Nine O'Clock on a Saturday, The Regular Crowd Shuffles In. (Closed, Lani and I)

Five PM, Monday May 1st

The DWMA seemed like an odd gothic cathedral in the evenings, with how silent it was without the march of students through the halls. Even most of the teachers, or at least the ones who took their job less seriously, were gone. The janitors were starting to go through and sweep and mop floors, cleaning up blood splatters from more intense combat classes, or vomit from unprepared NOT students accidentally wandering into an EAT class.

Courtney was tucked away in the fourth floor theater, all the lights except those on the stage on. The theater never saw much use, since it was smaller than any of the others, but it had Courtney's favorite instrument. The Baldwin Concert Grand Black 1960 would've made for a decent pawn shop sell, but Courtney was sure that it was simply too much effort to take it down 4 flights of stairs, so it was left here. Didn't much matter to her, she got to use it.

She pulled the cover off of it, and propped the lid over the cords, before exposing the keys. She pulled out her tablet, setting it on the music stand and pulling up an MP3 she had made. Cracking her fingers, Courtney began to play the piano part to Billy Joel's 'Piano Man', breaking into the song once it began as her tablet began to play the harmonica and rhythm parts, the only two things she wasn't covering, as her song spilled out of the open theater doors.

Evelyn had been with the Academy for years, first as a student, then a mission graduate, and now one of its many employees. From time to time, she was still known to sit in on, even fully attending some from time to time. Nowadays, she swapped between teacher's assistant, foreign exchange consultant, nurse, and whatever oddball position someone opted to throw her way. It had been a long time since she'd possessed a weapon of her own, what with all of her former Death Scythes having left her for one reason or another. That's what she was known for, however --- making Death Scythes... and then them leaving her. The latter detail was not spoken of, at least not with her in ear shot, but the first... the first detail was major. Evelyn was twenty, and by the year previous, she had created six Death Scythes.

Since the last one, however, she had not entirely been the same. Eve had taken a bit of a break from weapon training and partnering since then, opting instead to work and attend to her self resonance abilities. In fact, that's what she had been working on this day, though it now had her wandering about the halls like some kind of glorified, yet casual, hall monitor. A white, sweat-soaked tank sat loosely atop her torso, her seafoam toned sports bra beneath beginning to show through slightly. Her legs were covered in an assortment of scrapes, dirt, and grass stains, drawing attention away from the hint of her blue shorts that peeked out beneath her tank.

Eventually, her wandering managed to lead her down the hallway the theater was on. Curious, she walked over, leaning against the doorframe as she watched the girl in silence, observing from a distance as the weapon played.

Courtney was well into the second verse, her voice starting to grow louder as she grew more confident in her solitude. "~And the Waitress is practicing politics, While the businessmen slowly get stoned~" Her fingers moved deftly over the keys, drowning out the harmonica and beat playing from her tablet. "~Yes they're sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it's better than drinking alone~" She fell into the La-la-la-didi-da's, her eyes closing as she truly enveloped herself in the music.

A smile tugged at the woman's lips, small but sweet. Her eyes remained open and focused on Courtney all the while. The Death Scythe Meister was fully intent on keeping quiet until the girl's song had come to its end, knowing full well that a break in concentration would spell an end to the music.

Courtney took a breath as she entered the last verse, her purplish-blue eyes slowly opening as her voice rang out.
"~It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday,
And the Manager gives me a smile,
Cause he knows that it's me
They've been coming to see,
to forget about life for a while~"
The piano grew louder, her fingers slamming down on the keys.
"~And the piano it sounds like a carnival,
And the microphone smells like a beer,
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say 'Man what're you doing here?'~"
Another round of La's followed, her body swaying in time with the beat.
"~Sing us a song you're the piano man,
Sing us a song tonight
Well we're all in the mood for a melody,
And you've got us feeling alright~"
The song started to fade off, Courtney playing the last few notes with emphasis, before she fell forward a bit and let out a long sigh, sweat running down her forehead. She really should've taken off her coat and undone some of the buttons on her shirt...

From the doorway, Evelyn began to clap, a slow gesture that escalated in volume and vigor until she finally drew Courtney's attention toward her. "You're a very talented musician." Eve said simply, offering a light bow as she began to walk towards the stage. "Evelyn Borne, 3-Star Death Scythe Meister."

Courtney went a little rigid when Evelyn started to clap, slowly turning her head to look at the approaching meister. "Courtney Scott... 3rd year EAT student. Technically listed as 'autonomous'." She said in answer, her voice far less passionate than moments before when she was singing. "I appreciat the compliment, Miss Borne..."

"Eve," she said, raising a hand to try to silence the formalities before the weapon could get used to them, "I just go by Eve." She gave her a curious look, head tilting slightly as she looked up towards the stage at her, "You said 'technically?' What do you mean by that?"

"Some weapon forms aren't meant to be autonomous, but still can be. Mine is one such form." She said, slowly grabbing her tablet, turning it off, and stowing it in her courier bag.

"And what would that be?" Eve asked, taking the towel draped over her shoulder out and stepping back to tussle up her hair, still damp from sweat.

Courtney collected the rest of her things, grabbed her cap, and fit it onto her head before she slowly slid off of the stage and into the band pit. She adjusted her outfit, tilting her hat just so until she was satisfied, before she started glowing. In moments, the girl was replaced by a suit of white and blue armor, the eyes slowly lighting up a deep green as the empty suit took a few steps forward.

A soft, low whistle sounded from the meister as she looked up at the form, rather impressed with its appearance. In relative silence, she made her way up to the stage, walking about the form before speaking again, "Has no one been compatible?"

The armor answered with a nod, as Courtney had no way to speak for herself. The device jutting from her back began to spin and glow, green particles spreading throughout the theater, small bits of her soul used to power the suit. She kept like that for only a moment, before glowing and changing back. She wavered a bit, bringing a hand up to her head as her head began to ache, just like it always did after an autonomous transformation.

Eve held a hand out to her to try to help steady her, retrieving a sports drink bottle from her bag and handing it over. "You said you're in EAT? That can't be easy with such a powerful autonomous transformation."

"I can work with partial transformations. My arm, or my leg..." She murmured, pulling out a bottle of aspirin and taking a few, washing it down with Eve's drink. "Appreciated..." She said, handing it back.

Eve waved her hand in a gesture of "no," instructing her to keep the drink for herself. "Do you have anything in your soul count yet?"

"No. I have hunted before, but usually I give those I pair with the souls." She said, taking another sip of the drink and leaning herself against the stage, adjusting her tie.

"So, you have none?" She inquired, further intrigued by the information as she learned more. A third year possessing no souls despite having hunted them was an uncommon find, as many people, mainly those in the EAT class, were very adamant about increasing their power to Death Scythe status.

Courtney just shrugged, looking down at her wristwatch for a moment before returning her attention to Evelyn. "Zero."

A long moment of silence followed before she spoke again, "Do you have somewhere to be, or do you want to hang out somewhere...?"

"Hang...out?" She asked, turning her eyes back to the meister, and tilting her head a bit. Evelyn, with her soul perception, would be able to see Courtney's soul, vibrant and green, grow a bit larger at the thought, it's peculiar sound echoing softly from her.

ooc: She doesn't have normal Soul Perception, she can't see it.
"Blood Reader This is Eve's Bloodborne version of Soul Perception, in which she can only read another's soul if she has access to some form of their DNA. This does mean, however, that (at least in theory) she can read a person's soul from DNA alone, such as a hair brush, without the person being nearby. This also allows her to tell if people are related by soul alone."

ic: A nod followed after her words, a subtle attempt to chase the confusion in them away. "Yeah. I have to stop by my house and then my friend Marc and I are going out. Would you like to join us?" Her smile was soft and genuine, "He's sweet."

"Sure." She said after a moment of thought, pulling her phone out, "Where would you like us to meet?"

"I can take you, if you'd like," She said, smiling wide, "Otherwise, we can meet up at the cafe."

"I'll meet you there. Don't want to leave my scooter here." She said, before moving past Evelyn, heading for the door.

30 Minutes Later

Courtney leaned against her Vespa, head tilted down, eyes closed. Her earbuds were connected to her tablet inside her bag, playing some soft rock music to drown out her mind. The cafe was behind her, people moving in and out with their drinks, or eating in the restaurant. No one paid mind to the girl out front, even though she was dressed like some limousine driver.