Who: Death and Strange
What: Chance Meeting
Where: On the streets
[Death]: The little walks around the city were enjoyable. Walking in the world always made her feel like she could pretend to be a part of it. A living part. And people were just so nice to talk to. Why wouldn't she want to just be around them?
The fact that no one could leave this city was a little unnerving. She knew it wasn't a major issue, but while she was here, she was having major difficulty with her own plane, and - worse - she couldn't communicate with her siblings. Especially her little brother - he worried about her.
She knew that her function was still being completed outside this city. But the fact that
she wasn't there to oversee things...
Oh well. Just the universe throwing another wrench in the whole thing. She paused at a street corner, checking her pockets for the set of keys the universe had provided for her apartment. People continued to pass by, and she smiled at each one of them.
[Strange]: Despite the reputation and the wealth Strange had before his inevitable 'fall', he lived in what looked to be a hole-in-the-wall apartment whose only entrance was a shabby door in an alleyway that no one ever took notice of. In fact, the first time he'd seen it he couldn't recall that it had ever existed. He'd soon come to realize though that the world was not always what it appeared to be, and neither were the people in it.
He had a strange demeanor about him as he left his alley abode and began his walk through the city streets. He was an older man, about middle-aged, with eyes that were passed down with the knowledge of centuries of sorcerors that existed before him. Most people thought he was just an eccentric. A crazy old obsessor of the occult who hung around strange Tibetan monks. Though, why there were monks in the city no one ever seemed to question. There just were .. just like everyone else was there. Seemingly stuck.
He stopped at the street corner across from her, his long maroon colored coat rustling at the passing of a bus. Public transportation at its finest. Stood. Watching. And waiting. Until the street sign began flashing the white 'walk' symbol, and he started to cross.
[Death]: Searching, searching, searching... then, "A-ha! Success!" She pulled a keyring from her pocket, with a large metal smiley-face keychain. But shen she turned, she ended up stepping directly into the path of a man in a rather impressive maroon coat. "Oops!" she said, looking at him with a bright smile. "Sorry! Wasn't looking where I was going."
[Strange]: Strange was surprised. And surprises, though customary, were never appreciated in his line of work. Or in this case, whilst trying to cross a busy intersection in the middle of the city.
He stared at her with a curious suspicion, right hand reaching up to rest upon a bright yellow-hued medallion that hung on his chest. Hung used in the most abstract sense of the word because it was neither attached to a chain nor the ornate vest that was beneath it.
"Not a problem, miss. Happens all the time.."
Was it odd that he thought her smile was a little .. misplaced?
[Death]: She caught the bright flash of yellow under his figners and her eyes lit up. "Hey! The Amamoto!" She looked up at him, laughing in her delight. "I haven't seen that in years!"
[Strange]: Blink.
Strange shifted his vision in a sidelong direction, before taking the few steps forward to get out of the middle of the street. The light was flashing red afterall. Then he returned his attention back to the girl.
"Excuse me?" he said, in more of a '
how do you know what this is?' sort of manner as opposed to the normal
'who are you, why are you bothering me?' approach.
Now his guard was turned on.
[Death]: She stepped back from the traffic as well. No point in frightening the pedestrians. Or the poor drivers. Besides, he was still conversing with her. "The Amamoto. I last saw it.... oh, must have been seventy, eighty years back? I was wondering where it had ended up." She caught the expression in his eyes, the guarded stance, and blinked. "What? Did I say something wrong?"
[Strange]: She confused him. He didn't normally run into casual conversation about the medallion he'd inherited when he took the alternative path in his life. The more peculiar fork in the road decision, one could say. And normally, whenever he came into contact with someone who had knowledge about such mystical items, it ended rather badly.
You know, with a tear in the fabric of worlds and Strange waking up with a headache.
"What do you want?" he said impatiently. He didn't like beating around the bush. If she was going to challenge him to some sort of battle for power between the many realms, he'd rather her just tell him and not make him play guessing games.
[Death]: She gave him an odd look. "Want?" Then she thought it over. "I could probably go for an apple. Apples are great. The way they crunch and the juice just hits your mouth?" She sighed. "Yes, I like apples. But no, I don't want anything from you. I was just curious because it's been a long time since I've seen it." She gave him another smile. "At least it's in good hands."
[Strange]: Strange just stared at her. She was too perky to be evil, but she had a vague naivete about her that didn't seem like it fit properly. His wild black eyebrows creased near the center of his forehead.
"Who
are you?" he asked.
She didn't feel like she belonged. In fact she felt to him much the same way he felt to the creatures on the 'other side'. Like he wasn't supposed to be there.
"And how do you know I am 'good hands'?"
It was a funny choice in words, he thought. Hands. It was his hands afterall that had brought him to this existence. The accident. The not-so-coincidental meetings. The end of his human profession.
[Death]: She tilted her head lightly. "Don't you know who I am, Dr. Strange?" The ankh she always wore glittered in the light of the sun as she smiled again. It was a familiar smile, the smile of an old and dear friend. "I know you. We've met before."
[Strange]: "Have we?" Strange asked, somewhat haphazardly. His light blue eyed gaze falling to the glimmering ankh as the sun hit it at a bright angle. Vision narrowed again. Unnerving was the word for this situation. Unnerving because she was right. There was something familiar about her smile. But at the same time unwelcomed. "When..?"
[Death]: She sighed a bit, a sigh of expected disappointment. "No one ever remembers. But I was there the day you were born. I held you and I kissed you, and you lived." Her eyes met his. "And I'll be there on the day that you die." She shrugged lightly, playfully. "You know who I am."
[Strange]: Strange had the expression of someone who didn't believe. Or didn't want to believe. Which was curious considering who he was and where he existed in the plane of reality.
"If you are who you claim to be, then why are you here in corporeal form? You wouldn't need to be.."
He scratched an index finger along his chin, pulling a few moments at his goatee in contemplative intrigue.
"I hope you're not here for me. I know it's not my time."
He had to exist at least until he trained a replacement. If he were to perish the doors between the worlds would open and chaos would ensue. He'd put up a good fight not to let that happen.
[Death]: "Why wouldn't I be? I mean, sure, the
concept is incorporeal. But someone has to actually
do the work. Concepts don't exactly cut it on their own." She smiled reassuringly at his concern. "No, it's not your time. You have other things to do first. I was just passing by and almost bumped into you."
She looked up at him, curious. "You sound like you don't believe me, Doctor."
[Strange]: "There are many things in this universe to believe. This is one of the ones that warrants a certain amount of skepticism."
And that was one of the reasons why the Ancient One had passed down the sacred duties to him. Because he wasn't a diehard believer in everything he heard. There were times in life when one had to be strong and not so willing to bend.
He'd referred to Strange as a 'straight line'. Straight, narrow, but with the potential to flexibility when necessary.
This, however...
"If you are who you say you are then you shouldn't be surprised. And you can give me the old 'I told you so' when it's my turn. Forgive me though if I am reluctant to pick my number so quickly just so that I can determine if you speak the truth. I'm a patient man. I can wait."
[Death]: "Don't be so sure about that. Humanity always finds a way to surprise me. I'm sure sometimes, it surprises even you."
She gave him another smile, warmer this time than before. "Good hands. Like I said." She glanced up at the street lights. "Whoops. Sorry. I have to keep an appointment."
As she spoke, there was a screech of tires behind him, and a shout. She placed her hands back in the pockets of her jeans and started walking in the direction of the noise. "See you around!"
[Strange]: The screeching of the tires drew his attention away before she mentioned her comment about keeping an appointment, although he was sure he heard it at a subconscious level. Eyes widened as he turned to see the crash of an accident, and for a split second his physician sense kicked in and he felt the insistent drive to help. But he knew there really wasn't anything he could do.
He'd sacrificed one world for another. The ability to help the common man from everyday trials, traumas, and pain for the strength to hold together the world in which that common man existed. It had been a difficult choice. One good for another. Each intertwined at some cosmic level. Each just as important.
But this was the choice he'd made. And with it came the pangs of not being able to help everyone.
[Death]: She walked through the gathering crown with ease, though most people didn't even seem to notice her. Up in the center of the growing crowd, a young man was getting to his feet, brushing off his pants and shaking his head. "Hey, Franklin!" she called to him.
Franklin looked up at her. "Wow, did you see that?" he asked. "I didn't think I'd make it past the car in time! And then it..." He trailed off, frowning, and glanced at the ground where his physical body still lay. "Wait. Is that... am I...?"
"As a dodo," she said, nodding. "But it
was a good try. You almost made it."
"Yeah..." Franklin scratched his head. "Weird. I thought I'd, you know. Be upset or something. I just wish I could have had a little more time." He sighed, and looked at her. "Now what?"
"Now's when you find out." She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and kissed his forehead. On another place of existence, dark wings unfurled from her back and encirled them both. There was the sound of wings beating in the wind, and then there was just her, calmly walking away from the accident, back to the sidewalks.
[Strange]: And Strange? Well, Strange watched the entire ordeal pan out as though he were watching it at a moving picture show. He watched the man stand up, but he instantly knew it wasn't the man in his normal material form. Through Strange's vision he had a pale opaque appearance.
And then came the dark wings and the finishing kiss, and if Strange had any doubts they were partly pushed aside. Whether or not he believed she was actually death incarnate was yet to be seen. But he did believe that she was something. And that something had a great power.
When she began to walk away from the scene and continue her travels down the sidewalk, Strange hurried out into the halted traffic, crossing back to the other side so that he could catch up with her. He took a steady gait at her side. Oddly enough, he fell into cliche respectability and walked on the street side.
He didn't know what question to ask first.
[Death]: She looked up at him, smiling lightly when he moved to the street side of her and matched her pace. "Still a skeptic," she said. It wasn't a question. "What do you want to say, Doctor Strange?"
While she was pleased that he'd followed, it was also a little worrysome. He
wasskeptical, since he clearly was unafraid. But that he was persuing her meant there was some element of belief. Did he want something?
[Strange]: Were he any other man he might have been afraid. And were he the man he was before his life change, yes, most definitely fearful. Then again, he probably wouldn't have seen her then. As it was now, he simply want to
know.
He didn't know how to put his thoughts into question form.
"I didn't realize," or maybe he didn't try to conceptualize, "that an idea, such as yourself, existed in actual form."
And she wasn't what he would have expected either. Then again, he was young compared to her. He was still imposed with the imagery created by artists and storytellers of black cloaks and 'grim reaper' features.
He had a little bit of trouble with the notion of a concept taking a body of flesh.
[Death]: "Well, now you do." She looked at him, quirking an eyebrow. "Didn't the Ancient One tell you about us? I'm surprised he didn't. It's not exactly one of the high secrets of the multiverse, but it's not something the general population is consciously aware of."
[Strange]: "The Ancient One believes in following one's own path to knowledge. To learn from others what is necessary in order to succeed in continuing on your own."
Strange had been taught many things. But most of it was to strengthen his belief in the cause and to help him not stray from the path. Because he could have. He could have followed the temptations to the dark side and acted as their liasion to this world. But thankfully he had the good sense not to.
"Perhaps you are just a lesson I have not gotten to. Or one in which he hoped I'd never have to face."
[Death]: She laughed. "Everyone faces me, Stephen. Everyone and everything." But she liked his explaination, and so she figured she could answer a few things. "I'm considered an anthropomorphic personification. My siblings and I carry out our functions, as we have since before the creation of the multiverses." She raised her hands. "As for what form I have, the answer is simpler that you think. You're human. So I'm human, or human-shaped, to you."
[Strange]: Simple answers. Weren't they always? A disadvantage of years of scholarly study before being introduced to this world of magic; where make-believe was far more than just the imagination and monsters under the bed came with very sharp teeth.
"I suppose so," he said in reply to her comment that everyone would eventually face her. He didn't want to be one of them. Not yet, at least. "Ahh. That makes a bit more sense."
No less comforting. But more sense.
"So why are you still here? The world is a big place. Surely you have others to attend to .."
[Death]: "I do attend to them. I'm with them right now. Just as I'm talking to you." She paused in her walk, arms raising to indicate the world at large. "I'm there for old and young, innocent and guilty, those who die together and those who die alone. I'm in cars and boats and planes; in hospitals and forests and abbatoirs. For some folks death is a release, and for others death is an abomination, a terrible thing. But in the end, I'm there for all of them."
[Strange]: Strange halted his pace for a moment and just stared at her. His expression was drawn into tight concern. For what, he was unsure. But he was definitely displaying a signature look of troublesome worry. Lips pursed together in a thin line and he twitched his nose. Then he looked away and continued his walk alongside her.
"That was very well rehearsed."
[Death]: "Not the first time I've been questioned." She stuck her hands back in her pockets. "You're still uneasy. What else do you want to know?"
[Strange]: "I'm not quite sure," he said. Which was honesty at its finest. But then he paused. No, no. He did think he had at least one more query to pose for her. "Why are you so cheerful..?"
She was the harbinger for the end of life itself. It seemed paradoxical that she'd be a bubbly, skipping young girl.
[Death]: She glanced up at him. "Would you honestly rather I carry a scythe and wear a robe?" Her nose wrinkled slightly at the idea.
[Strange]: Strange lifted his shoulders in a small shrug, as though it weren't his place to have an opinion on the matter one way or another.
"I'm rather fond of robes."
He had a very nice one waiting for him at home when he returned from his day's involvements. Warm. Cozy. But still very Masterpiece Theatre.
"Although I suppose if I was going to die I'd want it to be at the hands of an attractive young woman, and not something reminiscent of a character in a Stephen King novel."
[Death]: She frowned suddenly, glancing at him. "You make it sound like I kill people."
[Strange]: "I apologize. What I meant to say was when you escort souls to their new plane of existence."
If that was indeed how it actually panned out. He didn't know. It wasn't his area of expertise. Everything he'd read on this subject had never been actually verified by eyewitness. There weren't exactly formal documented accounts of Death, because, well -- for obvious reasons those who experienced the meeting weren't around to say much.
[Death]: She gave him a light smile. "Sorry. It just... it gets me down sometimes. How people see me. I used to be cold. Unfeeling. Intimidating. It just made things harder. And it upset people. I'd rather at least be a friendly face." She shrugged. "It doesn't take any more effort to be nice than to be cruel. And being nice is a lot more fun."
[Strange]: "Well, if it's any consolation, I appreciate your transition to a more congenial disposition when leading people to their afterlife," Strange replied. "I'm sure it has aided in calming some of the tormented casualties that exist between the realms."
Which was really more along his line of knowledge. The concept of death, though mentioned through some of his ancient texts, had never been something he'd focused too long upon. Perhaps it was the morbidness of the notion, and perhaps it was his belief on its irrelevance. Afterall, he was working to protect the living. What happened afterwards was not in his control.
Either way, it was safe to say that when he returned to his Sanctum that evening he'd be reviewing the section on afterlife in the Book of Vishanti. If she was here in the city, in a physical incarnation, perhaps he should have been prepared for those like her as well.
[Death]: "Well, thank you," she said, giving him a smile. "It's nice to know my efforts are appreciated by some, at least."
She glanced around, noting the changes in the skyline as the City began to change again. "You should probably head back home. Before it moves somewhere you can't find it." Then she gave him a smile. "But, I'm sure I'll see you again. At least once."
[Strange]: Strange followed her glance towards the sky. That was something else he needed to figure out in this perplexing city; the constant shifting, the many changes. The oddness of worlds combining, overlapping, and blurring the lines that previously existed.
"Of that I have no doubt," he said with the light makings of a grin.
Just don't blame him for hoping it wasn't anytime too soon.
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