Tomatoes in both choices. Lloyd's face fell the moment he heard the announcement, and with a groan he let his forehead thunk against the table in the Sun Room. He couldn't even ask if he could have a sandwich made without tomatoes in it. The lunches were already made, his nurse holding one of each in her hands. Unhappily, he accepted the one that had meat. Maybe something could be salvaged from it.

Ignoring his nurse's cheerful parting words to enjoy his meal, the teen waited until she'd stepped away before he took his lunch out of the bag and started picking it apart - only to freeze, heart pounding unevenly. A deep, rattling breath had just- Lloyd didn't even finish the thought. Something was here! He whipped around, not even sure how he was going to defend himself. The only thing he had was one of those plastic spoon-forks, and if he was up against that same thing they'd run from last night-

There was nothing. Nothing but nurses and patients passing by. Not even any cats. No one else looked like they'd even heard anything. Lloyd's eyes darted around, but still nothing showed up.

Come on, I know I heard it...

[For Ed and Al!]

[From here]

And there he was. Link stood near the wall, idly tapping the toe of his boot against the ground as he waited for Soma and the others she had recruited. He doubted they would take long. Soma seemed like a competent young woman. Hopefully that meant that she would have found strong allies to take with them.

He stood with his flashlight, along with the katana she had allowed him to borrow. Link was in his tunic from home, as he always was at night.

[For Soma and the Green Team!]

[In M1]

The second intercom message had startled Alphonse, and the chilling change to the doctor's voice threw him off more (though if he were honest he had expected something of the sort). He didn't waste much time, grabbing the 'magic torch' Link had told him about and searching around the rest of his side of the room.

A keyring in the desk and what he could only assume were batteries for the flashlight were the only really useful things he found. Still, it was better than nothing, and after he switched the slippers for shoes he slipped out of his room. Setting down the hallway at a trot, he turned down toward the entrance to the block.

[to here]

[From here.]

The pain was growing stronger.

Why?

On top of that, why was his stomach suddenly rumbling? True, he hadn't eaten his dinner, but usually he was too focused on survival during the night to notice if or when his body was requesting more energy...

At least there didn't seem to be anyone else out of their rooms yet. Zero was making a habit of being early, which was good in this case, if something unfortunate was really about to happen to him. It wasn't so much himself that he was concerned with here... It was the other prisoners. His allies. His friends. If he transformed, then obviously they were in grave danger. He was not about to let that happen a second time.

[To here.]

[From here]

Loki slipped out the door into the larger hall. Here, he was cautious enough to burn one illusion to make himself invisible. The distance he needed to cover was small enough that he'd only need to use one in this fashion.

Hopefully he'd be able to find his target quickly enough in the other M-block. The annoying part was that he still didn't know what room was Scar's so he'd have to lie in wait potentially, but he was fairly certain the man was in M-A; Loki had never seen him departing from M-B.

Loki didn't think of himself as sadistic, and didn't take particular pleasure in killing.

Most of the time.

This, he was looking forward to, as a service to at least temporarily make the institute less stupid.

[To here]

Well, that... Wasn't creepy at all. Really. Mikado looked up at the intercom suspiciously, but it was more from a concern about sanity rather than safety. It didn't change anything, however. If there was some kind of infection going around, enough so that they would immunize (or fake immunize) people for it, it'd be something to gain information on. At least, that's what Mikado thought. The medical wing was on the other side of the building, by the stairs, and he thought to go there.

Never mind that Mikado had no ability at all to understand things like medical charts or that sort of thing. He was hoping mainly that there would be some kind of easily read notes there... But since when did doctors have easily read notes, or easily read anything... Ugh, there wasn't really any point to going there, was there?

He had no other ideas at the time being, though, so he finished dressing into his own clothes, and shouldered his bag across his chest. At least he'd have a direction to go.

[to here]

With his task successfully accomplished in the greenhouse, Guy was feeling even better as the end of the day rolled around. He still had a few things that he wanted to do, though, and so before he headed into the Music Room he made sure to leave a note on the bulletin board for Claude. He realized that he'd slacked off on making Abyssman posts lately, but seeing how only three of them were left at this point, it didn't seem that necessary.

And even though the day was almost over, Guy hadn't forgotten his decision to take a shower today. While he was perfectly warm and dry at this point, the memory of being soaked to the bone by the rain was still stuck in his mind. On top of that, the greenhouse had been pretty muggy, so the idea of being properly clean sounded pretty good right about now.

Surprisingly, the nurse didn't bat an eye when he told her that he wanted to take a shower. She led him to the shower area, which for once was completely empty, and stood outside the room as Guy was granted complete privacy to wash himself off. Not that he minded the communal setting, but it was nice to have a bit of privacy for once. He savored the feeling of the hot water soaking through his skin and let out a satisfied sigh when he finally turned the water off.

Once he'd dried off, dressed again, and toweled most of the excess water out of his hair, it was finally time to go to the Music Room. Guy stretched his arms up into the air as he stepped inside, feeling nice and refreshed for once.

Usually he went to go toy with the "Walkmans" when he came here, because he couldn't play any instruments himself, and so he wandered in that direction.

[For Ilia.]

After that miserable breakfast, Kratos was truly ready to go hide himself away in some dark corner of a room and refuse to speak to anyone for the rest of the day. It was utterly pathetic that he was actually giving that kind of behavior serious thought, but somehow, in the wake of Sora's death, everything, from company to even eating, seemed too loud or too exhaustive; his energy seemed to slip away the instant he gained it.

Ironically, this behavior was not previously unknown to him; it was just that the last time he'd fallen into this kind of slump, his circumstances were such that engaging in extreme antisocial behavior and refusing to eat did not carry severe consequences like they--that was also pathetic, that he'd just entertained the idea that the days following Anna's death could have been more bearable than now. Could he possibly frustrate himself even more? The paradoxical part was that he enjoyed doing it in a strange, perverse way.

He wrote out a few listless, largely formulaic responses over the board to some notes he'd pinned up right before breakfast, and then wandered over to a nearby couch, where he sat down, stared at the coffee table for a moment, and then slumped back against the couch, one hand draped across his eyes, with a sigh. For a few seconds, he stayed that way, letting the wave of emotion wash over him--it was simply too much; he had reached the point where he was willing to give up and acknowledge that--and then, as if a switch had been flicked, Kratos straightened up, everything once again carefully masked. He exhaled, slow and steady, and looked down just in time to see a cat pass by, meowing for his attention.

He wasn't particularly fond of animals, as he'd once told Lloyd, but right now, all he wanted was something to distract him, and a cat was much preferred to a person; after all, the cat didn't talk, nor did it require him to talk. Kratos reached down to scratch it between the ears and then paused as it leaped onto the couch to curl up next to him. It was a stretch to think that he might be able to spend an entire shift petting a cat (also pathetic, but in a different way), but he would do it for however long it held his attention, or vice versa.

[Flora!]

For the first time since Kyousuke arrived, waking up didn't feel the slightest bit strange or out of place. It was still like night had suddenly stopped, with nothing in-between then and now, but instead of being disorienting, or like there was something missing, it was like waking up from a nightmare. His breaths came heavy and anxious, everything flooding back to him, but unlike last night, he had more mental clarity, and he actually understood what it meant.

Sora... was dead.

After a moment, his breathing seemed to ease up, and he sat up slowly, and simply stared down at his blanket. The motion hurt quite a bit, a lot worse than it had yesterday morning, but he seemed to be in decent shape, all considered. Sore, battered, a little faint, but compared to worst of it...

He wondered if he should feel upset right now, or want to yell, or cry, but the truth was, he didn't. If anything, he was just numb. Tired and listless. He wasn't sure what to think or feel about anything, but somehow it seemed distant and disconnected, like something that hadn't actually happened. Yet, if he lingered on it too long, the lifelessness grew into something nauseating, heavy and constricting in his chest, and he didn't even notice until he realized he was gripping his bedding unnecessarily hard. So he forced himself to relax, and not focus on it too much. ... He preferred the cold sort of nothingness.

When the nurse arrived, she wasn't empty-handed, unfolding a wheelchair by his bedside and looking at him expectantly, as if she wanted him to settle himself into it. Looking at it was strange and uncomfortable, and he found himself refusing automatically.

"... I can walk fine. I don't need—"

"What you don't need," the nurse said sternly, "is to be overexerting yourself. You got to walk around yesterday, and what do you do? You go and reopen your injuries! Honestly, Mr. Taylor, you might be young, but you need to take better care of yourself! Today, you're resting, and if you're good about it, we'll see about maybe taking the chair away tomorrow."

That was bad enough, but then she wouldn't even let him wheel himself, and pushed him along from behind. This was totally unnecessary... But though it made him feel helpless, Kyousuke didn't have the energy to argue, so he let her do what she wanted. She asked if he wanted to make a quick trip the bulletin, first, but... Would the news be there? There were people who deserved to know, but there would be reactions to it, questions he didn't want to answer, and feeling his stomach give a lurch, he decided he didn't want to deal with it. Any of it.

Once in the cafeteria, the nurse asked him about breakfast, but Kyousuke insisted he wasn't hungry. ... He wasn't. Sensing he wanted to be left alone, she wheeled him off to an easily overlooked portion of the cafeteria, but quickly returned, setting food and some juice in front of him, "just in case." She set a small paper cup with a couple of painkillers on the tray, and after that, she left, leaving the boy to stare down the meal he didn't really want.

[ Kratos! ]

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!))

What the hell even happened last night? Rita remembered struggling with some kind of snake, and then… everything got kind of fuzzy from there. She knew what she saw, but she also knew it couldn’t have been real. It was more like a dream, but then, what was happening in reality while she was ‘dreaming’? Damn it, she must have looked like an idiot!

Rita was getting sick of all these tricks and hallucinations. The next time she encountered a monster, she was going to roast it to ashes, just out of spite.

Still seething, she brought her lunch to the Library and found an empty table to sit at. She went there almost automatically, and silently glared at her surroundings. The useless books, the place where that monster attacked her last night, the trap door she’d once again been unable to pass through… everything about this place was getting on her nerves.

She took an angry bite out of her sandwich, as if even that had wronged her somehow.

[free!]

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.]

As the sun rose above the horizon, patients and staff alike would likely be delighted with the clear, blue skies overhead. The Head Doctor certainly seemed cheered by the weather, if the enthusiastic voice that suddenly boomed through the speakers was any indication.

"Good morning, everyone!" he greeted, the smile evident in his voice. "I hope you all slept well, and that those who've caught the bug that's been going around are feeling better. This morning we'll be serving fresh pigs in blankets, along with our usual assortment of water, juices and milk. Sounds scrumptious, right? Please enjoy!"

The intercom suddenly clicked off, as if the Head Doctor couldn't wait to get a tray of that for himself.