The intercom message was unnerving. Again with this I.R.I.S. thing, and some nonsense about guests and tours. What the hell was going on? Was the head doctor really dead? That seemed to be the theory, but Asch couldn't be sure. He hadn't thought this place could get any nuttier, but apparently, it could.

Asch wasn't sure he even felt like eating, but the nurse insisted. So he got his tray of food and sat in the corner of the cafeteria, away from the other patients. He was well aware that this particular strategy was flawed, of course, as it had yet to provide him with anything resembling peace and quiet.

He hoped against hope, though, that he wouldn't be bothered. That annoying guy that used to room with the replica had no reason to come and bother him, and he'd spoken to Claude yesterday. He knew that the man from the night before - Apollo, that was what he'd written on the bulletin board - wanted to repay him somehow, but that wasn't exactly going to happen at a lunch table.

He reminded himself that he'd have to take the kitchen shears to Alfred to exchange for the meat cleaver, once night fell. The cleaver wasn't his first choice of weapon, but it beat the hell out of stabbing things with shears.

He took a drink of his juice and sighed. Maybe he'd get in contact with ZEX regarding night shift; he wasn't sure he wanted to venture out alone.

[Guy]

And just like that, the disorienting feeling of blacking out just to wake up in an unfamiliar bed came again. Alkaid had wondered if it would - everything about last night had been different, all the way from the zombies to the eerie emptiness of the Institute to the strange broadcast at the end of the night. Had the Head Doctor been shot? Damn, someone had gotten to it before her. And who was the voice at the end there? It was like she'd been allowed access to some kind of strange mystery that she could not understand, one that had been going on for a long time before she had arrived and would be going on for quite a while in the future, after she was gone. Had these strange sets of circumstances been bugs in this place's programming? Who could say?

The morning's intercom greeting was strange, as well. Federal training whatsit? It didn't seem like this happened very often, from the sound of it, but so much had happened since the last day she remembered that the former Demon Palace Emperor was ready to take pretty much anything at face value.

The room she woke up in was still empty. Wondering where to stick the half-cracked bat that she'd picked up last night, she shoved it under the mattress hastily when she heard footsteps in the hall.

The stupid nurse was the same as ever, though. Some things never changed. "Ahh, good morning, Eileen. It's so nice to see you awake."

Alkaid rolled her eyes at the nurse's chuckle, and shook her head. She didn't care that the NPC thought it was nice, she just wanted to see the rest of the institute already.. see what had changed! "Yeah, it's fantastic. Whatever! Just take me where I'm going and be done with it!"

It was just then that she realized that she was not wanting to devour the flesh of the nurse in front of her. And that the pain on her arm had kind of abated - she couldn't see through the thick bandages they had covered her arm with, but she wondered if her skin was still rotting off like a zombie. Had they somehow cured her infection overnight? Or was the nurse not human, like Alkaid had always thought?

There was only one thing for it: she had to go somewhere else.

"Chapel, sun room, or cafeteria, then?"

"Does it look like I care?"

The nurse sighed, then started walking Alkaid down the hall, up the stairs, and down another hall to the chapel. No one here yet, huh? That was weird. She couldn't imagine that no one else'd show up, but who could say? This place had been turned on its ass.

The chapel was empty so far, and kind of nondescript. She shooed the nurse away, and stood in the middle of the space between the pews, standing akimbo. What would happen today? What would she learn about herself... her situation? How long had she been sleeping? Was she really still going freaking undead, or had that been somehow taken care of?

All this would come to light really soon. She hoped. Geez, too many mysteries!!

[unwittingly awaiting Haseo]

[Bamf'd from here!]

In a puff of sulfuric smoke, Kurt and Peter's friend touched down on the roof of the Tasty Burger. Kurt had made an attempt to shift his body underneath the injured boy's, but after teleporting he felt as though he'd been run through the dryer. His knees wobbled and the two of them went crashing to the ground, Kurt clearly out of sorts.

But they were both there and in one piece, which was an accomplishment considering how messed up Kurt's teleportation was. When he found this Landel guy, Kurt was going to punch him in the face.

"You... okay...?" Kurt asked, straining to get up.

At first, the idea of being stuck in this meatbag dwelling sector at night seemed like a wonderful idea. So many targets, such an open field, and so many things that could be repurposed for use as weapons!

...Then he saw all the zombies. After the talk of those 'space barnacles' last night, it was fairly easy to identify them as such. But the only thing was, those things were supposed to only affect droids.

Now there were meatbag zombies. All over the place. And he didn't have a flamethrower. Oh no no no nononono.

In short, HK freaked out.

Everything seemed to be perfectly fine.

After calming Dahlia down and agreeing to hide the spice bottle they had decided to spend the rest of their time in that store. It didn't really matter where they went; he certainly didn't need the protection of some manmade weapon and if the redhead wanted to waste this opportunity then so be it. And so he nestled himself back into his mask, smiling and striking up a lighthearted conversation whenever Dahlia spoke.

While it seemed odd that they were still in town even as the sun was setting Sync didn't bother to pay much attention. He knew well enough that they'd be rounded up eventually, so there was no need to speed up the inevitable.

And then it happened.

The God-General glanced up the moment he sensed something strange, and yet even he wasn't prepared for what he was about to witness. The store was suddenly decaying right before his eyes; the once clean space was now rusted and filthy, and the structure creaked as if the entire building had been rotting for decades.

However, what struck Sync the most was not the wilted appearance of the building, but the inhabitants that were lingering inside the store as well. The smell of rotten flesh was unmistakable and familiar, but the fact that it came so suddenly was enough to turn his stomach. It seemed as if everyone around them was caught in this spell, their heavy feet shuffling towards them while their empty groans filled the air.

Sync finally took a step back, eyes wide with shock from the unexpected transformation. He almost didn't notice one of the creatures approaching him from the side, but he immediately reacted the moment it lunged at him, dodging off to the side before grabbing a fistful of hair and slamming its head down into the counter.

"W-what the hell is this?!" Sync roared, anger evident in his voice.

[from here]

There were people in white all over the place, and it was one of them that stopped Kurogane before he got any further than what looked like another park at the end of the main street. He only snorted at the person, but didn't try anything and just turned around back into the park. It looked worse than the other one by a mile, but Kurogane didn't much care for atmosphere. There was no real danger that he could sense by staying, and at least a place like this would be one anybody who liked him would keep away from.

He found a bench that was still standing and banged at it to see if it was safe enough to sit on. When he decided it would do, he plopped down. So long as certain people didn't bother him, he would take what time he could to just sit and think about this situation for a change.

[Free and broody; No limit]

Before anyone could come to any decisions for their next move, the room suddenly filled with a thick fog. Faster than he could realize what was happening, it had filled up the entire room and swallowed every single one of his friends. Then there was that undeniable stench of iron, blood and... he last remembered taking a step back and feeling that slippery skid and the realization of what that was. By the time he yelled, he was sitting straight up in his bed like he'd bolted awake. Like it'd been nothing more than a bad dream. ...What the hell just happened?!

"Oh! Good morning!" The nearby voice made him yelp with a half squeak-like noise. Oh, for hell's sake. It was one of those freaking nurses again. She was beaming at him like nothing had happened at all. Before he could so much as ask one question, the hag started blathering real fast about some field trip and buses and getting changed and hurrying up before everyone left without him and... OH MY GOD, WHAT WAS SHE DOING?! She was grabbing at his shirt like she was about to start helping him get dressed (or undressed in this case).

He flailed in a desperate attempt to get away from her and yelled his consent to go along if she would get out and let him change HIMSELF. What was the matter with her?! Thankfully, she left but told him to hurry. Hell if he knew what she'd do if he took too long. So for the sake of not getting freaking stripped, he quickly changed into the clothes she'd left on the bed. Clothes being the ugliest looking white-and-black track pants he'd ever seen and a bright blue sweatshirt with a cute little penguin design on the front. This was some kind of joke, right? ...Not to say the penguin wasn't cute or anything but there was no way, no way, he was wearing something like this in public.

But the nurse had burst right in again, and before Kanji could offer much protest, he was being pulled down the hallways and through the doors of the bus. He'd yelled some things her way, but she totally wasn't listening at all. By the time they stopped, he was standing at the front of the bus with a paper bag and the nurse had run off to cart another poor sap along. Frickin' PERFECT. For the sake of not standing up there like some kind of zoo animal for everyone to stare at, he plopped himself into one of the seats by the front and sighed in complete exasperation.

[Free. No limit.]

[from here]

With the door closed, Grell let out a sigh of relief and quickly pulled his hair free of the obnoxious tie the nurse insisted he use. His hair fanned out behind him and he smiled. That was more like it. After giving the bathroom a quick scan - and good Lord it could do with a cleaning - he checked that there were no peeping toms anywhere and he went to the sink, dropping his pillowcase into the sink. He smiled when he heard the heels thunk on the porcelain with a satisfying weight.

Opening the bag, he pulled out his uniform and hung the red jacket on the edge of the mirror as carefully as he could. No sense in getting that thing dirty after the Madam had been so kind as to give it to him. He made quick work of changing, glad to see that neither his hand nor his ankle were giving him any particular trouble this evening. Once he was dressed, he left his gloves off and closed his eyes, summoning up his powers to see better in the dark. Soon enough, he could feel them kick in, along with that headache. Putting a hand to his head, he silently cursed Martin Landel and hoped that someone up there was actually listening for once.

The final touch to make him feel a bit more like himself, came with the application of his fake eyelashes and the little bit of lip rouge, just enough to make his lips stand out a bit better in the dark. That done, he slipped his makeup and his patient uniform into his pillowcase and then pulled the jacket on. Tossing the rounded lenses into the pillowcase on top of his clothes, he slipped his red pair on and pulled his hair out over the chain. The sound of the beads clicking against his collar was more than just a little satisfying. Wally would certainly be impressed. And if he wasn't?

The familiar weight of his scalpels rested against his body and he patted them. If he wasn't, it would be a shame.

Tugging his gloves on, Grell gave himself a quick checkover in the mirror and blew a kiss to his reflection. "Knock them dead tonight, Grell," he said, half hoping the reflection would wink at him in return. Nothing of the sort came, however, and Grell headed out of the bathroom, the pillowcase slung over his shoulder.

[to here]

[from here]

Finally! All Tim had to do now was follow the numbers to the right room. Why the hell was everyone so far away from the room he was in? It was probably on purpose; the doctors here had to know more than they were letting on. Otherwise, why would they know his actual name, but not Raphael's?

Too many questions, not enough answers. Maybe Jaime would know something.

[to here]

[from here]

Recluse surveyed the hallway as he stepped out into it, looking for Marcus. Nothing. He'd just have to wait and see if he'd turn up, then. He headed for the door to the cell block exit, keeping alert for any monsters that might be lying in wait. They usually seemed to take a few minutes at least to start attacking attacking, but that was no reason to act like a fool.

Jiraiya had been right about the bulletin, at least. Yousuke guessed that meant he'd probably have to take some of the other things he'd said a bit more seriously as well. Like the monsters at night.

Hopefully his questions would all be answered when he met up with Kanji and Naoto. (At least he was pretty sure it was Naoto. No one else from their group spoke like a textbook.)

He was led out to the courtyard to mingle, saved from the showers due to his newbness, it seemed. Should he be grateful? If they expected him to play catch with someone, they were going to be disappointed. (Though if they got an actual game of soccer going that might be another story...) Mostly, he just wanted to find a familiar face as soon as possible, despite the promised meeting later.

[closed to his bff Adachi]

The intercom jingled and the Head Doctor sounded pretty exhausted as he began speaking into the microphone.

"Mmmff! Well, hello, everybody, and I hope you enjoyed breakfast and perhaps some made new friends as well! Some other patients will be joining you this coming shift – or at least they'll be joining the adults out in the courtyard while the children get a good wash. It's still a bit chilly, so you might have to wear something extra, but the sky is clear and the breeze is crisp – oh, I do wish I could join all of you, but alas, obligation calls!

"At any rate – nurses, would you please escort the patients to their proper locations and bring out the old patients into the general population? Thank you, and also thanks to you, patients, for your thus far good behavior.

"I believe that's all for now. Ta-ta!"

The intercom clicked off.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post.

Have your character wake up in a random room as we don't have roommates sorted out yet. Putting M??/F?? in the subject line is fine. ]