Under any other circumstances, Klavier would have berated himself on wasting so much time and getting so little accomplished over the course of an entire day. But when he found himself waking with a fever and a pounding headache, it suddenly seemed like a much better idea to slow down and tend to his health. ...That and he was terrified he had managed to fall victim to the current epidemic, and he wasn't quite sure what would be the best course of action. Exposing himself to the populace didn't seem like the best option, in any case.

He'd spent his morning trying to force himself to remain calm, sifting through his notes, and dealing with the constant harassment of his nurse... who simply couldn't fathom why he refused to take whatever pills she was trying to shove down his gullet.

Maybe it was because he'd refused the pills or maybe it was because he had successfully kept himself from getting too agitated, but he had slowly recovered over the course of the day. Enough that he felt up to venturing out for what little remained of the day. He was plagued with little more than a headache at the moment, so there was little point in allowing himself to remain completely useless. Did his fading symptoms mean he didn't have what others were getting? Or did everyone go through ups and downs? Nigredo had seemed alright the day before, so perhaps...

In any event, perhaps he should take this as a sign that he couldn't afford to delay his progress any further. A wake up call... or a warning, perhaps, from the powers that be. At the very least, he needed to obtain some of these flowers that supposedly cured what was spreading. Assuming they were still available to be found, that is.

...Funny, isn't it? How much time had they all wasted trying to figure out this illness instead of looking for ways out of this mess? Heh. Bravo, Herr Doktor.

Well. Nothing could be done one way or the other until nightfall. For now, he abandoned his continuously annoying nurse to venture into the Sun Room and examine the bulletin board. He'd missed out on an entire day's worth of "gossip", after all. He almost dreaded what might be waiting for him there.

[Flora!]

With his task successfully accomplished in the greenhouse, Guy was feeling even better as the end of the day rolled around. He still had a few things that he wanted to do, though, and so before he headed into the Music Room he made sure to leave a note on the bulletin board for Claude. He realized that he'd slacked off on making Abyssman posts lately, but seeing how only three of them were left at this point, it didn't seem that necessary.

And even though the day was almost over, Guy hadn't forgotten his decision to take a shower today. While he was perfectly warm and dry at this point, the memory of being soaked to the bone by the rain was still stuck in his mind. On top of that, the greenhouse had been pretty muggy, so the idea of being properly clean sounded pretty good right about now.

Surprisingly, the nurse didn't bat an eye when he told her that he wanted to take a shower. She led him to the shower area, which for once was completely empty, and stood outside the room as Guy was granted complete privacy to wash himself off. Not that he minded the communal setting, but it was nice to have a bit of privacy for once. He savored the feeling of the hot water soaking through his skin and let out a satisfied sigh when he finally turned the water off.

Once he'd dried off, dressed again, and toweled most of the excess water out of his hair, it was finally time to go to the Music Room. Guy stretched his arms up into the air as he stepped inside, feeling nice and refreshed for once.

Usually he went to go toy with the "Walkmans" when he came here, because he couldn't play any instruments himself, and so he wandered in that direction.

[For Ilia.]

For the first time since Kyousuke arrived, waking up didn't feel the slightest bit strange or out of place. It was still like night had suddenly stopped, with nothing in-between then and now, but instead of being disorienting, or like there was something missing, it was like waking up from a nightmare. His breaths came heavy and anxious, everything flooding back to him, but unlike last night, he had more mental clarity, and he actually understood what it meant.

Sora... was dead.

After a moment, his breathing seemed to ease up, and he sat up slowly, and simply stared down at his blanket. The motion hurt quite a bit, a lot worse than it had yesterday morning, but he seemed to be in decent shape, all considered. Sore, battered, a little faint, but compared to worst of it...

He wondered if he should feel upset right now, or want to yell, or cry, but the truth was, he didn't. If anything, he was just numb. Tired and listless. He wasn't sure what to think or feel about anything, but somehow it seemed distant and disconnected, like something that hadn't actually happened. Yet, if he lingered on it too long, the lifelessness grew into something nauseating, heavy and constricting in his chest, and he didn't even notice until he realized he was gripping his bedding unnecessarily hard. So he forced himself to relax, and not focus on it too much. ... He preferred the cold sort of nothingness.

When the nurse arrived, she wasn't empty-handed, unfolding a wheelchair by his bedside and looking at him expectantly, as if she wanted him to settle himself into it. Looking at it was strange and uncomfortable, and he found himself refusing automatically.

"... I can walk fine. I don't need—"

"What you don't need," the nurse said sternly, "is to be overexerting yourself. You got to walk around yesterday, and what do you do? You go and reopen your injuries! Honestly, Mr. Taylor, you might be young, but you need to take better care of yourself! Today, you're resting, and if you're good about it, we'll see about maybe taking the chair away tomorrow."

That was bad enough, but then she wouldn't even let him wheel himself, and pushed him along from behind. This was totally unnecessary... But though it made him feel helpless, Kyousuke didn't have the energy to argue, so he let her do what she wanted. She asked if he wanted to make a quick trip the bulletin, first, but... Would the news be there? There were people who deserved to know, but there would be reactions to it, questions he didn't want to answer, and feeling his stomach give a lurch, he decided he didn't want to deal with it. Any of it.

Once in the cafeteria, the nurse asked him about breakfast, but Kyousuke insisted he wasn't hungry. ... He wasn't. Sensing he wanted to be left alone, she wheeled him off to an easily overlooked portion of the cafeteria, but quickly returned, setting food and some juice in front of him, "just in case." She set a small paper cup with a couple of painkillers on the tray, and after that, she left, leaving the boy to stare down the meal he didn't really want.

[ Kratos! ]

[from here]

You know, he'd actually never been in here at night. A part of him would have loved to think "Oh well. It's just a bathroom. What's the worst that could happen?" But knowing his luck, the powers that be would decide to answer that. And if he had to choose one other location in the building where those things might pop up again, well, this would probably be it. Let's just hurry this up, shall we?

After taking a few moments to tentatively check the stalls and any blindspots that something might like to use as a hiding spot, Klavier made his way over to the sink. It suddenly seemed fortuitous that he had happened to think of picking up a thermos when he saw it earlier. Granted, he hadn't thought it would be used for something like this at the time, but he'd take what he could. He wondered if this meant he should consider his luck good or bad.

Evidently, that thought came a moment too soon.

When he turned on one of the faucets, what came out was... not at all what one would want to put on an open wound. The water was murky. Not just mildly dirty: murky. It was foul enough that he could quickly see it, even by flashlight, and he yanked the thermos away before it collected too much of it. But of course, some of it had gotten inside by then.

Oh, you had got to be kidding him. Was this really happening? Was this all really and truly happening to him over the course of a single night? He'd wasted so much time wandering around aimlessly, finding nothing but useless rooms and picking up nothing but garbage. Then he was attacked by those revolting things in the library. Then he was actually bitten by one of them. And then he couldn't find any proper medical supplies to dress his wound. And now... now he couldn't even get some decent, clean water?! Was that really so much to ask after everything he'd been through? Was it?!

And great. Now his thermos was contaminated with whatever this was, too. What a perfect ending to a perfect night.

He was sorely tempted to just throw his now tainted thermos onto the floor, go back to his room, and just pretend this entire night never happened. If not for the fact that his ankle really did need attention, maybe he would have done just that. As things stood, however, he was just going to have to take a deep breath and quickly find an alternative. He could mope and throw a proper fit later.

[to here]

[from here]

Though the word "library" was used, Klavier hadn't quite been expecting such a large room. Not to say he was complaining. He would much rather have too many options to look over than too few. This was exactly the sort of thing they needed. They were dealing with an illness here and very few of them had enough medical or biological knowledge to fairly know how to combat it. Even if it was obviously a condition that had never been documented before, there had to be information they could at least work with in here.

From where he was, he could see there were several rows of shelves to work with, and admittedly, though this wasn't anywhere close to his field, he was a bit excited. What to search for first? Something related to all "flu-like symptoms" and what could internally cause them? Or perhaps a book on how various chemicals can affect the human body. If anyone was really going to risk experimenting with a cure, it would be good to have a reference on what substances and combinations thereof they shouldn't be using. And information on what to do should someone be given the wrong thing would also be helpful.

Actually, no. To turn that about, maybe it would be better to find a book on medicines. Someone on the bulletin had suggested there be a focus on a particular sort of medicine. ...Ach. What was it? It felt like an eternity ago, but he was sure he had noted it in his journal. What sort of medicine was it? It hadn't been anything rare; he remembered being very familiar with the names. Come on now... He was certain if he saw a related word or something else that could serve as a reminder, he would immediately remember.

He moved to the first shelf, thoroughly focused on scanning every single book until he'd found the ones he wanted. This was going to take a while since he was unfortunately forced to do so by flashlight, but it wasn't as though he had anywhere else to be at the moment. ...So far there seemed to be a lot of binders. He had to be sure he not only found something related but something that would reasonably fit in his bag. Hopefully with room for more books as needed.

He left the binders for now, noting to check them more thoroughly once he'd gathered some thinner books. He really didn't want medical journals or theories or experimental therapy opinions. All he wanted were facts. There had to be reference books somewhere. Basic instructional books would also be nice, but that wouldn't really be in a room where licensed doctors were meant to look things up on the fly. ...Or he certainly hoped not.

[to here]

Around the corner was a dead end with several unmarked rooms. In a hospital, he wasn't really sure how to feel about that, less so when it was this one. Was this a good or bad sign? Again, he scanned the hallway around (and behind) him before he ventured toward the closest door. He opened it carefully, pausing when it was a few inches open to hear for any signs of movement or something being tripped. After there was no sign of anything, he entered the room properly.

Oh, that's why it hadn't been marked. It was someone's office. It was a simple office, but even in the dark he could make out the small, personal touches scattered about the room. The simple artwork, for example. ...Whoever's office this was seemed to have a thing for cats.

You know, it was strange. He'd been wandering around this hospital, just as everyone else has been, for weeks. And yet, it was only now that he was going into an office that he suddenly felt like he was being incredibly intrusive. Like he was breaking and entering. He supposed what he and everyone had been doing could be considered theft, but in light of kidnapping and torture on the staff's part, that offense didn't hold much water. Besides, they were taking things for the sake of their own survival and sanity, and they wouldn't even have to take things in the first place if these people hadn't--

Okay, he was digressing. He should be focusing on his surroundings. An office here was the perfect place to find potential information and the perfect place to set a trap.

[from here]

Maybe a dose of aggravation was just what he needed to get moving. It was hard to be afraid or paranoid when you were annoyed. Which may not be a very good thing, but he couldn't say he cared at the moment. He was starting to get impatient. Yes, maybe it was unrealistic to assume he would find something useful or incriminating in 20 minutes, but it didn't stop him from feeling like this was a waste. There was only a limited amount of time in which people could explore freely. If there was nothing in this place, he would rather be using that time to explore elsewhere. At the very least, he had to come across some medicine eventually, right? It was a medical wing. So it should stand to reason that it should have medical things. Then again, what did he know about the organization of hospitals? Maybe it was counter-intuitive for some inane reason.

Anyway. It looked like the hallway went into multiple directions at this point. And neither hall was completely straight, so he was doomed to walk around a corner where something might be lurking out of sight either way. Perfect. Alright. Let's just go.

He chose a direction at random and was rewarded with the sight of bathrooms along one wall. Though he was tentative going around the corner, there was in fact nothing waiting to pounce on him. Nor was there any staff or security walking around. You know, it might have made a little more sense for the rest of the institute, but it really was strange that there wouldn't be staff on night patrol at least here or upstairs. He'd never seen anyone. Where did all of them go exactly?

[to here]

[from here]

Unfortunately, it seemed he chose the most annoying room possible for momentary cover. At first glance, it was just a room with files lining the walls. It could have been a potential goldmine had they not been patient medical files. Oh, excuse him: "patient" medical files. He pulled one out randomly... Bailey, is it?... to confirm the contents. Sure enough, it was just a medical chart. A chart outlining details of a fake life.

And it wasn't just that. They were lies, defaming each individual in here. Lies that they wanted them to believe and were somehow brainwashing those closest to them into taking as truth. Lies that were annoying and offensive and a little too personal for them to simply have written up on a whim. It reminded him of something Ema had mentioned about how the doctors here seemed to have known absolutely every detail of her life somehow. Even things she herself hadn't known or been able to know. And the implication of that was just....

Right there, he closed the folder and put it back with an annoyed huff. At that moment, the thought of remaining in here much longer suddenly seemed immensely aggravating. It was a room full of fake information. It was dead end and it was beyond useless. And he didn't want to think about it anymore.

[to here]

[from here]

As he walked in, he noted that this was marked as the "Break Room." Which surprised him for some reason. Maybe he'd just been so disillusioned by the nature of this place that he just couldn't picture anyone on staff actually sitting around and eating lunch like a normal human being. He wondered if Herr Doktor ever graced this room with his presence.

It didn't really seem like a room worth looking over, but that thought made him think it was perhaps worth a little more than a glance. The chance of him or anyone else leaving something useful lying around in the open where anyone could find it was next to nothing, but one could say that about most of the rooms here. So it was worth the try.

Though he was originally careful when first walking in, the room was so positively underwhelming that after a few minutes of nothing happening, he managed to relax enough that he felt he didn't need to walk along the walls anymore. The break room itself had basically nothing that held his interest. There was a small kitchen with the barest of essentials, like most work kitchens. ...Was it sad that actually spawned some sense of homesickness?

He started opening some cabinets, mostly out of habit, before he realized, 1. What possible evidence/clues/items of interest could he hope to find in a kitchen cabinet? and 2. Any food he found here was not going to be any safer than whatever they served during dinner. So essentially, this was a waste of time. Although, after a bit of thought, he decided to take a thermos and a bowl. Something that could transport liquids seemed like something useful to have.

That seemed to be all he was getting out of this place. Well, regardless of how the rest of the night went, at least he couldn't say he came out of it entirely empty-handed, right? Not anything to be proud of, maybe, but it was better than nothing at all.

[to here]

[from here]

Was it actually physically possible for it to seem even more quiet in here than it had outside? It was like the air itself was just dead and refused to move. Like the stiff air of a church that made one just naturally want to whisper. Or was that just his own paranoia making it feel that way?

Klavier scanned the area as best he could from the doorway, but that was asking a little too much of his flashlight, it seemed. He ventured in carefully, suddenly feeling immensely stupid for having traveled here all alone. There was only so much one person could do to keep an eye on their surroundings, and already it felt like there were far too many places something could pop out from. The silence only seemed to make it feel even more dangerous rather than safer.

Just... No. Don't. Come on. He had to focus. He wasn't going to get anything done if he spent the entire time terrified out of his wits. He was armed, wasn't he? And the door had been locked. There was no sense in overthinking it. He just had to concentrate on what needed to be done and worry about reacting if the time should come. That's all. Alright then.

Except there was one glaring exception to this, and that would be the room across from him which had its door gaping wide open. To be honest, turning his back to an open door felt far too much like an invitation. There was no way he could move further in without feeling that open doorway staring at his back the entire time.

So, moving so his back was facing the wall, he moved over to that room first.

[to here]

[from here]

In any case, that wasn't a thought he could afford to linger on at the moment. He was venturing into unknown territory now and the fewer distractions, the better. Especially since he didn't even have a precise destination in mind. Nor anything specific he was looking for, per say. It was more a matter of trying to see if there was anything worth finding.

...And this is why he left investigating up to the police. Wandering around haphazardly and wasting time under the blind hope that just maybe he'll find something of value was really not his style. The police found the puzzle pieces, he worked on putting them together. That was how he preferred it. However, he didn't have that luxury here so more often than not, he found himself doing things like this on his own. In the dark. Armed with a blasted foot-long pipe.

He took a deep, quiet breath and turned his focus up toward the door marking the entrance to the Medical Wing. This had been an area of interest as of late. It was also an area he knew almost nothing about. The map that he had copied long ago indicated that this was a... rather large area. A large area that those making the original map hadn't had the chance to diagram for whatever reason. Other than that, he knew little more than that people had found some odd pictures in an x-ray room. So this was really a daring leap for him to be taking on his own.

Oh and look. The door had a lock. As did a lot of the more interesting places here. Hopefully this was a sign that this little excursion would amount to something. After another breath and a few good whacks, the lock snapped and Klavier pulled it off, dropping it to the ground with a less than subtle clang.

.... It might be a good idea for him to not do that ever again.

[to here]

[M13]

When the doors unlocked throughout the hallways, Facilier was more than ready to begin his exploration of the institute once Rock Lee arrived as planned. However, he wasn't so eagerly prepared for what could happen with his roommate Hakkai...

The Bokor gathered his things in silence so tense that it nearly solidified the air surrounding him. He constantly kept his eye fixated on his roommate, ever watching for any change emerging from the corner of his suspicious vision. Meanwhile, Facilier's Shadow remained inconspicuously natural, yet he could feel its energy tingling as it was ready to leap into action at the slightest sign of danger towards its master.

Thoughts of killing off his roommate now before anything happened did cross Facilier's mind -- if not dozens of times by now! But he dared not dirty his hands unless it was absolutely necessary. It didn't help that Rock Lee was sure to show up any moment now either; Facilier couldn't trust the boy to remain silent about finding Hakkai's untransformed dead body in his room. He would just have to deal with this unbearable tension until he could exit to the hallway or fight once things became dire.

For now, Facilier took out his costume cane from his closet and leaned it against his desk close to where he rested his hand. Keeping Hakkai within his sight, Facilier sat down to eat the rest of his dinner, his finger constantly twitching towards the handle of his cane as he waited.

[From here, and for the robutt gang!]

The nearly empty block hallway did nothing to relieve Zero's growing suspicion that something wasn't right. Why weren't there more people around? Perhaps Landel was using some of them, as he'd been used. Or others were transforming, just like that prisoner from the night before - Sora - and the one mentioned on the board...the one who'd attacked two children before being taken down. Landel had said to 'watch your back'...

...well. Empty or not, at least Zero was in the right place to find his allies now. He slowed his brisk walking pace for a moment as he wondered if he should try to go to Harpuia's room directly or wait out here for him to show up. (Hopefully X would be with him.) If this were simply a matter of him getting here too quickly, then they should be coming out of their rooms soon...

[from here, skipping a few halls]

Here it was. Skulduggery wasn't around yet, but Rita expected he would show up soon. He'd been punctual up until now.

If what she'd been hearing was right, she was going to need to look out for both monsters and patients tonight. Seemed simple enough. Rita stood with her back against the wall opposite to the Sun Room doors, and waited.

[From here.]

That hadn't taken long. So much so that it looked like he was the first person to make it this far. Harvey took a moment to scan the hall with his flashlight, including near the stairs, but he didn't see (or hear) much of anything. It was the sort of thing that set him on edge.

Since he couldn't do much else, he leaned himself against the wall by the stairs and then grabbed for his gun, holding it near his side as he waited. Normally he didn't take the weapon out unless he planned to shoot it, but when there was a possibility that some transformed patient might come barreling down the halls in the next few seconds, he wanted to take precaution.

Hopefully Scott and Sangamon would haul ass over here before all hell started to break loose. If things got too hairy, Harvey was ready to make a run for it on his own. That was the logical thing to do.

[Waiting for S.T.]

[From here.]

This was a trip that had gotten old ages ago, and so Harvey tried to make it as short as possible by falling into a brisk walk. He didn't go so far as to jog, since he didn't need to tire himself out before the action even started, but it was a good idea to save time where he could.

All of that was made very easy by the fact that there weren't any other patients around. He didn't know if it was because they were busy going through a painful transformation into some deadly monster, but if that was it, then he also wanted to get to a more open area sooner rather than later.

Harvey reached the end of the hall and rounded the corner into the main hall.

[To here.]

As some of the clouds from earlier began to clear, the intercom jingle sounded over the intercom once again.

"Hello, patients!" came the Head Doctor's cheery voice. "I hope you're all feeling fresh and clean this evening! To top it all off, we've prepared a scrumptious herb chicken dinner for you to eat before bed. Of course, we have vegetarian options available, so please don't hesitate to ask the nurse if you're interested in that.

Also, since we have the pleasure of welcoming a few new patients into our family, some of you will be receiving new roommates. Let's do our best to give them a nice, big Landel's Institute welcome, shall we?"

The Head Doctor gave a friendly chuckle. "Well, anyway, enjoy your dinner!"

With that, the intercom shut off.

[Note: All dinner threads are posted in response to this entry. Be sure to check the Roommate Assignments if you're not sure what room/roommate your character has! Thanks.]

Well, it was about time they got to bathe, that was all Loki really had to say about it. He'd been wondering just how barbaric his captors were. The fact that it was showers only, and no baths for soaking spoke volumes, as far as he was concerned.

But at least there were showers, which was certainly better than nothing. Loki felt something approaching cheerful as he allowed the nurse to lead him on. At the showers he shucked off the ridiculous uniform without so much as a pause and claimed a shower head from those available.

He was used to bathing around others. And as a god among mortals, he definitely had nothing to be ashamed of. Though the warm spray of the shower did let him know that he had some definite bruising on his back from where Kratos had managed to hurl him into that wall, and one of his ribs still twinged occasionally. His jaw still hurt a bit as well, but any bruising there had taken care of itself during the night.

[For the ambiguously gay duo!]

His nurse had whisked him away from breakfast as soon as the intercom’s voice faded.  Surprisingly, she didn’t take him to the shower rooms, instead bringing him to the Sun Room (as she called it), explaining that since this was his first day he would be allowed to skip the showers.  Besides, it would be good to let his injuries heal a little more.

 

He’d passed through this room on the way to breakfast, but hadn’t really paid much attention to it the first time.  Now that he was standing here, the Once-ler understood why it was called the Sun Room.

 

Despite the fact that it was cloudy outside, there was still far more natural light coming in through the ceiling windows than he had seen in a long time.  The Once-ler stood still for a few moments, simply staring up.  It seemed almost like a dream, really.  The valley never got brighter than twilight, even at noon.  There was too much smog in the air to let any more light through.

 

After a few minutes, he shook his head.  Anybody who saw him just standing in the middle of the room would probably have questions about it, and he did not relish the thought of explaining himself to a stranger.  He glanced around the room itself, spotting the bulletin board Soma had talked about during breakfast.  The Once-ler decided that was a good place to start, and hobbled on over to get a closer look.

 

[For Nina, I believe?]

Scar came to slowly, vision blurred and head throbbing. His memory of the previous night was vague and somewhat scattered. What he was most aware of was his renewed and increased hatred for the man called Lingormr. The Ishbalan didn't give a damn if he had been a special counseling patient. That bastard had enjoyed every second of tearing Scar to shreds. What he may or may not have realized was how much it had affected Scar emotionally. He had felt a renewed sense of drive at the start of the night; the disruption on the intercom and the news of the 'cure' had rekindled a fire that fueled Scar to drive forward. To have a little hope.

Lingormr had promptly crushed that.

He was in pain. So much pain. The cut on his hand was only fading scab at this point, but stitches now pulled at the deep gashes in his legs and back. Not only had the nausea not settled, but his stomach was beginning to cramp. The rash on his arm was impossible to hide without the old bandages covering it. It had nearly reached his elbow.

Scar's hazy eyes could make out the nurse, now pushing a wheelchair up to his bedside. This was humiliating. And he was too exhausted and hurting to lash out or become angry. He was just broken. He still tried to take some sort of grudging control, insisting that he didn't need to be pushed around, that he could at least turn the wheels of the damned chair himself. But he didn't make it down the hallway before the pulling and sharp pain in his back became so obvious on his face that the nurse took over.

He entered breakfast with a frustrated, tired, but overall defeated look to him. Scar felt too sick to eat. He sat at the table and brooded, wishing more than anything to simply be left alone.

[For Goku!]