Vicem Alteram [Various PDH x f!reader]

ᴘʀᴏʟᴏɢᴜᴇ

Alternative title: Yeah you, you fucking died? L + Ratio

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It's fascinating how temporary everything is. One moment that lady behind the counter at the corner store is there. Face aged with wrinkles and purple splotches of bruises littering the expanse of her pallid skin. One moment, she's beckoning you towards the plethora of sweets displayed on metal racks. One moment she's grinning widely at you, kind eyes squinting at the action. And the next moment. The next moment she is gone, the scent of moth bitten clothes and various herbs will no longer waft around the counter top, and the only reminder of her presence would be a grey tombstone and wilted rose.

Nothing was eternal, and sure you had always been reminded of the concept of mortality, through brief patches of your adolescent life. Yet you never really fully comprehended that. You were young, you had the whole world before your feet. And you were going to take it by storm. Well you were- that was the plan....

"Congratulations! You have died!" The first exclamation comes out in a stuttery and grainy tone, like a broken record getting caught on the needle. In the expanse of nothingness stands the visage of a silhouette, no defying features to note- just vague impressions of different proportions. It's constantly shifting, as pixels of neon green and black wave around it sporadically. Finally through the roaring of your ears you understand the statement.

"I'm sorry- what?" The question comes out more calmly then you were feeling, good on you for externally keeping your cool at least. The shape tilts what could very well be its head, before promptly breaking out in a headache inducing bought of laughter. Everything seems to shake from the vibration, your whole body vibrating in tune with the glitched out sounds.

"You my mortal friend are dead, fineto, six feet und-"

"OK... ok I think I get it," You sputter out loud, taken aback by the rather lackadaisical form. Blinking almost feverishly you find your foot scooting backwards ever so slightly. The shape seems amused by the action, but otherwise nonplussed. Tongue heavy and dry in your mouth you struggle to articulate a sentence.

"If I'm dead, then what am I doing here?" While never the most devoted religious person in your world, you're pretty sure this was definitely not heaven... was it a limbo of some kind? The shape flickers before your eyes, and squinting slightly you realize it leaves an after-image behind. Almost like you're looking at it through 3-D glasses. How trippy.

"There's been a problem going around, about mortals dying before their predestined end," now the voice sounds annoyed, and you're confident if it did have eyebrows they would be down turned, furrowed slightly.

"They've all been... mostly natural causes, and would've been written off as such if not for the fact this has been a multidimensional problem," it huffs, and almost distantly you think yes you have gone crazy. Maybe you ate too many edibles and this fever dream is the result of your risky rendezvous.

"There's also the fact that our data is never wrong, you weren't supposed to die you y'know, last I checked that was supposed to happen when you were 87... now you're stuck at 19," blinking you glance at him confused, this elaborate fever dream sure was something else but it would be really nice to wake up, you had classes to attend to after all.

"You don't believe me... do you?" The figure shifts and leers at you in accusation, leaving you to coward backwards. Mouth too dry to reply, you stare wide-eyed at the creature. It leans back almost contemplatively, bits and bobs of its hurried murmurs dragging past the shell of your ear. It's head turns towards you almost eerily, and even without a mouth or any other organic structure on its face, you just know it's smiling.