The intercom clicked on and the Head Doctor spoke with his usual fervor.

"Good evening, patients and staff! I am pleased to announce that the arrival of nearly all of our new patients will conclude this shift. In addition, we have a very delicious dinner in store for you: carved Turkey with a side of mashed potatoes and steamed, seasoned vegetables. For drinks, we have our usual assortment available, and as a dessert included with your dinner, we will be serving a slice of warm apple pie with each meal.

"I trust that those of you enjoying the company of new roommates will give them a warm Landel's welcome, and I also hope that those of you who participated in therapy today were able to find a productive time with their doctors.

"That's all for now! Enjoy dinner, everyone!"

The intercom clicked off again.

[ Please respond to this post with all dinner shift threads between roommate, putting your character's respective room in the subject line. While we have none scheduled for this shift at this time: all introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post; the introduction may then continue on to be a regular roommate thread. ]

The intercom didn't come on for quite a long while after the radio made its declaration of war, and when it did, the static that pervaded its broadcast was even worse than usual. Finally, the Head Doctor's voice came through, though his sentences were broken and his words hard to hear.

"...you... ....dare... ...I won't allow for... "

The intercom clicked off, then on again a few seconds later. The quality of the sound wasn't any better, and some kind of soft jazz was intermittently drowning out what did come through.

"Goddamn you... ....kill you... feedback... can't.....locked... ..the DOOR...."

On and off the intercom went, and for the next minute, anything the Head Doctor said was unintelligible. He did, however, seem to be yelling quite loudly.

Finally, some words came through.

"What... control is... ....that's preposterous... ...he's... ...no, I'll fire you once... ...what do you mean, you can't control the grid? Power's out for us too? What is he using, some kind of virus? The animals, too, they... Are you saying he's infiltrated our computers and we're stuck here, and... The new patients? Yes, they're in their temporary rooms, thank..."

The Head Doctor trailed off just as the intercom came back to full clarity. The sound of pounding footsteps could be heard, along with mad scrabbling.

"How is this still on--"

The intercom went silent.

[ All introduction posts for this batch of patients go in comments to this post. As we haven't yet assigned rooms, please pick an unoccupied room at random for your character to start in. ]

[From here]

Jack swung the doors open and wandered onto the rec field. The Fable, however, had no plans to stick around. His first nightshift he had come here and discovered a rather unfriendly monster and he had no intention of repeating that encounter. Pressing his back against the wall, he moved as quickly as he could to the other pair of doors that led into the mens' halls.

He didn't waste time. As swiftly and suddenly as he had entered the field, he was leaving it.

[Running along non-stop to here]

(From here.)

Heiji looked down the hallway before proceeding, then motioned for Kaito to follow.

"Keep your light off for now, but if you hear anythin'--anythin' that you don't like the sound of, let me know right away, 'kay?" A light was like a giant red arrow pointing downward with 'MEAT!' written on it.

[[From here]]
Maybe it was a test, he reasoned as he walked down the dark hallway and toward the other boy's room.  That was why they let everyone out at night.  And maybe the monsters really were just a part of his imagination.  He tried to convince himself that it was true, but his body couldn't forget the creature that had torn into his shoulder, or the cold feeling in his fingertips as his blood had pooled in the hall.  A bad dream.  It was just a bad dream.

Still, for all his reasoning, his footsteps moved just a little bit faster down the tiled hallway.

[M???]

Ken was used to strange nightly transitions, but even he had to admit, it was never up to this caliber. The Dark Hour was one thing; Landel's was entirely another. Certainly, the power outages were the same, but he couldn't recall a time a voice announced its arrival as well. There was occasionally Fuuka, of course, but she only spoke in a melodic tone and kind words. None of the harsh, grating threats he heard tonight.

Still, the aggressive words and the click of the door's lock did little to sway Ken's sensibilities (though her last words caused his heart to skip a beat), and the boy remained partly unconvinced. There was definitely something wrong with hospital--oh, no doubt now--but the monster issue was still worth skepticism. An outside investigation was his only option.

He hadn't forgotten Argilla's warning, however, and Ken began to prepare himself in case a dangerous threat was waiting for him that night. The boy briefly scoured the room for a makeshift weapon, finding a working flashlight after a five-minute search. It had a fairly good beam (not that Nemesis didn't already provide well-enough night vision), and it seemed durable. The range was nothing compared to his naginata, but it would have to do.

Flashlight armed and ready, the boy stepped out into the hallway and began to make his way down. He needed to find someone, anyone.

[To here.]