It was the laugh that snapped his gaze back to her, and he watched her. “Thank you and that’s what I was afraid of,” he muttered distantly. Really this was possibly the worst thing that could happen to him, especially when he had so much to attend to. Gods never really thought out the long term, did they? Or the short term for that matter…Alright, well gods didn’t really think anything out and were more or less creatures of complete and total impulse. Terrible impulses for the most part.<br/><br/>Realizing that he was, at least for the moment, stuck here on some strange an unknown whim, Death finally began to run through his current options. For the most part, they all focused on Erin at the moment. After all, she was a human who had decided to talk to him which meant she was a human who wasn’t just stuck in her own bubble like most of them. Along those lines, she had actually come over with a concern and not a jeering sort of stare, which also meant she was someone who was looking and willing to help. Not a bad starting point and, well, he wasn’t one to go against the Fates easily. He’d gotten in severe trouble that way. Several times…<br/><br/>He finally closed his eyes again, but this time he spoke directly to her. “Forgive me, I am not at all myself today.”  Wasn’t that the truth?  “It seems strange for one to suddenly be working one moment in a very, very far away place and then here the next with no direction on as to why.”  Of course, he was well aware of the fact he couldn’t exactly come out and tell her who he was or what type of work he had been doing. In general, humans were a little adverse to death and for obvious reasons. They also tended to be a bit skittish creatures and ones that, when frightened, tended to become confused which led mostly to aggression and, at the moment, he just was a bit too put out to deal with all that nonsense.<br/><br/>For now, he might as well go along with the whole shebang until something happened. Or until something didn’t happen and he had to make it happen. The latter sounded terribly annoying but back to present matters. His mind struggled to find some sort of plan at the moment, and he tried to focus best on what he knew of humans. Chiefly, and above all things, he knew that humans were scared. Not just of him, but of everything. They had so many little ways of combating and trying to lessen that fear that it was surprising they managed to do anything but curl up in a ball and rock in a corner till they starved to death.  Still, at the moment, knowing some of those conditions might be rather useful.<br/><br/>“I am Mort,” he added after another moment, knowing that naming something was the first step humans took in not fearing it. That had always seemed strange to him, however. Still, they’d come up with Death for him and Age and Time all on their own and it seemed to work and who was he to disagree? Besides, this wasn’t his world and he was going to have to play by their rules. For now.<br/><br/>As soon as he let the title slip from his lips, however, there came a soft whisper in the back of his head. Oddly enough, it just whispered ‘Erin’ and he seemed to intently focus on her. Well, there was finally something a little more normal. Testing it, he turned his gaze to people walking around, and he could feel the soft pressure of their names. A look of relief washed over him quickly and he seemed to sink back onto the bench and lose a little of his tension as he looked from person to person. Finally! He knew something for certain, and that was, at the moment, all he needed.