[ open ] madness 101

[perfectorder]

Characters: Death the Kid and anyone attending
Location: An open Shibusen classroom
Rating: ...G? Maybe PG depending? I'm never good with ratings—
Time: March 22nd, evening (after Stein's class)
Description: It's high time everyone understood what Madness is and how to better defend themselves against it.

Although he would have liked to sit on Stein’s lecture, Kid had been busy making the final preparations for his own segment. It would actually be the first time he ever gave a lecture of any kind, but he was not nervous about it. Everything was set and this was one important matter that had to be done.

Copies of the information he was about to go over were in a neat little stack dead center on the front desk (which had also been moved slightly so that it was more centered to the room). As people came in, he told them to pick up a copy before taking a seat. Although he could spend a whole week talking about Madness, its history, and everything involved with it, he basically only had about an hour or two. It was not nearly enough, but it was a start—and that was what this session was: getting the basic understanding of Madness down.

So once Stein’s class was over and those who wished to attend had taken their seats, he began.

“You should all have a basic outline of the information that will be covered as well as supplementary material that will benefit you for both understanding what Madness is and how to resist it. There’s much that could be talked about, but I’ll try to keep this brief. The point of tonight is to give everyone a better understanding of what it is you’re facing and to clear up any misunderstandings that are floating around.”

Comments

[morecowbell]

Nanami sat once again in the third row, not too close to the front and not too far back in order to listen to the lecture. Courage huh. She wasn’t sure she had that at the moment, after all ten days ago she had told others that he was going to surpass everything she ever was, instead she been left with the bitter taste of defeat. Her brother was no longer her brother and everything that came with that identity was broken, there had been nothing else. She had been doing a good job of pretending everything was all right but truthfully she was homesick and lonely. Nanami’s mind was filled with self doubt as she gingerly ran her fingertips over the cell phone she had filched from her brother. She knew in her current state she was probably not cut out to face the madness wavelength. But maybe in time…

Nanami sat quietly listening to the Q&A segment of the lesson; her hands however, were occupied with the phone that didn’t ring in this place.

[perfectorder]

Kid didn't notice Nanami being distracted, being too busy to answer any questions (or deal with less than attentive students), but at some point he did. He made no comment, however, until things had thinned out a bit. Only then did he address her.

"Is something bothering you, Nanami?"

[morecowbell]

Nanami jerked her head in the direction of Kid's voice, "I uh.." she cleared her throat and brushed some hair back over her shoulder stalling for a little time so she could come up with something, anything that might take his focus away from her uncertainty. "For those who might be... especially susceptible to the madness, if you were to expose them and they lost themselves, how do you bring them back? And will you be overseeing the exposures personally?"

[perfectorder]

"At low doses, it's not that difficult," he answered, and it was a good question. "Usually there is not enough for the Madness to make a lasting impression, so the individual will be infected with it for only a short period of time. Often times they are able to snap out of it, either on their own or just the Madness wearing off. The other method is by having someone try and subdue them or by using the Calming wavelength."

"As for overseeing the exposures," he added, "I will be there as well as other experienced Shibusen staff members."

[morecowbell]

That was certainly a relief and Nanami's face showed it. The idea of possibly being exposed to more than a small dosage in the future was still a little unsettling. "Then people who are easily infected are assigned missions according to the levels of madness in certain areas? Is there a map available that shows the different levels of madness around the world?" Because she'd rather not wander into one unknowingly.

[perfectorder]

"We try to, yes. The mission board is available for anyone to choose, but I always review them before approving and we try to limit them to areas that won't cause too much problem. As for a map, we don't have one for that."

Though upon trying to envision a map, he'd suspect it would be similar to topographical or a weather map. Varying level outputs and all that.

"However, though the Madness is denser here, that is mostly due to the Madness Emitters. In truth there are only very few pockets where it's really a high and threatening level around the world."

[morecowbell]

Oh, so that's how missions worked, she was eager to try one but she hadn't found a partner yet. There was always Hanabi, they seemed to resonate well enough to take on a small mission. That and she still had to apply for a job before she starved to death (due to lack of cooking skills) or her stomach couldn't take fast food anymore. This brought her to a final question for today since there was a lot to remember from both this lecture and Professor Stein's, "is there payment for a completed mission?"

[perfectorder]

"There is," he answered. "It varies depending on the difficulty, but it's sizable amount."

And by sizable, apparently one thousand death dollars. That would definitely go a long way.

[morecowbell]

Dang, she better get cracking on one of these missions.... "I see, thank you for answering my questions," she replied before scribbling down some more notes in her notebook.

[perfectorder]

"Your welcome. If you have any other questions, even after this lecture, you are free to contact me at nay time."