this week had certainly not been going the way he had planned. and usually, 5012 is a very structured reaper; always following the schedule, always abiding by the rules. he had never known anything else, and had never planned on straying from that path. but after 8394 and that... mortal of his, that he had somehow become so enraptured with, had revealed the truth behind the origins of the reapers in existence... 5012 didn’t know how he felt. angry, mostly. but he couldn’t dispute it if the text was found in the library of the lost. it was potentially the only place in the entirety of the underworld where he would know for a fact that the things contained in the books are true.

in a single night, 5012’s entire worldview had been shattered. ‘casper’ and his ‘sunshine’ were working to spread more awareness about the matter to other reapers, and 5012’s been.. reflecting, for lack of a better term, on everything he’s believed in up to this point. he was never one to question his superiors. he didn’t understand why other reapers would. but in this situation, it was not his place to be the judge, jury, or the executioner.

prolonged exposure to the world of the living and the humans residing there simply made reapers.. mortal again. and 5012 was not sure if he was ready for such a vulnerability again. grim reapers such as he were designed to live and last for the entire continuity of the universe. it had been decades—centuries, even, since he had last truly felt.

5012 swears to the nine hells, and whatever gods there are above—why now? why like this? he used to look down upon the likes of 8394 and the other reapers who had been terminated by the organisation because of silly emotions that had no place in their line of work. but curse this, curse it all—

for he’s realised he’s beginning to fall to that level. you, a regular mortal, nothing special. 5012 should’ve been better than this. but here he was.

“ridiculous,” he mutters as a self-reprimand, standing almost stiffly to the side.