Alright, his second day on the job. Hopefully, it would go much smoother than the first, although he knew that psychology could be an unpredictable field. Some patients had to be more volatile, some more sedate. It was nothing like archaeology, where the things he worked with were rather ancient (the people included...) as well as expired. Results could be strange or bizarre, yes, but at least they had some modicum of probability. People, on the other hand, were about as unpredictable as you could get.

Layton walked into his office with a sigh, setting aside the morning paper as well as a cup of coffee he'd snagged from the lounge before flipping open the file already sitting on top of his desk. He frowned lightly as he read through the specifics of his first patient of the day, all the while walking around his desk slowly and then finally plopping down in his chair.

...

These people were capable of some truly elaborate, fascinating fantasies. To be honest, they were almost sort of enthralling if he conveniently forgot the part where they persuaded their creators to detach completely from reality.

A misplaced sense of familiarity met Barnaby the moment he opened his eyes, and the sight of the blank, white ceiling from yesterday morning greeted him. After rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands, Barnaby sat up and felt around for his glasses. Had he blacked out again and wasted an entire night? Where was Kotetsu? And what had become of the man who had seemingly vanished before his very eyes at the end of dinner?

Once Barnaby slipped his frames onto his face, the world came into clearer focus, even if he didn’t get any answers out of it. He was in his room, and someone had apparently stripped him out of his street clothes in favor of the hideous hospital pajamas. Barnaby wasn't sure what he found more offensive -- that someone here had once again touched his things without his permission, or that he’d been undressed while unconscious for the second time since his arrival.

The thought made his skin crawl.

Just as he looked over to find a lump in the bed next to him, though, his assigned nurse came to retrieve him. He would have to confirm Klavier Gavin's whereabouts later. For now, he had no choice but to allow the nurse to escort him into the cafeteria. Strangely, she seemed to be under the impression that he and the other patients had slept soundly the whole night. While he might have assumed it was an act, Barnaby got the feeling that she genuinely believed what she was saying.

Regardless of her intentions, he knew she wasn't going to be any help. Instead of trying to ask her anymore questions, Barnaby left a note on the bulletin board concerning his roommate. If his observations from yesterday were any indication, he'd get some responses, at least. While he could have taken the time to leave something for Kotetsu, Barnaby didn't feel inclined to do so, especially when he knew he probably wouldn't check the board anyway.

He had no appetite this morning, but his nurse wouldn't leave him alone until she'd assembled a tray of fresh, fluffy pancakes for him. Honestly, Barnaby didn't see why some people felt the need to butt into his personal choices like this. At least there wasn't anyone forcing him to eat -- for now, at any rate. He sat down at an empty table close to the wall after setting his food down, privately hoping that she wouldn't try to find a "friend" for him to eat with this morning. He was tucked out of the way, so maybe she would forget about him for a few minutes as long as he didn't draw any unnecessary attention to himself.

Hands neatly clasped on the table, Barnaby didn't look at anyone in particular as patients filtered into the cafeteria for their morning meal. There were too many questions buzzing in his mind for him to focus on the names and faces of people he didn't care about. If Kotetsu wanted to find him, he could. It wasn't like Barnaby was going anywhere.

[For Kotetsu.]

[from here]

"Much like the nurses back at the institute," she went on, stepping out into the street. The darkened town rose around them, buildings enshadowed in the gloom. Renamon's eyes darted between the shadows, wary. "They are human during the day, no doubt. But at night some become... something else. I'm not quite sure what exactly. Some kind of creature...." She trailed off, before again shaking her head.

"Just the same as anything, really. The cats that resided in the sun room become large and vicious at night, and likely the same goes for the other animals as well. Instead of saying that they're originally something else, it's probably more apt to say, they're normal. And at night, something comes upon them." It could be anything. She disliked lacking so many answers. "A spell, a virus, some kind of gas or taint," she murmured, moving farther down the street. "But they are innocent to begin with."

[teleporting from here--and randomizer says... no zombies yet.]

The world settled around them, depositing them in the back locker room of the sheriff's office. As soon as her feet were found, the Digimon shifted into a light crouch, ears (still over-sensitized from the gunshot) listening to their fullest. There were far-off creaks, awkward footsteps or the building settling, but nothing she could hear as a threat. And nothing existed in the area around them.

She straightened, shifting the bag back up onto her shoulder from where it had fallen down to her lower arm. Then glanced to Leanne, waiting for the girl's reaction before progressing any further.

[from here]

The main hall was dead quiet as Soma rounded the corner. The last few nights, this place had been bustling with fellow patients; the sudden calm was very nearly unnerving.

Still, she tried to put it out of her mind. Marie didn't sense anything out of the ordinary--yet.

[to here]

[from here]

Despite being cautious, Anise was still making good time. The halls were dark and eerily quiet, but they appeared to be clear of any danger... for the time being. Anise didn't plan on sticking around long enough to see if or when that would change. She moved on to the next hallway.

[to here]

[from here]

The halls were quiet, as it seemed Anise had beaten the crowd in getting out of her room. Maybe the other patients were being more cautious this night... That thought made Anise wonder if it really was wise to hastily run out by herself. Like there was a danger that everyone was aware of but her.

... Nah. She was probably overthinking it. There was nothing wrong with being first!

But even as she reassured herself of that, Anise slowed to a cautious pace and carefully checked every corner with her flashlight before moving out of the girls' block.

[to here]

A 'special little treat'? Did the Head Doctor mean the lollipop? Getting a reward from him just made Anise feel like she ought to be less well-behaved. Being on his good side just felt gross.

And what was more, the following announcement went on to mention a meeting between the Head Doctor and some patients. Anise could only assume she wasn't among the invited, which was a bit disappointing. She wanted a second chance to try and teach the Head Doctor a lesson. For now, all she could do was hope that whoever did go would do it in her place. Sure, he probably expected it and had safeguards in place, but it wasn't like he was invincible, right? ... Probably.

In the meantime, Anise had to hurry and get ready for the night. She hastily swapped her patient uniform for her Fon Master Guardian one, double-checked that Tokunaga carried what little emergency supplies she wanted to bring, and grabbed her flashlight and weapon. And most important of all: the bone bracelet that would take her to her destination. She wouldn't get very far without that!

With everything ready, Anise was quick to head out into the hallway. The last few nights hadn't been that productive, so she wanted to get a good head start this time.

[to here]

Like clockwork, the intercom came on at the end of the hour. And like clockwork, the Head Doctor began the first of his concluding daytime announcements with abnormal levels of cheer and good will.

"Good evening, everyone! What a fun-filled day we've had, hm? You must all be tuckered out and ready for bed."

Why, the man seemed unwilling to say.

"Never fear. We're nearing the end." He paused thoughtfully. "The main course of our dinner menu tonight is gourmet spaghetti topped with our signature marinara sauce. We have garlic bread and Caesar salad for your sides as well as your choice of vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate ice cream for dessert. As usual, we will have our assortment of drinks and vegetarian alternatives. If you're partial to that little extra omph, we have parmesian cheese available upon request."

There was another pause, this time with papers rustling in the background. "Take care not to stain your letters now. Bon appétit!"

The intercom clicked off.

The moment dear Landel-san announced that it was time for lunch, Erika wasted no time and headed straight for the Sun Room's bulletin board to check if there was any response to her message left for her dear friend. Predictably, there was nothing for her on the board, and the detective scowled as she realized she might have to write him off as a loss. She had lost a good number of potential allies in this place, but losing this one was a bit of a blow, if only because he had useful things on him. On the other hand, if he was gone, and that ring was still here...

Perhaps it was not a great loss, then. Still, Erika was mildly annoyed as she wandered away from the board and back towards a nearby couch. She was spending a lot of time in the Sun Room lately, which seemed to be a bit of a waste as she could have spent in going around the Institute. On the other hand, she had a sandwich here that was waiting to be consumed and after spending a week with little access to "real food", Erika was more then happy to enjoy her time spent eating.

Still, at some point she was going to have to manage her time a little more effectively. There was no reason why she couldn't multitask, so Erika kept her gaze on the door of the Sun Room so she could watch people filter in on their way to other rooms. She wouldn't get everyone, no, but perhaps she would find someone useful that she could bother for the rest of the shift. A familiar face, or maybe someone new. She'd decide on that eventually.

[ hau Seishin ready for round 2. /killed ]

Now that one type of business had been more or less taken care of (for the moment), it was time for Rita to move on to her other business: magic research. She'd been so involved in her conversation with Taura that there hadn't been time to write down her latest discoveries. And besides that, she had an appointment.

Rita brought her notebook and a pen with her to the Greenhouse, where she quickly found a space to sit that was relatively near a few rows of flowers. The scent would at least make for some decent atmosphere, though she was a little concerned about how the humid air might affect her notebook pages.

The person she was meeting was apparently a blonde named Rapunzel. Since she hadn't arrived yet, Rita took the time to open her journal and start adding the information about Espers and related concepts she acquired the previous night. It was best to get that done while it was still fresh in her mind.

[Rapunzel!]

Needless to say, her night was a bust.

It wasn't that Ramona was trying to turn it into an absolutely safe evening in which she got nothing done. A part of her wanted to test the limits of her abilities and see what she could actually do in this place, but outside of the absolute confirmation that subspace was no longer a go, she couldn't bring herself to go much farther. Scott's words hung over her heavily. The fact that he had made it clear that he was going to continue being as affectionate as possible wanted to remove any chance of her dealing with anyone. So, though she hit another hall, she turned back around and headed back to her room. Ramona was the type of person who sometimes preferred sulking with company, but that wasn't on the plate for the night. (And she didn't want to call it sulking, either.)

She wasn't certain when she fell asleep, but when she woke up, she was sure the people in charge here had some kind of fast-forward button that they could hit whenever they got bored. That was definitely not the entire night, nor had it been the night before. Sometimes night just ended. Of course, Ramona could appreciate the need for a scene change. This place was already running on enough lame clichés to last it a lifetime. Sometimes they need to return to the daytime status quo to hit reset.

That all said, she was getting the feeling that her own waking up process was a little boring. Ramona was glad that her hair was short now because it made her feel a lot less neurotic about the lack of allowed primping. She cast a glance in the direction of her roommate's bed before she plodded out after her nurse. The woman was kind looking, which, of course, meant that she was evil. Then again, anyone could be evil. Ramona just wanted everyone to be evil right now.

(Maybe she was still sulking.)

"We've noticed that you haven't been socializing as much, Sandra," the woman said while grabbing her attention, and it was as if Ramona finally clued in that a conversation was supposed to be happening. Great, she was fitting the bill for crazy on top of incredibly irritated already. The nurse was definitely evil. And maybe a bitch, with the way her fingers freed her shoulder and she stepped back, snorted softly, and gave a shake of her head. "It's always when you're new that it's hard," the nurse added. "And we can tell you're rebellious."

"Wow, it's been a while since someone thought I was a punk rocker. Don't worry. I can socialize," Ramona assured her as she hit the cafeteria. But it looked like she was one of the first arrivals.

Ramona decided she'd get the woman off her back by grabbing a tray of food and not sitting too far from it. At least people might stumble upon talking to her if she looked available enough.

(And hopefully, that someone wouldn't be Scott. Even though she highly doubted his ability to get out of bed, he seemed to acclimate to this place enough to make an appearance with his face and his smiles and his stupid "I love you"s.)

[for America]

Free range shift, huh? Landel really was the opposite of Aguilar...if 'free range' were true, that is. As it was, 'free range' was merely an illusion of choice in Zero's eyes. Making the prisoners think they had more leniency granted to them than they really did. What did a 'free range shift' do for them? They still couldn't leave, and the only places they could go were places that were 'approved' by their captors. 'Free range' was just another lie...

And yet, the once-Reploid didn't find the idea of staying in the Sun Room very appealing anymore. So after putting up a note for someone he'd promised to meet with today, he decided to take advantage of the 'free range shift' to go out to the Courtyard and spend some time there. He wasn't one to care too much about his environment, but he didn't feel like being cooped up inside all day. Besides, it felt different to be outside in a human body. He could actually smell the Courtyard plants and feel the sting of chilly air on his cheeks, things he could never have experienced as a Reploid, and it was...oddly refreshing.

Not enough to make him like being in this body...but enough to help slowly, subtly prove to him that being human wasn't as terrible as he originally made it out to be.

The food given to him, he could care less about, and he let the nurse choose the meal for him. It wasn't like he knew what the difference was between a 'chicken sandwich' and a 'grilled cheese sandwich' anyway. They both replenished energy, so it didn't matter to him. He wasn't even hungry right now, being more content to slowly pace around, slipping back into the deep thoughts he'd been in at the start of second shift. Before Ema had appeared.

Ema...would she be alright? He couldn't help feeling a little worried, but at the same time, he was sure that she would be strong enough to overcome her loss. He wondered if he'd been able to cheer her any, and hoped he had. For now, however, there was nothing else he could do for her. Except...

...Figure out some way to take this place down. Prevent any more deaths.

[Leanne!]

And so it seemed that everything had gone back to normal.

Guy had spent his breakfast filling in a new patient and now Landel was rambling over the intercom like he always did. It made sense that the man would want to act like everything with Aguilar had never happened, though Guy couldn't help but wonder how things would change when night finally came. Knowing Landel, he'd have a long-winded speech prepared for them.

That was something that he could worry about later, though. Guy filed away the information about the doctors, but it didn't matter too much to him. He'd only been forced through that once, and had apparently been deemed a lost cause after that session. Speaking with a doctor here would just be a waste of time as far as he could tell, so that was fine by him.

Being placed in the Sun Room gave him access to the bulletin board, and perusing it gave him some idea of what had gone on last night, at least to the point that he understood that they'd had some sort of outside help. People were being secretive, but that was nothing new. Guy went ahead and put up a note for his friends, wanting to keep it up as a routine (at this point Luke should have been the one doing it, but Guy could talk to him about that later).

With that taken care of, he had little else to do but find himself a place to sit, and before long he located a comfy armchair. He took as seat, but as usual Guy couldn't help but keep an eye out for any friends.

[For Tear!]

[from here]

Leanne didn't bother to get a good look at the room she ran into at first, only kept running, hoping the door closing behind them would keep their pursuers off them. All right, so the rats were big, but they couldn't possibly open doors... and, if they were lucky, they wouldn't be fast enough to slip in before it closed. Hopefully. The idea of fending them off again, this time in a smaller room, made her a sinking feeling come over her.

She'd rather keep the rats away for a while, at least until they could both defend themselves properly.

As soon as she realized what room she was in, though, she couldn't help but let out a groan. The Arts and Crafts Room, was it? Great. Hadn't she just recently been trying to avoid this very room? (She resisted the urge to snort as images of rat statues flooded her mind. This was serious!) "You okay?" Leanne asked her companion, finally looking back behind her.

[ from here ]

The cafeteria was no different then the Sun Room, with the feeling of predators already lurking in the shadows to get the jump on unsuspecting victims. It only took a moment for Chipp to locate a door as he veered to the right on instinct. It was a good choice, because he swore he heard the crunch of bone as something made impact on the wall they were just a second ago. If Chipp were alone, he might have wanted to turn (and possibly laugh), but with Venom in tow, he was quick to just head right for the door.

It wasn't that Chipp had no faith that he and Venom wouldn't be able to take on a few (or a hundred) monsters, but they had bigger fish to fry. Much bigger fish.

"Damnit!" Yet another creature attempted to strike at them, Chipp veering to the left and making a wide turn until he crashed through the door. What was that, a ... a thing? He thought he saw hands, human hands and a mouth, but it too only made a crunch against the floor when it missed.

Screw this shit! Chipp didn't even hesitate when approaching the door, literally crashing into it with his shoulder to throw it open as they escaped into the Courtyard.

[ to here ]

[ from here ]

While the Sun Room was a familiar sight for Chipp, he realized (not as quickly as he ran) that he didn't even know where this Courtyard was. Wasn't the room ahead the Cafeteria? If so, then one of the other doors... Which Chipp didn't even remember going through, even though he thought one of them was that room with the weird games and shit. Wait, so where exactly were they going again?

Even Chipp couldn't justify just running ahead without at least knowing where he was supposed to be, if only because he happened to be traveling with someone who did know, so he managed to hit the metaphorical brakes and skidded to a halt in the middle of the Sun Room, mercifully keeping a hold on Venom's arm so his "colleague's" momentum wouldn't cause him to crash into one of the couches.

"So, uh... Where's this courtyard?"

In retrospect, it might have been better to ask this question before he started running his ass off into places unknown. Even Chipp could vaguely tell that he may have been a little too hasty in his actions. Maybe. Well, whatever, it was only going to be a moment before they could start moving again, right?! Nothing wrong with doublechecking the plan!

[from here]

Oh, how she missed this! Just like old times, riding atop Tokunaga without a care in the world. Anything that got in her way would be trampled with ease!

A little too much ease, as it turned out. Her attention elsewhere, she didn't notice when an oversized rat made the mistake of scurrying under Tokunaga's heavy foot... until she heard the sickening crunch of the creature's bones snapping.

She stopped, pointed her flashlight down at the mashed-up body, then let out a small sigh of relief. Just a rat. She'd have to be careful not to trample any people - or any monsters that looked like they'd put up a mean fight. Anyway, she probably just did her fellow patients a favor by taking out a monster (even if it was an accident). Hooray for Anise!

Satisfied, the girl continued onward to the next hallway. Her doll left a light trail of blood with its foot.

[to here]

[from here]

No, something was different. It wasn't until she reached the next hallway that Anise realized, but she could feel fonons - in the air, and in her body. It took a moment to process this, but as she thought about it, she quickly grew excited. Could this mean...!?

Tokunaga was retrieved from her back, and she held the doll in front of her in her arms. She focused her energy, and... to her delight, the doll began to grow. Its limbs stretched out, then thickened as the head and torso swelled to several times its original size. Once it was large enough, Anise tucked her weapon in the strap of the bag tied around its neck, then used her free hand to hold on to its head. When it finished growing, the doll was slightly taller than an average adult (and much wider), and Anise sat happily atop its big round head.

"Tokunaga! You're back!" she cried excitedly, wrapping her arms around the top of the doll's enormous head to give it a celebratory hug. "Let's go show the others!" This could only mean good things! Maybe they could finally escape!

The doll charged triumphantly through the hallway... then stopped at the door. The frame was too narrow for it to fit through. Anise had to shrink the doll down a bit, carefully squeeze through, make it grow again, and then they were off to find her friends!

[to here]

[from here]

Kirk ran into the main hallway and found nothing there except more pink light coating everything. His gut feeling said that if something was happening, it should've happened already, but he was a loss to explain what was going on. The system (if he could call it that, vague as it was to describe the whole Landel's torture/experimentation assembly line) had broken down at least once already, on that night when I.R.I.S. had first(?) appeared, and the whole of the building flickered like a malfunctioning hologram. Was that what the glowing cover was for? To prevent... he didn't know. Something. Something bad enough to warrant a Code Red.

(What had killed that creature?)

Waiting around here was already bad enough on normal nights, what with it being an open space with high traffic, but he'd picked it because it was the quickest and most obvious meeting place for all of them. Now with the whole area lit up like the inside of a strip club, Kirk was starting to feel like a lone piece of meat wrapped in a gold ribbon and tossed out for the wolves. He made a face for a second as he considered the unfortunate implication of mixing those similes, then decided that the dumb thoughts which crossed his mind ranked considerably lower in priority than, you know, paying attention to his surroundings and not getting himself killed.

Kirk swung the lead pipe in his hand once, just to focus, and shook his head as pain rippled out from the still-healing gunshot wound on his right arm. Take it easy, Jim, he admonished himself silently. It was still early in the night. Someone would be along shortly. And if not... he was giving his crew one minute. One minute, and then screw it, he was tracking down everyone himself.

[KIRK TO ENTERPRISE]