The conversation that Sora had had with Sam had definitely made all of the cleaning far more bearable. It wasn't even that they had talked about anything that groundbreaking, but the man had been kind to him and it had given him something else to focus on. All in all, being forced to clean hadn't been as bad as he'd expected.

And now that it was over, it sounded like it was time to go to the showers. That was for the best, seeing how cleaning actually ended up making you kind of dirty.

More than that, Sora was lucky enough to be one of the first people who was led into the showers. He considered asking the soldier who was escorting him about the pins for his hat, but in the end it made more sense to wait until he was getting dressed again.

Changing out of his clothes, new as they were, wasn't a problem; his own outfit that he wore back home was far more complicated, after all, and so he had the buttons undone and the belt removed in seconds.

After that, Sora quickly moved toward the back of the shower area, turned on the water, waited for it to heat up, and then stepped under the spray. He'd learned some time ago that trying to talk in the showers usually didn't work so well; all the running water was too loud and he was too awkward, even if he'd gotten much better about it over time.

It was still better to just get it over with and then head out into the Sun Room, and so once he was decently clean he turned off the water and headed out to get changed again.

[To here.]

[from here]

"Yup," he confirmed, and suddenly veered off into the hallway containing the doctor's offices. Uhura was following close behind anyway, as he could see from the beam of light traversing the walls ahead of him. Kirk had been here twice before, once during the day for his own therapy session, and once during the night with Chekov. The corridor they entered now existed in an eerie world in between those two trips: claustrophobically half the width of the main hall and shadowed at the dead end, but the single flickering, functional light overhead at least told him that they weren't walking into a frog-shark-man-monster ambush. Small favours.

Second door on the left was Dr. Kisugi's office, but Kirk didn't need a flashlight to see the absence of a name plate. He frowned slightly as he touched the empty slot on the door. "Her name was Kisugi. Scary woman. No sense of humour. You would've liked her." Kirk shot Uhura a smirk at that, but there was no real amusement in it. Had something happened to her? True, he hadn't exactly liked Kisugi, but he also hadn't forgotten the possibility that the doctors were as much victims as they were.

Still, on the hierarchy of people he needed to worry about, hospital staff ranked several levels below crew. He knew his goal for tonight. Information. "And I have no idea how they schedule appointments," he added, dropping his hand and continuing down the rows of doors. "I didn't sign up for anything before a nurse directed me here. Same with Bones, I think. And Spock didn't have a session either, so it's not that everyone gets therapy— well, assuming they didn't just take one look at his ears and decide it was a lost cause."

[From here]

It was before long Xemnas reached the final corridor he required to pass through in order to reach his destination. Though he was only three doors away from his goal, it hardly meant that the Nobody would already delusion himself with the fact that he had accomplished all this easily. Furthermore, he couldn't tell with certainty whether the Janitor's Closet would hold the supplies he required.

The Superior paused at the third door, discovering it to be locked. A rather weak and useless lock, however; a lock that would easily break under the pressure of force. It was only but a small hindrance that would be easy to take care of. Were they present, it might have been amusing to his subordinates that their leader would have to resort to breaking open a door by physical force, but Xemnas hardly considered such a fact relevant. The lock gave in easily, the door sweeping open and allowing him entrance to the room that lay beyond.

He had doubtlessly caused a significant amount of noise by breaking open this door, alerting potential threats lying in wait within the darkness of his presence. The Nobody didn't waste time going through the newly acquired entrance and close the door behind him.

[To here]

[From here]

Having reached the second floor without difficulties, it wasn't before long Xemnas emerged from the stairwell. He paused for the briefest of moments, seeking any disturbances of the silence and the unmoving darkness alike. Nothing leaped from the shadows, and even if others had, too, already made it to the second floor corridors, there were no sounds of battle drifting from other parts that would alert them of their existence.

Still tracing familiar steps, the Nobody moved into the direction of the connecting hallway that would lead him to his destination.

[To here]

[from here]

The stairwell was quiet.

... That was really all there was to it. It was identical to the one Rita climbed the previous night, but it didn't look like anyone else had come this way yet. Fortunately for Rita, that meant there would be less competition and less obstacles ahead... as far as people went, anyway. Monsters were another story.

Stepping lightly, so as not to make any unnecessary noise, the mage made her way up the stairs, using her flashlight to guide her. There didn't appear to be any threats nearby, but Rita knew it was never safe to let her guard down, especially in a place like this.

[From here]

If there was one piece of vital information that Xemnas had already grasped during his short stay here, it was that the second floor's main corridor was usually one that was guarded. As the Sun room, it was a center area that was often traversed by the various patients confined within these walls, making it rather logical to position something that would cause inevitable hindrance to those that would wander within the area.

Tempting fate by using that same route would likely result in unnecessary delay, as observing the very abominations that the head doctor allowed to roam freely in these halls wasn't among his goals tonight. Perhaps his current route would have seemed like a detour to anyone else, but to the Superior who could not feel the fear likely grasping some of those part of an existence, it was merely the most efficient way of reaching his destination. That was, however, not to say that he would not find any inconveniences along the way.

It was without any difficulties that the Nobody reached the Eastern wing of the institute, though it left little reason to rejoice. The darkness was still unmoved, not yet revealing that what lurked within. There was the briefest of pauses in the sound of his own footsteps as he searched for something that may leap from the darkness.

Concluding it to be relatively safe for now, Xemnas headed for the most Eastern staircase.

[To here]

[Currently M36]

Touya had thought that the last vestiges of his exhaustion due to the drain of his power had all but vanished, but apparently it had made one last stand. Touya awoke briefly when his nurse had brought in dinner, the last thing he remembered being talking with Yue in the hall.

Talking with Yue in the hall?! He sat up abruptly, noting the meal left on his desk and groaning. So he had slept through the entire day and no doubt both Yue and Yuki (possibly Sakura as well, though she didn't come out of her room very often really) were petrified that something had happened to him. They always met for lunch, after all.

Way to be, Kinomoto, he thought crossly. He'd decided that the best move now was just to get the last vestiges of this exhaustion out of his system, then go to meet Yuki right after the doors unlocked.

Which would have been a great plan, if he hadn't slept through the doors unlocking as well.

[To here]

"Made it..." She whispered triumphantly as she walked quietly into the dark and quiet hallway first. It was hard to decide where the best place would be to stand since once others began to flood in, Asuka could easily be overshadowed by the taller adults. "Hmmm..." The best she could guess was to hug the opposite wall by the doorway and hope she would pick out the two members once they entered.

Remember, Asuka, you aren't the veteran here.

This wasn't NERV anymore. She had no one under her to display her impressive and extensive training to. The redhead was a newbie like the ones she was going to be working with, though perhaps a bit more intelligent. This first mission was important for popularity's sake. She needed to play nice for now, gauge their strengths and weaknesses until she knew who she could topple the easiest.

[Waiting on Agatha and Zevran]

[From here]

"Ah...!" This wasn't the right hallway yet, but he could tell it was close from the fresh smell of patients off in the distance. He continued to jog briskly down the hallway, making sure to control his breathing so he didn't get winded so easily. There would be a lot of running (he hoped, at least) this night and it would be good for him to return to his basics in order to ration his stamina. Unfortunately, honing his stamina did nothing for his irregularly terrible night vision. Out of nowhere, he bumped into the wall beside him, squawking like a bird at the sudden impact.

"Jeez..." At least he only got hit on his forehead, that was the thickest part of him really. Keeping one small hand on the side of the hallway for safety, he continued forward, grumbling softly.

The intercom jingle was slightly different for this shift, almost as if it had gone up in quality. The Head Doctor gave a sigh of relief, his own voice clear as a bell despite the usual electronic buzz.

"Hello, everyone – from our new and improved intercom system! We've had electronics rehauling our circuitry, and you can hear the result quite nicely! A whole bunch of improvement! Right, anyway...

"As I'm sure you've noticed, we have a whole new bunch of patients that have joined us recently, and because of the changes in our roster, we've updated our roommate assignments, so some of you might be enjoying the company of someone entirely new tonight! Please be polite and friendly to anyone you might encounter!

"Which brings us to... dinner! Tonight, we'll be having a delicious 'bento box' meal consisting of fish and vegetable tempura along with chicken teriyaki, a bowl of steamed rice, miso soup, salad, and... green tea! Decaffeinated, of course. We can't have you bouncing from wall to wall when there's sleep to be had! Our usual assorted drinks and alternative meals are also available. Oh, and... dessert! Green tea ice cream, with a topping of red bean paste.

"I think that's all for now! I'll speak to you once more before bed time."

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. Please refer to the updated room assignments before posting. Thank you! ]

From his first session through lunch, Daedalus had kept to himself in his office, attention on his computer. It wasn’t just the patients who had questions, but the question was whether or not answers were forthcoming. He had his curiosities and even his doubts, to be sure, but now that he had come to see how the wheel turned here, but did he care? What didn’t affect his standing didn’t precisely affect him. He didn’t think prestige was as important an element as it was elsewhere.

As he typed, he thought, and as he thought, he watched the clock. Unless the second and final patient of the day failed to meet his expectations, Daedalus thought the day was going to end rather uneventfully. From the looks of things, there was nothing surprising in this latest patient’s file.

As the appointed time for the nurse to bring in her charge neared, he wrapped up his business and sat back from the computer.

[from here and waiting for the opposite one.~]

The hall was as empty as she had seen it. Silence glistened as severe as any palpable source. Voices echoed in the distance, but here there was nothing. No one. No sounds, but the dull creaks of a settling building and shifting ghosts. Last night gave rise to a new awareness. She did not take the emptiness at face value, did not trust the lack of others for what it was. The one on the board had offered the possibility of a monster, but Rei knew the feel of another body against her.

No, her assailant had been human. This remained fact. Over the edge of her plug suit, the bandage felt heavy. Weighted. A reminder to be productive if nothing else. She needed no other reason to devalue her own worth.

[down to here]

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]

The last thing Claude heard was the Head Doctor's voice faintly filtering into the corridors of the ship before he found himself tucked beneath the sheets of his bed. It took a moment to register he'd even changed locations, but then he he abruptly sat up, fought the wave of nausea that washed over him, and felt the blankets beneath his fingers. The room. He was back in his room now. Under different circumstances, he might have wondered if last night had been some horrid dream, but the sharp pain in his eyes gave him a rude awakening. Hissing through his teeth, Claude buried the heels of his palms against his lids, only to discover two cold compresses had been taped over them.

"Good morning, Thomas," he heard the nurse's cheerful voice from beside his bed. Her sudden presence nearly made him jump out of his skin, and he sharply turned toward the source of the greeting, heart beating rapidly in his chest. "I'm sorry you're not feeling well today, but hopefully you can still enjoy some of the activities we have planned."

'Not feeling well' was a bit of an understatement. His hand hurt, his stomach kept turning with every movement, and it felt like someone had dumped a bunch of sand into both eye sockets. Right now, Claude just wanted the nurse to leave him be, but it didn't look like that was an option. Taking his uninjured hand, she gently tugged him out of bed, despite his protests that, no, really, he just wanted to stay in and sleep, please.

"I think getting out of your room a little bit will do you good," she told him. "I'm sorry your eyes are probably hurting, though. If you're ever feeling uncomfortable, don't hesitate to ask one of us for some pills."

"What about eye drops?" Claude asked tightly.

"Oh, no, too much of that could damage your eyes," she cautioned, and the sheer irony of the situation hit Claude so hard that it would have been laughable if he didn't already feel like crying right then. The nurse was as oblivious to it as always, however. "I know you usually go into the chapel during this shift. Would you like to go there again?" Claude didn't answered immediately, but that didn't deter the nurse. "Yes, I think that sounds best..."

In truth, he probably should have requested the sun room -- it was closer, for one, which meant the nurse didn't have to lead him as far of a distance. For another, lying down on one of their sofas sounded like a good option. But by the time Claude came to that conclusion, he was too stubborn to say anything, and he made his way up to the second floor, his footing slow, but steady.

The nurse deposited him on one of the central pews, next to the aisle, before leaving him to himself. Thankfully, it was still early in the shift. As he paused to listen, the room was mostly silent, save for the footsteps and hushed voices of the occasional staff member or patient who trickled in. But it was probably only a matter of time before others came. For some reason, the thought of being stuck in a crowded room made him tense, not necessarily because he thought anyone would pay him any mind, but because he simply didn't want it right then.

Somehow, the full implications of what happened last night hadn't sunken in: experiments, healing himself, the issue of whether he could actually go home after this, not being able to see, the ship, father. Instead, he just felt saturated with all of it, paralyzed by the horror of what they'd done to him, and the uncertainty of what it all meant beyond this moment. Claude took a shuddering breath, uninjured hand balling into a fist in his lap.

[For Guy.]

[From here.]

Edgar awaited Gren a moment before starting the trek to Celes' room. Though he'd not been to the blocks where the women resided (the nurse wouldn't allow him to even go near that hall, and he had an inkling why), he had a vague idea of their whereabouts. He only hoped he could find her room quickly- in the event she was still within the institute's walls, he hoped to catch her before she wandered too far.

He clicked his light on as he walked ahead of Gren, hoping it'd be easier to keep track of him. "The doors unlock each night, as you've probably guessed. No one quite knows why. Aside from tempting us with escape, Landel releases monsters to roam the hallways. I've only seen one, but heard of many others."

Another night in the institute. Another night where he had to choose between huddling on his bed or venturing out to try and find his friends again. Somewhat surprisingly, he still had the courage to step out into the hallway and move on. He'd had a chance to talk to Rei and Kaworu today, but he hadn't seen Asuka in a day or two - he was worried about her. Flashlight in one hand, he set off again, the rows of identical doors looming in the darkness as he moved onwards.

_{[[To here.]]}

[from here]

When he rounded the corner into the larger hallway, Kurogane determined to put the thoughts of being the only patient there aside. Even if that were the case, it didn't change his final goal for the night. The magician would have been helpful, but he was confident enough in his own ability to get things done.

Finding the feather remained a difficult task though. The basement had been less than helpful when it had come to locating the source of this place's power. But the third floor... no one had ever been able to reach it, yet they all knew it existed. The outside of the building proved enough. They just had to find the way to get up. If that meant forcing a hole through the floor, then fine, because right now it was the last place to go.

[gone here]

[from here]

Kurogane couldn't tell how long it would be before he would begin seeing other patients about, however if the hallways continued to be empty for too long he would have to start becoming suspicious. There was no chance that he was the only patient in the place, yet the moment the thought crossed his mind, he couldn't ignore the potential that the building had for messing with them. Whatever magic was involved here could manage something that could make it seem like there wasn't anyone else around.

He was overthinking things now. Anywhere else and he'd have been able to handle things like this, but not here. Landel had managed too much. Had Kurogane not wanted to kill the bastard, he might have commended the guy for it. Maybe.

[gone here]

[From here]

Elaine had tried asking a few more questions of the nurse on the way to wherever it was they were going, but didn't get much further than she had back in the bedroom. Why was she a patient here? Because she was sick and needed to get better. What was she sick with? Best to let the doctors worry about the technical things, dear. Could she speak to these doctors? It was their day off today. Where were all the other patients? Most of them were out on a field trip. A field trip to where? "Miss Turner" would apparently find out next week, so it wouldn't do to ruin the surprise now. Was there anything she could say or hand over that would get her more answers? What do you think this is, Miss Turner, some kind of puzzle? Relax! Enjoy yourself!

Ugh.

By the time they reached the so-called "Game Room," Elaine was supremely frustrated and at her wits' end with the nurse, and insisted on being left to "discover" some fun on her own. Thankfully, this did indeed make the nurse go away. Oh, she didn't leave the room, but she did stand to the opposite side of it, at least, giving Elaine some space. The nurse had mentioned earlier that there were other new "patients" still in the building, but so far, it looked like she was the first one here. Fine, she could work with that. She could find her own clues without having to ask anyone else, especially if the other people in this building were as helpful as the one she had met thus far.

Her investigation started over at the game shelf. She took care to appear as though she were simply trying to select a game, but really, just reading some of the names on the sides of the boxes was enough to give her some tidbits of information. Of course, there were standards like chess, checkers, and Snakes & Ladders present, as well as several various decks of playing cards (thankfully, no Monkey Island™ Official Trading Cards; what had she been thinking, licensing her image to that thing?). Most of the others, however, such as Candyland, Sorry!, Trouble, Monopoly, Life, and Risk, she did not recognize. Pulling the Trouble box off the shelf, she found it brightly coloured and slickly designed, with a high quality, (gasp!) non-sepia-toned photograph of a child's finger pressing down a clear bubble on the front cover. Again, like the bedroom, the hallways, and the lighting around her, this game looked considerably more polished and advanced than most things she had seen in the Caribbean. Wherever she was, the people running it were likely on the cutting edge of technology and probably rolling in pieces of eight.

She took the game over to one of the mahogany tables in the middle of the room, settling down into a delightfully comfy chair. "If this is a curse, it's probably the nicest one I've ever been under," she murmured to herself in bewilderment, pulling the lid off the box.

[Closed to Morgan.]

With such a small amount of patients actually out and about at the institute, the intercom announcements almost seemed unnecessary. Despite that, on it went, and it was the head nurse's voice that came out. "We'd like to apologize for the current conditions," she said softly, "but your fellow patients will be back in time for dinner.

"I'm the head nurse here. Due to the unexpected change in weather, Dr. Landel is out trying to clean the gutters. He'll be back to speak with you at the end of the next shift, which will be spent in the Game Room. The nurses will escort you there. As you all had a late breakfast, lunch will come later on." Strangely enough, the woman's tone was more sullen today; did it have something to do with the gloomy weather? Who could say?

It seemed that those were the only words she could muster for the new patients, however, as without further ado the speakers cut off and the nurses jumped to action.

[ ALL NEWLY ACCEPTED CHARACTERS MAY POST TO THIS SHIFT. All character introduction should be made in response to this post. Please have your character wake up in a random room, as we have not yet assigned them. Thank you! ]