damned_institute | Day 43: Intercom, Evening

Hello! I.R.I.S. here once more to announce to you, our honored guests, that you have officially made it through a day of our typical Landel's treatment. Of course, it isn't quite over: we will now have you retire to our designated patient quarters with one of your agency partners to inspect their sleeping area and the tools that we provide them with for the true bulk of our behavioral testing. On an added note, we would like you to notice once again that the meals we provide to our subjects are of the highest quality.

For those of you feeling apprehensive about taking part in our more intensive methods, please be aware that we would never imagine putting all of you in any danger whatsoever. This last shift will be your last at our Institute; afterward, we will escort you to our Head Doctor's personal observation station to survey some of our test Next-Wave participants in the rigorous trials we put them through – all for their betterment, of course.

Once again, we hope that you are satisfied with what you find, and as always, direct any questions you may have to your console.

The nurses began to escort the patients to their rooms. They didn't even seem to be brought to awareness by words such as "testing" and "subjects."

[ All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. (Find all of the newly changed room assignments and shift introductions here.) If you are introducing your character during this shift, you may either choose for them character to wake up before their roommate gets back, or after. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kagura looked up, somewhat surprised by the girl's reaction. Instead of one of fear or shock, she was the one asking if Kagura was alright.

"Ah- y-yes, I'm fine really!" she answered, a slight blush coloring her cheeks. "I... I should be asking you that."

When the girl mentioned evil spirits though, Kagura's brow knit together. It was possible, and she thought other people had said something about them in the past, but she hadn't seen any herself. "I don't... really know. They're more like monsters. Dead things that shouldn't be moving around."

"Um... I'm fine. I mean I just woke up," Kagura replied sheepishly. She was kind of embarrassed that she had been caught so easily, but her urge to return to Izumi's side was strong enough to quell her embarrassment. She had to find a way out of here, but she couldn't let these monsters run free either.

"Hm... Undead creatures that go against the natural order... That does sound like evil spirits. Well, don't worry, I can probably handle those guys, since I'm used to them," Kagura said. In the process, she realized that she hadn't introduced herself yet. Where had her manners gone? "Ah sorry. I'm Tsuchimiya Kagura, and you are?"

Kagura blinked a few times in surprise. How could anyone treat a zombie invasion like it was something that happened every day?! That was terrible! What kind of world was this poor girl from?

"Used to them?" she all but squeaked. "But how- ah- that's-" she tried to go on, but the girl introduced herself quickly after, as if the first part had been no big deal at all. Just who was this girl?

"Ah- I... I'm Kagura too. Sohma Kagura. I-it's nice to meet you."

"Ah, well, I'm an exorcist." The words flew easily from Kagura's mouth, as if she were talking about the latest fashion with a girlfriend. For Tsuchimiya, exorcising evil spirits that you'd normally only see in horror flicks was her everyday job. She had long been desensitized to the ugliness of her duties, nothing could come close to the disgust and pain she felt from that incident with Yomi.

"Wow, what a coincidence." Even though she knew that "Kagura" wasn't exactly a unique, Japanese name, she had never run into someone else with the same name.

"It's nice to meet you too." She smiled at the other girl. Now that she didn't have to hide her job these days, she thought she could become good friends with Sohma-san.

Perhaps it was because of that feeling, but Tsuchimiya felt like she needed to assure Sohma-san, who had been held prisoner in this nightmarish place for god knows how long, that she would take her out of this place, but the question was how to go about it? Then it hit her. She could just summon Shiro-chan! That way she could prove she was an exorcist, and then she could go about her exorcism. Unfortunately, when she tried reaching out to her spirit beast, she ran into some trouble. The place in her soul where he should have been was like a black void. Closing her eyes, her brows knitted in frustration as she tried to concentrate on his presence.

"Huh... That's weird. I can't summon Shiro-chan... I wonder if he's sleeping? Ah, Shiro-chan's my spirit beast. He helps me out with exorcisms." Kagura normally didn't have any trouble summoning, and lately, he entered and exited her back as he pleased, not that she minded much. The little guy was so cute and cuddly! It was disappointing that she couldn't show Sohma-san.

An exorcist. How this Kagura could say something like that so simply was completely beyond her. But she seemed like a normal enough girl, nice, certainly. Polite. Though it was hard to overlook something like that.

"Ah-" Kagura tried to stop her before she tried to use any super powers, but it didn't seem she was fast enough. "U-um, I don't know if that will ah- work for you Tsuchimiya-san. Everyone... their powers here aren't the same. B-but I'm sure that Shiro-chan is very cute."

It took a few moments for Tsuchimiya to process what Sohma-san had said, and even though she wasn't always the brightest person, Tsuchimiya eventually came to a conclusion after looking at all the facts. She couldn't feel her spiritual powers.

"EHHHH!" Kagura screamed, wide-eyed. Leaning towards Sohma-san from the safety of her bed, Kagura looked like she was about to fall over. In the midst of this startling revelation, Shiro-chan was momentarily forgotten. "Does this means my spiritual powers won't work here?"

"E-eh? Th-that is... u-um-" Kagura replied, startled by the girl's reaction. Her ears were still ringing from it. She'd been pretty surprised too, she supposed, when she found out that her curse didn't even work in the daytime.

"I... I don't know Tsuchimiya-san. I... I don't think anyone's powers work so well here. I- I don't know why."

Seeing the startled look on the other girl's face, Kagura shrank back sheepishly. "I'm sorry about that, Sohma-san. I was just a little surprised."

Well, that changed things. Without her powers, Kagura was just like every other teen her age, minus the incredibly insane training she went through.

Falling back on the bed, Kagura let her head hit the pillow. It was surprising stiff.

"Ouch," Kagura squeaked. There was something hard under there. Searching with her fingers, she found the source - a flashlight. Why would this be here? No, the question she should be asking was what to do now. Yomi and Izumi still needed her. Suddenly, Sohma-san's words rang in her ears.

"Anyone? You mean there are other people here with spiritual powers?" Kagura asked. "What about you, Sohma-san?"

Day 43: Intercom, Evening

Re: F10

Re: F10

Re: F10

Re: F10

Re: F10

Re: F10

Re: F10

Re: F10