(bare with me here..)
Even in the higher elevation of the mountains outside of Death Valley California which Death City was built into, the temperature was still in the eighties as the laughing sun blazed from its high perch, but in the Death City graveyard where Franken stien claimed home the temperature was dramaticly augmented by some strange unseen force. His "soul wavelength" an energy all living things produce was so powerful in comparison to the common human that it dramaticly shifted the landscape of his domane. Spirit Albarn, stood next to his car looking up at the sprawling white laboratory through the fog so thick the smoke from his cigaret was enveloped in the unseen. Spirit in his youth was the hippie type, when he met Stien as a teenager they were both outcasts, considering Stien didn't speak a whole lot of English when they met it was a wonder they hit it off so well. Spirit had long red hair that almost reached his shoulders, with his pressed square shoulder pinstripe suit, with his tie and professional stance it was hard to believe that more than ten years ago he had his hair braided in corn rows, and owned not one but two sets of bongo drums. He and Stien hadn't talked very much in the last few years, but with some recent events that all changed. He flicked his cigaret into the gray abyss to his side and walked up to the archway over the door where multiple "no soliciting" signs hung but surely if a salesmen didn't turn when they saw the place they obviously had a death wish. He opened the door without knocking, a habit which Stien often scolded. A few months ago something happened in Death City, a disaster in its own right but it did bring crona about into Stien's life. Under the city's center, beneath the DWMA a great evil had been imprisoned by the Grim Reaper himself Lord Shinigami. Ashura the mad Kishen was imprisoned in a bag made of his own flesh, for unspeakable dark heresy and for crimes against humanity he was made an example that all would surrender to the greater good or face Death. Cut to eight hundred years later to the present day, more time to stew in ones own hate than could ever be imagined by mortal men, there came along the enemy of Lord Death. The Cult of the Grand Witch or as it is known today as the Grand Witch Coalition. The grand witch was said to be a being out of time and space, but the truth is she started as a normal witch, she just happened to be at the right place at the right time and avoid death just long enough to become the supreme leader of witches world wide, talk about luck. Speaking of luck how lucky was Ashura that the Grand witch was looking for good way to shake things up with her good oll palls at the DWMA? One night, a night that was supposed to be one of celebration in Death City the grand witch launched an attack, it was complex and well executed and above all a total kick in the nuts. At some point a group of witches estranged from the coaliton led by one Medusa Gorgan the wicked snake witch by whom many met their untimely grave, managed to fight their way to the shrine which Ashura had been imprisoned, her minions managed to awake him using a sample of "black blood" collected from none other than Medusa's own hafling daughter and reluctant scapegoat. Asura awoke unleashing a titlewave of destruction. It took many lives, blood of young miesters from the DWMA to stop him and even seven out of every ten combatants were killed. The plan fell apart but the damage was dealt, the witches involved scattered, Medusa herself was thought to have been Killed by Stien but her reappearance in the latter months proved disheartening. But among them one surrendered to the DWMA. Crona was convinced that she could be loved and cared for and that she was worth the life her mother never provided, all thanks to a young miester from the DWMA, Maka Albarn, Spirits young daughter. However stines experience was slightly less inspiring. He and spirit made it top side in time to see so many of the young miesters loos their lives, he didn't take it so well.
(any questions?)
He did everything he could to forget, short of lobotomizing himself (witch can be rather relaxing if done correctly) he wasn't okay, not for a wile but he tried. Having Crona in his life helped and spirit as well. PTSD is a common affliction in death city with so much of its population in combatant type carriers there was plenty of support from his piers. That's why spirit was here today "knock knock mother fucker!" He yelled down the hall in a light manner, there was no response, the lights were out except for a glow from the living room. He heard that Stien was in a bad way in the last couple of days and that he just sat around doing nothing, the poor fool didn't even want to research anything. Spirit told Crona and Maka to go shopping while he and Stien talked. " you ladys go have a good time and ill talk to Franky." he said with that smile that made Crona uncomfortable and made Maka want to beat him with a book until she could read the print on the side of his face. He walked down the hall with his hands in his pockets with a relaxed stance, this was a place so many feared and yet he stood unafraid of the suffocating darkness and the macabre experiments which Stien preformed (only because stien is if friend). There was a glow from the living room, he strolled over and peered into the dim room to see stien sitting on the couch watching TV. "oh no don't get up." spirit said as he rounded the couch and plopped down beside him. Stien didn't say anything. "what are we watching?" spirit asked kicking his feet up on the coffee table, Stien hated when he made himself at home immediately. He squinted at the T.V. which showed some nature documentary. "stuff about snakes, awesome." Stien was still grimdark and unmoving. He noted the dozens of pizza boxes that littered the room, he sat forward and opened the freshet looking box, it was still warm, if he was able to order pizza surely he wasn't to bad off, he would later find out Crona ordered them for him in attempt to get him to eat. "this pizza any good?" he got no answer. He picked up a slice and held it inches from Stien's face. "come on man!come on! Some greasy teenager made this pizza, you gunna let it go to waist?." he poked him in the face with the slice, a little bit of grease slathering onto his cheek. Stien was starting to become annoyed. Spirit paused seeing his first break. He tossed the slice of pizza over his shoulder, "feh..fine." he folded his hands. He sighed. "i guise I should tell you that my intentions are not to leave this house until your better, so im just guna hang here on your couch, if your fine with that just say nothing at all. Stien glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "fair enough, maybe ill use your shower too. The water department shut off my presure and I haven't bathed in a while." they were silent for a while. "you really shouldn't have come here." Stien said with a horse voice. "your my friend, I'm not going to do something stupid like leave you alone when your like this." "no spirit you really shouldn't have, it would have been better for you." spirit sat back with an inquisitive stare. "what, are you going to cut me? You don't look like your in the mood." Stien was quite."whats wrong Stien?" spirit asked with genuine concern. "don't bother yourself with it." "but that's specificly what I came here to do. I've gotten really good a bothering myself and your a great accessory to that." Stien let out a long breath. "ah hell spirit, just...hell.." "you remember when we lived together? we were pore and couldn't afford to eat? or to buy new clothes?" they were both silent "we had to share pants Stien, because there were only three pairs between us. You can tell me anything you moron, I'm not going to think your any more strange than I know you are. Now fess up." Stien couldn't argue with his logic, he still didn't want to talk about it but it didn't look like he had a choice. He slumped back in the chair. "none of this leaves this room. Understand?" spirit without hesitation nodded. Stien tried to settle in. "i need to talk about Crona and her mother." spirit put his hand together and leaned on the arm of the couch. "your finally going to let me in on that three ring circus?" Stien looked up at the sealing. "what she said was true. I did some DNA testing and she is my daughter. But the thing is, its not that it was impossible, I just didn't want to believe it." he took his glasses off his face and cleaned the dust off of them. "I had Medusa figured out from the day I met her and iv never missed a beat. We both know that I met her seventeen years ago when she was hanging around death city. We fell in love, doctor meets witch, hook line and sinker. I knew she was a witch." spirit looked over with an unnecessary amount of surprise. "really?" Stien nodded. "i had.." he tossed his hands to the side with bafflement "no Idea that she was pregnant when she left me. But I feel.. like she did it for a reason you know?" spirit stared at him long and critically. "do I don't know Stien.." "maybe not, maybe she just..got tired of me or something." Stien shrugged. "you understand that Medusa is responsible for the deaths of at least seven people you grew up with? People you called friends?" he looked up at the sealing. "maybe the griefs driven you to stop thinking rationally." "I see her ghost." he looked over through the corners of his eyes at him. "huh?" "for a while it was just when I was alone. Now its a lot more often. Shes different when were alone." spirit felt a twinge of fear, Stien had finally lost it, and lost it very well this time. "Stien..shes not real." he put a hand on his shoulder "she's dead. Shes not haunting you, your just imagining things." but Stien didn't believe him, not for a second, not while Medusa stood right there next to him smiling. It frustrated him deeply that spirit couldn't see her. "its okay, he doesn't need to believe you. He doesn't understand you." she said softly. His face twisted with a deep madness, spirit was concerned as he watched this. "Stien..your my buddy. And if you honestly want me to believe your seeing a ghost I'm ready to believe you. If you want to feel some sort of love for her go ahead. But you cant live like this. Its not god for you and Crona is worried sick about you, everyone is. she's your responsibility now and you have to be on your game or she's just as well off in that prison cell as anywhere else. Shes depending on you. Weather or not Medusa loves you or not, or whatever the hell your talking about is up for debate but your daughter is real and its time to be with her, not dead people." "your friends an idiot." Medusa's ghostly apparition said a little less softly, Stien ignored her, his eyes were hidden by the glare across his glasses, he nodded silently to Spirit. He looked back over, Medusa was gone, at least for now.
Stien needed a moment to reset, twist his screw and clear his head. He needed to set something on fire. Next to his house in between the whitewashed privacy wall the two men stood there silently in the twilight. Stien emptied the months scrap paper into a metal trash can with a mass accumulation of yet more paper. Spirit lit a match and lit a cigaret for Stien and himself. He tossed the match into the drum creating a large luminous flame. In the moment of silence there with his friend there was a moment of clarity, of mental lucidity. Across from them he saw Medusa. She softly smiled back at him. "come and find me, you clever boy." and as the flames licked the night sky she was gone, from sight and from the air around him. For the fist time in so long he was free of her, her terrifying gaze, her loving but vicious smile and ominous black heart would no longer haunt him. "fire good..." he grunted in a primal voice. Spirit made a small laugh of satisfaction. "you know, I guise I don't blame you. that Medusa is a fox.." he put his hand to his chin thinking of the implications. "you ever wonder how hot your skin would burn in a drum fire?" Stien asked with an aggressive smile. They laughed.
Later they found themselves in the living room. Somehow the cartons of beer that Spirit had brought in the back of his car found there way to the coffee table, and twenty of said beers had gone missing, leaving two inebriated men in their mysterious absence. Why dose it smell so bad in here? Crona and Maka walked through the main hall into the living room. Maka gasped, but Crona was confused by the sight before them. The two men couldn't hold then alcohol like when the were young. They were both out, as cold as stone. The two had passed out long ago, spirit lay face down on the recliner which looked as if it would tip over at any moment, Stine was face down as well on the couch. His face well sunken into the cushions. Maka had that look of tightly coiled condescending disappointment for a moment.' I politely ask him to help the professor and they get themselves pissed instead.' she shook her head. but she lightened as she saw Crona standing over Stien asleep on the couch. "he's better..I can tell." she said and she seemed much less apprehensive about her fathers condition than she had been before. "how can you tell?" Maka asked leaning in to inspect him. Crona used the bolt in the side of his head as leverage to turn his face to them. " see? He's smiling.." and indeed he was. A sort of rigid and formless look of glee in his drunken state. "huh.." "maaakaa?" she heard her dad slur from the other side of the room. She turned to him. She sighed and smiled at him. She walked over and leaned over to talk to him "hay dad." "did you girls have a nice time?" he asked. Maka nodded "we did. The dinner was good. Is everything okay?" spirit nodded, then he almost fell asleep but caught himself. "y-yeah..were doing good here." he said ironically (the room was in disarray) "thanks for helping him, I don't know what you did but Crona thinks it worked." it took a moment for spirit to work out what she said. "yeah..yer dads pretty cool isn't he.." he smiled like a weirdo. "don't push your luck." Crona turned to the TV. There was a gory horror movie on, the way Stien talked that was something they watched a lot of when they lived together. She cringed oddly, blood guts and viscera filled the screen as zombies ripped some poor victim apart kicking and screaming. She put her dainty hand out and turned off the TV. "I'm tired Maka. I thin I'm going to bed..." Maka turned her attention to Crona. "okay..uh..Crona Is it okay if I stay here again tonight?" Crona involuntary hesitated "y-yes. You may, absolutely stay here." she nodded rapidly. Her heart was skipping around with excitement. Whenever Maka stayed the night it was very special for her, like the president was in or something, but the relationship with her guest was much more..intimate than that..
(Note)
Some boring important structural story bits for now. Later is when the action will start, I want there to be something for everyone, and when I say everyone I mean I have every intention of writing this story in such a way that someone whos never really read soul eater can get into the story. This is going to take a lot of back tracking considering where we are linearly in the time line. Worst comes to worst and those who have not read soul eater or watched the animai will need to read a couple of installments of the manga online. I don't think ill have that problem for now but eventually friends and family will want to read this.