Alright, here goes my first Soul Eater fic! I promise I'll be publishing plenty of chapters, they just might be a bit slow due to me agonizing over every other sentence as well as my busy schedule. Sorry if this first chapter is a little dull, it's mostly expository business right now but things will get more exciting next chapter. If there's any intense romance or some gore I'll make sure to warn you ahead of time, just in case. This first chapter is dedicated to people who you don't know, but who know you. And also my friend Christie, a.k.a. Crisco. Can't forget her.

"You've got an excellent resume," the man said, smiling as he shuffled the paperwork. "Personally, I think that applying to be a street cleaner is aiming a little low. Why aren't you looking for a better job?" His curiosity seemed genuine, but disbelief narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. A gorgeous, intelligent woman like this wanting to become a street cleaner? She could probably get a job as a model, easy. Even the clubs paid a better wage, and they'd never turn down a babe like this. It seemed like such a waste…

Marie let an easy smile slide onto her face. "It's just my kind of thing, really." She practically radiated down-to-earth innocence from every cell in her body. "I've never been one to chase success, you know, because in my opinion it's better to stick with something important and worthwhile than spend your time pursuing fantasies. Hard work is what gets you places."

His expression cleared itself of its slight suspicion. "Ah, I see. Guess that's one way to look at it. Well, in any case, you certainly seem like a respectable woman, and given your amount of experience I'd be a fool to turn you down. You've got the job, miss." He stood up and shook her hand warmly.

"Oh, thank you very much! What streets will I be assigned?"

"Well, let's see here…" The city official went up to his wall and examined a large map of Death City, placing his finger on a large zone outlined in red marker. "This entire area is available right now, as we've been a bit short on manpower lately. Go ahead and take your pick." As the fair-haired Marie inspected the map with her searching brown eyes, James Falburn studied her intently. She'd be good at this job, he thought. Kind, confident, easygoing, but with a firm and decisive manner- she'd do alright. It was no secret that nighttime jobs out on the streets were rather unsafe, what with the threat of being attacked by a witch or a corrupted human always a possibility. Not to mention the crooks and thugs who made lingering around dark alleys a dangerous habit. Shibusen couldn't stop them all, especially not regular criminals, who couldn't be easily detected like those with Kishin or witch souls.

Falburn blinked himself out of his thoughtful trance as Marie spoke. "I think I'll take these roads, sir. Will that be alright?" He squinted at the paper and raised his eyebrows at the place Marie was pointing to. "Really? You know that's by Dr. Stein's lab, right? Are you sure that's where you want to work?"

She smiled. "I'm sure. I doubt that those streets have been cleaned in a while, so I'll have plenty to do." She seemed completely unfazed by the mad doctor's proximity, a wonder given how rumors of his sadistic nature and immoral experimentation had spread. This lady got's guts, he thought to himself, slightly impressed. Even he found that shadowy, stiched-up house a bit unnerving, and Jack considered himself to be a hard man to scare. "Very well. You'll start work Tuesday night."

Marie nodded. "Thank you." She walked to her chair and gathered up her stylish black coat. "Goodbye, Mr. Falburn. Have a nice day!" The grateful grin stayed on her face even as she walked out the door. It wasn't entirely pretense, her little performance. A good actress should always feel her act in her heart, right? It was much more involved than just putting on an elaborate mask. In any case, it went exactly as planned, Marie thought confidently. She let her hand fall to just above her sternum, checking the Soul Protect shield that hid her violet witch's soul under the blue wavelength of an average human. A cold wind tore through the darkened street and she stared up at the smiling moon, amused at the way it kept such a fearsome watch over Death City. Tonight, I've taken the first step, haven't I? Marie's white heels clicked on the cobblestone as she began the lonely walk home. Tonight, Shibusen begins to fall…

Dr. Stein stared without seeing at the stitched ceiling above him, glasses slightly askew, lying spread-eagle on his laboratory floor. He was thinking. If he could compensate for the high center of gravity, which was mainly responsible for the imbalance, perhaps an environmental disruption would have a lesser impact or be delayed by a few fractions of a second? Stein sighed pensively as the wheel of his overturned chair squeaked slightly, still swinging from the force of the recent impact. He'd just been propelling himself into the room when the damned thing had grazed the bottom of the doorframe, sending him flying from the patchwork chair and onto the hard floor. His back ached a little from the encounter with the concrete and there wasn't anywhere he had to be at the moment, so… the doctor had decided that the floor was a good a place as any to ruminate on the force of gravity. Physics wasn't really his specialty, though. It wasn't something you could learn about with a scalpel and a steady hand. Stein had considerably more knowledge of the subject than most people, of course, but for him the dry equations paled in comparison to the complexity of living things. Years of experience behind him, and nothing was quite as beautiful as the arrangement of muscle over bone, the intricate tree-like patterns of veins and capillaries, the durability and the fragility of bare skin.

Stein frowned as he hauled himself up and righted the fallen chair, stitched-up shoes whispering as he walked out of the darkened computer room. Maybe he'd fix that chair someday, but right now there were more important things to do. He was expecting visitors. Those kids from Shibusen were due any minute now- in fact, they were a bit late. How annoying. He had been anticipating the chance to examine their souls…

The doorbell echoed hollowly and he blinked to clear his head. That would be them, wouldn't it? He hopped onto the chair again, zoomed out the door, and promptly toppled over at the feet of the blonde-haired woman who stood on his doorstep and looked down at him rather sternly. "That's an awful way to greet people," she told him reproachfully. "You might knock someone over that way, and then where would you be?"

Stein squinted up at her, a bit disappointed. "You're not who I was expecting. There's supposed to be more of you, and shorter." The woman offered her hand and he accepted it, a bit surprised at her strength when she pulled him to his feet. "Sorry to let you down, Dr. Stein. I'm Marie Mjolnir, just got hired as the street cleaner for your area. And I daresay I'm needed around here, aren't I?" She looked rather pointedly at the grimy road that stretched by the house.

"Hmph." Stein shoved his hands into his pockets, wondering why this strange woman didn't seem to be the slightest bit scared of him. Surely he'd caused enough rumors in the neighborhood to frighten off these kinds of people? "Why are you making house calls for something so trivial, and why so late in the evening?" he asked instead, taking a cigarette out of his jacket pocket and setting it alight between his teeth.

"Ah…" Marie blushed slightly. "I had a little bit of trouble finding my way here. It's not my fault these streets are so confusing!" She took a second to look grumpy before continuing on. "Anyway, I know it's kind of unusual for a street cleaner to know her customers personally, but I'm the exception. I think there's no harm in getting to know people, right?"

Stein shrugged, Marie's unusually perky attitude making him a bit suspicious. "I guess. Now excuse me, but I've got visitors coming and like you said, I need to make a good first impression."

"The short ones? They wouldn't happen to be students from Shibusen, would they?"

The doctor paused in his attempt to sidle back inside. "Now, how could you possibly know that?"

Marie shrugged, her unevenly parted hair bouncing with a disconcerting lack of gravity. Stein absently wondered if the sheer amount of obnoxious happiness in a person somehow made them lighter, or whether their good cheer simply generated its own breeze. "Just a lucky guess. I heard you graduated from the academy at the top of the class, so it's no surprise that students would drop by from some advice. That's why they're coming, isn't it?"

Stein shrugged, slipping further back inside his house as he tried to signal an end to the conversation. "Yeah. Something like that. Nice talking to you, Marie, I'm sure I'll get the chance to examine you more at some point." Not caring to see if she reacted to his odd choice of words, he shut the heavy metal door. But he had hardly turned around when he heard her knock, insistently but quietly enough to be polite.

He shoved open the door again and frowned at her from behind his glasses. "What."

Marie held out the laboratory chair that he'd left outside by mistake. "You forgot this." Stein reluctantly took it from her, and as he did his hand brushed hers ever so slightly. Marie's skin felt unusually warm to him, like she had electricity running through her veins, and he stared down without seeing as they both grasped the chair. Electricity for blood- an interesting concept. Hardly an easy experiment to pull off, given how fragile human tissue was, but it would be fantastic to try…

He heard the woman clear her throat and he abruptly realized that he was just standing in the doorway with his gaze locked onto his hand. Stein hastily straightened up and yanked the chair inside. "Well, goodbye, Doctor," Marie said to him. "Have a good evening."

"Sure, thanks."

"Got the chair for sure this time?"

"Yeah."

"Alright then. See you later!"

"Uh-huh."

At least that's over, Stein thought to himself as he shut the door again. Hopefully that Marie woman would be out of sight before the kids got here. It wouldn't do to have them asking about him and discovering that he was slightly less of a villain than they had been told. Stein sat down on his stitched-up couch and rested his feet on the coffee table, letting his cigarette dangle limply as he laid his head back and thought to himself. Hmm… An electric woman, huh? What an exciting idea…. He closed his eyes as he let himself imagine, his mouth carving itself into a knife-thin smile.