With her torso wrapped once again to hide the disfigurement left behind from her hybridization, Teresa found she was the first in the showers. It figured that the handlers would take care of her and her... unsightly mark before anyone else had a chance to catch a glimpse. It wasn't as if Teresa cared, unless it was someone she knew personally, but she did not feel like complaining.

Standing under the cascading water, Teresa let her mind wander back to a time when she was but a whelp and snuck away from the barracks into the woods. To where the waterfall was.

[free]

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.]

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!]

[from here ]

The room was.... empty, as far as Battler could tell. It wasn't like he'd been expecting anything, but it seemed almost anti-climactic, in a way. Of course, that didn't mean he could rest easy, either. Whatever was supposed to be in here might not just be there yet. Large, empty rooms were never trustworthy without company. If the warning he'd gotten was correct, then right now, he was just an isolated pawn. That was how he thought about it logically, but he still felt a little disconnected; the sense of danger was mild at most. He shined the flashlight over the room once more, just in case, but he still didn't see anything.

Realistically, it was hard to deny that he may have missed something in a room this size without investigating every corner, but right now, that was about the last thing on Battler's mind, and he instead lowered himself unceremoniously into one of the chairs. .... She'd be here soon. Just a little longer.

[From here]

Tyki moved further down the hallway at an easy pace, noticing the lack of other patients around here but he didn't really care much about it. Perhaps it meant no one would snag any smokes away from under his nose this time, but then again, that may have been too optimistic. Eh, but that hardly meant that another person would get away with that, right? Redhead just got lucky last time, and if that guy's luck lasted they wouldn't meet again during the night. And if that guy's luck - or anyone else's for that matter - wouldn't last...well, tough luck for them, people couldn't always win. Finding smokes and getting a free kill wasn't a bad way to spend the night after all, provided that the kill itself would be interesting enough.

But that was only if someone bothered showing up, and turning doctor offices upside down wasn't going to take the whole night he was pretty much certain. Well, he guessed he could worry about the additional entertainment later on. And as he briefly paused to ditch some ash on the floor, he guessed he could always head for the basement or something like he had done with Naminé and Giovanni back then. Not that he had a death wish, but sometimes a challenge was needed to keep things from getting boring.

And boredom? That wasn't something he was particularly fond of anyway.

[Reserved for Allen Walker!]

_{[From here.]}

Shinji emerged into another familiar hallway. At the same time, everything was off. He'd learned this his first night, but it seemed to get worse each time. He hated this feeling, but he had to press on. He couldn't run away. He couldn't hide. He didn't have any other choice. He paused for a brief moment to steel himself and then moved on. He had to keep moving. He had to keep going. He moved on.

_{[To here.]}

( from here. )

There was the stairwell. Kairi couldn't help but smile to herself as she rounded the corner and spotted the familiar hallway, still shrouded in darkness like she remembered it. She could see down the hallway and slightly into the Sun Room from where she was standing, and she lowered her flashlight, not wanting whatever it was that was lurking inside it that night to spot her.

At the thought of that, she looked down at the sword that she held in her hand, feeling ready to take on whatever it was that they were going to do tonight. Though, she had a feeling that even with her own weapon, the two boys wouldn't exactly let her help out all that much. Still, she'd try. The sword she had was real and with her at all times, not like a keyblade that would appear seconds before being attacked.

And to think, back when they used to play on the island with wooden swords, they had never given her one. Well, now she had a real sword, so hah!

( 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.

[From here]

The hallway led into yet another hall, but this time there was little to recommend one direction or another. It stretched on to both the left and the right, and without the use of the torch, he wasn't sure which way to try.

Prussia hesitated for a moment, but then turned left. If it proved to be a dead end, he would just have to turn around and try the other direction. He found a door at the end of the hall and upon opening it, he was rewarded by the feel of cool night air. Perfect. Once he was outside, he would be that much closer to getting away and orienting himself properly. He headed through the door.

[To here]

Why couldn't she get it out of her mind? It was a stupid white dress. So what if it was visual evidence that she was a princess? It should not be bothering her this much. It was a just a dress.

Falis didn't protest when the vultures herded her outside to the greenhouse for some quality time with Mother Nature, or something like that, as lost in thought as she was. Her headache had subsided to a dull throb in the back of her head, but she still stared at the plants and dirt wondering if they really expected her to bother. She had no talent for such things.

Turning her eyes to the others that had been herded along with her, Falis looked for someone she knew. Someone who might... No. She wasn't going to start questioning herself. It was just a stupid white dress.

[Soma and eventually Hokuto]

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]

"Good morning – ah! Could you... could you close that, please? Lydia? Yeah. Yeah, thanks."

Unfortunately for the Head Doctor, today was particularly clear and sunny, and he sounded more disgruntled than usual as his Head Nurse seemed to do as she was told. The zzzziip of blinds unfolding was about as clear as the sound of her sighing, and one could even picture her rolling her eyes as she exited the room.

"...Anyway!" the Head Doctor continued, obviously trying very hard to keep up the cheerful charade. "Sorry about that – ah, bad night, you see. In any case, our regular rounds of therapy for selected patients will continue today, but first... breakfast! Today, we will be serving English muffin sandwiches with fried egg, cheese, sausage, and... well, whatever else you put on it. Er – for sides, we have tater tots, silver dollar pancakes, and our usual salad and fruit options. Our drink assortment is the usual kind too – orange juice, milk, water... the works and all that!"

He seemed to realize he was being a bit more disjointed than usual. He cleared his throat.

"In any case, I hope you enjoy it. I'll be speaking to you again soon!"

The intercom clicked off.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post.

Have your character wake up in a random room as we don't have roommates sorted out yet. Putting M??/F?? in the subject line is fine. ]