vatheon | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Dr. Stein and you!
Where: The plaza
When: Right after his arrival! (Tuesday, Jan 29)
Status: Open

[There are some people who don't mind getting soaked to the skin. There are some people who do mind it. Stein is one of those people who acts a bit like a wet cat, removing his lab coat and shaking it out, carding his hands through his hair and trying to flick out the water, and making an annoyed expression at the general wetness involved in arriving in Vatheon.

This does mean that the tall, scarred man with the metal bolt stuck through his head is not exactly looking where he's going.]

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[The first day that Kid noticed there were more people gathered in the Plaza looking lost and soaked to the bone marked the week that the young grim reaper visited each and every day wandering through the crowd, occasionally to help the Welcoming Committee pass out dry towels and brochures.

Something to do, really, while he scoured through the faces in the crowd, hoping to find someone.

Two someones, actually.

Although he ended each day disappointed, not enough to keep him from trying again. Which leads to now, when there's a certain shinigami skateboarding leisurely through the plaza, until he comes to a gradual halt mere feet from a familiar face.

This certainly beats that puzzle he had to solve just to get out of his own bedroom.]

...Professor.

[Stein is busy wringing out his coat, but he looks up with a (somewhat fake, as usual) smile.]

Kid. What a surprise.

Likewise.

[Other students might be swayed (for or against) by that smile. Not Kid, who has regarded Stein with the same endlessly receptive sobriety whether he was visibly sane or not.]

You've just arrived, I assume, so this may come in handy.

[TAKE YOUR DAMN TOWEL.]

[Thank Death for that towel. Literally, in this case.]

Thank you.

[And he'll just towel off his hair.]

Mind briefing me on the situation?

Of course.

[He'll get straight to it.]

You've arrived in Vatheon, and I'm afraid this brochure will do a better job summarizing our circumstances in fewer words.

[That brochure? Is getting handed over as soon as he finishes toweling off his hair.]

[Precise and exact, just as expected from Kid.

He'll look through the brochure, get the necessary information on the bubble city.

There's far too much detail for this to be a hallucination.]

Is there anyone else here from Shibusen?

[Too complex to be a joke, either; part of the reason Kid provides the brochure is brevity, but also as evidence.]

Maka Albarn and her Weapon, Soul Eater, although he has been asleep for about a month.

A troll by the name of Karkat informed me that this phenomenon of uninterrupted sleep can last for months without any harm coming to them. The same occurred to Black☆Star, who arrived around the time that Soul did, but he vanished from Vatheon shortly afterward.

[Concluding with:]

Of us, Maka has been here the longest.

[Too complex to be a joke, and most jokes played on Stein had a certain red-headed scythe hiding in a corner somewhere, doubled over with silent laughter and forgetting his former meister had soul perception. There's no sign of Deathscythe, and thus, the idea of a joke had been discarded the instant it passed through Stein's mind.

No one else is stupid enough to try and prank Shibusen's most unhinged meister.]

How long has Maka been here?

[There's lots of information here to remember, tuck away for future reference, sort into mental file folders awaiting connections.]

A year and three-quarters, at least.

[His delivery may be stoic, but there's displeasure in his vague frown; she's spent so long here without her friends from home.]

[That is a long stretch of time. Too long.]

Well, I'll have to get caught up with her.

If you'd like, I can take you to the villa, where we live.

[Unless Stein needs to wait until he's drip dried a little more. Trust him! He wouldn't blame him in the least!

But then, he did stand there for hours, himself.]

[A whole villa. Impressive, but not unexpected from the spoiled rotten son of Death.]

I would appreciate that.

[He tugs the lab coat back on, keeps toweling off. Being wet annoys him, and he dislikes being annoyed.]

[Kid never did ask how they came to live in a villa; like many things, he simply deemed it adequate and took it for what it was, without questioning where it came from or how they managed to move in.

As if he could be satisfied living in a hovel, anyway.]

I can't guarantee we'll have anything for you to change into, however.

[As he walks, he sizes him up, critically.]

Hmm... On second thought, Night might have something close to your size, Professor.

Who's Night?

He's a demon living with us at the villa.

[Yeah, apparently demons are actually a thing!]

Actually, during a recent curse, he spent some time as a Witch. It's the only time he's ever been actively destructive to other people, he's otherwise well behaved for his kind.

[Demons are a thing, curses turning people into Witches are a thing, a villa packed full of impulsive teenagers is apparently a thing...

And Stein is probably the only responsible adult associated with the Shibusen students.]

It sounds like there's a lot I need to get caught up on.

[Isn't that awesome?!]

That won't take you long, Professor. What else do you wish to know?

I've only been here a few months, but that's long enough to be able to answer any questions.

[Actually, he knows the precise amount of time he's been here, but doesn't see any particular reason he should spill extraneous detail.]

Those living in the villa are a varied lot, much like the rest of the foreigner population in the bubble.

What do you think I should know?

[Kid's expression doesn't really change, but there's a kind of uncertainty there, not necessarily visible in the carriage of his body, but of the soul.

No, what Maka's been through, the details should be only hers to confide.]

The brochure covers most of the essentials, and I've touched on the remaining students already.

I could warn you about the curses, but...

[That's in the brochure.]

What's the last thing you remember, before arriving here?

[Interesting.

Stein had asked in order to see what Kid would tell him, what the young reaper thought was necessary information and how much he was going to hide. That uncertainty... there's something there.]

I have the feeling I'm a bit behind the times. [You're like, a foot and a half taller than you were this morning, Kid.]

The last I remember, I was on a boat heading towards the Lost Island on a mission to recover the BREW before Arachnophobia reached it.

[There isn't much to say that isn't already covered by the brochure, in terms of what to expect of the place, what to avoid and what to do to get by.

The more social aspects aren't his to really talk about, and are facts he is sure Stein will come to know. Maka's relationship with Rin, for example, which endangers no one and so, Kid doesn't expound on it.

What he does neglect to mention is nevertheless significant, dragged around with him like a proverbial ball and chain, but one is a self-assumed burden, carried like a reminder.

Surprised:] Incredible, but you're right. You've missed a lot, or you've forgotten. Either is likely; Vatheon's curses can alter or remove even a person's memories.

I take it you have experience with memory alteration?

Yes. Just before your arrival, a widespread curse caused many of the foreigner population to advance in age or go back to childhood.

[Kid takes a turn at one corner and continues as he walks.]

Some kept their original memories, others remembered only what was appropriate for their apparent age.

I had believed myself older, complete with two centuries of memories of remaining in this place. Many of the villa's residents were young children.

[Two centuries of memories in this place. Hmmm.]

Do you still have those extra memories?

They aren't real, if that's what you're asking.

[In other words, yes.]

It put one or two things into perspective, but that's not a curse I'd revisit if given a choice.