Death Finds Us All (Brandon and Rana)

[Brandon LeCreaux - Council]

He had grown used to this lifestyle after many years. He felt the vibration run through him as the name appeared upon the  scroll. His hand slipped into the inner pocket of his jacket and unrolled it. ‘Tyler Leon, Age 35, Estimated time of death 1:13pm, Time Square.’ Brandon gave a snort from his nose and looked up to the time. Twenty more minutes? It was strange to get such short notice on a death. He rolled the scroll back up and began to walk to Time Square. He wasn’t far from it, The reasons to be in New York lately were high. Death was busy in the city.

His eyes scanned the crowd around, landing on the male that made his sixth sense tingle like crazy. Hot Dog vender. “Damn shame.” He muttered as he moved closer to the man. He stood and line noticed the name on the badge was Tyler and sighed internally louder to himself. As the line moved he was in front of the man and gave an easy smile. “Tyler? Tyler Leon? Man it's been years. It's Brandon from middle school. Don’t you remember me?” He said casually as if he was meeting an old friend when he had never met this man in his life.

“Ah, Sorry Man, I don't remember you.” The hot dog vender said “Did you want a dog?” He seemed annoyed. Which made Brandon want to reap his soul and get out of there. 

“Well man, no, no dog.  It’s been good to see you.” He reached out and patted his arm pulling his soul out as he stepped out of line and crossed the street. He looked at his watch and when 1:13pm hit he looked up to see a piece of glass that was being lifted into place slip from its hold and the glass landed upon Tyler shattering. The panic that ran through the crowd made him sigh as he turned to look at the soul of the man beside him. 

“What happened?” Tyler soul asked.

“Well you died, mate.” Brandon replied as he turned back to watch the panic on others' faces. “I pulled your soul so you didn’t feel pain.” He said softer as he turned to start leading Tyler soul away from the area. When the buzz from his pocket came again. “Another one?” He questioned reaching to pull out his scroll. “Follow me.” He said to Tyler Soul as he started walking looking around for the next person that appeared on his list.

[2fl6dbw9eys5e]

It'd been a warm day, ships all navigated off radars and instruments now, so Rana had lost her place in the world a little. She tried her best to fit in, and failed miserably most of the time. Her 'friends' didn't seem to get her and never knew why, but she did. She was a freak, a few thousand years old and trying to blend in with the hip new thing. A few thousand years old and not a scar on her body. A few thousand years old, and still looked hardly a day over 18, she knew, and could never say. the girl did her best to blend in, but something always felt wrong and her senses always seemed to yearn for things she couldn't explain. A better explanation, an escape, a place to hide, whatever it was it had piqued that hot sunny day in New York. 

She felt something tingle down her spine as she looked to the girls with her and used her usual excuse. "I need a smoke." neither of her friends smoked, in fact, they hated it and chastised her for it, but when she needed a break for the act, she knew it was always a way to get some peace and quiet. She walked out of the coffee shop and watched the people around her. Five cigarettes left, damn... time for a new pack, she noted as she pulled one free and lit it, she shot a mean glance at a guy for looking at her funny as she started the puff. He hurried about his day and she shook her head, sick of the judgement from people who had no idea who or what she was.

For some reason a hot dog stand caught her attention, she wasn't hungry but something about it drew her attention. The girl watched and watched and nothing happened. Just as she was about to turn away she took a small puff from her smoke and the shimmer of glass caught her eye.   She watched as the people scattered and her feet started to move on their own. Not to the guy at the stand, or to help the scared humans in the market, but down the street in a hurry towards a man she subconsciously noticed to talk to himself and check his phone, or something? 

Rana Matrose, a 2,500 year old teenager felt her curiosity pique like she'd never felt it in many many years. Her steps quickened as she broke into a fast walk, dodging cars with horns blaring while she jaywalked a corner, keeping her eyes trained on the man. nothing would keep her from her hunger to know now. she broke into a slow run then when given the chance hopped a small rail and bolted across an alleyway to slow back to a brisk walk behind him, cigarette in hand. After a good few minutes of her pace she reaches the man and realizes they're still packed into a crowded walkway. Maybe approaching him right now is not the best plan. The girl decides to follow him for a while to see where the trek leads them and make her move when she feels its better timing.

[Brandon LeCreaux - Council]

He knew it was going to be a bad day, when the second name came to his scroll in such a short time. At that moment he read over the next name. Charlie Samson, Age 30, Estimated time of death 1:18pm, Time Square. That was when the scroll started adding multiple names one after the other and it hit him. “Oh no.” He said as he looked around. He couldn’t stop what was going to happen. His heart sank. 

The ground started to shake, as the start of the events triggered. A car came flying through time square and he watched in horror using his ability of chronokinesis to slow time around within a twenty foot radius. So he would have been standing in one location but faster then her eyes could keep up he was among the people getting run over by the car. Reaping their souls just before the car hit them so they didn’t feel pain. By the time the few minutes had passed he would be on the other side of the square from where she was. He took a ragged breath in.

Leaning over to catch his breath for a moment before standing back up and taking in the horror of the bodies and the car that had run them over. He felt the pain in his chest as he looked to the group of people surrounding him only he could see. “I am sorry to you all. We need to get out of here. Before your souls get stuck.” He said with a sad voice and reached into his pocket pulling out a pack of cigarettes. Tapping the back on his hand as he pulled out one to place in his mouth. He felt his hand shake as he lit the cigarette.

“After all these years you think I would be used to all this bad.” He mumbled to himself. As he took a long drag and started walking out of time square with the gaggle of souls following behind him. “I hate my job.” He whined to himself softly.

[2fl6dbw9eys5e]

She’d been so close, then everything happened so fast. Normally Rana was quick to dismiss mass chaos like this. She’d seen death so much in her long life, people near to her and strangers in her hands. Nothing about tragedy and mass death was new news after centuries of life. But this felt so different, she couldn’t place it til her reflexes kicked in. lifting her cigarette to take a small drag her head refocuses out of the initial shock and when she scanned the area again she noticed it. It was the publicity and the mortals around her. She’d never had the most empathy but something about this world being so desensitized to death on screens now, seemed to make them more earie around death in person. The faces of struck horror and shear confusion unsettled her, but not near as much combined as one in particular.

she’d been right by the man, in arms reach almost, and now he was almost a block away and there’s no way he’d have had the time or reason to sprint down the street during the commotion. Did he know? Did he have some role in this accident too? Something about how he smelled, no, how he felt seemed very wrong. She couldn’t put her finger on it, it wasn’t like her forecasting with clear tells of incoming storms or rough weather, this was vague and subtle, something she wasn’t sure she should trust.

 

But should or not, trust it she did. Life had grown terribly boring around yet another set of new young mortals learning their way through life and focused on the silliest things, meanwhile she was busy hiding her pain and trying her hardest to fit in any way she could. She took another drag and stepped over a discarded briefcase that landed near her when it was ripped from one of the victim’s hands. Pushing and weaving through the crowd she used their distraction and fixation to take her chance, and this was it. she marched down and across the road, so focused she pushes a door closed as someone tried exiting their cab when she strode by, her laser sights locked on like a woman on a mission. 

Grabbing his arm as she breaks through the crowd she takes a last hit from her cigarette and tosses it down to step on it. She keeps her voice low and stays sure of herself, a level of command and confidence that to most would be levels of unsettling for someone so ‘young’. “who are you, not a name or some bullshit, really. Who and what?” she says low and calm, but stern. No one around seems to notice or pay any attention to two strangers among the sirens and frantic screams and wails.

[Brandon LeCreaux - Council]

Brandon was counting the souls he had reaped, comparing them to the list in his hand as he walked to get out of there. Hoping this meant he would be getting a long well deserved break. Though was there a break from death? No. Even if he wasn’t the only Reaper in the world it seemed that death was only ever growing. Guess it made sense since the population of humans and others seem to spike every year. At this point he was utterly surprised that the Eternals hadn’t chosen to remove all beings and start over. Yet knowing a few eternals he knew they never would do such things.

He was lost in his own thoughts of his job that bumping into people in the busy streets of New York didn’t phase him. It was when a hand wrapped around his arm and yanked him that pulled him from his own mental fog. As she forcefully pulled him to look at her. His gaze went from over her head down to her and a raise of his brow as she tossed the cigarette from her mouth and stomped on it. He took his own from his lips pinching it between his thumb and forefinger. He opened his mouth to ask if he could help her.

Yet with her commanding voice he paused his words and then sighed. Well she clearly was someone who had been around longer than her face showed. He placed the cigarette back in his mouth taking a long drag before he yanked his arm free from her grasp. Thankfully the accident had drawn the attention of most. “You may wanna think twice before you go grabbing on to someone you don’t know again, little one.” His own voice became dark as he tossed his own cigarette to the ground  to stomp out.

Using his perception altering abilities his face shifted into his natural form to that of a skull sitting where his normal face once sat. “Or death may come and take you instead.” He let his face return, taking a step back. “Now unless you plan on taking up more of my time short stack. I have a job to do.” He took another step back.

[2fl6dbw9eys5e]

She didn't seem phased by the shift, and instead, it seemed to solidify whatever idea she had in mind. "Rana." she holds out her hand. "and I do plan to take more of your time." the sirens build up and start to grow in the distance, the crowds start to make a clear division in who is staying around to help or watch. Some in Morbid curiosity, others too shocked to leave. Her attention never once flickered to the death and chaos behind her and she seemed so casually undeterred by his threat of death. The pair find themselves alone, isolated between two seas of bodies, the only ones totally removed from the mayhem.

She shakes her head with an almost bored expression, her tone tired and worn centuries beyond her age. "that's fine" she says and trails off some, before her focus returns up to him with a grim expression. "I don't know why, but you're different, and not like me. whatever you're doing here, I want to know, or I want to know why. I'm sick of pretending and these people are boring as all hell. i need some escape, a reminder that I matter." She stays stern, softer now, but her stance never backs down and her aura seems fixed on her position, grounded with so much confidence it would seem hard to shake her or impossible to most. in her bright blue eyes rested an honesty that could not be denied, she meant every single thing she said and she felt no need to hold back. whatever had gotten her to this point had gotten her here tough as nails and wise enough to know where to point the tip.

[Brandon LeCreaux - Council]

Brandon groaned when his trick that had scared many didn’t work on her. “Brandon.” He said as he took hold of her hand and gave a shake for her hand before dropping it. “If you wanna take my time walk and talk. I can’t let these souls stick around too long or they become monsters.” He said as he looked towards the flashing lights of the sirens and sighed before starting to move down the street once again. His eyes flashing back at her for a moment before returning to the bath he was walking whistling for the souls to follow him.

“What I am is one thing that all accept as a fact of life. Even immortals know that at some point their end will come. I am death. I wasn’t lying about that. I guess the most common term in the states is The Grimm Reaper.” He gave a gentle shrug of his shoulder to her. “I am not sure what you are though? You are a teeny bopper why concern yourself with such matters? Why care about the world and why be bored? Life not about partying? And just living? Really you should live while you can.” He said in a matter of fact tone clearly not understanding she was immortal and forced herself to look that way.

He took a turn out of time square, “Everyone matters though. Your life will affect others, and others will affect yours. Even when you feel like a grain of sand in the bottom of the ocean to yourself, another will see you as the apple of their eye. Maybe even unknown to yourself.” He said with a soft gentle tone looking at the souls. “So many people lost someone important to them. It’s a sad day. They all mattered.”