Dammit. He was hungry again.

Not that he ever stopped being hungry, but it could be ignored for a while after he'd had a chance to devour something. Though Heat had managed to get that meal the night before, the animal hadn't been all that large. The Institute seemed capable of curbing his hunger to some degree (he didn't think he could have gone for three or four days without proper food in the Junkyard without going mad) but it was still there, forever gnawing at him.

Since he actually had his mind to himself that night, he might as well take some time to see if he couldn't find bigger prey. He really hated thinking in those terms, but there was no way around the fact that Landel had the ability to make him think the way he wanted whenever he pleased. It was infuriating.

He left his radio. It hadn't done him any good before and he needed both hands for his weapons anyway. The man that spoke on it had only empty words for them as far as he was concerned. The stuffed doll, however, he decided to bring along - just in case he ran into, well, a certain someone.

[to here]

Weapons in hand, Heat was out in the hall the moment the doors opened. There had to be something, a scent in the air that might alert him to the presence of one of Landel's creations. His hunger wouldn't be denied for another night. Though he was still without his flashlight, that didn't really matter. His other senses should be enough to find what he needed. And he would find something. No other patients were even going to be looked at until he had.

Whatever the head doctor meant about those rings, it didn't matter to Heat. He hadn't been in a group the night before, and even if he had been he hadn't gotten more than a couple halls. What would be the point of being able to transport himself there when he could walk the distance just as quickly? No, it couldn't help him, and if it couldn't help him it didn't interest him. Chances were they were all just another trick of the Institute's anyway.

The demon paused outside his doorway, nose to the air as he decided on a direction.

Visitors? The hell was that supposed to mean?

Heat's curiosity allowed him to be led from the courtyard (and his riveting conversation with that woman) back inside to the front of the building. This wasn't one of the usual activity rooms, but something that resembled a sort of lounge where the only 'activity' seemed to involve sitting around. The demon was instantly annoyed and asking to be taken somewhere else. He'd done enough talking for the day. He just wanted to wait out the rest of the day in peace.

Someone was coming to see him, the nurse said, but there weren't any members of his tribe remaining in the Institute. Was it possible they'd brought back Argilla?

Their continued use of that other name wasn't unusual, but that and an offhand mention of someone 'from home' had a familiar face flashing in his mind's eye. He went quiet. Satisfied that he was going to behave himself, the nurse left him to sit alone in the uncomfortable chair, his eyes trained on the doorway.

Getting up before the 7-11s opened on Sunday was anathema to any right-thinking man. Sangamon Taylor was no exception. When he wasn't on a field trip to Nowheresville. Where the locals were unconvinced that the Pope was going to personally write them a strongly worded letter if they had fresh Coke with their pancakes. Moving from bed to couch was therefore a lofty achievement, one he was celebrating with a triumphant snore.

Until the couch started to lurch towards a giant screen. He squinted at the LaserDisc cover -- King Kong. Just because he'd voted for it, didn't mean he wanted to watch it. Like Jimmy Carter. Fake animal torture was only cool on MTV. He declined to assist the nurses aside from moving two hundred pounds of biomass off their hands under its own power, and cleared out.

The courtyard was quiet. He swung a leg over a bench, set his notebook down on the warm wood, and pulled out a half-drawn map. He pulled a pen out, uncapped it, and looked at the damn thing. What the fuck would it do? Get a rhythm going and they reprogrammed the fucking building. He laid back, put the map over his face, and worked on his skin cancer instead.


[Scarecrow]

"—na-"

… Viridian red buildings; clear water rushing—blood red running and then somewhere else; raining now, raining so hard it rained through bones, sounded like a drum-beat or a klaxon or Cait with his tail stuck in a socket…

"Han—"

… Insistent rain, more like Barret's gun-fire or pebbled sand against glass or both, loud and pounding and drowning but not, and somewhere overhead hung a second moon with a Tonberry leering…

"Hanna!"

… "Shut up," Yuffie mumbled thickly, her voice sticking in her throat like molasses.

"Oh, dear," said the trumpet in her ear. "You do have to wake up now, you know. Can't have you missing anything."

"Can too." Cracking her eyes open was going to be a chore like none other, Yuffie was quickly realizing. She didn't want to wake up. Sleep tugged at her, jostled her, clung to her. It called her back, pulled her under, but the trumpet—the voice; the nurse—was insistent. Had to get up, had to go face the day, and dear, oh dear, perhaps you're running a tad bit of a temperature, just a little, nothing to worry about.

It was then that Yuffie realized the problems.

One, it was morning. She wasn't in a locker room and she (mostly) didn't feel like she was gonna hack up a bowl of innards stew. That was… good. And bad. And it was awesome and it sucked, so point number two, please. Two: she didn't feel like somebody'd set up a blender in her stomach so much as she felt like somebody'd stuffed her head and limbs full of down-feathers and sticky toffee and socks. The cloying sensation was reseeding, but it lingered maddeningly. Point three, and this was the kicker: Plucky had been close enough to shake her shoulder, had been shaking her shoulder, and didn't have a black eye or a broken wrist to show for it.

"Oh, hell," Yuffie groaned.

Plucky tutted. "Language, young lady. Now, up you get."

Up Yuffie got, quick enough to almost send herself stumbling. She would not get sick. Not, not, not! It just wasn't gonna happen. After throwing on a sweater, Yuffie grabbed the two squishy balls—one orange and the other purple (both sporting stupid smiley faces)—from inside her desk drawer before she, Plucky in tow, left for the sun room. If she had something physical to focus on, something more than chatting or people-watching or cuddling with Fuzzbutt, she'd have a better chance of jump-starting herself into gear. Maybe. Hopefully.

Before long, Yuffie was perched cross-legged on one of the sun room's many sofas, Fuzzbutt the kitten languishing cosily in her lap. One hand rested against her knee—in that hand sat the purple ball. The other hand, her left hand, was up and moving, manipulating the orange ball into small tricks and sleights. Nothin' fancy. Nothin' even interesting, as far as the ninja was concerned. Just a quick warm up to get her fingers—and her brain, ugh; it was still fuzzier than she'd like—going.

[For Kaito and Yukari!]

[ from here ]

"The pharmacy should be right here," Naminé announced, grasping at the door knob once she and Riku reached their destination. The night had been uneventful, and she hoped it would stay that way, so that was why Naminé made sure that she opened the door slowly to make sure there wasn't anything else inside. Nothing happened, so she stepped inside.

And then something happened. The Nobody blinked, and blinked again in disbelief. This wasn't... Instead of shelves and cabinets filled with pills and other things, she found herself in what looked like a shop of some sort. Actually, this was a shop of some sort. Naminé hadn't been in this particular one, but she recognized the name that was plastered all over the store. But... that was impossible!

"How...?" Naminé was sure that this had to be impossible. Not only was this the wrong room, but they weren't even in the Institute anymore! How was this possible?! She turned around, searching for Riku. Had she arrived here alone? Was she the only one who saw this?

[From here.]

This time, Lelouch was prepared for the peculiar sensation that accompanied the crossing over into the next room, but that did nothing for the complete shock of seeing precisely where the institute had sent them. How the hell--

"N-1, N-2, describe to me what you see," he ordered haltingly, his gaze fixed on the building before him. The fact that his Zero suit had disappeared and been replaced by his usual school uniform held little interest for him compared to their surroundings. If he didn't know better-- this had to be some sort of illusion, or at least a dream, nightmare, hologram-- it couldn't be real, could it?

He broke away from his guards and walked up the steps to the entrance of the clubhouse, one hand slowly raising to touch a pillar. Real. The archways above him, real. The perfectly manicured lawn, real. The stones beneath his guards' feet, the vaulted windows, the stairs he'd just climbed up-- how was any of this real? How had they gotten here? Most important of all, how could they get back?

"Begin searching for an exit," he ordered next, shaking himself out of his stupor. He could figure out how Landel had done it after they made their way back to Nunnally.

[From here.]

Again, that strange, displaced feeling assaulted him, and Zero had to shut his eyes for a moment after crossing the threshold of whatever room they found themselves in this time. He had hoped that the door he'd just passed through would take him back to the hall he and his group had just left, but judging by the sudden increased volume of the rain outside...

He opened his eyes again and nearly cursed. Not the hall. Instead, he was facing the innards of some toy shop-- the one in Doyleton? How on Earth had they ended up here?

He looked back at the two men with him, grateful that his mask hid his thoroughly befuddled and increasingly worried expression from view. If the doors had at least been linked, they could have just kept checking until they found the one that led to the room where Nunnally had been taken. As things were-- was this completely random? Were the doors one way only? How could he be sure? He couldn't even get back to the first door he'd gone through!

"We must leave at once," he said to his men, keeping his voice calm through sheer force of will. A good commander never let his subordinates know how much a situation had rattled him, no matter how bizarre. "Keep moving. One of these doors will lead us to the correct destination."

[portaled from here]

Without questioning why Zero had bothered to move ahead of them in the first place, Heat instantly took up the lead again when asked. He opened the door he was shown to, stepping inside... to find himself in a room with several strange machines and a weird odor - some sort of odd chemical and fabric?

The shift had been disorienting, and that put him on edge. Walking through a doorway shouldn't create such a detached feeling. And oddly enough, looking back at the door, it didn't look quite like the one he'd just opened. Or perhaps that was just a trick of the lighting.

He didn't understand where this was, why Zero would lead him here or why this girl would be kept there, but his job wasn't to ask questions. It was possible that these box-like devices were cells of some sort. A small girl might be able to fit inside of one easily. They'd just have to search each one until they found the one they were looking for. The demon glanced back to his leader for further instructions.

"Sir?"

[from here]

Heat weighed his options as he stepped into the hall. He could go left, head outside and see if one of those birds came down for him to make a meal out of again, or he could go right and head toward the main hall - see who showed up. While he was hungry, it was more likely that monsters would be there at any point, while patients would meet up and move on before he could reach them.

It wasn't as if he expected to find anyone. No other Embryon had arrived after he had, and those that had been here when he arrived were all gone now. Still, it couldn't hurt to check. He still hadn't seen Cielo. Maybe he was due for a visit.

[to here]

[M109]

The return from the Doyleton trip had brought with it a resolve Minato hadn't really been expecting. His conversation with Leon, and their exploration of the electronics shop in town, had renewed his interest in finding a music player for himself, and he spent a good portion of time after dinner thinking about the music room next to the Sun Room bulletin board. Somewhere along the way, he found the time for a power nap.

He pushed himself out of bed when the intercom crackled with the Head Doctor's night announcements, pausing long enough to listen before getting ready. By now, preparing for night exploration was almost routine, and he spent less time retrieving his gear than he did fastening his soccer mesh bag to his coat belt. A quick test of his flashlight led to him switching out the batteries. It looked like he would need to find batteries soon, too. Maybe he would have enough time to hunt some down tonight.

Minato spent his last few minutes in the room pulling on his standard-issue boots. With the weather as stormy as it was, he wouldn't be surprised if the "emergency reconstruction" involved a more sinister twist, like flooding. If brainwashing and zombie attacks were possible here, flooding was definitely not out of the question.

Finally finished, he locked up his remaining equipment and headed out into the darkness of the hallway.

[to here]

[From here]

Maybe she should go snatch up her patient file? Possessions, too. Yuffie'd never say no to free stuff, even if it was a bunch of crap from a lie of a life. If she was lucky, she'd get somethin' handy. Handy like a cellphone, or, hell, even a laptop! Yuffie wasn't a technical genius at the best of times, preferring to leave all that stuff to Reeve and the guys in R&D, but if she could get 'em up and working, they'd be like a gift straight from Leviathan.

[To here]

Although the trip was longer than usual on account of the rain and wind, the buses did eventually – and safely – reach Landel's Institute. No strange happenings yet; the patients were escorted off the buses according to the usual protocol and made to go to their rooms and change back into their normal uniforms while the nurses temporarily left them to retrieve their dinners and, in some cases, new roommates.

It wasn't long before the Head Doctor made one of his usual announcements:

"Welcome back, everyone! I regret I was unable to join you on your foray today, but you'll soon find that we had some new guests to attend to in your absence! And now, for your dinner: lamb curry, spicy, but served with naan and mildly seasoned steamed vegetables for anyone who might have a sensitive tongue! For dessert, we'll be serving each patient a slice of banana cream pie, and our usual drinks and dietary alternatives are available.

"I'm hoping you all didn't get too wet, and hopefully the hot dinner will warm you up in no time. Nurses, please escort our newer patients to their new rooms, and everybody, I'll speak to you again 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. Find new room assignments here. ]

Having said goodbye to Remy, Meche paused to think about where to go next. Lunch was the obvious decision, and looking at all the cookbooks had made her hungry anyway. She was pretty sure she remembered a restaurant on the next side street over ("Twin Pines," the coupon said); hopefully it had something a little healthier than burgers. She steeled herself at the bookshop door and ducked out into the rain.

It was really coming down now, and of course the nurses hadn't given any of them an umbrella. Well, it wouldn't do any favors for her hair--it was strange how that came back to her suddenly; she hadn't thought about it in four years--but there wasn't really anything she could do about that, so she decided she might as well get over it now. At least she had a hat and good rain boots.

With one hand pressed to her hat to keep it in place, Meche set off at a brisk jog down Main Street toward where she thought she remembered the Twin Pines was.

[for Peter Petrelli]

[from here]

The room they entered was full of tools, and Heat was reminded for a moment of vendors he'd known in the past. The ones in the Junkyard had been far easier to sort through than this mess, though it helped that they'd had a better idea of what to look for then. This was just shelves and racks of various odds and ends, some which seemed a little out of place given the overall theme.

He wasn't sure why they'd been sent to look through shops without being given some form of currency. The coupons they'd been handed didn't appear to be for anything besides food and some sort of service that would be entirely not useful to him. Even if he'd still had his karma ring, it was doubtful the shop here accepted macca for their wares. The ones in the real world before hadn't.

The workers in here didn't look any more friendly than the people on the street, and Heat unconsciously kept closer to Aigis just in case one of them decided to try something.

The transition was too disquieting. She remained where she was, staring at the ceiling. Appearing in one place after being in another wasn't entirely new. Blacking out in Unit 00 led her to open her eyes in the hospital ward more times than she cared about. This, though. Rei would say that this wasn't the same, if only for the lack of injuries. The strange events of the night had added to that--echoes of memories flashing in a hall too real to be only that. And a boy in an unlocked room resting in something that seemed strange in this place.

All of that, really. The other, the entry plug, the cool metal that remained in her hand. Almost hesitantly, Rei slid it under her mattress, some sort of instinct hiding what she should not have. Like glasses that were no longer near. When the nurse came in with a change of clothes, Rei acquiesced quietly, sliding the dress and jacket on efficiently. A passing whim thought to question the woman, but after the name argument from the day prior simply had the girl walking forward. Ikari's words and last night slid distrust in place of neutrality. There was something strange about the place she found herself in.

She quietly seated herself on the bus, staring out the window blandly.

[for Sai]

[[from here]]

The only place in the Institute Sasuke was truly uncomfortable navigating was the basement. He'd walked the halls of the structure aboveground enough days and nights by now to know the layout like the back of his hands; he used the hand that was beginning to grow slightly callused from nights of following the walls as a secondary reminder of location. The basement, however ...

The basement was another matter. Here, he was much more dependent on the other two than he was elsewhere, and the recognition of that and the discomfort of not knowing the expanse of the space at the bottom of the stairs (at the very least) sank tension into the line of his back. His grip on both the silver sword and his own weapon tightened as they descended, muscles instinctively tensed for a fluid defence if necessary.

Still, he couldn't regret the destruction of Itachi's eyes.

He shook the memory out of mind (memory without sight was more visceral than with it, the recollection of touch far too immediate) as his bare foot stepped out and found level ground, marking the end of the stairs. This was the last stretch where he could afford to take point.

"I could tell you some stories," Yuffie suggested brightly, "of unquestionable legality." Illegality, that was. Petty little things like the law didn't usually mean very much to her, except for the times when she had to uphold it. Always fun for the breaking, though, the law, and messy for the clean-up. Just the way she liked it.

Her nurse looked like she wanted to rub her temples. With sandpaper. "No, thank you," she said instead. "Why don't you run along, now?" Please!, was the unspoken request. Before I spontaneously combust. Or commit various acts of violence that would have me arrested, or placed in a loony bin. Like this one. Yuffie had quite a bit of fun filling in the blanks other people left. Sometimes she did it outloud, just to see the reaction; sometimes she kept it to herself. It really, really depended.

"Don't mind if I do!"

She took off, bolting out into the Courtyard. The weather was dour, overcast and threatening rain, but Yuffie didn't care. She'd refused a coat on principle, and had found herself bargaining: Fine, fine, Plucky had conced she could go without a coat, but unless she had at least a sweatshirt on, there'd be no outside-time for her. She ran a little ways down the dirt path, then toppled herself into a series of cartwheels. Straighten, run. Cartwheel. Straighten, run, just for the sheer sake of movement, and the whip of the wind. She laughed a little giddily, checking her gait down to a jog. Gawd, Leviathan, she'd needed this. Right from the get-go, she'd needed this. Every day she spent cooped up in side, the more nervous energy she had.

Nanaki had helped, she realized. Sort of. He'd…helped. In a way. His presence and everything that was wrong with it weighed on her, for sure, but he was still Nanaki. He didn't deserve to be here, didn't deserve to be stuck in a body that he hated and couldn't use, but all the same, she found herself glad to have him.

Yuffie started to hum, as she jogged leisurely around the Courtyard. A cheery little tune, one of her favorites; no, it was her favorite. A Wutaian walking song, with the roughly translated title of Pathway After the Rain. The pace stayed even but the tune picked up, and she found herself half-singing snatches of the lyrics to herself. It felt like ages since she'd last said anything in her native tongue, at least outloud; she wrote in it all the time.

[The Doctor]

Luckily for Mele, the night had ended before Tenzen had changed his mind and deemed Mele appropriate for target practice. Even if the situation of who was mocking who had seemed to change into the Iga ninja's favor. Despite her behavior, perhaps the insolent woman could serve some sort of use nonetheless. He had been trapped in this place for a week by now, he would not accomplish anything on his own.

A week was a long time, a lot could have happened. Of course, he was thinking of the war, the bloody clash of two rivaling ninja clans, whose hatred had gone back for four hundred years. After that infuriating peace treaty had been broken, he, too, could finally release the hatred. And despite their losses, Tenzen had been certain that the Iga clan - no, that he would be the one to remain standing.

Four had remained on both sides a week ago...had the remaining Kouga already been killed? Or had they somehow succeeded in disposing of the remaining three Iga (excluding himself) during his absence? Of those three, two were blind. The situation was not a favorable one, and with himself trapped here before he could return from death, he had to wonder if the Kouga had removed the name 'Yakushiji Tenzen' from the scroll and would believe they had eliminated all of Iga's chosen ten.

The thought - along with no manner of telling this - was enough to make his jaw tighten. The longer he would remain here...

But as unfuriating as it was, it would not help him return. After confirming the presence of the scalpels he had retrieved, a nurse entered his room to escort him to the cafeteria for ridiculous Western breakfast. Unfortunately, the same ridiculous food was the only source of nutrition.

Upon entering, the ninja noticed he was the first to arrive to the area. After deciding on a salad rather than these so-called 'pancakes', he moved to one of the many vacant seats.

[Free to a good home. No limits!]

Heat was able to ignore the still faintly throbbing spot on his head as he was led back into the cafeteria for another meal he had no intention of eating. He kept himself from rubbing at what he knew would be a small bump because dammit it didn't hurt that much. It was embarrassing, was what it was.

At the fishy odor filling the room when he entered, the demon wrinkled his nose. How that was supposed to be the slightest bit appealing he had no idea. Then again, it wasn't always the taste that mattered. Whatever this cod was, it could very well taste better than the rotting flesh he'd gotten down the night before.

His nurse made some comment about his lack of appetite, but he wasn't paying attention. She could eat his damn lunch if she was worried about it going to waste. It wasn't his fault they didn't inform their staff properly of their patients' eating habits. The room was fairly empty too, so Heat wasn't picky with where he sat. He just hoped one of his tribemates found him before he was stuck with some other pest for the duration of the meal.

[Sasuke?]