"Ok, I'm just going to plop here and stretch! Eee-ya! Now that is what I am talking about." Nira looked around the cosmos. Vast unto infinite possibility, life, and so on. She flopped backwards and folded her arms behind her head as she watched a comet glide past a planet, knocking a rock out of orbit. She watched the meteor bounce off a purple shield and then disintegrate with the help of several dozen lasers.
Nira blinked slowly as the light flared and calmly turned her head in the other direction. She wasn't sure if this was the afterlife or whatever, but what was the point of getting upset or freaking out? Sure, she just saw a rock get zapped by whatever that was, but she was dead. Life on a planet was more feasible than still being able to do whatever she was doing, right?
Nira looked down at her hands clasped tightly and breathed deeply. No point in freaking out about her dying, considering her being dead and all. Who'd have thought there'd be something after you died, right? Nira relaxed and went back to watching the cosmos. She blinked once more, and there was a figure looming over her.
With a screech, Nira plummeted a hundred meters from the shadowed shape, and then another dozen or so meters as she wigged out over the initial plummet. The figure just stood there, head cocked to the side. Nira wasn't sure what it was doing. There was nothing to identify whether it was just staring at her, or if it was hangry or something. Don't judge her. She'd read those books about humanoid figures. Ever read to devour worlds or entire star systems just to satiate their endless hunger.
She waited for whatever it was going to do. Something? Anything? Nope. Weird. Wasn't this the part where some super beauty or delicious hottie told her about how their world needed her for whatever quest? Wasn't there a reason for her untimely death? Untimely? Hmm.
Nira let out a huff of amusement. To be honest, she didn't remember exactly how she had died, and she wasn't sure she wanted to either. She got the feeling that it would just sadden. Which made sense, so Nira just dropped it, as it wasn't exactly conducive to her current situation. So enough of that, and enough of this awkwardness.
"Hey you there. Shadow-man. Woman? Thing. Eh, let's keep it simple and call you Shadow." Nira grinned at the scary humanoid that liked to appear in her face like some eldritch nightmare. Erm, Shadow, she corrected herself. Yep, Shadow was a good name for the entity before her.
Shadow could be an edgy 'boy name'. A delicately gothic 'girl name'. Even a 'don't-ruin-my-vibe, 'they name'. Ooo or perhaps a glacial 'it name,' but whichever it was, that would be for Shadow to decide whatever pronoun-shonoun Shadow wanted. Yes, Shadow was the perfect name for the figure in front of her and she needed to stop here or she'd never get out of this rabbit hole.
Naming completed, fear acknowledged, though not conquered, Nira straightened up her shoulders. Shadow cocked its head to the other side, but otherwise, did nothing. She wasn't sure she'd been expecting. Maybe it'd lift its hand and wave or magically talk somehow. Shadow was just weird.
Nira blinked again, and Shadow stood next to her, their head mere inches from her own. Nira wanted to scream again. Somewhere in the primordial part of her brain the fear of things that moved when you blinked fluttered, but with great effort, she managed to mentally slap it into submission. No sudden movement. No screaming. No literal slapping, and hopefully no more death.
Wait, could she even die again? What was deader than dead? Soul snuffed? Was that how it worked? That wasn't really dead, though. Then again, it would depend on one's personal beliefs. Nira shrugged. She wasn't sure if Shadow understood her, but as it hadn't really done anything, she was just going to go with it.
"Is there something I can help you with?" Nira asked. The silence was almost deafening. Okay, maybe Shadow couldn't speak or it just would not. Who knows, but the awkward silence and the unnecessary closeness was a bit much.
Nira took a step back. Shadow took a step forward. Nira's shoulders slumped, admitting defeat. There was no point in telling a cosmic non-human that you needed your space because of their freaky-blinky-movement thingy-ma-bobber, whatever it was called. That's fine. Nira can adjust. It wasn't Shadow's fault that Shadow did not understand the need for space. In your bubble conversation it was going.
Ahem, Nira cleared her voice and asked once more, "Can I help you?" She didn't know what to expect. Shadow hadn't acknowledged her first attempt, but who knows it wasn't like there were a ton of people floating around in space. It would be reasonable that Shadow just didn't know how to converse like a human would. Huh, that was a valid idea. Afterall, why should she force human aesthetics of what a conversation entailed on a being that was obviously not human. Seemed a little hypocritical.
Shadow leaned closer and Nira froze, all thoughts immediately dividing into the instinctual need to either run or fight. Her pause giving Shadow enough time to gently rest their head against her own. Nira's eyes squeezed shut as a deep cold radiated from the her forehead all the way back to what felt like her brain stem. For a moment, she couldn't breathe. It felt like she had plunged into glacial waters and for a brief second her soul quivered, faded, and then re-solidified.
Images flowed from Shadow, a world of magic. Bright booms or raw power and the cries of the dying. Radiant purple slashes scarring the land, and small monsters growing to behemoth proportions. Forests on fire, the cries of strange animals as they fled the battles between apex creatures. Mountains halved or pitted from radical bursts of gold, white, or red. On and on it went.
If Nira hadn't been frozen in the spot by the titan of all brain freezes she'd in all probably be in a lawn chair with some popcorn watching the show. Aside of watching the animals. That was wrong. Still though, what was the point of this? It wasn't like she didn't see the issue, but she didn't know what Shadow expected of her. She was dead. It was hard to make a difference when you were just a soul.
What was she supposed to do? Find a necromancer and badger them in therapy for their separation anxiety and control issues? That would be like asking fire not to burn you. It would not end very well. For the necromancer that is. Then again, separation anxiety and control issues was kinda' their gimmick wasn't it. Nira jumped at the poke.
Oh yeah, focus oh smart one. The sooner she figured out what Shadow wanted the better. Then this telepathic episode of the "Things that Go Boom!" can stop, and maybe one day she will be unable to unscrunch her face from the massive and literal headcold she had going on.
Another poke, this time a bit more insistent and Nira grunted. The mental images grew increasingly vivid as they slowed down. Eventually it stopped above a barren continent. Part of Nira was in awe and horror over devastation. Sure some of the continents had pock-marks of battles, but those had disappeared over as the images flashed by, but this. The continent grew bigger as the image got closer to the land.
There was nothing left. No plant life, no nothing. It ragged zig-zagged mountains in the distance, craters filled with dust. The picture sank below the surface and Nira didn't know how it did it, but soil appeared. No. this wasn't soil. Soil was a collaboration of things working together. It was a dynamic environment, but this? This was just dust. As if to back up her thoughts, a gust of wind blew and with it a wall of dust left the land behind it.
The images stopped there. Nira blinked when the images vanished, barely catching Shadow step back and straighten some. They still bent down over her, but Nira felt less threatened this time. Maybe it was due to Shadow's reasonable concern for the environment. Nira could relate. She liked plants too. In fact, she liked plants more than people. Well, plants and animals that is. It was hard to be upset with a cute and fluffy or scary and scaley, oh, or even a not-friend with too many legs.
"So you need help stopping people from blowing stuff up? I don't think that I am qualified for that. Um, I get a distinct impression that that is something I should not be doing." Nira offered up helpfully.
Shadow touched a long finger to her forehead and a single picture of the dead continent appeared once more.
"Yeah, it's pretty bad. I agree with you though, whoever did this needs therapy and probably some sort of accountability partner or skills coach." Nira nodded, Shadow's finger bobbing up and down with her head. She stared at them waiting for the telepathic "Congratulations Winner! You got the answer correct!" Shadow's hand pulled back and before Nira could get excited over her superb communication skills with otherworldly beings they flicked her forehead.