Kuja was, in fact, quite surprised to suddenly find himself in bed. An odd turn of events, as he previously remembered investigating the contents of a closet. If the genome hadn't known any better, he would have thought he hadn't even left the room. However, the items he was still holding obviously proved such thoughts untrue; he had left his room.

This cage was a peculiar one.

In any case, unlike the night the day seemed the appropriate time to perhaps take a rest from all the danger lurking in the darkness. While he was resting his wings, perhaps it wouldn't hurt to "socialize" with the other patients, as allies would certainly be more useful during the night (and not merely to open doors for him). Perhaps he had made a fool out of himself tonight, but such wouldn't happen twice. Not everyone was fond of an encore, after all.

The sorcerer silently stepped out of bed, noticing his roommate was still asleep. The man didn't waste any time, however, as he hastily stored the items into his own closet, camouflaging it with clothes. Nurses finding his newly acquired items was the last thing Kuja needed, after all.

After he had closed the doors of said closet, another door opened as an extremely cheerful woman came in. Such contrast with the night, but the actors played their parts well.

Perhaps too well...

Kuja allowed himself to be escorted to the cafeteria, his attempt to gain more information from the nurse proving to be completely fruitless. Halfway, he had given up, as the staff seemed not as stupid as the Alexandrian court. Either they were acting, or they were unaware of the role they were playing. Regardless, they were mere pawns.

After he had filled his plate with some food, he seated himself at one of the tables, purposely choosing a place where he could easily watch the others patients entering. Blue eyes studying the various canaries flying within their cage as they were finally allowed an opportunity to rest their wings, he picked up a fork and began eating his breakfast.

[from here]

Without much difficulty, Xemnas finally reached the courtyard. His orange eyes scanned his surroundings as he carefully moved though the darkness, on his guard for a possible ambush. He had not put on his flashlight, as it would attract unwanted attention. The Superior didn't want any unnecessary distractions, after all.

After making sure there were no direct threads, he proceeded towards the shed located near the wall. Surely, something sharp must be stored in there.

[from here]

The chaos from the Sun Room slowly faded into the background as Larsa dragged Penelo into the Cafeteria. While this was a wise choice, Penelo couldn't believe it. They had left Protoman and Gabranth behind!

"Larsa... We have to do something," Penelo bit her lip as she ducked down behind the doors. She wasn't sure if that man was going to give chase, since he didn't seem particularly interested in them to begin with. At the same time, she couldn't just leave her friends...

Of course, Penelo knew that just her and her broken broomstick wouldn't be enough. But maybe they could find something in the Kitchens to help?

[from here]

Something told Luke that he really shouldn't have followed Masaru. It was that little voice, the little voice that told you not to touch that button, or pull that lever, or use that Fonic Arte when Tear was trying to sing a Hymn and possibly interrupt and doom your party to a loss, but Luke was still uncertain of this place. He had but a few newfound friends to place his trust in, and Luke knew that he couldn't go alone.

That said, Masaru looked so confident in knowing where the Sun Room was that Luke didn't think he could possibly be wrong. So Luke followed, like a good sheep, to the door that Masaru was leading them too.

Opening it, Luke was expecting to see Larsa and That One Girl, awaiting them with news of what would happen next. Instead, he was greeted by darkness. His eyes eventually adjusted to the weak moonlight to show a field.

"Uh, Masaru? Are you sure this is the Sun Room...?" Luke asked, sounding very worried. Now that he thought about it, that shed in the corner seemed kind of... familiar...

... Because this was the same field that they were in just hours ago!

"MASARU! I THOUGHT YOU KNEW WHERE YOU WERE GOING!!!"

Night came, but Penelo was actually surprised to hear the Head Doctor say what he did. No rant? Maybe he just didn't feel like it tonight, which made Penelo wonder if something had happened to him. Maybe something that would be in their favor, but that seemed like wishful thinking.

Penelo grabbed her things, mentally repeating Protoman's room number in her head. M44. Kazuo had been absent for the whole day, so it was possible it would just be the two of them that night. She really hoped he was alright. He survived through the night... maybe he just stirred up some trouble.

It really was no use standing there and thinking of horrible things that could have happened to her friend (she supposed she could think of him as that for now), not to mention it was probably bad luck, so Penelo exited her room. Quietly, so she wouldn't disturb her sleeping roommate.

From here

Kazuo made his way into the sunroom, and didn't see anyone there yet. He stopped and listened for sounds. Nothing. He glanced back at Usopp. "It looks empty," he said quietly, "but keep your voice down. We need to listen for anything that's coming."

He looked around and saw nothing but tables and chairs as usual.

[From here]

Usagi stared at the longer, wider hallway and stopped dead. The farther she got from her room the more vulnerable she was beginning to feel. She fumbled around with her flashlight, thankfully the light clicked on without a flicker. With a shaking hand Usagi pointed it to the left, not at all thrilled with how long and dark that hall looked... She'd try the right first.

Protoman gathered the notebook pens and flashlight. He would finally find out whether or not the data he had collected was true, or if he had been talking to crazy people.

He paused to wonder what it meant if he had been talking to crazy people and this was a true mental hospital. It did not bode well. Everything he had experienced and everything he remembered would have to be reanalyzed if he found out he was in a proper asylum. Of course, if he was he wouldn't be capable of that analysis in the first place.

He purged his mind of that line of thinking and continued working on his notebook while waiting for Penelo.

Ginji peered around before he started to walk again. This place was pretty empty. It was still pretty early in the night so he wasn't too worried. He wanted to get to Kurama as soon as he could. That way he could also find the stuff he needed to find tonight.

"Do you mind if I ask how old you are?" he whispered to Haku, in a voice that could probably only be heard by the boy with him. He didn't like the idea of so many young people stuck here. He was still moving pretty soundlessly but that didn't mean he didn't want to learn something about the person he was traveling with temporarily.

Haku stepped out into the dark hallway, shifting the bag on his shoulders. He could feel the weight of his flashlight in there, but for the moment, it wasn't needed.

Tonight would be interesting, Haku could already tell. He needed to go find his Master, drop off the payment, then find some aluminum, oh, and we couldn't forget about meeting up with Iruka-sensei, now could we?

Haku's face was free from his uncomfortable bandages, and his vision was getting clearer every moment. The bandages on his right hand didn't hinder his movement, he was pleased to note, and having both eyes made his depth perception so much better. He smiled to himself and headed off down the hallway. No time to lose.

((heading here.))

Renji's quasi-peaceful mood from breakfast was well and gone by the time he got out to the courtyard. Rather than dwell on the all-new problems with Rukia - and the fact that he had absolutely no idea how to deal with any of it - he tried to occupy himself with a mental checklist of the things he needed to do today. Meet with Roy Mustang at lunch, introduce Hitsugaya around, hopefully speak with Qui-Gon at some point in the day, figure out who would be doing what in the night...

He'd gotten seperated from the rest of the Shinigami during the shuffle out to the courtyard, so he found himself somewhere out of the way where he could work out what else he needed to do.

It wasn't that he was avoiding Rukia, really.

Mostly.

Because avoiding someone in this place, at these times, was pretty much impossible.

His normally grouchy expression seemed just a bit more sour.

Aidou Hanabusa, a vampire, was one of the first into the cafeteria, which was swimming in dim sunlight. A grey morning suited his mood.

The fact that his biological clock was pitching fits was only the cherry on top of the cake; the last thing he wanted to do was sleep. "Waking up", once again, with no memory of how or why he'd been brought back to room M52 infuriated him, on top of getting absolutely nothing done during the night. In the (miniscule) self-deprecating part of his mind, he thought it served him right for making concessions for humans. He wasn't going to make that mistake again, no matter how alone he was.

Aidou secluded himself in a corner. Solid food couldn't replace what he was missing, but it would keep his appetite in check. For a while. If his better sense told him not to repeat yesterday's mistakes, then at least he could forget tablets and go hunting tonight. It wasn't like Aidou was required to follow protocol during Landel's fine nightshift. No one else did.

No one from home would think less of him for cutting corners, either. If they hadn't been able to find him by now, then things were worse than he imagined. With a table piled high with food, he cupped his chin in his hand and let his gaze wander. He had a fair idea where the female cell block was. It wouldn't be difficult to overpower a young girl...

Eventually grabbing the knife, Aidou poked at one of his many bagels. He'd been right about to find a suitable instrument in the mail room, something long and sharp enough to cut into a bat and allow him to see what similarities remained on the inside... The plastic blade sank through the bread, went through the paper plate underneath it, and finally snapped in two against the plastic tray.

More new "patients". A day of "doctor consultations". It was nothing he'd ever experienced before, nothing he'd ever heard about before, and it was seriously driving him nuts. For the first time in his life, he just wanted to be left alone, without feeling a set of eyes on him.

Penelo worried that there might be an unwelcomed guest lurking in the darkness, especially since the door was (sort of) locked. But to her relief, there wasn't one immediately present.

What she did see wasn't too great, though. It was a simple changing station with some nurse uniforms (she briefly thought of taking one and attempting to escape in disguise, but that seemed a little too easy. And they're probably notice her right away. So much for that idea.), but Penelo knew there had to be something of interest if this is where the nurses changed into their uniforms.

"I hope some of them are forgetful," Penelo wondered to Kazuo, shining her flashlight on the clothing. "It'd be nice if they left something for us."

[from here]

Instead of heading for the Chapel, Penelo and Kazuo continued down the hall. As she passed by, she almost thought that she could hear the sounds of a scuffle, but the sounds passed and she found herself in a hallway of new doors. upon trying to the ones to her right, she found they were again locked, but a door on the left managed to yield and opened up to another hallway.

Hallways, hallways, and more hallways. Just great. Still, Penelo figured they had to be getting somewhere. One of these doors hopefully led to a room.

Upon trying some of them on her left again, though, they seemed to be locked. Door after door refused to open, and Penelo started to worry that they hit a dead end.

"Are the doors on the left opening?" She asked Kazuo. "I guess we got unlucky finding a hallway with locked doors."

One of them had to open. Even if the first five didn't!

[sneaking by from here.]

Focused less on what might be coming after them, and more on moving out of sight of the monsters, Reno glanced back just long enough to make sure that Rufus was still alive and well, before attempting to get them into the nearest door. The first didn't budge - gave no sign of even planning to budge - but the second felt like it almost gave way.

It would've been easier just to blow the lock off with his gun, but that probably wasn't a good idea right now. He gripped the doorknob and gave the door another forceful shove with his shoulder. It flew open with a satisfying crack.

Though it was pretty damned dark, there was enough light from Rufus' flashlight to catch a glimpse of what was in there.

And there was definitely stuff in there. He could already spot a few things of use.

"Hell, yeah." He turned around, eyes on the door. "Rest of you wanna loot the place while I keep watch?"

He would've preferred to hunt for equipment himself, but given he was the only one out of all of them with any sort of weapon, he either took the job or handed over the gun to someone else. And he wasn't about to trust Schuldig or Crawford with any sort of firearm.

Besides, Rufus knew what Reno was looking for. The President could gather the metal required - if there was any, that was.

[[From here]]

Recluse stopped at the top of the stairs, sufficiently far enough from the flashlight so that he felt a little less jumpy. He scanned the area, trying to make sure there were no unpleasant surprises waiting for him in the dark halls. Satisfied for the moment that the area was safe, he turned to speak quietly to the reporter.

"I haven't been to the chapel before. I assume you know the way?"

[from here]

The Sun Room was comforting to Penelo during the day, since she seemed to spend so much of her time in there, but at night, it managed to look quite eerie. The moonlight gave everything a dull shine and the large expanse of the room gave the impression of a black abyss that was waiting to suck her inside.

Needless to say, she wasn't too eager to enter. But the Game Room was here, so enter she must. Penelo reminded herself that once she entered the Sun Room, she could just run into the Game Room and safely hide there until Kazuo made his way there. It was a good plan.

Of course, when Penelo actually entered the room, that plan was quickly ignored. A quick scouting of the area showed it to be relatively safe (at the moment) and ... well, empty.

It was far different from last night, where there were quite a few people gathered here. Perhaps she just moved too hastily and the others hadn't arrived yet. Taking light steps, Penelo started to walk towards the Game Room.

[Coming in from here]

So far so good.

The stairs to the second floor should be around here. So far they hadn't run into any of the locals here, which was both a good and bad thing: they didn't have to expend needless energy defending themselves, but, on the other hand, that also meant no food. Brock sighed, searching the walls for the door to the stairs, and tried to not focus on the fact that he was not only starving again for human food (apparently they were still recovering from last night), but he was also getting pretty hungry for some of the fresh, rather socially inacceptable meat that had a habit of walking on two legs.

It would be the first time that he could remember that he'd fed when he wasn't Venom. While it probably wasn't a far stretch to assume that the symbiote took his body on joyrides when he was asleep or unconscious, there still remained the fact that he didn't recall any incident where he'd killed with his bare hands, fed as Eddie Brock only.

The mental image of himself crouched over a corpse and going for the head was a bit nauseating, actually and he had to hurriedly focus on the walls before him, rearing up in the darkness and grainy in their eyes. Being back to near-human apparently made him somewhat squeamish again.

It's just a need like normal eating, Brock thought, echoing the reassurances of his Other. It's perfectly okay. We have as much a right to exist as everyone else.

The blond paused before the stairs, slightly comforted by this, and started up them, careful to watch his feet and feeling along the rails with one hand. Hopefully the Chapel was empty when they got there; Brock was all for feeding outside it, but it seemed wrong to profane that kind of ground with even their very honest needs. It just didn't feel right to pull that kind of shit in a holy place (while it didn't have any religious markers, Brock still felt it was special and deserved the proper respect).