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"My life is so unfair..." A young blonde boy mumbles from his prone position, face-down on the sidewalk near the Usual. "You shouldn't be cursed for killing a demon, right? You shouldn't be..." He's lamenting his luck which is, by his own accounts, terrible.
Only moments earlier, the wall of a nearby building had morphed into a Japanese-style Shoji door, complete with translucent panels. Zenitsu had walked through it from the mansion he was staying at, and exited into Twisted... about ten feet off the ground. Unsurprisingly, he fell face first, and has decided it would be better if he just didn't move from where he is. That way he doesn't have to see that he's in the crazy place again. He hates the crazy place.
Of course, the door faded away after it closed behind him. So no evidence. And no way back. Again.
Of course, it just so happened that Theo was walking down the street about then. And not just him, either. He's surrounded by a small horde of the tiny, golden spiders -- there are about ten on the ground around his feet, and two or three on his person somewhere. And one on the top of his head, riding around up there like it's the king of the world.
So, while Zenitsu hears a concerned young man's voice ask, "Oh! Are you all right?" If he tilts his head up, the first thing he'll see?
Metal spiders. Tiny, dopey looking things. But metal spiders nonetheless.
As he hears a voice, Zenitsu slowly turns his head without moving from his place on the ground, looking towards it. He looks absolutely crestfallen. "..." His voice, too, sounds utterly defeated. "...Of course it's spiders..." He slowly turns his head back to grind his face into the ground rather than look, not moving.
"..."
"..."
"...It's spiders!?" Suddenly, the blonde boy leaps up and away from the tiny spiders as if they (or he) were on fire. He goes from prone and not moving to on his feet and thirty feet away comically fast, and is hiding behind an alleyway corner just as fast. "No, I'm not alright! I hate it here! Why are there spiders?!?" It looks like his fear is more powerful than his depression, after all.
And as he leaps up, the spiders actually jump too, shrieking in their tiny voices, "Mu-RIIIIIIIIII!" The ones on the ground start running around in circles, their dopey faces taking on what look like frightened looks. A few even run into each other and fall over.
However, Theo frowns at all this. "Stop that, all of you," he says firmly. It's not aimed at the fallen boy. He leans down and shoos the metal spiders away. They mostly run behind him, as if hiding from Zenitsu.
Looking at Zenitsu then, Theo notes, "I'm sorry. I didn't expect you to be able to see them. Most people can't. They're mine. And they're harmless. They don't bite, they're not venomous -- nothing like that."
From his place hiding in the corner, Zenitsu furrows his brows and looks at the young man talking to him. They're his spiders? But he doesn't LOOK like a demon. Zenitsu tries to focus his hearing on Theo, to see if the man's body sounds human or something else. "...Are you sure they don't inject you with poison that fills your lungs, makes all your hair fall out, and then goes up to your brain and you DIE?"
... That's oddly specific.
Theo blinks at this. "Uh... no. They don't bite," he assures. "They spin golden threads, but those threads are more for healing than for hurting. I call them 'Spin Doctors'. They're my Stand." As he explains this, a few of the spiders move to his hand, and spin a cat's cradle sort of arrangement of golden threads between his fingers.
From the sounds of it, this blond fellow sounds human. He doesn't sense as a demon, either, if Zenitsu can sense these things. Though, if he's able to sense it, Theo does sense as a psychic might.
"Spin doctors..." Zenitsu cautiously steps out of the alleyway, looking Theo over a bit more. Theo sounds human internally, so there's that. He dresses strange, but then, Zenitsu thinks everyone here dresses strange. Which is a bit of an unfair judgement coming from someone wearing an orange and white patterned haori.
"I'm Zenitsu Agatsuma." He doesn't offer his hand or anything, but gives a quick and short bow, not letting the spiders out of his vision. It seems clear the term sailed completely over his head. And most things probably do - he's quite short. "It's uhm." He swallows, still looking nervous. "It's a pleasure." Not everyone here with weird powers is a demon. He remembers that. He's probably not going to die.
Probably.
The young man he's speaking to seems to be in his late teens. Blond hair, amber-colored eyes. His hair's in a short ponytail, and he seems to have an almost aristocratic air about him. He's kind of tall, but lanky, though his shoulders have a noticeable bit of definition to them. As for the way he dresses? Yeah, it's pretty strange, comparatively -- it's a t-shirt, a denim vest, blue jeans (a different color blue than his vest), and sneakers.
The really weird bit? The pins on his lapel. On the right lapel is a skull with an open mouth that sports fangs; on the left is a heart with a lightning bolt shaped groove cut in the middle that gives the suggestion of a 'broken' heart.
When Zenitsu bows, Theo does as well, with a bit of a flourish. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Theodore Rabanne -- 'Theo' if you'd prefer."
"Theo..." Zenitsu repeats the name with a slow nod, and swallows again as he cautiously takes a few more steps out of the alleyway. Theo is the first person that ever returned his bow. Maybe he'll be more helpful? "...Do you know where this place is? I keep finding myself here, and noone seems to think it's strange that I don't know how I got here."
The short blonde kid crosses his arms, looking uncomfortable. "That's weird, isn't it? It's really weird..." He glances around, trying to see if he recognizes this part of the place. He's been around a few times now.
"'Here' as in, 'this world'?" Theo inquires. "Or just, 'here' as in 'this street'? If you mean the world itself... I'm still learning about that myself. But from what I understand, when people get lost when they're traveling through the dimensions, sometimes they'll end up here...?" He doesn't really sound like he's completely sure. "There is a welcome center, if you'd like to try to understand it. But I don't think there's a way to leave, so you might keep finding yourself here because you're trying to leave and can't."
"Both?" Zenitsu asks hopefully when Theo asks for clarification. The following information doesn't fully help him, though, he just looks concerned. "A place between dimensions? Like the space between train cars?" He looks like he's trying to understand, but it's not exactly something he's ready to wrap his brain around.
"So I'm stuck here?" He lets his head sink, and sighs. "...Of course I am." He looks back to Theo after a moment, and his shoulders slump. "How am I going to marry Nezuko-chan now?" He was never going to.
Oh good. The kid at least knows what a train car is. So that means he's not from a world without technology. Which makes explaining things a little easier. "Sort of," he agrees. "The space between train cars if the doors to both cars were locked and you were stuck outside. Does that make a little more sense?" It doesn't to Theo.
The mention of missing a beloved gets a frown. "I'm sorry. It's not exactly wonderful news, to be stuck here. But the place is reasonably safe, if a little unusual, so long as you stay out of the wastelands."
"I guess it makes sense." Zenitsu concedes, furrowing his brow. "There was a demon that made his own dimensions he kept victims and treasure in - it must be a place like that." ... That's weirdly close, actually.
"The wastelands?" Zenitsu tenses up a bit and looks around. With his luck, the next time he appears here, it will be there. Wherever there is. "Is there a way to avoid those?" Yeah. Don't go there.
"It might be something like that," Theo replies. "Though, I get the feeling it's less we were brought here to be prisoners and more we were brought here to save us from being thrown down the corridors of space and time."
As for a way to avoid the wastelands? Theo blinks a bit. "Just avoid any place where the landscape seems to be falling apart. Things seem to sort of... collapse as you move further away from the center of things."
"That sounds awful." Zenitsu says, shifting his feet a bit as he bites his lip. That's definitely the kind of place he'd die. Definitely don't go there for any reason. "But easy to spot." Was he afraid the wastelands were just going to sneak up on him?
"...So, where is this welcome center?" Oh hey, he was listening!
Theo nods, and points to the west. "Things get a little unstable over there, though I can't really explain how," he offers. "There's still civilization over there, though." As for the welcome center? "That's in the courthouse, I believe," he notes. "I've only been inside it once, when I first came here. Which... admittedly wasn't too terribly long ago, only a few months. There's information there that explains things a little better than I likely could."
In the courthouse. Zenitsu nods, processing the information, and shifts a little bit. "Well, that doesn't sound too dangerous. Do they uhm... do they allow swords in the courthouse?" He is wearing one, but he hasn't been clutching it for dear life or anything. "...I don't know anything about the police here." Except that they walk through walls and don't have time for him.
Theo tilts his head. "I don't think it's a big problem," he notes. "There are a lot of people who come here with weapons. I can't say for certain, but I would think their greatest concern is keeping newcomers from harming others. So as long as you leave it sheathed when you enter, you should be all right. Though I won't give guarantees about that."
"Well, that's not a problem. Demon slayers don't kill people." Zenitsu says, relaxing visibly. He takes a slow, deep breath, then offers a small, weak smile. "...So uhm. I'm not lost! Or anything. But if we were pretending I was lost, and didn't know where the courthouse was..."
The blonde kid trails off, looking hopeful. He's cautiously optimistic this might not be as scary as the last two times. Talking bats, plastic monsters, and now metal spiders. This place is really, really weird.
"It's all right if you don't know the way," Theo notes. "I haven't learned the layout of the place in the few months I've been here. At least, not the smaller details of the place. I believe the courthouse is in the direction of the fountain in Truce Courtyard?" He also doesn't sound very sure about that. "Let's go in that direction and see, shall we?"
With a nod, Zenitsu keeps looking around. "Right. I think I remember a fountain." He doesn't know which way that is, but he knows it exists. Progress! "It was..." He turns and looks around for a full circle, before shrugging. "...Somewhere!" Keep that positive attitude, Zeni!
He'll just follow Theo. That seems best.
Theo actually turns a bit as well, as if he's also not sure where he's at. "Hm..." He starts to head east... and then shakes his head. "No, that's not right," he decides, and heads the other way. "Oh wait, that's right." He pulls out a phone, and opens an app. "Aha, there we are," he notes. "I know where we are now, I know the way." So he heads west.
While Zenitsu doesn't seem to think it's weird to double back, since he doesn't know where they are in the first place, Theo does get an odd look when he pulls out a phone. The short swordsman tilts his head to one side as they walk. "...What's that? Why is it buzzing?" It's not. ...Is it?
"It's a phone," Theo replies. A pause, then, at the question. "Buzzing?" Then he realizes it! "Oh, the energy? It's electronic. Most electronic devices have that sort of 'sound'. Is that what it is? A sort of... whine?" Though he'll head north, too, since the map says that-a-way.
"That's a phone?!" Zenitsu asks, shocked. "...I've never seen one, but I'd heard they had..." He pantomimes something, running his hands up and down through the air. "...You know... wires." He's never seen a phone? Oy. "...Also I don't know what electronic means. It sounds like... yeah... like the walls in places with those electric lights." Sure, it's normal to be able to hear the electric current running through walls. Nothing odd, there.
Theo nods. "Those are older phones, yes," he confirms. "I'm from a world that has what are called 'cellular' phones. They're phones that you can take with you. There's an infrastructure there that supports this. It works similarly to a radio, broadcasting the signals to a cellular phone that's enabled to receive and send the signals. I'm not sure I've found one here yet, but the phone still works. I added some pictures to help me get around, since the layout is a little strange."
As for the electric lights? "Ha... I thought I was the only one who could hear that," he notes. "I've gotten accustomed to it, but I do definitely still hear it. And when there's a lot of electronics in a room, it's very difficult to ignore."
"Ah." Zenitsu nods his head as he listens to Theo explain, and then keeps nodding after the explanation is done for a moment, before blinking a bit. "I knew some of those words." Right, well, time travel. Or whatever this is.
"So it's a handheld radio phone. And it buzzes. And ... has pictures?" Yeah, he's sort of getting it. "...Like a photograph?" He's not even paying attention to where they're going now, good thing Theo is.
"It can take photographs as well," Theo confirms. He pauses a moment, opening another app. He turns to face Zenitsu then, raises the phone, and presses the screen. There's a 'click!' sound, and, assuming this doesn't eat Zenitsu's soul or something -- if it does, it's not the phone! -- he'll turn the screen towards Zenitsu. There should be a picture there. "You see?"
"Huh." Zenitsu says upon hearing the click. "But you didn't press a button or lever or anything." He knows how technology works! There are buttons and levers! Everywhere! He takes a look at the phone. "...And that's what my hair looks like?" He sounds a bit depressed again. It's not SO bad. Just a yellow ... ... mop.
Theo swipes the picture off the screen and it returns to the camera view. Then he points at the little white dot on the bottom of the screen in this mode. "That right there. That's the 'shutter'. He chuckles at the mention of Zeitsu's hair. "Ah, it isn't that bad," he reassures. "I have definitely seen worse hair." Theo closes the phone app, and then opens the map again. Northward-bound again!
"That's... really interesting!" Zenitsu says, almost walking into a post as he looks at the images on Theo's phone. He doesn't get how it works, but it's obvious the screen can tell where it's being touched. "I can see why you'd want to keep one with you. It must be quite a treasure." Yeah, it's not unusual, man. Not at all.
Theo notes this, "They're fairly common where I come from. Though possibly I should say 'when' I come from. Many people, from many different worlds -- and many different times -- end up here. So there's liable to be a lot of out-of-place technology."
But, as they're in the courtyard, Theo offers, "The police department is there. Inside it, there is a courthouse. And inside the courthouse, there is the Welcome Center. There are signs pointing to things, and you shouldn't get lost. I would go in with you, but Mother Nature is calling, and I do need to answer, rather urgently."
...But his phone didn't ring...
"Mother... Nature..." Zenitsu isn't familiar with the phrase. It must be someone Theo knows. Well, it's not like Zenitsu knows how those phones work anyway. He doesn't even see a receiver. Maybe they can just hear you? "...Ok! I'll head in then. Thank you, Theo!" He gives a quick head bow, and then turns to look towards the MCPD before running in. "Don't die!" ...Is he talking to Theo, or himself, there?
"Take care," Theo offers in return, bowing in return as well. He blinks a little at the 'don't die'. "That's the plan!" he calls out, waving a bit.
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