Hmm…. I've got a few ideas
wow we had one of the same ideas lol
Yeah, your second one is perfect. Should I start?
yes please lol
I'll probably respond sometime tomorrow
The night was frigid with the winds of winter and glistened with heaps of snow. Every road was coated in ice, every window with swirls of delicate frost.
Valen carefully watched from an industrial rooftop as the city lights below slowly began to die out. It was three in the morning, and everyone had finally started to drift off to bed. He, however, would be up for at least an half an hour more.
It was so cold out that his breaths came out in bursts of mist. He shuddered, shaking off some snowflakes, and pulled the coat of his suit tighter around his body. Although he didn’t like to admit it, his choice in clothing had been poor. If Mr. Ericsson didn’t show his face soon, he’d have to find somewhere else to wait for his target. Moving from his crouched position was quite a regrettable idea; he’d already worked a long day at The Lovely Cup, and all of his body was sore.
Zora cursed under her breath. She should've known that telling the man who she was would've scared him off. She had been frantically searching for days now, knowing that somebody else would show up to take his soul eventually, if they weren't already here now, and if they found out that she'd accidentally made the guy run off, she'd be in trouble.
Finally, after about five more minutes, there was movement. Valen saw the top of a man’s head bob as he crept into an alleyway. Without wasting a second, he sent Shishi forth to peck at the man’s legs, effectively immobilizing him. In the meantime, he slid down the rungs of a fire escape, grabbed his sword out of its sheath, and advanced. When his victim’s eyes caught him, he let out a sharp scream and backed away.
“Hello, Mr. Richard Ericsson. My name is Valen Inovich. The Conseil demands your soul. Since you have refused to cooperate, I must do it by force.”
Zora froze when she heard a scream. She knew the man's voice by now, she recognized it. Without hesitating, she took off in the direction she had heard it, eyes scanning every building and alleyway she passed. Soon enough she found him, cornered and frozen next to a strange man in an alleyway. Another reaper, she thought. He's already here. He's going to take his soul by force. Zora felt a bit panicked, but fought past it, stepping forward and speaking clearly. "Hold on, you don't have to do that. I've got this under control," she said to the other reaper.
Valen’s whipped around. He saw the girl standing there and felt his chest tighten with frustration. He hadn’t waited for hours for someone else to show up and take the credit. It wasn’t only that, either. There was just no way he could be sure that this other reaper hadn’t helped the man escape. Sometimes, albeit rarely, it happened, especially if a reaper fell in love with a human.
“I’m sorry, I can’t allow you to do that. The Conseil requires that I bring them his soul, and I cannot let anyone intervene. My apologies.”
"He's just confused and scared, it happens all of the time," she said. "But I know him, and I know I can get him to give up his soul willingly. Just– give me some more time." Zora didn't know for sure if the man would cooperate like that, but she had to try to give him the chance. Having your soul ripped from your body by force was one of the most painful things a human could ever experience, and this man didn't deserve to go through that.
He normally wouldn’t dare point a weapon at any reaper, but this situation looked as if it needed a different approach. The blade of his saber glinted in the pale light of the moon as he held it up in a guarding stance. Much to his disapproval, he found that his hand shook ever so slightly from the strain of the day, causing his sword to wobble. In an attempt to seem more confident, he stepped closer to the girl. A single strand of his hair slipped from its tidy state into his narrowed, contemplative eyes.
“You will not get more time. He has run for long enough, and the Conseil needs his soul. Are you prepared to stand in my way?”
Zora tensed up. Was he really pointing his weapon at her? "What do you think you're doing?" She asked, sounding irritated. "I'm not your enemy. We're both reapers, we're both just doing our work. I'm trying to do my job, here."
“I do not know a single thing about you. To say we aren’t enemies would mean that we know each other, which we don’t. I can’t be sure that you aren’t going to help him escape further. I was assigned to this case, and I will take care of his soul,” he insisted. “If you wish to stop me, as I said, you’d best be prepared. He was given his chance. Now, let me do my job.”
Zora gritted her teeth. This man really wasn't giving up. She felt anger flare up in her chest, but she ignored it, keeping calm as she spoke. "Just let me talk to him first. It was my job to take his soul, let me finish it. Give him a chance to go peacefully. That's all I'm asking." Her hands itched to grab her weapon. She took a deep breath, trying to relax. Don't be irrational. Talk this out with him. "I couldn't help him escape even if I tried. Not with you pointing your weapon at me like that."
He didn’t like it, but he had to admit that she sounded sincere. Lowering, but not putting away, his weapon, he let out a whistle so sharp that it could be heard from a block away. A large, dark dog crept up beside him, tail swishing and fangs at the ready. He stroked his pet’s head with a tired sigh. A hum of appreciation came from its throat.
His eyes flickered back to the runaway, who was shivering in the corner. He didn’t seem brave at all. Most who escaped death on purpose ran with a darkness in their face, a depth that he didn’t have.
“I will watch. If you do even a single thing that I find suspicious, he’s mine. Onisk here will be watching as well.”
"Unnecessary… but understandable," Zora concluded. She let out a small sigh of relief and turned to the human, who had just observed the whole thing. He was trembling and speechless, staring wide eyed at Zora as she approached him.
(do you want to be the human character? Also, how does the whole soul stealing thing work in this RP?)
Richard Ericsson was not a coward.
That being said, he had never expected to stare down someone talking so casually about his demise. He shrunk away from the two beings—the reapers—with dread collecting in his stomach. That’s what they had called themselves, but it didn’t seem possible. Reapers were the beasts of fairytales. They wore black robes, carried scythes, and had skulls for faces. None were supposed to look like regular human beings.
His shoulders shook as he hit a wall behind him. Tears had begun to roll, hot and salty, down to the ground. He didn’t want to die. He hadn’t meant to run, or whatever the guy was talking about, but there was no way he’d willingly face his death.
“Don’t hurt me, please,” he begged in a wavering voice, “I swear that I’ll give you whatever you want. Do you want money? I don’t have much, but I’ll give you what I’ve got. You can have my car, too!”
Zora sighed, clicking her tongue and stepping forward. This man was more stubborn than she thought, but she wasn't going to give up. This was her mistake, she had to fix it. "Mr. Ericcson," she started, her tone much softer than before. "Believe me, I wish I didn't have to do this, but like it or not it's part of my job. Your soul is required, and unfortunately, there's no way around that."
“You can’t do that! You can’t do- I have two kids! My grandchild just turned four! You can’t kill me, please d-“
“She’s right. One way or another, Mr. Ericsson, we’re getting your soul. Only difference is that she’ll do it gently,” Valen stated flatly, tapping the handle of his sword “and I’ll do it with a sword. The choice is up to you.”
“This is fake! That’s what this is, it must be. This is some sort of sick joke by my ex-wife.”
“Your ex? No, I’m afraid not.” He glanced towards the girl. “Do as you must. I’m getting tired of this.”
Zora sighed. This man was seriously impatient. "I'm going to need more than a few seconds to talk to him about this. He's human and he's terrified, try to be a bit more sympathetic." She then turned back to the human. "I understand you're upset and confused, but there's no way we could reverse this even if we wanted to. Besides, this isn't as bad as you think it is. It's painless, as long as you cooperate."
Valen, bored, tired, and stiff, nearly groaned. He patted his dog’s head to signal that it should move forward. Onisk swept his tail around as it paced towards them, shaking up snow from cracks. He opened his sharply toothed mouth in a yawn.
“I don’t know what the big deal is. He was supposed to die, but whatever. I guess we’ll have to do this the long way.” He smiled irritably at the other man. “You’re a very, very lucky man. I wouldn’t have taken half this long.”
Ericsson wasn’t paying attention. His eyes were glued to Zora like she was the last person in the world.
“I’ve thought it before, dying. It really doesn’t hurt? I… my parents just died. I don’t want to leave my family, I really don’t, but it’s been hard. I think… is it selfish if I say I’m ready to see them again? Is that selfish?”
Zora had decided to ignore Valen at this point. He was getting on her nerves, and making her lose focus, so she kept all of her attention on the human. "Of course that's not selfish. A lot of people feel the same way," she explained, stepping forward slowly as she spoke. "Mr. Ericcson… I know you're under a lot of stress, but you don't have a lot of time left before this… difficult reaper loses his patience."
Valen barely managed to stop himself from groaning aloud. “You could at least call me by my name. I do have one, you know. Maybe you’ve even heard of me. That’d make me a bit terrible at my job, though.”
“I… I think I understand.” Nervously, and still ignoring Val, Richard bit his lip and fidgeted with the sleeve of his shirt. “How are you going to do it? And… my kids. What will they hear? Will they see it as a murder? I don’t want that. Do you have something planned? Could you do a heart attack or something?”
(heyyyyy how is the whole soul taking thing going to work?)
(Didn’t you say you wanted her to touch them and take their soul? I’m imagining the body left over would be the thing humans consider a corpse, and that when reapers take a soul they usually make it so that it looks like a reasonable death, like a severe aneurysm or something.)
(oh shoot I did say that, huh? okay that makes sense sorry I forgot
also I'm going to sleep in a couple of minutes)
"I'm not interested in who you are. Your name is unimportant to me," Zora said to Valen, glancing over at him for barely a second before returning her gaze to Ericsson. "Yes, making it seem like a heart attack or something similar is possible. All I have to do is touch you, but I can only take your soul if you let me."
Ericsson put his head between his hands. He took in a shuddering breath, wheezed, and made his choice.
“I’ll do it. My kids will miss me, sure, but they’ve moved on. I’m no longer the only person that they depend on. I’ve never had much luck at romance. If you’re telling the truth, then it’s my time to go. It’s probably been my time for a while now.”
Valen felt something shift in him. He squared his shoulders and dropped his gaze to the ground. In his line of work, it wasn’t every day that a human surprised him. Honestly, it’d been a while since he’d felt anything at all towards his victims. They often didn’t deserve pity.
“What I’m saying is yes, you can take my soul. I’ll give it willingly.”
(hey any chance we could move this RP to PMs?)
(Oh? Sure, why?)
