[from here]

Instantaneous by name, instantaneous by nature. The floor seemed not to give way under his feet so much as vanish entirely- a pretty strange illusion, given that they were the ones who'd vanished- but the move was so quick that Kibitoshin didn't even see their surroundings blur before they were planted back on the ground again. The dark, narrow hall, the ominous doors thick enough to swallow any number of sounds: it looked right to him. They seemed to be in the right place.

He dared a glance at both Peter and Sam, looking from side to side to check that they were both still in one piece (and the right piece at that, with no extra parts- it had never happened before, but this place made him nervous) before letting his shoulders sag with relief- a gesture he made sure to correct as swiftly as possible when he remembered that Sam still had his hand on his shoulder. He didn't need to know that he'd been worried. Of course not. Especially not when they were still in 'first impressions' territory.

"This is it, right?" he asked after a moment anyway, frowning slightly- and not just to stop himself from admitting his uncertainty. True, he'd thought it looked right, but there were so many identical hallways here and with the pink glow they became all the more indistinguishable.

[from here]

"The morgue is at the end of this hall." It had seemed longer, in the confusion and the darkness of her first night here. The big fire doors halfway down it being open had helped as well. "Through those doors, and all the way down on the left."

It was paranoia talking; they weren't that far from the morgue, and Lana had no reason to suspect they wouldn't make it down there in one piece, except that nothing here could be taken for granted.

Everywhere, really. She'd taken too many things for granted, and then assumed too easily that, once taken away, none of them would ever be in her grasp again.

What was she going to do if Gant was alive? She certainly wasn't going to kill him again, though she wasn't entirely certain Detective Badd wouldn't. It would, by some interpretations, be quite legal, since Gant had been tried and sentenced. Just an unorthodox means of enforcement.

[from here]

The lurch of nausea was no more welcome than the night before, though by now it had become familiar and expected. The moment his feet touched sold ground again, he darted around his meat shield and tried to bring the back of the chainsaw down against Uke-kun's temple. Between the sudden shift and the previous attacks there was a chance of it working, but even if it didn't... that wasn't a problem.

The office itself was noted only peripherally. If there were other predators present, they would just have to wait their turn. (As if monsters really had a sense of propriety.) So many things could go wrong. Despite the payoff it was a relatively sloppy, dangerous move but caution and patience were things of the past.

[from here]

Mello hadn't been back to this hallway since that bogus therapy session he'd been too out of it to use to his advantage, a missed opportunity that still rankled. If he hadn't been sedated, he was sure he would've had his wits about him enough to find out something about that file the Institute had on him, or whether or not being let out was completely random.

But a lot of things would've been different if he hadn't been hampered by the drugs. Mello stubbornly clung to the belief that it would have made a difference that night. He refused to accept that the Institute could do whatever it wanted to them, no matter how much the place tried to rub their faces in that very knowledge. Some people might have been able to find consolation in thinking the game they were losing was rigged against them, but not him. That presupposed a system where winning wasn't possible at all, and he couldn't stand that idea, not as long as he could push himself harder, find more to try.

He refocused on the task at hand, which should have been getting easier due to practice these last couple of days, but wasn't; and took a sniff of the hallway's air. "Heh. I'm thinking that one." He pointed to the first door on his right. "You want to bust it, or should I?"

[from here]

There was no one here yet. And wasn't that strange? If she remembered correctly, there was a male patient block here. Even if it was away from the others, it should still be fairly well occupied. Were they all just staying in for the night? It was also odd that no one from the female block had come up this way yet either. Either it was just too early, or something had happened in her absence that kept others from coming this way unless they had a larger group with them (or not at all).

Callisto stopped to shine her light down into the adjacent hall, seeing if she could pick out anyone heading out of their room. She thought she heard the sounds of people moving about on the other side of the wall, so it couldn't be completely empty. Was there any point in waiting around? She didn't need someone to accompany her, and it had only slowed her up in the past anyway.

She would wait a bit, perhaps, if only to sate her own curiosity before moving on.

[From here]

Unlike the western section, the central portion of this hallway was completely deserted. On any other night, von Karma would have used this to his advantage to arrive at one of the upstairs locations before anyone else did. The Janitor's Closet, for one, contained a large cache of metal that he could use to compensate Mr. Geeste for the work he would do for him three nights later.

But for now, von Karma merely had to go as far as the very first doorway to his right, which led straight into Waiting Room 1. This was far more important -- though less pleasant -- than his prospective metal scavenger hunt. Besides, by the time he had replied to Mr. Geeste's notice, Ms. Taura had already accepted an assignment from that blasted History Club. He would simply have to try to contact her tomorrow morning as soon as possible before she could accept another one.

Shaking his head, von Karma turned the door knob, expecting to have to jimmy it open, but instead discovering that the door wasn't locked after all.

[To here (with Court's permission to just go on ahead <3 ) ]

[M85]

Guybrush stared at the intercom for a minute after DeLandel was done talking. "Portal Ring?" he asked more to himself than to Scott, looking back toward his desk. He hadn't seen any ring among his collection of assorted knickknacks. It looked like someone else had gotten it from his group- probably LeChuck, knowing his luck. Well, that was just fine- the dread pirate could be taken back to Mudville for all he cared. Guybrush Threepwood was through with rings of questionable origin, no matter how expensively tempting they seemed. He'd learned his lesson years ago.

Speaking of his collection, what else was he taking tonight? Oh yeah! Javert's sword! The experienced inspector was probably ready to tear out his hair by now: being without a tangible weapon for long periods of time did that to some people- his Cuddly Kitten of the Caribbean included. Guybrush's foot was feeling well enough for running- good thing, since he would be doing just that. With any luck, he'd dodge LeChuck and make it to M14 before Javert left for the night.

Grabbing the sword from his closet, he stuck it through a loop in his sash and took his flashlight in hand- er, hook. "Sorry to run," he said to Scott as he pulled the door open, "but I've got a sword to return. Let's talk more about the room and fire and old farts tomorrow, okay?"

Annnnnd he was out the door and down the hall as fast as his slippered feet would allow.

[Booking it to here.]

As expected, after the allotted amount of time had passed, the nurses started to move through the waiting rooms to inform the visitors that it was time for them to leave, whereas in the Sun Room King Kong was turned off and the staff quickly sprung to action to put the equipment away.

Meanwhile, the sound of intercom turning on cut into the hustle and bustle, but it was Lydia's voice which came through. "Mr. Landel is taking a quick nap," was all she said by way of explanation, as she seemed to be beyond making lengthy excuses for the man. "Nurses, once the visitors have said their goodbyes, escort the patients back to their rooms for dinner. Tonight there is steak and fries on the menu, with a slice of cheesecake for dessert and vegetarian options if requested.

"Enjoy your food and have a good sleep." Keeping it short, the intercom then turned off.

Somehow, after their talk in the chapel, Elaine felt simultaneously more accepting of and more irritated by her future husband. On the one hand, seven years had clearly been good to him. He seemed more sincere and thoughtful than he had been before his disappearance, and he had a more mature (dare she say, handsome?) look to him. On the other hand, there were clearly some things that made even time throw up its hands in vain and say, "To hell with this!" Guybrush was still inexorably prone to disastrous accidents if the story about the Pox of LeChuck was anything to go by, and he was so obviously keeping something important from her that any passing dolt in the Institute would have been able to tell. In the end, that eternal underlying sweetness of his that won out, keeping her from punching him again, at least. That was only by a hairs width, though. Her snugglecakes was going to have to stay on his best behaviour if he knew what was good for him.

She left the Mighty Pirate™ alone for the time being when the announcement of the next shift went off. He would want some time to catch up with Morgan next, presumably. As much as the woman's attitude bothered her, she was a friend of Guybrush's, as she had claimed. Elaine could be strict, but she wasn't the kind of shrewish future wife/past fiancé who would keep her man from seeing his friends. Besides, she needed some more time to catch up on the goings-on of the Institute. Patients filled the building to the brim, now, it seemed; there would be a lot to investigate.

After a few quick trips back and forth to the bulletin and a few new leads to follow up on, the governor gave in to her nurse's persistent nagging and headed to the cafeteria for brunch. After the relatively light fare of the day before, Elaine took advantage of the Institute's admittedly scrumptious offerings and loaded up a full, balanced brunchfast of eggs, sausage links, waffles, and vegetable soup. As expected, the selection of drinks did not offer either root beer or grog. Grog she could live without, at least, she thought while making a face. Eugh. For now, she settled for a tall glass of water.

Elaine settled into a seat in the cafeteria and tucked into her meal. Her eyes didn't stay on her food, though, instead gazing around restlessly; she hadn't seen LeChuck so far this morning, and god forbid he wanted to invite himself to brunch with her if he chose now to show up. A certain horribly unpleasant dinner on Mêlée Island came to mind. She was prepared to either move at the first sign of the dread pirate or signal a random stranger to sit with her before he could.

[For Dean]

[from here]

Raphael stepped through the door that opened onto the Rec Field and... found he wasn't in the Rec Field.

"What the hell?" he said, shaking his head to clear the weird feeling of dizziness and staring around the room with blatant confusion. This sure as hell wasn't outside, in fact, it didn't even look like anything he'd seen in the patient blocks. Just where the hell was he anyway?

"Somethin' musta happened when I went through that door," he muttered to himself. The dizzy, faintly sick feeling was kinda like what he'd felt some of the other times he and his bros had been thrown around space and time and other dimensions, but if whoever was running this place had done something to him or something to the building, Raph couldn't tell.

"Great, so where the hell am I now?" Edging away from the door and flicking his flashlight on, Raph took in the numerous boxes around the place and the names written on them, none of which gave him any better idea of what the hell this was all about. There didn't seem to be anything else of interest around though, so he cracked open the closest box and checked what was inside.

Some photos, an empty wallet, and a notebook was the reward for his curiosity. Useless, useless, and useless. He'd have been better off outside.

"Screw this!" Raph snarled, tossing the box away from himself to smack into some others in the dark He picked up a couple of closer ones and threw them as well for good measure. "You're gonna have to try a lot harder 'en that to slow me down!"

He wasn't sure if whoever was responsible was listening right now, but it made him feel better. He'd retrace and try getting outside some other way then. It wasn't like this was the only door, after all.

Turning to head back the way he came, Raph opened the door again to head out to what was hopefully the hallway in the dorms.

[from here]

Heat weighed his options as he stepped into the hall. He could go left, head outside and see if one of those birds came down for him to make a meal out of again, or he could go right and head toward the main hall - see who showed up. While he was hungry, it was more likely that monsters would be there at any point, while patients would meet up and move on before he could reach them.

It wasn't as if he expected to find anyone. No other Embryon had arrived after he had, and those that had been here when he arrived were all gone now. Still, it couldn't hurt to check. He still hadn't seen Cielo. Maybe he was due for a visit.

[to here]

[M85]

All right! One pair of sweats and two pairs of underpants later, and Guybrush had an ingenious way to carry everything he needed. "Just one more thing," he said to himself as he wrapped the pants-sash over his shoulder like a beauty pageant winner. Grabbing his beloved shovel, he carefully slid the long handle through the loops provided by the knotted undergarments. The shovel stayed in place, strapped to his back.

"Hah! Take that, broken clothing! Guybrush: one, clothing: three! Or maybe four. Close enough." He beamed at his own resourcefulness, proud of his major achievement so early in the evening. Sure, it looked a little silly (and his nurse was going to throw a fit if inexplicably he ran out of underwear in the middle of the week), but it was practical. No more juggling to carry everything- the shovel could go on his back, sword in his hand, and flashlight carried in his hook.

Pleased with his new invention, he had one more quick task before he could depart. "Well Scott," Guybrush said, turning to his still-sleeping roommate, "It's been great catching up with you, but I've got a sword to return. You sure you're going to be all right by yourself in here?"

Continued snoozing from the mighty bassist. "Hopefully, the room won't set itself ablaze and you won't die a painful, fiery death. Or maybe you'll wake up if that does happen. Either way, I'll probably come back here after I swing by Javert's. You know, just to make sure."

With that, Guybrush snatched the flashlight from atop his desk and headed out the door.

[The Dread Pirate LeChuck!]

[from here]

The hallway wasn't yet full of the activity Minato was used to seeing at night. Somewhat tired from the walking around town, he mused that he could have gotten a few more minutes of sleep tonight, or even more if he hadn't taken his time eating dinner. He paused for a moment, staring upward as he heard a roll of thunder somewhere overhead beyond the sound of rain on the roof. At least the weather hadn't devolved into thunderstorms while they were still out at the town.

Lowering his free hand from where he had been following along the wall, he reached for and flicked on his flashlight. Time to get moving.

Although the trip was longer than usual on account of the rain and wind, the buses did eventually – and safely – reach Landel's Institute. No strange happenings yet; the patients were escorted off the buses according to the usual protocol and made to go to their rooms and change back into their normal uniforms while the nurses temporarily left them to retrieve their dinners and, in some cases, new roommates.

It wasn't long before the Head Doctor made one of his usual announcements:

"Welcome back, everyone! I regret I was unable to join you on your foray today, but you'll soon find that we had some new guests to attend to in your absence! And now, for your dinner: lamb curry, spicy, but served with naan and mildly seasoned steamed vegetables for anyone who might have a sensitive tongue! For dessert, we'll be serving each patient a slice of banana cream pie, and our usual drinks and dietary alternatives are available.

"I'm hoping you all didn't get too wet, and hopefully the hot dinner will warm you up in no time. Nurses, please escort our newer patients to their new rooms, and everybody, I'll speak to you 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. Find new room assignments here. ]

[ Continued from here. ]

The damn burger place was actually the last place Haseo would have wanted to revisit after the previous week, but there was little other choice when practically dragging the distraught Endrance along with him and trying to find an appropriate shelter: he couldn't be certain anywhere else close would have somewhere to sit down, and the only other place he'd actually been inside of - the grocery store - had been somewhere Endrance had also been in when the town had been full of zombies.

This was where Haseo had been with Leon and Kibitoshin when the nightmare started, but... well, he couldn't remember if he'd ever mentioned that particular piece of information to Endrance or not, and at the moment going somewhere that wasn't as bad to Endrance, even if it was more unsettling to Haseo, was more important. Most of the places were enough to make Haseo feel secretly sick to his stomach anyway.

Hurrying through the door, he immediately guided the Blade Brandier to the side, behind a dividing booth and by a window sporting a display that mostly blocked it. He couldn't keep from staring around a bit (was that chair over there the one he'd used as a weapon?), and his mind was strangely blank, but he'd gotten alright at doing things without thinking. If only that could work all the time.

"Sit," he said seriously, and made to do the same.

Lingering around where the buses were parked made him feel too much like a lost tourist—especially with that woman looking at him like that—so Sam headed off to the park instead. Not too far since he knew Dean would want to see him. Not for anything specific, obviously. It'd just always been automatic to find each other after whatever crazy stuff happened to go down in the night.

Though what they were gonna talk about this time was beyond him. Oh sure, he could ask Dean what went on last night and Dean would probably ask him the same (to which he'd leave out any mentions of Ruby), but that only took up so many minutes. Then what? The job? Not much hunting was getting done. Just another thing that bothered him because yeah, being surrounded by the supernatural wasn't anything new, but a few memorable occasions aside, they looked for these things, not the other way around. Picking up a job or chasing down a trail wasn't the same as having that trail chase you down. It was hard to appreciate the role reversal.

Besides, any discussion of all of this was superficial at best. They were talking around things, not about them, and he knew Dean must've noticed, too.

Still. Screw it. Maybe it was time he pushed all that aside. Dean might've already made the deal—hell, for all Sam knew, Dean's contract might already be up—but he didn't remember the last year. They could...start over, as much as they were able to. Wasn't that the whole reason why he'd decided to keep all this quiet? To make sure Dean didn't have to deal with his crap?

Frowning to himself, he leaned back against a tree, resting his foot flat against the trunk. The skies were seriously looking grey and heavy, but man, he almost wanted to say he missed getting caught in the rain or other generally bad weather conditions. There was something so insanely controlled about the institute, it creeped him out. Kinda nice to see that at least the weather was one part that hadn't gone all The Giver on them.

Well. That and a communal breeding program. Presumably.

[say hi, big brother. :( ]

Even with the nasty weather, Zack still felt refreshed after going outside. Humidity would have reminded him of Gongaga, but he wasn't sure he needed that. Not now, not when he wasn't even sure if he'd be able to get back home and see his parents again. Not that he should have the chance at all, but it was hard to think about nonetheless. Seeing how Gaia hadn't even gotten a rocket into space yet, the idea of figuring out how to get home was one huge question mark in Zack's head.

He already felt hungry again, but after his talk with Aidou the soldier knew that he needed to get that bulletin note up as soon as possible. For that reason, he gave the nurse who was currently herding him his best pleading eyes as he asked to be taken into the Sun Room for a quick second. Once there, he scribbled out a note as fast as he could (he hoped his friends would be able to read his writing) and then tacked it up.

Also, what was with the guy on the intercom all of a sudden? Had he gotten a spontaneous cold? It seemed ridiculous considering he was their captor, but it also meant he was at least somewhat human. He could get a stuffy nose. That meant he was probably weak in other ways.

But there he was, resorting to violence again. It was difficult not to, when that was what he was used to. Besides, Zack was getting the feeling that this Landel guy deserved it.

Shrugging to himself, he entered the cafeteria again and got in line for his lunch. He had to admit he was glad that the food didn't seem to be drugged, seeing how it was downright delicious. Zack got a whiff of the fried poultry as it was put onto his tray and let out a happy sigh. Chow time!

Seeing how the cafeteria was still pretty empty, the young man found the closest empty spot and then sat down. Hopefully one of his friends would spot him and head on over. For now, though, Zack picked up one of the pieces of meat, bit into it, and leaned back into his chair with a content look on his face. So much better than the slop Shin-Ra had called food...

[For Tobias! Let us know if you want to join.]

The world seemed to move more slowly in the showers. Kaworu believed it was the strange half-realized familiarity. He could remember the feeling from before. His mind reached for similarities, of which there were many, but each one was slightly inaccurate. The size was different, the tiles were not the same colors as either the facilities at SEELE, or those at NERV. The only two places he had bathed during his life.

He had spent years in the rooms SEELE had set aside for him, and so it would have been reasonable if that was what he remembered first. A small, practical room with very clean faucets, attached to the room where he slept. Beyond that, the laboratories. One of the spaces had been cleared out, and a piano had been moved in. That was years ago, but Kaworu wasn't precisely sure of the numbers. Ten years ago, possibly? But it was rare that he thought of these places now. Even when they had been the extent of his life, the very limits of his world, he had rarely looked at them. Now they only served as a comparison. Those memories seemed lifeless, and brought him no happiness, except in their passing.

NERV's showers had shown signs of rusting, hidden around the edges of the metal pipes. He had noticed it for a second, but he couldn't bring up any other specific images that didn't include Shinji. And when Shinji was present, he absorbed all of Kaworu's attention. Kaworu would only be passively aware of the setting then.

Kaworu shed his clothing when asked, stopping to fold them haphazardly in an imitation of what Lilim had often done for him in the past. The folds were lumpy, but he left them as they were and walked across the cool tiles. They were still dry, and the bare skin of his feet felt almost sticky on them, having been too warm in his slippers earlier. Soon the room would be heavy and damp with steam.

He reached to the first available faucet, and bowing his head and closing his eyes, he let the stream of cold water hit him. The same ritual as before. Kaworu felt awake for a second, and shuddered in the cold until it slowly climbed to higher temperatures.

[For Shinji, strict reserve.]

Hmph. While this Rude was the proverbial "man of few words," von Karma found more potential use from him than a number of the other patients he had met put together. He would still ask Franziska about the man... as well as the other people he had learned that she had been spending time around. Many of them were utter fools, especially that Kibitoshin.

He ignored the nurse as she insisted that he stay indoors, lest he "catch his death of pneumonia." Already having planned to meet his daughter in the Sun Room, the prosecutor had no intention of spending the cold, gloomy morning in the Courtyard anyway.

It appeared that he was the first to arrive in the spacious room. Gray light from the overcast sky filtered in through the glass windows high above, making it somewhat more difficult for von Karma to peruse the notes on the bulletin board as he awaited Franziska's arrival.

The lines in his forehead furrowed as he saw Kibitoshin's note to her, asking her whether she was "feeling better." What made that blasted oaf think that it was any of his business how she was doing or to worry about her?! She had been raised to take care of herself, damn it! ...Did Franziska say or do something that would lead the clumsy idiot to think otherwise? This, among other things, von Karma would ask her.

After removing his daughter's response to his original note from the board -- and noting that Ms. Taura had yet to reply to his other note -- he sat down at a table in a remote corner of the room, claiming this space that would afford him and his daughter the most privacy.

Mew?

What was that noise? And what was that tugging sensation at the leg of his pants? He peered down in the direction from which the irritating sound had come and was greeted by a tiny orange kitten that had the mistaken notion that his leg was a climbing post. Infernal creature! One glance at his face, and the furry little nuisance was suddenly at the other end of the room, having cleared it within several skittish bounds. Good riddance!

[Waiting for his Dear Daughter]

[from here]

It was times like this he had to wonder if he was the only damn person in this place who still cared about finding the fastest way home possible. Which probably wasn't true, but hell. Seeing as the only people he'd worked with so far had 'stealing books' as a goal or were setting up training nights, it was no damn wonder he was feeling more than a little pissed off about the whole thing.

But really, what it all boiled down to, everything that had been bothering him so far, was one simple fact. Raphael was homesick. He knew it too, would have been an idiot not to. He missed the city, the rumble of the subway felt distantly through the walls of their home, sneaking out for late night training sessions with his brothers where they ran across the rooftops playing tag or follow the leader. He missed the nights they'd spend drinking cocoa at April's place, talking all about the things they'd seen and done. But most of all he missed his family. He missed how Leo always had a plan of action and Donny had the tools for the job, while Mikey could keep things light and not too serious. Hell, he even missed Mikey's jokes and how often he talked about that stupid Battle Nexus trophy he'd won. But he didn't know where his brothers were or if they were even alive at all, if they'd been brought here as well and turned into something they weren't or if Karai had destroyed his family as well as his home.

It was the not knowing that hurt the worst, and Raphael had never been good at dealing with that kind of frustration. It made him want to find something, anything really, and just hit it. And keep on hitting it until things started making sense again or he came up with a way to actually leave this place or something.

And somehow he didn't think this little training session was going to help much there.