When Momo left Hitsugaya's side, she felt both relieved to be away from him and disappointed that the nurses had separated them. Either way, she felt like she was suffocating, that she had too much building in her mind with all this on top of the message she'd been given by the undead knight on that rooftop the night before. There was only one way for Momo to relieve the pressure.

After leaving a note on the board for Senna, Momo headed into the Arts & Crafts room. She was still in a lot of pain, but Hitsugaya's healing, though minor, did make it much less painful to hold things. Taking all of the special markers, she stood before the large white board and uncapped the lightest of the colors - yellow.

Save thyself.

Those words would echo in Momo's mind for a very long time. She had much to thank the knight for, the least of which was leaving her right arm relatively undamaged. She needed it for many things, being her primary hand, but right now she needed it for one thing.

Momo began to draw.

[reserved for Senna]

Sam frowned when he heard the intercom message. That didn't sound right. He'd gathered from his conversation with Sen that everybody in the institute was sane, but that the staff were trying to convince them they were mental patients for some nefarious purpose. So why that announcement? If Sam knew anything about brainwashing, he knew that it was a bad idea to announce it to the brainwashees. Good thing he was immune to...

"Oh no," mumbled Sam, feeling the top of his head. He wasn't wearing his hat, and if he wasn't wearing his hat, he wasn't immune to mind control. His mind was totally open to whatever insidious brain... control... things this place planned to inflict on him.

They seemed to be leaving him alone for now, though, so he headed back into the Sun Room and inspected the bulletin board, which was very hard to miss now that he was looking for it. It was plastered with messages, some signed with strange aliases, and some babbling about zombies.

Sam read the messages closely, engrossed. The biggest thing he'd learned about solving cases these days was that it was important to read everything. Talk to everyone too, but that could wait. Even that short conversation with Sen had taken all of brunch.

[for Scott Pilgrim]

Luffy was in good spirits by the time evening rolled around. There was nothing like some music to liven up the day! Then again, who'd ever heard of a pirate who didn't like music? It was the main reason he'd been hoping for a musician ever since he'd managed to get a ship of his own. If his musician position hadn't already been filled, Luffy might have asked that guy with the guitar to join up with him. But Brook was everything Luffy could have asked for and more, so he didn't think on that for long.

Actually, he had to hand it to his future self for being lucky enough to run into such an awesome guy like Brook and pouncing on the opportunity. If Luffy could, he'd shake his own hand, or slap himself on the back, or something. Obviously a big piece of meat was in order. Not that there wasn't an occasion when meat wasn't a great idea, of course!

It hadn't been too hard to get directions to the nearest restaurant. The way was a straight shot from the shop he'd been at earlier, and as tempting as it'd been to wander down one of the other streets, the call of food was a strong one for Luffy. Thankfully, it didn't take him long to finally reach Twin Pines -- a name he vaguely remembered hearing during his last two trips here. Now that he thought of it, wasn't he supposed to get something to eat here with Nami that day they'd pulled a heist at the hardware store?

Not for the first time, he wondered where Nami and the others had gotten off to. He trusted them enough to take care of themselves, but it was still strange the way some of his nakama drifted in and out of this place.

The aroma of delicious food pulled him out of his thoughts once he stepped into the restaurant. Someone seated him in one of the booths, and Luffy wasted no time in picking up a menu to look over. Oh man, everything looked so good!

Godot versus the coffee pot, round seven.

The prosecutor felt more like himself with every sip, and by the third pot, he'd began giving advice to the waitress on just how to prepare each new carafe. She'd been resistant at first, asking if she should bring out the coffeemaker for his personal use (and then explaining it had been a joke when he told her he wouldn't mind cutting out the middleman). Now, he sat relaxed in his side of the booth, eyes closed, breathing in the vapors of the first new mug of this brew. Even from the same blend, the final products had subtle differences in character. Was it a heavy hand that poured the grounds into the filter? Had the water gotten just a degree colder since the last time the machine was used?

Now that he'd been able to calm the cravings, Godot enjoyed picking apart the subtleties. It was a passion few understood, and even fewer dared to master. But producing fine coffee was nothing short of an art, and he intended to be the Da Vinci of his time. Certainly there were other ways he could be spending his time in the town, trying to explore or arm himself, trying to find those illusive answers. But that sort of work could be left to people like the Wild Filly; Godot would feel no great loss if she drove herself to insanity by refusing to slow her pace.

Godot knew better. He knew his limits. And he knew he could only avoid the work until the coffee ran out.

Ha! He really had slept for far too long. Now he was trying to hold on to a pleasant dream in the middle of the day.


[For Edgeworth]

Yuffie took the long way around, practically making it a tour of the entire town. She collared--not literally, since the nurses would've thrown fits--a few random citizens along the way, asked as many inconspicuous sounding questions as possible, and then moved on. Wash, rinse, repeat. Sneaking a few covert glimpses into stores and windows confirmed what she'd been talking about with Sam earlier; no dates, no explicitly mentioned locations outside of the town itself… how weird was that? Even the most insular of towns back on Gaia would've coughed up some kind of connection with the outside world.

It was almost like a living ghost town.

Well, maybe she was just thinking too hard. Maybe she was throwing shuriken too hard at the wrong target. Back home, she had a concrete frame of reference. Here, she couldn't take anything for granted; she had no local or international knowledge whatsoever. All she could try to do was get a profile of the immediate area and build it up and out from there. Theories were already budding, popping up like weeds hit by Quadra-Haste, but without facts to back them up, theories were like sand in a desert.

Not that she didn't want to share those theories, sand or not. She did. A lot.

Once she'd developed a viable mental map of the place (as viable as she was gonna get given the time constraints), Yuffie swung back around and jogged back to North Street. From there, she took the alley; a quick right turn; slow to a trot, and there. Her cheeks were tinged pink from the cold winter air, and they stung as she poked her head in through the door.

Okay, so maybe she was a little early after all. That was cool. Very cool. She had some time to set things up, to pretend that she wasn't hideously under prepared for this lunch date. Stepping into the warmth, Yuffie surreptitiously cased the place out as she headed to a table. Homey, in a way that almost reminded her of some of the up-and-coming rural towns. Automatically seeking out one of the more strategic seats--one with a good view of the rest of the restaurant, and one that didn't leave her totally vulnerable to mutant chairs or murderous sandwiches--she made herself comfortable, whipped out a few crumpled pieces of paper and a pen, and began to jot down her findings.

[Closed to Edgeworth.]

Before anyone could come to any decisions for their next move, the room suddenly filled with a thick fog. Faster than he could realize what was happening, it had filled up the entire room and swallowed every single one of his friends. Then there was that undeniable stench of iron, blood and... he last remembered taking a step back and feeling that slippery skid and the realization of what that was. By the time he yelled, he was sitting straight up in his bed like he'd bolted awake. Like it'd been nothing more than a bad dream. ...What the hell just happened?!

"Oh! Good morning!" The nearby voice made him yelp with a half squeak-like noise. Oh, for hell's sake. It was one of those freaking nurses again. She was beaming at him like nothing had happened at all. Before he could so much as ask one question, the hag started blathering real fast about some field trip and buses and getting changed and hurrying up before everyone left without him and... OH MY GOD, WHAT WAS SHE DOING?! She was grabbing at his shirt like she was about to start helping him get dressed (or undressed in this case).

He flailed in a desperate attempt to get away from her and yelled his consent to go along if she would get out and let him change HIMSELF. What was the matter with her?! Thankfully, she left but told him to hurry. Hell if he knew what she'd do if he took too long. So for the sake of not getting freaking stripped, he quickly changed into the clothes she'd left on the bed. Clothes being the ugliest looking white-and-black track pants he'd ever seen and a bright blue sweatshirt with a cute little penguin design on the front. This was some kind of joke, right? ...Not to say the penguin wasn't cute or anything but there was no way, no way, he was wearing something like this in public.

But the nurse had burst right in again, and before Kanji could offer much protest, he was being pulled down the hallways and through the doors of the bus. He'd yelled some things her way, but she totally wasn't listening at all. By the time they stopped, he was standing at the front of the bus with a paper bag and the nurse had run off to cart another poor sap along. Frickin' PERFECT. For the sake of not standing up there like some kind of zoo animal for everyone to stare at, he plopped himself into one of the seats by the front and sighed in complete exasperation.

[Free. No limit.]

[from here]

Junpei eased the door open and peered inside. No movement that he could see, so he lead the way inside. For some reason, he expected the women's bathroom to look different then the men's. Well, aside from the obvious lack of urinals.

"So how much did we need to get?"

[from here.]

Nathan moved quickly through the doors and into the Sun Room, pausing for a moment to stare up at the ceiling, through the windows to the sky beyond. The sky was clear, with bright stars -- not a sight Nathan necessarily expected to see in New Jersey, considering the pollution in the air. He'd never seen a lot of stars in Manhattan -- one had to go further upstate to really appreciate the sky.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been standing there, staring up through the windowed ceiling before he finally turned his gaze towards the large bulletin board he'd briefly talked to someone on earlier that day. It was full of tacked-on messages with hundreds of different scrawls -- Nathan even recognized a few different languages, though none he actually spoke. Having nothing to write himself, he stepped away, turning his gaze towards the back of the room. Through those doors was the cafeteria -- and he was pretty sure that was where he needed to be.

Still... this room felt so quiet and peaceful, and Nathan lingered for a moment, leaning against the wall beside the bulletin board, his gaze shifting back onto the sky above.

[to here.]

[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.

Franziska did not trust her roommate, which was just fine with her, since it seemed that Maki Shouko did not trust Franziska either. There was something about her protective nature that brought out the worst in Franziska's investigative nature. Pulling the truth from Maki Shouko would have to wait, however, until Franzika was better armed with evidence and proof that she was, in fact, something more than a mere unemployed, ex-psychologist homemaker. Taking her journal, her flashlight and her radio, Franziska made a note of the night's announcement and then headed outside.

Only to find it entirely blacked out.

So this was the night that people spoke of with such terror? A little bit of dark wasn't going to kill anyone. Pathetic. Flicking on her flashlight, she noted that the beam was unusually weak against the dark and scoffed. Giving the inmates sub-par equipment would need to be added onto the list of complaints when she lodged her class action suit against Martin Landel.

Heading down the hall, Franziska recalled the map she'd seen in her head. She needed to go and find the second floor, get to the patient possessions room, retrieve her whip and then she'd take this place by storm.

[to here]

[from here]

A quick scan showed no meatbags within view, although contrary to what many humans stupidly believed, infrared radiation could not be detected through opaque objects. Obviously. But really, HK was far too focused on the most immediately obvious pipes in the wall under the sinks. An experimental tug at the fixture showed that the pipes were willing to move, but it would take some more forceful persuasion.

A hard kick was therefore applied, thankfully remembering which parts of the foot were most painful and easily snapped clean in half. The pipe moved more, and quite a bit of... possibly water began leaking out. Well, it might have once been water, before it had passed through the digestive system of some hellish monster. "Exclamation: Ewwww," was all HK had to say on the matter, before continuing to try and get the pipe to release from the wall while holding his breath.

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. ]

Jiraiya had been right about the bulletin, at least. Yousuke guessed that meant he'd probably have to take some of the other things he'd said a bit more seriously as well. Like the monsters at night.

Hopefully his questions would all be answered when he met up with Kanji and Naoto. (At least he was pretty sure it was Naoto. No one else from their group spoke like a textbook.)

He was led out to the courtyard to mingle, saved from the showers due to his newbness, it seemed. Should he be grateful? If they expected him to play catch with someone, they were going to be disappointed. (Though if they got an actual game of soccer going that might be another story...) Mostly, he just wanted to find a familiar face as soon as possible, despite the promised meeting later.

[closed to his bff Adachi]

Just as von Karma started to enter the doorway leading to the Courtyard to look around for anyone remotely resembling his daughter, that pretentious lunatic's voice rang out over the Intercom, heralding the approach of lunch time. Right away, the damned nurse practically dragged him back into the cafeteria and towards the serving tables, telling him in that cloyingly cheerful tone that he could get his fresh air after he had had his meal. What rotten timing!

His mood worsened as he saw what was on those tables. "Nurse! This is the same greasy, disgusting, perfect-artery-ruining swill that was offered for lunch the last time I was in here! Does this Institute serve nothing else? How is any of this healthy for someone whom you claim has recently suffered from a stroke?!"

"Why, you're right, Mr. Fuchs! Here, I'll fix you a nice, big, healthy salad." Before he could protest that he wasn't hungry anyway, the smiling nurse loaded a heap of greens and some fruits onto a plate for him. Then she led him to one of the tables and seated him there. "Now, be a good man and finish all of that. You will do that just for me, won't you?"

The look he shot her in response indicated that he would never do anything "just for her." Certainly, not consuming this entire mountain of lettuce and carrots. As much as he approved of salads, the portion she served him was nothing short of ludicrous. Glaring at her in silence, he made no pretense of even starting in on this ridiculous travesty of a meal. Finally, she seemed to take the hint, excusing herself to attend to the other patients... but not without admonishing him that his "plate had better be clean" by the time she returned to take him to the Courtyard.

As she left him, von Karma looked all around him to see whether Franziska had come into the cafeteria yet. Unfortunately, as he had already arranged to meet his former roommate at this time, all he could do for now was to attempt to visually confirm her presence in this hellhole. As much as he hoped that the author of the replies to this S.T.'s note was nothing more than an impostor -- in which case, he would make that person pay for brazenly impersonating his daughter -- he was not entirely certain of that right now.

In the meantime, he had other practical matters to attend to. He still needed to speak to Javert to find out what had truly happened during the time he was unconscious. As he surreptitiously scanned the stream of arriving patients for the face of his daughter -- or those of his enemies -- he patiently awaited Javert's arrival, hoping that the man could still recognize him after all this time.

[Closed to Javert]

Utena was very, very glad that the patients were finally being allowed to go to the showers. Even for a girl more used to sweating than many in her gender, two days without a shower was definitely enough to make her feel stickier and stinkier than she preferred to be. Especially after all the running around and tearing apart of rooms she, Celes and Edward had done the night before.

I really hope those rooms magically turned clean this morning or something, like every other place in here seems to, Utena thought at that, hoping that no patients had awoken to the rather desperate-looking remains of a break-and-enter.

Taking a wash towel from one of the baskets, Utena headed for a free showerhead.

[Free. Limit: Any]

Haseo's steps were heavy with the weight of righteous anger as he was escorted into the Sun Room, his posture so sullen and reluctant you could almost hear the nostalgic cry of an electric guitar. He was seething, and though perhaps it was a bit harder to be intimidating while wearing the uniform of an insane asylum and flanked by a bored-looking orderly, it was not for lack of trying.

Unfortunately, his nurse seemed unaffected by the act, and even with the cloud of failing to keep "Kai" away from "Peyton" hanging over her, remained determinedly cheerful. She merely said something about receiving a lecture later on, ignored his retorts, and assured him that it would be alright even though his internet stalker was in the same building. For the most part, Haseo tuned her babbling out after that, dismissing it as hopeless.

"...and usually this would be the time children would be taking showers, but you don't have to worry about that right now. Now then, le--"

"Wait. What?"

"Oh, all the children seventeen or under are separated right now while the adults go to the courtyard..."

"Hey, I'm not a kid you old--!"

"Oh of course you aren't dear, but you're not eighteen yet either, now are you?"

Haseo resisted the urge to do something rash, literally biting his tongue to keep quiet. But upon having the bulletin board pointed out to him, he shrugged off his anger for the most part and headed that way, fully intending to get more answers than he'd had time to receive during breakfast.

Well... at least Endrance is in another shower group, he thought, Thank god.

[Closed to Tsukasa, for now!]

Endrance turned his head to look at the intercom, giving it a look that would wither an entire rose garden in an instant. He would never get used to ending up in his room again from somewhere else in the Institute.

He brushed his bangs out of his eyes, not sitting up just yet. He could tell already that his torso had been heavily bandaged, even more so than it had been the night before. The cuts on his arms were covered with fresh bandages, and the one on his cheek seemed to no longer be there at all.

Endrance had been expecting to wake up in a lot of pain, but even that seemed numbed. "They must have given me something," he murmured quietly, as he slowly sat up.

At that moment, his nurse came to get him, pushing a wheelchair along with her. "Peyton, dear, good morning. I've come to take you to breakfast, so..." He shook his head. "I'm fine. There's no need for that...I can walk perfectly well."

She sighed. Well, if he insisted, she wasn't going to stop him. She motioned for an orderly to take the chair away, and walked him to the cafeteria. Once they had gotten there, she pointed him toward a seat, then set a full tray of pancakes covered with syrup, a bowl of fruit, and a glass of orange juice in front of him. "Now eat all of that, Peyton, or else you won't be strong enough to keep walking like that."

He glared at her back as she walked away, then stopped suddenly. There was that faint pulse he'd felt the night before...it was exactly the same.

And so he completely ignored his food in favor of staring at the cafeteria doors, looking at every patient that came in.

[thread will be closed to Haseo. ♥]

Skuld had slept through dinner, so Ururu did her very best to be quiet, even if she didn't like it much. It was harder not to have someone to talk to, especially when Fai-san and Kurogane were fighting on the bulletin again, and she still hadn't heard from Orihime or Shiki. That was why, when the doors opened, the girl was quick to head out. With Skuld still asleep, Ururu didn't feel too bad leaving the other girl on her own. Right now, it was important that she get to F3 before Orihime or Shiki had the chance to leave--especially if they were still sick.

[To here]

It was good to get outside; the Sun Room was nice, but Hokuto missed really being outdoors. She was restless, wanting to do something to shake off all the excess energy she had, but that would have to wait.

Finding a place to sit near the doors, she watched the people coming through them. This wasn't going to be fun for either of them, but she needed to talk to Momo.

[Fukutaichou!]

*hobble wobble*

"Damn that SCOURGE!" Starscream cried out, the slowly-filling cafeteria producing a jarring echo of his raspy voice. His limping, already bad enough from not knowing how to properly use his crutches, was now exacerbated from the injuries he'd received the shift prior. Despite the gauges in his non-casted leg so lovingly provided by the aforementioned 'patient', Starscream could still put some weight on it, but not so much that he could really stop and rest; relieving the soreness under his arms was out of the question. The nurse that walked behind him with his tray, already upset at having to deal with yet another troublesome inmate, was growing rather impatient as his charge slowly made his way down the food line.

"Just...give me a standard serving of the aquatic creature's flesh, some of those fried potato slices, two bananas, and three bottles of juice," Starscream sighed, his anger from just a moment ago assuaged by the physical exertion needed to move the way he did. "I'm going to sit down here...bring it to me when you're done."

He was hardly surprised to find that one of the bananas was completely bruised along its inner curve, or that the handful of 'chips' on his plate were all on the small side. Tired and frustrated as he was, however, he could barely muster a 'damned flesh-creature' before moving his fingers to the plate, picking one of the longer 'chips' and shoving it into his mouth listlessly.

There was an unusually high concentration of sodium chloride crystals on it. Of COURSE.

[For Tony Stark]