[From here.]

This hallway seemed to be clear, too. Not many patients were out, it seemed--though he didn't have any basis for comparison in his own hallway at least. He hadn't been out of his room and loitering in the larger hallway before.

The ensign stopped and pulled out the page he'd scrawled a map of the patient blocks on. He shone his light on it, oriented himself, and decided that the best method to continue would be directly down, around Commander Spock's block, and to the door. He frowned a little--whatever civil engineer had designed this building, he wanted to talk to them about the possibility of not making it impossible to travel between the two sections of blocks. This was ridiculous--someone could die walking around in the dark for ages on end like this.

After finishing his meal, decided talking to his (still in denial) roommate wasn't going to do him much good, and turned to journal in his desk. He figured, if it was so helpful talking to other recovering patients, he could try some self-therapy by just writing about his home and family.

As he was writing, he was too engrossed in his thoughts to pay attention to his roommate. It felt better, thinking about his family, at first. But trying to describe the shooting, how he tried to push away Rick and how he probably screwed it all up beyond repair. He felt that pain again, knowing he'd ended someone's life. And in the metaphorical sense, his own. He also felt the need for those feelings to just go away.

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to bring all this back up, but wasn't that how people were supposed to get better? By facing their issues? What if he just wasn't strong enough, and retreated into that other personality again?

He stopped writing mid-word when the lights went off and the PA system came on again. There was something really creepy, but familiar about the doctor's tone. The door unlocked with a distinctive click.

The intercom's jingle signaled yet another announcement.

"And our excellent behavior continues! Well, I am extremely impressed indeed!

"In any case, it's time to stop our socializing, unfortunately, and for the patients to return to their quarters for dinner. Be aware that new roommates have been assigned due to our influx of new patients and discharged old ones, so please be hospitable should you find yourself with someone new!

"As for dinner itself: tonight, we'll be serving shrimp and vegetable tempura along with delicious chicken teriyaki. Yum, yum, yum! As sides, we will also be serving boiled, salted soybeans, rice, and of course the appropriate soy and tempura sauces. Our regular assorted drinks and vegetarian substitutes are also available.

"I hope you enjoy your meal!"

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 new room assignments here. ]

[From here.]

As expected, the next hall was just as dark as the last, but Sync didn't bother to waste any time just loitering around. Following the same idea as last time, the God-General kept close to the wall, using his memory to lead himself across with little effort.

He found what he was looking for in no time, pushing open the door and sliding through the crack into the larger hallway.

[To here.]

Once again, it was Nurse Lydia who took over the daily announcements just after the jingle came on. She didn't seem to waste any time and launched right in.

"Hello, everyone. Dr. Landel will be taking over for the last announcement of the day, but for now, I will continue in his stead. Presently, our nurses will escort you to your rooms, where dinner will be served. Tonight, the menu consists of herb chicken, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and carrots. Dessert is a brownie."

After one of her conspicuous pauses, she added:

"A double-fudge brownie."

It seemed as if someone had been coaching her from the background. At any rate, she stiffly finished the announcement with: "The Head Doctor will speak with you soon."

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. SOME ROOM ASSIGNMENTS HAVE BEEN CHANGED IN LIEU OF DROPS, so please double-check on your character's assignment 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]

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. ]

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]

I.R.I.S. here again, and we continue to hope that you are enjoying your temporary stay at Landel's Institute! We hope that our staff have proved adequate for your needs so far, and we are now ready to showcase an uncommon – but vital – aspect of the lives of our future patients. Once every week, we will allow 'visitors' from the outside world to interact with our community and assuage any fears our patients may have. Perfectly tailored for each individual, these visitors will in fact be graduates of the very program that you are surveying now, and a testament to how the methods of Landel's Institute will truly usher in a revolution in the Next-Wave programs.

In order to allow you to see the quality of our work with your own eyes, we have arranged for a handful of our original test subjects to return and show you how profoundly they've been re-educated in such a short span of time. We hope that you are satisfied with what you find, and as always, direct any questions you may have to your console.

Thank you!

Once again, the nurses went about ushering assigned patients into the two waiting rooms as if Martin Landel was announcing with his same old shtick. Non-assigned patients were allowed to remain in the same public room of their choice or to move to a new one.