damned_institute | Day 35: Bus 1

To say the least, it was downright jarring to wake up and not have any idea of how much time had passed since he'd last seen the light of day. Once he realized today was the "exciting" trip to Doyleton, that feeling of being out of balance only increased, and Obi-Wan changed into his clothes with furrowed eyebrows. They were strange clothes by his standards, but they looked like they'd keep him warm for the day, at least.

Still, as he was led to one of the buses and given a sack of food, several questions were running through the Jedi's mind. How long had he been asleep? Had he fallen ill? Or had the doctors done something to him?

Granted, he knew his situation wasn't necessarily unusual, but that didn't make it any less off-putting.

Once he'd found a seat, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He needed to regain his focus before he ventured out into the town. Now wasn't the time to dwell on the should have's and could have's of what had happened.

((Free.))

Blackness. Silence. Nothing. A stirring of the beast. A reluctance to acknowledge it. A will. Fighting. Losing. Losing against the beast. As it always did. The beast always won, sooner or later. All these years, all the training, all the meditation, medication, and outright screaming against the beast. All futile. He was not a man, no matter how hard he wished he could be. Could have been. Logan's eyes snapped open.

Where? Wha'? He should have felt tired, drained, but instead he was more awake than he'd ever been. Broken memories of the night before flashed through his brain, a brain that was on fire. He couldn't recall it all immediately, but a sickening voice in the back of his mind reassured him that he would. It took all of the mutant's will not to just scream out his rage with all of his heart. What had they done? What had he done?!?

Without thinking, he turned and punched the wall with all the strength he could muster. The plaster cracked, the brick crumbled slightly, and blood trickled from his hand. Logan began to hyperventilate as he spun his head in the direction of the other bed. Parker was there. Still asleep, as if nothing had happened. The mutant's breathing slowed slowly as he realised his friend at least looked unharmed. More memories were starting to come back. The kid he'd gutted...the guy with the gun...Rogers...he stared despondently at his hands, not even noticing the blood slowly, slowly clotting. Too slowly.

The door swung open, and his regular nurse entered. "Mr. Howlett!" She exclaimed cheerily. "I do hope your counselling last night was as beneficial as intended?" He scowled at her in response, suddenly wanting nothing more than to snap her pretty little neck. He softened quickly however, as he realised just how little good that would do him. She was just a lackey, after all. He wanted the Big Guns. So bad that it hurt.

If she noticed the crack in the wall, or the fresh wound on his hand, she gave no indication. "Please come along now, James, we have a field trip scheduled for today." Moving into the room, she laid a set of clothes on the desk at the end of his bed. "Get dressed, and I'll meet you in the hall to escort you to the bus." She left, but he could smell that she hadn't gone far. Not even caring what he'd been given to wear, he dressed thoughtlessly before striding over to the door, casting another glance at his roommate on the way. He knocked once, to signify that he was ready. The mutant's mind was suddenly very blank.

The door opened again, and he followed the nurse sullenly out towards the bus loading area. His movement was uncharacteristically slow as he shuffled up the steps of the first bus, taking a seat near the front. Logan dropped his head into his hands. Wha' tha hell'm I gonna tell Parker? Or Steve?!? Oh Jesus. Steve. Steve was here, and the first thing he did was attack him. It wasn't easy for a man of such resolve to feel sick, but he felt several seconds away from emptying his stomach entirely.

[Mr. Parker, I presume?]

Since he'd only been in Morrison's room, the morning wasn't as jarring. Armand sat up, noting that his shoulder had been freshly bandaged and there didn't seem to be any need for a sling today. He hoped. He didn't want to hurt himself further.

He was rubbing sleep from his eyes with one hand when the nurse entered, carrying a pile of clothing. He thought back to the announcements that he so seldom consciously noticed. Field trip. Right. He tucked his loose hair behind his ears and gave the woman a smile.

She laid out some clothes for him. Not anything he cared about. He fingered the heavy denim of the pants as he slipped into them. They were just a shade too loose. The shirt was the same thin flimsy material as the uniform shirts and an improbable shade of purple. The collar did little to hide his bandages.

The nurse led him out to the buses where he received a sack of food. Armand took a seat as close to the door as he could. He remembered the last trip to town.

[for Takaya]

Usopp woke up in a nervous sweat and jumped out of bed before he was fully sure he was awake. He'd gone to sleep in the middle of the very manly, very nerve-wracking conversation with Captain Zelnick and Tanaka, and...

The nurse came in to find Usopp sliding the drawer with the knife in it shut, already sweaty from packing away what he'd planned to take an hour or so on in minutes in his closet. He gave her his absolute best confident grin in the situation, which made her smile back a bit hesitantly, and then Usopp ruined it all by nervous giggling.

At least he'd had the chemicals put away first, so he'd just had to organize the rest of the hardware that had been out. 'Organize' was a polite word for it, 'frantically stuff' was more accurate. Oh, god, if anything isn't balanced right and gets knocked over and falls on the chemicals...

Well... the absolute worst case scenario was some kind of massive chemical explosion that'd destroy the hospital, or maybe poison gas filling it, or something, but he didn't think he had enough stuff for that. So it would probably just eat a giant hole in his floor, maybe blow up his and Sousuke's room.

What Sousuke thought of waking to the great Captain Usopp shoving things frantically in his closet, Usopp couldn't imagine, but the nurse's expression as Usopp tried to look innocent made it clear she thought he was nuts. But miracle of miracles, instead of demanding he open the drawer and show her what he was hiding, she handed over a pile of clothes instead.

Oh, right, today is another trip to Doyleton. Maybe I'll get eaten by giant birds before I come back to find my room destroyed. That was a relief.

The outfit wasn't exactly his usual coveralls, but it wasn't so bad. Once the sweatpants and baggy flannel shirt were on, he grabbed his notebook and a spare pen before the nurse placed his bag lunch in his other spare hand and gently pushed him along towards the buses.

Last night had started out great and turned into an absolute, unquestionable disaster. Usopp's paranoias about working with so many strangers, already being forcefully ignored in the name of progress and the hope that everyone's love of gunpowder would make keeping him alive seem like an optimal situation, were back full swing. And when had he last seen any of his crew? Were they all still around? They didn't all report on the boards. Had some of them vanished again? Zoro, or...

Seeing a familiar blond head on the bus, Usopp annoyed his nurse by waving wildly (bag lunch still in hand) and rushing over to take his seat. Now here was someone he trusted, someone he was sure wouldn't turn on him, or betray him, or attack him. Well, wouldn't turn on him or betray him, and sometimes he did kinda have a kick coming, to be really fair. "Sanji-kun!" The over-enthused and fake-shrill greeting aside, he added happily, "You're still not dead too!"

No sooner had he attempted to look around the quarry did he find himself back in his bed with that blasted nurse shaking him awake. Snapping in irritation at the woman, the Star Dragon Sword snatched the offered clothing from the useless woman and got changed. Ignoring his nurse, he took the offered paper bag without a word before storming out of his room and down through the halls.

This was another one of those blasted town trips. He remembered the last one, and he doubted this one would be productive either.

Making his way outside, he didn't even bother to assess which bus to go on this time. Making his way to the closest one, the Star Dragon Sword stomped his way onto the large contraption. Sitting in the first available seat, the sword dropped his bagged breakfast down in his lap as he folded his arms across his chest.

[Waiting for Frey]

Someone was nudging his shoulder. Teisel grumbled and raised a hand to bat the offending person away. He rolled over to go back to sleep and just how the hell had he ended up in bed again?

Teisel sat up with a yelp, nearly cracking heads with the woman who'd been trying to wake him. "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Wolfe. I didn't mean to startle you." The matronly woman in white (must be some kind of...nurse?) gave him a pat on the head and laid a pair of jeans and a dark green shirt on his lap.

"I'd have let you sleep in longer, but then you might miss the bus." She stepped back and smiled, waiting for him to get changed. Teisel stared at her as though she had two heads.

"Bus?" he repeated.

She nodded. "Yes, Todd, we're going on a bus ride into town today," she explained, as though Teisel were an exceptionally slow child. "Won't that be fun? I'll give you some privacy, and then we can find you a seat on the bus, okay? Okay!"

She left, and Teisel could almost feel his brain turn to scrambled eggs. "...Okay?"

Bewildered, he dressed and followed the nurse to the buses. He climbed into the first bus they came to, the nurse giving him a reassuring pat on the back as he did so.

Sitting in an empty seat, Teisel stared around dumbly. He'd passed confusion several minutes ago. He didn't know where to even begin freaking out. So he didn't, yet.

She'd been so close! There was a truck and they could've escaped, but now she was stuck back in her room, staring at the ceiling. How did they keep doing that? Even when they'd gotten free of the institute, they brought everyone right back again! How? Kagura threw her pillow across the room in a brief, angry fit as she got out of bed.

It wasn't long, however, before her nurse arrived with a smile and a change of clothing. Hope rose within her. Had Hatori finally remembered? Was she going to go home?

But no. These weren't her clothes. And the nurse assured her it was a field trip, she wasn't going home. At least the clothing was kind of cute. There was a pair of stretch denim jeans that were a little loose, but came with a cute pink belt. The top was one of those new baby doll t-shirts she'd seen in fashion magazines. The color was nice and it had a cute little heart on the chest, but it was really small! Was this how they were supposed to be worn? It didn't even cover all of her tummy! At least it came with a jacket, but that was short too. Did they really get the right size?

The nurse didn't seem to think much of it though, and ushered her out the door and out the front of the building. There were three big buses waiting for them and she was handed a paper bag and pushed toward the first bus. Where were they going?

[free]

(FAIL!)

Haku was awake and tense, ready for an attack even before he was fully aware. Sighing softly, he settled back into the bed. This whole now you're consious now you're not bit had to go.

Glancing over at the other bed, he noticed, with no small amount relief that his friend was whole and still in the other bed.

Then he recalled it was 'field trip' day and his spirits took a sharp turn down. That meant clothing that was uncomfortable and a walk around and a town that thought he was insane.

(Artemis? Because we SO don't spend enough time together! ^^;; )

The lightsabers were gone.

Qui-Gon knew it would be futile to dwell on it. But the lightsabers he'd taken from the training room - a room constructed to be uncomfortably close to a Jedi's training chambers - were gone. He searched his room urgently; not panicking, but moving quickly, aware he might have limited time before the nurse would arrive. The Jedi checked thoroughly. The blue lightsaber from the training droid wasn't here. Neither was that mysterious, blood-stained red one with the electrum hilt. Having searched the room, Qui-Gon sighed. He would have to accept the loss and move on.

So he did.

Today was another Doyleton trip. Qui-Gon was given an Earthian set of clothes to wear; he changed into what the nurse called "jeans" and a loose black tunic with long sleeves (if the nurse noticed the braided bracelet on his hand, she didn't comment). Qui-Gon still felt a bit shaky after running himself into the ground last night, but he could walk, for the most part, limping a little on his injured knee. It still throbbed, both from when he'd misjudged his backflip fighting the training droid and when that other droid had hit him in the knee with an electrostaff. His head, as well, felt somewhat fuzzy; he was aware of the Force, but his senses to it were even more muted than usual. He'd over-extended himself.

He hoped Sanzo and Callisto made it back. They should have, but with Landels, sometimes you never knew.

Entering the bus, Qui-Gon was heartened to see Obi-Wan there. He looked mildly perturbed. As he watched, a young blonde woman sat down next to the other Jedi, smiling as she introduced himself. Qui-Gon nodded a silent greeting to his former student and moved down the aisle, limping between the seats until he got to a seat of his own and sat down. His senses might not be at their peak, but he could still do the Jedi technique of seeing without looking - observing without it being obvious he was scoping the place out. To all appearances, he was simply settling down for the field trip.

Last night hadn't been too bad. They hadn't run into any monsters, at least, and Junior had managed to swipe a few things, but he'd wanted to get some more done. Well, he'd have to talk to Usopp later and see just how much he could use.

He shoved the pillowcase under his own pillow when he woke up, trying to get them hidden before his nurse came in. It looked like they were heading out early this morning, so he needed to be ready. When the nurse did come in, she was carrying a different set of clothes. Oh thank god. Whatever out there that might be laughing at him, at least they were being nice here. Anything was better than that stupid uniform.

"Good morning, George!" she said, giving him that stupid fake smile, but he couldn't bring himself to care. "Are you ready for a day in town? I've brought you a change of clothes."

"Thanks," he replied, sliding off of the bed and taking the clothes from her, changing as fast as he could. When he finished, he was wearing a mesh shirt, a purple vest, and black bike shorts. Might not be the best clothes in the world, and was maybe even a bit tacky, but it was still better than those uniforms. After being cooped up in this place for so long, Junior was really itching to walk around a town and talk to some normal people who hadn't gone through the same thing that everyone else here did. Not to mention he'd planned on meeting with that alchemist this morning, hadn't he? Couldn't keep him waiting.

The redhead grabbed his journal and a pen on the way out, hoping to try and make some sketches of what he wanted either on the bus or sometime during the day. He just hoped it'd be possible. The nurse led him around to where the buses were parked and handed him his sack breakfast before gesturing him to get on. Junior obliged her, glancing around to see who else was on (hey, looked like Usopp was there!) before taking a seat near the middle of the bus and digging into his breakfast for the muffin.

[for Ritsuka! and, uh, a million eavesdropping people]

Well, that had been a fantastically productive night. So productive, in fact, that they'd very nearly made it to the main hallway.

The only night in which Mello had accomplished less was the evening he spent on the radio with L. He wondered if the connection was significant: did overly observant people interfere with the flow of time by analyzing every goddamn irrelevant detail? But Matt and his History club crew had accomplished plenty the night before, and Matt wasn't one to overlook anything--as long as there wasn't a game boy in his hand. There must be a variable that Mello hadn't considered.

When the nurse handed Mello a neatly folded pile of clothing, he looked at her warily. Shouldn't the institute want to keep its patients recognizable, the way prisoners on work detail always wore colored vests? Civilian clothing would make it easier for one of them to slip away unnoticed, but Landel must have considered that. A test of some sort...as if there hadn't been enough of those yet.

Mello quickly buttoned up his cotton shirt before following the nurse to the buses. If his clothes were supposed to help him blend in with the general population, it seemed like Doylestown was having a twenty-four hour pajama party.

He accepted his bag breakfast and sat down on the first available bench, watching for the person whose description he'd read on the bulletin yesterday evening. For the first time in his life, Mello wasn't completely certain that he wanted the answers to his questions...but he sure as hell wasn't going to let Near get them first.

Hanatarou had been rather startled to wake up and see the white walls of "his" room, especially when the last thing he remembered was being in the dark mine shaft and he didn't recall even returning to the building, much less going to sleep. Before he'd had too much time to be puzzled, though, the nurse had bustled in with even more strange clothing for him to wear (heavy blue pants, a dingy-looking shirt, and an odd green jacket (http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g291/ragamuffinzx/Hoodies/P1010113.jpg)) and shooed him outside to where three buses were waiting.

Though he'd seen things like this in the human world before, he'd never actually ridden on one, and Hanatarou hesitantly clambered on board the bus to which he'd been led, tightly clutching the paper bag he'd been given against his chest. There were already several people on board, but the shinigami avoided them all and slid onto an empty seat, squeezing as far against the side of the bus as he could. Maybe nobody would notice him there.

[for Keman]

Zabuza was confused when he was presented with his clothes to go downtown. Overalls and a plain blue T-shirt. He thought they would only be doing that once a week and it had only been a couple of days since their last visit. He had no idea that he had actually been missing for days and that it had been a week since their last visit. When he pointed it out the nurse that it was too soon to go back, she only laughed as if he had told some kind of joke.

Angry, uncomfortable, and, worse of all, confused, he got to the first bus and climbed on. He glanced around, blinking before he saw Haku and his roommate. Well, if they weren't going to kick him off the bus because Haku was on it, then the least he could do is sit and eavesdrop on the conversation.

He sat on an empty seat and looked out the window, arms folded across his chest. What a stupid idea that they had to go downtown.

Saying she was surprised that it was morning would've been an understatement. Fleur had intended on going out and hopefully finding something useful last night, but it seemed she had instead fallen asleep after dinner.

The witch frowned and was murmuring quietly to herself when the nurse arrived. Fleur had expected this to be like the other days in this place, but that thought was pushed aside once she noticed the clothes the older woman was carrying.

"Good morning, Jaime dear," she greeted cheerily, ignoring the irritated noise Fleur made at the name. "I'm sure you're excited about the field trip today, so I'll just leave these here and step outside so you can change." The woman gave her patient another cheery smile before laying the clothes on the bed and leaving so she could change in peace.

Fleur might've normally objected to something like that, but she couldn't ignore the idea of finally getting to leave this horrible place. Even if it was for a 'field trip', being outside and away from the building brought an opportunity that she couldn't afford to overlook. And the clothes, she had to grudgingly admit, weren't too bad either; the blue skirt and white blouse were certainly preferred over the usual outfit, at any rate.

Once changed, Fleur allowed the nurse to fix her hair back into a braid before she was lead out to the... well, she wasn't sure what they were, but the nurse called them buses. Fleur was wary of the large, strange-looking things but she hesitantly climbed into one, after witnessing others do the same.

Sitting in the first empty seat she found, the witch couldn't help bur wrinkle her nose slightly. This wasn't anywhere near as nice as the Beauxbatons carriage had been.

[Free!]

Vlad hadn't argued too much with the nurse's choice of clothing for him--not exactly the right shade, but still an acceptable green. It did need some gold, but beggars couldn't be choosers, after all, and it was a vast improvement over the Institute's horrible little smiling faces everywhere. After he'd put on the sweater and the khaki pants, he'd been led outside, and found the sight of other patients also dressed differently an ease on the eyes. True, nighttime had a bit more variation, but seeing people by daylight dressed like normal human beings was a pleasant change of pace.

Well. Mostly like normal human beings. His own outfit was nothing he'd pick out for himself, and even a bit scratchy, but he'd be fine with it for an afternoon. Looking around, not everyone seemed to be as lucky, and a few combinations might have even been improved by replacing a top or a bottom with the Landel's standard. The nurse politely interrupted Vlad's mental fashion critique to direct him onto one of the buses, where he noticed his roommate already sitting and gave a polite nod in that direction, but picked a still-empty seat for himself. A bagged meal, too. How cute, like high school. It ought to be downright nostalgic for Daniel.

[reserved for the phantom thief~]

Yukari felt like she would never get used to suddenly waking up in a bed. It was annoying, to say the least.

Well, she got what she needed from the previous night and more. Some much needed supplies, and... a box. One that was supposedly hers, although it didn't seem like time was on her side that night long enough to find out what was inside of it. If the nurses hadn't done their daily routine of barging in on cue of the announcement, she definitely would have taken a moment to peek. Unfortunately, she'd have to wait until later that evening to find out.

With her things properly hidden before the nurses came in (it was always a challenge trying to do that with haste when you had only just awoken), Yukari was ready to be dragged out where ever when they finally did. There was a surprise when the woman handed her some folded up clothing-- soon to be a pleasant one when she found out she was allowed to wear them during their trip to the town. Oh, they weren't the nice designer clothing Yukari would often dress herself up in, but... hm, they'll do much better for now. Sporting a sleeveless, pink top (heh heh, they even knew her favorite color!), and a nice black skirt to match, the girl found herself eager to go. Well... the shoes could be a lot better, but at least they weren't those slippers they normally had.

Finally on the bus, Yukari plopped down at an empty seat at random, looking around quickly before peeking in her brown paper bag that was given to her. It didn't look like Renamon was around, nor Ken, or... anyone she was familiar with. So far, she had the feeling this was going to be an awfully boring ride.

Oh for... how ridiculous!

Rangiku was not happy to wake up when she did. They'd done nothing! Nice as it was to speak with Renji, it was also frustrating beyond belief to get nothing done for an entire nightshift! And it would be difficult to organise for tonight, although possibly a better time.

She narrowed her eyes at the nurse who came for her but didn't sturggle. If she was going to be going into town, she didn't want to spend the whole time sedated when she could be finding useful things and stealing them. Or possibly getting herself a drink.

At least the clothes were better. A strappy little top and tight cut jeans and heeled shoes that were rather fetching really.

She let herself be led to the bus and found herself a double seat where she could sit with her legs sprawled out, at least for a while, and began to eat her food.

[For Donna]<\small>

She could have sworn she'd gotten much more time to get around on the other nights before passing out and waking up, and being as it was that she did not make any progress in the area of finding her parents, she woke up far more disheartened than was typical for her.

She found herself surprised when the nurse who woke her up presented her with a pile of folded clothes and told her it was time to go out for their day trip. She dressed without a fuss, tying back her hair and following her nurse out curiously, expecting a short accompanied morning walk. What she didn't expect was the sight of sheer beauty that graced her vision upon going out in to the parking area.

"Wha- They're HUGE!" She exclaimed, citing the obvious sight of the three school buses lined up, "These are really internal combustion vehicles, not just train cars? How many people can they fit?" The nurse informed her that the reccomended capacity was 75 last time she checked.

"Seventy five!" She exclaimed, approaching the first bus with a gaze of admiration, "Wow, how much fuel would it take to even carry that kind of load on an automobile's engine? It must be such a powerful engine... I just- wow! Let me look inside the hood! Please!" She clapped her hands before her in a prayer motion. It didn't matter that this nurse was technically a captor. She just wanted to uncover the secrets of the huge vehicles. The exchange ensuing proceeded as something like-
"Please?"
"No."
"pretty please?"
"No."
"I promise I won't take it ap- I promise I'll put it back together when I take it apart!"
"Out of the question, Katie. Please go have a seat."
Winry frowned and took a breath, as she stepped towards the bus, yelling over her shoulder,
"My name is Winry, you jerk!"

She sat down in an empty seat scowling and looking out the window.

((Reserved))

That hadn't worked at all. While exploring was all well and good, they hadn't managed to encounter any monsters... again. Roland wasn't as hungry as he could have been, but not having any food at all was starting to get a bit tiring. Gorging once every few nights was as unhealthy for demons as it was for normal people; he wanted a steadier stream of meat, something to keep the pangs away as much as possible.

But that wasn't in the cards, much to his chagrin. So instead he quietly accepted the clothes- camouflage pants and a black shirt, refreshingly similar to what he'd had to wear back in his own world- and his breakfast bag before choosing a seat near the middle and sitting down. He had his journal with him, but at the moment, he couldn't really think of what to write. Instead, his thoughts drifted to Argilla, and that she'd accepted his offer for what was, in normal society, a 'date' of sorts...

Edgeworth sat bolt-upright in bed. It wasn't the fact that he had been in the file room one minute and in bed the next. It wasn't even the fact that he'd found the files he'd pulled under his pillow. All those things were fine - at least for some values of fine, but he was used to those values.

What was new and surprising was the fact that from one minute to the next, he had dreamed, and dreamed of...well, he knew he wouldn't be able to look at Wright without blushing for a while.

Before he could think too much about that, his nurse walked in, carrying a pile of clothing with her. "Right, then, you're awake. I'll let you change, Mr. Pierce."

He looked them over - a dress shirt the color of his suit, chinos, black dress shoes. They would do. He changed quickly, and stepped outside. "Are you ready? Let's go."

She walked him out to the first bus, and handed him breakfast. As usual, he ignored her, taking the bag and taking a seat near the front. The bus was already pretty full, which was surprising.

The nurse woke Forte forcefully, "Come now, Mr. Wilhelm, we've got to get you ready for the field trip today." And placed a set of clothes at the foot of his bed.

He sat up, groggily, "But... Sheena... center of weight..." The last thing he remembered was the girl walking up and shifting his stature, and now... this woman, in a brightly lit room? It was like he had been switched off and on again, and moved in the interim - was that how humans slept? "Where am I? What happened?"

She shook her head, "Poor boy... you're in Landel's Institute, now, so you can just rest and get better. Today is our field trip to the nearby town, so you won't be able to tour our facilities until tomorrow. We do have some clothes for you to wear for the trip, so I suggest you get ready." As she left the room, she muttered under her breath, "Honestly, I don't know why they would bring in new patients today, let alone in the middle of the night. It's so disorienting."

Forte watched her, confused, and then looked down at the folded clothes. There was a black jacket and a purple shirt with a skull on it (it seemed like the sort of thing Wily would have picked), with denim jeans. Well, at least it's better than this ridiculous smiley face, he thought, and tried to change so that he could ask the strange woman about where Sheena was, and whether she was a prisoner too (it didn't seem like a prison at the moment, with no darkly lit halls or monsters, and free clothes and talk of a trip). Unfortunately, after struggling with his current clothes, a ripping sound and the *thump* of him hitting the floor alerted the nurse to his inability to change himself. She came in, scoffing, and told him to hold still while she undressed and redressed him with surprising speed.

"Oh... okay, thanks, I've never had to wear clothes before I was human. So now can you tell me how I got to this room, and if there are any monsters nearby?"

The nurse sighed again, and pushed him out of the room. "Come on, quickly now Frank, there's no time for lallygagging in your dreams. You don't want to miss the bus on your first day."

As he was forced out several doors, every demand for answers was dismissed until he realized he was outside, and it was light out - maybe things really did work differently during the day? Before he knew what was happening, he was pushed onto a vehicle with many other people, with a paper bag in his hand, and led to an empty seat. "Whuh- no, I need answers! Come back here!" But the nurse was already hurrying off to find some other hapless patient. "Are all human facilities like this? This is no way to treat a superior robot!" he shouted as she left the bus. This was even more confusing than the night before.

Allelujah woke and felt pain flare through his body as soon as he moved. He gritted his teeth and pushed himself up into a sitting position so he could take stock of his injuries. His hands were bandaged and cleaned of the acid and the cut across his palm had been stitched. His chest was wrapped and he could tell that he'd probably at least cracked a rib when that table had fallen on him, if not broken a couple altogether.

The nurse gave him a sympathetic look when he flinched away from her, completely misunderstanding his desire to not be touched by someone who worked for this place. He did give her a surprised look when she brought in some different clothing to what he normally wore. Just tight jeans and a t-shirt, nothing too different to what he wore on Earth when he was there really, and the nurse took it as an excuse to start talking about the trip.

A town, huh? That was interesting and should give him a chance to gain his bearings.

She gave him a bag which she claimed contained breakfast and ushered him onto a large bus. He found an empty seat next to the window and started to pick at his food.

[Free!]

Well, this wasn't so bad, was it?

Brooklyn fingered the edge of the, admittedly worn, jacket he was given for the day. It was kinda biker-ish. He could get used to it. The jeans weren't bad either. He'd always found the material used for jeans rather interesting. After the last time he'd spent the afternoon outside, his nurse had been kind enough to get him a pair of sunglasses. This meant that overall he looked like he'd just walked out of an early nineties afternoon special, but in his mind he came across pretty cool.

Breakfast was lacking in quantity, but he could always go for fresh fruit. So, all things considered, he was fairly content for the moment. He could almost forget that he was being held in a crazy, monster-filled insane asylum against his will. Almost.

[Maybe taken :/]

Another night of...very well, not a complete waste of time. That woman didn't appear to be so much of a drag-down compared to several other patients in here (which will not be named).

Scar dragged himself out of bed right before a nurse came in and handed him some pieces of cloths.

The first thing that crossed his mind was 'not again'.

He remembered having to wear something similar last week, during the trip to a human...town? He couldn't quite say what a 'town' was as he had remained near those yellow objects back then. He supposed now would be a good time to see what was so special about these human 'towns', but...that wasn't quite the real problem.

The trip meant those large, yellow and especially loud and scary objects he had to sit in. Though the King had figured out by now they were meant for transportation, he still wasn't quite leaping for joy. Far from it. So after he had somehow 'changed' into his 'clothing', he reluctanly allowed the woman to take him to the 'objects'. The King didn't knew how he had manged, but he climbed inside and went for the first empty seat he could find.

Now all he had to do was wait for the blasted roaring to start. Couldn't they walk? Like any normal creature with legs?

Meche woke to a mild headache and the sight of the same mental-hospital room she’d been assigned the night before. Sometime last night, it had occurred to her that this was what would happen--just like on her first night in the Land of the Dead, she’d open her eyes (well, eye sockets, there) hoping it would all be a bad dream.

It wasn’t. Not then, not now. The real question was how she’d ended up here this morning when she didn’t remember having made it back to her room last night.

As her head cleared, she realized it probably wasn’t the best idea to have the evening’s gear sitting around when the nurse came in--Meche had a feeling that not all bad guys were as permissive of escape attempts as Domino. She’d just gotten it all stashed when the door opened.

“Good morning, Maria!” the nurse greeted her. “I see you’re already up and about.”

Meche looked at the woman through newly suspicious eyes. So she definitely wasn’t an angel--but would she be in on Landel’s plan? Being polite still couldn’t hurt either way. “Yes,” Meche replied. “I’m looking forward to seeing the town.”

The nurse smiled, handing her a small pile of clothing and a paper bag that must be breakfast. “You’re going to have a lovely time. Go ahead and get changed, and then we’ll head out to the buses.” Stepping out into the hallway and closing the door behind her, she left her patient alone to change.

Meche unfolded the clothes--a dark green A-line skirt (felt like some kind of wool blend) and a simple white button-up. They didn’t look all that fashionable (either by 1997 or 2008 standards, she guessed), but at least they weren’t desperately far off from her usual style. Maybe somebody’d gotten the memo about her fashion sense. Now, if she could just find the stockings, she could get dressed...

It took her a good two minutes of sticking her hands through sleeves and turning pockets inside out to realize that the bastards really hadn’t given her stockings.

You can get them in a deserted factory island on the edge of the world in the Land of the Dead, and not in a mental health facility in 2008, Meche thought bitterly. Ninth Underworld, here I come.

It was a silly thing to get into a snit about, but Landel had, after all, robbed her of her hard-earned and rightful eternal destiny. Was a damn pair of stockings too much to ask in return? She would’ve even worn nylons.

Feeling like a martyr, she dressed and let the nurse lead her to a bus. Manny would either find her or he wouldn’t, and in a mood like this, she might be better off if he didn’t.

[Waiting for Manny, but feel free to jump in if you like!]

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