Night 61: Main Hallway, 1-West

[madeinthehrl]

[from here]

The main hall was dead quiet as Soma rounded the corner. The last few nights, this place had been bustling with fellow patients; the sudden calm was very nearly unnerving.

Still, she tried to put it out of her mind. Marie didn't sense anything out of the ordinary--yet.

[to here]

Comments

[no_dont_go]

Castiel seemed amenable to starting immediately, so Aigis reached into her pocket to retrieve her Evoker. She had brought Yukari's tonight. Minato's would be saved for tomorrow's return trip to the basement.

"You need only stand where you are," Aigis responded. In a fluid motion, she pulled the gun-like mechanism out of her pocket and pressed the barrel to her temple. She pulled the trigger with practiced ease. The sound of breaking glass crackled in the air and a blue energy whipped around Aigis like a sudden breeze.

The flickering phantom image of Athena dimly appeared above Aigis. Brandishing her lance and shield the robotic goddess raised her arms and a warm, white light swirled around Castiel. The lights fused to him, melting into his skin and mending his wounds gently. There would not be enough power full a full healing, but minor things like cuts and aches could be helped at the least.

The deity, her word done, faded away from existence, leaving the angel a bit less worse for wear and Aigis with a minor headache. Heaving a light sigh, Aigis forced a smile on her face to hide the mild pain behind her eyes. "There."

[freewill]

The moment that Aigis put the gun to the side of her head, Castiel tried to reach out quickly and stop her. What was she doing?!

But while the shot should have knocked her to the ground and taken the life out of her entirely, that didn't seem to be the case at all. Instead, the girl kept her footing and something appeared overhead, an armored being that clearly commanded the power that Aigis was borrowing.

Castiel's blue eyes widened as the light surrounded him, seeping into his skin and at least partly mending his wounds in the space of a few seconds. It wasn't the same as the way he healed naturally, but it was enough of a reprieve that he found himself exhaling in relief as the process ended.

Before he could get a proper look at the thing that had made this possible, it was gone, leaving only Aigis. "Thank you," he said, still looking somewhat taken aback by what he had just experienced. He stared at the gun in her hand. "What is that?" It wasn't the sort of gun that he had encountered before, that was for certain.

[no_dont_go]

His initial reaction was quite typical. Heat had tried to stop her and Aidou had tried as well. Most people did not realize that a machine that happened to look like a gun did not necessarily a gun make, but going into the details of Evoker production would be a breach in professional confidentiality. Also, her head kind of hurt. So, Aigis settled for the short version.

"No thanks are necessary," she started, blinking a few times in hopes to soothe the pain in her temple. It did little to dispel the problem but did allow for her to get her mind off of it. "It is an Evoker, the tool used to allow those with Potential to summon their power of Persona."

Aigis took a breath and continued, certain he wanted a little more than that. "The Evokers are an item exclusive to the Kirijo Group who have done extensive research on Shadows and how to terminate them. The power of Persona is the one way in which one can combat them effectively." She held the Evoker to her bosom, cradling it gently. "I did not need one back home. There, I was fully robotic and therefore had an inner mechanism that could call on Athena at will."

[freewill]

An Evoker. It was like nothing Castiel had seen or heard of before, but the patients here seemed to come from a variety of different places, times, and dimensions. He could not always rely on his previous knowledge, extensive though it was, to understand things in this place.

Luckily, his desire to learn was still strong even after all these years, and so he took in her explanation like a sponge. The terms were all foreign to him, but he could equate it to a human calling on a more powerful being to help them, much like Dean and Sam had prayed for his help in the past. That all felt so long ago now.

"Yet here, where you are more human, you must use one of these," he finished for her, nodding his head to show that he understood. "It seems like there should be a less startling method to trigger it." Putting a gun up to one's head was bound to get someone in trouble even if suicide was the last thing on their mind, especially at a mental institute.

It wasn't his job to worry about such a thing, though, and Aigis had clearly been managing. She had just healed him, after all. "My thanks again," he said with a bow of his head. "I suspect you need to be moving on now." And so did he, for that matter, once he decided what to do with this night now that he had some renewed strength.

[no_dont_go]

For someone new to Evokers and Persona, Castiel seemed to catch on fairly quickly. Aigis was impressed by his ability to keep up with her and not react with immediate skepticism and some did. Then again, not many witnessed Athena before she managed to give them a break-down of the procedure.

"Indeed," she confirmed. His insight into the task was refreshing. Her opinion of the man grew by the minute. "Actually, it is called the Potential because one who awakens the power of Persona should be able to summon at will. However, in 'do or die' situations, it would be too risky to leave the task up to one's willpower alone. The Evoker is merely a trigger that can bypass the mental stress necessary for calling forth one's power." There were still mental and physical repercussions, but the intensity of them was largely reduced.

Aigis returned the Evoker to her pocket and gave her friend another short bow in return. "Yes, I should be on my way. I am glad I was able to be of assistance to you, Castiel-san."

"Do be safe," she said, turning to leave. "And if you have any more questions or requests for me later, do feel free to ask." She then started on her way, moving down the hall to her next designated meeting spot.

[to here]

[freewill]

So it seemed that the Evoker, as it was called, was actually a method of making the task of summoning easier. Castiel could only imagine that Dean and Sam would have been eager to have a shortcut like that, considering the various demons, angels, and other creatures that they'd been forced to summon in the past.

While he was curious to know more about how the item actually worked (and if it could be used to summon anything other than a "Persona"), now was clearly not the time to talk about it. Aigis politely dismissed herself, although Castiel knew that he was the one who needed to be offering her aid the next time they spoke, rather than the other way around.

Once Aigis had disappeared down the hall, Castiel took a moment to test his range of movement. While he was still sore, it was much easier for him to walk now, and the pain where he'd been scratched was also greatly reduced. Despite that, he realized that trying to get down to Doyleton again would be foolish for a number of reasons. He wouldn't be able to get through that locked door on his own without a great deal of effort, he didn't know how to hotwire a bus, and going on foot would likely get him killed. Going in the bus had almost managed that, after all.

Which meant going with the less interesting plan he'd formulated for the night: searching Dr. Venkman's office. With a sigh, Castiel tightened his grip on both his angel blade and flashlight and moved down the hall.

[To here.]