dear_mun | voice test + 399 spoilers/speculation

You're wrong. We make our own destiny - it looks bad right now, but we'll turn things around. It's -not- going to end up like things were in your future. We promised her..me. [ Wow that sounds weird to her ears but still. ]

[Timetravel does that; Future Rogue would know.]

I wouldn't have expected such needless hope-filled posturing from someone that has already learned the terror of Acnologia, Lucy Heartphila.

But then again, that appears to be the specialty of Fairy Tail mages.

{ So... this was the one who used the Eclipse Gate. Well, one of two who did. }

I suppose it was only a matter of time before Acnologia found me again. I only regret that Fairy Tail and Tartarus have to be a part of this.

Naturally. We know to not give up, even when it looks its worst. Even the situation with Tartarus. We're not going to just give up - knowing what happened in that future timeline.

[ They can't. Even when the demons were so sure that they were going to get killed so easily, and already they've wrecked the place. So there.]

Have you ever considered that "We won't give up" might not be enough in the face of a calamity like this one?

[That's a rhetorical question, btw.]

But of course, how could you? You have yet to be confronted with any true depth of despair.

[Despair of the kind that Rogue has survived for seven years. As one of very few, anyway.]

[ Your mouth is moving but all she is hearing is meemee momoboohoo poor me. Jerk. ]

We won't know until we try. But someone who's already given up wouldn't understand that.

[Rude, Lucy, rude. Not that he really cares. He resents that giving up bit, though.]

As you may recall, my attempt to bring about a better future was rejected by you. I'm not spectating from here by choice.

[ Y-You!

There's obvious panic in his expression, but as long as he had Sting, he wouldn't waver. Fro was still safe. He wasn't going to end up like this, and he sure as hell did not wish to be like this.

It's still creepy seeing your future self. He gritted his teeth, seemingly unhappy with the familiar voice and face. ]

I won't let it happen. I won't become like you.

[ He replied, his eyes narrowing. ]

[His past self, huh? He's always known that this encounter was to happen sooner or later, though he wouldn't have quite expected it in this particular setting. It's kind of amusing though... he knows what kind of person he used to be, how weak and naive he had been back then, but it feels like a different lifetime. In some sense, it had been.

And whether the same fate awaits this past incarnation of himself... well.]

Time will tell, I suppose. Eventually, you'll be put before the same choices as I have... that much at least is an inevitable destiny.

[ This was the voice that plagued his mind, and the time when his body was rendered useless. He still had no memory of that fight with Gajeel. He just remembered being defeated. That weird feeling of seeing yourself kept prickling at him. He didn't want to turn into this. He didn't want to hate the world, or lose his friends. He didn't want to Shadows to eat him either.

He was not surrendering to them-- as long as they were there, Frosch, Sting, and his Guild. They were his friends, and his family. ]

I won't make the choices you have. We've stopped you. You should have returned to your time.

[ his future time, yet Rogue did not want to accept that. He wanted to believe in breaking destiny. He didn't want to fall victim to that. ]

As long as I have them, I will change my destiny.

["As long as I have them"... Oh yes, he remember thinking like that.]

"As long as I have Sting, I won't have to worry. His light won't let the darkness in me prevail." ...Isn't that what you are clinging to?

It's a foolish thought. The shadows cannot be denied that easily.

[ He clenched his fists. ] I want to believe in Sting, and my friends. I will make sure that I don't make that mistake, not now, not later.

[ It's nerve-wrecking to talk to your future self, because the words you've said and the words you've kept to yourself, end up being tossed back at you with such...disdain. He didn't like it and he refused to believe in the inevitable future. If they had changed the present, they could change the future. He had to be cautious and prepared. ]

Why are you so certain? The present has already been changed. The future must have been altered. That means, I--we still have a chance to change the future.

Edited 2014-09-09 08:39 (UTC)

But that's the mistake in your thinking. By destroying the Eclipse Gates, you created a timeline where they might as well have never opened in first place.

[Just like in this Rogue's timeline.]

The only major difference at this point is that when the time comes, you won't have the option to go back in time in order to create a more suitable future.

[Alright. Maybe that is not entirely true... there is that whisper of information he's passed on to Natsu Dragneel, the name of Frosch's murderer, the knowledge that may or may not have an impact on his past self's destiny... but his past self isn't quite ready to learn about any of that just yet. At least not from him.]

I don't want to hear it from you! We don't need to rely on the Eclipse Door to change the future.

[ The sacrifices and damages that had been done by the Eclipse Door was not worth it. It was not worth almost dying for and having dragons wipe the floor with them. It was already salt to the wounds. Dragon Slayers that were unable to defeat Dragons. How shameful. ]

I don't need to go back in time. I'm not letting it happen and we'll make our own future. Destruction of the Eclipse Door was the first step.

[ Rogue needed to know what his future entailed, and he didn't get much of it. He just met himself from the future in person and not a shadow trying to take over his consciousness. ]

[Oh goodness, his younger self is so naive; he really can't help but laugh at this.]

Suit yourself. My dragons may have given you a taste for what's to come, but Acnologia is a calamity that cannot be prepared for in a moment's notice or opposed by willpower alone for that matter.

[As his past self will surely learn soon enough.]

I'm sure, even Natsu Dragneel will admit as much.

[ Don't laugh at him! You're pissing him off. He doesn't know why he has to end up like this. If this is his future self, then what on earth happened years ago? The dragons attacking, and all of that. He only knew bits and pieces. He was still left in the dark, but he didn't want to fail. He didn't want to end up like this. ]

We'll find a way to defeat the Aconologia. There has to be a way to defeat it.

[ That's why Dragon Slayers exist. They were meant to slay dragons, but why were they so pathetic when it came to it? He still could remember those fights, and what had happened not too long ago. ]

Even so, it's better than giving up the fight before it happened. What happened to you, me?!

[ Answer him damn it. He needed answers. ]

[But you are so amusing, past self, even if you don't have the inside knowledge to get the joke. It's on you anyway. On them both, really. He tilts his head back, still laughing.]

Acnologia can only be matched with the strength of several dragons. A Dragon Slayer – or even seven – doesn't have the strength to even keep up with that beast.

[They've learned that pretty quickly in his own time. He stops his laughter abruptly at that last angry demand, head still tilted back. What's happened to him... what a loaded question that is.]

...I used to think like you. I used to be you.

"I want to treasure my friends. I want to protect them." ...That's what I used to think too. That's why I rejected the shadows... until Frosch was killed and Sting fell by my hands, anyway. That's when I realized... friends, nakama... that's all just foolish talk.

In the end, when it's kill or be killed... the only person you can rely on is yourself.

[He tilts his head forward again, coldly eying his past self.]

We were a lot better off when we 'did not care'.

[Yep, that's him.]

You and he are another inevitability of destiny, aren't you?

[That is at least what all the information Rogue has unearthed in search for a way to dethrone the Black Dragon points towards.]

[ He's not amusing! Why was it so annoying to talk to yourself? He doesn't even get why his future self is the way he is right now. What happened? He needed to know and of course, the answers were not what he wanted to hear. ]

We were given Dragon Slaying magic for a purpose, how can it not have an affect?

[ What were they doing wrong? The laughter put him on edge, and he wasn't keen to hide it either. His hands were stiff clenched at his sides. But he was right, seven dragon slayers, and seven dragons, yet none were able to defeat them. None. It was pathetic, insulting, and pitiful. How were they going to counter Aconologia? There had to be a way. ]

Edited 2014-09-09 21:35 (UTC)

[ He couldn't say anything. Those words were thrown back at his face and the cold hard truth that slammed into him. ]

Frosch...h-how is that possible?

[ He wouldn't let Frosch die. How did Frosch die? Who killed him?! No, he didn't want to think about it. He stepped back, keeping his head down. Why would he kill Sting?! Why would he hurt his friends? ]

Th-that's impossible, how can I kill Sting? There's no way I wouldn't be able to protect Frosch.

[ Because Frosch was important. ]

--don't want to think that way. I don't want to abandon what we're fighting for!

[ They kept him at bay, and they made him stronger. Why would he even let his friends get hurt and die. How?! What the hell were they up against that he couldn't win, that they couldn't win?! He didn't want to believe that his future self had given into the shadows. He didn't want to believe it, but this future self, it was the result, a result that he had been stopped but a possibility that still plagued the back of his minds. He didn't want to the voices to grow louder. He didn't want them to take him. ]

[It's one thing to watch his past self rage at him, unaware of the horrors that await in his future. To see him broken by the knowledge of what's to come though... it's much less amusing. He ignores the first question – it's not like he's got an answer to that anyway. Years of research and observation, several attempts to take down the Black Dragons and knowledge gleaned from both... he has that much, but that only makes a few more pieces of the puzzle that is Acnologia.

But of course... that's not what's important right now.]

I wasn't. And unless you watch out for Frosch in about nine months, you won't be able to either.

[And if that happens... well, he's looking right at who he will become.]

Perhaps. As much as I wish that were not the case, I oftentimes wonder what might have happened had the Fiore Royal Family's plan worked.

{ Considering how much of history is based on the fact that Zeref has existed for the past 400 years, suddenly removing him from history altogether would radically altar history in ways that are impossible to predict. It's just as likely that someone, or something, even worse than him would fill the void as it is that the world would be a better place. }

[ Frosch was important to him just as Sting was. Losing them, meant losing the light that he had, but he couldn't let it take over his body, and take over his mind. He didn't want the voices to prevail. He wouldn't let it. He's not going to make that mistake. He had to protect Fro, and Sting. His friends, his nakama, his family. ]

How could you-- we not protect what's important to us.

[ he stopped in his words, listening. Nine months from now. Nine Months. He did not like the sound of it. Rogue was already prepared to not let that happen, knowing this piece of crucial information. ]

Who killed Frosch?

[ he knew who had killed Sting, and it made him uneasy, and sick. ]

[He feels a tiny pang of satisfaction at his past self's use of 'we' – at the acknowledgment that yes, he just may be what his past self will become too, for all that it isn't quite certainty yet. He does wonder though... is his past self conscious of that aspect in his choice of words?]

The how isn't important; fact remains that I wasn't. And it doesn't matter to me, either way.

[As he's told Natsu, he is no longer the type to spent his time on indulging cats.]

I suspect, this present would look quite differently, if they had. If any of us would exist to enjoy it, now that's an entirely different question, isn't it?

[Rogue likes to think he knows his fair share about time travel, and he has absolutely no doubts on this: There is no way you can go back 400 years and change something as large as the existence of the darkest mage in history without screwing over a few million other existences along the way – including but not limited to quite possibly your own – and the potential time paradox from that is more than enough to give him a headache. Or it would, if he spent any time on trying to figure it out.

And while one might argue that Rogue has little room to speak on the topic of screwing over existences, at least he can claim that he's covered his bases; it's not like he cares much for anyone outside his past self in this timeline (and even that is more a matter of survival than of attachment).]

Edited 2014-09-10 07:28 (UTC)

[ Just because he acknowledges the possibility, doesn't mean he will accept it. Rogue will fight it until the end, until he can't take it anymore. He isn't going to easily give up. He isn't going to let his friends die, and he's sure as hell taking the words his future self is saying seriously. His choice of words? He was panicking, what more could anyone react to such a situation? ]

I'm going to stronger. I won't fail Frosch. I promised to protect him.

[ How can it not matter?! He grabs at collar of the other Rogue. ]

It should matter! How could you-- they were your friends, my friends!

[ Frosch was more than cat to him, and his future self should have understood that but he no longer cared. ]

Edited 2014-09-10 07:32 (UTC)

[He is more amused than anything when his past self grabs his collar – the other isn't a threat to him, at least not in a straight-up fight, and they both ought to know that.

(And well... if his younger incarnation doesn't, Rogue will be more than glad to teach him that in a match between two shadows it's always the darker one that wins out and consumes the other.)]

I grew up. That's all there is to it.

The time loop likely wouldn't even be stable. The Eclipse Gate, as it was constructed, would not be possible without the magic from my books. Ironic, isn't it? They condemn my magic, but were only too happy to use it, themselves.

{ Not that Zeref is defending the use of his magic - he's had 400 years to think about the damage it has done to the world - but out of all of the traits of human nature that he's grown to loathe over the past seven years, hypocrisy is one of the worst, in his opinion. }

[ That doesn't mean he won't try if his future self continued to insult his ideals. He didn't understand how he had strayed so far from his friends, and those he cared about. He wasn't this cynical or cold. He wasn't that kind of person. He really wanted to change for the better, but this was just putting him in a tight spot.

Rogue would try to prove otherwise, but there was no need for pointless fighting. He only tightened his grip on the other's collar. ]

Why?!

The irony is quite striking. I suspect it's not the first time that's happened either, huh?

[History likes to repeat itself after all, especially when it comes to things like these and if anyone would know, it's probably the man before him. In any case, Rogue's opinion of the royal family's plans isn't particularly high either, for all that he is quite grateful that they had left that magic for him to use.]

Time travel is a matter of action and consequence. If you don't think it through to the point of how it affects your own existence, you deserve what is coming to you.

[He's out of luck on that one, because insulting his past self is Rogue's current favorite pastime. He is just that cynical and cold.

And very confident that his past self's magic can't harm him on top of that. Though, maybe he should serve a reminder of the fact that they don't match up. (Yet. They still may become overlapping shadows as time passes, his past fusing into his present self.)

As the other's grip tightens, Rogue reaches up to wrap his hand around the wrist his his past self's dominant hand, putting more and more pressure on it as he squeezes it.]

It's what happens when time passes. Haven't you figured that out by now?

I can't say that I disagree, there.

[ It makes it worse because he knows which buttons to press on his past version. Hence why Rogue seemed so tense and on edge talking to himself. It was already uncomfortable as is. He gritted his teeth as the other's grip tightened around his his own hands. ]

We've stopped that. The future should not turn out to be like this! I don't want this.

[ No, he couldn't bear to lose his friends and those he cared for. He didn't want to think that his hope was going to get crushed single handed in the next nine months. He didn't want any of it but the way his future self was speaking, it seemed inevitable. He didn't want the shadows to speak to him. He didn't want them to interrogate him, question his own morals. Most of all, he didn't want to conform to it. He had to keep it at bay. ]

[Damn straight, he does. Of course, his younger self does keep make it even easier for him. He makes a show of sighing as he tightens his grips further and pulls his past self forward until they are almost nose to nose.]

Fate isn't prone to listen to any one's desires. And as that is, you haven't stopped anything either.

[As Rogue has told him already.]

[ Just screw you future self! God damn it make his temper run out of control because you know all the buttons to push and he doesn't like it at all! Knock it off.

He glares at his future self as they were almost nose to nose, still struggling to keep himself from being overpowered. ]

I'll stop it! I don't need this kind of future!

[By all means, past self. You are welcome to try fight him, to keep up the struggle. It will only make the difference between them all the more clear.

It's kind of cute to see himself angrily glaring like that though, especially knowing that there isn't much the other can do.]

As I said; time will tell.

[ He's fully aware of that and he doesn't like it one bit. He doesn't want to be up'd one by his future self. Whatever gibberish he's spouting, Rogue's not going to fully believe it until it happens. It was a mistake to see his future self, and it was a mistake to think that he had some sort of humanity left in him. He's not cute and he's not trying to be cute. Shut up! ]

I prove it to you-- a future where you cease to exist as my future self.

[ and he lets go albeit a bit rudely. ]

[Whatever he might intent to be and what he actually is in eyes of this beholder are two quite different matters. Rogue keeps smirking lazily as he takes a step back, hands moving up to dust off his collar now that his past self finally let go.]

You will try... and if you fail, I will be the first one to know.

["If"... there is a chance that his past self might succeed – he will allow him that much. His voice should do well to convoy just how likely he considers that, which is to say not at all.]

voice test + 399 spoilers/speculation

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1/2 like first voice test ever >> be gentle with me hur

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1/?

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done!

<333

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;A;

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