[[from here]]

Kagura walked hesitantly into the store, following Leon and trying to remain unobtrusive.  The place was full of stuff she knew nothing about, but she kind of liked the woodsy smell it had.  She did as she'd been told and walked up to the counter, hoping to speak with the large man who worked there. 

"Um, hello sir," she said politely.  "It's okay if we look around, isn't it?  It's a very nice shop."

Rukia filed out of the bus with the other prisoners, shivering a little in the cool autumn air. She was a little irked that the nurses hadn't given her mittens on this trip. Forced to stuff her hands in to the pockets of her jeans, Rukia hunched her shoulders and wandered to the edge of the park before turning around to look for anyone she knew.

Nurses and orderlies were already milling about, supervising and watching the prisoners. Rukia's plan was to get a hold of something - anything - that she could use as a weapon when they returned to the Institute that night. It would be difficult with so many staff members around, but she was determined; the last thing she wanted was to be trapped on the buses again with no weapon.

Sanji woke up groggily to find his nurse already in his room. He gave a sleepy and half-hearted "Buh?" before realizing that nurse meant dayshift, and he'd fallen asleep after dinner.

"Shit!" He sat up abruptly, which gave his nurse a start. "Nami-swan!" How had he allowed himself to sleep through an entire night? What if she'd tried to return to the basement? What if she'd been waiting for him to appear and protect her? He'd let her down!

"There, there. Calm down." His nurse set a familiar flannel shirt down on the bed and Sanji eyed it with confusion. The last time he'd worn that had been... "Sorry I didn't knock or anything, but I was so excited~!" A pair of jeans followed the shirt. "Today is the field trip into town! Aren't you looking forward to it?"

The chef had to admit, the town had been an interesting enough place the last time he'd been. If he could find Nami early on he might even be able to lead her around... So he didn't complain too much as he changed into the other outfit (which he really wished they'd let him keep - anything was better than the regular gray) and was led out to the first of the buses.

He took a seat near the front, hopefully easily visible to any of his crew - especially to a certain member of his crew.

[for Usopp!]

Momo glared balefully at the intercom when Martin Landel was done talking. As much as she hated to admit it, things certainly seemed like everything Art & Crafts had done was meaningless. Her motivation level had greatly dropped, but duty was still duty and she hated this place. Especially after last night.

If she didn't get something other than repairing her sword accomplished, she was going to be in a visibly bad mood. As it was now that she was done directing her hatred at the intercom, the shinigami was simply quiet and withdrawn. She contained her displeasure as she should. Signum was probably going to be in a bad mood, so hopefully this person that Skuld was making a weapon for would arrive quickly. Momo was certain it would only be the knight's honor and sense of duty that would keep her from staying with the shinigami instead of heading off on her own.

First, though, Momo needed to get that key back to Mustang. Taking the bundle that contained the shards of her sword, the shinigami slipped it and the semi-funtional part of her sword into the uniform's sash and headed out the door. She may still be injured, but the lingering pain could be pushed from ehr mind when she tried.

To M1. Before my knight gets too impatient.

[to here]

The intercom came on, and as it did, it seemed to carry a little more interference than usual for a daytime announcement, a little more static. While the patients might have thought for a moment that once again the elusive woman on the radio had hacked into the Head Doctor's system, the man himself soon proved that theory faulty as he laughed over the broadcast.

"Hello, hello, everyone, and I'm sorry for the bad quality of this broadcast; we've been having some technical difficulties lately, you see, and we wanted to make sure everything was fixed by tomo...."

His voice crackled out into inaudibility for a moment before fading back in.

"Yes, hopefully that will be done soon. In any case, now's the time that you all head back to your rooms to enjoy a delicious meal... seasoned salmon! Yes, we have filets of very tasty, very juicy salmon seasoned with herbs and garlic; on the side, we have mashed potatoes, peas, and to drink, our usual assortment of beverages. For dinner, you'll all be enjoying vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce."

The intercom's broadcast crackled again. The Head Doctor laughed, seemingly a little nervously.

"Ah, yes, perhaps we'll be able to finish the repairing tomorrow, when all of you are away at... Doyleton! Yes, yes, you're all in for a fun and exciting day, a day whose activities will be new for some and a welcome familiarity to others. You'll be under strict supervision, of course, but... well, I suppose you'll find out all about the circumstances tomorrow, before you set off, mm? Yes! In any case... I hope you all enjoy dinner!"

The intercom clicked off again as the nurses began ushering patients back to their quarters.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post. (You can find your character's room assignment here.) Remember, everyone responds to this post with their character's room number in the subject line. ]

[tl;dr]

Renamon was resolute in maintaining an aura of unemotional professionalism after last shift. She wasn’t going to allow herself to be affected by anything here--at least, not until she could analyze them. Lost in thought, she followed the nurse leading her without paying much attention to her surroundings. It wasn’t until she realized they were moving through the Sun Room that she spoke up.

“If possible, I’d like to stay in the Sun Room again. I’m still feeling worn out.” Her speech was clipped and polite. Hopefully the nurse would allow her to do-so again--she had to meet another this afternoon.

The nurse was cheerful, replying reassuringly, “Oh, that’s fine dear. You can come back here right after your shower.”

Renamon took a moment. Shower. She filtered through her knowledge of human speech for an exact definition for the word. Once she found it, her eyes widened and she missed a step. She instantly calmed herself, and spoke as if everything were fine. “Would it be possible to pass? I’m not quite sure it’d be…” She couldn’t think of an excuse. Starting to panic, she clutched the short sleeves of her shirt, wishing for the sweatshirt she mistakenly passed on. Why hadn’t she kept it on?! Her voice had turned soft and pleading. “Could I not? Please.”

The nurse went over Renamon’s strange reaction. “Dear, it’ll be fine! You must want to get cleaned up--you’ve been here a few days already.” The woman kept walking, turning her head back to smile at Renamon. “I’m afraid the doctor made it clear that all patients must participate.”

Renamon’s eyes darted to either side, eying the room. Orderlies were seen by the doorways, and she had seen several patients be sedated at mealtimes. She wasn’t willing to risk losing her mental agility and alertness for a doomed from the start escape attempt. And over such a ridiculous thing too. She trailed after her nurse silently, for all purposes seeming like someone being led to hang.

She froze in the changing room, and had to be coaxed by her nurse to slip out of her clothes, and then into the shower room, where the nurse turned on the spray. Renamon had long fallen back into the “catatonia” the first nurse she had come into contact with had whispered about, non-responsive and sluggish. In actuality, Renamon was in a forced meditation, the only thing keeping her calm at the thought of no fur covering her, nothing covering her, nothing protecting her, she was naked, skinned! Muscles and flesh revealing the delicate organs beneath for any predator to rip and tear out; her outsides torn off by ones who only wished her harm, trying to reach at her insides, her core, her soul. Did she have a soul? Was she just data? Is she was just data, then this wouldn’t bother her. She wouldn’t care. Did this prove she was real? Her arm brushed her bare side and she jumped sideways, cracking into the wall and sliding down. She stayed sitting, slumped on the floor, letting the water hit her in the face as she stared at nothing. The heightened sensations were numbing her, leaving her skin tingling from the extra sensitivity. Everything was felt in explicit details: where the spray was hitting her, where her side was going to be bruised, the re-opened cut on her shoulder, the hard floor underneath her, the weight of her hair pulling on her skull. This body wasn’t hers. This wasn’t her. This wasn’t real.

Maybe she didn’t want to be real, if this is what it was. Renamon raised her head to stare mournfully at her nurse, looking more like an animal then she had as a fox Digimon. Hand half raised to her mouth in a mix of surprise and shock, her nurse stared back for a moment. Renamon didn’t care enough at that point to control her expressions. Her eyes and face showed everything she was, and wasn’t, feeling for the first time. She sat there in the water, motionless, until her nurse saw fit to take her away.

[taken to here]

Yuffie bounced all the way through collecting her lunch, all the way to a good seat- one with a nice view of the whole cafeteria, which was something she'd been missing out on during the past day or so that she'd been stuck in the Institute- and hell, she even bounced into her seat.

A good mood? No, really?

Despite the occasional blip, talking to Sagara had been awesome. He was a fun guy; he wasn't a prude, didn't have a stick shoved so far up his ass it was poking out his eyeballs, and he'd actually had a conversation with her. One that hadn't revolved around doom, gloom or how much life sucked. If she could find other people like that and keep in touch with Sagara, maybe there was a little hope for this place.

After a quick gulp of pink lemonade, Yuffie settled to munching through her food and keeping an eye on the door.

[Waiting for Dean, I think? :x]

The whole not-bursting-into-flame thing was still a perk Angel could get used to. He ended up sitting just beneath a tree by a patch of sunlight, hoping maybe he'd go undisturbed just this once. The courtyard was more relaxing during the day, with its distinct lack of hyenas.

Journal on his lap, he plucked a blade of grass between his fingers. It was nice. He didn't think he'd ever just sat on the grass for no apparent reason before. Except for the couple of dates he'd ended up having with Buffy in the cemetery, but those always got interrupted by the undead.

The fact that he sort of counted those dates, anyway, probably said a lot.

[for Harley :D]

[starting off in M13]

The last part of the night was little more than a blur in Homura's mind. The men had rushed in, but not joined them, instead staying off to themselves. Before any of them had a chance to react, however, a voice sounded through the air, mocking some other person Homura had never heard of, and the patients themselves.

To Homura, whoever that man was, he sounded a great deal like a god.

But before he could ask questions, the demi-god found himself no longer in the chapel, but some strange room on a bed. Is that what Kenren had meant from his earlier warning? Homura sat up, glad at least that the world didn't spin when he did so. Then the same man from before began to speak again, with a completely different tone. It was confusing to hear him talk that way, calling them patients instead of prisoners as he had before. Homura listened quietly as the announcement was made, then got out of bed.

Maybe he wouldn't have to go anywhere yet. It wasn't like Homura knew where to go anyway, and that meant he had time. If this was his room, and if he had been here as long as Kenren had said, there was a chance he could find something with answers. The Taisho had even told him that Homura had seen Rinrei. Certainly he would've written something down, made a map, something that could let him find her again! He started with the desk at the end of his bed, first finding a small stack of notebooks. Picking up the first, he flipped through, turning the pages with quickening desperation as he found each one to be blank.

[from here]

A quiet night, with no other sounds of patients from this direction, although they might have just been focusing on being quiet as well. Mark hit the ground on both feet and one hand, not bothering to try to catch himself standing, although he stood quickly afterwards and glanced around. Even in the moonlight, it was hard to be sure things here were safe. Close to the wall for now, to allow the others to recreate their decided upon marching order. And to avoid letting anything sneak up against his back. Yesterday had been quick, and simple. Tonight had already failed to qualify as either.

After the couple glasses of water Leon managed to gulp down during breakfast, the mage felt immensely better. He was still a bit tired, but that was nothing a little lounging on one of the sofas wouldn't cure. Stretching his arms above his head, he couldn't help but wish he'd had the chance to grab one of his new doctor's coats before leaving his room that morning. Maybe they would have let him get away with wearing it. Maybe.

He grabbed an empty sofa, pulling out the journal he tried to keep on him at all times. It was nearly complete now. Just a couple more pages to go. It might not improve his spellcasting that much, but any improvement was better than none. It was getting to where it might be too dangerous for him to use spells at all, if it left him so worn out without even finishing a monster off.

[from here]

It was darker in this room than the last time she'd been in, but that was a given. It was night after all. And she hadn't exactly brought her flashlight with her. Neither had Harley for that matter. The Noah had to wonder how the human was seeing in the darkness without any heightened Noah senses. Maybe she was just used to the dark. Or she could have just been following Rhode's lead. Whatever.

She stepped in and up to the first bookshelf close to her. "How do you wanna look for it?" she asked, curious. Rhode's approach would have been to start toppling bookshelves, but she had a feeling that the two of them wouldn't be able to make them budge. What she wouldn't give to have an Akuma at her beck and call right now! Maybe they could just start throwing books around and see if there was a switch or something. Maybe one of the walls would move or a part of the floor would fall out. "And if we don't find anything, where do you think we should look next? I don't know any other boring places here..." she trailed off. There were probably too many to count, but a Library pretty much took the prize for boring.

[from here]

Because there were always so many idiots heading to the Sun room during the night, Albel Nox was a little surprised to discover he was actually the first idiot person to enter it. Even when he opened the door, he could tell there wasn't a single sign of battle just yet.

The warrior wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or not.

It had been a while (only a couple of nights, really) since he had a good fight, and the captain found himself itching for a new one. He lived his life on the battle field, and going without any fighting (or good opponents) for too long made him restless.

He swept the small beam of his flashlight around the room, not letting his guard down as he closed the door behind him and walked further into the room.

If there was some opponent hiding in this room, he'd find out soon enough. If there wasn't, it only meant he'd get to the basement faster. And whatever maggot hiding in said basement to fight.