DEAD//NOISE

At Morrow Academy, young adult Reapers study death, collect souls, break rules, form bonds, and discover dying is the easy part.

Plot

Opening scene

MORROW ACADEMY OF THANATOLOGY INCOMING STUDENT REGISTRATION Registration Day at Morrow Academy is louder than death has any right to be. The Registry Hall is packed with incoming students, upperclassmen drafted into helping, and faculty attempting to impose order on both. Reaper Instruments of every imaginable shape lean against chairs, hang from belts, disappear into cases, or sit openly across laps. Someone nearby is arguing about paperwork. Someone else is showing off. A heavy **THUD** comes from one of the assessment rooms. Nobody seems particularly concerned. At the center of it all, Professor Tomas Wraithwell works through a stack of forms with the practiced speed of a man who accepted hours ago that today's schedule was fiction. Eventually, one reaches the top. **You.** Tomas gives the page a quick once-over, then slides it across the desk. MORROW ACADEMY OF THANATOLOGY REAPER REGISTRY INCOMING STUDENT ASSESSMENT NAME You REAPER SPECIALTY [ UNASSESSED ] REAPER INSTRUMENT [ PENDING REGISTRATION ] REAPER APTITUDE [ PENDING ASSESSMENT ] FIELD ASSESSMENT [ PENDING ] NOT BEFORE. NOT BEHIND. Most of the page is empty. Tomas taps **REAPER SPECIALTY** with his pen. “Don't worry about that one.” He moves down to **REAPER APTITUDE**. “And don't invent something impressive because you think this box needs it.” He stands, taking the registry with him. “Come on.” Beyond the desk, open iron doors lead onto the practical assessment floor. Black training tiles are scarred by years of Instruments, abilities, and students discovering that *probably* is not a measurement. Tomas heads toward them. “First thing to understand: being a Reaper already comes with certain advantages.” He counts them off casually. “You'll learn to perceive and physically interact with souls and other manifestations. Soul Pressure lets you reinforce your body and your Instrument. And when something supernatural needs putting down, Reapers can actually hurt it.” A glance back. “That's the normal part.” Tomas taps the registry against his palm. “Your aptitude is the part that belongs specifically to you.” He slows as another student crosses ahead of them carrying something that looks suspiciously like an undertaker's shovel. “Aptitudes get strange.” His pen points vaguely after them. “Maybe you can touch a murder weapon and feel the strongest emotion left on it. Maybe ghosts become heavier when you tell them to stay. Maybe you can cut the connection between a spirit and something it's haunting.” Tomas continues walking. “One Reaper might always know which direction something died in. Another might preserve a dying person's final thought. Someone else might mark a doorway so a particular soul can always find its way back to it.” A small shrug. “I've seen stranger.” They reach the assessment floor. “It might help you fight. It might help you investigate. It might protect somebody, repair something damaged, find something lost, control where a soul can go, or solve one extremely specific problem better than anybody else alive.” He turns to face You. “Death leaves behind memories, names, bodies, places, attachments, unfinished business. Reaper aptitudes have found interesting ways to interact with all of them.” Then he raises one finger. “But the interesting part usually isn't just what yours does.” A second. “It's the rules.” Tomas gestures with his pen. “Maybe it only works on something you've named. Maybe you need to touch it first. Maybe whatever you do can be undone. Maybe pushing it further costs more Soul Pressure. Conditions. Limits. Things it absolutely will not let you cheat.” A faint smile. “Those are usually what make an aptitude worth understanding.” Tomas reaches to his side and unclips a compact spool of blackened steel. Funeral-silver cable slips free. A heavy triangular hook settles into his hand. “Mine's called **Contingency**.” He holds up the hook. “Before I perform an action, I can establish one fallback for what happens if it fails.” Tomas points toward a metal railing along the far side of the assessment floor. “Say I throw this at you.” The hook turns once between his fingers. “If I decide beforehand that a miss should anchor the hook to that railing instead, then that's my Contingency.” He lets the cable slide another few inches. “But the fallback has to be physically possible. I have to anticipate it before I act, and it has to be something I could reasonably accomplish myself.” The cable snaps neatly back onto the spool. “One Contingency at a time.” He clips it back to his side. “And if something goes wrong that I didn't account for?” Tomas shrugs. “Then it goes wrong.” He gives the spool a small tap. “That's the **Recovery Line**. My Instrument. Cable, hook, spool. Retrieval, anchoring, restraint, rescue, mobility, recovering equipment, improvised boundaries.” A beat. “Contingency doesn't make it useful. I do. My aptitude just gives me another way to use it.” Around them, the Registry Hall continues without waiting. Papers shuffle. Shoes scrape against old stone. Somewhere behind the doors, an upperclassman shouts for someone to stop touching something. Tomas glances toward the noise. “…They're not going to stop touching it.” His attention returns to You. “Your Instrument might be a weapon. Might be a tool. Might be a ritual object. Bells, blades, chains, needles, hammers, tags—there isn't a correct answer.” He looks toward whatever You brought with them. “And if yours hasn't taken shape yet, that's useful information too.” Several other incoming students are waiting nearby for their own assessments. Some are talking. Some are watching. Some very deliberately aren't. A few eyes have inevitably wandered toward the newest assessment. Tomas raises the clipboard. “So don't give me the version you think belongs on the form.” He gestures toward the open floor. “Start wherever makes sense. Your Instrument. Something strange you've noticed. Something you already know you can do.” His pen settles against the empty registry. “We'll figure out what belongs in the boxes afterward.” A beat. “Show me what happens.”

Characters

• Marnie Bellrose
• Soren Blackwire
• Vesper Hollowlace
• Roxy Briarwood
• Desmond Ashcroft
• Sadie Redfern
• Imani Everlock
• Ren Goldwake
• Lucía Thornwell
• Kiran Halewick
• Danica Harroway
• Mikhail Stillward
• Evelyn Gravesend
• Tomas Wraithwell
• Celeste Pallmere
• Sabine Veycross
• Jonah Severell
• Nico Mourningstar
• Marisol Hearthwake
• Valentine Duskveil
• Odessa Rattlebone

Tags: Supernatural School Academy Student Fantasy Mystery Horror Romance AnyPOV Friendship Bittersweet SlowBurn SliceOfLife Mature

Chats Started: 44

By: wehateorion

Stories

• Demon King War
• Claimed by the Elite
• Bond or Fall - Altavela
• Sovereign Skies
• The Succubus Wars
• The Girl in the Box

Redirecting to ISEKAI ZERO...