[Accidental Video]

[transitioner]

[Another random camera - or maybe the same one from before, it's hard to tell - catches Death walking about along some street. There is a constant pattering sound quite separate from the clattering steps of his bony feet. And . . . is that a trail of brightly colorful stones? If one didn't know better, one would think they look like Skittles. Either he's walking along them a single-line path of them or . . . no . . . no, they must be coming FROM him - they're only behind, none ahead.]

[Death finally pauses, skull tilting downward toward the street as he seems to look around...and spot the trail he's leaving. He doesn't exactly sigh - he hasn't any lungs - but there's clearly a long-suffering impression before he turns to continue wordlessly on his way.]

[Looks like someone's been turned into a pooping-candy dispenser.]

Comments

not ready to be faced with own quasi-mortality

[dirge]

Possibly?! [Dirge splays his claws on his midsection and makes a distressed face. He'd always just dismissed Swindle as teasing him before but...

Wait a minute how does this creature know?

The clone scoots out of the alleyway, still terrified but also curious now. All the signs of lifelessness in a body that was somehow still functioning. Was it powered by an all-spark fragment as well? No, that would have fixed all the damage...

The shard in his chest seems to recognize it but he can only catch a vague feeling of 'opposite opposite opposite' from it.]

Are you.....a ghost?

/pats

[transitioner]

[The head shakes ponderously.]

I AM NOT. GHOSTS RESULT WHEN ONE'S CONSCIOUSNESS CANNOT OR WILL NOT ALLOW ME TO GUIDE IT ON ITS WAY AFTER THE MORTAL BODY'S CESSATION OF LIFE.

[You're not the brightest bulb in the box, Dirge, but you're far from dumb, so he'll leave it at that. He's discovered that it tends to be easier - if marginally sometimes - on mortal minds to come to the answer themselves than to be outright told.]

[dirge]

[The jet's lip curls at the apparition's mention of 'cessation of life.' Dying was one thing, but not coming back afterwards? No deal.]

Wait.... so you can get rid of ghosts? Potentially? [He asks, terror overcome by his impulsivity for the moment. He took Sam's promise to haunt him if he killed her very literally.]

[transitioner]

[As well he probably should, though Death isn’t aware of the promise.]

NOT IF THEY ARE UNWILLING OR UNABLE TO MOVE ON. I CANNOT DEFY ANOTHER’S WILL FOR HIM OR HERSELF IN THAT REGARD, NOT UNLESS IT IS DEEMED OTHERWISE.

[dirge]

[Dirge looks very disappointed. If someone as terrifying as this being could do nothing about a haunting, perhaps no one really could.]

I see.

[He fidgets nervously with his claws, one wing flicking and then the other.]

You're something...very strong. But different. [The clone says quietly, trying to make sense of what his shard is telling him.]

Opposite. [Of the all-spark? And the all spark was...creation....life...-! Dirge looks suddenly alarmed, perhaps more so than when he'd first discovered who was at the end of the candy trail.]

Oh, I get it now. That's what you meant by 'it wasn't my time.' Of course its not. I don't have a time. Stay away from me.

[Pause.]

....Why are you trailing candy?

[transitioner]

YOU DO. ALL DO. THOUGH I WILL CONCEDE THAT YOURS IS A…SPECIAL AND UNUSUAL CASE. BUT THE DETERMINATION IS NOT MINE TO MAKE. I MERELY CARRY OUT MY TASK WHEN REQUIRED.

[The being shifted to study the trail.]

IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN, IT HAS TO DO WITH THE MIASMA-SUMMONED CANDIES I PARTOOK OF RECENTLY. YOU ARE WELCOME TO THEM IF YOU WISH.