[OTA]

[icanhearscreams]

Stop talking stop talking stop talking stop talking it's like the screaming it's not real it can't be real it has to be fake. Just another hallucination.

Stop it, stop it, stop it! It's not real! It's not... just stop...

Comments

[icanhearscreams]

... Okay. I... five? Six? Something like that... there's a lot.

[fridgeninja]

All right. As you listen to what I'm saying, I want you to try to tune out just one voice, until you can only count five of them.

[icanhearscreams]

I... I'll try.

[There's quiet for a bit, before he 'speaks' up again.]

It's... maybe gone, I'm not sure.

[fridgeninja]

One by one, keep doing that, until you can only hear me.

I guess I'd better keep talking for a while to give you time to do that.

Once you've done it a few times, you can make the voices quiet automatically, or you can reach out to just one person and have a one-on-one conversation.

Like this.

[icanhearscreams]

I don't -

[He goes quiet, trying to focus, trying to imagine it's homework he needs to complete and trying to get into the headspace he has there.]

[It's almost quiet, almost listening to just him, but then -]

I don't like it. I don't like any of this.

[He needs to distract himself so he doesn't think about that.]

[fridgeninja]

I'm sorry.

If it's easier, until you learn, I can filter us into a private conversation and then... not say anything?

[icanhearscreams]

... You don't have to. It's just...

[He sighs, though doesn't send it.]

The situation I was in before I showed up here wasn't... a normal sort of thing. I can't even really call it a 'battle'. So everything happening has been a huge amount of stimuli.

[fridgeninja]

I can understand that. When I first arrived here... I had a similar kind of experience.

Just remember that if you want help, there's a lot of us who will do our best for you, no matter what. We're all in the same situation now.

[icanhearscreams]

[There's silence for a bit from his end as he tries to work out what to say.]

I guess we are. I guess it's everyone's responsibility now.

[Not a small number of kids who have to hide it as best they can, not adults clamoring to take the responsibility for their contract, not loved ones who have to be left behind as they march to their deaths.]

[It's... easier, isn't it? It has to be, when everyone's involved and no one is a bystander.]

This is all taking some getting used to.

[fridgeninja]

That's normal.

After your first Jaunt you'll probably have a better feel for things.

[icanhearscreams]

Maybe. A lot of this... I'm used to science, not... talking in people's heads. The idea that some people here have magic is hard enough to deal with.

[fridgeninja]

I should probably let you know that I summon big warrior spirits from my brain.

Still, I'm not sure that magic isn't just a kind of science involving forces most of us don't understand. Computers, telephones, electric lights, guns, stoves - all of those things could look like magic to someone from Earth's distant past, right?

I know scientists figured out how to help some people summon big warrior spirits from their brains.

[icanhearscreams]

... Excuse me, what?

[fridgeninja]

It's a power called 'Persona.' When I need to protect myself or rescue someone, I use a card and shout the name of the Persona I need, and then there's a blue flash and I can be immune to bullets or light everyone on fire, depending on who I summoned.

Also, they talk to me and help me understand people who are similar to them.

[icanhearscreams]

... Okay. You know what? Nothing makes sense right now, so I guess that makes as much sense as anything.

[fridgeninja]

It doesn't always make sense to me, either.

[fruitknife]

[After a bit, another incredulous voice chimes in, though Shinji's not taking issue with the 'summon warrior spirits from your brain' part.]

'Help'? That's what you're callin' it?

[wildmagician]

I'm pretty sure he just worded that badly, Shinji-san. He can easily be misunderstood.

[Yosuke had been listening and quietly observing if he should say sonething to this guy about the network but this caught his attention.]

[fruitknife]

I wouldn't call much of any of the Kirijo Group's Shadow research 'help.'

[fridgeninja]

I'm starting to understand that.

I'm sorry, it seems like I didn't have complete information.

[fridgeninja]

They built equipment that made summoning easier?

I don't have firsthand experience with it.

[fruitknife]

Obviously, or you'd know how fucked up you have to be to point an Evoker at your own head in the first place. I'd gladly take the 'yell at yourself' option.

[Most of SEES probably would, if they knew there was an alternative... but probably no one more than Shinji. Not when in his case, it might have saved a life.]

[seestheworld]

"Help" is really, really not the appropriate word for what those scientists did.

[fridgeninja]

Ah.

Maybe I was given yhe wrong impression.

The Evokers?

[seestheworld]

Those too.

Do you know what Evokers are meant to evoke? Besides Personas, I mean.