And then he was back in his room again. Sai frowned at the ceiling momentarily, but was soon sitting up. He was back in the Landel's uniform again, which really saved him the trouble of having to change, didn't it?

It was disappointing that he hadn't had the opportunity to finish his discussion with Usopp, but luckily they'd already made plans for the morning meal - to include their new cohort, of course. Hopefully whatever had been responsible for making Usopp act the way he had the night before had worn off with the sunrise. Otherwise things would get troublesome.

The moment his nurse came to get him he was ready to leave, and as usual she was pleased with how willing to go along with the daily routine he was, though he hardly offered her any attention. Breakfast was... unpleasant looking, so Sai stuck to milk and fruit. Finding a table, he didn't yet take a seat but stood so that the two men he'd be meeting with could spot him easier.

Time to get down to business.

[waiting for Usopp and Mello]

[From here.]

Feeling out of sorts, Robin felt a few splashes of water ought to liven him up. He was sure the potion injected in him before should have worn off and could only guess they had decided to poison his evening meal as an extra precaution against his wiley ways. Ho ho, good luck to them. He was still standing, just...not as sturdy as usual.

Robin wandered to the nearest sink (such an amazing advance in plumbing and hygiene!) and lay down his tools for the night, with the torch shining it's light over the faucet. Robin turned the tap and placed his hands under the flow of clean water. He'd learned recently that you could control the temperature and even store the water in the sink by blocking the hole at the bottom with the appropriate doodah thingy that was on a chain. One tap ran hot, the other ran cold. Combine they could create a pool of warm.

Robin hadn't really had a chance to play in the bathroom peacefully until now...

The cafeteria was all but empty when Zelnick got there. He was a little disappointed; he had gotten the impression that patients usually ate dinner in their rooms, so he hadn't arranged to meet anyone, and there really wasn't anyone to sit by and engage in conversation yet.

Quietly, he collected dinner and a big glass of orange juice, and chose a seat near the food-serving counters. Talking for so long had made him thirsty... and, well, fruit juice was a luxury he had missed.

[Stalk away, my dearest Admiral. <3 ]

The lockdown had been interesting. The fact that the staff had enough power to put down a rebellion that quickly and then lock people into their rooms just as fast was something of a feat to be admired. Their efficiency would have been much more impressive if Okita had been on the other side of it, however. As it stood, he had to keep his assessment to himself and when the nurses came and escorted the men out to the showers, he was ready to play the role of model prisoner for a little while.

The last thing he needed was another needle in the neck, after all.

He followed his nurse, smiling pleasantly at her as she led him through the Sun Room and toward the men's showers. Despite arriving almost a week ago, this was his first time experiencing these strange Western bathrooms. He'd explored them at night, but the smell had kept him far from the spigets and fixtures except when absolutely necessary. His nurse pointed out the changing room and politely turned around, trusting that he'd be good for now.

It was fortunate that she did or she might have seen the extra five pens he'd stuck in his waistband to be used later if he needed a weapon. He undressed, hiding the pens away along with his journal and allowed his nurse to remove the bandages around his chest. The scratches had scabbed over and were mostly healed by now. He took the towel she offered him and went into the showers, glad to see he was the first one. It would make finding him easier if anyone needed to speak with him.

Stepping over to the shower furthest away from the door, he fiddled with the knobs and nearly screamed when cold water hit him full on. Stupid Western plumbing! He hadn't been expecting that from what everyone had told him about showering. It took a few minutes, but the hot water began to run and he calmed down, peering at the showerhead and marveling at how water came from the wall directly. Such innovation. With little else to do but enjoy a nice warm bath, Okita began to wash, feeling the stress slip off him along with the week's accumulated sweat and grime.

[open for anyone]

Hitsugaya woke with a start.

His entire body ached, but the pain was nowhere near as bad as it had been the night before. His injuries had been tended two with clean gauze and bandages, and he found every movement wasn't agony. He wasn't in the best of shape, but thanks to the miracle of landel's strange time distortion, he had mostly recovered from the vile poison without having to waste anyone else's talents.

And in his hand, still...there was the key.

He dressed quickly, sliding the key onto the key ring from his desk drawer and stuck it into his pocket. Whether the key stood to gain them anything or not, it stood as a vital reminder that they could succeed in this place. There was hope, as insignificant as it often seemed. They could beat this place.

That small shred of hope made getting up worth it.

The nurse who escorted him to breakfast was cheerful, and commented idly about how wonderful it was to see young Tommy Winters up and about again after his unfortunate run-in with a bad case of food poisoning. He smirked slightly, knowing that any lies the institute forced into their heads were only that: lies. He wouldn't buy it for a second. And on top of that, the concept of muffins sounded almost appetizing. While he still preferred his authentic Japanese cuisine, the food here was slowly becoming more and more bearable. He would have preferred a warm bowl of sweet nattou over rice over the mufffins, but they would do. The plain yogurt and fruit, on the other hand, was excellent. He piled his plate high with fruit as usual, and got several small bowls of yogurt as well.

Finding the most convenient table to the end of the food line, he took a seat and scanned for the new arrivals. New arrivals meant people who would be lost and confused. Renji did a good job of making a bulliten post last time...he should recommend abarai-fukutaicho do the same again this time.

[Waiting for Angel]

Brunch had been relaxing, and Sora felt like he hadn't had a low-pressure, easy conversation like that in a while. Bridget seemed like a very sweet girl, and he wouldn't mind getting to know her better. He wondered if she had friends (other than Roger) who she could stick with in this place, or if she was on her own. If it was the latter, maybe he could invite her to join the Arts and Crafts group!

Speaking of girls, Sora had to wonder where Kairi was. He hadn't seen her friend in a while, which was strange. Riku was the sort to wander off for a few days without warning, but Kairi usually made herself known well enough. It hadn't been long enough for him to start worrying, but he hoped he ran into her soon.

Being given a choice for once (and not dragged off to meet a visitor, thankfully), Sora immediately decided on the Game Room. He remembered the game he had played and showed to Luffy and Junior that one time, and he was hoping he could find that... Gameboy thing again.

Luckily for him, the room was empty when he got there, which meant he got first dibs on the Gameboy. He quickly found one and ran with it to one of the couches, falling into the comfy cushions as he turned the handheld on.

Even though he was glad he had gotten there first, he hoped the room would start filling up. Sitting in here on his own with only his nurse watching him would just be weird. But for now, Tetris was keeping him busy.

[ Feel free to pester. :D ]

[[from here]]

The place smelled like a normal enough grocery store, although Sasuke remained suspicious of anything that the Institute deemed 'appropriate.' A vague murmur of shoppers underscored the nearly-cozy atmosphere, but crowds were never a good sign either.

Or, at any rate, Sasuke had never much liked them.

His nurse led him to the notice board she'd mentioned, and after finding a paper and a pen, Sasuke concentrated on writing a legible message. It was harder than he'd expected or hoped.

[[From Here]]

Allen followed, though his childish face was set in a firm line.  Clark couldn't be that much older than him, why was he being treated like a little child while Clark was leading the group?  He pushed his bruised pride aside.  It probably didn't help that he wasn't exactly the picture of health either.  Still, he kept an eye out for enemies from either side as the others lead the way. 

Hadn't Renji and Rukia gone up the other staircase?  They were going to get lost at this rate and then Renji and Rukia would trust him even less than they did now.  But that wasn't important, what was important was getting these people free from whatever monsters had captured them.  He'd been under Komui's knife more times than he cared to remember and if it was anything like that, he just hoped they'd make it in time.  He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if they were late only because he'd been pulled aside and wasted their precious time. 

He tried to keep his hand steady as they reached the second floor.  This was right near where she had been last night.  That terrible spirit.  He shuddered at the memory.  As long as nothing like that found them tonight, it would be alright.  He just prayed they'd have a safe journey this time.

((From here. ))

As Claude stepped into the dark hallway, he made sure to shine his flashlight beam enough to light their way forward. Doing a quick scan of the area, Claude noticed the closed doors along their path. He swallowed hard. Were they torturing Ashton in one of these rooms? Who else did they have trapped here?

If he were prone to that sixth sense known as a "bad feeling" when it came to doing something stupid or dangerous, Claude might have felt his skin crawling. After all, there had to be something guarding the prisoners here, right? He knew it was going to be difficult, but all he could do was narrow his eyes as he made his way forward and concentrate on the fact his buddy needed rescuing.

"You two know how to fight?" he quietly asked Axel and the blonde girl. "I wonder if someone should try the doors to see if they're unlocked..."

[From this corridor]

The bathroom was slightly colder than the hallway and Ami could make out the individual stalls and sinks. She went to the closest sink, pulled the balloons out from her roughly made satchel and began to fill them up, large enough so she could hold them in her hand, but not so much that they would burst easily. After filling and tying each balloon off, she carefully placed them back into the pack, arranging them so that they were cushioned by the material she had ripped from her bed.

Breathing a sigh of relief that it had gone without incident, Ami stepped back out into the hallway to wait.

[Returning here to wait]

Though the taunts of the man on the radio offered new places to be searching that night, Sai already had plans in mind. Unless Usopp was up for changing them on his own, the ninja wasn't going to do so himself.

He stepped outside his room warily, flashlight in hand and burdened with the numerous supplies he had to return to his friend, hoping that setting out as soon as he could would lower the risk of running into anything along the way. One could only hope. So he didn't wait to see if he would see Sasuke again, coming from his own room, despite the fact that he hadn't caught him for a couple nights now. He simply went into a run towards the next hall.

[to here]

Momo's mind was turning over all the possibilities surrounding this "field trip" to the surrounding town when she settled down in the corner of the Sun Room away from the Arts & Crafts room. She curled her legs underneath her as she waited for Shouko-san to find her. The shinigami had no idea what she looked like, so she kept an eye on all those entering the room.

It was still very cold, or at least she was cold, and the momentary thought of getting her coat from her own room passed through her mind amidst the field trip thoughts. She pushed it away and decided to deal with it being as cold as it was since she'd already been late to one meeting today and didn't want to start making it a habit.

As she waited, she pondered the next day's possibilities. Maybe, just maybe, once away from the institute the shinigami will have access to their full reiatsu. And if not, maybe they'll have a better idea of how they are being limited so much. Maybe Aizen would be able to find her then. He'd save her... right? Right?

[[ from here. ]]

Just a bit further now, just a bit further into the woods before the wolf would pounce on her. At least he wouldn't be wearing her grandmother's clothes this time. That ruse was always so irritating, not to mention amateur of a skilled assassin.

But wolves had never been proper assassins anyway. The steel blade was pointed and flew.

Another evening, another extremely quiet dinner. Jack wasn't sure what was up with his roommate, but he kind of missed having a little light conversation over his meal. Especially when it was a meal as good as steak.

After a moment of consideration, he decided not to bring his second knife with him. He certainly wasn't going to trust Luxord - the man was crazy as a loon, if hot - and while it wouldn't bother him that much if he got gutted with one of his own knives, he'd rather not lose the weapon when he already had his other knife on loan. And considering he'd slept with people before to get a chance to steal their stuff, he certainly wasn't going to put it past anyone else. The skillet, though, he did take. Most people would consider it a humiliating enough weapon that they wouldn't want it, which was stupid, but it was something to work with. It also was a lot harder to go for something that big without anyone noticing. He grabbed his flashlight, and his radio. The apron was left behind tonight as well.

There was an extra cheerful bounce to his step as he headed out. Either way, this was going to be a fun night. Hopefully Gin would have some fun without him, as well.

Gluttony didn't want to leave his Lust, not after he'd just found her!  But the mean tasty nurses said he had to.  "You can't join her in the women's showers" was a bad excuse.  He didn't like the mean tasty nurses.  Maybe Lust would let him eat them later.  Still, he knew he would see his Lust again, and that was good.  He liked Lust.  She was good and beautiful and smart and kind.  Why did they have to take him away from his Lust?

Still, he would see her again.  And she would tell him it was okay to eat the tasty nurses, and that would be good.  His new friend liked eating people, too.  That made him happy to find a friend who shared a love for eating people.  Today was a very good day.

As he entered the showers, he stood under a shower head and opened his mouth wide to drink up the water.  It wasn't as good as eating people, or eating waffles that didn't scream when he bit into them so weren't nearly as good as eating people, but it was still swallowing something, and that made him feel better.

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.

Rabastan was on a mission to try to please Severus Snape. Someone should really stop and pity the poor Potions Master. So far, Bast had managed to lose just about everyone he had gotten attached to, and he was determined to not lose Severus. Severus was real after all.

Radio tucked into the crook of his arm, he grinned and shook his head when the nurses tried to get him to play, going for the sweet and cute thing. He did seem to be listening to their warnings to stay off the field then so he wouldn't get hit accidentally by people playing their various games. Heading to the sidelines, he began poking around at the grass and other small plants, trying hard to remember Potion classes from back at Hogwarts. Was that a good one? Or a bad one? Maybe it was a weed.

Either way, Bast plucked it gently and cupped it in his hand as he settled down on the grass and began fully inspecting the area around him. His radio was lectured to as he looked around.

"Mr Head Doctor, do you think we could go to the Arts and Crafts room later today? Severus might like some of the things in there. I'd like to get some of that faerie glitter if you don't mind."

(from here)

Renji kept them moving until they reached the bathroom. He never thought he'd be relieved to get into that dank, nasty room, but it was still better than the smell in the hall outside. All he could guess was that someone had killed at least one of those damn nasty cats. He could have lived his life happily without ever having to smell that again, and it was a nightly occurence here.

As soon as the girls were in the bathroom and the door was shut, he took out his own flashlight, so rarely used, and turned it on. He aimed it at the floor so no one would get blinded.

"Okay," he said. "You girls put your lights on too. If we put 'em on the floor in a couple places, we'll be able to see a lot better." He set his own light done where it could illuminate (if dimly) a good portion of the room. "The shower heads and knob things and the sink fixtures can be unscrewed. I'll... try something on the pipes."

He unwound the sheet from around his waist, laying it out on the floor as he'd done the previous night, ready for the metal they'd collect.

Not wanting to be dragged along on whatever Mission of Annoyance Schuldig had planned for himself at lunch, Farfarello instead headed straight into the cafeteria, alone.

The tranquil haze of the drugs was fading and the thought of being stuck in a room with dozens and dozens of strangers was starting to make the hair on the back of Farfarello's neck stand on end. He'd spent the last year and change mostly in solitary confinement, except for visits from Schuldig and the times he was let out for missions, and being expected to sit calmly and have his lunch while surrounded by potential threats was not something the Irishman wanted to deal with; unfortunately, he had no choice, so at least he could get there early and find a table close to a wall.

Much to Farfarello's surprise he was not only early, but the earliest patient to arrive in the cafeteria. He almost expected to find rank, disgusting food, as a result--if patients were so reluctant to come to lunch, surely there was a reason--but instead was reasonably pleased by what he found. Two sloppy joes and a token piece of fruit later, Farfarello retreated towards the tables, only to find that not one of them was isolated enough for him. So, he grabbed a chair, dragged it into a corner, and sat down with his back to the wall and his tray balanced on his lap.

He would get through lunch without getting sedated again, no matter what it took.