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.

[From here.]

It was around that time when Jade's pace slowed considerably, almost to that of a snail's. Even though it involved a woman of some sort, he was certain that he'd have more than enough time to dwell between the halls while still making it back before his Majesty reached his own destination. He walked the halls with more ease than he held moments before, swinging his fontech back and forth as he wandered along.

The rail caught his attention almost instantly, and Jade found himself looking over the edge in practically no time. Even at this height he was able to make out the shapes of chairs and couches that lined the Sun Room's floor. This area seemed to awaken some nostalgia inside him, reminding him of the very bridge that overlooked the first floor of the Cathedral back in Daath. If he remembered correctly, it was where Luke came to him after seeking whatever moral support he could squeeze out of his allies. Life was more hectic back then, and they were facing dilemmas that no person could keep to their own.

Jade chuckled at those memories, letting himself relax in the darkness.

[To here.]

[From here.]

By now the Colonel was just surprised.

From everything he'd heard earlier that day, he was expecting monsters to pop out of every orifice of this Institute. Instead, it remained all but blissfully quiet, and in a way it was a big disappointment. Though as they say, knock on wood or he'd regret what he just said (or thought). Yet the silence gave him time to think, a small bit of time to contemplate to himself without the loud chatter of other patients around him.

By then he was venturing in territory that left him alert despite whatever bit of introspection came to mind. Eventually, Jade chose to hug the wall, fingers pressing lightly against the cold surface as he continued along his way.

[To here.]

[From here.]

Rounding the corner by the nurse's station, Rukia shined her flashlight around and went through the door to the first M-Block.

So three people had been taken again tonight, but not for experimentation, it seemed. Rukia had heard people mention others being brainwashed and turned against their friends. It seemed that this was the case tonight. The last description made her think of Ichimaru, but she shook her head, ridding herself of that thought.

Double-checking to make sure she had everything she would need for the night, Rukia bid Kairi good luck and slipped quietly into the hallway. Flashlight leading the way, she padded quickly down the hallway on her way to the men's block.

The intercom clicked on with its usual jingle, the Head Doctor clearing his throat before he made his last shift-changing announcement of the day.

"Well, now that everyone is clean and having fun, I suppose it's time for everyone to be escorted back to their rooms for dinner! Yes, yes, I know the game room can be entertaining and doctor sessions can be fulfilling, but we only have so much time in the day, don't we?

"Ah, and speaking of dinner, tonight, we'll be having an old favorite--seasoned steak, a baked potato, and peas! Yum, yum. You also get a choice of vegetable soup or caesar salad--just tell your nurse which you'd prefer--and may also choose from our usual variety of drinks."

He made his usual pause, perhaps contemplating what the night would have in store once the sun fully set. Now, however, wasn't the time to reveal such musings, and so he ended on his usual cheery note:

"That's about all for now! I hope you all enjoy your suppers."

And again the intercom turned off.

Some day, he really did intend to go to the game room, just to see what they had in the way of games. But not today. He was simply not in the mood to do anything approaching fun, and he was starting to feel like shit from a combination of being sedated and not having eaten anything yet all day.

The nurses bought it when he did a little exagerated stumbling around, and let him slink off to a corner of the Sun Room. He figured he'd lay down and pretend to be asleep, and maybe he'd be lucky enough that everyone would leave him the hell alone. He even found a couch with its back to the door so he wouldn't be immediately visible and laid down on it. His feet hung over one of the arms, but it wasn't as obvious as his hair being visible.

He had a lot to think about. Like trying to understand why he both did and didn't want to see Rukia. And the things the mysterious person on the bulletin board had said. Thinking about it made his hands shake and made him feel sick. It made it nearly impossible to try to tell himself that nothing had happened, now.

Renji closed his eyes tightly and wished that he really could sleep.

It wasn't as if Phibrizzo didn't enjoy breakfast; he simply grew bored with it after awhile. Exchanging pleasantries with Haku only held his interest for so long and once the meal was finished, they lost all their charm. He was heading for the exit to go exploring on his own when a nurse put a hand on his shoulder and told him it was time to go somewhere else.

"Where are we going?" He asked, looking up at her with large eyes. She smiled back.

"The game room! You'll be able to find yourself a little playmate there."

A playmate? Probably not in the same sense Hellmaster was accustomed to playing, but it wouldn't be so bad to mingle with others his "age". If nothing else, it was a way to pass the time. And who knew- maybe a 'playmate' would present themselves. There was some fun to be had yet. Shuffling into the game room at the nurse's urging, Phibrizzo picked up the first game he could find and inspected it.

"Uno," he read back from the cover. Huh. He opened the box and pulled out a few cards of various colors and numbers. The small Mazoku cocked his head. How did this game work? Were you supposed to separate them and pile them in numerical order by color? It didn't seem like much of a game, but what did he know about the games children played?

Taking the deck in his hand, he meandered to a corner and sat down on the floor, making blue, red, green, yellow, and misc piles of cards as he waited for others to filter in.

Sai awoke rather groggily, which wasn't a good sign for a ninja. It meant he was probably ill. He'd need to get checked up with a medic-nin before he did very much more that day. Eyes blinked open slowly to stare at the ceiling and then narrowed in confusion. Not his ceiling. Was he already at the hospital?

"Mr. Pastello... wake up, hon."

Turning his head to the side revealed a vaguely familiar woman in a white uniform. A nurse? ...Oh yes. His nurse. Landels. He sat up at her direction, feeling mildly dizzy as he did so, and glanced down at his arms as he folded them in his lap. They were covered in clean bandages, no longer bleeding. The dizziness told him he was still suffering a bit from the blood loss, however.

When had he passed out? The last few events of the night hadn't been very clear. He didn't know what had happened to the two pirates and, looking around, the mess of blood they had left seemed to have been completely cleaned up. It was amazing, really. He smiled at his nurse, too weary to do much else but let her lead him to breakfast at the moment.

She helped him to his feet, where the light-headedness was even more apparent. It didn't seem to be anything he couldn't put up with, though. The nurse seemed to know a bit about what he suffered from, but made no mention of it aside from telling him to avoid lifting heavy objects and to drink lots of fluids as they made their way to the cafeteria. The subject of blood-sucking leeches never arose, and he figured if it had she'd surely feign ignorance.

It wasn't until they got there that he realized just how absolutely starving he was. He'd had what, corn for dinner? The smells were simply enticing, even though he had no idea what waffles were supposed to be. He was sure anything edible at this point would be fine, and made his way out of his nurse's grip and to the line with more speed then he'd probably ever gone after food at.

[continued from here]

Tonight was a bit different as far as Naminé's usual nightshifts went. This time, she was actually waiting for someone instead of having it go the other way around. Which meant she had a little extra time for herself, which was a bit surprising. She wasn't really sure what to do while she waited for Riku to come.

Luckily, Raven also had nothing to do, so at least she wasn't lonely. Naminé decided to organize her small collection of medication as they spoke.

"Would you like to come with me tonight, then? I am going to try to fill out the second floor of my map. I was able to fill out almost all of the first floor today, if you'd like to have a look," She explained, also offering her makeshift map to Raven. She wasn't sure how much the other girl had, and maybe she could even add on to it.

[From here]

So far no stupid distractions.

Albel quickly proceeded into the next hallway, carefully scanning the darkness for any scum lurking within it (though without a flashlight, it made it pretty difficult to see anything).

Eventually, the Captain reached the door leading to the recreational field. As he turned the doorknob, he felt the cold chill from outside on his face. Without lingering too long, he headed outside.

[Off to here]

Well, dinner had been boring, as usual, and he hadn't had time to check out the little device he'd stolen from that doctors office, but there was no point wasting valuable time when he could be running around trying to find a way out of the hospital.

Last night he had found HK in this hallway, so he would probably find the assassin droid here again. Hopefully, he'd be more coherent than he had been at lunch. The painkillers couldn't last that long, and since SubZero himself was no longer suffering ill effects from his sedation HK should be better too.

While he waited for HK to show up, SubZero took to leaning quietly against a wall, both to be less visible and to make it impossible for a monster to attack him from behind.

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.]

Shaking his head at Elfangor's response, the replica opened the door to the waiting room, not expecting much.

Which was pretty much what he got.

He took a hesitant step in, scanning the room quickly with the light. Against one wall was a line of cushioned chairs, with a very casual table sitting in front of them. Next to the door he had entered through was a magazine rack, stacked in an orderly manner with all sorts of magazines he had never heard of. He picked one up, frowning at the title The New York Times. The pages seemed yellowed with age. The room looked like it hadn't been used in ages - or it was the feeling he got from it. Thankfully, it looked empty of bats. Or anything else that might nibble an ear off.

He turned back to the two. "I don't think we'll find much here."

[[From here.]]

Recluse turned the corner from his cell block's hallway and headed for the door out. He knew what the man he would be fighting looked like, but he didn't know which room he was in. He'd just have to get to the intersection leading to the Sun Room to head the man off.

He wasn't planning on killing the man, just making his life extremely unpleasant.

[[to here]]

Too goddamn tired, huh? Kimbley smirked up at the intercom sealed in the corner of the room and continued rifling through his drawer. Under his pillow he'd found the flashlight; in here, there were pens, a radio, a journal ... they were actually giving them supplies here. Clearly, this was not a real mental hospital ... or prison. More of hell than home.

The door was unlocked. He ignored his roommate almost entirely as he opened the door and stalked out, flashlight in one hand and radio in his pocket. (Who knew when he could disassemble it and use the parts inside for a makeshift bomb?) He'd said he'd meet Wesker here, but there was no way Kimbley was going to just hang around and wait for the man; no, he would make his way somewhere else. Wait for him at the door to the cellblock, maybe. Surprise him.

With an attack.

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.

The intercom jingle rang out both inside and outside the institute on speakers loud enough to broadcast clearly across the recreational field.

"It's been a busy day, hasn't it? Well, fortunately for all of us, it's nearly over, and we can all look forward to some rejuvenating shut-eye--that is, after dinner, of course."

The Head Doctor chuckled.

"Supper for tonight is going to consist of individual servings of chicken pot pie, with mashed potatoes and peas as sides. You may ask your nurse about the usual selection of drinks, and... Oh! Some of you might find that you have some new guests in your rooms belonging to... Group 5, I believe...? Please see to it that our new patients spend their first night at Landel's Institute as peacefully as possible!"

He paused, then added:

"Oh, and Nurse Hondor? Could you please report to my office? Thank you."

The intercom clicked off.

[ OOC: Remember how dinner shift works--everyone posts to this post with individual threads for each room. New characters waking up during this shift will do so in their respective threads, though if your roommate's player is unable to play with you during your intro, feel free to work something out so that your roommate is taking a nap or something. XD; ]