A Grim Revelation

No matter how awful Xeran believed humans to be, they were definitely capable of doing whatever benefits them. They have loved but also hated to their very core; they can adapt to any adversity, though whether they do so in a decent and sane way or not is highly dependent on the situation and the people involved; and they have survived countless atrocities, as well as killed the innocent or those who deserved it.

In the same vein, Xeran has never wanted to kill anyone more than he does right now—specifically, the Council for putting him in this shitty position.

Prying open his eyes to the extremely bright blue sky took more of an effort than it took for him to reap souls. The Afterlife was typically dark with some places being brighter than others, but nothing prepared him for this egregiously saturated world. After what felt like roughly an hour, he eventually managed to somewhat adjust to the brightness.

When he could finally see, what greeted him was a large expanse of flora and fauna—flowers were crushed underneath his new body and spread out far beyond what his now human eyes could see, and the small animals that hopped and scurried to and fro as they tried to gauge whether or not he was dangerous. Which, to be fair, was reasonable given his previous profession. Though, he had to admit, the view was nothing short of breathtaking

Taking a look down at himself, he could see that this Adrian guy did not seem to care whether his clothes were dirtied or not given that he seems to have a propensity for wearing white. The garb he donned was all white with some hints of gold lining around the edges of the blouse and the slacks, and even the tall boots that reached his knees were white leather. The only thing that seemed to have differed slightly color-wise was the golden crown resting next to him with several colorful jewels embedded into it. The outfit in its entirety was something no self-respecting grim reaper would wear—if anyone dared to wear something even remotely resembling a human outfit (especially a white outfit), they would most likely be criticized and laughed at for all eternity.

Xeran patted behind his back to reach for his scythe—the only thing he had left from his old job that could bring him any sort of familiarity or comfort—but was only met with air. Turning this way and that, he couldn’t seem to find any sort of indication that his scythe came with him, meaning that those bastards seemed to have taken it away. If he were human (or, more human than he currently was), then he would've started sobbing. Exchanging his precious scythe that he spent years refining and perfecting for a cheap crown that wouldn't even be able to buy him ramen…it was the worst possible situation!

Damn, one second, you’re the top reaper in the Afterlife, and the next second, your bosses fire you, steal the only thing that makes you happy, and exile you for their amusement, or, rather, their “experiment”.

Suddenly, Xeran felt excruciating pain in his abdomen, as if the Council themselves heard him shit-talking them in his mind. Time seemed to stop as well—there was no wind, and the plants and animals seemed frozen to the spot as if they were simply decorations. As he was curled up and clutching his stomach in pain, a thin, semi-transparent blue box popped up next to him, floating in the air without anything holding it up. It looked like one of those “video game” boxes that humans (and some of the younger grim reapers) would use to message other humans (or reapers) despite the fact that humans have created so many strange contraptions to see each other.

Although, given how many souls he had had to collect from the flying contraptions that would constantly crash into the ground, or the box-like ones that would crash into one another all the time, it was to be expected that they would create much safer methods of communication.

Text continuously popped up on the thin box as the pain subsided, a mechanical voice sounding out all of the text as they appeared and disappeared rapidly.

[Initiation of the “Grim Salvation Project”: Success!]

[Transferal of Reaper {Xeran} into the human {Adrian Hawthorne}: Success!]

[Transferal of the human {Adrian Hawthorne} into ???: Success!]

Wait wait wait, what do the question marks mean?

[All necessary procedures are a success!]

[Welcome, {Adrian}!]

Hey, just because I’m considered to be Adrian amongst the humans now does not mean I’m not Xeran anymore!

[{The Council} has seen to it that certain objectives are to be completed in order to achieve the best results for the experiment!]

This really is just a “video game” to them, isn’t it? Xeran thought in an exasperated manner.

“What objectives do I even have to do? This wasn’t in the file,” Xeran wondered aloud, resigning himself to the fact that he can’t do much about whatever happens in his new life.

[All will be shown in due time.]

What was the point of telling me that, then?!

Xeran contemplated something for a moment. Do they actually know what I'm doing here? I could probably just cause trouble and they'd be none the wiser!

Smirking to himself, he set about stomping on the flowers that he knew the humans painstakingly grew for ages. He did not have anything against plants—in fact, he was rather fond of his small pot with daffodils in them—but he was simply testing out an experiment of his own, and if that resulted in the casualties of some lovely flowers and some heartbroken human swine, well, who could blame him?

Xeran suddenly broke out into a sweat (gross! Why do humans have such odd and disgusting bodily functions?) as the pain in his stomach doubled to what it was before.

[Warning: {Adrian} is currently displaying Out of Character traits. If {Xeran} does not abide by {Adrian’s} normal traits, then the experiment will be considered a failure.]

The experiment could fail? Xeran thought. This was news to him. “What happens if the experiment fails?”

[Total obliteration.]

“Ah.”

That was never a good sign.

“Is there any way to get rid of that ‘Out of Character Warning’?”

[If the experiment reaches 40% completion, the warning will be removed.]

Xeran stared, dumbfounded by the new information. He had to wait until the experiment was almost halfway over before he could even act like himself?! What kind of a dumb fucking experiment was thi—?!

The pain returned just as bad as before—the Council truly could hear him shit-talking them in his mind.