Mori woke with a start. He lay on the bed for a moment, staring up at the ceiling and sighed quietly. Another day, another round of shifts and people and-- Wait a minute. Breathing in carefully, Mori's brow knit together as he realized that his ribs were no longer broken. After testing his collarbone, he found that it, too, was healing faster than it should have. Not that he was complaining, but there was something odd about broken bones setting so quickly. Pushing himself up out of bed, the teen shook his head, knowing that he'd have another day or two of the sling and then he'd be free from it.

But more important than that was finding out how Mitsukuni was doing. The last thing he remembered was the bathroom and gathering metal. Since they were together at the end of the night, Mori was certain that Mitsukuni would be fine, but...well, he still liked to confirm such things with his own eyes. With the twins gone and Tamaki still missing, Mori didn't want to take any chances anymore. Especially not with the strange announcements this morning.

As usual, his nurse came to collect him and helped him into his sling. Then he followed her quietly into the cafeteria, taking notice of the unusually empty bulletin board. They really were cracking down on it already. Weird. Even weirder? For once, he was the first into the room. Picking up a tray, he pointed out what he wanted, making sure to take double of the pancakes (asking to keep them away from the sausages for now), double of the strawberry jam and biscuits, and an extra helping of fruit. To top it off? Milk. It'd help his bones mend. Hopefully.

Going to a nearby seat, Mori took a look around the empty room and shivered. Kind of eerie in here without anyone else but the nurses. Someone was certain to come sooner or later though, right? He hoped so at least.

[for Chihaya]

[from here]

It was a little awkward to try to climb the wall with the spear under one arm, but she didn't want to risk throwing it over and then trying to find it, either. Aside from that, Meche made it up to the top without too much trouble. The footholds were actually pretty good--almost as though someone meant for them to be able to scale that wall easily. She paused before jumping down to see how Manny was making out.

"Want me to take the sword while you climb?" she asked him. Meche had a feeling that would probably go over a lot better than asking if he was doing all right.

[From here.]

It didn't strike Peter until he was on the grass and staring at the moon that the last time he'd gone out this way, it had been to collect Harry. The thought was a sobering one to say the least, particularly when he was the only soul on the field. No one but him and the great outdoors. Except replace 'great outdoors' with 'big fat death wish'.

His path remained as close to hugging the building as he could get, and soon disappeared inside once more.

[To here.]

[From here]

Yuffie kept close to the wall, footsteps swift and near silent. Her flashlight felt awkward and bulky in her left hand. It'd be totally useless to her until she hit the File Room, since she had absolutely no intention of turning it on unless she had to.

The darkness was as comforting as it was nerve-wracking. After that… After that thing with Nero, deep down in the depths of Mako Reactor 0, a simple absence of light felt like a really dumb thing to be scared of. Yuffie prided herself on being fearless, and no jerkass bondage boy with a brother complex was gonna change that. … Not that she'd ever been afraid of the dark! She was a master ninja, and ninja didn't do nightlights.

[To here]

Indy dressed and left quickly after the doors unlocked, ready to make an early start. He seemed to be the first one out in the hallway, which was fine with him. The fewer people around, the faster he could move--assuming being the first one out in the hall didn't also mean being the first course of King Kong's dinner.

He shifted his shoulder, felt the weight of the whip looped over it. The injury was fading. Right now, at least, Indy wasn't too concerned about taking that chance.

[skipping ahead to here]

[From here]

Hime peered out into the hallway. It was mostly empty; it seemed she was one of the first to come out of their cells. While this presented the problem of wandering alone without the cover of the herd, this also gave her a chance to scout out the population as they left their rooms. While Hime had confidence in her fighting abilities, she had no delusions about taking on whatever horrors lurked here by herself. Besides, she needed to find people who could fight; the basement did not sound like the kind of place one explored on their own, or even with just one other.

Recalling that all the patient rooms filtered out into the main hallway, Hime headed that way.

[To here]

[From here.]

By the time Sync made it out of his block his eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness. This meant that he was less inclined to keep close to the wall and instead moved briskly down the hallway. Yet despite his speedy pace, the God-General made sure to listen in for any noises from anything that could be lingering nearby. The last thing he needed was to get ambushed by some kind of monster before getting out of the patient blocks.

[To here.]

[from here]

He really had beat the rush. Suzaku found a chair as close to the corner and as far from the bulletin as he could, and turned it to face the wall before curling up in it. His nurse frowned at him again, but she was still being cooperative, and frankly he didn't care what she had to say in the slightest. He didn't care even if he got sedated. All he cared about was finally having a few moments to himself, to sort out what Euphie's love meant and what the hell Lelouch's problem was.

It felt like he had all the pieces of a puzzle and was just too stupid to figure out how they fit together. What Lelouch had said about Shirley at breakfast and the tone he'd taken with Euphie on the board, Lelouch asking how Suzaku was, Lelouch dying. . . "All we can do is move forward and look out for the ones we care about." Euphie struggling to get out her last words, pain overtaking Suzaku's consciousness while he fought pathetically to carry out Lelouch's order. . . The last couple days, when he'd felt like he was finally figuring this out, seemed so far away now.

There were a couple things that were certain, at least: he hated what Lelouch had done, he always would. But he -- he didn't hate Lelouch, and he hadn't for a while now, and that wasn't going to change. And he didn't have much time, because everyone but Suzaku was terrifyingly mortal. And Lelouch was an idiot, but he still wasn't sure about the how and why of that one yet.

[for the Saucinator]

Yuffie had died.

No, really. Seriously. She had actually died. Bleeding all over the place, making a horrid, sticky mess and scaring the hell out of Suzaku; she remembered it clearly. Kind of. Sort of. Through the blood loss, the pain, and the visions. Through Aerith's voice whispering in her ear, Cloud's stricken eyes, and her own panic. As bad nights went, it had been Bad, capital B and all the trimmings, and oh, god. She sat, trembling on the edge of her bed, eyes closed and hands pressed hard over her racing heart. The by-play between Landel—Landel!—and Lydia barely even sunk in. There was nothing in the whole world, any world, that could prepare you for something like…

Had it all been some kind of hallucination?

Had she imagined the whole thing?

No… She didn't think so. Nightmarish or not, Yuffie knew reality. But if it had been real, how was she alive now? That kind of pain wasn't something you could just cook up, was it? She thought about it all the way to the cafeteria, drifting behind her nurse without focus or intent. Maybe if she tried to stay clinical, tried to step back… But she'd never been good at that when things got personal. And every time she closed her eyes or blinked, she swore that the scenes played back to her, like an overused commercial on a crappy channel on a crappy TV, in a run-down dump of an inn that smelled like mothballs and yesterday's breakfast.

The scent of blood and damp, rotted wood clogged her nose. Disgusted, Yuffie shoved her bowl of cereal—handed to her by a clucking Plucky—off to the side so that she could melt into her chair, palm heels scrubbing against her eyes. Too much. This was… Too much. She couldn't even paste a plastic smile on her face to make herself feel better. Her usual shield, the white noise of inane babble that could filter out almost any crisis, was in tatters all around her. Five minutes, she gave herself.

Five minutes (not) to think, five minutes to get her act together, because there was no way she could let herself shatter here. No way…

[Closed to Sheena]

[from here]

Something didn't feel quite right about the building as Beatrix stepped out into the hallway. Moving to the left, she put her back against the wall to wait for Wonka to arrive. She wasn't sure what didn't feel right about it, but her instincts were warning her to expect more of the unexpected and to trust what she felt, not her eyes.

A flicker of movement out of the corner of her eyes, yet nothing was there. Her eyes narrowed. Yes, something wasn't quite right.

[waiting for Wonka]

The day had been relatively quiet for Ken, for which the boy felt a deep-seated gratitude. Things had been less than savory the last few days; a little time for himself was a refreshing element. He only needed to return the bat to Phoenix, pick up his spear from Ururu, and finish gathering the last of the items for...

He had not taken two steps from the room when a dizzy spell hit him, forcing the child to take a minute breather against the bat in his hands. What had gotten into him? Exhaustion? Sudden increase in movement? He couldn't be sure.

The spell soon passed, and after a brief consideration, the child continued. He couldn't keep this waiting any longer.

[To here.]

Endrance was quiet as he gathered his things - flashlight, pipe, long chef's knife from the night before - and slipped out into the hallway. It felt a bit strange to be leaving without saying much to his roommate, but...what was there to say, really? He wasn't sure, and so saying nothing at all had probably been the best course of action.

As he closed the door behind him, he blinked. Had - had the walls just blinked for a moment? It reminded him of what had happened two nights ago, when the false-Kite had changed the entry room into Hulle Granz, and it put him on guard. Was he out again tonight, then?

[to hereeventually.]

[from here]

Even distracted as he was, Suzaku remembered to stay on his guard as he passed into the main hallway. He would only be here for a moment, but there could still be a monster lurking in the darkness. And it was so quiet and deserted just now that he would make easy prey.

[to here]

[from here]

The halls were empty so far, which was probably a good sign. Suzaku was hoping to get a move-on quickly, so they could hurry up and get Yuffie's sword made. The first night he'd been here, he'd been pulled back to his bed the instant he made it outside, so they'd have to move fast if they wanted to make any decent progress. And right now he couldn't afford to focus on anything but just that, making progress.

[to here]

[from here]

Suzaku made his way out of his own cell block at a brisk pace, even though he wasn't quite sure he could take Yuffie's presence right now. He didn't want to talk to anyone, least of all have to pretend everything was fine again -- because he didn't want to bother her with the details of his life, and even if he did there was only a limited amount he could tell her. He was sick of pretending.

On the other hand, talking to her reminded him a bit of being with the Student Council. No matter how miserable he felt, he couldn't help relaxing a little around such cheerful people. Even if he hadn't spoken to Yuffie in person, maybe it would help to be with someone so. . . perky. And it would definitely help to beat the shit out of any monsters they ran into outside. He needed to feel like he was doing something proactive, actually accomplishing something useful, and since fighting was the only thing he was good for, he was looking forward to it for once.

[to here]

[From here]

Okay, so far so good. He got a bit turned around for a moment, trying to remember whether to go left or right, but he'd figure that out quick. It wasn't like--Woah! He swore he'd just seen something weird for a second, but with two human eyes? No way to tell.

Loz immediatly sat up in bed when the intercom went off. Most of what the voice said confused him, but when the door clicked unlocked, he immediatly forgot about it and started grinning.

Night had finally come. It was time to go out and have some fun.

Not even sparing a glance at Tem, Loz grabbed his light-rod and practically leapt out the door. Everything was dark, with not even a window to let in moonlight. That was a little creepy, but Loz wasn't scared. He just turned his light on and scanned around the hallway with it. No one else was out here yet. Loz wasn't really sure where he should go, since he wasn't exactly sure where the big room was. Shrugging, Loz decided on a direction and just went that way.

As he walked, he could have sworn he kept seeing something, but when he turned his head to look, nothing was there.

[to here]

Hello! I.R.I.S. here once more to announce to you, our honored guests, that you have officially made it through a day of our typical Landel's treatment. Of course, it isn't quite over: we will now have you retire to our designated patient quarters with one of your agency partners to inspect their sleeping area and the tools that we provide them with for the true bulk of our behavioral testing. On an added note, we would like you to notice once again that the meals we provide to our subjects are of the highest quality.

For those of you feeling apprehensive about taking part in our more intensive methods, please be aware that we would never imagine putting all of you in any danger whatsoever. This last shift will be your last at our Institute; afterward, we will escort you to our Head Doctor's personal observation station to survey some of our test Next-Wave participants in the rigorous trials we put them through – all for their betterment, of course.

Once again, we hope that you are satisfied with what you find, and as always, direct any questions you may have to your console.

The nurses began to escort the patients to their rooms. They didn't even seem to be brought to awareness by words such as "testing" and "subjects."

[ All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. (Find all of the newly changed room assignments and shift introductions here.) If you are introducing your character during this shift, you may either choose for them character to wake up before their roommate gets back, or after. ]

[M99]

Yuuhi finished his work, cutting the shirt up into smaller strips to be used for the fuses before he handed the scalpel back and started getting his own things ready for the evening.  The trip to town had made any kind of planning difficult, but he supposed that would be true for most of the patients.  Humming softly as he went about the room, gathering the metal from last night and his flashlight, it didn't take him long before he was ready to go. 

He said a short goodbye to Allie, then headed out the door.

[to here]