Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2011 18:40:05 GMT
Shirley passed through the gates and began to head up the steps inside the palace to the throne room. Skyla, buttoning her shirt up, dashed up close behind with Riku and Rina in tow.
The throne room was simply decorated and had humorous cartoons and jokes relating to death hanging on the walls.
'I'm death.' Read one. 'NO! Please dont kill me!' 'I cant hear you, hold up a sign, because I said I'm DEAF!' Shirley was not amused.
A cheerful young man was sitting on the throne. The leader of the reapers, Mayor of Bliss, and creator of AI, Davis.
"Hello! Shirley! Skyla! Riku! Rina! I'm Davis, and I founded Bliss!" He greeted enthusiastically, yet not sounding boastful.
He jumped down from the throne, and shook all their hands simultaneously.
"Yep! Spirits can do these sorts of things in Bliss!
Your here because you guys are awesome! And, we want you to become Reapers like us so that we can have even more awesome people here in Bliss! And end that silly war happening down Below! Whaddya think, you in?" David asked, looking at them all, beaming.
Shirley was too speechless to answer, she stood there trying to respond.
"Oh, sorry, I'll give you time to answer, I'm so sorry I'm always forcing myself on people!" David blushed and skipped in one stride over to his throne.
"Hi there! You want us to go around killing people?" Asked Skyla.
Davis scrunched in his face.
"Oh, dont be like that! Where would you be without us? Alive, ok, yes, but your life is over in a blink of an eye. Without us, you would have lived, and you'd be past the gates before having a chance to enjoy eternity. We're saving people, my dear Skyla."
Skyla took that as an acceptable answer and began thinking.
"Weapons! Do we get WEAPONS?" Yelled Riku.
Rina hit him over the head.
"What do we get in return, Davis?" She asked.
"... More time in Bliss. Thats what you get." Said Davis after a long time, and somewhat darkly.
Suddenly, changing the subject bouncily, he answered Riku's first question.
"YES! We have weapons and equipment ranging across all different types. Including scythes, guns, swords... well, of course, as reapers our jobs is to look as inconspicuous as possible, but thats rather hard, as you saw in Garland.
Generally our operations are covered up as terrorist attacks in the media, and recently the war has covered our tracks well. Some of the world leaders know about us, and we have deals that our existence wont be known. Of course our main way of staying a secret are memory erasers. With our minds, we can create any form of technologies here in Bliss, if we can imagine it, we can build it.
On Earth, we are invisible however we can inhabit inanimate objects, mainly those giant metal suits. We appear as empty knights to the living. But we can use computers and the net for quick travels and inhabit all sorts of things.
However, our time on earth, like it or not, is limited to 24 hours, at which point death avatar is allowed to catch us and carry us straight to the gates of death, so we have to reap and get back to the Bliss point, a place on our main flagship. Thats why reaping is very military like to keep someone from wondering off and getting caught.
Also, our powers such as being able to do anything with our minds dont work on earth, only in Bliss. Its a slight pain but thats why we prepare ourselves here first.
Any other questions before we begin reaper training?" Asked Davis, very excited.
Everyone was quiet.
"Great! Charles!" Called Davis. He clapped, and Charles arrived in a puff of smoke.
"New reapers!" Said Davis. Charles smiled.
"Follow me." Said Charles.
"Ok... reaper it is." Said Shirley.
"So, Davis filled you in on most of it. Here are some of the suits we use." Said Charles.
"You inhabit them like this..." He explained as he went inside his.
"... And then they activate. They work the same way as a body, but it may take a second to get acquainted. Try it."
Shirley touched the suit and it began to suck her in, she drew back sharply.
"Its harmless. It feels nostalgic." Reassured Charles.
She closed her eyes and let herself be absorbed into it.
She found herself screaming inside the suit, bathed in darkness, then it whirred to life, and the sensory functions activated, and then...
"I'm alive. I feel like I have weight again. It IS nostalgic..." She said, before getting crushed under it's weight.
"Haha! You'll get used to it. Now, you 3 try." Instructed Charles.
"Ok ok give me a second!" Complained Riku.
He closed his eyes and walked to the suit and as he touched it, he was immediately sucked in.
"Woah! This makes me miss being alive a little"Riku said as he began to do the basic human stretches to get used to it.
Rina then went to a suit and touched it with her fingers and got sucked in.
"This feels weird"She said as she began moving her arms
Skyla entered a suit too.
"Feels good." She said simply.
"Ok. Now that we have basic movements, lets focus on using the reaper frame's technology. Your visor has basic functions, like a HUD display, and a map of your area. The main function of the HUD is to reveal the bliss level off individual, ranging from 0 to 5.
level 0 is the most common, they are people who are depressed. They also have a red aura as spirits. It is pointless to reap them, ignore them.
Level 1 is next common, keeping level 1s alive is your best option, as normally letting them live means they will develop into higher levels. Record them using your picture reference so we can store them and monitor them into our database until they are suitable to be reaped.
Level 2 is good, but still common. Same goes for level 1, really, but reaping them is a good option.
Level 3 is rare. Reap them, as chances are they wont develop higher.
Level 4 is very rare, track them down and kill them.
Level 5... there is only one level 5 in existence, and thats Davis. You will never see one, I can assure you.
Now, reaping is split into two divisions- death reapers and paternal reapers.
Death reapers kill.
However, paternal reapers are spirits who go to earth to try and evolve the level of individuals into higher levels suitable for reaping. Not many spirits bother with paternal reaping, and with the war, we badly need them, because we're getting desperate for new blissful spirits, going so far as to attack your school in Garland.
So, we also explain the mindsets of bliss levels for paternal reapers.
Level 0 are people who have had events happen in their life that drives them to despair or they are simply not happy- a level 0 can evolve quickly into higher levels with a paternal reaper's help.
Normally, on their own, they will unfortunately remain that way for the rest of their lives, sadly. With the war, level 0s run rampant.
Level 1s are people who have never had anything bad happen to them, most children below teenage years are level 1 because of their innocence. Level 1s may also be people who stay happy because of their level 0 status- using pessimism to drive them. Surprisingly, a level 0 has more chance of evolving than a level 1, but a level 1, while less likely, can harness their innocence to reach even level 4.
Level 2 is a middle ground. Normally, level 2 is also a sense of innocence, but rather than it being because nothing bad has ever happened to them, its more like being happy and cheerful is built into their nature rather than due to their environment.
initial Level 2s have the highest chance of all the levels of reaching level 4 and, dare I say it, level 5 status of all the levels.
Level 3s are where we get more complicated. There is no such thing as an initial level 3, most initial levels are level 1s.
Level 3s are normally 0s who, through tough events, manage to overcome their hardships in life and come out on top.
Level 3 will rarely evolve, because after reaching level 3, normally they've already reached their 'happily ever after' and have no reason to evolve past level 3.
Level 4s and 5 are unique and rare.
Level 4 is achieved through a level 2 having their lives suddenly demolished, but regardless try to keep people happy and stay cheerful, despite everything. These people are like 'heros' in fiction. Once they've overcome their hardships, they do everything to maintain that peace after death, normally through a heroic deed.
Davis, the only level 5, was able achieve true happiness despite the fact that he really should have been a level 0, and founded Bliss. Truly, Davis is amazing.
Someone who has achieved high Bliss levels does not necessarily have to be a good person, he or she could be a very egotistical and greedy person, but normally at most they can reach is level 3 because they are so shallow in their ideals of happiness, and aren't really welcome in Bliss generally, but they are the most easy type of people to paternally reap, we simply give them a lot of money and power then reap them. Did you know that Hitler is our prime and most proud example of this type of reaping? Oh well, that was a bit of a test of paternal reaping as bliss was not long founded and it only worked in theory... Anyway, hitler passed through the gates of death years ago.
Ok, any questions?" Asked Charles, quite clearly used to the speech.
Everyone remained quiet now.
"Great! Ok, you ARE required to do a death reaping supervised first, and for it to be successful, before you can choose roles officially. We just want to make sure there are no defects in either you or more likely the system first before we allow free reaping, I mean, this is a matter of life and death ultimately, and the secret behind the afterlife too. Ok lets get into weapons.
You have an arsenal of weapons to choose from. As dead spirits, we are invincible, although our suits aren't, unfortunately. Still, we have weapons far superior to the living, and we shouldn't have to wage war on them anyway, that would be insane and unnecessary, so really weapons are only there for show. In your hands are reaper bullets, which can be fired by use of the nerve system in the reaper frame suit.
A lot of the suits functions are based on impulses of the spirit, imagine if a human was naturally able to fire bullets. Thats essentially how functions of the frame work, through an artificial CNS.
Now, to explain how to activate it is like explaining why we think. Or how. Just calm your mind, and fire the bullet. Its like walking.
We learn by pointing at our target first... and firing. Trust me, after a few times, it becomes so natural.
Please hit the targets that are going to appear. They will be blue. Once your ready, we'll make the targets smaller and add red targets your not allowed to shoot to emulate a real reaping, then just for fun we'll tally your score. Ok, watch me first."
A target appeared, and Charles slowly showed the process. He pointed at it with his index finger, and fired a small blue bullet cloaked in flame at the target, smashing it.
He then held his hand up, and fired bullets out of all 5 fingers at some of the some targets, just to show off his marksmanship skills.
Shirley tried pointing at a target.
She looked away and closed her eyes, and began focusing so hard she began to shake.
"Its not that hard. My advice is dont over think it." said Charles.
Shirley nodded, and tried again. Suddenly, bullets from all 10 of her fingers fired everywhere, except the target she was supposed to hit. It also hit Charles and the others, but they bounced off with no damage.
"Oops! Sorry!" She said, blushing inside the suit.
She continued trying.
Eventually, she got the hang of it and fired at all the targets. As the targets popped up, she fired at it, pointing and firing. It was relatively easy.
Riku and Skyla began firing with perfect marksmanship and accuracy, Rina was pretty good too.
"Well I've tallied the scores... it went Riku, Skyla, Rina, and Shirley in last. Oh well. Ok, we dont teach close combat as it's self explanatory and optional in reaping, so grab what you want and follow me. Its time for your first death reaping." Said Charles.
Shirley looked through the weapons and grabbed a sword, then followed Charles.
They ended up in a massive ship.
"The reaper's ship, the Angel of death. Not an original name, but it seems fitting. Now sit back and enjoy the view- its time to rejoin the living."
Shirley looked out at the window as the descended from Bliss, suddenly feeling heavier.
"We're among the living now. I please ask you to move around a bit and look around the ship so that your in top condition when we begin reaping.
"Where's our destination?" Asked Shirley.
"Mmm, the Garland area again I think. We only got the school last time. Then we got restricted by our time limit..." Charles mumbled.
Shirley got up and looked around the ship.
"AI, where are we now?" She asked.
"We're flying over america at 100 M/PH. Anything else miss Barnes?" Replied AI.
"No, thanks." Said Shirley.
Skyla seemed board, she paced back and forth.
"Hey shirley, what do we look like under our suits in the land of the living? Can I check?" She asked, getting on top of Shirley, and then she tried opening the suit.
"Damn. I cant get it open..." Groaned Skyla, flopping down on the bench next to Shirley.
"I thought I told you not to do that sort of thing again." Said Shirley through gritted teeth.
"Sorry!" Replied Skyla.
"Ok, we are coming into view. 0's have a red aura, and above are blue. The lighter the shade of blue, the higher the level use that as a guideline, check from afar, and dont make mistakes. Once our reaping is finished, return to the ship. When everyone has returned to the ship, the memory rewriter will activate, and our actions will not be remembered by onlookers... oh, and the ship runs on auto piolet mostly." Explained Charles.
They went out onto the deck.
"This is a sweep up, so its just the 5 of us, most reapings have about 20 reapers so that we are as fast as possible. Ok, jump down, its cant harm you." Charles went up to the deck and jumped, disappearing below the clouds.
Shirley edged over to where Charles had jumped, and looked down.
"Well... I've died once, I can do it again." She said, then jumped, and the rest followed.
The throne room was simply decorated and had humorous cartoons and jokes relating to death hanging on the walls.
'I'm death.' Read one. 'NO! Please dont kill me!' 'I cant hear you, hold up a sign, because I said I'm DEAF!' Shirley was not amused.
A cheerful young man was sitting on the throne. The leader of the reapers, Mayor of Bliss, and creator of AI, Davis.
"Hello! Shirley! Skyla! Riku! Rina! I'm Davis, and I founded Bliss!" He greeted enthusiastically, yet not sounding boastful.
He jumped down from the throne, and shook all their hands simultaneously.
"Yep! Spirits can do these sorts of things in Bliss!
Your here because you guys are awesome! And, we want you to become Reapers like us so that we can have even more awesome people here in Bliss! And end that silly war happening down Below! Whaddya think, you in?" David asked, looking at them all, beaming.
Shirley was too speechless to answer, she stood there trying to respond.
"Oh, sorry, I'll give you time to answer, I'm so sorry I'm always forcing myself on people!" David blushed and skipped in one stride over to his throne.
"Hi there! You want us to go around killing people?" Asked Skyla.
Davis scrunched in his face.
"Oh, dont be like that! Where would you be without us? Alive, ok, yes, but your life is over in a blink of an eye. Without us, you would have lived, and you'd be past the gates before having a chance to enjoy eternity. We're saving people, my dear Skyla."
Skyla took that as an acceptable answer and began thinking.
"Weapons! Do we get WEAPONS?" Yelled Riku.
Rina hit him over the head.
"What do we get in return, Davis?" She asked.
"... More time in Bliss. Thats what you get." Said Davis after a long time, and somewhat darkly.
Suddenly, changing the subject bouncily, he answered Riku's first question.
"YES! We have weapons and equipment ranging across all different types. Including scythes, guns, swords... well, of course, as reapers our jobs is to look as inconspicuous as possible, but thats rather hard, as you saw in Garland.
Generally our operations are covered up as terrorist attacks in the media, and recently the war has covered our tracks well. Some of the world leaders know about us, and we have deals that our existence wont be known. Of course our main way of staying a secret are memory erasers. With our minds, we can create any form of technologies here in Bliss, if we can imagine it, we can build it.
On Earth, we are invisible however we can inhabit inanimate objects, mainly those giant metal suits. We appear as empty knights to the living. But we can use computers and the net for quick travels and inhabit all sorts of things.
However, our time on earth, like it or not, is limited to 24 hours, at which point death avatar is allowed to catch us and carry us straight to the gates of death, so we have to reap and get back to the Bliss point, a place on our main flagship. Thats why reaping is very military like to keep someone from wondering off and getting caught.
Also, our powers such as being able to do anything with our minds dont work on earth, only in Bliss. Its a slight pain but thats why we prepare ourselves here first.
Any other questions before we begin reaper training?" Asked Davis, very excited.
Everyone was quiet.
"Great! Charles!" Called Davis. He clapped, and Charles arrived in a puff of smoke.
"New reapers!" Said Davis. Charles smiled.
"Follow me." Said Charles.
"Ok... reaper it is." Said Shirley.
"So, Davis filled you in on most of it. Here are some of the suits we use." Said Charles.
"You inhabit them like this..." He explained as he went inside his.
"... And then they activate. They work the same way as a body, but it may take a second to get acquainted. Try it."
Shirley touched the suit and it began to suck her in, she drew back sharply.
"Its harmless. It feels nostalgic." Reassured Charles.
She closed her eyes and let herself be absorbed into it.
She found herself screaming inside the suit, bathed in darkness, then it whirred to life, and the sensory functions activated, and then...
"I'm alive. I feel like I have weight again. It IS nostalgic..." She said, before getting crushed under it's weight.
"Haha! You'll get used to it. Now, you 3 try." Instructed Charles.
"Ok ok give me a second!" Complained Riku.
He closed his eyes and walked to the suit and as he touched it, he was immediately sucked in.
"Woah! This makes me miss being alive a little"Riku said as he began to do the basic human stretches to get used to it.
Rina then went to a suit and touched it with her fingers and got sucked in.
"This feels weird"She said as she began moving her arms
Skyla entered a suit too.
"Feels good." She said simply.
"Ok. Now that we have basic movements, lets focus on using the reaper frame's technology. Your visor has basic functions, like a HUD display, and a map of your area. The main function of the HUD is to reveal the bliss level off individual, ranging from 0 to 5.
level 0 is the most common, they are people who are depressed. They also have a red aura as spirits. It is pointless to reap them, ignore them.
Level 1 is next common, keeping level 1s alive is your best option, as normally letting them live means they will develop into higher levels. Record them using your picture reference so we can store them and monitor them into our database until they are suitable to be reaped.
Level 2 is good, but still common. Same goes for level 1, really, but reaping them is a good option.
Level 3 is rare. Reap them, as chances are they wont develop higher.
Level 4 is very rare, track them down and kill them.
Level 5... there is only one level 5 in existence, and thats Davis. You will never see one, I can assure you.
Now, reaping is split into two divisions- death reapers and paternal reapers.
Death reapers kill.
However, paternal reapers are spirits who go to earth to try and evolve the level of individuals into higher levels suitable for reaping. Not many spirits bother with paternal reaping, and with the war, we badly need them, because we're getting desperate for new blissful spirits, going so far as to attack your school in Garland.
So, we also explain the mindsets of bliss levels for paternal reapers.
Level 0 are people who have had events happen in their life that drives them to despair or they are simply not happy- a level 0 can evolve quickly into higher levels with a paternal reaper's help.
Normally, on their own, they will unfortunately remain that way for the rest of their lives, sadly. With the war, level 0s run rampant.
Level 1s are people who have never had anything bad happen to them, most children below teenage years are level 1 because of their innocence. Level 1s may also be people who stay happy because of their level 0 status- using pessimism to drive them. Surprisingly, a level 0 has more chance of evolving than a level 1, but a level 1, while less likely, can harness their innocence to reach even level 4.
Level 2 is a middle ground. Normally, level 2 is also a sense of innocence, but rather than it being because nothing bad has ever happened to them, its more like being happy and cheerful is built into their nature rather than due to their environment.
initial Level 2s have the highest chance of all the levels of reaching level 4 and, dare I say it, level 5 status of all the levels.
Level 3s are where we get more complicated. There is no such thing as an initial level 3, most initial levels are level 1s.
Level 3s are normally 0s who, through tough events, manage to overcome their hardships in life and come out on top.
Level 3 will rarely evolve, because after reaching level 3, normally they've already reached their 'happily ever after' and have no reason to evolve past level 3.
Level 4s and 5 are unique and rare.
Level 4 is achieved through a level 2 having their lives suddenly demolished, but regardless try to keep people happy and stay cheerful, despite everything. These people are like 'heros' in fiction. Once they've overcome their hardships, they do everything to maintain that peace after death, normally through a heroic deed.
Davis, the only level 5, was able achieve true happiness despite the fact that he really should have been a level 0, and founded Bliss. Truly, Davis is amazing.
Someone who has achieved high Bliss levels does not necessarily have to be a good person, he or she could be a very egotistical and greedy person, but normally at most they can reach is level 3 because they are so shallow in their ideals of happiness, and aren't really welcome in Bliss generally, but they are the most easy type of people to paternally reap, we simply give them a lot of money and power then reap them. Did you know that Hitler is our prime and most proud example of this type of reaping? Oh well, that was a bit of a test of paternal reaping as bliss was not long founded and it only worked in theory... Anyway, hitler passed through the gates of death years ago.
Ok, any questions?" Asked Charles, quite clearly used to the speech.
Everyone remained quiet now.
"Great! Ok, you ARE required to do a death reaping supervised first, and for it to be successful, before you can choose roles officially. We just want to make sure there are no defects in either you or more likely the system first before we allow free reaping, I mean, this is a matter of life and death ultimately, and the secret behind the afterlife too. Ok lets get into weapons.
You have an arsenal of weapons to choose from. As dead spirits, we are invincible, although our suits aren't, unfortunately. Still, we have weapons far superior to the living, and we shouldn't have to wage war on them anyway, that would be insane and unnecessary, so really weapons are only there for show. In your hands are reaper bullets, which can be fired by use of the nerve system in the reaper frame suit.
A lot of the suits functions are based on impulses of the spirit, imagine if a human was naturally able to fire bullets. Thats essentially how functions of the frame work, through an artificial CNS.
Now, to explain how to activate it is like explaining why we think. Or how. Just calm your mind, and fire the bullet. Its like walking.
We learn by pointing at our target first... and firing. Trust me, after a few times, it becomes so natural.
Please hit the targets that are going to appear. They will be blue. Once your ready, we'll make the targets smaller and add red targets your not allowed to shoot to emulate a real reaping, then just for fun we'll tally your score. Ok, watch me first."
A target appeared, and Charles slowly showed the process. He pointed at it with his index finger, and fired a small blue bullet cloaked in flame at the target, smashing it.
He then held his hand up, and fired bullets out of all 5 fingers at some of the some targets, just to show off his marksmanship skills.
Shirley tried pointing at a target.
She looked away and closed her eyes, and began focusing so hard she began to shake.
"Its not that hard. My advice is dont over think it." said Charles.
Shirley nodded, and tried again. Suddenly, bullets from all 10 of her fingers fired everywhere, except the target she was supposed to hit. It also hit Charles and the others, but they bounced off with no damage.
"Oops! Sorry!" She said, blushing inside the suit.
She continued trying.
Eventually, she got the hang of it and fired at all the targets. As the targets popped up, she fired at it, pointing and firing. It was relatively easy.
Riku and Skyla began firing with perfect marksmanship and accuracy, Rina was pretty good too.
"Well I've tallied the scores... it went Riku, Skyla, Rina, and Shirley in last. Oh well. Ok, we dont teach close combat as it's self explanatory and optional in reaping, so grab what you want and follow me. Its time for your first death reaping." Said Charles.
Shirley looked through the weapons and grabbed a sword, then followed Charles.
They ended up in a massive ship.
"The reaper's ship, the Angel of death. Not an original name, but it seems fitting. Now sit back and enjoy the view- its time to rejoin the living."
Shirley looked out at the window as the descended from Bliss, suddenly feeling heavier.
"We're among the living now. I please ask you to move around a bit and look around the ship so that your in top condition when we begin reaping.
"Where's our destination?" Asked Shirley.
"Mmm, the Garland area again I think. We only got the school last time. Then we got restricted by our time limit..." Charles mumbled.
Shirley got up and looked around the ship.
"AI, where are we now?" She asked.
"We're flying over america at 100 M/PH. Anything else miss Barnes?" Replied AI.
"No, thanks." Said Shirley.
Skyla seemed board, she paced back and forth.
"Hey shirley, what do we look like under our suits in the land of the living? Can I check?" She asked, getting on top of Shirley, and then she tried opening the suit.
"Damn. I cant get it open..." Groaned Skyla, flopping down on the bench next to Shirley.
"I thought I told you not to do that sort of thing again." Said Shirley through gritted teeth.
"Sorry!" Replied Skyla.
"Ok, we are coming into view. 0's have a red aura, and above are blue. The lighter the shade of blue, the higher the level use that as a guideline, check from afar, and dont make mistakes. Once our reaping is finished, return to the ship. When everyone has returned to the ship, the memory rewriter will activate, and our actions will not be remembered by onlookers... oh, and the ship runs on auto piolet mostly." Explained Charles.
They went out onto the deck.
"This is a sweep up, so its just the 5 of us, most reapings have about 20 reapers so that we are as fast as possible. Ok, jump down, its cant harm you." Charles went up to the deck and jumped, disappearing below the clouds.
Shirley edged over to where Charles had jumped, and looked down.
"Well... I've died once, I can do it again." She said, then jumped, and the rest followed.
