A/N - Eyyy, new chapter! I've been looking forward to writing this one for a very long time.

Alecto's backstory is actually a pretty straightforward one, but it is one that must be told in bits and pieces. This is one of those pieces. It's also a huge glimpse into Tempus's backstory, too, which we haven't gotten nearly as much of. In fact, we really don't know that much about Tempus in compared to Alecto. Well, this arc is here to rectify that, and to shed some light on Alecto and Tempus's relationship as meister and weapon.

Yeah, I know, you're here for the date and no one here cares as much about meister-weapon dynamics as much as I do, but this is important, darn it! And there'll be date stuff, too! It'll be cute, I promise!

Also, apparently I did not put up the reference for Alecto's date outfit like I promised. My apologies. That has been rectified.

Jesus, I remember when I only had to answer, like, 4 reviews a chapter. You people are crawling out of the woodwork, I swear. I updated on the 18th, how'd I get so many reviews in so little time?

Doragon no Namida: Yeah, I've definitely been on that vicious circle before. Fun times! *is totally not being sarcastic, no siree bob* And yeah, I love writing character development far more than I enjoy writing action scenes. It's really important to me to understand a character and where they come from. Also character development means people will be more invested in these characters when I completely and brutally crush them under the heel of my boot. OvO What? You thought this fic would be nothing but fluff? Hahaha, you're adorable!

DemonSessama: Well, it's not really a "secret," and has basically been spelled out in the earlier chapters fic itself. It's just not something that Tempus talks about, because Tempus doesn't really talk about himself much. And yeah, Tempus meeting up with the Thompson sisters and hanging out with them was something I decided to add in fairly late in the arc-planning stage, but it's going to lead up to one of my favorite moments in this arc, so I'm glad it made it in. To answer your question, I'm gonna just out and say that, unlike the Kidlecto date, the pizza trip with Tempus and the Thompsons (how's that for a sitcom title) is totally platonic. I did toss around the idea of Tempus/Liz at one point, but I eventually decided against it because their personalities didn't really seem to be compatible in a romantic sense.

Drachegirl14: Of course I remembered! I very distinctly recall seeing the ship name "Timlessshipping" and thinking "oh that is so appropriate for so many reasons," all of which will become readily apparent later in the fic. And yeah, I'm gonna build up a buffer on my Fairy Tail fic before posting it. I'll let you all know when that happens.

animagirl: I dunno… With the way Kid's stripes are, I think he's more of a zebra. *Ba dum brick'd*

MegglesGG: Haha, yes, all aboard the SS Kidlecto! And yeah, there's gonna be a lot of backstory in this one. My sister actually poked fun at me for promising fluff and throwing a backstory curveball instead. Don't worry, though, there will be plenty of fluff in this arc!

Midnight15: Nadia is an anagram of Diana, but that is not why I chose it. I chose it for reasons that will be made clear in Arc 15 (we're on Arc 12). And wow, I'm really flattered to hear that! I wanted my characters to be written in a way where the would blend into the quirky world of Soul Eater while still maintaining what makes them, well, them.

Lurking Pheonix: Thanks! I'm glad I'm keeping Kid on-track. I loved how he reassured Crona at the Gallows Manor party and told him that he could join the group at his own pace and I wanted to let that little facet of the diamond that is Kid shine here. Kid is such a good friend, I want a friend like Kid. And of course Tempus would keep an eye on Alecto, did you really think I would write him as being callous enough to leave her on when she's freaking out about something?... Okay, I almost did, but then I wrote that bit at the end in to fix that. Author Saving Throw level: Natural 20!

Keyworks Kid: Hey, it's a nice chair. Tempus likes his chair. Tempus wouldn't share his chair even if Lord Death himself asked to sit in it.

youdonotknowwhoiam: Haha, wow, thanks! I'm impressed: nearly 200K (HOLY CRAP WHAT WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN) in three days? That's pretty fast! I'm glad you liked it!

little101: Haha, glad someone noticed that little detail!

Guest (Tom): Ah, don't be so hard on yourself! My writing wasn't the greatest when I started out and it still isn't, really, but I am growing through hard work, dedication, and a thirteen-year-old who will occasionally tape my hands to the keyboard and force me to write. I think that's what any writer needs in order to improve and succeed; a vision, the will to see it through, and someone to occasionally verbally slap any lost motivation back into them.

Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter.

DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.


Chapter Forty-Two - Peppermint and Strawberry - Is It Really A Date? Part Three


Well, thought thirteen-year old Alecto Bellatore, this certainly looks like it would lead to a Death Room.

She stared up at the massive door that fellow freshman Tsubaki Nakatsukasa had dropped her off at, and as she gazed up at the DWMA skull crest that adorned the entrance in front of her she couldn't help but be a little intimidated. Okay, well, a lot intimidated. Perhaps an older or more built person who stride across this threshold with confidence, but she was small and barely old enough to be considered a teenager. All this Academy meister time-controlling stuff was… it was just so overwhelming.

She wondered what she was supposed to do with this door. The letter she'd received had very specifically asked her to head straight to the Death Room, but what should she do here? Should she knock? Should she just head straight in? She wished that Tsubaki had been able to stick around and give her advice, but the warning bell had rung and the elder girl had hurried off to class with an apology and luck well wished. Maybe if she waited here in the hallway, someone who knew what they were doing would stumble across her and tell her how to proceed.

As it turned out, she didn't have to wait around for anyone, for after a few seconds the doors swung open of its own accord, as if inviting her inside. Alecto took a few cautious steps forward, peering into the Death Room with wide charcoal eyes.

And blanched. It didn't even look like a room at all. There was a blue sky and a wasteland expanse that stretched to either end of the horizon, with crooked graves as far as the eye could see, and directly in front of her was a single path leading forward under a series of arches. No, Alecto realized as she took a closer look, those weren't just arches. They were guillotines, with glinting blades sharpened to a fine edge and looking like they might drop down upon unwary trespassers at a moment's notice. If Alecto was hesitant about entering before, it was nothing compared to how she felt now.

But Lord Death had specifically requested for her to come to the Death Room, and when the Grim Reaper asked you to head somewhere, you didn't question, you didn't ignore him, and you didn't hesitate. You just did it. So Alecto just did it, taking a couple nervous steps forward and then immediately flinching backwards in the expectation that one of the guillotine blades would come crashing down upon her delicate hair. This pattern continued all the way down the pathway, and by the time she reached the end of it she was practically tearing her soft black curls out in clumps, she was tugging at them so hard.

At the end of the hallway was a circular dais with a colossal mirror on top of it. Standing atop that mirror was an equally tall figure covered from head to toe in a jagged cloak that was so dark that it looked to be made of the void itself; this must have been Lord Death. She would have thought him very imposing were it not for the almost cartoonish look of his skull face. (Or maybe it was a mask?) The figure in the black cloak didn't surprise her. No, what surprised her was the second individual waiting for her in that room.

He was a boy, about her age or maybe a little older, with skin the color of burnished bronze and choppy butterscotch-blonde hair that was just long enough to brush at his jawline. He looked like he'd raided the closet of a stereotypical TV nerd with his short-sleeved button-up, brown slacks and banana-yellow argyle vest. He was sitting on the very edge of the dais with a book in his hand, and when she approached, he looked up and gazed at her with eyes that were the same shade of gold as his hair.

What was this boy doing here?

Lord Death bobbed up and down as Alecto approached. "Hiya, hiya!" he exclaimed. "Alecto Bellatore?"

Alecto shuffled in her spot, staring down at the floor. "Ita, dominus," she mumbled. "I-I mean, yes, sir. That's me." Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the boy roll his eyes and shake his head before turning his attention back to the book in his hands.

"Now, now, there's no need to be shy!" Lord Death chastised, leaning forward slightly. "This city is going to be your new home for the next few years, after all. Now, I'm sure you're curious as to why I've called you here. It's not exactly a common occurrence; usually you're supposed to head to orientation when you arrive."

"Am… am I in trouble?"

"Oh, no!" Lord Death shook his head and conjured two large hands that were just as cartoonish as his skull-face-mask, raising them up in a shoulderless facsimile of a shrug. "I'm not even sure what you would be in trouble for. You've only been here for an hour or so. No, you're here for a very different reason." He paused to study her, the holes where eyes would normally be seeming to bore right through her and see something deep inside, something that she couldn't even feel. "Do you know what the primary job of a meister is, Alecto?"

Alecto knew. "To fight Kishin."

"That's certainly part of it. But!" Lord Death raised an index finger. "A meister's duty is, first and foremost, to their weapon partner. A meister must treat their partner with respect, as an equal in combat. A meister must be sure to take care to resonate with their weapon in a firm and stable manner. The relationship between a you and your partner will be the most important one you will ever experience. You will, in essentiality, be soul mates." Alecto flinched at the implications, and Lord Death shook his head reassuringly. "Not in the sense that most people use that term," he said. "Here, it's meant a little more literally. Now, normally a weapon and meister choose each other as partners either during orientation or during their NOT classes. However, since your soul is so unique, we've decided to take a different approach to your partnering."

Alecto frowned a little, clutching at the heavy brown fabric of her romper, just over her heart. Unique. But merely dissimilis? Or aliēnus? She'd known from the moment that her… ability first manifested herself that it was just another thing that set her apart from other people. Most middle schoolers didn't go stopping time by accident, after all. But if it was so different that she couldn't even fit in at a school made for people with different souls, then what hope w

as there for her?

Lord Death nodded at the boy in the room, who'd been struggling to maintain his indifferent composure but was betrayed by the curiosity burning in his eyes. "Alecto, meet Temperance."


Kid blinked. "Temperance?"

Alecto nodded over her cup of tea, taking a delicate sip of the sweetly sharp liquid. The tea had finished brewing several minutes prior, and after preparing both cups she'd moved to join Kid at the table in the joint dining room. "Temperance Giles," she recited, the corner of her mouth quirking upwards slightly. "What, you didn't think that it was that the Latin-speaking time meister just so happened to be paired with a boy whose name meant 'time' in Latin, did you? I mean, that'd be a pretty big coincidence."

"I assumed it was the name he enrolled under," Kid replied. To be fair, that wasn't a terrible assumption to make; students could enroll at DWMA under any name they so chose, which was why you got students who went by fitting names like Soul Eater and unfortunate names like, say, Eternal Feather.

But it wasn't an accurate assumption. "Nope," Alecto said with a shake of her head. "He didn't start going by that nickname until after we'd partnered up, and he'd been a student at the Academy for a few months before that. So he applied under his birth name. Tempus is just what he goes by now."

"Months? And he hadn't found a partner by then?" Kid questioned. "That's unusual. I know some NOT students have trouble with that, but usually they at least find themselves a temporary partner so they can complete the class work."

"I was getting to that…"


"Is this really necessary, Lord Death?" the boy… Temperance… asked sharply, getting to his feet and tucking the book he'd been reading under his elbow. "We've done this song and dance a dozen times now, and you know what Albert Einstein said about insanity. I've already told you, it's pointless. It's always pointless. I'm not going to find anyone who'll resonate with me." Despite the venom he exuded as he spoke, there was almost a sad undercurrent of resignation to his words, as if it were something he'd forced himself to grow used to a long time ago.

"Not with that sort of attitude," Lord Death retorted. "Alecto is different. If I'm right-"

"That's a big assumption to make, considering you've been wrong twelve times now."

The Grim Reaper raised a hand in a clear signal of silence, causing the blond boy to back down. "If I'm right," he repeated, "her soul will resonate perfectly with yours. Let me show you why." He turned to face Alecto, who was staring at the two with a wide-eyed stare of bemusement. "Alecto, would you please demonstrate your ability to Temperance?"

"Q-quid?" Alecto stammered, and as Temperance shot her a look she internally cursed herself for not being able to keep her Latin in check. "But I barely know how to use it! What if I mess up and do something I can't re-werse? I-I mean, reverse?"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, here!" Lord Death assured her. "Now, go on."

When Lord Death told you to do something, you did it, whether it was meeting him in his version of a principal's office or turning the laws of relativity on their head. Taking a deep breath, Alecto concentrated as hard as she could, focusing on the seconds as they floated by.

She could always do this. For as long as she could remember, even before her ability manifested itself fully, she could sense the flow of time around her; it ebbed and flowed, like a gentle breeze or a downhill stream, but those descriptions didn't do the feeling justice. Trying to find the words to describe time to someone who lacked the sense was, to steal a saying she'd heard many times before in regards to a similar situation, like trying to explain color to a blind man. But it was there, and if she closed her eyes and shut out the rest of the world, she could reach out and…

Tick.

Things slowed down. They didn't stop completely, but when Temperance stumbled backwards in shock it was in a sluggish manner, like he was falling through molasses. Pushing herself this much left a great pressure on Alecto's chest, and her grip on the flow of time was starting to slip, so she took three steps back and let go of time.

Tock.

Temperance had taken a huge step backwards, his sharp gaze a mixture of disbelief and heavy scrutiny as he took her in. "No way," he breathed. "You mean she's…?"

Lord Death bobbed his head in affirmation. "Remember, I told you when you first started having problems that there have been plenty of meisters throughout history that could distort time, and that we'd find someone. Now, Alecto here must be pretty confused, so why don't you step up to bat and show her what you can do?"

"Psh, all right. I'm not going after her if she freaks out and bolts, though."

"She won't do that."

"You sure? She looks about as timorous as you can get. Like a churchmouse."

"Temperance..." Demeanor suddenly doing a one-eighty, Lord Death's voice dropped an octave or maybe eight, and he leaned forward almost menacingly. Alecto bit back a frightened whimper, half out of embarrassment and half out of a spiteful urge to prove to this Temperance boy that she wasn't going to run away, not even when there was a frustrating god standing not twenty feet away from her.

"Oh, fiiine." Temperance rolled his neck and swung his arms back and forth. "Prepare to have your mind totally not blown. Deep breaths, deep breaths…" He closed his butterscotch eyes and stood very still for a few seconds, and Alecto blinked and leaned forward despite every panic alarm in her head going off at once. What was he-

Tick.

Now it was Alecto's turn to stumble backwards as she felt the flow of time get yanked at sharply, bending and warping around Temperance's lanky form. Tock. Not a moment later, the boy was standing a good ten feet away from where he'd originally been, with little more than a split-second blur in between the tick and the tock to indicate that he'd ever moved at all. Alecto's first thought was, is that what it looks like?

Her second thought was...

"You can do what I do?"


"I imagine that must have been quite a shock," Kid said, taking a sip of tea. He hummed satisfactorily as he did so, and Alecto couldn't help but beam with pride at seeing her tea-making expertise paying off. "Time meisters exist, but they're hardly common. Anyone who didn't study the history of meister souls could go their whole life without knowing what a time meister even is. Even now, most meisters have probably never met one."

Alecto remembered what Professor Stein had said about the last time meisters of the Academy having died twelve years ago, and nodded in agreement. "I'm not sure about how well Tempus took to it when it first started for him, but when my abilities as a time meister first started manifesting I was terrified. I would start doze off or start daydreaming in class and then suddenly there would be a tick and I would snap out of it and everything would seem broken. The first time it happened, I started crying and passed out. Perks of being an anxiety-ridden twelve-year-old, I guess. So knowing that there were others like me, and that I wasn't some weird time-traveler or something... It was a relief. And also terrifying as well. But mostly relieving. Tempus's reaction was less 'relief' and more... I don't know. There aren't really words for it. Disbelief? Not at my time meister soul, no. At what it meant, I guess."


"Yes," Temperance said. "I can do what you do. Or rather, you can do what I do, considering I've probably been doing it longer than you have. You desynchronization stability is a bit shaky, by the way. Might wanna have that looked at.

Alecto flushed cherry-red from a mixture of shame and anger, more so the former than the latter, but before she could retort Lord Death stepped in. "Now, now, Temperance, we all learn at our own pace. Alecto here has a soul with a great deal of potential, but she hasn't had the opportunity to make the full use of it like you have. Speaking of which, I'm sure you're feeling pretty confused right about now, aren't you, Alecto? Well, let me explain. See, you are what's called a time meister."

A term that was completely alien to the young New Englander. "A-a what?" she asked, very deliberately so as to not fall into more comfortable speech patterns. "What is a 'time meister?'"

"A time meister," Lord Death said, "is a meister whose soul wavelength has the rare ability to sense and distort time. Some have secondary abilities, but the primary skill is being able to speed up or slow down a small 'bubble' of time around the meister. There are a small handful of these souls born every generation, and you are one of them. And so is Temperance here, but in a different manner. He's a Demon Weapon, capable of changing his form." Alecto knew what a Demon Weapon was, but she didn't want to be rude, so she stayed quiet and listened. "Given he has both the weapon ability and the time distortion ability, I suppose you could call him a 'clockwork weapon.' The thing is, while an ordinary weapon can resonate with a time meister, there aren't a whole lot of meisters that can resonate with a clockwork weapon!"

"Don't sugar coat it, sir," Temperance scoffed. "There isn't anyone in this school who can resonate with me, and it's not because of my desynchronizations. You said it yourself; my soul's just too different. Not that it matters, I might add. I can fight just fine on my own. I can even do a partial transformation, see?"

The boy stretched his right hand out in front of him, his brows knitting together in concentration. To Alecto's awe, his arm began to glow from elbow to fingertips, shining a brilliant gold-white light that bounced off of his dark skin. The light began to expand, shifting and molding itself into a flat, round shape. Then the light disappeared, and Alecto's lungs stopped functioning as lungs because Temperance's arm wasn't there any more. In its place was a flat disc, made of burning bronze and gold with gears working alongside it and elaborate clockwork patterns crossing its surface. "See?" he said. "I could probably give a few Kishin Eggs some trouble like this."

Alecto knew of Demon Weapons. When she'd first been accepted by the DWMA, she spent the whole plane ride there reading up the basics of weapons and meisters and how they worked together in battle, just so she could be prepared when it was time to meet the person she would one day fight alongside. But she'd never seen a transformation like this. It was breathtaking - literally, in a sense, since she was still having trouble remembering just how to keep air pumping in out out of her lungs.

This was her life now. A life of people who could wield other people who were transformed as weapons, all fighting against serial killers and people who ate other peoples' souls.

And to think, when she was eight she'd wanted to be a carpenter like her parents were.

"Very impressive, Temperance," Lord Death said. However, due to the nature of your full weapon form, I feel like it would be better if we found you a good partner to make the full use of your versatility."

Tempus scoffed and switched his hand back to being a hand. "We've been trying. Twelve times! Twelve times you've dragged some hopeless kid in here and told us to make like blue and yellow and create some green. Time meister or no time meister, how likely is it that the thirteenth time's the charm?"

The Grim Reaper was clearly starting to get tired of all the circular arguments. "You know, I'm starting to get the feeling that you don't want to be partnered up with anyone," he said. "Is that it?"

The boy blanched at the insinuation. "It's… it's not that! It's just… I've spent my whole like being told that this time things would work out, this time things would be different, only to be disappointed each and every time. Why should this be any different?"


"What did he mean by that?"

"Well, you remember how I mentioned I was adopted when we first met?" Alecto asked, fiddling with the now mostly empty teacup in her hands. When Kid nodded, she continued. "Well, apparently I was only in the foster care system a few weeks before Mom and Dad took me in. I was one of the lucky ones. Loads of kids spend years in the system before they find a home. Some don't even find that home at all. Tempus was one of them; he never knew who his birth parents were, and he'd spent his whole life being moved from foster home to foster home, never finding anyone who was willing to adopt him. Being disappointed and alone was something he'd resigned himself to… something that he assumed was just going to be a part of his life forever."


"Look." Lord Death's voice had grown soft with sympathy as he spoke. "If this doesn't work out, we'll figure out an alternative to you having a meister. There is a precedent to weapons excelling on their own, after all. But first, just give Alecto a chance. Something tells me that is there's anyone who can resonate souls with you, it's her."

Temperance didn't answer, and for a few seconds Alecto thought that he was going to refuse again. Then, after what felt like an eternity, he sighed. "Oh, fine. Guess I can't really say no to a death god, anyways. But this is the last time, you hear?"

"That's the spirit!" Lord Death clapped his hands together. "Now remember, this is all new for Alecto, so-"

"Don't get too crazy with the time stuff, let her handle all this in her own time, keep my arms away from her face, yes, yes, I know. Let's just get this over wit, all right? Hey, pint-size." Temperance was speaking to Alecto now, and she shrunk back slightly as the focus in the room was diverted to her. "I'm gonna need you to hold out your hand for me. Makes it easier, you know?"

Confused but not wanting to cause any sort of scene by asking questions, Alecto obediently stretched out her left arm towards Temperance, palm pointed upwards. Temperance rolled his eyes at this. "No, no, your other hand."

"But… I'm left-handed."

"Wh-Seriously!" Temperance turned to Lord Death, who simply shrugged. "She doesn't even have the right dominant hand, and you still think she can resonate with me? Augh, this is going to be a disaster, I just know it. Look, pipsqueak, just hold out your right hand, okay?"

"O-okay." Alecto held out her right hand instead. "What's going to happen?"

"Oh, nothing major," Temperance replied. The same light that had previously engulfed his hand was now beginning to envelop his entire form. "When this goes wrong, it's going to hurt a bit, so brace yourself. Don't worry, though, I'll let you go as soon as it starts stinging."

"What do you mean, let gooaahhhhh!"

The glow had completely consumed Temperance and had flown forward, shrinking and stretching and squashing and wrapping itself around her right hand and wrist, winding its way between her fingers. It formed itself into a disc shape against her forearms, and two thin beams of light, one shorter than the other, shot out and spun into place opposite each other. Alecto screwed her eyes shut and braced herself for the pain she had been told would come.

Nothing. Not even a bee sting's worth of She opened a single eye apprehensively. The light had faded, showing Temperance's weapon form in all its glory. Clinging to her hand and wrist via a thick fingerless glove made of brown leather was the same clockwork disk that Tempus had turned his arm into before, only now Alecto could see exactly what it was: a buckler shield, gleaming in the illusory sunlight of the Death Room. But that wasn't all. Two spears stemming from the inside of the shield, one larger than the other, had manifested, connected two the weapon via a collection of small gears, almost like the inner workings of a clock. In fact, the spears resembled a clock, two, with the way their heads were shaped and how one was longer than the other, much how a minute hand was longer than an hour. "Quid…"

There was a sharp, strange feeling deep within her chest, cutting her off, followed by a strange pulsing sensation. It felt like… it felt like there was another soul inside her, another heartbeat beating alongside the arrhythmic thumpings of her own heart. It felt bizarre, but it felt… right. Then, in the back of her mind, she saw Temperance amidst a sea of darkness, staring blankly at her (...somehow?) with a flabbergasted expression on his face.

He was also completely naked. Alecto tried really hard not to think about that.

"This… isn't what should be happening." Temperance spoke, but he didn't speak from anywhere in the room. Rather, he seemed to speak from inside her mind, to her alone. "You should be screaming from the pain of trying to resonate with me, I should be panicking and getting back to human form. But this… it feels… Lord Death, is this what it feels like to…?"

"To resonate souls? Absolutely!" Lord Death bobbed his head. "I told you it would work out this time, didn't I?"

Temperance detached himself from Alecto's arm and switched back into his human form (which was fully clothed, thank Iuppiter), falling back on the ground with a resounding thmp. "I… whoa," was all he could say.

"It can be a little overwhelming the first time your soul matches wavelengths with another's," Lord Death said. "Now, here is the moment of truth; you've discovered that you have the capability to be partners, but do you want to be? There's more to it than just matching souls. You must learn to work together in combat, to know each other as well as you know yourself, to be able to coordinate in deadly battles. It won't be easy, but that is part of the responsibility of hunting Kishin."

Temperance let out a hollow, bitter laugh. "Right. Wanting. There's the rub, isn't it?" He looked up at Alecto. "I'm not gonna force you to be my partner, churchmouse. Yes or no, it makes no difference to me."

Even as socially unaware as she was, Alecto could tell that he was lying. Furthermore, what he'd said about going through a dozen potential meisters and not being able to find anyone he could resonate with… Now that he had the chance to finally have a meister, what sort of person would she be if she took that away from him?

Lord Death had said that a meister's first responsibility was to their weapons. Alecto Bellatore wanted to stick to that. "I'll do it," she said. "I'll be your partner."

The brief flicker of surprise and hope that flickered across Temperance's face was almost tangible.

"Well, then!" Lord Death declared. "That's settled, then. Now, there'll have to be some changes to your schedule and rooming made, Temperance. Since the two of you will be living together and we don't have co-ed dorms, you'll have to find an apartment in the city. Oh, but don't worry, student rates are very affordable, and arrangements can be made for financial assistance if necessary. As for your classes, I want to two of you to take the basic NOT courses and carving out your own combat style before taking an exam to see if you qualify for EAT. Normally we wouldn't have the exam pushed so early, but your rare wavelength abilities should see that you qualify for being Especially Advantaged. Go see Sid Barett for all that, he'll help you get things sorted out. Now, what am I forgetting. Oh!" Lord Death held out his hands in a welcoming gesture. "Since this is your first day and all, Alecto, I'd just like to say this. Welcome to the DWMA!"


A/N - Maybe it's the sleepiness talking, but there's very little I can think of to say about this chapter. This arc still has several chapters left (3 or 4, depending), so there's that. This was meant to come out a while ago, but I got a bit sidetracked.

So, uh… Past Tempus! Or, rather, Temperance. He's not Tempus. Tempus's past as a kid trapped in the foster system wasn't originally to inform his character as much as it did; at first it was just a throwaway excuse as to why we never heard about or from his family. I don't usually like writing family stuff unless it's pretty darn important (Alecto's status as adopted does matter to her story a fair bit), so Tempus's past was pretty undefined. But the more I wrote in little throwaway lines about him being a foster kid, the more it began to shape him as a character and have an impact on his relationship with others, particularly Alecto.

Damn it, characters, stop having unintentional character growth! I take that back, character growth is important, don't stop having it.

We also get our first glimpse of Tempus's partial transformative ability! From what I gather from canon, that's an ability dependent on what kind of weapon a person can transform into, rather than soul strength or disposition. I imagine weapons like Liz and Patti would have some difficulty partial transforming because of their pistol nature (I cannot for the life of me figure out how you can change into a half-pistol), while Soul and Tsubaki have more ease with it (Tsubaki especially, due to her lineage). Tempus's weapon form is built in such a way where turning is arm into his buckler sounds totally reasonable, right?

Also, Tempus continues to prove that he gives no fucks about whether or not you're a Grim Reaper. If you're pissing him off, he'll let you know.

Latin time!

Ita, dominus: Already basically translated in-story, but this means "yes, sir" or "yes, my lord." Very fitting, considering the title of who she's talking to!

dissimilis and aliēnus: Now here's a fun little juxtaposition. Both mean "different," but in very different tones. "Dissimilis" has a very neutral, "not like the thing it is being compared to" vibe, while "Aliēnus" has a much harsher and more hostile tone. This is why we use the word "alien" to describe anything or anyone that's different in a way we don't like or that we're put off by. Alecto here is wondering which one Lord Death means when he calls her unique.

...Huh. Not as much Latin as I thought there would be. Weird, considering Alecto's much more likely to slip into it when she's nervous or anxious. Maybe it's because she's less comfortable around people and thus tries to measure her words more to make sure such slip-ups don't happen? Yeah, I like that, let's go with that.

Chapter forty-three will be up at some point. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review! Also, let me know if I accidentally called Tempus by his nickname at some point in the flashbacks; I'm not used to calling him Temperance regularly. Thanks!

- Diana "Nocte"