Academics Make Me Cry [Open]

@"A M E N O"

Thaddeus "Teddy" Rector

"Wrong. Wrong! Grief is not good. Grief is never good. That's why it's grief in the first place!"

Grieving was a concept Teddy knew from books and not from experience. Being incapable of feeling anything that wasn't a shade of happy had its perks - and its downs. Never being down was a sort of a down in its own right.

A lock of white hair protruded through the walls, and out emerged... more hair. Then a body, clad in translucent gray longcoat, with its elbows and legs bent the wrong way. In fact, it was as if the figure was backwards.

Because he was. He also had a habit of narrating himself internally.

Teddy craned his neck around, relishing his lack of physical infrastructure. The more he lived, the more he could abuse his physicality, or lack thereof, and it felt exhilarating to be so flexible and unrestrained. His face finally came into view as the tips of his feet left the wall's innards. On it was a sinister grin as he popped out, walking backwards toward this person he'd not seen before.

Almost instantly, he pivoted around on his right foot, and for a brief moment his blue mass was visible as it spun right through his bulky clothes. The grin stayed affixed, with the face staying right where it was. In a flash, he was wearing his clothes properly again, and his body was oriented the right way.

I could do that twist trick better. Ah well.

There was a bit of a bow from Teddy, as he on the spot adopted a British mild accent and spoke. "Why then would you be calling out for good grief on such a peaceful day?"

That was... unexpected, to say the least. He'd have thought everyone by now at least knew that the blue thing going around being generally weird was generally harmless. "Generally" being the keyword of note.

Then again, if he was here, he was probably new. That explained a lot.

"Why have you come here?" he asked, his voice commanding and imperious. The question was both a sincere question and a bit of a jest - Teddy liked knowing things. Hell, hidden in the basement - his basement, as he called it - was a massive stockpile of notes on everyone and everything. The information never really had any purpose though.

He drew closer, annoyed that despite his disobedience of physics he never figured out how to disobey gravity. The glow of his face intensified a little, especially around the eyes. That ought to take the focus away from my mouth, he said to himself, widely grinning. "Who... are... you?"

Teddy caught on to that half-finished word, and refused to let go. There was something to be found out from tugging on that particular thought, something interesting. He could almost taste the slightest hint of pride marred by fear in those words, although he couldn't taste emotions. He was narrating to himself internally, talking of things he had no experience with.

His voice grew strange on purpose, and he willed the density of his right eye to increase, that it would glow stronger than the rest of him did. He squinted, focusing the blue light to a sharper point, almost like a searchlight, on Takeo's head. "You were saying something that you interrupted. What are you hiding?"

The fear was palpable. Teddy could just see the later followup of physical violence that would ensue either when he dropped the act or pushed this guy too far. The thought filled him with... something. It made him grin manically. "You were to introduce yourself differently. I could hear it. There was - is more you wanted to say than your name."

"I have many names," hissed Teddy. Technically, it was true - he had a habit of introducing himself differently to different people. By now he had accumulated at least seventeen, none of which were true save for one. It was also the one he used the least. "Much like I have many voices and many identities."

Teddy reached out, and phased through Takashi's head with a finger. It probably felt unnatural, to have pure energy stick through one's head, but it was ultimately harmless. Well, unless Takashi suddenly panicked and made something drastic happen. "Maybe you would like to hear of the thief who dared steal from a demon, or the one who resides with a fallen angel in the graveyard. Or maybe all you want to hear is the name most know me by. If you think you must know, I am Thaddeus."

He cracked open another sinister grin. Lately, it had been his default expression. His finger withdrew from Takashi's head and went into his pockets. Briefly he entertained the thought of overlapping with this person, but that seemed a waste of time. Instead, he asked a question. "What makes you the strongest in the world then, boy?"

"The world's strongest, hmm? Then what are you afraid of? Surely, when you are the strongest in the world..."

Teddy dropped the smile for a brief moment. It probably made him look more normal, but coming from someone who was perpetually stuck in a slasher smile, it most likely made him look worse. "...then challenging another plane of existence is the logical next step, no?"

It had been ages since Teddy last felt any sort of actual physical damage, what with his constitution, and he sort of missed the pain. Inside, he considered the possibility of masochism, and then brushed it aside with a brief "maybe". Things like those made him feel alive - maybe not in a properly healthy way - but alive.

"Prove to me that you are worthy of your title," Teddy said, gesturing and folding his arms. He sank a little into the ground, lowering his face. Around halfway through, he smiled again and said, "Hit me."