[Introduction] This truth drives me into madness/I know I can stop the pain if I will it all away...

[suture_guy]

Maybe it was the lighting, Stein thought, as he stared somewhat blankly at the screen of his desktop, at the new design he was devising, a replacement headbolt to counteract the increasing bouts of madness he was experiencing. Marie had been after him to "cheer up" his living space, adding more lights and hints of color, and while he was inclined

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[in_summer_leaf]

If Dr. Stein starts poking around the basement, he might find Hisoka at the doorway of Muraki's office and lab. Hisoka is actually looking for Muraki. He will open his mouth to greet the pale doctor and then realize that, oops, this is somebody else. "Ah, hello, sir?"

[suture_guy]

Stein's in the process of carving out a nook for himself in the lab, and he's on his way downstairs with a manual typewriter that he found in a closet. He'd rather it was a laptop, but this will do.

He might pause, eyeing the young man curiously. "Hello. Are you a lab worker here?" he asks.

[in_summer_leaf]

"No, I just know Dr. Muraki, a guy who spends a lot of time here," he answers. "My name's Hisoka Kurosaki. You're new, obviously?"

[suture_guy]

"Yes, I quite literally fell into this place recently," he says, setting the typewriter onto one of the desks before turning to Hisoka. "I'm Dr. Franken Stein."

[in_summer_leaf]

Hisoka replies, "Literally, huh? Pleased to meet you, Dr. Stein. I'm Hisoka Kurosaki."

[suture_guy]

"I was wheeling my roller chair into another room of my own lab and I caught the wheels on the threshold; I flipped the chair over, and when the room stopped whirling about my head, it wasn't the same room," he says. "It's puzzling, but it is what it is and I'm making the most of the situation.

"So, you're another guest here? Or is 'guest' the right term to use for a place like this?"

[in_summer_leaf]

"That's a new one -- arriving at the Mansion by means of rolling chair accident," says Hisoka, nodding appreciatively. There are worse ways to get here.

"Resident? Denizen? Guest is as good a word as any, I guess. So you are a doctor of medicine? Or a researcher? Or both?"

[suture_guy]

"I'm a bit of both: I'm the primary physician on staff at the Death Weapons and Meisters Academy, but I'm also somewhat of researcher on the side. Mostly anatomy in unusual subjects," he says.

[in_summer_leaf]

"Unusual subjects?" says Hisoka. "And yes, I'm another guest here. I've been here for a year and ten months."

[suture_guy]

"Usually, I dissect human or common animal subjects, but from time to time, I'm fortunate and something new comes along, particularly some corporeal supernatural creatures," he says.

[in_summer_leaf]

"You mean...like vampires or werewolves?" Hisoka is a little leery. He knows too many supernatural beings to think of them as monsters. (Even, sometimes, when they are.)

[suture_guy]

"Only the ones that the Meisters are able to pin down when they've caught them disrupting the mortal world," he says. He's a little disappointed that he missed a chance at examining a shapeshifting cat who was so good at magic, she was mistaken for a Witch.

[in_summer_leaf]

"Who are the Meisters? And by disrupting, do you mean the supernatural creature is killing people?"

[suture_guy]

"I suppose the simplest way to describe a Meister is a person who is able to use their spirit energy's wavelength as a weapon to defend themselves," he says. "When they're paired with a Weapon, a person who can, literally, transform themself into a weapon, they can amplify that spirit wavelength into something even more powerful.

"It's the job of the Meisters and their Weapons to track down beings who stalk the living and devour their souls, otherwise, they risk turning into what we call kishin or demons."

[in_summer_leaf]

"So, are you a Meister or a Weapon yourself?" asks Hisoka.

[suture_guy]

"A Meister, and one of the most proficient that the Academy has trained," he says, plain and simple, free of pride. "I'm one of the few who's been able to sychronize with almost every Weapon I've been partnered with." Almost. There was that time when he tried to wield Excalibur and the partnership fell flat as it had for so many Meisters...