The latest intercom announcement filled Aigis with a sense of dread. Aborting her attempt at writing in her journal, Aigis stood silent for a moment then paced to the closet to retrieve her baseball bat. She would normally have offered her roommate some assistance during her first night in the institute, but Kay had already expressed during dinner that she had plans with a friend. It worked for Aigis. She had plans herself. The unhappy task of receiving one last memento from her released friend.

It shook her to the core, thinking how her friend had disappeared so suddenly. They had only just met up, and now she was already gone. It was almost too much, too powerful of an emotion for the android to fully realize.

"I wish you safety in your endeavors tonight, Kay-san," Aigis whispered solemnly. Then, grabbing up her flashlight in her free hand, Aigis moved to the door and made her way down the hall.

[to here]

[From here]

Who needed flashlights when you had mad ninja skills?

Yup, Yuffie was good. All senses primed and ready for action, just in case any action decided to come along and, y'know, happen. Which was about as likely as Barret turning up with a basket of posies and a bottle of blueberry wine.

She kicked back against the wall a few meters away from the door, shuriken half behind, half to the side. There were no shadows deeper than any of the others for her to dramatically skulk around in yet, so she shrugged off the reflexive urge to seek one out. She'd give it a couple of minutes, to see if John (or anybody else interesting) turned up, and then she'd move on. The night waited for no-one, least of all when you were under the thumb of a madman who thought regular, predictable wake-up calls were for lesser beings.

Which they kind of were, but that wasn't the point.

[From here]

Since Landel's idea of fun usually rivalled Hojo's, Yuffie tried really hard not to find the dull, monotonous, tedious stretch of hallway boring. Boring was good. Boring was… boring. Boring, boring, boring.

She had to wonder how people did it. Living in the same place, second after second, day after day, spiralling out into weeks and months and years. A while ago she might've gone totally psychonuts within a week or two. Now she was pushing on three, and wanderlust was threatening to choke her. Good thing she'd be getting out for a while tonight, especially after last night's fail-fest.

In a desperate bid to spice things up a little, Yuffie slipped into a playful not-routine. A ninja-y walk turned into a ninja-y skip n' hop, into an aerial cartwheel, into a back tuck-pike-layover set that brought her to the wall beside the door. "Not too shabby," she congratulated herself. She'd had years upon years of practice keeping her shuriken in hand during gymnastics routines, but with the Institute being what it was, a bit—okay, a lot—of practice was gonna come in handy.

With a twirl for flair and a bounce for fun, Yuffie slipped out of the women's block.

[To here]

[from here]

Another hallway, which meant that he needed to slow his steps to a jog and turn on his flashlight. His light shifted over the walls quickly, up, down, around him, and even toward the floor, as if little black heads with yellow beady eyes would suddenly pop out and attack him. Though he didn't have any idea what most of the monsters looked like here, Riku doubted that he would see anything like the heartless. They may have the Darkness to change Kairi completely, but it didn't seem like the type of thing they would use against their patients. Making them into heartless would only be useful in the situations where Nobodies might be involved. Some people here might be strong in heart, much like Sora had been, much like Kairi had been, but he doubted that would be the intended result of their experiments. No, they were probably going for something else.

But what?

Riku shook his head uncertainly before he picked up his pace again. Nothing seemed to be clear. Not even the Darkness of this place seemed like that Darkness, even as he tried to see if it was the same way. But with every aspect of him feeling relatively weaker, it was no surprise he couldn't really check, couldn't really differentiate to tell for certain. He also knew there was a possibility that his senses were weakened. That would slow him down more, but they didn't bother to remove his experience or knowledge. Those were still things Riku pocketed and kept. They were what would help him help his friends.

[to here]

When the intercom finished another deliberately vague note, Lana was already standing at her door, flashlight in hand and scalpel securely in her coat pocket. She'd neglected to find out exactly how the doors worked at night, but the general idea was clear. Some time soon, they would open, and she had to be ready the moment they did.

Click. The knob loosened under her hand, and she stepped out into an as-yet empty hallway.

F28 was only two doors down -- no-one else emerged as she walked over to the door. She tucked one hand behind her back and waited for Ema to come out. That she would was inevitable, despite the monsters and Lana's express orders. She would just have to repeat them until Ema listened; Lana couldn't protect her and investigate at the same time.

[for Ema]

_{[From here.]}

Shinji paused at the major hallway, playing the beam of his flashlight over the walls. This was familiar by now. He'd come through this hallway a couple times before and it was usually as far as he'd gotten into the institute at night. Usually he just stopped - he didn't particularly want to find out how far the corruption went or encounter anything unpleasant. Tonight was different, though. Kaworu was missing (or so he thought). He'd wait here for a few minutes to see if Kaworu passed through. If not, Shinji decided to move on. He'd find Kaworu if it took all night. He owed him that much.

He didn't want any more of his friends to be hurt because he was too afraid to take action anymore. Despite the firmness of that thought, he still found himself fighting against panic and fear. This place still scared him at night. All moving shadows and claustrophobic walls. The feeling of being watched and followed. It was more than creepy, even after a few nights here. He wanted to go back to his room and try and sleep for once, but this was more important.

He wouldn't run away. Not this time. At least, that's what he told himself. He just hoped it wasn't a lie.

Even with the nasty weather, Zack still felt refreshed after going outside. Humidity would have reminded him of Gongaga, but he wasn't sure he needed that. Not now, not when he wasn't even sure if he'd be able to get back home and see his parents again. Not that he should have the chance at all, but it was hard to think about nonetheless. Seeing how Gaia hadn't even gotten a rocket into space yet, the idea of figuring out how to get home was one huge question mark in Zack's head.

He already felt hungry again, but after his talk with Aidou the soldier knew that he needed to get that bulletin note up as soon as possible. For that reason, he gave the nurse who was currently herding him his best pleading eyes as he asked to be taken into the Sun Room for a quick second. Once there, he scribbled out a note as fast as he could (he hoped his friends would be able to read his writing) and then tacked it up.

Also, what was with the guy on the intercom all of a sudden? Had he gotten a spontaneous cold? It seemed ridiculous considering he was their captor, but it also meant he was at least somewhat human. He could get a stuffy nose. That meant he was probably weak in other ways.

But there he was, resorting to violence again. It was difficult not to, when that was what he was used to. Besides, Zack was getting the feeling that this Landel guy deserved it.

Shrugging to himself, he entered the cafeteria again and got in line for his lunch. He had to admit he was glad that the food didn't seem to be drugged, seeing how it was downright delicious. Zack got a whiff of the fried poultry as it was put onto his tray and let out a happy sigh. Chow time!

Seeing how the cafeteria was still pretty empty, the young man found the closest empty spot and then sat down. Hopefully one of his friends would spot him and head on over. For now, though, Zack picked up one of the pieces of meat, bit into it, and leaned back into his chair with a content look on his face. So much better than the slop Shin-Ra had called food...

[For Tobias! Let us know if you want to join.]

As breakfast ended and the nurses started herding the younger "patients" toward the door, Ema thought she saw a familiar face in the gaggle of adults that was being herded in another direction. The preoccupation with her sister's trial must have been starting to screw with her mind, because Ema could have sworn that she had just seen Lana. It was just a brief glance, however, so maybe it was just her eyes (or this place) playing tricks on her. Still, Ema's gaze lingered on the crowd, searching for her sister's figure just to make sure.

The nurse next to Ema took notice and glanced down at her quizzically. "What has your attention, Marie...?" She followed the girl's line of vision, and the confused look gave way to sudden realization. "Ah, your sister. Don't worry, there will be plenty of time to catch up with her later. You don't want to pass up your shower, do you?"

Ema froze, staring up at the woman stupidly. Her sister was here? Even if Ema felt a pang of guilt about it, the news hit her with overwhelming relief. For one, she wasn't alone in this hell; even with her sister's ever-increasing frost, Ema knew that her sister would protect her (and, hopefully, Agatha). Secondly... Lana couldn't be found guilty of murder if she was here, could she? Chekov's explanation of the fluidity of time in this place went out the window--Lana was here, and therefore safe from the legal system of Los Angeles.

As much as Ema wanted to break free from the nurse and run after her sister, she refrained. She had already been given one implicit threat today to stay cooperative, and she didn't want to invite trouble. Besides, Lana seemed to be headed toward that room with the bulletin board in it. That meant Ema could catch up with her after the shower, which was good.

After giving the nurse a nod to indicate that she was going to the showers after all, Ema hurried there as fast as her still-aching legs would take her. She never was the type to take very long cleaning herself, and today she really sped through the wash-down process. In a matter of maybe ten, fifteen minutes, Ema had undressed, washed her hair and body, rinsed, dressed, had her bandage changed, and was well on her way to the Sun Room, her hair dripping behind her as she went.

[And Ema's off to meet her sister here]

Luckily for Mele, the night had ended before Tenzen had changed his mind and deemed Mele appropriate for target practice. Even if the situation of who was mocking who had seemed to change into the Iga ninja's favor. Despite her behavior, perhaps the insolent woman could serve some sort of use nonetheless. He had been trapped in this place for a week by now, he would not accomplish anything on his own.

A week was a long time, a lot could have happened. Of course, he was thinking of the war, the bloody clash of two rivaling ninja clans, whose hatred had gone back for four hundred years. After that infuriating peace treaty had been broken, he, too, could finally release the hatred. And despite their losses, Tenzen had been certain that the Iga clan - no, that he would be the one to remain standing.

Four had remained on both sides a week ago...had the remaining Kouga already been killed? Or had they somehow succeeded in disposing of the remaining three Iga (excluding himself) during his absence? Of those three, two were blind. The situation was not a favorable one, and with himself trapped here before he could return from death, he had to wonder if the Kouga had removed the name 'Yakushiji Tenzen' from the scroll and would believe they had eliminated all of Iga's chosen ten.

The thought - along with no manner of telling this - was enough to make his jaw tighten. The longer he would remain here...

But as unfuriating as it was, it would not help him return. After confirming the presence of the scalpels he had retrieved, a nurse entered his room to escort him to the cafeteria for ridiculous Western breakfast. Unfortunately, the same ridiculous food was the only source of nutrition.

Upon entering, the ninja noticed he was the first to arrive to the area. After deciding on a salad rather than these so-called 'pancakes', he moved to one of the many vacant seats.

[Free to a good home. No limits!]

It was, thought Agatha, about time this Landel guy started acting like a real evil megalomaniacal mad scientist. All the sugary-sweet fakery had been getting on her nerves, but this persona was something she knew all about. Right down, in fact, to the inclusion of information helpful to his enemies.

She'd been spending most of the time since finishing dinner assembling the pitifully few useful-looking items their room contained. She hadn't originally meant to include the little radio in that, since no matter what settings she tried it had only produced rather forgettable music and she didn't have the time or the tools to reduce it to usable parts.

Now, though, she snatched it up and slid it over to the channel that had been mentioned. It might not be much help, but she didn't see how it could hurt, either. "I think I'm all set," she declared. "Ema?"

( from here. )

So far, so good. Kairi tried to move as quietly as she could, not wanting to attract any kind of baddies that could be lurking in the shadows. ... And lest she forget actually crazy patients. Then again, she doubted she'd ever forget that incident.

Oh well, she was almost there. No time to think about past injuries.

( to here. )

[From here]

There were no lighted guard towers out here and no heavily-armed patrols, and Prussia again felt insulted by the lack of security. It was almost as if they wanted him to escape! Until now, hardly a day had gone by without the control council making its presence—and his position—known. The sudden change in tune disturbed him more than he cared to admit, and he couldn't help but wonder if he were walking straight into some kind of trap. But they'd already taken everything away from him— the feel of land beneath his feet was good, but it would have been better if it had been his land and felt in his very bones—so what else could they possibly do? He refused to die, and he'd refuse to let them kill him, no matter what they tried next.

Prussia finally decided to use the torch, clicking it on to survey the area. It was a field of some sort (for football, perhaps), with a shed at one corner and a wall surrounding its entirety. He took a few steps forward along the nearest wall before turning towards it and starting to scale it.

Once he was high enough to see over, Prussia propped himself up with his arms and shone the torch into the next area. It didn't look like a way away from the hospital's grounds—it was just a walled courtyard and more of the hospital—so he carefully dropped back to the ground.

He'd have to try his luck with the other two walls, and their corner seemed like the best option. He started across the field, heading in the direction of the shed.

Ema let the nurse lead her through the facility and out into the recreational field. She wished the nurse hadn't have taken the journal out of her hands to be left in the room--there was quite a bit to take in and Ema's hands were itching to record every little detail. If she was, in fact, kidnapped in order to prevent Lana from being proven innocent, then she was going to have to pass along everything she possibly could to Mr. Wright the instant she managed to get free.

However, that hypothesis was starting to fall apart, as much as Ema wasn't quite ready to let it go. The nurse had called her "Marie," for starters, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that Ema was not the only prisoner. This was a rather large facility, and there were several cells (dormitories?) that lined even the halls the nurse led her through. And then there was that comment that her family had admitted her. That made the least sense of all; Lana couldn't have done this to her to get her out of the way of the trial.

Could she? Lana was really well-connected; it wasn't likely, but it was possible. The thought made Ema a bit sick to her stomach. The two of them didn't get along these days, sure, but to have her kidnapped and locked up somewhere? That was just cruel. Her sister was not cruel. She hoped.

Maybe it was better that Ema didn't have her notebook. She was too lost in her own thoughts to really take in her surroundings. Before she knew it, the nurse opened the door to the recreational field, smiled down at her, and told her to go have fun. Wearing the same smile, she gave a warning not to try running off--there were people watching, and this place was for her own good. There went that idea.

New plan: talk to other prisoners (patients?) and see what the heck was going on. Ema strode past the nurse and into the field, hoping that she wasn't going to be forced to actually do anything physical while outside. Sports were not her thing, and that was the last thing she wanted to be put through after the day she'd had so far.

[Free~!]

Heat was able to ignore the still faintly throbbing spot on his head as he was led back into the cafeteria for another meal he had no intention of eating. He kept himself from rubbing at what he knew would be a small bump because dammit it didn't hurt that much. It was embarrassing, was what it was.

At the fishy odor filling the room when he entered, the demon wrinkled his nose. How that was supposed to be the slightest bit appealing he had no idea. Then again, it wasn't always the taste that mattered. Whatever this cod was, it could very well taste better than the rotting flesh he'd gotten down the night before.

His nurse made some comment about his lack of appetite, but he wasn't paying attention. She could eat his damn lunch if she was worried about it going to waste. It wasn't his fault they didn't inform their staff properly of their patients' eating habits. The room was fairly empty too, so Heat wasn't picky with where he sat. He just hoped one of his tribemates found him before he was stuck with some other pest for the duration of the meal.

[Sasuke?]

Damn it damn it damn it damn it

Late, late! If there was anything peaceful or quiet about the day, it was pretty much ruined by the frantic power-walking and various attempts to get a key through its damn lock echoing through the hall. Damn it, damn it. She felt like a kid who just missed first-hour biology! It was even a wonder how she managed to sleep in when she barely slept anymore, but there you go.

She needed to stalk up on No-Doze. Maybe call up Doc, see if he had any new and exciting drugs on his side of the country.

But while it was hell and annoying to get through town and the building on full rush, finally getting inside her office made her feel a little better about it. Files, notepad, documents, coffee... Okay, good. Sink down in chair, spin a few degrees to the right with mug in hands. Relax. Okay. Alright.

Thank god she only had one patient this shift. She didn't think she had enough coffee yet...

It had all been going so well!

Seeing Cloud and Aerith(!) again had brought a now unfamiliar lightness to her shoulders. Work would be harder from here on out, but she wasn't on her own anymore. She was getting a second chance she'd never thought was possible. And then, then they'd trekked outside, totally ready to face the fog and the unknown (privately, the ninja had been a little worried; it couldn't happen again, it just couldn't, but what if it did?)—only to wake up. In their beds. As usual. Gaaaaaawd—!

"I just want you to know," Yuffie informed her nurse, grabbing her journal from the desk on her way out, "that your hair looks spectacularly god-awful today. What did you do, stick your tongue in a socket? I'm not exactly hip on fashion, too busy badass for that fluffy stuff, but—"

Plucky looked ready to plant her face in her hands. Or to plant her hands somewhere else. To her credit, and much to Yuffie's eternal disappointment, she did—tried to do—neither. "One of those days, is it?" the nurse sighed, disapproval incarnate. "Well. You're just going to have to behave; the new batches of patients are due today. We don't want to make a bad impression."

"I am feeling so completely convinced of my wrongdoing," Yuffie confided. They stepped into the cafeteria, practically empty as of yet. The chocolate cake last night had worked a treat, whetting her appetite. Honestly, she was getting sick of pecking at scraps like a runt Chocobo in the snow plains—but not literally, of course. Ew. She got more than enough of that on those damn buses once a week. Now that AVALANCHE really was dropping onto her lap—and remind her to get the hell out of dodge if Barret ever took his turn—she couldn't afford not to keep her strength up. For one, she'd be a liability. For two, she'd get her spine chewed out.

"Fruit," said Plucky, hovering as her charge picked out her choices for the day. Rolling her eyes, Yuffie grabbed an apple, slinging it onto the tray alongside an 'English' sandwich. "That'll do. I'll leave you to your breakfast, now." Somehow, that sounded about as comforting as 'My name is Don Corneo and I am raiding through your panty draw', and Yuffie was stopping that thought right there. Oh, god. Eurk. Bad, bad, bad! Bad, brain. Bad. That—yeah, no. Just, no. 'Sides, the guy was as dead as a doornail, splatted across Da Chao's feet. Dirtying them, really, but somehow Yuffie couldn't bring herself to be sorry about that.

(And it wasn't like the creep'd ever end up here, right? Right!)

She took to a seat, dropping her tray and her journal both onto the table. The book fell pages-down; Yuffie flipped it over, thumbing through to the middle as she worked through her apple. An almost finished map of Gaia stared back at her, neat as she could ever manage. Dots for major locations, squiggles for mountains. Stars for the materia caves, Chocobos for the tracks. All labelled in Wutaian. It was just a little piece of the home she absolutely had to get back to, 'cuz Leviathan knew what kind of trouble they'd be up to their necks in without her.

[For Donna]

[From here, at M77]

In Heiji's opinion, this case had gone on far too long for both him and Shinichi to have been on the case. It should have been solved that night--maybe two days tops. It was annoying that they were going sifting through oodles and oodles of paper to find what they needed. Damn, if Kogoro could see them now, he'd be laughing his ass off. ...not with good reason of course, since the guy couldn't even solve a case without a five-year-old on his side.

Heiji chuckled at that thought--making fun of Shinichi now that he was normal-sized was hard, he missed all the cheap shots he could take.

He composed himself as he approached Shinichi's room and knocked.

"Oi, it's me."

[from here]

Hallway? Check. Toolbox? Check. Flashlight turning him into a walking target? Check.

Destination? Shit, he knew he'd forgotten something.

The thought of going back, finding his beer, and seeing if there was enough left for a mild buzz was tempting. Really fucking tempting. Pull the covers up over his head and let the world spin without him. But he'd done that last night and he hadn't woken up with his face pressed to a shag rug. Trying to climb inside a hefty bag because someone had turned down the thermostat and attached as much of a diatribe as would fit on a post-it about foreign oil.

[to here]

[From here]

Oh yes. What a world of difference the right clothing made. Ordinarily, von Karma would have kept his coat buttoned up just to conceal that horrid logo on the hospital-issued shirts. However, the only reason he was even wearing the shabby-looking coat now was strictly for its function of carrying his items. Hopefully, the trip to the Patient Possessions Storage would yield a briefcase or something similar that would better match his outfit.

As von Karma strode through the brief corridor leading to the main hallway, he saw no one around yet. Though this likely meant that it was still quite early in the night, he withdrew the hammer from his pocket and gripped it tightly in case trouble presented itself.

Before entering the larger hallway, he peered out through the door to check for possible hazards. All he saw were two people standing around, neither of whom he recognized, but they seemed to pose no direct threat to him. Satisfied that it was safe, he hurried through the corridor's exit and into the main hallway.

[To here]

[from here]

It looked like Junpei was the first to arrive as there was no sign of a hot pink-haired flesh-eating babe. Leaning against the wall by the door that lead outside, he sighed and tilted his head back. What was he doing? Why were his senpai gone when he so very much needed them to tell him what he should really be doing?

This place sucked. Tartarus was easier to handle than this. It made sense in a twisted way that didn't have him eating vampire flesh or hunting with a bunch of Embryon. He really missed home - even that pathetic drunk.