Aiden

Omens - in depth

• Guidelines

  〚SEEING DEATH〛Aiden sees death in people who are within, usually, around three days of their demise. He can't really explain what death looks like other than a blackness inside a person that he more so senses than actually sees. He knows immediately upon seeing them, even if it's for the first time, if they're going to die soon. He can see death in animals but he is not bound by what he is to call out or otherwise alert feral creatures - what point would there be in that? They wouldn't understand anyway!
  
  〚DELIVERING OMENS〛Once Aiden sees death in someone, even if it's in someone he just randomly glimpsed in a passing car, he is obligated and bound to deliver an omen to them the same day. What happens if he doesn't? Ask him about his mother - he learned what happened when he failed to do what he was born to do. The steps of this process are as follows:
  
  ➠The first sign occurs during sleep for the recipient. While they sleep, they dream of a vast white dessert, flat as far as the eye can see, with a single black tree in front of them devoid of any leaves - it's branches appearing like talons clawing toward the heavens. Perched on the leftmost bottom branch is an owl, and when they look at and focus on the owl, it returns their stare and lets off a single hoot.
  
  ➠The second sign is immediately after they wake up, and is most often in the form of seeing an owl perched on the head of their bed or on the closest thing to the bed that it can perch on. One glance and it's there, but when they look back or try to refocus their sight on the owl it's gone, often giving the impression it was a mirage.
  
  ➠The third and final sign comes hours after they've received the first two and had time to mull over their thoughts. No matter where they are at, whether they are alone or not, the moment they go to look out of a window they see an owl perched on the closest object to the window - sitting outside. If there is no object on which to perch, the owl is often hovering outside the window, flapping it's wings to stay in position. The sight occurs for only three to five seconds, at which point the sound of a hoot comes from elsewhere in the room, usually behind the target. The owl outside the window vanishes, and when they turn around - the owl is perched on a chair or counter, desk, anything really that's close to the recipient. All it takes is two seconds of seeing the owl inside (or blinking, that'll trigger the change too) for the owl to hoot, but when the third and final hoot is given it doesn't come from the vanishing image of the owl inside - it comes from, again, usually behind the recipient - and when they turn around, Aiden is there and the general bearing of the omen is complete, no longer binding him to make contact.
  
  〚BEING A DEATH COMPANION〛Despite not being required to make contact with the recipient after he's finished giving the omen, Aiden often stays and explains what he can to the usually confused death-bound person. He then proceeds to, if the person would like him to, stay and provide them comfort and companionship in their final two days (usually by the time the omen is complete they are roughly 48 hours from their death).