That had been a very frustrating shower. For many reasons. At least Raine was going to at least look at Forte. Hopefully, she'll actually heal him. The showers had also succeeded in making the ninja feel like a pervert. A mild one, but still... It was as if Yukari had picked that spot in the showers because she knew the ninja could easily see her.

Ugh! Damn youkai.

Squirreling herself away in a corner of the cafeteria, Sheena finger combed her wet hair before pulling it back with the bright red ribbon. She so needed her own hair ribbon back. She was attempting to formulate her plan of acquisition - she was ninja after all - as people started trickling into the room. The plan was put on pause, though, when her stomach rumbled.

Food now - plan later.

[Closed to Haseo and Endrance]

Well, today was certainly turning out to be... interesting. A few things seemed to be going as planned, for once! Soon, he might not have to deal with so many actual meatbags quite so often! It made his personality core very nearly glow with excitement.

And the latest comms message was intriguing. So, he was going to be meeting a 'graduate' of this wretched place? This all confirmed the theory he'd had within his first minutes trapped within this facility: brainwashing was one of the goals of this place.

Well, whoever he was supposed to meet, he would make sure they'd leave trailing shattered pieces of their composure and sanity! HK settled down in one of the chairs in the lobby to wait expectantly.

Why does this place always have to spoil my fun? was the first thing HK thought when he realized he was back in his cell in the Institute. Oh well. This meant his nurse would be coming soon to lead him off to whatever boring place he was supposed to go to now.

The meatbag arrived a few moments later, asking him in an overly cheerful tone if he slept well. HK responded with and equally cheerful "Statement: I was having the most wonderful dream. A dream of killing all humans." He managed to make a facial expression for best effect: A happy, terrifying grin. "And I think you were in it," he finished with an especially gleeful note.

The nurse nearly dragged him all the way down to the Sun Room. Success! He took a seat in one of the chairs, feeling smug.

[Free!]

[from here]

Lockdown kicked the door to the hardware store down and barged in. There was already a zombie in here, a big one, who the bounty hunter guessed was the owner of the store. There were also two other zombies with him, so Lockdown was already outnumbered. But that had never stopped the bounty hunter.

He frantically shifted his optics around the store, before settling on a set of large axes. Dashing forward, and executing a somersault to dodge the hands of the zombies, Lockdown quickly took hold of an axe, preparing to defend himself with it.

"HK, get your aft in here and lend a servo!" The bounty hunter called out.

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.

Scar had realized it during the announcement after breakfast, and he had proceeded to create reluctance for it during the whole day, right until this very moment. Today was shower day. Shower day.

The staff had to practically drag their charge into the damp rooms after lunch. Had he been in the possession of his old nails, he would have stubbornly dug them into the floor ironically similar to any house-cat to prevent the nurses from moving him one inch closer to the water. For now he could only protest.

Because Scar hated water. And he hated getting wet even more, which was the inevitable consequence of coming into contact with water.

Unfortunately, he was pushed into the damp rooms even despite his protests with the order to 'clean himself'. The former feline knew that he wouldn't be allowed to leave before he had least made an attempt at the human version to clean himself - which the nurse's stern words only served to confirm - but that didn't quite cease his protests. It took a threat of sedation and to be washed by the nurses for Scar to finally move to one of the many empty shower-stalls.

And that was how far is 'cooperation' would go until now. Though he had endured this hellish experience more often since his stay here, Scar eyed the shower-head as if it would spit molten lava instead of water.

Just as von Karma started to enter the doorway leading to the Courtyard to look around for anyone remotely resembling his daughter, that pretentious lunatic's voice rang out over the Intercom, heralding the approach of lunch time. Right away, the damned nurse practically dragged him back into the cafeteria and towards the serving tables, telling him in that cloyingly cheerful tone that he could get his fresh air after he had had his meal. What rotten timing!

His mood worsened as he saw what was on those tables. "Nurse! This is the same greasy, disgusting, perfect-artery-ruining swill that was offered for lunch the last time I was in here! Does this Institute serve nothing else? How is any of this healthy for someone whom you claim has recently suffered from a stroke?!"

"Why, you're right, Mr. Fuchs! Here, I'll fix you a nice, big, healthy salad." Before he could protest that he wasn't hungry anyway, the smiling nurse loaded a heap of greens and some fruits onto a plate for him. Then she led him to one of the tables and seated him there. "Now, be a good man and finish all of that. You will do that just for me, won't you?"

The look he shot her in response indicated that he would never do anything "just for her." Certainly, not consuming this entire mountain of lettuce and carrots. As much as he approved of salads, the portion she served him was nothing short of ludicrous. Glaring at her in silence, he made no pretense of even starting in on this ridiculous travesty of a meal. Finally, she seemed to take the hint, excusing herself to attend to the other patients... but not without admonishing him that his "plate had better be clean" by the time she returned to take him to the Courtyard.

As she left him, von Karma looked all around him to see whether Franziska had come into the cafeteria yet. Unfortunately, as he had already arranged to meet his former roommate at this time, all he could do for now was to attempt to visually confirm her presence in this hellhole. As much as he hoped that the author of the replies to this S.T.'s note was nothing more than an impostor -- in which case, he would make that person pay for brazenly impersonating his daughter -- he was not entirely certain of that right now.

In the meantime, he had other practical matters to attend to. He still needed to speak to Javert to find out what had truly happened during the time he was unconscious. As he surreptitiously scanned the stream of arriving patients for the face of his daughter -- or those of his enemies -- he patiently awaited Javert's arrival, hoping that the man could still recognize him after all this time.

[Closed to Javert]

Endrance turned his head to look at the intercom, giving it a look that would wither an entire rose garden in an instant. He would never get used to ending up in his room again from somewhere else in the Institute.

He brushed his bangs out of his eyes, not sitting up just yet. He could tell already that his torso had been heavily bandaged, even more so than it had been the night before. The cuts on his arms were covered with fresh bandages, and the one on his cheek seemed to no longer be there at all.

Endrance had been expecting to wake up in a lot of pain, but even that seemed numbed. "They must have given me something," he murmured quietly, as he slowly sat up.

At that moment, his nurse came to get him, pushing a wheelchair along with her. "Peyton, dear, good morning. I've come to take you to breakfast, so..." He shook his head. "I'm fine. There's no need for that...I can walk perfectly well."

She sighed. Well, if he insisted, she wasn't going to stop him. She motioned for an orderly to take the chair away, and walked him to the cafeteria. Once they had gotten there, she pointed him toward a seat, then set a full tray of pancakes covered with syrup, a bowl of fruit, and a glass of orange juice in front of him. "Now eat all of that, Peyton, or else you won't be strong enough to keep walking like that."

He glared at her back as she walked away, then stopped suddenly. There was that faint pulse he'd felt the night before...it was exactly the same.

And so he completely ignored his food in favor of staring at the cafeteria doors, looking at every patient that came in.

[thread will be closed to Haseo. ♥]

[from here]

S.T. walked in slowly, swinging his flashlight from side to side. The beam from Javert's light had already disappeared behind one of the partitions. There were way the fuck more dark corners than he wanted to deal with right now. Time to switch tactics. He pointed his light at twelve-o'clock and broke into a jog, running through the area in flagrant disregard for its purpose.

[to here]

[from here]

Javert wasn't sure what to expect when he stepped through the door. The laboratory was almost disappointing in its simplicity, with its rows of glassware and equipment recognizable to even him. Only the beds along the wall suggested the room's more sinister purpose.

He advanced cautiously, covering the room with broad sweeps of his flashlight, and set the bin of needles on one of the tables. This, too, seemed like the perfect place for an ambush.

[From here]

"Um, would you like me to hold your flashlight?" Ururu didn't know if she should ask, which was why she waited until they reached the stairs before she spoke up. Losing her own flashlight had been bad enoughn but the girl didn't know what she'd do if she lost Ken's too. Still, it didn't look like the boy was having an easy time carrying all his stuff, so Ururu was pretty sure she'd offer. "I'll be extra careful not to lose it or drop it or anything."

Just in case.

[from here]

One door down, and S.T. was starting to think they might pull this off. The lab was just ahead, and it looked like Mister Lab Safety was late to his own party.

He shuffled things around until he had a hand free to pull out his map and double-check that the first door was the one they wanted. Yeah, and it was locked too. No big deal. He put the map away and went back to pulling pins out of hinges.

[following Javert out via here]

[From here.]

There was, regrettably, not many unique descriptors for the second floor. In fact, when you omitted the tiny layout discrepancy and a severe lack of patrons, the two levels seemed exactly the same. It was a bit of an anticlimax, even if Nigredo technically should have expected the matching scheme.

He hastily ran a hand through his hair. Before Nigredo went any further, he had to formulate some sort of plan. Walking around aimlessly would only get him into trouble, or worse, trouble he couldn't rectify. The boy eventually decided on a quick and dirty tour of the area before returning to his room: nothing beyond the main hallways, away from obvious dead ends. That should hopefully satisfy the requirements stipulated by his curiosity.

Now, for a direction. The hallway ahead appeared closed off and thus, unacceptable for observation. On the other hand, if he continued along this path, it would take him to an open area. Likely the balconies he'd seen in the Sun Room. He could definitely start there.

Without another thought, Nigredo turned on his heels and headed east.

[To here.]

[from here]

This was boring. They needed to install like teleporters or warp points or something all sci-fi-like if they were going to be doing creepy experiments and shit. And then they'd make weird ass keys to make the transport things work and then they'd just have to hide them all over the fucking place because, clearly, the people running this place were never game testers, just game developers that actually remembered to disable the cheats.

On second thought, Junpei decided he'd rather walk.

[to here]

There wasn't any jingle as the intercom came on; it sounded like the Head Doctor was still having issues with the system, and it also seemed like he was none too pleased about it.

"Well, everyone, I hope that you all had more fun this last shift than I did! Hahahaaa..."

His weak laughter trailed off. His office chair squeaked.

"In any case, as you all probably know already, it's now time for dinner! I'm sure you've all worked up an appetite after all that repairing – er – exercising, so I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that you'll be served generous portions of spaghetti with delicious tomato sauce and, if desired, meatballs. For sides, you'll be having some freshly baked garlic bread and, if requested, a Caesar salad. Our regular drinks are available, and for dessert, we'll be serving some delicious strawberry gelato.

"And, now, I suppose it's time we get back to this wiri–"

The announcement cut off abruptly.

Most days, fish and chips (and a cold beer or three) was pretty goddamned high on S.T.'s list of perfect expense-account lunches. Today, the idea of picking at greasy hunks of unidentified bottom-feeder odds-and-ends (politely known as scrod, to the delight of teenagers all across the Northeast) didn't appeal.

He begged off and collapsed into his bed, after using his damp shirt as an excuse to surreptiously check the contents of his closet. Bingo. His nurse watched his little show, unimpressed but (more importantly) unsuspicious. Not that his hairy chest was much of a catch today, pale and sweating from fever. At least she didn't tuck him in.

The intercom woke up up right on schedule, and pulling the sheets back over his head almost won. But a handful of unanswered missives and a vague sense of duty dragged him out to the bulletin, and from there it was easier to stagger over to the greenhouse.

It was warm inside -- a deep, humid warmth that actually penetrated to the aches in more joints and muscles than he could remember the names of. Like a sauna, without the hassle of finding someplace to look that wasn't a mound of pasty middle-management cellulite. Or a sweat lodge, without the opposite hassle of being conscious that he was the only white guy in the room. In fact, besides the nurses in holding patterns, he was the only person in the room.

He located a tray of tomato seedlings going rootbound in their tiny six-packs, and a potting bench whose location was a quick-and-dirty approximation of equidistantly far from anything blooming. He assured his nurse he knew what he was doing, and after a couple of successful repottings, gently sliding the little seedlings out and loosening the tangled roots, she seemed to agree and backed off. It was, by far, the most fucking theraputic thing he'd found in this hellhole so far, and he let himself sink into the rhythm of the task.

[Free!]

Utena's second night seemed to have ended even sooner than the first had, which greatly disappointed her. She had been hoping that at some point, she could have coaxed her friend into telling her what was so horrible that happened in her future. Then again, curiosity aside, she was also somewhat relieved that she didn't have to hear it just yet. She half-wondered if Landel had ended both of their previous nights early on purpose, too, just to make certain that Utena didn't spend enough time with her friend to potentially hear of that future.

Almost as soon as she thought of Landel, Utena heard his voice crackle over the intercom again. Hearing him yawn through his announcement almost made her sleepy as well; she'd had no idea that yawns could be contagious over speaker systems. Physically, she did feel rested, though she certainly couldn't remember sleeping or dreaming between the end of night and her waking up.

As her nurse came to collect her for breakfast, Utena felt conflicted over whether she ought to see Himemiya again that night. On the one hand, she wanted to be there for her friend and try to coax some of the girl's old self out of her. Either that or at least try to console her about whatever was troubling her. On the other hand, she knew that it would be stupid to waste too many nights on talk. She could be helping Seiya or the clubs or finding metal to store for whenever Skuld was ready for her, something that would help her and Himemiya break out faster.

Maybe I'll post a message for her later if I don't see her again during the day. It's not perfect, but at least it'll let us talk and then leave me an opening to go out and do . . . whatever it is that might need doing, she thought as she was escorted into the cafeteria to pick up breakfast (english muffins that morning). Remembering the clubs again, Utena thought about the message exchange she had had with that girl from Arts & Crafts, Momo Hinamori. They were supposed to be meeting over breakfast, right? Utena didn't see anyone who matched Hinamori's description yet, but then, the girl had said that it would be easier for her to find Utena than the other way around. She sat down at a nearby table for the time being and waited, running the previous night's short conversation in her head over and over.

[For Momo]

[from here]

Chise paused for a moment to enjoy the fresh scent of night. It was an excellent break from the sanitized odor the hospital carried. Scanning the area she spotted five sets of patio tables each with its own umbrella. Everything gave off a peaceful aura. The environment brought up past memories of black nights after a battle. It was during those moments Chise would check-up on Shuji's location and think about what she should write to him.

Anyway, she shouldn't get side-tracked by the past. She stood next to the railing, closed her eyes, and concentrated on retrieving a signal. Nothing happened, thus she tried again and focused with her entire mind, ignoring everything else around her.

[from here]

After a short rest, Chise got up and once again walked into another dark hallway. She started questioning herself whether she was heading in the right direction or not. If only she had a map! Maybe she could ask for one tomorrow.

Walking down the hallway she saw three sets of doors. There was a possibility that one of them led to a balcony. She tried to open the first door, but realized that it was locked. Then, she noticed that the door was labeled "Medical Research Library". Definitely not the right one. She moved onto the next set of doors which turned out to be the male and female restrooms. She was just about to head back when her flashlight caught sight of another door at the end of the hallway. This time, it read "Staff-Only Outdoor Patio Lounging", and to her surprise, it wasn't locked. Score one for Chise!

Now all she needed to do was test if she can connect to a network and find Shuji.

[to here]

((From here.))

It was still dark, and unnaturally quiet, when they slipped out of the stairwell. Kira checked the grip on his sword and slipped the map from his pocket, the flashlight making it all very awkward. The pharmacy ... it was to the east of where they were, provided this place didn't shift unnaturally when people needed to go somewhere. He glanced to the east and saw only darkness and silence leading away.

"Are you ready?" he asked. Everything seemed too still for there not to be something lying in wait, but then again, he'd expected something on the stairwell, too. Carefully putting the map back in his pocket, Kira aimed the flashlight down the hall they needed to go through and glanced at Hanatarou.