It was time. Once the nighttime announcements began, Anise grabbed her flashlight, flicked it on, and...

Huh. It wouldn't turn on. She pushed the switch up and down and shook the device, but it didn't so much as flicker. Was it broken? She'd noticed its light seemed a little weaker than usual the previous night... but she wasn't really sure what that meant. Not knowing what else to do with it, she shoved it into a drawer. A flashlight that couldn't light up wasn't worth carrying around, and she didn't have time to ponder how to fix it.

When she opened the drawer, a glint of something sharp and shiny caught her eye. The shard of glass she picked up two weeks ago, during the ambush on the buses. Anise had grabbed it just to have something that could potentially be used as a weapon, but thankfully it never came to that. Now, though...

Anise pulled Tokunaga off of her back and stuck the long, triangular shard into the pouch on the doll's back. It didn't completely fit, and one point stuck out a little, but that was fine. It wasn't likely that anyone would be looking at it, and it was clear anyway. Plus, it would be easier to pull it out if it wasn't enclosed completely.

It wasn't much of a weapon, and Anise doubted she'd have a chance to retrieve it if she ended up in a struggle with Sync, but it was better than nothing.

The doll went back over her shoulders, and the girl picked up her main weapon: a meat tenderizer. Before she had time to calm her nerves and collect her thoughts, the Head Doctor finished his creepy announcements and the door unlocked. The instant she heard the click, Anise bolted out of the room and down the hallway.

[to here]

That had been a very frustrating shower. For many reasons. At least Raine was going to at least look at Forte. Hopefully, she'll actually heal him. The showers had also succeeded in making the ninja feel like a pervert. A mild one, but still... It was as if Yukari had picked that spot in the showers because she knew the ninja could easily see her.

Ugh! Damn youkai.

Squirreling herself away in a corner of the cafeteria, Sheena finger combed her wet hair before pulling it back with the bright red ribbon. She so needed her own hair ribbon back. She was attempting to formulate her plan of acquisition - she was ninja after all - as people started trickling into the room. The plan was put on pause, though, when her stomach rumbled.

Food now - plan later.

[Closed to Haseo and Endrance]

Yuffie had died.

No, really. Seriously. She had actually died. Bleeding all over the place, making a horrid, sticky mess and scaring the hell out of Suzaku; she remembered it clearly. Kind of. Sort of. Through the blood loss, the pain, and the visions. Through Aerith's voice whispering in her ear, Cloud's stricken eyes, and her own panic. As bad nights went, it had been Bad, capital B and all the trimmings, and oh, god. She sat, trembling on the edge of her bed, eyes closed and hands pressed hard over her racing heart. The by-play between Landel—Landel!—and Lydia barely even sunk in. There was nothing in the whole world, any world, that could prepare you for something like…

Had it all been some kind of hallucination?

Had she imagined the whole thing?

No… She didn't think so. Nightmarish or not, Yuffie knew reality. But if it had been real, how was she alive now? That kind of pain wasn't something you could just cook up, was it? She thought about it all the way to the cafeteria, drifting behind her nurse without focus or intent. Maybe if she tried to stay clinical, tried to step back… But she'd never been good at that when things got personal. And every time she closed her eyes or blinked, she swore that the scenes played back to her, like an overused commercial on a crappy channel on a crappy TV, in a run-down dump of an inn that smelled like mothballs and yesterday's breakfast.

The scent of blood and damp, rotted wood clogged her nose. Disgusted, Yuffie shoved her bowl of cereal—handed to her by a clucking Plucky—off to the side so that she could melt into her chair, palm heels scrubbing against her eyes. Too much. This was… Too much. She couldn't even paste a plastic smile on her face to make herself feel better. Her usual shield, the white noise of inane babble that could filter out almost any crisis, was in tatters all around her. Five minutes, she gave herself.

Five minutes (not) to think, five minutes to get her act together, because there was no way she could let herself shatter here. No way…

[Closed to Sheena]

[in F12]

Momo had almost considered not changing into her uniform given how injured she was, but she grit her teeth and slipped the black fabric on, feeling instantly more comfortable than she had before. Still, the thick bandaging on her left arm made it impossible to attach her vice captain's badge, so she set it inside her desk drawer for safe keeping.

Now, all she had to do was wait for Reinforce to arrive. Sitting on her bed, her own sword and a sheet-wrapped bundle sitting on the bed beside her, Momo carefully unwrapped the gauze around her hands, examining the burns and letting her thoughts drift back to the previous night.

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. ]

The air was beginning to cool as the day drew on, but Allelujah was content to remain outside for the moment despite the chill. The sun was beginning to sink, although it was still bright and after Yukito left he stretched back out on the grass, closing his eyes and looking for all the world like he was going to sleep. Maybe he would. Even super soldiers couldn't last forever on stolen cat naps after dinner and whatever he could manage during the day. He yawned widely, glancing over towards the building for a moment before turning steadfastly away from it. Today he just didn't even want to look at the hated place.

He should start thinking of a plan for that night. Badou seemed like he might be occupied, although Allelujah could always ask to come along he supposed. Finding a more substantial weapon would be a good use of his time too. Perhaps he'd finally head upstairs to the fabled possessions room after failing to get there the other night.

He grimaced as he felt the pain flare in his hand as he leaned on it awkwardly.

Maybe something less dangerous would be an idea considering the bites and the still healing acid burns, although that was the trouble. What did you do in a place like this that wasn't dangerous?

[For Lockon]

The intercom message was unnerving. Again with this I.R.I.S. thing, and some nonsense about guests and tours. What the hell was going on? Was the head doctor really dead? That seemed to be the theory, but Asch couldn't be sure. He hadn't thought this place could get any nuttier, but apparently, it could.

Asch wasn't sure he even felt like eating, but the nurse insisted. So he got his tray of food and sat in the corner of the cafeteria, away from the other patients. He was well aware that this particular strategy was flawed, of course, as it had yet to provide him with anything resembling peace and quiet.

He hoped against hope, though, that he wouldn't be bothered. That annoying guy that used to room with the replica had no reason to come and bother him, and he'd spoken to Claude yesterday. He knew that the man from the night before - Apollo, that was what he'd written on the bulletin board - wanted to repay him somehow, but that wasn't exactly going to happen at a lunch table.

He reminded himself that he'd have to take the kitchen shears to Alfred to exchange for the meat cleaver, once night fell. The cleaver wasn't his first choice of weapon, but it beat the hell out of stabbing things with shears.

He took a drink of his juice and sighed. Maybe he'd get in contact with ZEX regarding night shift; he wasn't sure he wanted to venture out alone.

[Guy]

And just like that, the disorienting feeling of blacking out just to wake up in an unfamiliar bed came again. Alkaid had wondered if it would - everything about last night had been different, all the way from the zombies to the eerie emptiness of the Institute to the strange broadcast at the end of the night. Had the Head Doctor been shot? Damn, someone had gotten to it before her. And who was the voice at the end there? It was like she'd been allowed access to some kind of strange mystery that she could not understand, one that had been going on for a long time before she had arrived and would be going on for quite a while in the future, after she was gone. Had these strange sets of circumstances been bugs in this place's programming? Who could say?

The morning's intercom greeting was strange, as well. Federal training whatsit? It didn't seem like this happened very often, from the sound of it, but so much had happened since the last day she remembered that the former Demon Palace Emperor was ready to take pretty much anything at face value.

The room she woke up in was still empty. Wondering where to stick the half-cracked bat that she'd picked up last night, she shoved it under the mattress hastily when she heard footsteps in the hall.

The stupid nurse was the same as ever, though. Some things never changed. "Ahh, good morning, Eileen. It's so nice to see you awake."

Alkaid rolled her eyes at the nurse's chuckle, and shook her head. She didn't care that the NPC thought it was nice, she just wanted to see the rest of the institute already.. see what had changed! "Yeah, it's fantastic. Whatever! Just take me where I'm going and be done with it!"

It was just then that she realized that she was not wanting to devour the flesh of the nurse in front of her. And that the pain on her arm had kind of abated - she couldn't see through the thick bandages they had covered her arm with, but she wondered if her skin was still rotting off like a zombie. Had they somehow cured her infection overnight? Or was the nurse not human, like Alkaid had always thought?

There was only one thing for it: she had to go somewhere else.

"Chapel, sun room, or cafeteria, then?"

"Does it look like I care?"

The nurse sighed, then started walking Alkaid down the hall, up the stairs, and down another hall to the chapel. No one here yet, huh? That was weird. She couldn't imagine that no one else'd show up, but who could say? This place had been turned on its ass.

The chapel was empty so far, and kind of nondescript. She shooed the nurse away, and stood in the middle of the space between the pews, standing akimbo. What would happen today? What would she learn about herself... her situation? How long had she been sleeping? Was she really still going freaking undead, or had that been somehow taken care of?

All this would come to light really soon. She hoped. Geez, too many mysteries!!

[unwittingly awaiting Haseo]

S.T. was bored. Bored and feeling useless. He'd stomped around town, looking for a distraction from his own self-pitying funk, as the light had waned. Boredom and feigned anticipation had given way to dread. He'd circled back around to the grocery to see if there was anything less useless on the bulletin. No dice.

Then it happened. Everything changed, without the comfort of a closed door and an unchanging dormitory room. Usually it was like an elevator with a dinner service -- if the doors open on the same sight as you left, either it's a crap elevator or you're in a stockbroker's office tower. And if it were the latter, the food would need more unpronounceable French things.

This had no frame, no steady point of reference. The smell of rotting fruit, esters and alcohol, hit him first. Papers curled and became brittle. The ambient temperature dropped at least five degrees.

It was night, and the closest thing he had to a weapon was a ballpoint pen and a rack of rotting tomatoes. At least he hoped the tomatoes were on his side.

[for Spider Jerusalem, open to threadcrashing once we get going]

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.

Everything seemed to be perfectly fine.

After calming Dahlia down and agreeing to hide the spice bottle they had decided to spend the rest of their time in that store. It didn't really matter where they went; he certainly didn't need the protection of some manmade weapon and if the redhead wanted to waste this opportunity then so be it. And so he nestled himself back into his mask, smiling and striking up a lighthearted conversation whenever Dahlia spoke.

While it seemed odd that they were still in town even as the sun was setting Sync didn't bother to pay much attention. He knew well enough that they'd be rounded up eventually, so there was no need to speed up the inevitable.

And then it happened.

The God-General glanced up the moment he sensed something strange, and yet even he wasn't prepared for what he was about to witness. The store was suddenly decaying right before his eyes; the once clean space was now rusted and filthy, and the structure creaked as if the entire building had been rotting for decades.

However, what struck Sync the most was not the wilted appearance of the building, but the inhabitants that were lingering inside the store as well. The smell of rotten flesh was unmistakable and familiar, but the fact that it came so suddenly was enough to turn his stomach. It seemed as if everyone around them was caught in this spell, their heavy feet shuffling towards them while their empty groans filled the air.

Sync finally took a step back, eyes wide with shock from the unexpected transformation. He almost didn't notice one of the creatures approaching him from the side, but he immediately reacted the moment it lunged at him, dodging off to the side before grabbing a fistful of hair and slamming its head down into the counter.

"W-what the hell is this?!" Sync roared, anger evident in his voice.

Of all the places Jaime thought he might be hanging out around town, a grocery store ranked pretty low on the list. But seeing as it was the only place with a noticeboard - one that other people from the Institute were already putting to use, he noticed with a wry smile - and any way of getting in touch with others anonymously or otherwise, he didn't really have that much of a choice.

The morning had passed pretty quickly, all things considered. After the buses had arrived, Jaime had accepted his book of coupons and then taken a look around town, but there hadn't been any sign of pay phones or anything else he could use to try and get a message out, so that idea had fallen flat pretty early on. Maybe if the Scarab had been able to do anything during the day he might have tried hijacking a phone line, but as it was? Yeah, he was pretty much stuck.

"We could try hot wiring a car," he mused to himself, leaning against a wall close enough to the noticeboard to keep an eye on it but not enough to be that suspicious. Or at least that was what he was hoping for anyway. "But I'm not sure if that would work so well. Besides, we don't even know if there's anything like the JLA or anything here at all that could help us. It'd be better to try and find out what they did to you first. See if we can undo it then go from there."

[for Daphne]

After the way night had ended (Miku wasn't sure if they'd ever get the smell of charnel out of her clothes), and morning had returned with its clockwork weirdness. She was hurried onto the bus in her dark red long coat and the dark, knee-length, slightly full dress beneath it. It was surprisingly warm, Miku noted, but that could've just been her body lying to her legs, which were going to be undoubtedly chillier through the day. As always with these trips, her nurse had taken the opportunity to channel Little Red Riding Hood into her patient's life.

Oh, well, she didn't mind that much. It was just clothing.

Miku slid into a seat with her bag of breakfast and her camera in her pocket. She couldn't help shake the feeling of oncoming dread that had started with the end of the night's bleeding walls. Maybe she was just being silly, maybe she shouldn't listen to the alarm ringing in the back of her mind.

But still, she couldn't help but to wonder what it was leading to.

[Waiting for Peter]

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]

All praise to Leviathan, the Flower of Wutai was free!

Yuffie all but bolted away from the weirdo she'd shared her breakfast table with. She wanted to get to the courtyard as soon as possible, wanted to be free of the jolting disquiet brought on by Albedo's creepy grin, strange attitude, and his questions. If it hadn't been for the night before - and if he hadn't been one of the ones directly involved -- maybe it wouldn't have bothered her so much, but she was on edge. Couldn't quite work out what to think and what to feel. A breath of fresh air and the feel of grass under foot would hopefully fix that, or at least make it easier to deal with.

She spent the trip over bugging her nurse, as usual. And again as usual, she escaped from the woman as soon as she possibly could. "Like I'd ever cause trouble!" She called back to Miss Stuffy McNursey-pants, calling an end to their pseudo-argument about behaviour and safety. Grass tickled her palms as she cartwheeled across it. She breathed so deep that it almost made her dizzy, tumbling to a stop right by the edge of the pond, and stared up at the sky. Just this time last week, she'd met Sagara for the first time. It felt like months ago… Yuffie sat up sharply.

Now wasn't the time for nostalgia. Now was the time for the future, for getting her head on straight. The usual avoidance tactic just wasn't gonna cut it, kind of like how a butter knife would be useless in a battle against a Rampaging Syrup Monster from the depths of Carameltopia. This was going to require finesse. The Problem At Hand was trying to ninja her; she had to ninja it right back. Sneak up on it, grab it in her best headlock and hold on until it surrendered. Make it think it really was getting to her -- which it was -- and then… and then…

Push it down the No-Go trapdoor and pretend it never happened? No. She had to use this. Nobody could change the past, but the future… that was fixable. If her various victims didn't make it their missions in life to A - make her time hell or B - take their revenge in slightly more permanent ways, that was.

[Loose reserved for Guy. Limit: 4]

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. ♥]

[from here]

Harley clicked on her flashlight and checked back and forth as she usually did. All clear. Alright-e-o! She moved as quickly as she could down the hallway. No monsters and no other people yet. She knew that changed pretty quickly around here so best to get a move on.

[to here]

[from here]

As he got closer to the room, Teisel couldn't help but worry a little about the possibility of running into Van. Or rather, Van was probably worried about the possibility of running into him.

Yeah, that made more sense.