Mello did not have high expectations for the evening.

If the previous night had been any indication, they'd get about thirty feet before Near's obsessive observation habits ruined any hope of beating the time curve, but without the bulletin to find a new group he had no choice to repeat the effort.

Normally, he waited several minutes to set out into the hallway, but this evening he had no time to spare.  He closed the door behind him and stepped quietly down the corridor, flashlight focused a few feet before his slippers and ears focused on the silence that surrounded him.  His other hand clenched his knife, which he'd modified by wrapping the metal grip in surgical tape.  In the unlikely situation that his hand was slick with blood, he couldn't afford to have it slip from his grasp.

He reached the end of the hallway and turned, glad that Omi's room was nearby.

[to here]

[[from here]]

Kagura walked hesitantly into the store, following Leon and trying to remain unobtrusive.  The place was full of stuff she knew nothing about, but she kind of liked the woodsy smell it had.  She did as she'd been told and walked up to the counter, hoping to speak with the large man who worked there. 

"Um, hello sir," she said politely.  "It's okay if we look around, isn't it?  It's a very nice shop."

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.

[from here]

It felt weird entering this particular men's block without going to see Hitsugaya. It felt even weirder heading to Mustang's room. Since Kimbley's death was posted on the board and what some of the others had said about him, Momo wasn't so sure anymore about what the alchemist had told her about the colonel. Maybe he wasn't as ruthless as Kimbley made him out to be.

maybe she was just looking for something to keep her mind on other than how much she just wanted to burn her way out of this gigai and destroy this place. Not that she could feel even a thread of Tobiume at all. And then there's that shinigami that no one knew that seems to know some of the others. She could feel her presence, as well as Hantarou's, but she also needed to think of other things.

Like getting the key back to Mustang.

[to here]

The intercom came on, and as it did, it seemed to carry a little more interference than usual for a daytime announcement, a little more static. While the patients might have thought for a moment that once again the elusive woman on the radio had hacked into the Head Doctor's system, the man himself soon proved that theory faulty as he laughed over the broadcast.

"Hello, hello, everyone, and I'm sorry for the bad quality of this broadcast; we've been having some technical difficulties lately, you see, and we wanted to make sure everything was fixed by tomo...."

His voice crackled out into inaudibility for a moment before fading back in.

"Yes, hopefully that will be done soon. In any case, now's the time that you all head back to your rooms to enjoy a delicious meal... seasoned salmon! Yes, we have filets of very tasty, very juicy salmon seasoned with herbs and garlic; on the side, we have mashed potatoes, peas, and to drink, our usual assortment of beverages. For dinner, you'll all be enjoying vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce."

The intercom's broadcast crackled again. The Head Doctor laughed, seemingly a little nervously.

"Ah, yes, perhaps we'll be able to finish the repairing tomorrow, when all of you are away at... Doyleton! Yes, yes, you're all in for a fun and exciting day, a day whose activities will be new for some and a welcome familiarity to others. You'll be under strict supervision, of course, but... well, I suppose you'll find out all about the circumstances tomorrow, before you set off, mm? Yes! In any case... I hope you all enjoy dinner!"

The intercom clicked off again as the nurses began ushering patients back to their quarters.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post. (You can find your character's room assignment here.) Remember, everyone responds to this post with their character's room number in the subject line. ]

[starting off in M13]

The last part of the night was little more than a blur in Homura's mind. The men had rushed in, but not joined them, instead staying off to themselves. Before any of them had a chance to react, however, a voice sounded through the air, mocking some other person Homura had never heard of, and the patients themselves.

To Homura, whoever that man was, he sounded a great deal like a god.

But before he could ask questions, the demi-god found himself no longer in the chapel, but some strange room on a bed. Is that what Kenren had meant from his earlier warning? Homura sat up, glad at least that the world didn't spin when he did so. Then the same man from before began to speak again, with a completely different tone. It was confusing to hear him talk that way, calling them patients instead of prisoners as he had before. Homura listened quietly as the announcement was made, then got out of bed.

Maybe he wouldn't have to go anywhere yet. It wasn't like Homura knew where to go anyway, and that meant he had time. If this was his room, and if he had been here as long as Kenren had said, there was a chance he could find something with answers. The Taisho had even told him that Homura had seen Rinrei. Certainly he would've written something down, made a map, something that could let him find her again! He started with the desk at the end of his bed, first finding a small stack of notebooks. Picking up the first, he flipped through, turning the pages with quickening desperation as he found each one to be blank.

Considering the mood Roy had been in when he had been brought back for dinner, he had been glad to find that his roommate was still in a deep sleep. He would have made for horrible conversation when he could only think about Kimbley's words, the look on his face, and the feel of him.

It wasn't like he hadn't been forced to endure that countless times before, but it had been a while since they'd had a talk like that. It was hard to stop thinking about, even with the prospect of nightshift ahead of him. It also kept him away from his food -- thinking about the possibility of having to burn someone to death (or tear them apart with claws, since that was a viable option now) wasn't very good for the appetite.

The announcement before nightshift came on as normal, and Roy was busy zoning it out until the doors suddenly opened long before they were supposed to. His head snapped up to the intercom, and as a strange recording started to play, he placed his full attention on it.

Things certainly seemed to be going wrong for the Head Doctor tonight, and that was almost enough to get Roy's mind off of Kimbley. He made sure to grab his radio this time, and while he had a few guesses about what was going on, he would rather stick to the original plan.

Granted, he had to make Reno his weapon first, but he might as well find Hughes and let him know about that while he waited for the redhead to show up. Roy stepped out into the hall and moved down to M6.

[Coming from here.]

The door was unlocked, much to his relief, and Tyler wasted no time in slipping outside, keeping his flashlight turned off for now. He didn't want to attract the attention of anything, especially since he was probably alone out here until Reid showed up.

Moving as quietly as he could, he slid the door closed behind him and stepped to the side, between the two doors that led back inside once more, and leaned back against the wall to settle in and wait for the blond to join him.

[Coming from here.]

Tyler turned into the wider corridor, pausing to take a quick glance at his map, making sure he could get to where he needed to go from where he was. Seeing there was a door at the end of this hall, he turned left, figuring that was the quickest route to outside and where he was to meet Reid.

[oing here.]

For a moment, Renamon paused. That was more unsettling than she'd care to admit. She needed to get out of here.

Ignoring her instinct to leave the small cramped room immediantely, she snatched at her map again, and made some adjustments to her night's plan. Still, weapons first, and for that she had to move. She grabbed three pens and stuck them in the waistband of her pants, and held a fourth in her hand with the flashlight. It wouldn't come on for a little bit. She knew this part.

She didn't know what was going on. Not at all. It was bothering her, and setting her on edge; nicely ruining the calm she had worked to achieve.

Don't think, Renamon. Move.

[to here]

[from here]

Upon entering this hallway, he did slow his movements a little just to be more careful. He did know the way, but this was not a hallway he was used to traversing and that was reason enough to be more careful. The trip through it was quick enough though as he slipped into what was the only female block he was aware of. F3 wasn't far now.

[gone here]

Guy let out a sigh of relief as he made his way out onto the field, glad to have some fresh air and sunshine after going so many days without it. That was one of the hardest things about being kept in this place, in his opinion. At least during their journey they had been outside more often than not.

Even though he spent most of his nights moving around or fighting some monster or even running from a monster when he bit off more than he could chew, Guy still felt the urge to do something active now. Being in the thick of danger was pretty different from exercising for the sake of it, after all. Besides, considering how physically taxing the night always was, it was good to keep in shape.

His talk with Allelujah had also left him bursting with excitement at the thought of satellites and colonies in space and mobile suits, so working off his energy would be a good idea. He figured a few laps around the field was just what he needed, so he found a relatively clear area and started doing a series of stretches.

If he was lucky, maybe once he was done running he could convince one of the nurses to give him a bat so he could practice some swordplay. He had his own bat, but he was usually too busy using it to bludgeon things rather than to practice the finesse that sword work required.

[For Sync.]

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]

[ In M1. ]

Returning to his room only to find that his roommate was still in a deep sleep (which didn't bode well for him, Roy morbidly thought), the colonel quickly ate his dinner and then took the chance to get some sleep, figuring he had at least a half hour or so until nightshift officially started.

The nap wasn't much, but every minute of sleep that he could get was worth it, considering there wasn't usually any space for it in his schedule. The static was what drew him out of his sleep, and he wasn't surprised when it didn't do the same for Knives. He wasn't sure how the institute knocked patients out so absolutely, unless they came in during the day to drug them.

He considered just getting the arrows made while he waited for Kadaj and Jade, but he realized that Jade might want to see the process again, and possibly ask questions about it.

So, for the moment he stayed where he was on the bed, thinking over what the head doctor had said about the chapel. He wondered if Axel and Roxas might choose to check that out instead, though he wouldn't mind if they followed the radio clues either.

[From here.]

Sync stifled a yawn as he entered one of the main hallways, already knowing where it led since he’d already spent a majority of his time around the Sun Room that day. He couldn’t help but find himself smirking smugly as fond memories sprouted from those thoughts, wiping at his cheeks as if Anise’s tears were still smeared all over his face.

With Anise, Guy and that bastard Fon Master lingering around, he had to wonder who else managed to get themselves in this mess. From the way the swordsman tried to threaten him, Sync could only assume that there were even more of their allies around. Yet, in the same light, it sounded as if he was the only God-General there as well.

No matter. He knew he was more than enough of a challenge for all of them.

[To here.]

Oh, last session just went swimmingly. Maggie only blamed herself, of course- it would have been a whole lot easier to actually find something to say had she gotten to sleep at night. Instead, she had to keep herself awake by any means necessary and, when you're dead tired and cooking a meal at four in the morning, things will go awry. Her morning consisted of bandaging up her arm that got in the way of falling knives, the knives of which had been knocked out of their rack when she'd bumped into it. Ironically enough, the cuts on her arms looked suspiciously like claw marks, but she pushed it out of her mind.

She wasn't afraid of him- she'd beat his ass into the ground before and she wasn't scared now. What got to her was turning into daddy dearest.

She pulled the sleeve of her coat up to cover the bandages once more. Afterwards, she grabbed herself another cup of coffee and waited for her next patients. Hopefully, this time she'd be awake enough to actually help them.

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?]

[From here.]

"I haven't been here in a while," The redhead confessed with a lazy grin once they made their way inside. He took a step forward, keeping his body tense in case there happened to be something lurking in the shadows. Axel remembered what happened last time they found one of the radio's clues, and he was adamant about not letting that happen again.

"Keep your guard up."

[from here]

Because there were always so many idiots heading to the Sun room during the night, Albel Nox was a little surprised to discover he was actually the first idiot person to enter it. Even when he opened the door, he could tell there wasn't a single sign of battle just yet.

The warrior wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or not.

It had been a while (only a couple of nights, really) since he had a good fight, and the captain found himself itching for a new one. He lived his life on the battle field, and going without any fighting (or good opponents) for too long made him restless.

He swept the small beam of his flashlight around the room, not letting his guard down as he closed the door behind him and walked further into the room.

If there was some opponent hiding in this room, he'd find out soon enough. If there wasn't, it only meant he'd get to the basement faster. And whatever maggot hiding in said basement to fight.

[From here.]

[Specifically outside M1]

Nope, no one here either.

Axel sighed loudly. It wasn’t like he wanted to frolic around with two dozen or so people scrambling about, but he didn’t want to become bait for anything that was hiding in the corners either. He didn’t have much of a choice in the matter, but someone was bound to crawl out of their rooms at some point.

It didn’t take long to reach the end of the hall, but he made no move to knock at Roy’s door. It looked like the guy was expecting a few visitors and he was pretty sure that he wasn’t one of them. Nah, all he had to do was wait for the rest of his teammates to arrive, drop off whatever they gathered up and off they’d go.

Leaning his weapon against the wall, Axel followed suit and nestled back against the hard surface.