(Oh you're fine man, don't sweat it dude lol)
Jayson seemed surprised at her sudden outburst of the whole kiss situation, he didn't think that she'd care so much about it. "Umm well, for one, I'm surprised that you would still have that on your mind" He laughed softly. "I thought you would have forgotten that by now but umm I just think you're a really good person and I like you," He said putting it bluntly but even saying it like that made him feel flustered so he looked away, blushing a bit. "Just…that out of everyone I've met so far I find you interesting in a unique way…." He struggles to convey his feelings into words, it was near impossible for him. "You're just….you" He put simply as he smiled shyly at her. His eyes widen when she says something about him just wanting to get with her out of interest. "N-no! It's not like that! I wouldn't- Not to you…I" He stops himself. "I just want to be with someone decent before I eventually meet my final destination…" He said softly. Jayson in all his life never had anyone to care for him. He was always reckless and cocky. He wasn't "special" to anyone and he knew that when he died no one would mourn him. Jayson had come from a mafia. It shaped the way he grew up and how he saw things. Being the adopted child of the mafia leader meant seeing some pretty brutal things and going through some brutal things. All his life he had resented his so called "father" and everyone around him because they didn't treat him like a person. They treated him like a tool to get what they wanted. He tried to convince himself that he didn't care but truth was that it affected him a lot. It affected him to just be another thing to be toyed with. It made him feel worthless.
"Decent?" Ember asked, her eye brows raising and her face turning slightly pink. "What makes you think I'm decent? Jayson, you've known me for less then a week." a teasing grin rose to her lips. But no matter how much she was in the mood to tease him, now wasn't the time. Especially after what happened last time. "Its just," again she found herself looking for the right words, only a question rising. "Would you-" Ember shook her head, the rest of the question staying stuck on her lips, 'would you kiss me again?' she wanted to finish, but couldn't. Perhaps it was her fear of his answer, or a fear of her past. After all, ones past is what shapes them. And she had a question she had to ask herself first, would she let him kiss her again? Or would she freak out the way she had when he'd put his arms around her? "Never mind." Ember mumbled after realising how long she's stayed quiet. "I need a shower. Crawler blood isn't that fun to wash out of your hair. Its already dry and washing it out will already be a pain." She shook her head, pulling at a strand of hair. The blood not that obvious, as it was nothing but splatters really. A shower being her excuse to drop the topic and hide with out the need of storming off.
Jayson laughed warmly. "You're right! How dare I? You're far better than decent" He nodded, correcting himself. He smiled at her tease. Jayson waited for her to finish her sentence but it never came. He stared at her with gentle eyes as she stayed silent, his eyes showed sympathy, something a killer didn't have and yet here he was. His heart sunk a bit when she dismissed what she was about to say. He gives her a small smile. "It's alright…we all change our minds." He said with a double meaning behind his words, perhaps something he regretted doing. He nods when she says she was going to take a quick shower. He holds his hands up defensively. "Hey, hey, who am I to judge a girl's duty?" He laughed a bit. "Go on and take a shower. I'll wait for you here" There was something sad and depressing about his aura like he wasn't the same upbeat Jayson that Ember had met for the very first time. Like he was finally opening up his heart to another person for the first time instead of putting his cheerful personality out there. It was as if he felt that it was okay not to pretend around Ember.
(Ack sorry I've been dead for so long. I promise I'm not letting this die. Also sorry this is gonna be kinda short.)
"Whatever, just don't find a away to die. Or get in any trouble." Embers eyes darted over to a man she'd seen watching them, "and don't talk to any weird souls. They might be turning into crawlers and want to eat you." She winked jokingly before skipping off to find a shower with in the hotel.
It was obvious she'd seen him, how could that reaper not have? He smiled to himself before stuffing his hands in his pockets. Could he tell overs he was a reaper and they'd believe him? Well now was his chance to test it. He stalked over to Jayson, giving off a predator like grin. "Hello there, your reaper off to do other work?"
(Lmaooo you're all good my dude and that's alright, mine are probably gonna start getting shorter as well if my brain starts running out of creativity lol)
Jayson's eyes widened, horrified at what Ember said about the crawlers. He really didn't like those nightmarish creatures. "R-right…no weird souls" After Ember had left he didn't really know what to do. Jayson was a social butterfly and the absence of Ember made him bored. He was tempted to go exploring but figured that he'd get lost and Ember would have to go find him and how lame would that be? A guy with no sense of direction. He scoffed at himself, then noticed a guy aproach him. Jayson narrowed his eyes and backed away. "I was strictly forbidden not to talk to weird souls. And you look like a weird soul." Jayson said, a bit of his nervousness and childish nature spilling through. But soon, after a while, the boredom got the better of him. "…b-but yes. She went to take a shower." He stated, avoiding eye contact. In reality, he didn't know what counted as a 'weird soul', the guy looked perfectly fine to him.
(Ack sorry I'm trying to keep things interesting.)
"No my boy, I'm not a soul. I'm a reaper." He smiled a big toothy grin. The way his words worked seeming to make him older then he really was. Perhaps a trick for this roll of being a reaper. "Say, have you two run into any crawlers quiet yet? Awful things really. They say Crawlers are trying to crawl their way into the human world. Excuse my puns." He added a laugh just for show, it almost sounding forced.
(lmaooo you're fine lol)
Jayson just stared at him suspiciously when he said he was a reaper. "hmm so you got a scythe? Like Ember?" He questioned. Once the topic of the crawlers was mentioned again, he laughed nervously. "Y-yeah, they're terrible…" Jayson froze at his pun and nearly died laughing. He loved puns and someone who could make a pun was already a good person in his book. "Nice one~" He finger gunned at the guy, not noticing how fake the guy's laugh sounded. "Hey! I haven't gotten your name, I'd like to hear it~" He smiled, already warming up to the guy. It was nice to have company and Ember hadn't said anything about talking to a reaper so he thought it might have been okay. A reaper wasn't going to harm him, Jayson was a soul and reaper didn't harm souls, he hoped.
"My names Zero." His smile only grew, as he liked how trusting this soul seemed. Perhaps keeping him as a friemd might be wise. Or even making him into a crawler, yes. That seemed like a good idea, but who was he to make up his mind at such an early time. "What might yours be?"
The water pounded on Embers back, the quiet letting memories flood back. But that's not what she wanted to think about, instead she'd rather figure out her emotions and what she'd felt.
Sadly her mind wouldn't let that happen. The water, warm as it was, made her remember. Bright lights, cold water, held down. Is that where her fear came from? Being used as a lab rat. Being forced to suffer. Ember had found her self crying, but what could she do against the past? She shut off the water, and quickly wrapped herself in a towel so she could dry off. "Stop thinking, stop thinking," She mumbled to herself over and over again.
Jayson liked the name. "Zero…hmm, it's a really cool name. Mine's just normal and boring…its Jayson" he sighed, disappointed that he didn't have a cool name like Zero's.
Mean while Lazda was fighting off some crawlers that had chased her down. She knew that she couldn't fight them off for long. If she got done over here then that was too bad but she wasn't going to go down without a fight. Her scythe was meant to sever the thread of life from a living being when they were ready to depart from the living world, but in this case she used it to slash and tear off limbs from the Crawlers. She hated getting her scythe dirty, it was the only thing she had that she valued. Suddenly, she sensed one sneak up from behind her, she turned just in time to make a swift deep cut in the creature but let her guard down to the others she had originally been dealing with.
"Well jayson, its nice to meet you. Say," he looked at his watch, one he'd stolen from a reaper a few days back, "its been a while. Where did your reaper go again? Shall we check on her?"
Teddy saw the stranger talking to Jayson, and this stranger deffently was not a reaper as he seemed to claim. After all, the reaper would wasn't that bif and all the reapers seemed to know each other. When he heard what the stranger said, teddy jogged up to them and called "Jayson!". "Making friends already I see?" He said still eyeing the stranger.
Ember had gotten things of her mind, though her eyes didn't lie that she'd cried. She pulled on a black sweat shirt and jeans, deciding against the standard reaper wear. "Somethings off." Ember mumbled to herself, as she got that feeling of dread that one often gets when something bad is happening. But then again, the only thing that came to mind was Jayson. All the things that could have gone wrong running through her head.
Jayson nodded. "It's nice to meet you too~" He was caught off guard with the question. It had been a while since Ember had left but he just figured that it was a girl thing to take that long. "Oh right, she went to take a bath…I guess we could check up on her, though, I'm not sure where she went exactly" Jayson confessed after realizing that Ember had left to who knows where. Maybe the hotel? Was all he was able to think of.
"No worry, souls and their reaper can often find each other easily. Think of it as a built in navigation or something. Its how us reaper don't lose the soul we're helping." Zero had done his research, and he could answer almost any question about reapers. Thought there where still secrets that not even he could find.
Jayson raised an eyebrow to that. "How do I use this so called navigator? Do I just walk and hopefully eventually I'll run into Ember?" Jay stayed quiet. "Or maybe Ember will come to us?" He questioned. To be honest, Jayson didn't know what the fuck he was doing but he decided to check out the hotel he was at previously. "Maybe she's at the hotel where she left me the other day?" And if she wasn't then he though to give his surrounding a look before panicking and thinking that she had left him. Though that wasn't possible, Ember wouldn't do that to him. He nodded and started towards the hotel.
"I'm afraid I have no idea how it works. Perhaps its just dumb luck most of the time? But souls and reaper are always drawn together somehow. Maybe its the fact that reaper don't have souls of their own." Zero offered a wicked grin, seeming almost joking. But who really knows?
"I shouldn't have left him. Gosh fricking darn it- I swear if he died." Ember continued her rant, as she made her way down the stairs and into the main lobby to find Jayson. Of course it did help that he also seemed to be looking for her, as she saw him just barely walking in. (Oof I know that's a little bit of character control. Sorry, tell me if it bothers you.) "Jayson! Thank goodness, I had a bad feeling and I thought you freaking died. And I got worried." She sounded slightly out of breath as she spoke. As her words where coming out rather fast and slightly panicked.
(Lmao no no, I'm totally chill with that, I wouldn't mind at all~)
As soon as Jayson had walked in he had already been searching for Ember. Jayson hadn't taken two steps before he heard Ember. "Ah! Ember!" There was automatic smile on his face, already forgetting about the guy he had just met. Jayson laughed when Ember admitted that she was genuinely worried. "Hey, same here- though not the dying part" He gave her a smile of triumph. "See? I told you I could make it, I've got skills~" he teased, knowing he had done no such thing. If anything, he would have died back there if he had decided to wander off. "Oh, I met a friend-" the words froze on his tongue when he remembered that Ember told him not to talk to anyone. "I mean….a reaper" he chose his words carefully. If he said that he had met a reaper then everything would be a-okay….he hoped. In all honesty, he had no idea if the guy had told the truth but he decided to trust him for now. He certainly seemed to know reaper stuff so he hoped that counted.
"A reaper, as a friend?" Ember raised an eye brows. The reapers she knew weren't all that friendly, espisly towards souls. After all, what's the point of getting attached to someone who's going to leave so soon? Then again, weren't all friendships that way? "So, where did they go?" Ember looked behind him, taking a moment to glance out one of the front window's. "Or did you finally break?"
It didn't take more then one look for Zreo to recognize the fiery red haired girl. "She's alive." No, not quite. She was dead. A reaper to be exact. Should she recognize him? It would be hard, after all it had been a ten years. None the less, one look and Zero had decided to flee. Staying would just be an unacacary risk. Especially when he could taste victory. It was so close, all he needed now where the crawlers on his side.
(OMG THE PLOT THICKENS)
Jayson rolled his eyes, like the sassy little thing he is. "Yes, Ember. I keep telling you I'm pretty amazing~ and he's right here" he said gesturing beside him to the empty space. He waited for the guy to respond but when he didn't Jayson turned to look and found no one. He frowned. "But he was right here!" Jayson starts looking around but it was like Zero had disappeared. He froze at Ember's 'did you break' comment. "You know what Ember, I am dumb but I am NOT insane, I swear, there was a guy!" He said, though if someone introduced him to a new friend and pointed at empty air he would have thought they were pretty cracked. He sighed in defeat. "He said his name was Zero if that helps any"
(Yes the plot! Ha ha ha I have no idea what I'm doing. xD)
"Zero?" Ember fround, the name sounding somewhat fimmilier. "That really doesn't sound like a real name." Though who could say the name Ember was a real name? "Well whatever, I'll believe you." Ember rolled her eyes. Zero zero zero? Why did the name strike such a cord. Perhaps it was something from when she was alive, but that was to hard- to painful to even try and remember. So she decided to put it aside for now, and let it haunt her later that night. "And by the way, you're not dumb." She gave him a small smirk before adding, "at least not that dumb."
(Oh my gosh lmaooo)
Jayson crossed his arms. "Well yeah but it sounds cool right? I mean, Ember is also a pretty cool name- do all of you reapers have nice names like that?" He smiled triumphantly when Ember said she believed him, then frowned. "Okay but like I can be pretty funny, you gotta admit that. Besiiides, if I were in a really dangerous situation I would be very much capable of getting myselt out of it with my smartness" he stated. Yeah right. Flashback to the time where he jumped out at Ember like a dumb idiot when he thought she was a crawler, not a very smart move.
"Nice names? Gosh no- I once met a reaper named Bob. He's kinda dead now-." Ember shuttered slightly, knowing that dying again would not be fun. "Crawlers got to him in the real world." Though it was a long time ago. Now they where sure crawlers could never get into the real world again- or so she hopped.
Suddenly Embers attention snapped up, her face twisting in pain. She let a sharp intake of breath out, and fell to her knees. What was happening? Her mind raced with what if's as the reaper would around her seemed to fade. "Jayson-" she wimmpered out. Someone was forcing her to make a jump. A jump back to the real world.
A smile curled his lips when he saw Ember fall, she was feeling the effects. And to think she'd just been talking about dying in the real world, a shame really. What bad timing. He knew the soul would soon feel them too, along with any Crawlers prowling out side the town.
For now he'd focus on getting the crawlers to the real world. Separating out the Reapers and Souls he wanted. Then focus on convincing them. Everything was falling into place. "See you in hell." He whispered to the winds, before he too made the jump to the real world.
(Sorry I disappeared for a while. My grades were sufferin a bit so I had to take care of that for a few days. Also, sorry for the short response. I'm not sure what to do with my character lmaoo)
Jayson was about to laugh at the name but then heard he was dead and quickly silenced himself. His face turned from an amused expression to a concerned one. "Ember? Are you alri-" when she fell to her knees he quickly rushed foward, desperation now taking over his emotions. "I'm right here Ember. What's going on? Are you feeling alright?" He tried to make sense of what was happening.
(No its totally chill always take some personal time. Especially if its your health and or grades suffering. Also, lol sorry I'm trying to move things onto the whole big bad villain come at ya'.)
Ember bit back a laugh as pain completely filled her. Of course she wasn't alright, who would be in such a situation?
Much like the first time they'd arrived in the reaper realm, the ground seemed to drop out from under them. Making it seem as if for just a second they where floating in complete nothingness, just before the real world slammed down on them.
It took Ember a moment to realize what had just happened- as the pain still had to subside. She blinked around the spots that obscured her vision, and her jaw dropped with realization. "This is the exact moment we left." She muttered to herself.
(Ahhh thanks dude, the break helped a lot and it's all cool my dude, I totally forgot this existed and I thought I had answered so when I didn't get a response I went back and looked and was like "what the hecc??? I thought I had answered??? And now I'm here lmao XD sorry for the late response. Also, sorry it's really short I don't know what else to do lol other than get dragged along with what's happening x.x)
Jayson seemed stunned by the transition and it took him a second to register what was happening. "Umm Ember…what the hell just happened?" He looked down at her and then panicked, remembering the pain she had been in preciously. "Oh lord! Are you okay Ember?!" He said thinking of some way to help her while panicking even more, not sure what to do. He couldn't quite hear what she muttered since he, himself was too busy with his thoughts.
(Again that's TOTALLY chill! Don't worry 'bout apologizing so much. ^^ tbh I was getting ready to check and see if I was the one who didn't respond. Lol. And again, don't worry about the response being short. In my opinion you're still writing rather long. So. Tis chill my dude.
Also sorry I'm trying to rush into the whole big bad guy thing still. Tell me if I start to go over board. Lmao.)
"Jayson-" Ember looked around wildly till her eyes landed on him. She couldn't deny the fact that she was overjoyed he was okay. That he hadn't been left in the realm by himself. But still, the fact that he was there. It seemed like it wasn't very good. Ember jumped to her feet and threw her arms around him. Hugging him tight. She was confused, and scared. And Jayson was the only thing that was familiar. She looked down, seeing that he was still dead, and his body was still on the ground. "Dear gosh. Jayson you might want to get back in your body."
(Ahhhhh thanks dude aha sorry if I apologize a lot- I kinda sorta get slightly nervous around cool people like yourself and I'm afraid I mess up or will mess up lol but thanks again for understanding 😹 and no! That's perfectly fine! It's good to get a move on, I think that both Ember and Jayson have had enough time to bond lmao)
"I'm right here-" Jayson was surprised to receive a hug from Ember. She usually wasn't hands on with him. Jayson hugged her back and gave a slight reassuring squeeze. "Hey, it's alright. I got you I'm right here." Jayson's words sounded endearing and soft, in that moment he deeply meant his words- he always had but right now he was speaking his genuine feelings-he was speaking from his heart. When Ember spoke up again he noticed what she had said. His body was right there, his eyes widen and it took everything he had not to literally scream of panic. "G-Get back in my own dead body!? Is that possible?" He questioned. Staring at his body with almost a blank stare.
