[ entering from here with TK in tow ]

Oh so much joy, there was a place to play here, a pit full of plastic balls! Yes, so many fun things had been destroyed on her own world, why not enjoy what was offered here? After icecream. And the coupon was good for a whole meal too! Ed finally dropped TK's hand and sauntered up to the counter, presenting the slip of paper to the attendant with pride.

"Ed wishes to have her tummy filled with yummy!" The employee behind the counter took her coupon and before long Ed had her meal and sweet treat. She commandeered the first available table without a second thought, digging into her food with gusto.

[ dragging TK along from here ]

Ed skipped along with the stormtrooper's hand firmly caught in hers, leading him towards the smell of yummy food. The guy-in-charge person was also coming along, which meant more new friends for fun food times. She could see the burger place on the right, very close now. It reminded her of the fast food chains that had once bloomed across Earth before the gate disaster had put an end to most of that. She kept tugging TK-622 along, cackling gleefully and heading for Tasty Burger.

[ running fast from Germaine St. ]

Ed was now screaming at the top of her lungs, "Help, help, I'm being repressed!" Stupid doctors and nurses must be elsewhere obsessed, they weren't yet coming to rescue Ed who was quite distressed! The evil stormtrooper was still on her heals, and as if she was going to trust his appeals. Pain and punishment were probably on his list and she didn't want to get the gist. Hopefully a nurse or some other kind person would put a stop to the madness, before Ed's life was ended by Empire badness.

When the bus had lurched to life, Okita was barely able to contain his scream of terror. He was lucky no one was sitting next to him or he would have died of embarrassment at his actions. Never having seen or even been in a modern transportation vehicle, he spent most of the trip curled up in his seat, gripping it like it was his only lifeline. The bus terrified him - the sounds it made and the way it jolted along the road. When it had become apparent that it wasn't going to explode, though, he'd relaxed enough to realize that unlike riding a horse, this metal monstrosity made him motion sick.

As soon as the thing stopped, Okita was off it, looking a little green. He remembered to take his sack breakfast and the coupon book, though, and quickly fled the area to find the closest place to hide. It ended up being a beautiful park with carefully sculpted lawns and what looked like play equipment. The fresh air did him some good and he quickly moved to the swings, setting the brown bag in his lap as he lazily moved to and fro on them.

He still had a lot to think about, he'd been able to supress most of his worst homocidal urges on the bus. Hijikata couldn't just disappear like that. Perhaps he'd been rescued earlier and would be somewhere in town today. All Okita had to do was get up the courage and start moving - no matter how difficult that seemed to be.

Rhode didn't want to have to let go of Allen, not ever. It could be forever before she was able to be with him again! But the nurses were persistent in moving her off the big yellow thing, as was Allen for getting away from her. Even outside of the building, people were just determined to keep her from being with him! It wasn't fair!

Once off the bus and shivering just slightly from the crisp fall air, Rhode was handed a small booklet of what the nurse called "coupons". It took some explaining, but Rhode was eventually able to understand that the thin pieces of paper in the book were supposed to be used like money here. She wasn't at all accustomed to buying things for herself; that was supposed to be the Earl's job. When Rhode expressed this problem, the nurse only gave her a sad smile and patter her in the direction of the buildings.

"Why don't you go find something fun to do? There's a toy store just around the corner there. Don't worry about being alone though, we're all here to keep an eye on you. If anything happens, just come get one of us," the nurse explained, nodding to the staff members that were set to parole the town for any problems their more unruly patents could cause.

So, they were all going to be watched even though they could roam about freely? Rhode took a look back towards the yellow things but was unable to pick out Allen from the mess of patients. In a few moments, she probably wouldn't be able to find him at all or for the rest of the day. Should she just resign herself to that for now and use the small bit of freedom to her advantage? Being with Allen was important, and a lot of fun but...

She glanced down at the coupons again, smiled up at the nurse as best she could, and gave a quick, "Okay!" before running off as suggested.

A small bit of freedom was bound to make her feel better. Maybe she could use it to remind herself of how she was supposed to handle Allen Walker, an exorcist. This town did have a similar air to that of the Rewinding Town, after all.

[went here]

There was, Naomi decided, some sort of cosmic irony in all of this. Not that she was trapped in a deranged and possibly other-worldly asylum with a man she'd idolized for years and a boy who was being investigated for - among other things - the murder of her fiance. No, at this point, those were perfectly normal occurrences. Rather it was the soft, pretty, feminine pink sweater dress she'd been stuffed into in the morning. A chance to wear normal clothes, and she looked like a soccer mom. The white blazer and white boots only made her look like a soccer mom who maybe hadn't given up gogo boots.

It was humiliating. Why couldn't she have jeans and a sweater? And sneakers? Something she would conceivably wear? Not this damned pink monstrosity. And her nurse kept saying how pretty she was.

She didn't care if she looked pretty.

Grumbling to herself, and taking it out on her muffin, Naomi was shoved onto an empty bus and told to 'sit tight'. Oh, she'd sit tight alright....

At least she was relatively certain L was alright. She'd spent the whole night with him, and other than falling on his ass, nothing had happened to him. And hopefully nothing would happen to him in town, either....

As he stepped in from the hallway, Armand switched his flashlight back on. He swung the beam around the dusty, dank interior. This was the place he remembered. Javert and Trevelyan had seemed disappointed in it, but Armand was pleased because he thought that Citan would like it very much. He moved away from the door so Citan could get inside. Armand realized they were the first visitors for the night.

[from here]

This hallway was just as dark, and now that they were using only one flashlight it made it harder to see more than a couple feet ahead. Ritsuka paused at the entrance, not sure where to go or even if they had the right area. He didn't like how narrow the hall was, or how easy it would be for something to be sitting just outside the beam, waiting for just the right moment.

"...down here, I guess," he murmured, mostly to himself. Now that they had reached a dangerous point, he was sure that Soubi would want to take the lead. He didn't like the idea of the Fighter walking into a potential trap practically unarmed, but they had no choice. Until they could figure out how the spells worked here, they were shooting blind. "Ready?"

[from here]

Keeping to where he'd seen on the map, Ritsuka passed by one door and looked for the hallway that resembled what Miku had drawn him. He didn't know what was behind the door, but something gave him bad vibes and he ignored the area. It didn't take him long to get to the second hallway and he paused, trying to remember where things were.

Other than the fact that the Laundry Room was here with a bunch of other rooms, Ritsuka couldn't remember anything. He should have kept asking for maps on the bulletin board, but now it was too late. "We'll try here," he whispered. If there was something lurking in this hall, he didn't want the thing to know they were coming.

[going here]

[from here]

Once they were safely at the top of the stairs, Ritsuka flicked on his flashlight and swept the area. It was probably unwise to announce their position, but he needed to know where he was. For all the times Ritsuka had been up here, he had never really gotten very far and his memory was fuzzy. Somewhere to his right was the pharmacy, near the railing, where he needed to stop for supplies for Tamaki.

Whether he should stop there first or after their explorations, however, was the problem. Turning to the right, he started forward and tried not to show any fear. He wanted to get things done tonight, even if it meant facing the worst that Landel's had to offer. He just hoped he wouldn't have to do that just yet.

[from here]

Good, everything still looked familiar. Or as familiar as was possible in the darkness. Rhode still had yet to discover the joys that belonged to the flashlight nestled beneath her pillow, but her eyes were so accustomed to the darkness of her own dimensions that the hallways did not bother her. A little light would have been welcome, if only to flash against her golden eyes and scare away whomever had the misfortune to stumble onto her. She smiled at the thought of someone screaming as they ran away.

Only a little farther now.

[to here]

[from here]

The hallway was empty here as well. Just how much earlier had she headed out tonight? Probably not by much. The absence of others in the hallway barely bothered Rhode as did the presence of others. Her mind was usually so dead focused on getting somewhere or finding someone that she had never really paid attention to what other things happened around her.

A left at the next hallway and down a bit for the doors on the left. That should be right. She hoped the ghost woman's influence on her wasn't messing with her memory.

[to here]

[from here]

Her neck still hurt and the cold had yet to ease, but Rhode had to force herself not to care. No matter what her mind told her, it wasn't important and, as she now repeated over and over to herself, it wasn't real. She was convinced of that. These emotions that kept plaguing her were merely those of the ghost woman, nothing more.

That's all she could believe to keep the emotions from overwhelming her.

One hand running along the wall and the other at her neck, she again left her room, following the path she remembered and now had memorized courtesy of Larxene's map. There were two places that Allen Walker had been that she had always managed to find him at or around: the doors outside the Sun Room, and the area just a floor above that place. She hoped the latter would not need venturing into and that Allen would be on the bottom floor. Seeing the ghost woman again would not be a welcome sight.

[to here]

The intercom gave its cheery jingle just before the Head Doctor's equally buoyant voice rang through the halls.

"Ah, and finally, our day is coming to a close! Rooms and roommates have been reassigned with care, though what great partnership can start without a good meal? Ah, yes, after the nurses escort all of our patients, new and old, back to their proper rooms, everyone will have the chance to enjoy a savory chicken pot pie, full of peas, carrots, potatoes, and of course, chicken. On the side, we'll have buttery corn on the cob and green beans, and to drink, you may choose from the regular slew of water, milk, or assorted juices, which your nurse will bring to you.

"I believe that's all for now! Phew, long day, huh? I know I'll be happy to get some sleep, and thank you to all our vigilant doctors and nurses, although Dr. House seems to have gone AWOL... Hmm... Well, in any case, have a good dinner, everyone!"

The intercom clicked off again as the nurses began organizing the patients for the small trek back to their rooms.

[ OOC: Remember, room threads go in response to THIS post, and please put your respective room number in the subject line of your first post. Thanks! ]

Libraries, he'd found, were rarely as dull as people made them out to be.  Though he felt no magic in these tomes, they were still full of useful information.  Maybe some of them could tell him a little bit more about this world he'd landed himself in. 

For that matter, why hadn't he run into any of the others yet?  They'd all been fairly close together when they'd left Rekord, but he hadn't seen a trace of any of them.  He was able to communicate easily with the people here though, which led him to believe Mokona was within a mile or so.  Unless the ones running this little game had some other way to let all these other-worldly people communicate amongst themselves.  In which case, the others could be very far away indeed.

The library had that wonderful smell of old books, and Fai traced his fingers along the shelves, skimming titles and pulling books that struck his fancy.  Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The War of the Worlds, and with a smile, he found Bram Stoker's Dracula as well.  Raven had been telling the truth then, in spite of his own lies.  Ought to be a good start.  He sat leisurely at one of the tables and began flipping through his selections.

[waiting for Tamaki~]

Renji wasn't so certain what this grilled cheese thing was all about, but he liked the sound of some soup. Even if it was strange western soup, well... there wasn't anything bad people could do to soup, in his experience. His good mood was starting to fray at the edges, a little, from the strain of dealing with the Ichimaru issue, and even more from what had been on the bulletin board earlier.

He'd never had difficulty simply writing something before. But...

He shook his head as he entered the line. He didn't want to think about it. He wanted to hold on to the tenuous equilibrium he'd managed to find.

Renji got himself a large bowl of soup, water, and even one of those sandwiches, just to try it. Old habit, recently awakened, had him over to one side of the cafeteria, where the fewest people possible would have the chance to pass behind him. He sat there with his back toward the wall and started eating.

The Head Doctor seemed a little exhausted as he gave orders over the microphone this shift, though he didn't seem to have any qualms about explaining why.

"And I do believe we're at the last few pieces of paperwork involved in obtaining and accounting for all of our new patients! Wonderful, if... somewhat exhausting!" The Head Doctor laughed, rapping his knuckles on the surface of his desk. "In any case, I'm sure our patients both old and new want to know what's on the menu for lunch, and so, here it is!

"Today, we'll be having grilled cheese sandwiches--big ones!--with cheddar cheese and mozzarella melted between two buttery, toasty slices of white bread. As sides, we have french fries, cole slaw, and a bowl of chicken noodle soup, and of course, the usual choices in both drinks and the salad bar are available as well.

"And that's all for now! ....Oh! Could our nurses escort the Group 3 patients to the cafeteria? Thank you very much!"

And once again, the intercom clicked off.