genessia | ⚜ ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ-ꜰɪʀsᴛ - [ ᴛᴇxᴛ + ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ]

Action: Fairy Haven, Master's Quarters - Open to any member of Fairy Tail or anyone who lives in Fayren Haven

{ It would be quiet; barely audible, depending on where one was in the sprawling compound that Fairy Tail calls home. It was unmistakably Zeref's voice, but there could be none other heard. It might sound as if he were just... talking to himself. }

I almost gave this to them, you know. I was curious to know what they would have done with it.

{ There's the sound of rustling. Zeref sounded slightly sleepy, if one bothered to listen, as if he had only just woken up despite it being the middle of the afternoon. Maybe he was up late? }

What would they have done? Destroyed it? Opened it? They would have been in for a surprise if they had.

{ Whoever he's speaking to doesn't respond. If one bothers to peek into the room... he's speaking to a book laying on a desk parallel to the bed, propped up against the wall. Completely seriously, as if the book were alive and he was somehow expecting it to respond.

Suddenly, Zeref sighs, reaching for the white, outer-layer of his robe, unceremoniously discarded at the foot of the bed. He pulls it on, over the rest of his outfit. }

Why do I bother? I doubt you can hear me, anymore. I wonder if you're even alive in our world without this.

Text - OTA

I'd like to pose a rhetorical question, if I may. Much has been made about the issue of necromancy, in this world. The act of reanimating the dead into 'undead,' as the term I've been hearing up until now.

What I've heard little about is resurrection. Not merely reanimating the dead; restoring life itself. Reversing death. Bringing a soul back from the afterlife and returning it to this world. In my world, it is taboo, regardless of the circumstances or how unfair or undeserved the death was.

Death is ultimately meaningless in this world, at least for those of us with amulets. When one of us dies, we reawaken in the Bay, even if doing so often has a price. Regardless, I've heard some of us say that impermanent death cheapens it.

Why this distinction? What difference is there, truly, between necromancers, and whomever, or whatever it was that brought us here reducing death to a mere transaction?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

At the moment, no. I wouldn't mind seeing some of them again, but at the same time, now that they know who and what I am... it could be very awkward.

[He would give anything to see Jin again, safe and whole. Any of the others, too, but he feels responsible for what happened to the swordsman.

Do you truly fear they would judge you so harshly?

{ Zeref fully expects it when people in his world inevitably find out who he is; sure, he's somewhat used to... not being what others expected based on his reputation, but he makes no bones about who, and what, he is, regardless of how much 'official' history has gotten wrong about him.

But then, Mavis was ignorant of who he was at first, too; and when she found out, her initial reaction was to choose not to believe all of the rumors, legends, and myths swirling around him by that point. If chaos was indeed the harbinger of the apocalypse he described himself as, but didn't have the baggage of being one of the two most feared beings in his universe... would he still be judged the same way Zeref was? Still is, even rightfully so? }

I ask because I am unsure if I can truly relate.
Call it curiosity.

Claiming friendship with the eschaton has its drawbacks. They could become targets of U-DO or any of the other inhabitants of the upper realm if the knowledge became widespread, and these beings can rightly claim omniscience. The main reason, though, is that I couldn't save Jin at the end. What good is all the power in the universe if you cannot use it to save a single, shining soul?

[What really bothers him is knowing that it was possible to have saved him - but that it would have cost far more lives, and quite probably the lives of those he had fought to save, considering how close that column jump had been at the end.]

{ Zeref's starting to hear a bit of himself, in this. }

I've asked myself that same question, before. Ultimately, it proved irrelevant; the one I thought I could safely bring myself to care about turned out to be alive and well, albeit a century later.

Perhaps this 'Jin' will appear here, in the future. If nothing else, this world has caused me to rethink what is or isn't possible, curse or no.

Perhaps. I know this place handles time oddly; maybe someday I'll have the chance to speak with him again. To apologize, and to thank him.

Maybe you'll find some way of breaking your curse here, too. You can call on me for help with that, if you ever feel the need.

I have tried everything I can think of to break it. Ironically, I thought I had inadvertently found it, with Mavis. The fact that she is still alive gives me reason to believe otherwise.

{ And no, he has not been to the Dream Docks and seen that his initial assumption was right, he was just wrong about why it didn't work. }

Everything available to you in your world. There are other options available here that might prove more fruitful.

[chaos is pretty sure he could use a weapon forged from one of his Vessels of Anima to kill one or both of them, but that would require... well, forging one of them into a weapon, which is something he really doesn't want to do, and killing, which he most certainly doesn't want. But, there is another option. One which wouldn't involve anyone dying.]

Try asking around for a woman named Yuuko. She might be able to help you; tell her chaos sent you.

Ahh, yes. Yuuko. I'm familiar with her.

{ "Fate screwed you over and there's nothing you can do about it but sit down, shut up, and accept it." Yes. Truly a font of inspiration, but from their brief interaction, Zeref could tell there was more to her 'advice' than just shooting him down. There was something there from which she spoke. Something deeper. }

I appreciate the thought, but Mavis seems convinced that it doesn't have to be a bad thing in this world. Given all that I have seen in this world, I want to believe her.

Edited 2017-06-18 17:49 (UTC)

[chaos is mildly surprised that Zeref already knows Yuuko, but only mildly - after all, they've both been here a lot longer than him.]

I wish you the best of luck, then. It's no easy thing, to bear something like that curse, but I think the two of you together can make it through.

She's certainly more optimistic about it than I am, but it's starting to rub off on me.

Thank you. I wish you luck, as well.

{ It's nice to meet somebody else who seems to understand. }

Edited 2017-06-24 21:28 (UTC)