[ Voicemail ]

[cantakeyourlife]

Hey! Yo! Hello!

Yooooou've reached Lord Death! ♥ Sadly, I'm not here to pick up, but leave a message ~after the tone~ and I'll call you back. How's that sound?

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*beeeeep*

OOC: Hey, random passersby! If you're looking for any specific posts, check this list thinger over to the left of this post. (Links.)

Comments

IC

[phantomfenton]

*The sun has barely risen, and yet here Danny is, calling and clearly awake. There're faint shadows under his eyes--he's probably been awake for a while.*

Hey, uh, Shinigami? You know how your students go after people who've turned evil, and stuff?

... How can you tell when someone's starting to turn evil?

[cantakeyourlife]

The fact that you're worried about it shows you have no reason to be worried in the first place~

[phantomfenton]

*Winces, combing fingers through still-tangled hair. That question was transparent, wasn't it? He doesn't look reassured.*

Maybe, but... what if... How would I know it if I started changing?

What if I didn't even notice if I stopped worrying?

[cantakeyourlife]

Changing how~?

Things change, people change--even the natures of souls change. I myself have changed oh so much over the course of centuries. Change in itself is nothing to be afraid of.

However, tell me what instigated the change so that it would worry you, hmm? Maybe I can give you a better answer that way~

[phantomfenton]

*Nods slowly, clearly listening.*

*Rubs his eyes when the Reaper asks, hesitating. After Clockwork had returned everything to normal, he hadn't told his friends much beyond the basics of what happened. But if telling Shinigami could help him make sure nothing would start...*

... About a couple weeks before I came here, this time-travelling ghost came and told me I'd grow up to be evil. That I'd kill everyone.

I met him--myself--a little later, and it was true. I was crazy--he was trying to kill my best friends and family so that he'd happen again in my future.

I stopped him, but... *Shrugs jerkily, not looking at the screen.* He never dissapeared. I don't know what Clockwork did with him, but if he still existed... well, doesn't that mean I still turn into him? I mean--the possibility's still there. Even if he was from some alternate dimension, he was close enough that--he was me, and...

[cantakeyourlife]

You ask tricky questions! Hoho. But let's see if I can't manage an answer, sha~all we?

[Everyone may now prepare themselves for some Shinigami TL;DR!]

Supposedly, if we could go back in time, we would have the potential to do a striking amount of damage. By knowing what will be before those very events transpire, we change our choices--maybe in an effort to preserve the future we saw, or maybe in an effort to destroy it~ Either way, because we have a greater knowledge of what is to be, it alters the way we would have made our decisions otherwise. Make sense?

That said, I would think it's absolutely reasonable to believe that your choices have now been affected. Maybe Alter Danny was a lie. How could you know? But what's done is done!! You have made different choices than you would have, and, as I said, you worried about what could be. Therefore, I would say it's a safe bet that your concern for your future might even protect you from yourself. ♪

[phantomfenton]

*Nods again, before pausing in surprise. Future-Danny, a lie? But... Why? Why would Clockwork make him go through all that, if it wasn't even going to happen? No--he's real. He was too similar. Too many things pointed towards everything he said being real.*

*Nods again seriously, thinking that over.* I guess my decisions have changed... I've already done a couple of things differently in my time than I did in his. *Good going, Shinigami--he actually looks a bit reassured.*

[cantakeyourlife]

That's better! And now you know. Knowledge is power and all that, after all~

Get some sleep. It does wonders, you know!

[phantomfenton]

*Nods, the beginnings of a small grin appearing.* Yeah, it is.

I will. But, uh, Shinigami... *Is serious again. This is the hard part, but it's one of the things weighing on him, and if he doesn't at least ask...*

If it... well, starts looking like I might... you know. Start changing for the worse. Could you just... stop me?

I mean, I know it's a lot to ask, but...

[cantakeyourlife]

[His voice loses just a little of that quirky edge, and for a fleeting moment, he sounds really... well, normal.]

If you're in peril of becoming a demon god, know that I will. I won't fall to sentiment again.

It's sad sometimes, but it's the way things are.

[phantomfenton]

What if I don't turn into a demon god, though? What if I turn--just freakish and evil, or something? Will you still stop me?

[cantakeyourlife]

Hmmmm...

I avoid meddling in the lives of ordinary humans. There will always be bad and good in the world. Maybe your world doesn't have demon gods, but if you're worried that you could become something truly horrendous?

Well, I'd see what I could do~

[phantomfenton]

'Truly horrendous'? Shinigami, I was killing everyone! Not just my family and stuff--it was much more than that! I even saw some of it--he wiped out a whole city, just for the fun of it. The army couldn't do anything, and he was just throwing their tanks around... They couldn't protect themselves. They all died. Then he started reaching the civilians, and...

*Shudders, looking more serious and disturbed by this than anything before. This is him--he would be doing all that. Blood splattered across his face, smiling down on the torn pieces of a person who hadn't escaped fast enough...* Please, Shinigami--that can't happen.

[cantakeyourlife]

There is a lot of cruelty in reality, Danny. I am strong, but it's not my place to eliminate every threat to safety, or to happiness. Sad or horrible as it may be, after murder or even after genocide, life goes on.

After the birth of a demon god, the ability for life to go on at all is at stake. The world is steeped with insanity. With bloodlust.

While by no means do I want you to do any of those bad things you said, killing alone, mass or otherwise, is not an offense that warrants the forceful capture of your soul. If you do indeed become something more than just a mortal monster, as so many men have become, you will be taken down, but I cannot interfere before that time comes. I am sorry.

[phantomfenton]

*Looks as though he's been slapped.*

W... what do you mean, you won't 'interfere'? You've got to be kidding me! Did you even listen to anything I said?! I kill everyone! No one could stop me except some time-master ghost, and he's not here!

If I'm a full ghost by then, doesn't that mean I'm immortal? What bigger threat do you want?!

[cantakeyourlife]

[He still sounds serious, but there's a softer edge to his tone of voice now. He's dealt with this before, not just with Kid, but with others, too.]

Listen to me.

I can't decide on a course of action for something that hasn't happened yet. It might not happen at all. In the end, I have the best interests of everyone in mind; that's the truth! I will not let things get so far out of hand that even a reaper can't clean up the mess.

In the meantime, this is a dream. Just like Soul Eater can't become a Death Scythe, I don't think you're in danger of changing here.