He passed one room and took three steps back to get a better look. "Ah, excuse me, ma'am! What's this one?"

"Oh, that's arts and crafts," she said flippantly, not expecting a grown ass man would be interested in playing with clay. Well, she was clearly mistaken now that he saw the extent of the materials. They had a lot in here! And he had the perfect idea. If the staff here refused to regard him as Wild Tiger, he was just going to have to force it on them.

Snickering like a fool, Kotetsu grabbed several sheets of black construction paper, glitter, glue, and a pair of safety scissors before sitting down at a vacant table. Actually, all the tables were empty. He was the only one in here and that was probably for the best since he was making himself a makeshift domino mask of ultimate secretiveness.

He laid all the pieces of construction paper on top of each other before he began cutting out something that looked like an elongated figure eight with little barbed fins at the bottom. It wasn't going very well. Kotetsu was confident he could probably cut a tree down with a stick of butter faster than these scissors would cut through the paper.

He was going to be here for awhile.

[Kaede Kairi, come to papa!]

His conversation with Jesse had felt him feeling a little less numb. Nothing sensational, but he no longer caught himself zoning out at his lap or the carpet for minutes on end. Then again, it could have just been the pain killers wearing off. Either way, Ippo felt more lucid and while the tremors still paralyzed his finer motor skills, he could at least hold onto his lunch while his nurse wheeled him into the Music Room.

It was probably for the best since he couldn't play games, walk around outside, or make anything in the arts and crafts room. All you needed to listen to music, though, were two years. Actually, you really only needed one so he was beyond the minimum requirement.

In a corner of the room, Ippo was wheeled around so he got a view of the entrance in case he saw someone he knew. The woman accompanying him wrestled up a CD player for him to listen to. It was a pretty advanced model and the boxer was surprised they would hand out something so pricey to patients. Still, Ippo wasn't going to complain. he didn't listen to music all that much except to catch rhythm when he trained, but the classical music chosen was easy to listen to. He could drift in and out as he fumbled with his sack lunch. The apples were eaten first since they were easiest to pick up.

[Woody o/]