[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]

[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.

[fruitknife]

You want a less emotional rundown, ask Shirogane. She's probably read about it.

[fridgeninja]

I will.

Thank you for setting the record straight for me.

[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.]

[fridgeninja]

I didn't realize it was that different. But I can see why it isn't the kind of experience you'd just volunteer information about.

[fruitknife]

[He doesn't think there's anyone in SEES who didn't consider the real thing. Except maybe Koro-chan, and how much Aigis would understand the concept is an open question. But that still leaves eight incredibly screwed-up humans.]

Not to mention, if Personas and Shadows are the same thing, then maybe skipping the part where you deal with the nasty side isn't a good idea.

[fridgeninja]

I've worried about that before. I never had to face mine...

[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.

[fridgeninja]

No one's ever mentioned anything else to me. Although, they do look alarming...

[seestheworld]

They're supposed to. Someone decided that terror was an essential component of summoning. The idea is that you're confronting your own fear of death every time you do.

And the Evokers are probably the least of it. I'm going to guess you're not aware of the experiments they did with artificial Persona users?

[fridgeninja]

Persona-summoning robots? I met one briefly, but she didn't say anything about experiments.

Nobody mentioned that side of Evokers, either.