Squared Up

Nameless

Nameless

I'm under your bed
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Oct 22, 2015
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"Legal professional? I am guessing you are a lawyer? That is a very dangerous job if history has anything to say about it. I hope you are working with nice people." And if not, she hoped she would be the first one to be there when he passed his mortal coil. Reapers liked to have dibs on souls, and without a handler, she would need to be there before anyone else to claim him as her charge. While she didn't do a lot of letting people pass on, she also wouldn't do it if they didn't want to. Because it was much more fun to play with ghosts sometimes, since that's when they're most fun to be with, once they've let go of their worries and living carefree that is. "You must miss your birthplace a lot. Do you remember much before you left?"
 
SirCatfish

SirCatfish

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"It's not so bad around here. People seem to realise fairly quickly that if they hurt me they have little to no chance of finding another lawyer willing to represent them in court," Arthur said, giving a rueful smile. He had certainly gotten a bit of a shock when he moved here from London and realised that about 25% of the people hiring him probably had the ability to kill him on the spot.

He hadn't exactly gotten used to it, rather just accepted that this risk was part of his job. There were death threats, but mostly he just brushed them off at this point. Praise the Gods for the law enforcement system.

"Not much. I remembered walking home from school, every day, along the waterfront. That was something I missed in England. But I've gotten used to it, and I'm getting used to it here," Arthur answered, a little too honestly for his own liking. Normally, he didn't delve so deep into the details. "Do you like it here?"
 
Nameless

Nameless

I'm under your bed
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Oct 22, 2015
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"Willing?" she echoed curiously. "I always thought lawyers were bound not to discriminate or something..." she looked to be in thought at this revelation. It could be that she thought wrong all these years, or that the law in this island was more relaxed. "That would explain some things," she pondered, momentarily getting lost in thought but soon caught herself before her gaze drifted too far. She nodded a reply to him, "Yes, I enjoy it here. It is a lot harder to scare people here however, especially when most people here would scare humans twenty times better than I could just by saying hello to them on the street. But I guess it is a nice change. I can still walk around without being seen, most of the time. And I get to move however I want! In broad daylight! Not to mention all the specialty shops you can not find anywhere else! Well... save for some really secret shops in the narrow reality, but they are sometimes very expensive."
 
SirCatfish

SirCatfish

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"Most lawyers would rather not work with somebody who is an actual threat to their lives. Of course, lawyers do have an ethical duty to their clients, but it becomes a whole new thing when their lives are actually threatened." Arthur explained. Of course, things might be different out of the island, where lawyers are typically not so connected, but here there were so few law firms that reputations spread easily.

"Well, I supposed the island is a special place," he replied. "It's supposed to be a safe place for people like us. I imagine that the situation would be quite different in the rest of the world, though because my powers don't manifest physically I wouldn't know."

He took a sip of his tea, taking a glance at his watch.

"I've been meaning to ask, Luciana... How do you know me?" Arthur said, a little out of the blue. He enjoyed the conversation, but there was an uneasy feeling that had been growing in him throughout it. "Have I met you? Or perhaps was I unaware?"
 
Nameless

Nameless

I'm under your bed
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Oct 22, 2015
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With the cup to her lips, she pondered. Did she actually know this person? Well, that was a definite no, but there was indeed some degree of familiarity. She hummed as she searched her mind for an answer. She tipped the cup to sip and then tipped it back, so she could speak. "I am still unsure... Did you... by chance... have a car accident? With..." she thought a little harder, trying to recall something. "Oh yes, with three other souls in the car with you?"
 
SirCatfish

SirCatfish

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It took a while for the message's meaning to be properly conveyed to him. For a few moments, he just stared into his mug as his brain attempted to process and connect the words to his own memory. When he had managed to shake the initial shock out of his head, his first act was to remove his hands from the mug and the edge of the table. He didn't want to be knocking anything over.

"Yes. Car accident," Arthur said, giving a curt nod. It had been a long time ago. While it isn't to say that it didn't still hurt, thinking of Valerie and the life they could've had, he had mostly managed to come to terms with it. Mostly. "An hour out of Bristol. 14, 15 years ago?"

Saying that length of time really did make it sound longer. He clasped his hands under the table and collected his memories, before a sudden realisation came to him again and his head snapped back up.

"Three? You said three souls? I am still alive. It was only my father and my fiancee, no?"
 
Nameless

Nameless

I'm under your bed
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Oct 22, 2015
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Huh? 15 years? Had it been that recent? That would make the familiarity with his presence make sense. She continued to sip her drink and saw that he seemed to be in shock. She was about to ask if something was wrong, but she remembered that people normally don't cope well with death. Especially those from the narrow reality. Well... what she had to say next would just probably get her in trouble, seeing as it would maybe snap a mortal man's mind. She finished up her coffee before she put the cup down. "Yes... there was a woman, and an older gentleman and..." Luciana braced herself. She had made the mistake of confessing taking someone's soul to someone who had connections to them. It never ended well. But maybe 15 years wouldn't make him as hostile? "And there was a fresher one. The soul of the unborn she carried."
 
SirCatfish

SirCatfish

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The unborn. That she carried.

For a moment, Arthur wondered if he had heard Luciana right. Maybe it had been a mistake on her part. A soul of some animal, maybe, or a fragment of his own soul that had been lost during that fateful night. But he heard what he heard. And the more he remembered, the more it made sense.

Something catches in his throat. When he manages to clear that, he realises that his hands were shaking on his lap.

"She.... she was pregnant?" Arthur asked, his voice sounding suddenly very far away. "I didn't know. She didn't tell me."
 
Nameless

Nameless

I'm under your bed
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Oct 22, 2015
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Neither were thousands if not millions of other people who lost their other half who carried the proof of their unity. Luciana couldn't remember how old the soul was since it really didn't matter much to her. All she could remember that it was a healthy one, the purest of souls yet to be tainted by the world. She could say that they're in a better place, but she would be guessing at most. Leading them for judgment was as far as she could take any soul. Past that, it was someone else's problem. And lying just didn't feel right today. "Do you need some space?" While he might not have pieced together that she was a reaper and that she was the one who took their souls to purgatory, it was less troublesome to let people grieve.
 
SirCatfish

SirCatfish

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"It's... thank you for letting me know," Arthur said, his voice still sounding a little distant. He recognised that he should feel something, but aside from the shaking in his hands and how far away everything suddenly sounded, there was no recognisable emotion going through his head.

He should have known, after all. At that time he had spent so much of his life in the office and the courtroom that he had all but neglected what was going on in his personal life. Valerie had always been too good to him, too lenient with the time he didn't spend with her. If everything never happened, and he did become a father, he would've been an awful one.

Dimly, he realised that he was still supposed to be in conversation.

"Oh, no. It's okay. It's fine," he answered. "If you... well, how did you know?"
 
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