All things considered, last shift had been pretty low key. After this morning's disaster, though, that was perfectly fine by Claude. Some fresh air and a chance to make sure Guy and Okita were all right weren't things to take for granted. It was also good to have a fairly normal, conversation with Guy that didn't slip off into awkward territory. Having Okita there as a sort of buffer probably made things a bit easier in that regard. Claude was confident that things would smooth about between them fairly soon -- if they hadn't already, even.

After checking the bulletin and making some notes of his own, Claude walked alongside his nurse into the cafeteria. As far as he could tell, the soldiers hasn't cleared out any since their arrival this morning. Not only that, but Landel didn't sound too happy about what happened. Was he going to get into trouble for the food fight?

Not that he had any sympathy for the Head Doctor, of course. That bastard deserved every bad thing that ever happened to him, and then some. On the other hand, it did make Claude wonder what would become of the captives if someone even harsher stepped in to take his place...

Was that even possible? Then again, Claude had to consider that no one even used tear gas the last time a riot happened. Had this morning's response been someone else's idea?

As hard as it was to sit and wait for things to pan out, Claude knew that ultimately time would tell what was going to happen. Thankfully, he had a lunch appointment to keep him occupied. After collecting his tray of food, Claude took a seat at one of the tables. It looked like he was one of the first people here, which gave him an opportunity to notice just how much better the room looked than after breakfast. He couldn't imagine how many people had been asked to clean things up. Really, it was a wonder they hadn't just made the patients do it themselves as punishment.

Well, regardless of all that, he needed to wait for that Mordio person to show up now, right? Claude kept an eye on the cafeteria entrance, although he suddenly remembered that the patient had never given a description of themselves. Hopefully Claude's own description would be distinct enough for Mordio to find him.

[For Rita!]

And thus concluded a perfect start to a perfect day. Making him explode from every facial orifice was a totally justified response to Peter not doing anything at all.

The nurses' hearts had defrosted just enough to permit them a change of clothes and a desperately needed wipe down. Nurse Joyce - Rachel had been apologizing the whole way back to his room through gritted teeth and steely side glares at the soldier stalking behind them. "So sorry, Tyler. Gassing children. I would have never thought it would come to that - but you were good, weren't you? You stayed under the table with your friend the whole time?"

"Flaht lodda gud id did meh," Peter had slurred through a mouthful of spit. He winced and squeezed another quadrillion tears from his eyes as he felt a string of snot drip onto his chin. His whole being ached with embarrassment.

Okay, yes, gassing was a common method for riot control. He knew this. Everyone knew this. But that so did not justify using it on a truckload of mental patients, half of whom couldn't legally drive and seventy five percent of which were currently incapacitated. Making people stumble around and fall on their broken limbs did not equal safe medical practice, no matter how hard they were rioting.

Not to mention getting gassed had totally cut off his conversation with this Gambit fellow. Whom he now had to spend some time sleuthing for, because Peter so did not trust random strangers with the deets on his secret identity. Even if they were friends with Logan. Especially if they were friends with Logan. Plus he had no idea whether or not Gambit existed in his sad, sorry version of the universe, and thus no way to check if he was a good superhero or a bad superhero. AKA super villain.

He sniffled, hand firmly perched under his nose to catch any leaks (or god forbid, more drooling) as he was marched against his will outside. Apparently this was under military orders.

They were going to shoot them, weren't they?

It seemed the purpose was a touch more innocuous than that, even if they were immediately assembled into an execution line. A soldier stepped up with a clipboard, Huge Douche written all over his face, and began calling out names. Peter lost interest and gazed miserably at the men standing guard behind him. They didn't seem to be in attack mode. That was a plus.

"Karmichael, Tyler!"

He wondered if they would stop pushing them outside soon. It was getting colder all the time, he thought with a shiver, rubbing his sling arm gently for warmth.

"Karmichael, Tyler!"

It sure was dismal out today.

"Karmichael, Tyler!!"

Oh right. "Here!!" Peter shouted, embarrassment flushing his face. Then his nose wrinkled with distaste. "Wait, my last name is Karmichael? What? That's a terrible-"

Huge Douche gave him an evil eye. "Answer when you're called for!"

"...Yes sir."

Yeesh.

That over with, Peter hastily consulted with his nurse and convinced her to let him back in the Sun Room. He just wanted to sit on a couch and grumpface at the world today.

[To here.]

For once, HK was working very hard to hide a giddy facial expression as he met his nurse at the door. He'd already hidden his scalpels in his clothing. The wonderful, sharp implements of doom would be needed today. “Statement: Despite my reticence towards all processed meat and plant products, I am experiencing intolerable levels of hunger,” he informed his nurse. “I require an especially large meal.”

It was the easiest and best excuse to load his food tray with several of these 'inglish muffin sandwiches', and two glasses of white milk. He then found a table strategically located in the center of the refueling area, and waited. He needed the room as full as possible before the Evil Plan could begin.

[Free, but planning doom upon all.]

The commotion just after the intercom's jingle displayed the same kind of erratic energy that the Head Doctor had been exuding all day.

"Come on, get those papers out of the way – no, I don't...! Ah! Good evening, everyone, and I hope you all enjoyed the activities we had to–"

Someone whispered something in the background. The Head Doctor sighed and muttered: "Yes, Lydia, I know we don't have many organized activities...

"...But anyway! Next up is dinner with your roommates! Tonight, we'll be having turkey and gravy, which will consist of some moist slices of turkey breast and garlic mashed potatoes, garnished with steamed broccoli, grilled asparagus, and topped with delicious gravy. We'll be serving the dinners with small side salads and our dessert will be pumpkin pie – as per usual, we have alternate meals for alternate dietary needs."

The Head Doctor took a long pause. Lydia mumbled something in the background.

"No, I'm not dawdling–! Er... I'll talk to you shortly, everyone!"

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. Thank you! ]

There was little to be said of the daily business that went on. He allowed himself to be shuffled, mind embedded too deeply in things he shouldn't be dwelling on. The night was over, the shadows had vanished, and there was little more than bad memories to be left in their stead. This was logic, pure and simple, and should have been reassuring but for the whispered accusations made by his own. Of all things that his mind moved to unconsciously focus on, it was one of the first things spoken. That he could kill himself and nothing would stop him.

Which was pointless. In the whole of its entirety. Gaara had not truly moved in that way for time past--And now, even, he had goals and aspirations that he would see come to pass before he gave anything of himself away. He was working for what he believed in; he was working to become acknowledged by others as himself, and not as what he was created for. And there was no point to anything that thing had said.

His thoughts shifted, moved over the night, each dark statement echoed by an internal vow of his own, a denial of returning to what he once was. He still had yet to seek out Temari--his sister, too, would have been confronted by her demons, and there was a edge of concern in that thought. Considering all of this, he seated himself in a place near the wall, glancing at the doorway every few moments.

[sister dear.]

[from here]

As they stepped outside, Kratos took a deep breath, taking a moment to savor the feeling of fresh air, even though it was still tainted with the silent evil that surrounded the institute. Then, moment finished, he returned to the task at hand.

The immediate vicinity outside the institute was still and eerily quiet. He knew this place: this was where the buses usually sat whenever they were taken to Doyleton. But now, the plaza was completely empty, and it reminded him that for once he was going somewhere that no map he had had ever described. Yes, other patients had surely come here before, but none of them had ever deigned to tell of what they'd found--or else, Kratos had never noticed their warnings on the board. He and Ishida would have to simply work off of intuition, a situation that he was familiar with, but rather disliked.

"So from here..." Kratos took a few steps away from the door and tried to get an idea of their surroundings. An uneven road stretched out before them, and to its sides he could see that the terrain grew rougher still. "This road leads, if I'm correct, to the town of Doyleton." He strained to see farther and barely made out the tops of trees. "We need not follow it to its conclusion, though."

There was something else that he could recall about this particular area, a memory of watching gigantic, airborne monsters swoop down from above. "Keep an eye on the sky."

[from here]

The door opened onto darkness. Either the lights had switched off, or they'd all burst; sweeping the flashlight's beam over the floor evinced the glitter of broken glass. The latter, then. He hoped the brown of that carpet looked less repulsive in the daylight. As Uryuu walked into the room, he was almost glad of the darkness. The light in the hall, even thrown into the doorway, made his shadow stark, and he had to keep himself from looking again, and again at it. His eyes were playing tricks (he didn't believe that). Scanning the room by flashlight, Uryuu noted that it seemed smaller at this end because of the two rooms on each side.

Venturing further in and turning with the light produced labels for the doors. File Rooms. Temptations. But, he recognized that at the moment, he didn't have enough information. It was unlikely that Kurosaki would be listed under Kurosaki Ichigo; instead, under whatever false name the institute provided. And Uryuu hadn't a clue. There were two long reception desks in front of those rooms, and doors that lead to waiting rooms. Did "visitors" come through the front doors, then sit in those lobbies? Would Kuro--

He couldn't finish the thought, a sudden, amused smirk coming to his face. Even brainwashed into believing he was someone else, no way would Kurosaki ever come to visit his insane classmate "Gerard Way". Assuming their fabricated identities knew one another, it was impossible that they had that sort of relationship. (Well, if he were Gerard and it was Kurosaki in here, he might have--)

Priorities. He'd kept moving while thinking it, at least, not distracted by appearance aside from the out of place trace of humor.

"It seems too easy," he noted quietly, reaching the doors. To simply walk out the entrance.

[From here]

The amount of thin lights and hushed voices thinned greatly as Xemnas made his way further down the corridor, cloaking the area in a silent and deserted darkness. Silence was what drifted even from beyond the doors leading to the Sun room, a silence that may have been eerie to those who had the essence to be gripped by such a primal emotion. As one that wasn't part of such a measure of existence, such a thing held little meaning. The Superior passed those doors without so much as a second glance.

Still, orange eyes searched the darkness as he walked this familiar path, prepared for possible threats lingering within those shadowy depths, seeking to devour those who who passed by. The night had only just began, and he himself was likely among the first to walk these empty corridors; there would naturally be no battles to alert him of any undesired presences. Though time was of the essence in this world, a sense of caution was indeed something holding more importance.

[To here]

[Currently M36]

Touya had thought that the last vestiges of his exhaustion due to the drain of his power had all but vanished, but apparently it had made one last stand. Touya awoke briefly when his nurse had brought in dinner, the last thing he remembered being talking with Yue in the hall.

Talking with Yue in the hall?! He sat up abruptly, noting the meal left on his desk and groaning. So he had slept through the entire day and no doubt both Yue and Yuki (possibly Sakura as well, though she didn't come out of her room very often really) were petrified that something had happened to him. They always met for lunch, after all.

Way to be, Kinomoto, he thought crossly. He'd decided that the best move now was just to get the last vestiges of this exhaustion out of his system, then go to meet Yuki right after the doors unlocked.

Which would have been a great plan, if he hadn't slept through the doors unlocking as well.

[To here]

"Made it..." She whispered triumphantly as she walked quietly into the dark and quiet hallway first. It was hard to decide where the best place would be to stand since once others began to flood in, Asuka could easily be overshadowed by the taller adults. "Hmmm..." The best she could guess was to hug the opposite wall by the doorway and hope she would pick out the two members once they entered.

Remember, Asuka, you aren't the veteran here.

This wasn't NERV anymore. She had no one under her to display her impressive and extensive training to. The redhead was a newbie like the ones she was going to be working with, though perhaps a bit more intelligent. This first mission was important for popularity's sake. She needed to play nice for now, gauge their strengths and weaknesses until she knew who she could topple the easiest.

[Waiting on Agatha and Zevran]

Scar possibly couldn't have been more thrilled at the prospect of being escorted to the library. He had visited this particular room plenty of times to know that it was entirely useless and uninteresting - like most daytime activities, for that matter. Still, the nurse seemed rather convinced he'd like one of those silly books filled with papers and papers of those silly symbols he could suddenly understand for reasons that still puzzled him. These symbols didn't quite tell him anything interesting either; if he'd wanted a silly story he'd listen to that senile baboon back home. Instead, he felt like he was particularly mocked with this activity. He had been blinded last night, only to be dragged over to something that required his eyesight as soon as it had returned.

Not caring whether he was taking the situation way too personal, the former lion opted for glaring to the spine of a book - with words reading 'Lolita' (whatever that may have meant) along with a name he didn't care the slightest bit about - as if everything had been its fault. The truth was that Scar was this close to snapping, and though breakfast had been a welcome distraction it hardly did anything to defuse his frustration and anger.

Especially because he had no idea when something like that would happen again. Or what else they had been doing to his head...

[For Naraku!]

[from here]

Momo carefully entered the kitchen after making quick work of the lock on the door. She stayed low to the ground, eyes scanning for any presence. Anything within this room would be hostile as they were the first within. Seeing nothing immediately, she relaxed her stance just a bit and quickly crossed the room to where the large cold storage room was.

"Our captors do not leave any useful knives in this kitchen, so it is a waste of time to look for them. Our destination in in here," the shinigami said, gesturing to the door.

[From here.]

The difference in the Sun Room was literally night and day: what was a relaxing area during the daylight hours was far less pleasant at night, the dim light from the ceiling windows barely illuminating the vague shapes of the furniture sitting around the room. What little light there was only served to create shadows, perfect hiding spots for whatever could be lurking in the darkness. It wasn't a comforting thought, but it was realistic.

Edgar set his eyes across the room, first to the other side, then to the ceiling. There wasn't anything he spotted immediately, but it wasn't unheard of for the poor lighting to play tricks on the eyes... and that wasn't including whatever tricks Landel had up his sleeve for the evening. First the warping doors, then the language barrier- three nights of his games in a row wasn't out of the question, given the circumstances.

He continued into the room, trailing the western wall to protect his injured side, his light still off. He didn't have far to go, but the distance seemed so much farther in the tense silence.

[To here.]

[from here]

And another room opened up, smaller, with five doors to add to the one he came through. Two seemed to lead to other rooms inside this one. One, would open into the hallway he was in previously. The one across would continue unknown, and on his right there was one. Further from the sun room, as he sought.

The doors were thick and doubled, ones that made sense if they were an outward door made to brace from intrusion and the elements. After scanning the room, Gaara moved cautiously to his right, touching wood and metal, and turning the knob in his hand to click open.

[to here, to return]

[from here]

It had led outside. There was a brief, quiet moment of relief. The simple fact of something working out when nothing else had made sense. The sensation was allowed, then just as simply stifled. He could feel relief once he had proven that he was still himself, restrained and bound or no. At another point, once he had taken further stock of the situation and knew explicitly the whereabouts of his sister and Naruto, he would test to see how far one could go before being pulled back. But currently, he held one goal, and stepped off the walkway into earth.

( A hand traced the building as he moved some feet from the door. )

[and back to here]

[from here]

The room into which Morrigan stepped was no brighter than the hallway outside, and she stood still in the doorway for several moments as she made sense of the shapes of the furniture. Some sort of dining room? No, it looked more akin to a sitting room than anything used for meals. Used for meetings, perhaps, or lessons. It was hard to discern purpose.

She picked her way over to the tables to search for anything of use, either as a weapon or that might tell her where she was. She found books, first, thin ones with oddly slick pages that, on first contact, had her jerking her hand away to rub it clean on her trousers. It soon became clear that it wasn't any sort of residue left on the pages, however. It was just the nature of the things.

Slippery books. Revolting.

With a mutter of disgust, she continued her search. There had to be something worthwhile somewhere in this place.

[From here.]

Walking through the darkness, Sechs reluctantly admitted to himself that going alone to somewhere dangerous as the second floor with his condition wasn't exactly the smartest idea in the world. Heck, he could easily picture Kibitoshin having some spectacular fret fest if he knew about what Sechs was doing right then! Still, whatever he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, right? Sechs intended on reaching his goal without interruptions and surviving in the process. Besides, he had two weapons and (most of) his battle suit to protect him! Sechs wanted to believe that his white-haired friend wouldn't have to worry; it was thanks to him that Sechs could muster up the confidence to approach the second floor again in the first place...

The liquid parasite in Sechs' spine wasn't so keen on his plan though. "Trying to find that Original of yours is nothing but a suicide mission!" it snarled in Sechs' head, "Why don't you just get it over with now and take that machete of yours and impale yourself on it again like what you did the first time we met!"

Ignoring the drug's scathing taunts and the unpleasant memory it brought up, Sechs shook his head and moved on.

Ignore it... Ignore it... Not yet...

[To here.]

How convenient, placing him just a couple of doors from Stefan. Cutting down on travel time was always a plus—especially now that speed was something he actually had to consider, which was far more trouble than it was worth. He'd been human once and his memory of those days functioned just fine; he didn't need a reminder.

Oh well. What could you do.

And right now, he had more important things to take care of. Or maybe important wasn't the right word. More immediate things to take care of, rather. In truth, he hadn't had any real intentions of finding Stefan this very night, but it occurred to him as he walked out of the room that they were kind of in this together. As much as he hated to admit it, he was stuck in a position where he...had to keep an eye on them. Elena and Stefan, that was. He still wasn't sure what had happened to Stefan, but he was no longer as confident about his brother's undead factor being a natural fail safe.

Granted, it had always been a bit of a shaky fail safe from the start. He just had less of a reason to care at the time. Unlike now. And he was a little pissed off that these people, whoever the hell they were, had made it necessary for him to be concerned in the first place.

So here he was, leaning against the wall across and a few feet up from Stefan's door. Unless Stefan had dashed out of there like the Road Runner, he had a feeling he hadn't missed his brother's exit. Besides, if he had, then it didn't matter. This was...only one of many potential side trips. He had other things to occupy him, obviously.

But a possible threesome date...thing...for the night—no, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to at least try to make that happen. His venues of fun were unfortunately limited at the moment.

[from here]

The only problem with being punctual was that it left her all alone (hopefully all alone, at least) in a large, echoing hallway with nothing but her imagination. Considering that Minako's imagination was pretty good, especially given the last few years, that wasn't exactly a good thing. She gave the area a careful investigation, making certain that she couldn't see any sign of creepy monsters lurking nearby, then finally settled against the wall opposite the Sun Room door and crouched there, switching off her flashlight to wait. There wasn't any point in wasting the batteries, first of all, and second of all, having it on was basically screaming "HEY LOOK THERE'S SOMEONE EDIBLE HERE" to anything that might come wandering by.

Hopefully the first thing to come wandering by was a person, and hopefully hopefully it was a friendly person. Maybe even that "Snow" guy she was supposed to meet. Or the guy who didn't want to leave his name, but liked to keep an eye on people. Creeeeeeeepy. Hopefully he wasn't some kind of weird stalker or pervert or something.

Well. She'd find out when she met him, wouldn't she? But as she waited, senses alert for any sign of movement in the hallway, Minako entertained herself by imagining what these people were supposed to look like. Someone cute, maybe? Or a weirdo like that Ootaku guy at the arcade? Brr. Hopefully not that.

[from here and waiting for the opposite one.~]

The hall was as empty as she had seen it. Silence glistened as severe as any palpable source. Voices echoed in the distance, but here there was nothing. No one. No sounds, but the dull creaks of a settling building and shifting ghosts. Last night gave rise to a new awareness. She did not take the emptiness at face value, did not trust the lack of others for what it was. The one on the board had offered the possibility of a monster, but Rei knew the feel of another body against her.

No, her assailant had been human. This remained fact. Over the edge of her plug suit, the bandage felt heavy. Weighted. A reminder to be productive if nothing else. She needed no other reason to devalue her own worth.

[down to here]