[ from here ]

That feeling of vertigo that came with using the ring seemed to be getting worse with each trip, Erika thought, as she saw the world spin around her and felt that tugging sensation pulling all three of them. Well prepared this time, Erika braced herself as she felt wind roaring in her ears and saw the surroundings change into that familiar ballroom, getting ready to land -

"Ow!"

Landing gracefully this time was her idea, but she realized the thing she was landing on was not the floor, but on Sync once again. It seemed like she was the last one to fall despite being the one to destroy the ring, a curious constant that might have had more of her attention if it weren't for the fact that Erika was certain she landed against an elbow this time and that she still had no idea where the other boy was. Heaven forbid she landed on both of them, she might have killed one.

"Where is..." Ah, there he was. The other boy had landed a few feet away from them, though whether he was awake or not, she couldn't tell. Instead of checking on either of her companions, Erika took the moment to search around for her belongings, trying to find where the bag landed. It wasn't too far, but she noted with displeasure that several items had scattered onto the floor, including her katana and that gun. Clearly, those were her first priority, and Erika ignored the two behind her to get her things.

Dinner came and went without much fuss, probably because his roommate thought he was being courteous for sleeping through the entire thing. Yet this was one night where Sync needed his company awake more than anything, especially given what he had planned later on that evening. But before he could do the honor of shoving Nigredo off his bed, the God-General quickly ran his options through his head before deciding it was best to wait. After all, there was nothing supporting the far fetched idea that the latter would even cooperate, which meant he had to be sneaky while he still had the chance.

But for what he was actually going to do? It was ridiculous enough to make him laugh, but without any kind of drugs it'd have to do until they reached the point of no return.

It was times like this where traveling light was more beneficial for the cause, because for as small as Nigredo looked, Sync wasn't exactly known for his strength. However, he was able to carefully lift his roommate, having made sure to pack what he could in his pockets and open the door beforehand. For the moment the 'announcement' went unnoticed, and with good reason, as it took most of his energy to slip out into the hallway softly enough as to not disturb the boy in his arms.

Tonight he was determined to finally get something done.

[To here.]

[from here]

Niikura let the door leading in from the previous hallway stay open as he slipped into the next hall, flipping his flashlight on as he did so. It was completely silent, a contrast to the soft undercurrent of chatter that he usually heard as he made his way to wherever he needed to be. It was also kind of creepy, realizing that he was out here all by his lonesome with just a flashlight and some pens. If something big came out of nowhere and attacked him, heh, he'd probably be totally screwed, and he didn't even have his mask as a safety net. Not that he wanted to think about that. Really, what a spectacular way to start off an evening.

"C'mon, ya dealt with worse stuff just fine already. This ain't the time to be psychin' yourself out," he muttered to himself as he made his way down the hall, careful to keep sweeping the area around him for anything suspicious. "Someone's gotta be the trailblazer."

It occurred to him that he hadn't gotten a hold of Mike at all during the day. Would the other man show up again? They'd tried getting somewhere twice now, so third time had to be the charm - they were pretty competent, too, when one of them wasn't barfing or suddenly developing unexplainable paranoia.

...Mostly, he just didn't want to get stuck out in the rec field with only a civilian (also given to barfing -- what was this?) for back-up.

[to here]

[From here.]

He had reached the meeting point in less than a few minutes and there was still not another patient to be seen. Castiel paused, standing near the wall as he moved his flashlight up and down the corridor. There was nothing, not the sound of a shadow slipping through the dark; not the whisper of something less than human.

The only sound was the static that periodically came from his radio. He couldn't seem to get it to let up, and he wondered if it was reacting to him or if he'd been given a faulty one.

He would have preferred the former option, but he had been knocked down too many notches when it came to the loss of his abilities, his divinity, the very things that made him him.

Castiel let out a breath that had been caught in his chest and then lowered his flashlight. He wondered how long this whole process would take, but he supposed that all depended on how well he did as a student. He fashioned himself a fast learner, but he had never been able to grasp things like popular culture.

He imagined he would do a bit better with lockpicking, though. Leaning himself against the wall, Castiel stood there quietly, waiting for Orihara to show himself.

[For Izaya.]

It was hard for Guy to believe that a farfetched idea of his might actually work out in the end, seeing how rare that was in this place. Still, he had found the leather and had been allowed to buy it, which meant that the toughest part at this point would be finding tools to work with and also blocking out enough time to work on making the sheath. He realized that he could just as easily go without it, but it would be more comfortable and safer if he had one. He only wished he'd been able to buy some more leather so that he could make sheaths for some of his friends (Claude, specifically), but he hadn't wanted to push his luck.

So with the leather draped over his shoulder and the bag holding his book in the other hand, Guy allowed himself to be escorted back to the buses. There he was informed that their items would temporarily be taken from them and then returned at dinner. He honestly didn't see what the point of that was, except that the buses might get crowded if everyone had their purchases in their laps.

However, he wasn't let go that easily, since it turned out that every patient had to be searched before being allowed onto the bus. Guy could have put up a fuss, but in the end he was just relieved that it was a male doing it. He'd been searched a few times while a servant when something in the Fabre manor had gone missing and every worker had been suspected, so at least this wasn't completely new to him.

He wasn't sure how someone like Natalia would handle it, though. The fact that he could have that thought, that she was still here to get indignant, put a smile on his face.

Once the search was over with, Guy quickly moved onto one of the buses, keeping an eye out for Claude since he hadn't seen his friend all day. He wasn't worried, but he did want to talk to him and perhaps put a plan together for the night. He had no luck, though, which meant he'd just have to apprehend him once the doors opened after dark.

[To be tormented by Sync and Erika.]

[from here]

S.T. switched on his flashlight as he started down the stairs.  The torches flickered, and they were sitting ducks.  Not tripping over his own shoelaces would be a plus.

"The Sphinx was over that way," he said as they descended.  "Two doors behind that one.  One with the mythology pop quiz, the other with a maze.  No Minotaur, at least not that we ran into."  Plus side of not remembering Greek History (picture-book style) was that he hadn't been pissing his pants at the thought of a legendary smack down.  Minus side was not getting to see Indy pull some flashy move out of his ass and save them all.  Or even knowing that was on the table.

"Guess we'll try the flip side tonight."  The maze might have another treasure, but it would be slow.  Prone to ambushes, too.  Even if there weren't Weekly World News wanna-bees roaming the halls.

[From here.]

Her boots fell with heavy sounds on the smooth floor. She was on the verge of stomping. The loudness struck her about halfway through the new hall, and Claire finally took a deep breath. She didn't pause, but her footsteps came lighter. She slowed.

It wasn't a good idea to be making so much noise. Even with the flashlight giving her away. If she didn't keep a level head, she could land herself in a lot of trouble. Though she might welcome another chance to beat on something right now, it wasn't the time or the place.

Claire sunk her teeth into her lower lip, and carried on.

[To here.]

Snow doubled in number as the day transitioned into the evening hours. Unfortunately, none of the patients were allowed the time to enjoy the weather changes. They were instead greeted by the telltale jingle of the intercom, signaling their cue to return indoors.

Once again, they heard the voice of a familiar female. She sounded unchanged from her previous announcements, her intonation as clear and as flat as ever.

"Attention all subjects and personnel. All subjects are to return to their assigned rooms for their evening meal. Lights Out will commence shortly after."

The woman paused, seemingly for effect.

"All personnel: you are to report to your stations. Thank you."

The intercom clicked off.

[ All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. ANY NEWLY ACCEPTED CHARACTERS MAY POST TO THIS SHIFT (but are not obligated to if you would like to wait for Nightshift or Dayshift); please refer to the new room assignments before posting. Thank you! ]

Talking with friends usually put Anise in a better mood, but the subjects that she, Guy, and Tear covered at lunch were so heavy that Anise couldn't help but feel weighed down afterward. It was hard to think and talk about the terrible things that came about from her lies. She wasn't going to cry, not now, but she felt like she needed a little space.

Fortunately, children were going out to the Courtyard today, and that sounded like a good, wide area where she could get a little alone time. The fresh air could help her mood, too.

When Anise reached the door, however, a blast of cold air rushed in at her, and all she could see outside was a blinding veil of whiteness. For a moment, she simply stared at the sight. She never saw much for snow at Landel's, but here it had already covered everything in just one day!

"You might need this," a soldier said, presenting a black jacket to her. The color and style really didn't suit Anise, but it looked expensive. She slipped it on, and while it wasn't as feminine as she liked her clothes to be, the lining actually had a nice feel to it. On the left breast, she noticed a name embroidered over it. It wasn't her name, but it was still kind of impressive that they personalized these things.

Outside, snow had settled onto every surface, like a big fluffy blanket over the ground. Anise walked along the path for a bit, creating a single set of footprints in the otherwise smooth surface. Once she was a fair distance from the doors, she diverged from the path (which was barely visible to begin with) and walked to the edge of the pond, watching the falling snowflakes disappear into the water.

It was a pretty sight, but it wasn't enough to completely take her mind off of Ion. Before long, Anise found herself wondering if it was snowing where Ion was, too. Maybe he was really far away, though...

[waiting for her boyfriends ♥]

The conversation that Sora had had with Sam had definitely made all of the cleaning far more bearable. It wasn't even that they had talked about anything that groundbreaking, but the man had been kind to him and it had given him something else to focus on. All in all, being forced to clean hadn't been as bad as he'd expected.

And now that it was over, it sounded like it was time to go to the showers. That was for the best, seeing how cleaning actually ended up making you kind of dirty.

More than that, Sora was lucky enough to be one of the first people who was led into the showers. He considered asking the soldier who was escorting him about the pins for his hat, but in the end it made more sense to wait until he was getting dressed again.

Changing out of his clothes, new as they were, wasn't a problem; his own outfit that he wore back home was far more complicated, after all, and so he had the buttons undone and the belt removed in seconds.

After that, Sora quickly moved toward the back of the shower area, turned on the water, waited for it to heat up, and then stepped under the spray. He'd learned some time ago that trying to talk in the showers usually didn't work so well; all the running water was too loud and he was too awkward, even if he'd gotten much better about it over time.

It was still better to just get it over with and then head out into the Sun Room, and so once he was decently clean he turned off the water and headed out to get changed again.

[To here.]

[ from here ]

Either she was the only unlucky person to experience a freezing shower, or she just hadn't built up the tolerance for it that the more seasoned patients had. Whichever it was, she was the first person into the sun room and while normally she wouldn't mind that, the soldiers were majorly creepy and she was kind of hoping for some kind of buddy system thing to be established to minimize the creep factor.

No such luck, apparently.

With one shifty look around the room at the soldiers positioning themselves strategically and then a glance upstairs to see if the doctors and nurses were lurking -- they weren't, which was possibly even more unsettling than when they were -- she beelined for the bulletin board to scribble a worried note.

Four days since she'd showered meant three since last seeing Elle around. That didn't bode well for anything, especially considering the last time they'd talked it was about just how dangerous Sylar really was to her. If she was dead -- Claire had promised Peter that they'd keep her safe, this was just about the furthest from safe you could get. And it would definitely add up to why she'd been able to safely run into Peter the previous night without slamming straight into Sylar when they were shacked up in the same hallway. Obviously, he'd been busy carving Elle up like a pumpkin with his brain.

So, she stuck the note up on the board and then tried to hover around a couch until she found something to do with herself. The anxiety wasn't going to get her anywhere anytime soon, but hopefully someone would show up with information on where the blonde had been those past couple days (an answer that involved intense actual therapy rather than implant things in your brain therapy would be preferred, but as long as no one was getting mutilated, she couldn't complain) and if not hopefully someone could just distract her from that impending sense of massive failure that was threatening to cause a nuclear meltdown of feelings in her brain.

[ free ]

[from here]

This was a cafeteria. He knew the moment he entered even without light and no memory of the location. The size of the room and the smells it provided were enough. Sai was well used to working in the dark even before coming to the Institute, however long ago that had been, and he was sure he'd have no difficulty navigating through this area to get to wherever they needed to be, as long as their luck continued to hold out and they didn't run into anything dangerous.

Again, he had to rely on the taller man for guidance, as he was at a loss as to why they had to go through a cafeteria and possibly a kitchen to reach the stairwell down to the basement. Then again, he was at a loss on a lot right now, and add building structure should be the least of his worries. As long as he knew where to go and there were people waiting with answers...

He really hoped there were people waiting with answers.

[from here]

Indy descended the stairs cautiously, listening for any sound other than the usual fountain noises. He didn't catch any. This time, though, he did grab the nearest candle from the wall as they entered the room. As far as illumination went, it wasn't much, but it was better than stumbling around in the dark.

He thought back to Dent's bulletin board note from earlier and gestured at the door they'd gotten stuck at last night. "So you're supposed to need three people for this one, is that it?" The apparently arbitrary limit still grated on him. He took a few steps closer to inspect the door again, trying to keep an eye out behind him as well. The prospect of making it through the night without being attacked was almost too good to be true.

[from here]

Indy didn't see anything moving in the kitchen, but he hadn't seen anything moving here last night either, and look how that'd turned out. "Come on," he muttered, ducking around the wall toward the refrigerator door. "The door's probably locked."

[From here.]

The coldness of the fridge hit him -- and his wounds, most specifically -- hard as he walked inside, and he drew in a deep breath. That, of course, only made his lungs feel like they were freezing over as well, but he knew that they wouldn't have to spend much time in here.

He'd noticed that Sangamon hadn't commented on his injury at all. It was pretty impressive, actually, and he wondered if it was because the man was used to seeing wounds here or if it had to do with his life before this place. He was having a hard time pinpointing what kind of background the man came from. Well, it probably didn't matter.

The one good thing was that that horrible stench from the night before didn't seem to be here this time around. Everything tonight had been going about ten times better than it had yesterday. Harvey was almost at the point of believing that they could make real progress this time around. "Getting there," he muttered as he started toward the tile.

[From here.]

For being a flashlight, Guybrush had to admit that it pretty much did nothing against the overwhelming darkness that filled the Sun Room at night. After a quick sweep from side to side, he edged along the wall, looking for one of the couches. He found the bulletin board easily enough in the dim light, and as he'd hoped, there wasn't a soldier in sight. They must have cleared out after Landel's tantrum, if it was anything like Scott described.

Speaking of his missing roommate, it was time to get to work. Finally finding a couch from which he figured he could maybe get a view of the balcony, Guybrush made a bee-line for it. He put one foot on the seat cushion, wobbling and waving his arms as he tried to find his balance. Once steady, his other foot went to the back of the couch. Despite being tall, the area beyond the railing was just out of his line of sight.

Again, the flashlight proved mostly unhelpful as the beam barely reached the top of the balcony. An encouraging shake didn't help it much. "Great. It's still too dark," he said. "So much for avoiding the stairs." Jumping on the couch didn't make things any better, though it did reveal some squeaky springs in the seats. Time for a desperation tactic. Hopping off his perch briefly, he grabbed one of the cushions from a nearby chair, returning to his spot with it and giving the railing a steely-eyed glare of determination.

"Hey!" Guybrush called mid-jump, tossing the cushion as far as possible (it soared an amazing two feet before landing on the floor with a pmf- a record in his cushion-tossing book; it came nowhere near clearing the railing, or even reaching it). "Crud. Is anyone up there? And if you are, could you tell me who, because I'm looking for someone in particular and if you're just a creepy kid or a lady with a lot of fire power, then I can just go away!"

[From here]

Beelzemon stopped as he neared the doors to the Sun Room, a look about as close to thoughtful as he ever got crossing his face. The last time he'd seen all those soldier boys running around was in the cafeteria, but they probably weren't there now. There was always something in the Sun Room, but it probably wouldn't be something he'd feel quite as good about hitting over the head with extreme prejudice. So...

"Eesh, how hard can it be ta find those guys?" Maybe outside? He had no freakin' clue.

[Donna!]

The military apparently had plans for the night. Then again, who didn't in this place? Caution can ring as strongly as it desired; Nigredo was slowly losing care in the specifics. True, the chances were great that this "Project 2911" would affect whatever prospects the child might have held, but what didn't? He was gaining apathy among the fear of unexplained change.

Nigredo supposed he should be glad, then, that dinner had gone without problems. His roommate had been quiet, and no one had tried to drag anyone away. A mild success, at least in comparison to previous nights. This alone prompted him to step outside his door at the end of the intercom's announcement, gun holstered to his back.

Staying in might have been the wiser choice, but Nigredo had something to investigate. The one on the bulletin had suggested Senna's ring had been the cause of last night's "quirk", and he wanted to examine the minute changes in the gift. And this was better done away from prying eyes. Granted, he had more productive tasks to complete (trip to the second floor, for instance); he simply had no wish for productivity. Just curiosity. Perhaps a bit of restlessness. One brother remained asleep while the other remained away. In these circumstances, Nigredo had to find ways to occupy his time. The ring fulfilled that need very nicely.

Maybe he'll even run across a known passerby. Maybe if he didn't recognize them, he can at least attempt to be good company as he asked stupid questions and pried into their everyday affairs.

Yeah. That would be somewhat different.

[To here.]

[From here.]

The big connecting corridor. He may be in a rush, but this hallway deserved extra caution. What would he do if he tried to get to Stefan and ended up mauled on the way there? The first night when he'd smelled blood here, it was still a bit... haunting. It meant there was a chance of something lurking, dragon or not.

Dammit, he was trying to reminisce again. Less thinking, more walking (which, as things went, was actually a feat for a vampire. It came with the whole multi-tasking thing.)

Sweeping his light through the length of the corridor, Edward inspected every bit of wall the light touched, eyes darting like a bird's for any sign of movement. Still no patients. At least the stillness would make it easy to see any potential ambush. At least, that's what he was going to tell himself.

[To here.]