Matt had to bite his tongue hard to keep from insisting he would be perfectly comfortable in the library, really, and could he please stop being led around like freaking cattle? As the nurse drew him into the empty Sun Room, the answer to that seemed to be a resounding 'No'.

Great.

He was given the usual talk of 'be nice', 'maybe someone will come back and you'll have someone to talk to' and the strangely sincere 'we're getting a few books in braille, they just haven't arrived yet'. He was sure he believed that one, but it would be nice to not be singled out for a change.

Reminded him of grammar school actually.

What a coincidence, he hadn't been fond of grammar school either. Settling back on the seat he'd found himself in, the Daredevil closed his eyes and debated on the merits of a nap as he listened to the occasional person stop by and scribble something down before leaving. A message board or something? He'd have to ask someone about that.

(Free to any and all!)

What a singularly delightful evening he'd had. It was dampened, of course, by two things, but those were small things and he supposed he could overlook them for now. First was that his powers had still not returned. If he truly were on punishment as he thought, though, he couldn't very well expect those to come back. Second was that the little brat had gotten away and was likely gearing up to blow his cover. That was something a little more concerning, but he had a story he could use to sweep all that under the rug. Still, he'd gotten a beautiful box of scalpels out of the deal and even with the annoying pain of his skin being irritated by the drops of acid, he wasn't any worse for wear.

And just as he thought that, Grell woke up in his bed, disorientated as he had been the previous night, still cluthing the box of blades, but no longer in his own clothes. The indecency of it all! Honestly! To strip a lady when she was unconscious was just unheard of! Stupid future and its stupid lack of any sort of propriety. At least it seemed someone might be dead according to the last announcement. That brightened his day a bit.

Getting out of bed before Mr. Grumpyface did, he hid the box of scalpels in his desk and sighed. His old glasses were gone, replaced with the ruddy circular pair and his clothes had been all but ruined the night before. He doubted he could do much for them either, since he'd been the one to rip the sleeve off. Such a shame, but it had kept him from getting permanent scars on his arms.

It wasn't long before the nurse came and Grell once again put on his lovely little play for her. Confused, bumbling and asking for a hair tie, he was perplexed by the little round elastic thing he received in return, but used it anyway to put his hair back. Led into the cafeteria, Grell realized he was the first one and took a bit of breakfast before finding a seat.

[free]

[from here]

The second hallway was at least better lit than the first, due to the light from some others' flashlights. So it's not the Dark Hour. That still didn't provide much of an explanation as to where he had awakened, though.

He didn't recognize any of the passing silhouettes...until he caught sight of one that looked awfully familiar. Short person, with a spear. Akihiko was about to call out to ask whether it was Ken, but the door at the end of the hallway opened a moment later, and the figure stepped out and was gone before he could ask.

He turned and walked the length of the hallway, peering down each of the connected hallways. Most of them appeared identical to the one he had come from. That was a little reassuring, because it meant that this likely wasn't a labyrinth like Tartarus was.

With that, he walked over to the door, opening it and heading out.

[to here]

[From here.]

The corridors were silent aside from atmospheric noise and the occasional wisp of activity a far off. Ken continued on, finding no reason to linger.

[To here.]

Third time was the charm, as they said. Ken was not about let the old axiom fall by the wayside if he could help it. Alita may have sounded reasonable regarding his end of the bargain, but the child hated leaving things undone, especially after multiple tries and the addition of another request. Come Hell or high water, he had to retrieve his payment tonight. His ego depended on it.

A quick inventory check later, Ken flew out the door and down the hallway, the spear hovering menacingly over his shoulder.

[To here.]

[from here]

Another moment, another mandatory sweep of the light, and then she continued. The lack of knowing when the night would end ate at her.

[to here]

Miku hurried away from her new friends (and kitten) to the cafeteria. For some reason she was just terribly ravenous. Her nurse smiled, relieved that her patient had finally chose to eat something and wouldn't continue that backslide into poor health. She loaded the girl's plate with French toast and fruit, dusted the bread in powdered sugar and a bit of cherries in red-red syrup and sent the girl to sit.

"There we are, Alice, a nice healthy meal," she cooed, and patted Miku's head. Miku sighed, but carefully cut into her meal and started eating, keeping her eye out for Sousuke.

Rukia filed out of the bus with the other prisoners, shivering a little in the cool autumn air. She was a little irked that the nurses hadn't given her mittens on this trip. Forced to stuff her hands in to the pockets of her jeans, Rukia hunched her shoulders and wandered to the edge of the park before turning around to look for anyone she knew.

Nurses and orderlies were already milling about, supervising and watching the prisoners. Rukia's plan was to get a hold of something - anything - that she could use as a weapon when they returned to the Institute that night. It would be difficult with so many staff members around, but she was determined; the last thing she wanted was to be trapped on the buses again with no weapon.

Claude couldn't fight the sinking feeling in his stomach when he woke up. Nightshift was over, and they hadn't even made it into the basement. Man, how tough was that? Sometimes it seemed like the night could drag on and on, and when he actually needed the extra time, it went by too fast. It didn't make any sense.

Too bad he wouldn't have much to report to Ashton. But now the blond's curiosity was peaked, and he had to admit that he was pretty interested in finding out just what was under there. But first things first -- he needed a sword, because walking around there unprepared was probably one step short of suicide, really. The scars in his side were a stark reminder of what happened to people here who weren't ready to face the dangers.

Until that time, the Earthling had plenty of projects to keep him occupied. It really was too bad that they couldn't get anywhere, though. And when Ashton had finally let him borrow a sword, too...

The blond decided not to dwell on that for too long, especially once his nurse came to wake him up. She handed him the same set of clothes he'd worn for the last trip to Doyleton -- a dark, faded jacket, a blue, button-up shirt, some casual slacks, a brown paperboy cap, and a red scarf. He knew he'd have no problems staying warm today, and he didn't really look all that bad, but he kind of wished they'd given him a better pair of shoes than the over-sized sneakers that kind of flopped when he walked around.

As he exited his room, he caught sight of someone sleeping in the other bed, and while he'd never formally met his roommate before, Claude knew it wasn't Asch.

Once he'd boarded the bus, the blond didn't waste much time in finding a seat. There weren't many people here yet, so he opened up his sack and took a bite of his muffin. It was kind of sad how small the portions were for today's breakfast, but he was an adult, so he wouldn't complain about it. At least Landel bothered to feed them at all.

((For Sync, I believe?))

The whole not-bursting-into-flame thing was still a perk Angel could get used to. He ended up sitting just beneath a tree by a patch of sunlight, hoping maybe he'd go undisturbed just this once. The courtyard was more relaxing during the day, with its distinct lack of hyenas.

Journal on his lap, he plucked a blade of grass between his fingers. It was nice. He didn't think he'd ever just sat on the grass for no apparent reason before. Except for the couple of dates he'd ended up having with Buffy in the cemetery, but those always got interrupted by the undead.

The fact that he sort of counted those dates, anyway, probably said a lot.

[for Harley :D]

If he didn't know better, he'd say that the intercom announcements were playing mind games tonight, more than usual.

Clark left his room apprehensive. Last night hadn't gone well; he'd probably nearly died from wounds that shouldn't have even been possible and, to make it worse, Alkaid and Badou and Claire had gotten hurt trying to help him. And what was with the intercom announcement? It sounded like Landels had gotten hacked and then there was something about the security system. Was it possible to leave? Or was it a glitch, something that could make the security system even more deadly? Clark didn't know, but he planned to find out.

Gripping his flashlight in one hand, he stepped outside.

here]

Renamon blinked, and suddenly she was laying flat in the bed she had originally woke up in. The timing was impeccable, accenting Orihime's explanation perfectly. She just hoped that she hadn't freaked the girl out with her little disappearing act. She quickly shifted out of bed, and grabbed the journal she had wrote notes in last night, and jotted down another page. No sooner did she finish did her ever-so-friendly nurse come to collect her. Renamon didn't respond to the nurse's excited talk of making friends and breakfast, and simply followed her, journal in hand.

She paused at the Sunroom to leave a message on the Bulletin Board to Toboe. Hopefully the wolf had simply gotten lost, and wasn't truly gone. On the other hand, maybe she should be hoping that the boy had found a way out, and a way home. No use overly worrying about it now.

She continued to the Cafeteria, only pausing to take a plain muffin and water. It seemed she was early. She sat at a table near the wall, scanning over her notes and waiting for her breakfast date.

[Waiting for Kairi and Sora]

It had been so sudden, though welcome, when the announcement had said they could go to the Music Room! Brook was at least ten steps ahead of his nurse, too excited for words. What would there be?! He should be able to find that strange piano thing Luffy had mentioned, right?! "Here, it's here, isn't it?" like an excited child, he pointed into the room while waving at the nurse behind him.

"Yes, yes, you're welcome to go in, Mr. Rousseau," she breathed allowing him to go ahead in. There were already others in there, and she was running out of the energy to deal with him.

"Yohohoho!" Brook sailed in with a high laugh, then stopped dead and looked round. No, no violins, just like Luffy'd said. Not even another member of the string family. As for the piano... there was indeed something that looked similar, only far smaller. And on a stand! Whatever it was, it certainly hadn't been around when he'd been alive, but he could still pick it out as piano-like. Perhaps it had the same notes as well?! He went over and had a seat, carefully trying out the Middle C and finding it to be perfect! Not the exact same sound of a piano, but enough of a mimic. He could work with this!

But what to play?! Ah, what else?! Setting his fingers to the keys (what a feeling it was with skin again?!), he started playing out a softer version of "Bink's Sake", wondering if anyone else may recognize the tune. There had to be other pirates around here, right?

Sanosuke hadn't quite been ready to part ways from Kenshin, but his nurse was insistent, and she was offering food. That second thing was what really got Sano off the couch and headed to the cafeteria. And at the very least, the thing about Okita had been settled, which meant the fighter could focus on his meal.

That may or may not have been a good thing, though.

What the hell was it with these people and their obsession with flat folding things to eat with? Sanosuke had thought that western countries could at least figure out chopsticks at some point. Simple, easy, uncomplicated, glorious chopsticks. But no, instead it was all weird bread things that randomly exploded all over Sanosuke without it being his fault whatsoever. And orange rice, which was just impossible to forgive, but thankfully had yet to reappear.

And as if that hadn't been bad enough, now the weird flat bread things weren't even round anymore. No, Sanosuke was left with some odd triangle shape, peppers that smelled a lot hotter than the kinds he was used to, and this sort of dust that Pinky called cheese, and promised would be good if Sanosuke just tried it.

Which Sano had heard before, plenty of times. Oh yes, he could count the number pretty easily, when Jo-chan tried her hand at some new recipe, some old recipe, or some recipe so simple that even Sanosuke could make it in his sleep, all of which she promised would be good this time, and none of which actually were.

Never stopped Sanosuke from eating them though. Free food was free food.

And dust or no, he'd eat this stuff too. The man had already decided to by the time he'd gotten to his seat. Between the smell and the rumbling in his stomach, Sano didn't figure he had much choice. He would just have to take his time, figure out the best way to go about eating it without getting the stuff all over his face again.

Simple. Had to be.

[Waiting for Zuko?]

Instead of the expected over-cheery male tone, the patients were given a change in the form of a much flatter, female one.

"Good day, patients. I hope that those of you in therapy had enlightening sessions this morning. It's now time for lunch, so all patients should proceed to find a nurse and make their way to the cafeteria, please."

She paused, as if expecting to stop there, until she realized that there was more to be said.

"The head doctor is busy with paperwork right now, so I apologize for his absence. He should hopefully be back to speak with all of you soon. For lunch there is pizza with an array of different toppings, or just plain cheese if that is what you would prefer. There is also Parmesan cheese and peppers to top your slices with, along with side orders of garlic bread and cheese bread sticks that you can dip in sauce. Finally, there are the regular drink choices of water, milk, and juice.

"Also, more new patients will be joining you for the meal, so make sure to make them feel welcome.

"Thank you."

The announcement came to an abrupt close.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post. (Have your new character wake up in a random empty room, as we aren't yet able to officially assign rooms.) Thanks! ]