[ 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

ABOUT MADNESS

[perfectorder]

[he held up his own copy of the pamphlet.]

In these pages you will find a brief history of where the Madness began. In short, a man named Asura succumbed to his own fears to the point that he consumed any soul he could find, including his own weapon. Due to his own power and the extensive amount of corruption, Asura was able to create the Madness wavelength that exists right now.

This wavelength is basically fueled by fear. But it is more than just the emotion. When infected by the Madness, all your fears and doubts overtake any sense of rationality and reason. Your perception can be altered to the point of seeing hallucinations or suffering delusions, and your own thinking and personality may become warped depending on how much you’ve been infected. Low levels will likely only produce mild hallucinations and fear, but larger doses will make you more violent and dangerous. As if to counteract against the fear, the Madness will give you a false sense of strength and power as well as make you desire for more of it. Without the ability to rationalize, there is nothing mentally to stop you.

[and here comes the serious tone.]

And if infected with enough Madness, it is near impossible to bring you out of it, especially if you’ve consumed souls. In addition, not only can it affect your thinking, but it can also change and twist one’s own physical form if given very high doses. Some of you may have witnessed that in the previous mission with the animals. But for those who fought against kishin eggs, what you saw was also a result of the Madness. They were once human, but due to the Madness and their corrupted souls, they changed.

That is why Madness is considered very dangerous and why you need to understand that it is not something to be trifled with.

Now if you have any questions about this, I’ll address them now.

HOW TO RESIST

[perfectorder]

However, there are a few ways to try and make yourself more resistant to the Madness. Some already have the capability, either by their ability or their own personality. But the key thing that will best fight against is courage.

Remember, Madness is fueled by fear. If you succumb to your fears, then you are succumbing to the Madness. However, if you are able to face those fears and overcome them, you cannot be infected by the Madness as much if at all. Having a strong will and resolution will go a long way to resisting it. That is why those who are either overly courageous or apathetic are less likely to be infected by the Madness while others who are less so are. Those who also have a poor sixth sense will also be less likely to be infected as it basically means they are oblivious to it.

However for those who do not have these innate capabilities, the only way to build up your own resistance is by steeling your soul. To do that, you will need to meditate over what it is you greatly fear and come to accept them. I don’t mean you have to try and overcome them—that may be impossible. But if you can at least recognize and accept them, it will decrease the effect the Madness will have on you. For by accepting those fears, you are not running away from them—you’re facing them. And that alone takes a lot of courage to do.

We will also be exposing those who wish it to very low doses of Madness, but that is only so that you can see how it affects you. Do not think that exposure alone will somehow build some resistance to it—it won’t. In fact you run the risk of undoing everything. That is why whenever you go out, you must have someone else with you, particularly someone more experienced.

Any questions?

AND FOR EVERYTHING ELSE

[perfectorder]

[there's DeathCard]

This has been very brief and bare bones, but there will likely be another session in the future. This information, what you learned in Professor Stein's class, and more will be compiled into a more concise form for general public use. Until then you will have to bear with this more piece meal delivery.

If you have any other questions about what I just went over, ask them now.