[from here.]

"...But, really, Hei-chan, you ought to tell them about the time that you and Kazu...huh?"

Shinichi had made enough use of the facilities in his day and a half at Landel's to know that the bathrooms did not normally look like that. They were clean and plain and institutional and reeking of antiseptic...just like every other hospital men's room.

These bathrooms, on the other hand, were not like other hospital men's rooms. They looked like a set from a B-rate horror film, except that the slime on the walls and the horrible reek were real. The detective half expected a gaunt woman in a bloodstained kimono to jump out from behind one of the broken stalls and try to eat their brains.

He'd seen dozens of crime scenes over the years, all gruesome and usually very bloody. Shinichi thought that he'd grown accustomed to horror, or at least a thicker skin, but...this was something else entirely.

from here

Now, if Teisel were a sixties-numbered room, where would he be? It shouldn't be too far away. He only had two directions to go in from here. Farther down the hall were women's rooms, if he remembered the nameplates right. The rooms were probably arranged in a grid, so...

No sense standing around. He had a fifty-fifty chance of going the right way, so he might as well go...to the right? Why not.


to here

Akihiko decided against flipping on his flashlight as he stepped out into the hall. This part of the Institute was one he'd gotten to know last night, and - unlike Tartarus - it didn't seem like the layout would change much.

The intercom announcement had him more nervous than he wanted to let on, especially after what had happened to Ken. He decided that if any members of S.E.E.S didn't show up at the meeting, he'd ask to cut it short and go after them.

...and the same went for the one lone member of Strega, he supposed, after a moment. At this point, he didn't want to think too hard. It was more important to get moving.

[to here]

[for Sylar, I believe]

At the sound of the intercom, Wally jerked awake and blinked around at the room. He’d fallen asleep. He should have been up and keeping an eye open for ZEX, but he’d fallen asleep waiting on his bed.

“Idiot,” he groaned, ruffling his hair and sighing in annoyance. “Way to help a guy out, hotshot.” Hopefully ZEX hadn’t dropped by and thought he’d left or something, or wouldn’t be too mad at him for just forgetting about it like that. If he was lucky, he’d be able to catch up with the other patient at some point and explain what had happened.

Rolling himself a little awkwardly out of the bed, Wally took the opportunity to stretch his injured leg and test how well it was holding up. It was feeling a bit better, not so much that he could abandon his crutch or that it didn’t pull painfully if he wasn’t careful, but better. Tony had apparently made it through the night in one piece as well, which was a relief. He really didn’t feel comfortable about the thought of his roommate wandering about on his own with an injured arm. Not when Wally himself could relax and fall asleep in the apparent safety of their room.

Yeah, he wasn’t going to let himself forget that one in a hurry.

It was at that moment that the door swung open to admit one of the nurses. She seemed surprised to find him awake and ready to go already, but smiled warmly. “Hungry, are we Mr. West? Well in that case, let’s get you to the cafeteria. The staff have provided some delicious French Toast as well as a range of other foods I’m sure you’ll like. Now will you be needing a hand with your leg, dear?”

“No thanks, I can handle it,” Wally replied, smiling back. After all, it probably wasn’t the nurses’ fault that this place was so messed up, so it wasn’t like picking fights with them would do anything. With a cheery wave goodbye, Wally slowly made his way to the cafeteria, keeping a tight grip on his crutch all the while. Obtaining a plate of food was only slightly less difficult than it had been yesterday – he didn’t have the painkillers to work around this time – but he managed well enough, coming away from the buffet with a tray containing a plate piled high with slices of French Toast and slathered in maple syrup, butter, and sugar, as well as a glass of juice. Not quite as good as some coffee would be right now, but the sugar would hopefully make up for it. And, with how few people were here at the moment, he could afford to take more food than might have been considered ‘normal’ – he’d have most of it gone by the time anyone came to keep him company, then he could just worry about how many extra serves would be allowed before he aroused suspicion.

Feeling pretty happy with how things were looking so far, Wally hummed faintly to himself as he dug in to his breakfast.

Sai leaned his head woozily against the cool glass of the bus window. Helping out his fellow ninja had been a failed effort thus far, and he didn't have any idea how Naruto had been able to put up with that friend of his for so long. If he was asked to lead Sasuke around in the future, unless they came to terms with their differences before then, he would have to turn the task down.

It was probably a good thing he hadn't eaten in town. The movement of the bus combined with his sedation would most likely make him sick to his stomach if he had. He wasn't sure how he was going to explain the situation to Naruto if he had to.

He had a wet paper towel for his black eye that'd had a couple ice cubes in it before they'd melted. (His "violent behavior" meant they weren't willing to leave him with a bag of ice - something that could be potentially used as a blunt weapon.) It was sitting in his lap now, though, for what little good it was doing him.

Not the best of days.

[for Honey-chan (sorry, Team Naruto, I forgot)]

Claude couldn't fight the sinking feeling in his stomach when he woke up. Nightshift was over, and they hadn't even made it into the basement. Man, how tough was that? Sometimes it seemed like the night could drag on and on, and when he actually needed the extra time, it went by too fast. It didn't make any sense.

Too bad he wouldn't have much to report to Ashton. But now the blond's curiosity was peaked, and he had to admit that he was pretty interested in finding out just what was under there. But first things first -- he needed a sword, because walking around there unprepared was probably one step short of suicide, really. The scars in his side were a stark reminder of what happened to people here who weren't ready to face the dangers.

Until that time, the Earthling had plenty of projects to keep him occupied. It really was too bad that they couldn't get anywhere, though. And when Ashton had finally let him borrow a sword, too...

The blond decided not to dwell on that for too long, especially once his nurse came to wake him up. She handed him the same set of clothes he'd worn for the last trip to Doyleton -- a dark, faded jacket, a blue, button-up shirt, some casual slacks, a brown paperboy cap, and a red scarf. He knew he'd have no problems staying warm today, and he didn't really look all that bad, but he kind of wished they'd given him a better pair of shoes than the over-sized sneakers that kind of flopped when he walked around.

As he exited his room, he caught sight of someone sleeping in the other bed, and while he'd never formally met his roommate before, Claude knew it wasn't Asch.

Once he'd boarded the bus, the blond didn't waste much time in finding a seat. There weren't many people here yet, so he opened up his sack and took a bite of his muffin. It was kind of sad how small the portions were for today's breakfast, but he was an adult, so he wouldn't complain about it. At least Landel bothered to feed them at all.

((For Sync, I believe?))

As she was waiting to be led out of the cafeteria, Hokuto looked for someone in Arts & Crafts, and spotted... Renji. She covered her mouth with her hands to muffle her giggles; after everything she'd heard about him, he was the LAST person she wanted to go to with this; he'd probably figure out exactly why she wanted the night off and never let her hear the end of it!

I'll just wait for Momo, I guess... she can't spend the whole shift in the shower, right?

Knowing her friend and vice-captain liked fresh air too, she opted to go outside; she settled down in the grass and pulled out her journal. Writing was... kind of a bad idea right now, but she could always draw something. Clothes were always fun, since they were what she liked sketching the most anyway; after some thought, she started on a dress design.

[[Fukutaichou~!]]

[starting off in M13]

The last part of the night was little more than a blur in Homura's mind. The men had rushed in, but not joined them, instead staying off to themselves. Before any of them had a chance to react, however, a voice sounded through the air, mocking some other person Homura had never heard of, and the patients themselves.

To Homura, whoever that man was, he sounded a great deal like a god.

But before he could ask questions, the demi-god found himself no longer in the chapel, but some strange room on a bed. Is that what Kenren had meant from his earlier warning? Homura sat up, glad at least that the world didn't spin when he did so. Then the same man from before began to speak again, with a completely different tone. It was confusing to hear him talk that way, calling them patients instead of prisoners as he had before. Homura listened quietly as the announcement was made, then got out of bed.

Maybe he wouldn't have to go anywhere yet. It wasn't like Homura knew where to go anyway, and that meant he had time. If this was his room, and if he had been here as long as Kenren had said, there was a chance he could find something with answers. The Taisho had even told him that Homura had seen Rinrei. Certainly he would've written something down, made a map, something that could let him find her again! He started with the desk at the end of his bed, first finding a small stack of notebooks. Picking up the first, he flipped through, turning the pages with quickening desperation as he found each one to be blank.

The sun broke over the horizon, casting its light over the areas that patients had newly discovered just hours before. The entrance to the mine, the old town, the lake... they all looked less sinister in the early morning glow than they had by the light of the moon, but none of the patients would know this because none of them were there to see it.

They might have fallen unconscious out on the grassy ground, but no longer were they there due to the strange power that the Head Doctor wielded from his safe seat at the Institute. As they woke up, they were in their beds, warm, clean, bandaged, and perhaps with sudden realizations that an escape from Landel's Institute meant an escape through the very fabric of time and space.

"Goooood morning!" The Head Doctor called cheerily, the intercom speakers broadcasting his voice as clear as crystal. Clearly, he'd called in some hi-tech repairmen between his announcement the night before and now. "I trust you all slept well last night, and I do hope you've replenished enough energy for the exciting events taking place today! ...Well, not exactly events, but we do have a new batch of patients for you to all meet and befriend! We'll be introducing fifteen of them during breakfast, so I want all of you–as always–to give them a warm welcome!

"As far as breakfast itself... well, today, we'll be having the ol' classic of buttermilk pancakes! Yum! We of course have butter and maple syrup to put on them, as well as fresh strawberries and blueberries. As sides, we have sausage, scrambled eggs, and tater tots; for drinks, we have regular milk, chocolate milk, orange juice, and water. Oh, and of course, we have assorted cereals available for anyone who wants them.

"And... that's all for now! I hope you all have a good meal."

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's perfectly okay if brand new patients (and new patients only) hang in the Sun Room 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.) This isn't applicable until the next shift, but we thought we should give you guys a heads-up. Thanks! ]