The night kicked off with another cryptic, creepy message from the Head Doctor. A rebel? Was he talking about Jill, or maybe another comrade of hers?

Well, whatever. Anise figured it was best not to think on it too much. There was a chance that this was just another ploy to make Jill seem trustworthy, after all. Anise had more important things to think about! Like how she was going to get to the ruins tonight. Ugh. How could she let the whole day pass by without at least asking someone to join her? She couldn't just go alone... could she?

For a minute, Anise was seriously considering that thought, but she knew her friends would probably be upset with her if she went through with it. In a way, she was more worried about getting scolded by them than she was about getting attacked by monsters. Even though getting attacked while on her own would be seriously bad...

When she thought about it, though, there was another way to go about this. She could head outside, see if she could find some other bold individual going the same way, then join up with him or her! Preferably a 'him'. A handsome 'him' would be even better.

As she did every night, Anise gathered her things for the excursion: the meat tenderizer, flashlight, running shoes, and a balled-up pillowcase stuffed into Tokunaga's sack. Once she was ready, she gave the room one last glance to make sure she had everything, then slipped out into the dark hallway.

[to here]

"AACHOO! Ahem!" The Head Doctor's slightly-better-but-still-congested voice came on clearly over the intercom. The sound of Nurse Lydia sighing and pulling out a tissue from somewhere in the background was also audible.

"Ah! Yes, thank you..." the Head Doctor muttered before continuing: "Well, it seems like today, like all days, must come to an end, even if it wasn't quite as bright and cheerful as we would like, hmmm? In any case, everyone will now be escorted to their quarters.... mmaahh... AAACHOO! Ah! Erb– yes, to their quarters, where they'll be served some Atlantic wild-caught salmon seasoned with garlic and herbs, along with mashed potatoes and a small garden salad. Our usual vegetarian alternatives and drinks are also available, along with a chocolate mousse dessert.

"And that's all... all ...aaaachoo!"

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. I think Court said something about the new roomies not being completely sorted out yet? :O She'll probably post about that later, so hang tight! ]

_{[From here.]}

Shinji emerged into another familiar hallway. At the same time, everything was off. He'd learned this his first night, but it seemed to get worse each time. He hated this feeling, but he had to press on. He couldn't run away. He couldn't hide. He didn't have any other choice. He paused for a brief moment to steel himself and then moved on. He had to keep moving. He had to keep going. He moved on.

_{[To here.]}

( from here. )

There was the stairwell. Kairi couldn't help but smile to herself as she rounded the corner and spotted the familiar hallway, still shrouded in darkness like she remembered it. She could see down the hallway and slightly into the Sun Room from where she was standing, and she lowered her flashlight, not wanting whatever it was that was lurking inside it that night to spot her.

At the thought of that, she looked down at the sword that she held in her hand, feeling ready to take on whatever it was that they were going to do tonight. Though, she had a feeling that even with her own weapon, the two boys wouldn't exactly let her help out all that much. Still, she'd try. The sword she had was real and with her at all times, not like a keyblade that would appear seconds before being attacked.

And to think, back when they used to play on the island with wooden swords, they had never given her one. Well, now she had a real sword, so hah!

( from here. )

So far, so good. Kairi tried to move as quietly as she could, not wanting to attract any kind of baddies that could be lurking in the shadows. ... And lest she forget actually crazy patients. Then again, she doubted she'd ever forget that incident.

Oh well, she was almost there. No time to think about past injuries.

( to here. )

( from here. )

One thing Kairi couldn't help but admit was that her room now was a lot closer to the door than her old one was. It was practically a hop, skip, and a jump away! Not bad at all.

... Not that she was lazy or anything. She wasn't the lazy one of the group. Certainly not.

Either way, Kairi continued down the hallway and out the door with ease, careful to watch her step.

( to here. )

[From here]

The hallway led into yet another hall, but this time there was little to recommend one direction or another. It stretched on to both the left and the right, and without the use of the torch, he wasn't sure which way to try.

Prussia hesitated for a moment, but then turned left. If it proved to be a dead end, he would just have to turn around and try the other direction. He found a door at the end of the hall and upon opening it, he was rewarded by the feel of cool night air. Perfect. Once he was outside, he would be that much closer to getting away and orienting himself properly. He headed through the door.

[To here]

[From here]

There were more halls branching off from this one, and a peek down one of them confirmed they were identical to the hallway his room had been on. There would be no use in going down any of them, unless he needed to find someone else.

He wondered briefly if they'd moved West here, too, but there were far too many rooms to check if he was going to get out of here unnoticed. West hadn't been up for execution at their hands like he was, anyway, so his brother would be alright.

There was still no sign of anyone else, but Prussia didn't want to risk using the torch to confirm in case it alerted a guard or doctor or anyone to his escape. He could make out a door at the end of the hallway, and he headed for it. It was unlocked, and he continued onward.

[To here]

[From M59]

Dinner hadn't been Italy's cooking, but Prussia finished it anyway; food was food, and if he succeeded in breaking out of here, it might be a while before he had another chance at a meal.

When an announcement mentioning "patients" was broadcast, it had merely confirmed his suspicions that he'd been placed in a hospital overnight—or perhaps, during the day; from the sound of things, it was already night again. That suited him; the door may have been locked, but his attempts to force it open hadn't brought in any guards, so it seemed that he was alone. He wondered what the control council was trying to accomplish by putting him here; they'd hardly been concerned about his health before (were they trying to make up for what they'd done to him?), and relaxing their guard on him was foolish.

After the announcement, Prussia had started searching for anything that he could use to get out, but the only particularly useful things he'd found were a handheld light, a key, and a pair of boots. It was while he was putting on the boots—who knew what terrain would be like once he got out?—that another announcement was made, of a different nature than the first. The man on the broadcast seemed to be going on about a radio.

Far more interesting than the announcement, however, was the fact that when Prussia tried the door again—out of hope more than any real belief that it would be miraculously unlocked this time—the knob turned.

There wasn't a moment to waste.

The hall was empty. No guards, no England or America just waiting for him to slip up so they would feel more justified in crushing him, no one. Prussia felt somewhat insulted that they were so overconfident as to think their law and a locked door alone would be enough to render him useless.

There was a long row of doors ending in what looked to be a dead end to his left when he exited his room, but there was another hallway to the right. That was the way he'd go.

[To here]

It took quite some time for Anise to figure out how to open the flashlight and replace the batteries within, but eventually she had the device working again. Once that was done, she began to prepare for the night. When she opened the closet and looked around, she found just what she was looking for: shoes. There were boots too, which was kind of tempting, but she supposed the running shoes would be better for running and jumping in.

After tying those on, the girl took a pillowcase from her bed, rolled it into a tiny ball, and then crammed it into the small sack on Tokunaga's back. If that town outside of the institute turned out to have anything useful or valuable in it, she'd have a sack she could use. If it really was just a pile of ruins, then chances were that everything was free to take!

It was at that time that the nighttime announcements came on, opening with a creepy laugh from the Head Doctor. And... was he talking about Jill? It had been so long since Anise had heard anything about that woman, so that was unexpected. For a moment, the girl considered bringing a radio with her tonight, but remembering how much trouble its clues had caused her before, she decided against it.

Forget the radio. Exploring was more important. As soon as the doors unlocked, Anise stepped outside her room, but immediately paused just outside the door. That broadcast had been pretty distracting; she didn't forget anything, did she? She had her meat tenderizer in one hand, flashlight in the other, and Tokunaga on her back...

[For Yuna!]

Fish and chips weren't his favorite thing ever, but he did make sure to eat it all. He just liked to think of the fish as the Filet'o Fish without the bun and it made it easier to eat. The french fries had been pretty well cleaned off and he'd even managed a bit of fruit, although he avoided the oranges and other sour things his nurse had insisted on putting on his plate. But the fries had been good and he felt a little better having eaten something. With everything that had been going on lately, Ritsuka had been shirking on his meals more than usual and it'd all but made him sick.

Now, as he flopped onto a sofa in the Sun Room, he felt sick in a different way. He really shouldn't have eaten as much as he did, but there was no helping it. He'd been hungry. Wasn't hi fault the grease was starting to get to him.

Pulling his legs up onto the seat cushions, Ritsuka leaned back and asked his nurse to bring him the book he'd checked out from the library last time. She returned soon enough and he curled up with the book, ignoring her curious looks at his choice in literature. He hadn't seen Soubi at lunch and now that it was the fourth shift, he figured most of the men would be out in the Greenhouse. He'd have to catch up with the Fighter later, now that he'd calmed down.

It had all been going so well!

Seeing Cloud and Aerith(!) again had brought a now unfamiliar lightness to her shoulders. Work would be harder from here on out, but she wasn't on her own anymore. She was getting a second chance she'd never thought was possible. And then, then they'd trekked outside, totally ready to face the fog and the unknown (privately, the ninja had been a little worried; it couldn't happen again, it just couldn't, but what if it did?)—only to wake up. In their beds. As usual. Gaaaaaawd—!

"I just want you to know," Yuffie informed her nurse, grabbing her journal from the desk on her way out, "that your hair looks spectacularly god-awful today. What did you do, stick your tongue in a socket? I'm not exactly hip on fashion, too busy badass for that fluffy stuff, but—"

Plucky looked ready to plant her face in her hands. Or to plant her hands somewhere else. To her credit, and much to Yuffie's eternal disappointment, she did—tried to do—neither. "One of those days, is it?" the nurse sighed, disapproval incarnate. "Well. You're just going to have to behave; the new batches of patients are due today. We don't want to make a bad impression."

"I am feeling so completely convinced of my wrongdoing," Yuffie confided. They stepped into the cafeteria, practically empty as of yet. The chocolate cake last night had worked a treat, whetting her appetite. Honestly, she was getting sick of pecking at scraps like a runt Chocobo in the snow plains—but not literally, of course. Ew. She got more than enough of that on those damn buses once a week. Now that AVALANCHE really was dropping onto her lap—and remind her to get the hell out of dodge if Barret ever took his turn—she couldn't afford not to keep her strength up. For one, she'd be a liability. For two, she'd get her spine chewed out.

"Fruit," said Plucky, hovering as her charge picked out her choices for the day. Rolling her eyes, Yuffie grabbed an apple, slinging it onto the tray alongside an 'English' sandwich. "That'll do. I'll leave you to your breakfast, now." Somehow, that sounded about as comforting as 'My name is Don Corneo and I am raiding through your panty draw', and Yuffie was stopping that thought right there. Oh, god. Eurk. Bad, bad, bad! Bad, brain. Bad. That—yeah, no. Just, no. 'Sides, the guy was as dead as a doornail, splatted across Da Chao's feet. Dirtying them, really, but somehow Yuffie couldn't bring herself to be sorry about that.

(And it wasn't like the creep'd ever end up here, right? Right!)

She took to a seat, dropping her tray and her journal both onto the table. The book fell pages-down; Yuffie flipped it over, thumbing through to the middle as she worked through her apple. An almost finished map of Gaia stared back at her, neat as she could ever manage. Dots for major locations, squiggles for mountains. Stars for the materia caves, Chocobos for the tracks. All labelled in Wutaian. It was just a little piece of the home she absolutely had to get back to, 'cuz Leviathan knew what kind of trouble they'd be up to their necks in without her.

[For Donna]

Utena tested her flashlight one more time after the lights went out. Still not even a sputter like there had been during the previous two nights. She sighed softly. Sure, Himemiya still had full batteries, so moving around tonight wouldn't be a problem. She knew that she couldn't just ask to borrow the girl's flashlight forever, though; that would just be delaying the problem. It would be best for them to go up to the janitor's closet for extra batteries tonight rather than waiting. Besides, Himemiya still needed something to defend herself with, and the pipes up there were better than nothing at all.

Frankenstein's monster? she thought as she listened to the Head Doctor go on about something on the intercom. That doesn't have something to do with what the transcript from a few nights ago, does it? She shook her head. She didn't have time to think much about it. Opening her closet door, she took out a garbage bag and the Sword of Dios replica. Even in the dark, she could tell the sword looked much better alongside her duelist uniform than it had with "Yomi's" institute clothing. She smiled a little at that.

After bidding a good night to Sakura, Utena stepped out into the hallway, squinting in the dark for Himemiya's room. Which one had it been? She knew it wasn't too far down from hers.

Peter woke up suddenly, his body twisting in the bed and then forcing him to catch his breath in pain. Pain, which was coming from his middle because of the thing that had scratched him last night, and after that...

After that, Zach had jumped in front of him like some kind of martyr, like the exact opposite of everything Sylar stood for, to take the next hit for him. It got pretty fuzzy after that, so night must have ended right around then.

The man let out a pained grunt as he straightened himself up in bed. For some reason, he got the feeling that he'd slept in. There was no way for him to really tell without a window in the room, but he just knew. The fact that Sam's bed looked long since vacated was another clue.

Sam, but was he Sam again? Had the brainwashing worn off, as he and Roland had hoped, or was he going to have to go through this nightmare for even longer? He didn't know how long he could handle "Zach" and "Harrison" before he started going batty himself.

Pulling himself out of bed, Peter lifted his shirt and saw that he was tightly bandaged. The scratch most likely wasn't nearly as bad as the bite that "Zach" had received, but it still smarted. He let his shirt fall and then had to deal with a nurse chiding him for sleeping through the morning announcements. Not that Peter really cared at the moment. He was too busy thinking about last night and the fact that in a way, he now owed something to Sylar. Except it hadn't been Sylar. That was something he was sure of now.

Lost in his thoughts, Peter reached the Sun Room right as the rest of the patient populace was trickling in from breakfast. Sighing to himself, he headed over to the bulletin board and then saw a note written in familiar yet unpleasant handwriting. Holding his pen in a vice grip, Peter scribbled out a reply and then stalked over to an armchair and fell into it with a huff.

While Sylar was maddeningly frustrating, there was one good thing about the fact that he was himself again. It meant that Nathan was too.

[For Spock!]

Beatrix barely noticed that her roommate had never shown up. Her and Daphne had spoken so little, she could honestly say she didn't care. Her concerns were with who she might get saddled with this upcoming night or if she'd be given the privilege of being in a single room for a while. It would be nice, that's for certain.

She hadn't seen much of the other assassins that day, but they should show. As much fun as killing Ophelia had been, they hadn't gotten into the basement. With Rika's return, the Bride was much more intent on killing Landel; the girl's presence added another level of urgency to the situation.

Slinging her katana across her back, the oven mitt full of knives strapped to her side (she was going to need to pick a new glove up soon as the current one was getting a bit ratty), Beatrix left her room and headed down the hallway. There was ice in her eyes as she thought about who they might have to kill on their way to the basement tonight.

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. ]

The Head Doctor sounded rushed, as usual, as he began speaking on the intercom.

"Good evening, everyone, and I once again express my highest hopes that your collective therapy sessions and good, old fashioned relaxing went well! Now, perhaps we shouldn't excite you at the end of the day, but... I fear I must! You see, we're just beginning to bring in our new batch of patients, and they will join their new roommates come dinner. Yes, yes – apologies for the slight disorganization, but we can only accommodate so many people at once, right? Right.

"As for dinner itself, I'm sure many of you will enjoy it, even if it isn't quite authentic. We have shrimp and vegetable tempura along with chicken teriyaki; there is dipping sauce included, along with a bowl of rice, bean sprouts, and edamame – that's soybeans. In addition, your dessert is some delicious green tea ice cream. Mmm!

"I hope you all enjoy dinner as much as I suspect you shall, and I bid you farewell until I say goodnight."

Just after the redundant statement, the intercom clicked off.

[ If you would like to introduce your character during this shift, please respond to this post. You can either choose for your character to wake up before their roommate gets back, or after they do. Find your character's room assignments here.

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! ]

Celes had disdained taking food that was so alien in texture and consistency, and instead had taken her meal in her room. A room, she quickly discovered, did not hold any trace of her roommate’s belongings. It was troubling, very troubling; Celes remembered a promise of protection to the girl, which had fallen by the wayside. Guilt stabbed her between the eyes and she made a note to tell her roommate’s loved ones – should there be any left in this place – the news.

It would be cold comfort, of course, but Celes had never been very good at that. Comfort was for barmaids and nurses, lovers and wives, and since Celes practiced none of those professions, straight talk it would have to be. With a sigh, she wrote a quick note in her neat, masculine script and flourished the signature, just as usual. There was still worry in her heart over the location of Noah and Luxord; the act in and of itself something she chastised herself over. What was the point in worrying over two men that would be unlike to mourn over her own death or disappearance? Especially the literally heartless man.

Celes alighted on a couch and looked up at the afternoon sky, crossing her legs and forcing herself to concentrate on the evening ahead. She hummed one ditty or another – marching songs, none of that foolish, tavern-born, romantic ballad trash – and looked down to her journal, pen poised above paper and waiting for her composition.

[For one Judge Magister]

The intercom rang out, disrupting what had turned out to be a rather pointless breakfast conversation, at least in Brainiac 5's eyes. He couldn't wait to put more distance between himself and Scar's blather of how logic, of all things, might not work the same way in this dimension. It was almost enough to make him believe that the man may very well have been a lion originally after all, as he'd never heard anything so very... ignorant and uneducated.

He quickly finished up the fruit he'd been nibbling on - he was no longer as hungry as he had been - and looked around automatically to see where Clark was. Unfortunately with the press of people around, some being led off to the library and others to the mentioned 'therapy sessions' - if that was what they really were - he had lost sight of the Kryptonian. Still there wasn't many places he could go, so Brainiac 5 would be able to catch up with him eventually to check on his condition and try and learn more about what had happened last night. That the Chapel had healed him - admittedly by passing his injuries to another - was interesting, but far more important in his eyes was what had happened to Clark and his powers. They hadn't been working correctly and that worried the Coluan boy more than he would normally have admitted. Without Clark's abilities... he wasn't sure what they would have to rely on in order to escape.

Another problem he would have to deal with was Grell... or, if he was to believe the notes on the bulletin board, the person pretending to be Grell. But that was going to require more careful planning before he made a move. Come to think of it, he had agreed to meet another in the library today on that same post that had sparked this whole mess. At least then he would have something of interest to look forward to, as he doubted any of the 21st century books were likely to be worthwhile to someone of his advanced intellect.

Following the nurses led him to what must have been the library; a reasonably large room filled with a range of archaic books on tall shelves, a few tables and chairs interspersed around the room. The Coluan boy couldn't refrain from wrinkling his nose in distaste as he entered the room, not liking the cumbersome books and the dust that he knew would have gathered on them; he much preferred the clean arrangement of his C.O.M.P.U.T.O. systems back in the Legion headquarters. It was much more practical then shelves and shelves of books on fictional worlds and dated information.

Trying to avoid as much of the room as possible, Brainiac 5 settled himself down on a chair to wait, keeping an eye out for a tall, dark-haired man with a red... something on his forehead.

[for Homura]

As far as dinner shifts went, that one had actually been enjoyable. It had been nice to have somebody to talk to, to show off for, and Sen hadn’t seemed to mind all that much. Except for that one teeny-tiny little slip, just after Yuffie’d revealed that she was a ninja…

What was with that?

Yuffie knew that it was a little unorthodox to be quite so ‘open’ about what she did, both back home and here in Landel’s. She had her reasons, though; logical reasons, no matter what anybody else had to say about it. And those reasons had a lot more to them than a simple love of showing off.

Maybe Sen was going to be another one of those who underestimated her, then - the woman had seemed to soak up everything she’d said like a sponge, hadn’t refuted anything, but… Yuffie couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was off. Sen seemed so normal and, yeah, totally defenseless - but as far as she could tell, Landel had a weird fetish for kidnapping fighters, or people with some kind of ability or significance...

Ugh, maybe this place was just making her paranoid. Besides, now wasn’t the time to be cross-examining and mentally dissecting her roommate! She had places to go, people to see, and a Turk to interrogate! With that in mind, after a quick double-checking of her ’equipment’ - a small bunch of pens tucked away in various places, the gardening claw, and her flashlight - the young thief headed out into the night.

[To here]