[from here]

Still no one.  Although he could hear muffled voices through a few doors, the corridors were so black that if it hadn't been for his flashlight, he wouldn't have been able to see where the walls met the floor.  The circle of yellow light bobbed with his footsteps, periodically swinging towards the walls.  He'd been caught off guard before, and he wouldn't let it happen again.

He counted the room numbers:  M34.  Easier than last night, that much was certain, but the design of the institute still infuriated him.  Landel had gone to great lengths to make their stay difficult, with the monsters and sedative-armed nurses.  Something like bad architecture just seemed petty.  He gave the door a solid knock then leaned against the wall beside it, the beam of his light still darting around the shadowy space.

[From here.]

For once, the hallway was dead silent, not a single soul in view. The rest of the patients in this block probably hadn't started on their nightly trips. Or at least, Ken hoped that explained the quiet.

He continued to the door at the end of the hall. If he kept this pace, perhaps the child could reach the kitchen before the crowd rushed in.

[To here.]

Qui-Gon worked fast. At least someone around here knew how to be efficient.

Sanzo didn't bother sleeping after dinner, instead opting to change, and quickly.

That task itself wasn't an easy one. Nothing was, when you'd just been gutted the night before. Getting the arm warmers on made his stomach somersault, as each little motion jostled his shoulder. Pulling his arms through the robe sleeves sent lances of pain down his torso, but he just grit his teeth, and went for the other arm. It took some doing, but he soon had the sash tied around his waist, the breastplate settled against his chest.

The Smith & Wesson had been cleaned, reloaded, and tucked into his robes. Enough ammo and cigarettes to last the night. There was just one more thing he had to take care of.

He knelt, and reached under the bed, carefully drawing out the bonesaw. It wasn't as good as Goku's Nyoibo, but the monkey would have to make do. It was better than being weaponless.

Nny was beginning to suspect that he wasn't dreaming. Interestingly enough, it wasn't the length of his stay that was starting to convince him. It was his goddamn headache. You didn't get headaches in dreams, you just didn't. Not unless you'd been drinking the night before, which he hadn't experienced in, well, a really long time (and that was it's own sort of hell). He had to be awake to feel this shitty.

He didn't even go into town with the rest of the patients. He got off the bus, stood around for a few minutes, said "fuck this", turned around, and ran back into one of the other buses. Luckily for him, the nurses had been understanding once he brought up how he felt. They even refrained from bugging him while he desperately tried to wish his existence away. He spent most of the day with his head glued to the back of the seat in front of him, not quite aware, but refusing to fall back asleep.

All in all, his day had gone from okay, to completely horrid.

[Renamon, I think?]

[One speedster, free to a good home! Plays well with others and has had his shots. Adopt today!]

Wally followed the steady stream of patients from the cafeteria towards the showers, but was prevented from entering by one of the ever-present nurses.

"Not you, dear," she said with a fixed, though pleasant, smile, "you were already cleaned up on arrival. I know, why don't you wait here in the Sun Room and see if you can make some new friends?" She gave him a gentle push back towards the centre of the room. Wally forced a smile in response and made a show of wandering around the room, taking in the paintings before pausing to check the bulletin board.

He wondered what the nurse had meant exactly. Had he been showered and cleaned before he'd gotten here, or had one of the nurses taken care of it while he'd been out? That was an unnerving thought. He added it to the long list of unnerving thoughts he'd gotten that day. Most of the rest had been about monsters, but there was also the whole powers thing which no one seemed to know much about, judging by the bulletin board, and Kal-who-thinks-he's-Clark. It had given him a lot to chew over, which was more than he could say about lunch. He hadn't been game to even grab a snack on the way out with Marcus watching him.

"Well this bites," he muttered to himself. He made his way over to an empty couch and flopped down with a sigh in the warm sunlight. Surely it couldn't be that much longer until he was able to bid this place 'goodbye' as he speed back to a more familiar setting. At this point he'd even be willing to let J'onn beat him at Brawlin' Bots, or go on a completely serious, Flash-please-stop-talking-and-concentrate patrol with Bats, if it would get him home.

[From here, waiting for his bff. ♥]

The walk with the nurse provided little more information; the woman still refused to go into detail on his particular diagnosis. She did reveal, however, that Near's name in this place was Nathan Ritter. Again he noticed the closeness to his real name, but given the woman's insistence on referring to him as either "Nathan" or "Mr. Ritter," Near decided it was safe for the present.

She'd revealed that he would be given a choice to where he would stay for that period of time. Despite her encouragement to choose the outdoor Courtyard, Near instead opted to remain inside. The large window overhead no doubt gave the Sun Room its name, and from the position in the sky, Near would wager that it was mid-morning and approaching noon. The room itself was lobby-like in appearance. Several doors lined the walls, which were painted a mild green--unsurprising, given the calming nature of the color. Accompanying pictures also seemed place to induce a sense of relaxation, completed by the inviting furniture. The only thing that seemed to contrast with the atmosphere, in fact, was the balcony above, on what was presumably the second floor. So the patients were to relax here, and at the same time, perhaps be watched by the keepers?

Interesting.

But clearly what held the most promise for Near was the large board hanging on the far wall. His nurse left his side after he came to the room, and Near approached what was clearly a place for communication and messages. The number of notices signified that it was well used, and the information within was fascinating. Near ignored the patients filing in around him for the moment, instead focusing on reading the various notices as quickly as he could. The information was quite extreme--different worlds, non-humans being forced into human bodies, the dead being brought to life here. Certainly things that one might expect to see in an asylum.

And yet all of it was made much more believable by one note in particular, written in hands Near was intimately familiar with.

A sense of urgency crept into Near's thoughts then. He didn't show it outwardly, save for twirling his hair tighter, tugging at it before freeing his finger. If he was here, and they were here, then who else had arrived? Already Near longed for his toys, or a fingerpuppet kit to make them, the task ideal for filtering through the information. As it stood, the thin paper of his notebook would be a lacking substitute, but the only option at the time.

First, however, Near began to write on several of the notices. There was obviously much more to this hospital than its surface showed, and the push to solve the puzzle was quickly born in his mind.

The intercom came on and the Head Doctor began speaking in his normal, cheery voice. It seemed he had recovered from last night's troubles, at least outwardly.

"Hello, patients, and I hope you all enjoyed breakfast! We'll be seeing some more new faces this shift, but first, it's about time everyone gets cleaned up, hmm? Nurses should escort all underage patients to the showers – save for new members of the population, as they went through all the standard procedures upon arrival – and all of our adult patients should be taken to the Courtyard. Once done with the showers, patients are free to relax in the Sun Room for the remainder of the shift.

"And... that's it! Very short announcement – I apologize, as I have some paperwork for all our new patients to attend to. See all of you at lunch!"

The intercom clicked off.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post. (Have your new character wake up in a random empty room, as we aren't yet able to officially assign rooms.) Since we know it's probably really weird for new characters to get thrown in the showers on their first day: it is MANDATORY (Erin - sorry for the confusion!) for brand new patients (and new patients ONLY) to hang in the Sun Room with whoever else wants to go there or if they end up in the Courtyard with the other age group. (The nurses will say that they were already cleaned up upon their arrival.) Thanks! ]