[From here]

'Don't look back.'

Seishin froze as the door locked behind them, but the whispered warning (or was it a threat?) was unmistakable. He managed to prevent himself from looking over his shoulder to see where it came from - what would happen if he did?

He inhaled, and forced himself to calm down, focusing on the sight before them. Rough, stone walls made up a narrow, winding hallway. Occult symbols carved and drawn in what he could only assume to be blood marked the surface, along with bloodied hand prints and pentagrams and writing in a language he didn't recognize. It was unsettling, all of it, and it did not bode well for whatever that awaited them beyond this ominous corridor. It matched the beach they had just left behind rather well...

Nonetheless, they had little choice but to continue...hadn't they? The door had locked behind them, after all. He offered Silvestri-san a glance that conveyed his wariness, but he otherwise did not speak.

[from here]

The transportation was practically instantaneous but Ilia felt it was similar to traveling via the Time Gate on the planet Styx. There was no glowing lights but the disorientation was familiar. She grasped around in the almost complete dark, trying to gain a hold on something. She ended up grappling with Seishin's arm.

"O-oh, sorry about that!" She let go of her friend and reached down to retrieve the flashlight she dropped in her dizziness. Once she had straightened back up, Ilia flashed the beam around and discovered they were back in the cavernous lake. That... was a lot easier than expected.

"I guess that gift was no lie."

[From here, and for the robutt gang!]

The nearly empty block hallway did nothing to relieve Zero's growing suspicion that something wasn't right. Why weren't there more people around? Perhaps Landel was using some of them, as he'd been used. Or others were transforming, just like that prisoner from the night before - Sora - and the one mentioned on the board...the one who'd attacked two children before being taken down. Landel had said to 'watch your back'...

...well. Empty or not, at least Zero was in the right place to find his allies now. He slowed his brisk walking pace for a moment as he wondered if he should try to go to Harpuia's room directly or wait out here for him to show up. (Hopefully X would be with him.) If this were simply a matter of him getting here too quickly, then they should be coming out of their rooms soon...

[From here.]

That hadn't taken long. So much so that it looked like he was the first person to make it this far. Harvey took a moment to scan the hall with his flashlight, including near the stairs, but he didn't see (or hear) much of anything. It was the sort of thing that set him on edge.

Since he couldn't do much else, he leaned himself against the wall by the stairs and then grabbed for his gun, holding it near his side as he waited. Normally he didn't take the weapon out unless he planned to shoot it, but when there was a possibility that some transformed patient might come barreling down the halls in the next few seconds, he wanted to take precaution.

Hopefully Scott and Sangamon would haul ass over here before all hell started to break loose. If things got too hairy, Harvey was ready to make a run for it on his own. That was the logical thing to do.

[Waiting for S.T.]

[From here.]

This was a trip that had gotten old ages ago, and so Harvey tried to make it as short as possible by falling into a brisk walk. He didn't go so far as to jog, since he didn't need to tire himself out before the action even started, but it was a good idea to save time where he could.

All of that was made very easy by the fact that there weren't any other patients around. He didn't know if it was because they were busy going through a painful transformation into some deadly monster, but if that was it, then he also wanted to get to a more open area sooner rather than later.

Harvey reached the end of the hall and rounded the corner into the main hall.

[To here.]

[M7]

Dinner went by too fast, and as the intercom announcement came on and the change to night officially started, Sora pushed himself to the edge of bed, caught in the tight hold of dread. He didn't want it to become night. He didn't want to change again. He'd gone to a lot of effort to make sure that he didn't end up repeating the events of last night, but something could always go wrong.

Landel cut to the chase pretty fast this time around, and no other clues were given out. Did that mean that the rebel group hadn't been able to get through, or had they just run out of clues to give them? Did that mean they were on their own? Sora let out a breath and tried to manage the panic that was bubbling up in his chest.

Link was still here. Sora had hoped that his roommate would make a move to leave the second that night came, but it didn't look like that was the case. Of course not. If Sora was honest with himself, he'd known from the start that someone like Link wasn't going to leave him alone here.

Sora forced out a shaky sigh. He didn't feel anything yet, but he knew that it wouldn't be long before the darkness started to take over.

"I know you're worried," he said to Link, "but it's fine. My other friend should be here soon, so..." He wanted as few people as possible around when the change went through. Hopefully Tsurugi would get here soon, and then Link could leave.

As the sun began to inch closer to the horizon, dark clouds gathered overhead. Even so, the Head Doctor didn't let that damper his enthusiasm.

"Good evening, everyone! I hope you've all had an enjoyable day, particularly our newcomers. Here at Landel's Institute, we're eager to welcome you into our big, warm family, so make yourselves right at home!

"For dinner, we're serving teriyaki & tempura, with our usual assortment drinks, including water, milk, and several kinds of juices. Enjoy your meals!"

As the nurses escorted patients to their assigned rooms, thunder rumbled in the distance, and the sound of rain tapping against the outside of the building echoed through the halls. Some of the staff would comment about the sudden change in weather, but no one let it interfere with their duties.

((Respond to this post with your character's room number in the subject line. New room assignments are listed here. If you have any questions, let us know!))

Anise was glad that Barnaby had gotten back to her. Now she could meet him and hopefully learn something about the weird illness they had.

She didn’t want to look like a mess in front of the man, though, so she first made a stop in the washroom by the Sun Room to clean herself up a bit. She washed her hands and face, and fixed her pigtails, which had been looking a bit messy. There was no hiding the large rash that covered her hand and arm, even with a long-sleeved shirt, but she made herself look as presentable as possible.

With that finished, she returned to the Sun Room and stood where she was sure she’d be seen. Once she met up with Barnaby, they could probably take off to a more secluded part of the room for their talk. As cheerful and pleasant as she had been on the bulletin, this probably wasn’t going to be a very fun conversation.

[for Barnaby!]

Gabriel, no matter how hypocritical or snide Landel's well-wishes might have been under the veneer of niceness, had actually in fact had a rather nice morning. He'd managed to help Skulduggery eat something and checked in with Castiel. His brother's illness was, to all appearances, gone. Although the surgery itself wasn't going to be easy to recover from, at least that was an injury Castiel has chosen and wouldn't turn him into a monster.

So the Archangel was humming absently as he was led outside, smiling and, for the moment, more convinced than ever that he was where his Master intended him to be. Rachel had made it known she didn't think it would be a good idea for him to hover, so after making sure Castiel would be okay Gabriel had asked to go to the greenhouse this lunch-time, thinking of Lee and still with the idea of possibly making smoothies. Rachel had thrown up her hands and shaken her head when he toed off his shoes at the doorway, but she got her own back once they reached the greenhouse and Gabriel surveyed the stony path ruefully.

"Now maybe this will teach you to keep them on," she said, shaking a finger, taking the slippers and crouching to slide them onto his feet as if he was a child. "It's for your own good, you know. You'll injure your feet if you go around like that all the time."

"I'm sorry," Gabe said with a smile, not as repentant as he probably should have been and using the mischief to hide the ache in his chest. This woman was, at best, brainwashed and cursed to turn into a monster at night. He almost hoped she was complicit; the alternative was nearly too much to bear.

Still, as awful as the thought was, he set it aside as best as he could to avoid ruining his thus-far nice day. While Rachel watched from one of the tables, Gabe wandered through the greenhouse, eating his beef sandwich from the hand while enjoying the company of the plants and keeping an eye out for any fruit-trees.

[for Rock Lee!]

Link wasn't in the mood for 'rest and relaxation,' as the boss had put it. Daytime here was completely unproductive, and it was frustrating. There was little he could do, other than keep up with recording his map. He supposed he ought to take the chance to get to know the other patients: Who was powerful, who needed help, who knew what... Perhaps some of the people who had been here longer. Link was lucky he had Sora as a friend, who seemed to know a good deal about how things worked.

It was a two-edged sword, though, that the boy had to have been trapped here for quite some time to be as settled as he was.

The Hylian settled into a chair with his journal, tapping the strange sort of writing device he had been given against his chin. It had become evident last night that the building was relatively organized, the second floor being similar in its main layout to the first floor. That was somewhere to start, at least.

[Nina, dearest!]

What Guy had seen on that scan resulted in some mixed feelings. While he had expected to find something in Claude, seeing how he was sick, it hadn't been quite the same as what they'd seen when they had scanned that other ill patient two nights ago. What did that mean? It was possible that the shape of it just looked different because of where it was in Claude's stomach, but Guy couldn't help but feel that there was a deeper meaning to it.

Yet another thing that he didn't understand, then. With a sigh, he got himself up out of bed and went searching immediately for the single leaf that he'd taken from the X-ray room last night. It was stored carefully in his possessions box, which meant that he didn't have to worry too much about that.

While he wanted to quickly sketch the leaf's general shape to post on the bulletin, Guy wasn't given that chance, as his nurse showed up before he could even grab for his journal. He had to relent and let her lead him to the cafeteria for breakfast. While Guy considered stopping by the bulletin to leave a note, that could wait until after he ate. He suspected that Anise or Luke would try to find him as soon as possible to tell him about their findings, so leaving a note for them would be redundant.

He did need to ask about the clue from last night and see if anyone else had further insight on it, but that might be something Claude wanted to do, seeing how he had a better idea of who that baptist was and what it all might signify.

After collecting a small amount of food onto a plate, Guy took a seat near the cafeteria's entrance, keeping an eye out for any of his friends so he could flag them down as they walked in.

[For Anise and Claude.]

[from here]

The ballroom was just as they had left it. Large. Beautiful. But a wasted space. No one would ever find themselves dancing down here, Ilia was sure.

There was only one door left that they had yet to move through. Ilia started in that direction, steps full of purpose.

[from here]

Ilia led them into the freezing room and did her best to do a quick scan with he flashlight. The beam bounced off the items stocked on the shelves, but nothing so dangerous as a cat's eyes flashed back at her. Safe again, for now.

[From here]

The kitchen was as dark as the cafeteria had been, so the small beams of the flashlights continued to be a necessary evil. They might have made it easier for the creatures lurking in the darkness to notice them, but chances were that they would have been noticed by hearing and smell alone anyway. Moreover, Seishin was fairly certain he would have ended up bumping into something without the aid of those lights, which would have made a significant amount of noise.

But the kitchen remained completely silent after their arrival. The beam the former priest swept around only revealed the area to be spotless. Warily, he continued moving -- they might have been able to travel through the previous rooms without being attacked, but there was no telling when their luck would run out.

[From here.]

This was all becoming a bit stale.

Especially the feeling of nausea that came with the transport. Harvey didn't want to think too hard on the implications of that. Just what exactly was done to their bodies when they were moved around like that? It couldn't be natural in any sense of the word, but it still beat trying to get down here the normal way.

His only real consolation was that he couldn't smell anything too well down here. It was a shame that they couldn't just keep on giving up that sense, but even Harvey realized how that wouldn't be "fair" according to Landel's rules. What really wasn't fair was the fact that they'd all been stuck in this place for weeks now, but...

Even he started to get sick of his own complaining, so he left it at that.

Once the other two seemed to have recovered, Harvey nodded toward the docks. "We know the drill by now, right? Let's make this quick." He needed to enjoy his voice while he had it, if that's what he was giving up.

[From here]

Though they were able to make it through the Sun room without being attacked, there were no such promises for the rooms up ahead. Seishin quietly followed Silvestri-san through the door leading into the cafeteria.

Unlike the moonlight shining through the Sun room's ceiling, the lounge's eerie silence stretched on into this room. The cafeteria seemed even larger than it was during the day, and despite the tables and chairs there was a sense of emptiness, an emptiness that was as ominous as the silence that made even the smallest sound seem like a tremendous amount of noise. If anything awaited them in the darkness of the vast room, perhaps under the tables where the small beam of Seishin's flashlight did not reach, it would have certainly noticed them by now.

[From here]

Abandoning the relatively often traversed hallways, Seishin cautiously followed Silvestri-san into the Sun Room. The sky had cleared up, it seemed, the moonlight coming in from the glass ceiling seeping the lounge in an eerie glow. Though it was not the first time the novelist had visited the area during the night, the difference with its relaxing atmosphere during the day was a striking one.

The sun room was wrapped in complete silence, making the tense air more ominous than it already was. He looked around the area, but the shadows that stretched over the carpet and the walls did not stir at their arrival. Unable to find anything out of the ordinary, the novelist raised his gaze to balconies above them. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to make out anything beyond the railing.

At leas the coast appeared to be clear. For now.

[From here]

The main hallways. Good. And the coast seemed to be clear, so far. Link briefly wondered if the new clue would help the situation, or only make it more grim. He would know soon enough.

[To here]

[From here]

No time was wasted in this short stretch of hallway. Link had run across all of Hyrule Field. This hospital was quite small in comparison.

Praying that he wouldn't come across anything to slow him down, Link turned into the main hallways.

[To here]

[From here]

Link rounded the corner without slowing down to even look over his shoulder. He wanted to get to the medical wing first and get out of there before there was any potential chaos. It was a good thing Sora had shown him the way last night.

The Hylian rounded the corner into the larger hallways.

[To here]