Night 50: Main Hallway, 1-West

[heroesdontshave]

[from here]

It looked like the hallway opened up over here. Guess he couldn't expect to just run around and follow a linear corridor forever, but now he had to figure out which way he wanted to go. Normally, he'd just run down whatever hallway he happened to lay eye on first, but again, he was running a liiittle blind here.

He still wasn't seeing any people anywhere. Maybe everyone was hiding. If everyone knew the staff turned into monsters and tried to eat them, then it'd make sense that they'd try to keep low. Thankfully, he'd be taking care of whatever was wandering around this place, so they wouldn't have to stay hiding for long. Once that was done, they could blast their way out of there and he could find his way back to the others. Couldn't keep everyone waiting on account of him, right?

[running across Rita, The Trickster, and hopefully, a freaking flashlight]

Comments

[freewill]

[From here.]

As expected, Castiel reached a second hallway and found the source of the voices. There was a fairly large group of people standing around, some of them talking to each other and others on their own, apparently waiting. Castiel paused and took a moment to watch them. It was strange that he couldn't catch any panic in the body language and facial expressions of most of them. While he wasn't necessarily very good at reading humans, he knew enough by now to realize that this was unexpected.

Unless they were accustomed to this situation, their reactions made no sense.

However, he had found what he was looking for: people to question. Castiel didn't devote too much time to picking out someone to speak to, walking up to the closest person who was on his own. He appeared to be fairly young, possibly a few years younger than Adam. Castiel wasn't exactly used to speaking to humans of this age, but... was this person even human?

It was something he should have known just by looking at the stranger, but Castiel instead had to specifically focus before he could be certain that the boy was human. In that case, it was likely he wouldn't know much, but Castiel knew his options were limited.

The matching shirt and its symbol indicated that they were in the same position, but everyone in this stretch of hallway was wearing the garment, and so Castiel stuck with the boy. Now, how to start... but he was best at being straightforward. "Do you know where this place is located?" he asked with a deep frown.

[propheteer]

Izaya had nearly made up his mind to follow one of the pairs of people at a distance when someone approached him instead. He turned the light towards the man; he was obviously older than Izaya (maybe in his thirties), foreign, and wearing a coat over the same uniform as everyone else.

The appearance of the stranger made him reconsider what he thought he knew about where he was, but only briefly. Appearances aside, the Japanese he'd spoken was flawless; even if Izaya had been moved out of Tokyo for some reason, he must have still been in Japan. Getting him out of the country quickly—especially without him learning anything about it beforehand—would have taken impressive resources.

"Tokyo... isn't it?" Izaya said, adding the question partly confirmation's sake and partly to cover the chance that he could be wrong. Tokyo was a big place, but it was small in comparison to the world. And for the man to have asked in the first place, and with such a serious look... Surely he should have had some sense of where he was.

It was curious. Maybe a little bit of free information wouldn't hurt, to find out what the man would say in response. Izaya smiled pleasantly and added, "Ah, but I'm afraid I can't give anything more specific than that! I don't remember arriving here, you see."

A part of him hoped that wherever this hospital specifically was, it wasn't in Ikebukuro. If it was, he had a feeling that Shizu-chan would show up at precisely the wrong time... not that he ever showed up at the right time.

[freewill]

Tokyo. The capital of Japan. Castiel tilted his head at the stranger, wondering why he would assume that first and foremost. The most likely answer was that this boy had been in Tokyo before waking up here (and his physical features were inclined toward that region, as far as he could tell), but it was odd that he hadn't noticed the use of English.

With no consideration for how startling the information might be, Castiel shook his head. "I'm reasonably certain we're in the United States," he said. "Did you hear the broadcast earlier? It was speaking in English, with no accent." Or with an "American" accent, but that term wasn't commonly used, was it? Castiel didn't think so, but that was only going off of what he had picked up during his travels. Even though he'd been down among modern day humans for over a year now, a lot of his knowledge was still very much outdated.

It was strange, that the stranger could speak English so well when he was from Japan, but Castiel had never personally had difficulty with languages either. However, he'd had many years to learn, and this boy was still fairly young. To have mastered two languages in such a short time was noteworthy -- or it would have been, if Castiel didn't have more important things to worry about. Now wasn't the time to marvel over humans and their capabilities, though it did occur to him that this boy probably practiced a religion that didn't even acknowledge his existence.

But the boy had another interesting piece of information: he didn't remember how he'd gotten here. Castiel frowned and shifted in place as he thought it over. He had been brought here, and so had this stranger. The question was how the two events were linked.

"When did you awaken?" he asked, staring straight into the stranger's face as he waited for an answer. If other people had been pulled into this place as well, then that made it even more suspicious than he'd originally thought. While Castiel's main goal was still to get out, this could be another piece of the puzzle that would explain what had happened to him after he'd activated that sigil.

[propheteer]

"The United States?" he asked, a look of surprise flickering across his face. "Are you sure?"

Izaya hadn't gotten as much information out of his comments as he'd hoped he might, but the stranger's mention of a broadcast was... interesting, to say the least. He hadn't heard it, but he wished he had; even if it had been in English as the man said, it could have been informative. At the least, it may have provide some clue of where exactly he was or how he'd gotten there. America was a large country, after all, if America really was where they were.

"I woke up not too long ago. Were you asleep too?" Izaya felt somewhat confident that he knew the answer already—otherwise it would have been a strange question for the man to have asked—but confirmation never hurt. Confirmation was what turned rumors into facts, after all. "Unfortunately, I must have missed the broadcast; what was it about?"

There was still something that struck Izaya as odd about the claim to be in America. If there had been a broadcast in English and the man thought they were in the United States because of it, why was he speaking Japanese? It wasn't like the man was Japanese himself; if anything, he must have been American since he referred to American English as having 'no accent'.

"By the way, I'm Orihaya Izaya," he said, turning to face the man properly as he introduced himself. He gave a slight bow. "Am I correct that you're from America? Your Japanese is very good."

[freewill]

It seemed that the stranger hadn't expected to be so far from home, but Castiel was fairly certain and he wasn't going to back down on that unless he was given good reason to. If it turned out that he was in another country entirely, then making it back to Dean and Sam would become far more complicated.

Regardless of their confusion about location, it seemed that the two of them were in a very similar situation. He didn't know why the boy had ended up here, but Castiel doubted that he had any connection to the oncoming apocalypse. If he did, he should have known about it. Though on the other hand, what Castiel knew had been dwindling these days. At one point he'd felt like he had most of the answers, but they were running out of options.

"I was," he responded at a slight delay, nodding his head. And the fact that he'd legitimately rested was still odd to him, but he didn't need to get into that now. Explaining what he was to this boy could become complicated, and one thing he'd learned from Dean was that it wasn't always the best idea to share every scrap of information. Especially not with someone he didn't know.

When the stranger asked about the announcement, Castiel's mouth tightened at the corners and he glanced off for a moment. He hadn't been paying much attention to the words that had been said; the language was the main thing that had been noted.

However, he was allowed to dodge the question when the boy went on to introduce himself and then say something particularly noteworthy. "My name is Castiel," he said with a nod in return. The bow fit into the boy's story about Japan, but Castiel didn't mimic it. "And I'm not speaking Japanese. Neither are you. There must be some sort of spell in place that is translating our speech," he stated bluntly. That was the only explanation. It wasn't difficult to do, but it brought up some interesting points. They had been taken from two completely different places and put here, wherever this place was truly located. However, whoever had orchestrated this wanted them to be able to communicate. Castiel could explain the how, but the why was more complicated.

[propheteer]

Izaya hadn't missed the fact that the stranger—Castiel—hadn't answered his question about the broadcast. Either he was trying to keep the information to himself (not a bad tactic, in Izaya's opinion; controlling the flow of information was something he was well-versed in, after all), or there simply wasn't anything to share. It could have been anything number of useless bits of information: a call for lights out, paging someone, some code that didn't make sense unless you were part of the staff...

Izaya would have still liked to know what had been said, but he wasn't going to press Castiel about it. It wasn't like he was going to be here very long, so in the end, it just wasn't important. What was important was Castiel's claim that they weren't speaking Japanese.

There were plenty of supernatural things in the world if you knew how to look for them, but they usually didn't find him like this. Speaking Japanese—and he was certain he was speaking his native tongue—and having the Castiel hear something else, and hearing Japanese spoken when Castiel was speaking that something else (English, maybe, since he'd mentioned it)... Well, a hospital wouldn't have been a place he would have looked for that kind of thing. Izaya gave a quiet laugh. "I see; I see! Ah, but that means the broadcast might not have been English... Had I been awake, maybe I would have heard it in Japanese instead."

It was curious that Castiel had suggested the supernatural as an explanation so quickly, so bluntly, and so openly. Izaya was interested in leaving as soon as possible, true, but perhaps he could spare a little longer before he started moving again. The man's behavior was interesting. "But why do you think it might be a spell, of all things? There could be other answers." Castiel could be lying, for one, and really was speaking Japanese.

[freewill]

There was a good chance that the stranger would have heard the announcement in his own language, but Castiel was done speculating about it. The fact that they couldn't be sure of what was actually being spoken did bring their location into question once again, but standing around and talking wasn't going to help him find the true answer. While the boy seemed interested in figuring out what was causing it to happen, Castiel was still more concerned with finding an exit or someone who had the information that he needed.

It seemed unlikely that any of the other patients who were around would be able to tell him anything useful, and so he was intent on exploring further. Normally he would have just left without another word, but it wasn't as simple to walk away from someone he was in the middle of talking to when his wings were effectively clipped.

"There could be," he agreed, "but if you want to discuss it further, then we need to keep moving. We shouldn't linger in this place." He wasn't willing to stay put, so it was up to the boy to decide if he wanted to come with or not. Castiel knew that he would probably be better off on his own, but he could only imagine how Sam and Dean would have reacted if they'd known that he was trying to abandon a human, especially one so young, in an unknown area that could easily be controlled by demons or even Lucifer.

The question was, what direction should he try next? Castiel glanced down the hallway they were currently in, figuring that would be the most straightforward decision, though he also recalled that there had been that other path to try, off to the left. Granted, he could always backtrack depending on if he found another dead end -- he was well-trained in scouting and reconnaissance, after all.

[propheteer]

Hmph, another ignored question. The lack of information from Castiel was starting to bother him, but it also piqued his curiosity. He'd barely gotten anything other than the man's name out of him... but more and more questions he wanted answers to were forming. He wanted to get out of here, but learning about this person was starting to look more interesting than leaving just yet.

He gave a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, raising his hands along with the motion only to drop them back to his sides a moment later. "If you insist," he said. He wouldn't mind following Castiel around to study him for a while, and if the man happened to know the way out of here, that would just be an added bonus.

Izaya pointed in the direction he'd been heading earlier, the direction Castiel had come from. "I'd been heading that way earlier," he commented. "All I saw were stairs at the other end. But if you know your way around...?"

He trailed off, but there was a note of question in his tone. He wondered if Castiel would give any kind of answer to it, be it confirmation or denial or some other piece of information, or if he would decline to comment.

[freewill]

As far as Castiel was concerned, he hadn't been insisting, but simply stating the facts. It didn't seem to matter, though, as Orihara was apparently willing to come with him. He wasn't entirely thrilled that he would have to be dealing with the human and explaining things as they went along, but he didn't have to give out all of the information if it didn't come up. He wasn't much of a liar, but he was good at withholding information.

Glancing over in the direction that Orihara pointed out, Castiel considered what he'd said. Stairs... So there was a second floor, and possibly more than that. If they could get outside, he could get a better idea of just how large the building was, but he wasn't sure if it had any relevance in the first place. He did want to investigate this place further at some point, but he'd rather come back with Sam and Dean after the whole issue with Michael had been settled.

If Dean was even still around, though Castiel would have liked to believe that he would have known if something had happened. Then again, whoever had brought him here could have done it with the express purpose of keeping him ignorant.

The point was, he wasn't interested in stairs at the moment, and so he turned back in the other direction. "I don't, but finding an exit to this place should be a rudimentary task." And that was all that needed to be said. For now, Castiel was content to go straight ahead which keeping that other path in mind. And so he started walking, expecting that the boy would keep up if he really wanted to.

[To here.]