Okita had woken with a start, his breath coming back to him in a rush. Toward the end of the night, he had sworn he'd seen someone in the shadows - someone no taller than a boy of nine, a mask covering his face, blood running down his front. He'd seen him. There was no way of mistaking that outfit or that mask; and Okita didn't need to see the face behind it to know who it was. The man didn't have a name and he likely never would, but Okita could never forget him. No one ever forgot their first kill.

When his breathing returned to normal, he realized that Guy was gone and worse, that the shift was nearly over. The nurses came in, fussing over him, saying he'd had a fever or some other nonsense that morning and thus they had left him to rest. Now they were asking how he was feeling, touching his forehead and trying to get him to put some metal tube in his mouth. That? Was a big no. Okita politely and firmly refused their repeated requests and they finally gave in, allowing him to get up and get dressed before informing him that today was--

"Now, the adults may be escorted to the showers while children can partake in Arts & Crafts activities."

The intercom cut in and Okita smiled. Finally. A shower. He put up little resistance when the nurses led him to the shower room, quickly undressing before touching his shoulder and ribs. Fully healed now, not a trace of his former injuries. Without further hesitation, Okita went to the closest stall and turned on the water, closing his eyes as the heat washed over him, clearing his head of the previous night's illusions. There was no way that demon man was still alive, and no way that he could have returned to taunt him yet again. It was merely a trick of the mind; something easily dismissed. That was exactly it. With that decided, Okita began to shampoo his hair, marveling again at the conveniences of the modern day.

[free~!]

[from here]

Even distracted as he was, Suzaku remembered to stay on his guard as he passed into the main hallway. He would only be here for a moment, but there could still be a monster lurking in the darkness. And it was so quiet and deserted just now that he would make easy prey.

[to here]

Hello! I.R.I.S. here once more to announce to you, our honored guests, that you have officially made it through a day of our typical Landel's treatment. Of course, it isn't quite over: we will now have you retire to our designated patient quarters with one of your agency partners to inspect their sleeping area and the tools that we provide them with for the true bulk of our behavioral testing. On an added note, we would like you to notice once again that the meals we provide to our subjects are of the highest quality.

For those of you feeling apprehensive about taking part in our more intensive methods, please be aware that we would never imagine putting all of you in any danger whatsoever. This last shift will be your last at our Institute; afterward, we will escort you to our Head Doctor's personal observation station to survey some of our test Next-Wave participants in the rigorous trials we put them through – all for their betterment, of course.

Once again, we hope that you are satisfied with what you find, and as always, direct any questions you may have to your console.

The nurses began to escort the patients to their rooms. They didn't even seem to be brought to awareness by words such as "testing" and "subjects."

[ All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. (Find all of the newly changed room assignments and shift introductions here.) If you are introducing your character during this shift, you may either choose for them character to wake up before their roommate gets back, or after. ]

Kibitoshin left the cafeteria in what could only have been described as a state of sheer, unleaded anxiety. Why did he have to be the one Dory had spoken to first? With everything he’d said and failed to say she’d probably ended up with a reverse education. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she came out of it knowing even less than she had when she arrived.

Hopefully- and he really did hope, more than anything- someone else would be able to start over and tell her what she needed to know, especially since she hadn’t exactly seem altogether… well… there. To be fair, she had been a fish until today. Expecting her to be perfectly normal was maybe a little much.

What he needed now was some peace and quiet. Maybe if he had a chance to calm down he wouldn’t make such a fool of himself in his meeting later that afternoon. The library would do for that, right? If he was lucky (which he never was, but he had to be positive) they’d have that book he hadn’t quite finished in Doyleton (even if he couldn't think of the town without shuddering), the odd one about Lady Esmeralda (which hadn't been very good anyway, but...). A quick scan of the shelves on arrival didn’t turn anything up, but he did manage to find a battered old book called ‘Alice in Wonderland’ to settle down with. Apparently, it was about a girl finding herself in a strange new world. Why did that ring a bell...?

Satisfied, he took a seat and began to flick through the pages.

[free for unlimited poking!]

When the shift changed, HK stayed put. Even after a long night of zombie killing, he had no interest in meatbag fuel, especially after all the discussion of chocolate with that rather strange meatbag. It was just making him crave the stuff even more than he had previously, if that was possible.

Oh, right. He was supposed to be looking for someone who was "VERY LARGE, WITH DARK HAIR." And also seemed to not know what lower-case letters were on the bulletin. As if that would help. He'd seen a likely candidate last shift, but talk of chocolate had distracted him.

Where was Blitzwing?

Lugnut ignored the nurse's fussing over his foot, even as it howled objections to his ill treatment of it the night before, pounding through the town in search of his wingmate, reportedly helpless and injured by an attack the night before-- and not finding him, not seeing even a glimpse of his crazy triple-changing ally.

Snarling at the nurse, but restraining himself from shows of violence-- Blitzwing would mock him if he showed up drugged already, and he would be useless to Megatron like that--he made his way impatiently to the cafeteria, stopping for just long enough to post an urgent notice on the board.

Where was he?

Looming in the middle of the cafeteria, he took the tray the nurse handed him (filled with disgusting human fuel, didn't she know he didn't have time to eat, not when his wingmate was missing?) and ignored it, watching for Blitzwing, where was he?

He refused to think about what might have happened to a wheelchair-bound, drugged, incapacitated warrior, with the swarms of monsters flooding around him, clawing and biting...

[for Scourge]

At first, the idea of being stuck in this meatbag dwelling sector at night seemed like a wonderful idea. So many targets, such an open field, and so many things that could be repurposed for use as weapons!

...Then he saw all the zombies. After the talk of those 'space barnacles' last night, it was fairly easy to identify them as such. But the only thing was, those things were supposed to only affect droids.

Now there were meatbag zombies. All over the place. And he didn't have a flamethrower. Oh no no no nononono.

In short, HK freaked out.

Lockdown had seen some pretty weird stuff in his lifetime, but this took the grand prize.

Everything suddenly becoming dirty and run down was strange enough, but the rotted flesh creatures nearly killed it for him. They reminded him of the stories of the mutated space barnacles, only these humans didn't seem to have any of the slimy creatures on them. Lockdown shook himself and decided to think about it later, preferably when he was actually armed.

The bounty hunter dashed up from his seat and bolted out the door, heading out to find the hardware store, and HK-47

[to here]

Okay, so it looked like there was no point in trying to get through a TV. It figured. It was either because their abilities were sealed off or the world inside the TV simply didn't exist here. It wouldn't have made much sense for the Head Doctor to bring them there when they had such an easy method of escaping/hiding out anyway. Yousuke told himself he shouldn't be surprised, but he couldn't help but be disappointed anyway.

Well, whatever. He hadn't eaten since breakfast on the bus, so he figured it was about time he put one of his coupons to good use. "Tasty Burger" sounded like a generic chain out of a kid's show or something. Some place the main characters would meet up at after school. In any case, it couldn't hurt to see if the burgers really were as tasty as advertised.

He pulled out his coupon and got in line. Looked like he was stuck with the basics...

[Mitsuru]

Definitely chillier than last time, Phoenix affirmed with a brief shiver, re-wrapping his scarf as he stepped off the bus and onto the street. All of the patients looked to be drifting their separate ways, down towards parks and side-streets, and as he took off he wondered what the point of this exercise was. 'Test' seemed like the popular theory for everything the institute did, but Doyleton especially reeked of some bad reality show setup. Four coupons, a bag of food, and a full day in a town full of everything but some meaningful connection to the outside world. He mentally cataloged the most glaring missing pieces. No banks, no churches, no post offices, no newspapers or ads. He made a note to look for televisions - maybe the bar would have one - though he doubted already any one would be turned to a channel with current events, or even so much as a news ticker. And there wasn't even a police station, at least not one he'd seen during the full lap of the place last time - just a building that he'd really wanted to believe he'd misread the fist time his eyes darted past the words 'sheriff's office'.

An entire town with no infrastructure. Phoenix felt almost embarrassed by how awful a sham it was. He knew that most of the patients would probably assume it was a fake anyway, but whoever had made the place could have at least tried.

Walking down the street, Phoenix took stock of his resources and did his best to formulate a plan of action. Since he didn't imagine that whoever ran the hair salon would be falling all over her- or himself to trade for a muffin and some fruit, what he was left with was coupons. What was more, it looked like basically the same coupon book as last time. He cursed at himself for having gotten rid of last week's extras. That would be two massages and two manicures to bargain with (along with maybe today's lunch, if he got especially desperate). Two of both the luxury goods he could probably do something with, but only one of each? That was trickier.

He stopped outside the door to the salon, ruffling through the booklet one last time, distractedly sipping at his juice.

[reserved for Apollo]

One second he was in the hallway, dizzy and sickened and barely able to focus as Youko picked him up (and he'd thought for a moment to warn her to be careful before remembering his shirei couldn't hurt her anyway, even agitated as they were) and then the next...in bed. Back in the sterile hospital room, with only the sharp scents of cleaners and laundry soap from the sheets, but nausea and a lingering pain behind his eyes still reminded him of the close call the night before.

Before he had time to think about it for long, though, the door opened and the nurse arrived with a bundle of unfamiliar clothing; she fussed over him briefly, trying to feel his forehead (from which he automatically grimaced and ducked away) and cooing over him like he was an invalid child. Of course he was a little feverish; it would only have been worse if the blood had touched him as it came so close to doing.

But the woman only bundled him into the clothing she'd brought without paying any attention to his protests, and he was hard-pressed to decide whether or not the shirt she gave him was any better than the bright yellow smiling face. And then he was led out to the front yard, through what he noted didn't look anything like the "holy ground" of the night before, and given a brown paper bag before being herded onto a bus with admonitions to "take it easy" ringing in his ears.

He dropped into the first empty seat he found, leaving the bag sitting next to him unopened as he leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes. Food was most definitely not interesting at the moment, and he had things to think about anyway.

[waiting for Youko]

[from here]

As she neared the big doors to the Sun Room, Anise's pace slowed to a stop. This part of the hall was eerily quiet. Could she really be the first one there? It was a good thing, since it meant she had probably gotten there well before that Wonka guy, but it also made her a little nervous. If there were monsters lurking around, she was likely to get targeted, being the only one there.

It didn't sound like there were any around though, so she stayed where she was. She wouldn't get anywhere if she let fear hold her back, would she?

Anise stood quiet and still as she waited, though her flashlight moved around to illuminate the corners of the east side of the hall, just in case something was there. It was creepy being alone in a dangerous place like this, especially when there were normally a lot of people around the Sun Room. Whether it was friends or strangers, she hoped more people would show up soon, just so she'd feel less like a sitting duck.

[from here]

The main hallway was empty, too. The quiet was broken only by squeak of S.T's shoes on the tile floor and tiny creaks of metal as the toolbox swung as he walked.

This was the part in the horror movie where the cheerleader took a knife to the throat. Good thing he'd left his pom-poms at home. As long as he was the idiot friend or the brains (hell, both) he should make it at least to the third act.

He hurried along, hugging close to the left-hand wall.

[to here]

"Damn that Megatron," Starscream muttered, struggling angrily with his uncooperative crutches as he waited outside his room, impatiently waiting on Lockdown. "He is quickly becoming just as irritatingly stubborn as the one from my universe. I do not care for his accusations, both of my treachery nor of my inability to be of use...bah, it should be ME ordering HIM around. Damn this leg..."

There was also the matter of the doctor's words, he thought to himself, closing his eyes and reminiscing on what the flesh-creature had said. "Play a game...what do you have in mind, human," he murmured, crossing his arms in thought as best he could. "Perhaps I shall get a chance to find out...if this fool ever shows up, that is..."

[from here]

The hallways were dead -- 3am last call has come and gone dead dead, not just an early, foggy night. Not even a mouse. Scratch that -- he didn't want to think about what the local mice looked like.

Not even a street sweeper making it's bi-weekly, ticket-strewn, ear-shattering pilgrimage. He hoped he hadn't missed a memo. Caution: by game we mean the general issuance of semi-automatic weaponry to any individuals with grievances.


INTRA-GANG VIOLENCE HITS INNOCENT BYSTANDER DAY AFTER POLICE ISSUE ADVISORY ON CRIME AT NIGHT
TAYLOR NEVER CAME IN OUT OF THE RAIN, EITHER, NEIGHBOR CONFIDES

What the fuck. This place was getting to him. He couldn't allow that, so he sped up his strides.

[to here]

[from here]

North or south? That was an easy decision to make. Playing amateur National Geographic anthropologist-cum-documentarian didn't appeal. Not when humans were the only endangered species around here. Besides, he'd never perfected the well-oiled half-British half-asshole (if there was a difference) accent.

S.T. pivoted his body to the right, swung the rolling pin out ahead of him (in case the door was closed -- a black eye from actually running into a door was not something he wanted to have to admit to) and stepped into the next hall.

[to here]

[from here]

S.T. stepped out through the M90 door and into the wider hall. Both areas were silent and dark.

He flicked the flashlight on. A bright ray of light jumped out, illuminating a soft bullseye on the wall. The batteries were still going strong.

Aside from that confirmation, it was doing little aside from ruining his night vision. He turned it back off. There was no reason to advertise his presence until he'd made it to Javert's room.

[to here]

When the intercom's jingle sounded, there seemed to be some kind of tapping in the background noise, like letters being punched into a keyboard. It stopped and the Head Doctor chuckled.

"Hello, everyone! I'm actually taking a break from paperwork for once – everyone needs some recreational time, you know! – and of course, now we can all look forward to a scrumptious dinner from our cooks. Tonight, herb-seasoned grilled salmon is on the menu, served with buttery mashed potatoes and asparagus. All our regular drinks and vegetarian options are available, and for dessert, we will be serving yellow cake with a whipped cream icing.

"...Well! I can hardly wait to get my own dinner after saying all that. Good bye for now, everyone, and enjoy your delicious food!"

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. (Find all of the newly changed room assignments and shift introductions here.) If you are introducing your character during this shift, you may either choose for them character to wake up before their roommate gets back, or after. ]