Ah, that was right. He should roll up-- Huh?

Cross blinked his eyes open to stare up at the ceiling, then sat up quickly. That was odd. Hadn't he just been in the hallway? This was the second time he'd woken in a room like this and it was baffling. He didn't even recall anything that would cause him to fall unconscious again. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he took a moment to scratch his head and try to put together pieces of a puzzle that had no intention of fitting.

This was ridiculous.

He wasn't allowed much more time before a boisterous woman arrived saying something about breakfast. Too surprised to put up much of an argument, Cross allowed her to lead him out of the room to a familiar and yet unfamiliar hallway. This wasn't the same room he'd been in the night before.

Trying to ask what was going on proved to be fruitless, and he decided to just take the food he was served and sit down. There had to be someone around here who knew something. And what had happened to Ryuuzaki?

[free]

[From here]

Tyki always considered these endless string of hallways pretty boring, and tonight wasn't any different. After all, the dull scenery and the lack of interesting things around here made it difficult to catch his attention for long. Traversing them was such a tedious task to get anywhere.

At least he had almost reached his destination for tonight.

[To here

[From here]

Tyki casually glanced around for monster activity as he stepped into the next hallway. There were patients nor monsters around, but he hadn't really expected otherwise anyway. After discarding some of the ash from his cigarette on the floor, he headed for the double doors on his right.

[To here]

[From here]

Aside from his own footsteps, it was completely silent when Tyki slipped into the next hallway. Not that he'd particularly minded or anything. At least he wouldn't be held up by some bothersome monsters this way.

The Noah only paused to lit a cigarette before heading towards the next door. Thankfully their meeting spot wasn't on the other side of the building, because that would have been a waste on playing time.

[To here]

There was little that stopped Tyki from heading out this early, because he had been looking forward to tonight's game for the past couple of days. No one should be able to kill Rhode, his family, and expect to get away with it. Miss Shinigami would be sorry, alright.

The Noah pulled his hair back and exchanged the glasses for his knife and flashlight. Too bad he didn't have a chance to collect more interesting toys, but he supposed there was nothing that could be done about it at this point. Without any further delay, he stepped out into the hallway and quickly headed towards their meeting point.

After all, it wouldn't do to be late...

[To here]

[from here]

Kenshin probably wasn't even going to be expecting him this early. Perhaps he should wait around a bit? The idea of waiting around in these halls, however, even those inside the patient blocks, didn't sit well with him. It would be just as he was trying to be courteous that something nasty popped out of nowhere and bit him in the ass.

So he stopped in front of the doorway, took a couple looks around to make sure it was clear, and knocked twice. "Oi, sensei. You in?"

[outside M55]

The Head Doctor sounded rushed, as usual, as he began speaking on the intercom.

"Good evening, everyone, and I once again express my highest hopes that your collective therapy sessions and good, old fashioned relaxing went well! Now, perhaps we shouldn't excite you at the end of the day, but... I fear I must! You see, we're just beginning to bring in our new batch of patients, and they will join their new roommates come dinner. Yes, yes – apologies for the slight disorganization, but we can only accommodate so many people at once, right? Right.

"As for dinner itself, I'm sure many of you will enjoy it, even if it isn't quite authentic. We have shrimp and vegetable tempura along with chicken teriyaki; there is dipping sauce included, along with a bowl of rice, bean sprouts, and edamame – that's soybeans. In addition, your dessert is some delicious green tea ice cream. Mmm!

"I hope you all enjoy dinner as much as I suspect you shall, and I bid you farewell until I say goodnight."

Just after the redundant statement, the intercom clicked off.

[ If you would like to introduce your character during this shift, please respond to this post. You can either choose for your character to wake up before their roommate gets back, or after they do. Find your character's room assignments here.

All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. Thank you! ]

Matt had to bite his tongue hard to keep from insisting he would be perfectly comfortable in the library, really, and could he please stop being led around like freaking cattle? As the nurse drew him into the empty Sun Room, the answer to that seemed to be a resounding 'No'.

Great.

He was given the usual talk of 'be nice', 'maybe someone will come back and you'll have someone to talk to' and the strangely sincere 'we're getting a few books in braille, they just haven't arrived yet'. He was sure he believed that one, but it would be nice to not be singled out for a change.

Reminded him of grammar school actually.

What a coincidence, he hadn't been fond of grammar school either. Settling back on the seat he'd found himself in, the Daredevil closed his eyes and debated on the merits of a nap as he listened to the occasional person stop by and scribble something down before leaving. A message board or something? He'd have to ask someone about that.

(Free to any and all!)

[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.

Keman retreated to libraries almost instinctively. He liked books. Books were simpler to deal with, and they didn't change. No matter what, the ending always stayed the same. Even if it was a bad ending, that ending was still a constant. Constants were good. They didn't surprise him, didn't show up out of nowhere and throw everything off kilter.

This had.

His mother. They'd taken Alara and done horrible things to her. Made her forget, fed her lies. He wouldn't wish it on anyone, not even Myre. And that was what would happen to him, too, if he wasn't careful. He'd lose himself completely. He was already slipping, already more halfblood than dragon. How long before halfblood turned to human, and Keman became Calvin?

At any rate, he needed to tell Shana everything that had happened. Alara was her mother, too. Keman left a note for his sister on the board, letting her know where he'd be, and then pulled the largest book he could find off the shelf: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. It looked to be a massive collection of plays and poetry. Good. Opening it to a random page, he settled down and began to read.

[for Shana (and Valyn and Shadow?)]

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)]

Rukia filed out of the bus with the other prisoners, shivering a little in the cool autumn air. She was a little irked that the nurses hadn't given her mittens on this trip. Forced to stuff her hands in to the pockets of her jeans, Rukia hunched her shoulders and wandered to the edge of the park before turning around to look for anyone she knew.

Nurses and orderlies were already milling about, supervising and watching the prisoners. Rukia's plan was to get a hold of something - anything - that she could use as a weapon when they returned to the Institute that night. It would be difficult with so many staff members around, but she was determined; the last thing she wanted was to be trapped on the buses again with no weapon.

Tamaki was still awed and touched that Ritsuka had set up the clinic for him. He... well, he'd stay alert and up and as focused as possible until Raine showed up. And anyone else. He remembered Kratos had said something about not being able to make it....

They really did need more healers and doctors. Maybe during the day he could hold classes in first aide or something, and anyone who wished to help could come. Yes, that was something he could focus his mind on. That was good.

He struggled out of bed, eyes still feeling hot and itchy from crying, and opened the door with another small smile directed at his roommate.

From the sound of the intercom, something was happening tonight. Maybe he should ask Ritsuka to stay after all.....

[from here]

One row over - first row in. Sai had stopped needing to look at the room numbers some time ago. He couldn't help but wonder if Usopp would be surprised to see him. His visits were a regular occurrence, but it wasn't as though he'd told the pirate he'd be coming this night in particular. He didn't think he'd be shooed away, but perhaps he should have asked?

[to here]

[from here]

An uncomfortable ache in his chest announced to Sai that moving so quickly right now wasn't helping the healing process any. His pace slowed, but he kept his ears open for signs of any potential danger. He'd be too easy of a target, so showing weakness was out of the question. Luckily, he'd never run into much trouble in this stretch of hallway. The fact that it was possible kept him moving. It was doubtful he'd be doing anything overly strenuous tonight, so he could afford it now.

On to the next hall.

[to here]

[from here]

It didn't look like many patients were out and about yet, which suited Sai's purposes just fine. The less bodies there were to maneuver around, the more quickly he could reach his target destination. He supposed making any haste at all was unnecessary, as it was doubtful Usopp would be going anywhere, but it was never a good idea to stick about in one hall for very long anyway if it could be helped.

[to here]

[from here]

Sai had only brought one weapon tonight. With only one usable hand there was no point in bringing another. The patient rooms didn't seem to be that large a source of danger in the first place, unless it involved another patient. Hopefully it wouldn't be necessary at all, as he wasn't in the best condition to be fighting period, but one could never be too careful.

He hardly needed his flashlight by now. The way over to the next block was as familiar as anything now.

[to here]

The beginning of nightshift, mmm? What a strange and funny thing had happened. It wasn't like normal Landel's nights by any stroke of the imagination; indeed, the radios and the intercom were playing this time. How fancy! It was like three voices talking at once, once from the wall and twice from the two radios in Peony's and Siegfried's room.

The voices were lighter, brighter, as if many years had stood to pass between the first recording and Dr. Landel's subsequent cursing and damning what had happened. Peony could tell as much. And he wondered if, perhaps, there had been such a change between his and Jade's voices from so long ago and their voices now.

Funny how this place made him think about himself sometimes.

Yes, it was a rare and introspective moment for the emperor, and he was rather glad it was dark. Not for long, though; his flashlight flicked on in the darkness, and the tube of light passed over Siegfried for a moment before the emperor grabbed the few scalpels he'd harvested the other day. And - well, hell, why not. The radio, too. Which meant he'd need his coat. For the pockets.

"Bye," he said abruptly, excusing himself into the hallway.

Now all there was was to wait for Gailardia. He was actually quite curious on what the young man would say about such a strange thing. So he leaned against the hallway wall outside their rooms, waiting. They would get going quite quickly tonight! It would be glorious.

"Good evening, patients and staff!" the Head Doctor said just as the intercom's usual jingle ended. Strangely, he seemed even more tense now than he had been throughout the day, though as he continued to speak, he seemed to get back into the usual swing of things. "I hope you all had very productive outdoor activities today and helpful therapy sessions to boot. Now, however, we must all begin to retire, and as always, our nurses will be bringing your dinner to your rooms shortly after your being escorted there. Tonight's meal includes a generous portion of delicious spaghetti with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese (and meatballs if you choose), along with sides of hot garlic bread and fresh Caesar salad. For dessert, we will be serving slices of moist chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream."

The Head Doctor paused, and there was the sound of rustling and then muffled voices, as if the doctor had put his hand over the microphone and was clarifying something with someone--a female voice, probably Lydia. He took his hand off the mic and cleared his throat.

"Yes, that's all for now. I hope you all enjoy dinner, and remember, some of you tonight will be lucky enough to participate in our CM-US Experimental Therapy Trials, so look forward to that after the meal. Goodbye for now!"

The intercom clicked off.

[ Please respond to this post with all dinner shift threads between roommates, putting your character's respective room in the subject line. ]

In all honesty, Tyki hadn't exactly expected what had happened during dinner. Though it was definitely strange to have woken up in his white side this morning, he hadn't given it too much thought beyond his initial surprise. It had probably something to do with his white side being a laid-back bum, but it simply hadn't come to mind just yet.

It happened after he had finished his dinner, when he was searching his room for something useful while the sun was about to set. The Noah within him had been dormant all day, as it usually was when he was in his human side. But something had changed all of a sudden, which was enough to make Tyki pause as he searched the closet. He knew what was going on, all too familiar with shifting from white to black, but there was only one little problem; he wasn't willing it himself. He could always shift through his white and black side whenever he liked, but now he had no control over it. At all. He couldn't stop it when white turned black, when his skin turned a darker color. It was beyond his own control...

And that didn't sit quite well with the Noah. If there was one thing he had to be careful about, it was losing control. Not being able to turn back. He didn't want to lose them, but...having both was fun.

But he quickly reassured himself. Hadn't he woken up here in his white side? Though he couldn't switch back now, there was reason enough to believe that it wasn't lost. It was too much of a coincidence, to shift to his black right after the sun had set. He didn't knew how, or why, but what if it was related to day and night?

At the very least, having his black side would make his stay a bit more interesting.

He removed his glasses, leaving them on his desk. There was no need for these now. Too lazy to do anything about his hair, he grabbed his flashlight and moved into the dark hallway. He had seen the area on his way to his room, and logic told him the row of doors held more rooms. Not really interested, he moved along.

On to some cigarettes first. He needed a smoke, already!

[To here]