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 doors had not even unlocked and Landel had already began granting them more examples of his cryptic rambles. Hnn. Perhaps Scar was growing paranoid after all this time, but it almost sounded as though as if he had yet another surprise in store for them, be it tonight or tomorrow.

The doors finally unlocked, and the former lion moved into the hallway carrying little else but a steel pipe for self-defense. He did not even have a real plan, as what appeared to be the trend as of late. It was ironic how he looked down upon others for running around like headless chickens, but with the painful lack of any progress it proved to be a difficult pattern to break from.

Anything was better than staying in the room, however.

Well, he supposed he should get to the main hall first and find some poor fool to go with him.

[To here]

[ from here ]

She'd kind of been expecting to run into someone by now -- hell, with the amount of people who'd been in the cafeteria? But maybe they were hiding out from the monsters that they weren't equipped to handle. After all, if Ruby hadn't been through what she had and lived as long as she had, she'd probably be curled up in her room for safety, too. It wasn't like she was excited to tangle with these freaks.

But, it was a necessary evil, just like most of what she was doing these days. The nurse's station that Roxas referred to was on her right as she headed down the hall with slow, purposeful steps, following the path that the nurse had taken her out through while the lights were up.

A part of her wanted to know how aware they were of this shit -- of the fact that they were basically leading the patients through the paths they'd need to know to screw them over. Probably. Judging by Landel's taunts, they knew a lot of what went on. Security cameras, maybe? She hadn't seen any -- yet -- but she couldn't eliminate the possibility.

[ to here ]

[from here]

And the center of the main hallways it was. Nice and tidy, right, right; a bit too quiet to be sure, but hey. The place would probably liven up soon, one way or the other. She, on the other hand, just needed to wait here for this Scott guy so they could go on their important mission of stealing instruments that may or may not be there.

...Yeah, this might have been a way to release some stress by not worrying about things for a little, but hey. Senna was reminded of Reid, and that damn ice field night, but either way, things had started off the same that night, hadn't they? Ah, well.... The girl stretched upwards, then wandered next to the entry room doors, leaning against the wall. In her shinigami uniform, with the red-hilted sword in her waist band, she might have made an impressive figure... If she wasn't only five feet tall. Oh, well. Intimidations could be had by someone else. Senna would just stick to wit and charms if she got accosted by a random passerbyer.

[For Scott!]

[from here]

And again, quiet. Silence broken only by far off footsteps and the creak of a building settling. There was more in the darkness, Ayanami knew this, but currently nothing had stepped forward to show itself. This night was too similar to another, and her hand raised to her neck without meaning to. There was nothing like trauma in this, she told herself. It was only that she had become wary of empty halls, had become distrustful of others in the dark.

More than before, it seemed. Still, Rei moved slowly, satisfied with checking the hall thoroughly before passing through.

[Eva pilots!~]

With breakfast finished and a new acquaintance made, the Scarecrow's mind turned to his other friends. The disappearance of Depth Charge's friend had brought back memories of how he'd felt when Kaiji went missing: helpless, useless, as though he should have and could have done something more to find him. If only he had his brain, then maybe he could have thought of something!

As much as he didn't like to admit it, it was unlikely his former roommate was still within the Institute's walls at this point, though the Scarecrow wouldn't know for sure unless Kaiji returned to visit him as Dorothy had, encouraging his supposed recovery. There was still the concern that Landel, despite his vile methods, was actually right and he was suffering from the delusion of having been a scarecrow in Oz. After all, that movie had been a pretty elaborate trick. Would he have planted it in town on purpose, knowing the Scarecrow would be taken there the night of the enchanted doors? And how could he guarantee that once he did find it, he'd take it and actually watch it? There was so much guesswork involved- it seemed the Wizard Landel either liked coincidences or he had more power on his side than any of the patients could have guessed.

The Scarecrow stopped by the bulletin board before heading for a seat, considering writing a note to his friends to check on them. He'd heard from Depth Charge, Remy, and Kibitoshin within a day's time, so he figured they were probably fine (as fine as Depth Charge could have been after last night, anyway). He'd seen Mele and Scar the day before. He put a finger to his head, thinking- he'd not heard from Abe or Sangamon in a day or so, but being professionals, they were probably very busy. Perhaps a note would be best for them.

[Kibby]

With sigh that toed the ambiguous no-mans-land between soft and explosive, Yuffie collected a plateful of waffles with all the toppings. She was sure that, if nothing else, it'd making a pretty satisfying splat if—when?—she launched it at somebody's face, and that was all that counted.

"Hanna, isn't that a little much?" Plucky asked, doubtfully.

"Uhhm. No. About, like... a little while ago, I managed five caramel apple pies with ice cream and berries and, y'know, I think there was a gallon of soda involved at some point." It wasn't the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. There really had been five caramel apple pies, but Cloud had ended up wearing two and a half and the third had taken a vacation to Boobsville (Tifa had loved it. Really. Really). The moral of the story (as she'd told Marlene and Denzel later) was that anything was game, just as long as you could run fast enough afterwards.

The nurse nodded slowly. "I… suppose. Well, I'll leave you to it. See that you behave, won't you, dear? You need to set a good example for the new batch of patients."

"My examples are the best examples," Yuffie proclaimed, with the dark-bright grin that still came so easily, no matter how little she felt really felt it. It lingered even when the nurse had flitted off to deal with another charge, but there was an edge to it. What the edge was, Yuffie couldn't say. Didn't want to say, after what'd gone down last night. Nah, she had better things to do; things like sitting down and waiting, just waiting, for Cloud or some other sucker of an easy target to walk through the door.

[HARLEY HARTWELL o/]

No better way to start the day than with a bucket full of sunshine, huh? Too bad that'd been the opposite.

In the end, Yuffie had been more than glad to escape. All the angst and sap and drama; it'd been too much, and way too personal. She'd done her best, for her friend's sake, but that Tomoe chick was gonna be hard work. Why couldn't Kenshin have asked for her help in something simple, like killing the big bad of the day?

… Oh, wait.

Groaning, the young ninja gave up on just walking through the sun room. What kind of a way to cheer herself up was that? No, she needed something interesting—she needed a distraction. Walking on her hands wasn't a whole lot better than walking on her feet, but it did get Plucky going.

"Hanna, stop that this instant! You'll break your neck."

"Oh, come on; only a moron'd kill themselves doin' a handstand. They're child's play!" Yuffie, after shifting her weight to her left hand, waggled a finger at her nurse. "It's a waste of my prodigious talent, actually. You really should be grateful." She hopped forward several more paces before dropping her hand back down.

"Be that as it may," Plucky replied, doubtfully. "I must insist."

"Insist away," said Yuffie, nonchalantly, pausing just long enough to let a cat stroll past her.

"You'll disturb the other patients!"

"Your face'll disturb the other patients." It was petty, and it was childish, but Yuffie didn't care; it was getting her what she wanted. And what she wanted was something to laugh at, something to poke at, something that, while it kept her wandering attention in the here and now, didn't really require her to think.

[For Kaito~]

[From here.]

When Locke opened the door, he was greeted by a rush of fresh air—something entirely unexpected, on his part. It was too easy, wasn't it? When he looked around, all he saw was a field, a shed, and walls that blocked him from being home free. Lucky me, he thought to himself, as he looked around the surroundings. So far, he'd managed to avoid any sort of conflict, but he didn't want to take chances. The more and more he wandered around without a weapon, the more vulnerable he felt. It wasn't safe, he knew, taking Zack's previous words into consideration.

Taking a deep breath, Locke looked over to the shed—a little too far for comfort. Crossing the entire field for whatever was inside that shack seemed way too risky for his own good, as tempting as it sounded. Instead, he remained by the wall, careful not to make too much noise. If not the shack, then, just what was beyond this wall...?

( No use worrying about it, right? )

[from here.]

Here was that right turn. About the only place Logan could get to with no confusion was the bulletin board, and by extension the cafeteria: straight down the hall, take two lefts. Once he got there, there was a possibility that he'd get held up - a handful of people had all said the same thing: trying to go through that room at night was a bad idea.

Well, it was a good idea; it just also happened to be dangerous. It sounded like the crew that'd tried to hit the basement last night had gotten held up, and there was nowhere else that could happen. There were two doors in the cafeteria that indicated there was some other way to get in, but Logan had no idea what that was. There was a door way behind him, but that was the wrong direction. With any luck, Kurt would have an idea.

With his luck, both doors led to goddamn broom closets.

[To here.]

[M57 and the hallway.]

The head doctor's mention of sleep studies just got under Zack's skin, but he knew that he couldn't spread himself too thin. It was impossible to be in more than one place at once, obviously, and he'd already dedicated himself to going to the basement. There would be other patients who had decided to help those poor people tonight, he was sure.

But then Landel went on and brought up the radio man, causing Zack to spring up from his seat and grab his own device. He was bringing his along this time, even if it meant that he had one more thing to carry. He shook it in Locke's direction, indicating that he should find and carry his own, just in case.

What else was there to bring? The flashlight, obviously, and his materia; luckily, the latter could be tucked into his pocket without a fuss.

While he knew he would probably just be meeting Aidou out in the hall (the kid had come to his door last time, and he'd said "same place," so... the hall was close enough), Zack still felt as if he needed to hurry, and so he was starting for the door before thinking too much about it. It was as he reached it that he glanced back to Locke again, half-tempted to ask him along. But they already had too many people who might be coming, now that Sasuke had signed up for certain. Zack was even considering telling Tifa to take it easy after all, since he didn't need her getting any more injured when she was already roughed up.

"Good luck," was what he said, sincerely and with a nod, before opening the door and stepping out into the hall. It didn't look like Aidou had made it there yet, and so the soldier simply leaned against the wall and waited.

"Well, that's it for today's activities and hygiene!" The Head Doctor said with a jovial tone just after the sound system's jingle. He seemed excited and maybe even giddy. "Our nurses will now be escorting everyone back to their rooms, and some of you might find that you have brand new roommates to share your dinner with! That's right: we've gotten a whole new batch of patients, and I hope you all are as well behaved with them as you have – ...well, as most of you have been with our staff. Because of this good behavior, I'd like to remind everyone that they may stop at the Arts & Crafts room to bring their origami figures back to their room and decorate as much as they like!

"In any case, our dinner tonight will be herb chicken – breast and wing or leg and thigh, whichever you prefer – served with hot – well, not too hot – vegetable soup, caesar salad, and lightly fried rose potatoes. Our usual drinks are available, as well as alternatives for special diets, and dessert will be a delicious caramel apple.

"I believe that's all for now. Goodbye, 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. ANY NEWLY ACCEPTED CHARACTERS MAY POST TO THIS SHIFT (but are not obligated to if you would like to wait for Nightshift or Dayshift); please refer to the new room assignments before posting. Thank you! ]

No. Not even that ever-so-charming red-headed girl wasn't able to take his mind from memories dragged to the surface. It wasn't so much of a surprise--those things, that girl, had occupied his mind for a long period of time. Where every waking thought, after reaching over to find his twin's mind on her, became an undulating hatred of her presence. And so being reminded of that again had become simple. He had hated that girl. And there was nothing more clear than that fact. Nothing.

Even still. Stepping into the empty shower room was almost a shock. Every one since he had arrived here had been shared with one sibling or the other. The absence of both-- Though both should already have been recognized. Was he still looking for Rubedo, out of habit, when Albedo knew, knew in the way that his heart was beating solitary yet again that his twin was no longer here? How absolutely pitiful he was. With no wanting to stay, Albedo hurriedly washed to the nurse's specifications, then moved to leave. To come nearly face to face with the baby. Blanks looks and shifted eyes seemed the norm, and even as Albedo didn't move to break the pattern, something burned within his chest.

Something close to hate; something touching on despair.

[to here]

They actually listened to some of the suggestions people put in that box? Anise thought the Head Doctor had to be joking when he said that, but she soon heard him mention something that she herself had suggested: sewing supplies. They were really going to get some? Anise could finally get a real needle, so she could make repairs to Tokunaga whenever she needed to. She swiped one of their blunt, plastic needles before, but using that just left big holes in the fabric. Using it on Tokunaga made her feel bad, like she was hurting the poor doll.

"Isn't that nice, Dolores?" The nurse must have caught Anise's hopeful look. "But remember, you'll need to be on your best behavior until then."

"I know, I..." Anise began with her usual dismissive reply, but quickly remembered that the intercom had said 'behavior and attitudes', and instantly changed her tune. "I'll do my very best! Hee hee!" She forced a smile for the old hag.

Unfortunately, the sewing supplies weren't here today, so Anise had to find something else to do for now. Stepping inside the Arts and Crafts room, she quickly found that several tables already had paper craft ('origami,' they called it?) supplies laid out for them, so she guessed she'd just occupy herself with that. The girl sat down at one of the tables, opened up one of the books, and started looking through it.

Cranes, frogs, horses, turtles... There were lots of familiar animals, and a few unfamiliar ones, too. The rabbits looked kind of cute.

[For Ilia!]

Leela was an interesting new person to meet, but now Forte was ready for the main event. He'd been wanting to fight someone or something since he was on his feet again, and now he was even more wound up. He'd been hoping to see what Scott or Sechs were like in a fight, even if they had more experience with this kind of battle than he did (unfortunately, he was just remembering that, despite what he had learned from Sheena, he had little real experience with hand-to-hand). But now some asshole that thought he was so much better than him had appeared, and Forte was ready to focus his frustration on him. Winning or losing, as long as he got to beat the crap out of him, the robot would be happy.

As he stepped out onto the field, the sun wasn't as bright as the last time, but it was better than rain. Unfortunately, the grass was still a bit muddy and slick from the previous night's downpour. At least he'd put his sneakers on again in anticipation of going outside.

He took a few steps to test the slickness of the ground, and waited for this mystery jerk from the board to show up. His eye-marks should have been clear enough identifiers, but eager as he was, he was the only one out here so far. On his end, it shouldn't be too hard to identify his opponent. He'd just look for the smug bastard coming out of the building.

Somehow, after their talk in the chapel, Elaine felt simultaneously more accepting of and more irritated by her future husband. On the one hand, seven years had clearly been good to him. He seemed more sincere and thoughtful than he had been before his disappearance, and he had a more mature (dare she say, handsome?) look to him. On the other hand, there were clearly some things that made even time throw up its hands in vain and say, "To hell with this!" Guybrush was still inexorably prone to disastrous accidents if the story about the Pox of LeChuck was anything to go by, and he was so obviously keeping something important from her that any passing dolt in the Institute would have been able to tell. In the end, that eternal underlying sweetness of his that won out, keeping her from punching him again, at least. That was only by a hairs width, though. Her snugglecakes was going to have to stay on his best behaviour if he knew what was good for him.

She left the Mighty Pirate™ alone for the time being when the announcement of the next shift went off. He would want some time to catch up with Morgan next, presumably. As much as the woman's attitude bothered her, she was a friend of Guybrush's, as she had claimed. Elaine could be strict, but she wasn't the kind of shrewish future wife/past fiancé who would keep her man from seeing his friends. Besides, she needed some more time to catch up on the goings-on of the Institute. Patients filled the building to the brim, now, it seemed; there would be a lot to investigate.

After a few quick trips back and forth to the bulletin and a few new leads to follow up on, the governor gave in to her nurse's persistent nagging and headed to the cafeteria for brunch. After the relatively light fare of the day before, Elaine took advantage of the Institute's admittedly scrumptious offerings and loaded up a full, balanced brunchfast of eggs, sausage links, waffles, and vegetable soup. As expected, the selection of drinks did not offer either root beer or grog. Grog she could live without, at least, she thought while making a face. Eugh. For now, she settled for a tall glass of water.

Elaine settled into a seat in the cafeteria and tucked into her meal. Her eyes didn't stay on her food, though, instead gazing around restlessly; she hadn't seen LeChuck so far this morning, and god forbid he wanted to invite himself to brunch with her if he chose now to show up. A certain horribly unpleasant dinner on Mêlée Island came to mind. She was prepared to either move at the first sign of the dread pirate or signal a random stranger to sit with her before he could.

[For Dean]

"—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!]

The return trip had proved inconsequential, no significance beyond increasing rainfall and silence between brothers. If he missed a crucial detail, Nigredo would not have known--the sharpness in his arm had occupied all thoughts, bringing wayward attention to the background. He spent the bus ride leaning his forehead against the window pane, consciousness slipping in and out of sleep.

A nurse who had observed the child's behavior noted the probable cause and took him aside when they reached the front entrance of the institute. Before escorting him back to his room, she administered a dose of painkillers. "Vicodin," she had explained. The lowest available dosage. It still managed to be potent enough to hinder awareness, and before she could properly take him back to his room, Nigredo had drifted away.

Unlike the cold and clammy sleep on the bus, this was warm. Constant. For once, the child who rarely dreamed did so in vivid imagery, events he had once set aside now returning in full vengeance. He dreamed of the time in the Conflict, shortly after he had given up on his search for the eldest to return to their rendezvous point. The decision had been a mistake, Nigredo recalled. The consequences had been nearly fatal. But for all the blood spilled and bones broken, he could only concentrate on a violent glee in his brother's actions, magenta and U-DO and hatred mixed in the expressions.

And he couldn't recall what he might have done to earn such a thing.

He blinked awake as if returning from ordinary rest, and carefully tumbled out of bed. Sounds of rain and thunder rang in the distance as Nigredo situated himself, the dull haze of medicine rendering the task difficult. He was surprised to find no trace of his previous clothes; the nurse, it seemed, had replaced him back in the uniform while he had slept. She even provided a sweatshirt to account for the temperature. For convenience, Nigredo surmised.

A soft sound alerted him to an entity in the room, and his eyes found a dark form on the other side, indicating the presence of a sleeping roommate. Impulse had him reaching in his bed for the handgun (it was only right, after all), but the recall of a brother's face left the weapon unused. Instead, he quietly wrapped the holster around his waist and exited to the hallway.

[To here.]

[ Continued from here. ]

The damn burger place was actually the last place Haseo would have wanted to revisit after the previous week, but there was little other choice when practically dragging the distraught Endrance along with him and trying to find an appropriate shelter: he couldn't be certain anywhere else close would have somewhere to sit down, and the only other place he'd actually been inside of - the grocery store - had been somewhere Endrance had also been in when the town had been full of zombies.

This was where Haseo had been with Leon and Kibitoshin when the nightmare started, but... well, he couldn't remember if he'd ever mentioned that particular piece of information to Endrance or not, and at the moment going somewhere that wasn't as bad to Endrance, even if it was more unsettling to Haseo, was more important. Most of the places were enough to make Haseo feel secretly sick to his stomach anyway.

Hurrying through the door, he immediately guided the Blade Brandier to the side, behind a dividing booth and by a window sporting a display that mostly blocked it. He couldn't keep from staring around a bit (was that chair over there the one he'd used as a weapon?), and his mind was strangely blank, but he'd gotten alright at doing things without thinking. If only that could work all the time.

"Sit," he said seriously, and made to do the same.

Meeting with Anise had been fun as well as relaxing, but the rain was coming down even harder when he left the shop than when he'd entered.  Still, he'd promised Tsubaki that he'd meet her at the park.  And it wouldn't do for him to stand up such a good friend.  So he was stuck waiting under the trees in the park, holding Usa-chan tightly, half-stuffing the plush into his jacket to keep it from getting wet too.  Rainy days weren't so bad when it was warm, but when it was cold, they were downright miserable.  He moved from tree to tree every few moments, to get a better vantage point.  Maybe Tsubaki got distracted or found a different friend to play with instead?

He let out a sigh.  Even the park's playground equipment was too wet to be any fun and the sandbox was more like a big mud puddle.  At least he didn't have to worry about zombies this early in the day.  They could still have fun yet.  He tried to look as optimistic as possible as he glanced around the park.

[Tsubaki ♥]