Renji was in a weirdly good mood as breakfast finished. Brook was one of the stranger conversations he'd had in a while, and maybe that's what made it easier to feel less like punching everyone in the face.

Even with a light headache starting to build behind his eyes - maybe there was a storm coming or something - Renji managed to be something approaching polite to his nurse as she took him back to the room so he could grab his coat.

He also realized that he hadn't seen Sora at breakfast and asked the nurse if she knew what happened to him. He had to resort to describing Sora, since he couldn't remember the kid's fake name. But the nurse knew who it was and told Renji he was sleeping.

That was worrying. But Renji told himself it was nothing to freak out about yet. Maybe. He'd sure be checking in with Sora as soon as the kid woke up, and he wasn't going to stop feeling worried until he did. But until then, that also meant someone had to deal with Arts and Crafts for the day. One the way back out, Renji took a quick detour to the bulletin board. It was better to concentrate on business than worry anyway.

Out in the courtyard he stuffed his hands in his pockets and started wandering around, just trying to keep the blood moving. The cold didn't really help the headache, but he used to everything just sucking at random.

[Free to a good home]

[from here]

"I know you didn't believe at least half of what I told you at breakfast."

And she supposed that was being a bit generous. But why should he have believed her? She really couldn't blame him. This place was full of half-truths and illusions as it was.

"But I hope you at least verified what I told you. I have no reason to lie to you, Scar. What purpose would lying to you about this place possibly serve me?"

If nothing else, she figured an appeal to logic might have more impact on him. She really didn't have any reason to lie to him. Not about the Institute. And for goodness sake, it wasn't as though she could carry on a lie. All he needed do was ask someone else!

Sora wasn't quite sure what to make of his talk with Doctor Facilier. The man hadn't revealed much about himself even as he'd asked all those questions, so it was hard to form an opinion. Sora could only hope that he had proved himself to be more than just a kid over the course of their conversation, though if not, then that was the doctor's loss, right? Sora figured that he was a pretty good resource in this place after having been stuck here for so long.

As for the note that he'd put up for the club, it had gotten a lot of responses already, which he was glad about. It meant that his friends were all safe and sound, and more than that, they wanted to keep working with him. He'd even gotten a few new people to sign up, counting Renji and the other person who had apparently been recruited by Soma. So while they had missed an important opening last night, Sora wasn't going to let that get him down.

Oddly enough, there was a slight change for today, which was that they weren't going to be eating lunch in the cafeteria. Sora stared down at the bagged lunch that was put into his hands. They were usually only given something like this when they went out to Doyleton, but...

If it meant that they would get to go somewhere else for the shift, then Sora wasn't about to complain. The problem was that he'd already been to these rooms so many times that nothing really struck him as exciting. They'd gone to the Game Room just yesterday, though, so in the end he picked out Arts and Crafts.

Figuring that he should get his meal out of the way first, Sora took a seat at a table and started to dig through his lunch. "Hey, grilled cheese!" Nothing to complain about there. Sora unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite. It felt weird to be eating in here, but he wasn't going to let that stop him.

[For Woody.]

Dawn broke with the hustle and bustle of staff, uniformed men and women moving to and fro to wake patients from their slumber. Those who managed to slip through their watchful eyes and gain an extra minute or two of shuteye were soon rudely awakened by a rather enthusiastic man with a Western accent.

"Riiiise and shine, Landel's Institute!" the man chirped over the intercom. The tone was almost disgustingly cheerful. "Major Harrington here with your welcome call! All soldiers are to report to the cafeteria for their morning meal. We ask that you be prompt! Loiterers may find themselves without food for the day.

"Also," he continued, the word an afterthought, "we will be offering several opportunities for rewards later in the day. Keep your eye on the bulletin board if you're interested."

The intercom clicked off.

[ As a reminder, Day 58 is a normal military day. NEWLY ACCEPTED CHARACTERS are free to reply to this with their introduction post. Please have your character wake up in a random room if we have not yet assigned them. Thank you! ]