Kio had been having quite a time with Kunzait. He couln't really believe that one of his childhood characters was here. Well... characters. Some guy with a lot of time on his hands and cosplay. That was all there was to it. He had hoped, as people filed into the Sun Room, that he would glimpse Soubi. No luck.

Perhaps it was better to just accept that his friend was gone. Soubi was in Goura, with Ritsuka. Well, sort of. If the bulletin note was anything to go by, Kio had a handful of pranksters on his hands. He could understand it if this were an appropriate time for jokes and such, but it wasn't. However, should that boy prove to indeed be Ritsuka, then Kio had someone from home. He'd hoped that the identity of the other person would be revealed, but other than minor scathing remarks between 'Ritsuka' and the other, nothing Kio could say was Soubi or not.

If anything, it just annoyed the man. When the nurse came to take him away, Kio went silently. He did not remark on how 'Mr Akatsuki' was being friendly already and how that was a great improvement. If anything, Kio was not himself. But he had to try. Grabbing a tray with enough meat and vegetables, he frowned at it.

"No sushi?". The nurse just smiled. No sushi. Sighing, he moved to a centre table and sat down, picking at his salad. He was a bit hungry. But more than anything, he was despondent. He missed Soubi. He wanted all this to prove to be one giant nightmare.

[Sou-chan! <3]

Well, that had been fortuitous.

Celes had been particularly pleased as she was led away to the women's showers. That she would be able to pay back for her control being wrenched away took a heavy load off of Celes's chest. Also, Hughes seemed very capable, despite his worry about the club's success. The General hummed a note as she stripped and left her dirtied clothing in a neat pile, before striding into the showers proper.

She picked a spigot far enough away from the other women usually showered and turned it full blast. The needle spray hit her coldly at first and slowly began to warm as she took the time to examine her injuries. Her side was a collection of purples and blues, but there was only the faintest of white lines where Xigbar had stabbed her. The bruise would go away, and she didn't feel any strange bleeding where it didn't need to be. She would just have to take a care tonight when helping Hughes.

[For the Bride. I think.]

[for Sylar, I believe]

At the sound of the intercom, Wally jerked awake and blinked around at the room. He’d fallen asleep. He should have been up and keeping an eye open for ZEX, but he’d fallen asleep waiting on his bed.

“Idiot,” he groaned, ruffling his hair and sighing in annoyance. “Way to help a guy out, hotshot.” Hopefully ZEX hadn’t dropped by and thought he’d left or something, or wouldn’t be too mad at him for just forgetting about it like that. If he was lucky, he’d be able to catch up with the other patient at some point and explain what had happened.

Rolling himself a little awkwardly out of the bed, Wally took the opportunity to stretch his injured leg and test how well it was holding up. It was feeling a bit better, not so much that he could abandon his crutch or that it didn’t pull painfully if he wasn’t careful, but better. Tony had apparently made it through the night in one piece as well, which was a relief. He really didn’t feel comfortable about the thought of his roommate wandering about on his own with an injured arm. Not when Wally himself could relax and fall asleep in the apparent safety of their room.

Yeah, he wasn’t going to let himself forget that one in a hurry.

It was at that moment that the door swung open to admit one of the nurses. She seemed surprised to find him awake and ready to go already, but smiled warmly. “Hungry, are we Mr. West? Well in that case, let’s get you to the cafeteria. The staff have provided some delicious French Toast as well as a range of other foods I’m sure you’ll like. Now will you be needing a hand with your leg, dear?”

“No thanks, I can handle it,” Wally replied, smiling back. After all, it probably wasn’t the nurses’ fault that this place was so messed up, so it wasn’t like picking fights with them would do anything. With a cheery wave goodbye, Wally slowly made his way to the cafeteria, keeping a tight grip on his crutch all the while. Obtaining a plate of food was only slightly less difficult than it had been yesterday – he didn’t have the painkillers to work around this time – but he managed well enough, coming away from the buffet with a tray containing a plate piled high with slices of French Toast and slathered in maple syrup, butter, and sugar, as well as a glass of juice. Not quite as good as some coffee would be right now, but the sugar would hopefully make up for it. And, with how few people were here at the moment, he could afford to take more food than might have been considered ‘normal’ – he’d have most of it gone by the time anyone came to keep him company, then he could just worry about how many extra serves would be allowed before he aroused suspicion.

Feeling pretty happy with how things were looking so far, Wally hummed faintly to himself as he dug in to his breakfast.

The intercom's jingle rang out and the somewhat uninhibited movement that was going on between the main activity rooms halted as the Head Doctor made one of his usual announcements.

"Good evening everyone, and I'm very pleased to see so many of you in such high spirits after meeting with your loved ones! However, like with all good things, it can't last forever, so I ask now for nurses to escort our patients in the waiting rooms and in the main areas back to their rooms, where they will be treated with a special Sunday... steak! That's right: today, we'll be serving juicy, delicious steak with fries and cooked vegetables on the side – simple enough for everyone to like and good enough for everyone to thoroughly enjoy! (Our patients with specialized diets will receive their alternate meals, of course.) Our usual beverages are available, and for dessert, we'll be serving warm slices of apple pie.

"After all, patients, t's always wonderful to see all of you cooperating with the staff even when given so much freedom, so I'd like to personally thank and congratulate all of you for helping us, your family, and more importantly, yourselves. Hopefully, we can help you to a speedy recovery so that you can see your loved ones more often, but first... dinner! I hope to speak with you all again soon."

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. Thank you!

On an added note, just wanted to clarify to players of characters who are canonly vegetarians and the like that you get to decide (within reasonable and realistic limits) what kind of diet your character gets from the staff. :3 ]

He'd asked about visitors on the bulletin so that he'd be prepared, right?

Of course right. And so, when Zelnick had seen Talana (and oh, she'd looked beautiful, even if her skin was human-peach and not Syreen-blue, even if her eyes didn't flash like a cat's, even though she was wearing a lot more clothing than her uniform usually involved), he hadn't been as surprised as he might have been.

He hadn't expected to be so affected by her desperation, her sadness, her... her Talana-ness, even if she wasn't calling herself Talana. He hadn't thought he'd want to believe her. He hadn't thought that he'd leave the room and still feel the warmth of her hand in his, or the knots tying themselves around his heart, or the ache behind his eyes.

Shaking off his nurse in the sun room, he slumped on the end of one of the couches, head tilted back against the cushions and eyes closed. He was a grown man, he'd spent several years fighting a near-hopeless war and very nearly won, and he wasn't going to cry over seeing his girlfriend.

[Waiting for boyfriend 2~ Xigbar <3]

Miku hurried away from her new friends (and kitten) to the cafeteria. For some reason she was just terribly ravenous. Her nurse smiled, relieved that her patient had finally chose to eat something and wouldn't continue that backslide into poor health. She loaded the girl's plate with French toast and fruit, dusted the bread in powdered sugar and a bit of cherries in red-red syrup and sent the girl to sit.

"There we are, Alice, a nice healthy meal," she cooed, and patted Miku's head. Miku sighed, but carefully cut into her meal and started eating, keeping her eye out for Sousuke.

For the first time since arriving at Landel's, Elle woke up feeling... almost peaceful. She lay in bed for several minutes, adjusting to certain things. Mostly the fact that her left arm was in a sling. And her shoulder didn't hurt as much as she would have expected it to, which probably meant she was on meds.

She got out of bed slowly, and made her way to the desk. Her journal was still in the top drawer, lying closed on top of the files she'd stolen. She grabbed it, along with a pen and a rubber band - not easy, one-handed - and allowed herself to be escorted to the Sun Room by a nurse.

The Head Doctor's words intrigued her. Visitors? Friends and family from back home? Despite the sudden ray of hope, she had to admit the unlikelihood of seeing Daddy. Either he'd put her here for a reason, and so would have no need to visit, or he couldn't get here at all.

It took a very long time to figure out how to hold her journal open and write at the same time. Through trial and error, she discovered that using her left hand to hold the journal didn't hurt too much.

This was probably a really bad idea. But if Daddy had really put her in here to kill Sylar as some kind of test, he wouldn't have given Sylar the virus. And if it came to having Sylar as a friend or as an enemy, she'd rather have him standing between her and the monsters than in a nearby corner laughing while she got ripped apart.

[for Eddie]

Unlike the week before, the buses pulled in to the front of the Institute before the sky became dark, and so the departure was a very organized situation rather than a chaotic one. Nurses and orderlies escorted patients off the buses, and just as the front doors to the Institute opened and the patients were taken back to their rooms, the intercom clicked on with its usual jingle to the sound of the Head Doctor's cheery voice.

"Hello, patients, and I hope you all enjoyed a delightful day at our neighboring town! I regret that last-minute duties prevented me from joining all of you on your trip, but I'm glad I can talk to you a bit now before you retire for the night!

"As far as dinner tonight, we have a wonderfully exotic meal of tasty, spicy lamb curry for you, served on a bed of steamed rice and with a side of seasoned vegetables and plain Indian flatbread. For desert, we'll be having sweet rice pudding, and we'll be offering our normal assortment of juices, milk, and water as drinks. As always, for vegetarians and for those of you with mild tastebuds, a large, fresh garden salad is always an option.

"And... I believe that's all! I hope you all enjoy dinner and that you're able to wind down from the excitement of today's excursion."

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. Thank you! ]

Shiki was a little disappointed. When she heard the words 'field trip', she had expected the town to be a whole lot bigger. How could you even go shopping properly in a town like this? There needed to be a whole lot more stores, she decided. Two department stores, boutiques, and a record store, at least.

She walked down the main street. Maybe she'd stumble into something.

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's a library." Lia sounded almost startled as she made this observation, stepping deeper into the room to peer curiously over the shelves and tables visible in the dim glow of her flashlight. There were even comfortable chairs and... Her gaze lingered on the computers as the light's glare on one's screen caught her eye. They were like nothing she'd ever seen before, and try as she might she couldn't quite come up with any reasoning for them. She made her way over to take a closer look at the strange boxes, but closer inspection yielded no further clue as to their origin. "What are these?"

[from here]

After the moonlight of the patio, the room Melissa stepped into was dark enough that even she had to wait a few moments to let her eyes adjust. She didn't dare take a further step in until she could tell easily that the room was, indeed, the kitchen it was supposed to be, with no hidden dangers beyond perhaps a stove still being hot.

The first thing she noticed was that it was incredibly spotless. Even her own kitchen, cleaned almost too frequently, wasn't as spotless as this. It didn't exactly do much to make Melissa feel more comfortable. The second thing she noticed, and the thing she focused on, was that the walls were lined with drawers and cabinets, probably full of sharp utensils.

And they were... blue. Interesting color choice. Frowning in disapproval, Melissa opened the nearest drawer and began rifling through it, feeling out anything sharp enough to break skin.

[from here]

This was where they'd stumbled back onto the attack the previous night. Seiya edged the door to the outside open slowly, and was relieved to see at least no other patients around to potentially stir up angry monsters. She didn't step out completely into the open, easing around the door to the side of the wall, looking around still. Whatever had attracted those birds last night, they could still be up there somewhere, waiting for a sign to attack. Seiya didn't want to risk luring something else out for play, not when they were so close this time, and not when the odds had been so overwhelmingly against the patients last night.

[from here]

One bright side of night was that Seiya didn't have to worry about sitting around brooding too much. Even her concerns for Usagi and Ami were distant ones at the moment, situations she wasn't a part of and couldn't help. All her attention was on the dark hallway they were walking down, possibly the first guests that night, and keeping an eye open for anything that might be blocking their path. Her right hand gripped her wooden makeshift spear tightly, holding it ready.

[from here]

Much emptier here. Didn't seem like anyone else had made it this far, yet. Leon turned on his flashlight and hurried up the stairs. Hopefully nothing too horrible would be hanging around on the second floor, though he wasn't about to hold his breath. There was Special Counseling tonight, and the odds were good that someone would be camped out in the main hallway upstairs. Maybe heading to the kitchen for knives first would be better... Leon mulled over his options as he reached the top of the stairs and pushed open the door.

[to here]

[F33]

Having grown up in a small town in the Heartland of America, Beatrix had learned something of sewing. She wasn't the greatest at it and really only ever utilized the skill when it came to stitching her own body up, but it came in handy this night. Between the apron, oven mitt, pairing knife and some thinly ripped strips of sheet, the Bride was able to fashion something akin to a sheathe for her chef knife. It looked stupid, but the Bride was far beyond caring at the moment.

The mitt with its knife hung from her waist, resting on her hip, and the Bride once again pulled her hair back, taking the time to make sure the shaggy bits that hung loose covered the metal plate as usual, and slid the pairing knife into her hair. The Bride was not looking forward to getting wet, but it was better than being set on fire again. or electrocuted.

She was getting tired of all that and just wanted to deal with something that bled... profusely when cut, if she had to deal with anything at all. She sighed as she stripped the rest of her bed, knowing she'd need the sheets to carry the pipes in. At least Donna would be enjoyable company.

Hopefully, she'd find the room okay.

[from here]

The shinigami padded silently down the hallway, keeping to the left-side wall and her hand upon her sword's hilt. Her eyes scanned the area surorunding her as she continued on to the next hallway, especially the nurses' stations as she neared them. This would be a horrible time for her to get attacked by a nurse or two. Thankfully, the halls were empty, btu she didn't drop her guard. She knew better.

Almost there.

[to here]

[from here]

This shinigami moved out into the hallway at the end of the women's block. It seemed she was moving faster than the others given how empty it all seemed. She shot a quick look down both Signum and Skuld's hallways as she headed to the door to the outer hallway. She paused at the door, listening for sound beyond it, before opening it and continuing on her way.

[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. ]

Yuffie bounced all the way through collecting her lunch, all the way to a good seat- one with a nice view of the whole cafeteria, which was something she'd been missing out on during the past day or so that she'd been stuck in the Institute- and hell, she even bounced into her seat.

A good mood? No, really?

Despite the occasional blip, talking to Sagara had been awesome. He was a fun guy; he wasn't a prude, didn't have a stick shoved so far up his ass it was poking out his eyeballs, and he'd actually had a conversation with her. One that hadn't revolved around doom, gloom or how much life sucked. If she could find other people like that and keep in touch with Sagara, maybe there was a little hope for this place.

After a quick gulp of pink lemonade, Yuffie settled to munching through her food and keeping an eye on the door.

[Waiting for Dean, I think? :x]