Day 60: Cafeteria

[gald_digger]

Anise had been lying snug in bed, only vaguely aware that she was awake, when her rest was disturbed by the one sound in the world she'd never wanted to hear again.

"Good morning, everyone!"

The girl's eyes shot open and she immediately sat up straight. There was no doubt about it. That was the Head Doctor, that bastard, and he was back! Now that

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[poorexample]

They had only just been penetrating the edges of that town when Castiel had felt his grace start to splinter away from him, had felt his wings grow even heavier with an invisible weight. It was startling to feel it happen so suddenly. After leaving Heaven it had taken place slowly, his power being eked away from him day by day. When it was so instantaneous, he could have even called the sensation painful

[predictator]

From the moment he'd awoken, it had been clear that things were different.

Izaya's eyes had opened only moments before Landel's cheery tones delivered the morning announcement-for the first time in a week. He lay in bed for a moment, taking in the words (the old routine, was it? Calling it a vacation, was he?) before sitting up abruptly. He cast a glance at the man in the other bed, and then looked down at his clothes. Instead of the increasingly familiar uniforms that had come along with the military's presence, a yellow face on grey smiled up at him once more. The old routine... Between this and the angry-sounding message just before morning...

Clearly, something had happened.

He'd gotten no further than climbing out of bed when the door opened and a nurse bustled in, a bright smile on her face. "Good morning, Joshua! I bet you're ready for breakfast, so come with me!"

Izaya returned an imitation of her smile, as if to say 'Of course.'

There was no sign of the military presence that had been so prominent just yesterday

[poorexample]

Due to the fact that Castiel was engrossed in writing, he didn't notice the other man's approach until he was already sitting down. At that point Castiel's head snapped up and he laid eyes on none other than Orihara, who was taking a seat with him as if their last conversation hadn't been what it was

[predictator]

If the note hadn't been enough proof of his 'recovery', Castiel's way of speaking had also returned to what he remembered it being before-both in style and content. 'Michael' hadn't been so terse.

Still, Castiel had (wittingly or not) provided a bit of information Izaya hadn't been sure of: namely, how long he'd believed himself to be Michael. If their last conversation had been within that twenty-four hour window, then... Perhaps it had something to do with the events of the night prior to it? That had been when the drug trials were announced, so maybe...

Izaya really had been fortunate, hadn't he? If it had been a drug trial result, he'd gotten to see it first-hand.

"I see... Then it was a complete recovery? You no longer have any doubts that you're Castiel rather than Michael?" he probed calmly as he cut into one of his waffles. He paused after separating the cut piece from the main body, looking directly at Castiel. "You have no doubts that you are an angel

[poorexample]

Castiel didn't see how he had been unclear in his message from yesterday, but he also had an idea of why Orihara was being so thorough with his questions. He'd been most focused on Castiel's admittance to what he was. While it was better than not being believed at all, the extra attention and scrutiny was difficult to respond to.

Nonetheless, Castiel was not a liar. He was not about to go back on what he said, even if he hadn't been himself when he'd said so. It hadn't been his intention to lose his mind for a day, but he was going to have to deal with the aftermath, even when it was something like this.

"No doubts at all," he said with a shake of his head as he lifted a piece of waffle to his mouth. He realized that he had been pushing his food around on his plate without entirely realizing why. It was something that humans did; he'd observed it himself, when he'd gone to those diners with the Winchesters. But why was he doing so? It served no purpose

[predictator]

Ah, how wonderful! Castiel hadn't tried to deny it at all (could angels even lie or mislead?), and instead explained in a little more detail! All with that peculiar manner or speech of his-such a difference from the more casual speech of 'Michael', such a peculiarity now that he had the comparison to make. And aside from his speech, everything about Castiel had become even more interesting that before, from the fact that he ate to the way he'd been pushing around the food on his plate earlier.

"Detailed?" Izaya questioned, probing for more. "Familiar details, no doubt; details that sprung up from your own imagination..."

He trailed off, but then spoke again suddenly as if a thought had just occurred to him. "Ah! But do 'angels of the Lord' have imaginations? I'm afraid I'm not so well acquainted with them as I'd like." And well-acquainted he would like to be; for the matter regarding Celty's head he already learned a thing or two about dullahans over the years, but that dullahan and this angel were different kinds of beings

[poorexample]

That would have been a safe assumption to make under most cases, but not with Castiel; not with an angel who had lived for centuries and had experienced more than he would be able to relate to someone even if he spoke continuously for the length of a human lifetime. The only similarities between his own life and that of Michael's had been the familial relations, and even those had been altered. He and Gabriel had never been so close. Anna had been his superior, not his caretaker

[predictator]

Castiel was so tight-lipped again, too!

"I see; I see..." he said, smiling faintly. It was disappointing that he hadn't said more about the details, but he'd answered Izaya's question, at least, so he wouldn't complain. While the details may have been insightful as to what sorts of things an angel might imagine (or be deluded into thinking), the memories of a false life were far less important than the memories of the real one. Unfortunately, he would have to be far more careful about seeking information about those memories, lest Castiel shut him out entirely.

He started speaking again suddenly, "Speaking of acquaintance, angels would know all about the existence of beings other than humans, wouldn't they? I mean monsters and fairies and gods-those kinds of beings, not the so-called 'monsters' that roam this place at night."

The change in topic might seem sudden, he knew, but shifting the topic somewhat away from Castiel himself would be more useful. Perhaps Castiel had connections.

[poorexample]

The change in subject was rather stilted, but Castiel didn't mind abruptly changing the topic of a discussion. He did it often, mainly because he wasn't interested in speaking about things that didn't matter. Granted, all Orihara was doing was asking him questions, seemingly to sate his own curiosity, which wasn't bound to accomplish much

[predictator]

If nothing else, Castiel's words were the confirmation to the existence of other supernatural beings that Izaya had sought-with the implications of a multitude of them. Besides dullahans and angels, he wondered what other creatures straight out of myth might have also existed, and what creatures there might be that he'd never heard of at all. He wondered what Castiel might have to say about a dullahan-and also what that dullahan might have to say about an angel...!

"Have you ever encountered a creature called a 'dullahan'?" he asked, his tone dripping with curiosity. It was perhaps too specific a question to pass as idle chitchat, but it was too soon after changing the topic to change it again just yet... And he wanted to know. It wouldn't do if Castiel thought he was asking what it was, though, so he added, "It's said to be an fairie, riding a black horse and carrying its own head

[poorexample]

To be asked about a specific creature, and one that wasn't well-known as far as Castiel was aware, did strike him as peculiar. Then again, a lot of things about Orihara suddenly seemed out of the ordinary, especially since he'd labeled the human as one of the more normal people here. Until that conversation when he hadn't been himself, at which point that opinion had shifted. It proved to Castiel that his judgment of humans and their characters was still hardly perfect.

While he had no idea what Orihara's motives were for asking about such a thing, there didn't seem to be any reason to withhold the information. "A headless horseman, yes. I can't say I've heard of one showing itself in recent times." There didn't seem to be any point in hiding his age, seeing how Orihara already knew what he was.

"They were more prevalent a few centuries back," he went on to explain. "Why do you ask?"

[predictator]

"I heard rumors about one-back in Tokyo, before either one of us arrived here," Izaya answered, speaking of it as easily as he might the weather. "To be fair, the rumors were about a 'headless rider' rather than a dullahan specifically... So it may have been something else entirely." It wasn't, of course, but Castiel didn't need to know that the 'possibility' of Celty being a dullahan was actually a certainty

[poorexample]

In Tokyo? Castiel really had no idea why a dullahan would have showed itself in Japan, seeing how they almost exclusively haunted areas in Europe. It stood out, and while he wanted to assume that Orihara had heard a rumor and blown it out of proportion, he couldn't completely discount the possibility of it all being true. Sam and Dean had been on their share of strange hunts since he'd met them. Sometimes creature were displaced