@Ome:  Your apartment was just as you'd left it.  Junk mail, junk mail, a letter of congratulations from some friends, fan mail, junk mail, bill, junk mail, check, fan mail.  It's just nice and quiet, and it might be the first rest alone you've gotten in ages, or so it feels, thanks to the rather sterile and claustrophobic nature of hospitals.<br/><br/>(Respond to above post if you like, and/or time skip post below.)<br/><br/>The pits.  The address wasn't hard to find.  These fights were iffy in terms of legality but no cop would dare show up, not even in force, to stop some things as crazy as what went on down here.  However, they were immensely popular, too.  These fights.  Symbols of the common man making his way in the world of violent entertainment.  The two ladies from before were waiting, the last match of the night.  Dressed just as they were before, and looking as surly as ever.  A title event, now that the woman who'd defeated the Firin' Oziran was coming as well.<br/><br/>@ KavenBach:  Tim's hands went up in self defense for only the first few moments; after the pummeling started, he suddenly resigned himself to it.  It made you wonder if he was actually feeling the pain.  He was biting his lips on the inside and letting out small grunts with every blow, and tears streamed out of his blind eyes.  Finally, a good half pint of blood exploded from his nose and mouth onto his robes, while his knuckles turned white, clenching the mattress and the side of the bed.  Sam had left the room in the middle of it all to smoke outside.  It went on... and on... and on... and his face began to swell.  Cheek.  Nose.  Broken.  Black eyes.  One tooth.  Two.  Four.<br/><br/>And maybe, just maybe it was all sinking in.<br/><br/>@ Chiro:  "Baron?  Ah, shit, thank God." Professor panted.  "It's Caleena, we can't find her.  We can't be splitting up - what are you reading?" He asks, coming down deeper.  "Huh... this is aesthetically pleasing." He hopped to the stone circle in the middle of the shallow river.  "Trickling water probably helps you concentrate." He looks over the bookshelf.  "Well, isn't that something..." He circles it.  "Why don't you grab a few volumes and we'll head up and meet Onyx.  I don't think he can get down here, and it's really best we all stick together..." He smiles, plucking through a few of them himself.<br/><br/>He passes by again, motioning.  The mysteries in here were on the fringe of lunacy, but just before the index came the most interesting part; a mine shaft, and underground factory, described herein that mentioned a route to the other side of the wall - a subterranean route, and if it was open, the only means found in ages upon ages to the other side of the great wall, to the land of madness; to the land of perfect order, in fact, if the book was truthful.