One second he was in the hallway, dizzy and sickened and barely able to focus as Youko picked him up (and he'd thought for a moment to warn her to be careful before remembering his shirei couldn't hurt her anyway, even agitated as they were) and then the next...in bed. Back in the sterile hospital room, with only the sharp scents of cleaners and laundry soap from the sheets, but nausea and a lingering pain behind his eyes still reminded him of the close call the night before.

Before he had time to think about it for long, though, the door opened and the nurse arrived with a bundle of unfamiliar clothing; she fussed over him briefly, trying to feel his forehead (from which he automatically grimaced and ducked away) and cooing over him like he was an invalid child. Of course he was a little feverish; it would only have been worse if the blood had touched him as it came so close to doing.

But the woman only bundled him into the clothing she'd brought without paying any attention to his protests, and he was hard-pressed to decide whether or not the shirt she gave him was any better than the bright yellow smiling face. And then he was led out to the front yard, through what he noted didn't look anything like the "holy ground" of the night before, and given a brown paper bag before being herded onto a bus with admonitions to "take it easy" ringing in his ears.

He dropped into the first empty seat he found, leaving the bag sitting next to him unopened as he leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes. Food was most definitely not interesting at the moment, and he had things to think about anyway.

[waiting for Youko]

Franziska did not trust her roommate, which was just fine with her, since it seemed that Maki Shouko did not trust Franziska either. There was something about her protective nature that brought out the worst in Franziska's investigative nature. Pulling the truth from Maki Shouko would have to wait, however, until Franzika was better armed with evidence and proof that she was, in fact, something more than a mere unemployed, ex-psychologist homemaker. Taking her journal, her flashlight and her radio, Franziska made a note of the night's announcement and then headed outside.

Only to find it entirely blacked out.

So this was the night that people spoke of with such terror? A little bit of dark wasn't going to kill anyone. Pathetic. Flicking on her flashlight, she noted that the beam was unusually weak against the dark and scoffed. Giving the inmates sub-par equipment would need to be added onto the list of complaints when she lodged her class action suit against Martin Landel.

Heading down the hall, Franziska recalled the map she'd seen in her head. She needed to go and find the second floor, get to the patient possessions room, retrieve her whip and then she'd take this place by storm.

[to here]

When the intercom's jingle sounded, there seemed to be some kind of tapping in the background noise, like letters being punched into a keyboard. It stopped and the Head Doctor chuckled.

"Hello, everyone! I'm actually taking a break from paperwork for once – everyone needs some recreational time, you know! – and of course, now we can all look forward to a scrumptious dinner from our cooks. Tonight, herb-seasoned grilled salmon is on the menu, served with buttery mashed potatoes and asparagus. All our regular drinks and vegetarian options are available, and for dessert, we will be serving yellow cake with a whipped cream icing.

"...Well! I can hardly wait to get my own dinner after saying all that. Good bye for now, everyone, and enjoy your delicious food!"

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. (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. ]

Just as von Karma started to enter the doorway leading to the Courtyard to look around for anyone remotely resembling his daughter, that pretentious lunatic's voice rang out over the Intercom, heralding the approach of lunch time. Right away, the damned nurse practically dragged him back into the cafeteria and towards the serving tables, telling him in that cloyingly cheerful tone that he could get his fresh air after he had had his meal. What rotten timing!

His mood worsened as he saw what was on those tables. "Nurse! This is the same greasy, disgusting, perfect-artery-ruining swill that was offered for lunch the last time I was in here! Does this Institute serve nothing else? How is any of this healthy for someone whom you claim has recently suffered from a stroke?!"

"Why, you're right, Mr. Fuchs! Here, I'll fix you a nice, big, healthy salad." Before he could protest that he wasn't hungry anyway, the smiling nurse loaded a heap of greens and some fruits onto a plate for him. Then she led him to one of the tables and seated him there. "Now, be a good man and finish all of that. You will do that just for me, won't you?"

The look he shot her in response indicated that he would never do anything "just for her." Certainly, not consuming this entire mountain of lettuce and carrots. As much as he approved of salads, the portion she served him was nothing short of ludicrous. Glaring at her in silence, he made no pretense of even starting in on this ridiculous travesty of a meal. Finally, she seemed to take the hint, excusing herself to attend to the other patients... but not without admonishing him that his "plate had better be clean" by the time she returned to take him to the Courtyard.

As she left him, von Karma looked all around him to see whether Franziska had come into the cafeteria yet. Unfortunately, as he had already arranged to meet his former roommate at this time, all he could do for now was to attempt to visually confirm her presence in this hellhole. As much as he hoped that the author of the replies to this S.T.'s note was nothing more than an impostor -- in which case, he would make that person pay for brazenly impersonating his daughter -- he was not entirely certain of that right now.

In the meantime, he had other practical matters to attend to. He still needed to speak to Javert to find out what had truly happened during the time he was unconscious. As he surreptitiously scanned the stream of arriving patients for the face of his daughter -- or those of his enemies -- he patiently awaited Javert's arrival, hoping that the man could still recognize him after all this time.

[Closed to Javert]

Endrance turned his head to look at the intercom, giving it a look that would wither an entire rose garden in an instant. He would never get used to ending up in his room again from somewhere else in the Institute.

He brushed his bangs out of his eyes, not sitting up just yet. He could tell already that his torso had been heavily bandaged, even more so than it had been the night before. The cuts on his arms were covered with fresh bandages, and the one on his cheek seemed to no longer be there at all.

Endrance had been expecting to wake up in a lot of pain, but even that seemed numbed. "They must have given me something," he murmured quietly, as he slowly sat up.

At that moment, his nurse came to get him, pushing a wheelchair along with her. "Peyton, dear, good morning. I've come to take you to breakfast, so..." He shook his head. "I'm fine. There's no need for that...I can walk perfectly well."

She sighed. Well, if he insisted, she wasn't going to stop him. She motioned for an orderly to take the chair away, and walked him to the cafeteria. Once they had gotten there, she pointed him toward a seat, then set a full tray of pancakes covered with syrup, a bowl of fruit, and a glass of orange juice in front of him. "Now eat all of that, Peyton, or else you won't be strong enough to keep walking like that."

He glared at her back as she walked away, then stopped suddenly. There was that faint pulse he'd felt the night before...it was exactly the same.

And so he completely ignored his food in favor of staring at the cafeteria doors, looking at every patient that came in.

[thread will be closed to Haseo. ♥]

[from here]

Obviously she had hurried too fast. No one was even in this hallway yet, and she stared at the empty hall with a sigh. She guessed she was waiting then. At least she had arrived before the other two of her team.

Her. Hah.

Senna moved to a closeby wall, leaning against it lazily. Momo was a Shinigami. She'd be here soon. Then they'd sort out this mess. Senna watched the doorways, one hand holding her spear and the other idly playing with the red sash tied around her waist.

[chatting with Momo over here.]

That really hadn't been the breakfast she'd been expecting, but Yuffie couldn't bring herself to complain. The kid made for good company, and was, if nothing else, pretty entertaining. She could've just done without the whole choking thing. That… That had been embarrassing. A bit. Okay, a lot. Yuffie was starting to get a feeling that this day was -- for once-- actually going to ping on her ‘interesting!’ meter.

Whether or not that was a good thing, she didn’t know.

By the time she’d reached the Sun Room's bulletin board, a kitten on her shoulder and a pen twirling between her fingers, Yuffie was starting to put her finger on why she had that weird, nagging feeling. Though on second thought, it was less like putting her finger on it and more like it had jumped up and punched her right in the nose; the feeling wasn’t just about waffles, magicians, or tricky candy thieves. Sagara hadn't answered her bulletin post; he hadn't answered any bulletin posts. She hadn't seen that stupid, spiky head of his all morning. It was like radio silence without a radio.

Agai-- No, Yuffie cut herself off sharply, frowning. She was just jumping to conclusions. It wouldn't be the first time, right? Right! And yet… instincts were instincts for a reason, and in a dump like this, who knew what could happen?

[for Okita?]

She’d never been in the Game Room before.

It didn’t look spectacularly interesting, she had to admit… but it’d be more fun than just hanging out in the Sun Room, right? Yuffie idly thumbed through a deck of cards, walking around the room to examine various bits and pieces. Board games, video games, chess… No really awesome prank material that she could see, but maybe she could rope somebody into a game of poker? That could be fun, but… ah, then again, most of the patients were just like her -- they didn’t have anything really cool that she could swindle out of them. Not until Nightshift, anyway.

Still! She’d keep it in mind. It wasn’t like there was anybody else in the room yet anyway, so any potential swindling would have to wait a little while. What could she do in the meantime, huh? Pick- pocketing a nurse could be fun..! Wait -- no, not when it was quiet like this. She’d have to wait until there was more cover, unless she got distracted. Yuffie hadn’t stolen anything in days, not since that time in Doyleton, with the Kaito kid…

Yuffie smirked. That had been fun.

[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.

[outside F33 to be specific]

Beatrix, with sword across back and chef knife in her makeshift oven mitt sheathe that rests on her hip, stepped into the hallway after warning Maki that one of her wards was coming to the room. She'd attempt to give the other woman and her 'date' some space when she could, but she had no plans on discussing Rena's disappearance with Hanyuu out in the hallway. She was only out there to keep an eye out for the small girl. She didn't expect there to be trouble in the F-Block hallways, but one never knew.

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.

[From here]

Miku pushed open the door to get away from the smell wafting down the main corridor. She swallowed some of the bile down that threatened to surge up into her throat and sighed. Her face felt hot, and her hands seemed clammy. Miku worried if there was something she would see tomorrow night, and hoped she didn't know the victim.

Her thoughts turned to Ritsuka, and her stomach dropped into her knees. "Sousuke," she squeezed her new boyfriend's (again, that was such a weird... word to use) hand and shined her light up the stairwell. "You don't see anything, do you?"

[from here]

There was no one in the hallway at all when the two reached the second floor. No sign at all of anyone, which struck him as strange since usually there were at least voices or light from other patients’ torches.

Siegfried did not want to linger in the hallway, not when it would put he and Xelloss at risk of being attacked.

“Stay close by,” he said, looking back over his shoulder at the dark-haired man.

[from here]

Wally took a quick look around the hallway before looking back at Tony. "Maintenance closet, nurses' station and maybe a doctor's office? I'm guessing most of that stuff'll be on the second floor, right?" He hadn't seen much of the institute last night, as this was when he'd kicked into superspeed on his way out. Things were mostly a dark blur at that point and even if there had been signs around, he probably wouldn't have noticed them. Though if there were signs, he wasn't sure if he'd trust them at this point.

Wally frowned in confusion at the intercom announcements. CM-US Experimental Trials? Special Counselling? He wasn't sure what either of those things were, but considering this place, they could hardly be good. And the following announcement didn't do much to reassure him. "You know, that's what I like about this place," he commented dryly to Tony. "You can always rely on the crazy to show up right on schedule." He stood up as the doors clicked open and stretched, paying particular attention to the muscles in his legs before rummaging around behind his pillow for his flashlight. "So, you wanna go and see about that maintenance room?" His lips quirked into a familiar smile. "I figure with two of us, at least someone will be able to get something useful while the other plays monster bait."

[from here]

Left led outside, further down the hall at least. Callisto reminded herself absently of this as she went the opposite direction. In the future she might see what all the fuss was about, but not now. The announcements only made her current target all the more interesting.

[to here]

[from here]

Which way was it, now? Out and down and around. Further into the facility. Who'd reach their destination first, Callisto wondered. Perhaps they'd run into each other along the way.

This really got the blood going. She still didn't know what was really going on with this place, but at least she had a goal for now.

[to here]

Naomi nodded as Arlene gave her the supplies. "Thank you." She was grateful for the medical supplies. And the...syringe full of whatever. The medical supplies at the very least would come in handy.

When the intercom sounded, Naomi turned, eyes narrowed.

Smug bastard. If she ever came face to face with the man.... She shook herself, pocketed the over the counter painkillers, and gave Arlene a nod.

"I'm heading out now." She could at least drop off the candy at Ryuzaki's room, and give him her report. And then...well, she'd figure something out. Maybe he'd have something else for her to do tonight.

"Good luck tonight."

(to here)

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! ]

[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.