[Seems resurrection is a sore spot for the both of them after all, now isn't it? What a coincidence, that. Someone had a sense of humor, when deciding to put an attempted necromancer and a vampire in the same room together, and that's finally coming to a head here--
Or at least, it might have been, if either of them were so inclined to actually talk about it. Jade already kind of hates that he let even that much slip, honestly; Natsuno's entirely correct in the assumption that anything further would be very hard to pry out at this point. But...the topic's still at hand, for better or worse, and...
Broken things. That's just the crux of it, isn't it? Looking at death as an inconvenient break that simply needs fixing. Unbidden and unwanted, the mental image still flickers clearly in his mind's eye as if it were yesterday--Nephry's first torn doll laid out on the snow, and its newly-made replica in his hands, pristine as if nothing had ever happened to it. Surely most anything could be fixed this way? That cold and arrogant sort of thought, running through his head at that time--]
Thinking of people as toys always does seem to be where it starts.
[Jade's expression remains painstakingly blank, and yet the bitterness can't help but seep into those words all the same, something hot and jagged welling up in the back of his throat. Another breath, even and careful, pushing it back down. He shakes his head, at nothing in particular.]
Quite in line with everything else, here. No better tool for prolonging suffering, I'd imagine. --It shouldn't be done. Not here, not anywhere else. [If it is being done--if it can be done at all...no, all the same, that fact remains. Even if--he wonders how--and that's a thought he doesn't want to acknowledge at all. Yet even as Jade tries not to look at it, his attention can't help but refocus on Natsuno all the same, mouth pressed into a thin line of a frown as his words properly sink in.] ...You mean to say that people have come back wrong in your own world?
Sounds unbelievable, right? [Natsuno's been so desensitized to horror and weirdness over the last several months, it's hard to remember how freak out he was at the time, thinking he was just imagining his dead classmate's steps outside his window.] People get sick and die. Then some of them rise a few days later. They don't breath, their heart doesn't beat, but they still walk around.
[It all comes down to arrogance and selfishness. In one world, an unethical science is created because a young man thought he can fix anything. In another world, a community destroys itself because an immortal girl wanted an undead village to ease up her loneliness.]
Unbelievable, yes--to put it lightly...such a thing is unheard of in any form, where I'm from. ['Impossible', more like, yet again--but Natsuno supplies the details readily, brusque though they might be, and--well, it just keeps getting harder to retain much in the way of deniability all around, with all this. Jade shifts unhappily in his seat, as a temptation to rise and pace or just...outright leave the room flickers, briefly, but--no. He really...ought to try and actually process this. If it's something they're going to actually have to deal with here, sooner or later. Besides, there's now other worlds to account for too now; even setting aside the Captain's especially absurd capabilities, this was...bound to be a phenomena somewhere on a statistical sort of level, looking at it practically.
But it's still terribly difficult to keep looking at it practically. Part of Jade very much wants to just drop this topic altogether, but another part--one he'd thought he'd finally laid to rest once and for all--rears its head all the same, and can't help but analyze Natsuno's words all the same with an awful and burgeoning sort of curiosity. The implications therein...] The way you phrase it, that almost sounds as if they became possessed of some bizarre illness reanimating them. Yet not quite in the same state they were before...that certainly couldn't be the same phenomena happening here. Such a thing as that, though...has anyone in your world studied how that could--
[No, no, stop that, don't start thinking about--]
--Hm. No, disregard that. It's irrelevant. [Practically casting out for anything to sidetrack himself, at this point--some portion of thought entirely divorced from the rest of the conflicted mess currently arresting the rest of Jade's head does wonder, very briefly...] ...But, I take it this "resurrecting sickness" doesn't necessarily have any sort of tie to your own inhuman condition at present, does it?
[It's a rough guess, but just going by Natsuno's own admissions up to this point--he doesn't seem to quite fit the description of such 'revenants' himself. Jade's pretty sure he still breathes, after all...and going by skin tone alone, he'd probably even still find a pulse on Natsuno if one were sought out. Natsuno had also confirmed he wasn't immortal either, still quite capable of dying himself; with such limited context to work with, Jade's assuming this wouldn't be the case for these resurrected people in his world that he mentions now...]
[That is a bald-faced lie. In a way, his kind are the intended outcome of this "disease", with regular shiki being those who failed to survive the full transformation.
But Natsuno has absolutely no intention of even hinting at a link between himself and the "revenants", because despite of his genuine efforts to control himself, Jade is way too invested in this. Natsuno doesn't want to become someone's science project, thank you very much.
(And then Ebalon's gonna end up wanting to dissect him anyway, RIP)]
[(Ebalon out there just cheerfully leaping directly into the mad scientist shoes Jade's been trying to abandon for years SMH....hey at least Natsuno doesn't have that guy as a roommate!!)
A bald-faced lie indeed, but not one Jade could refute right now, even if he were aware of the dishonesty--which he isn't, for once, some fairly effective combo between Natsuno's own pokerface and Jade's current thorough distraction with the topic of resurrection in general. Instead he's nodding a bit, even as his thoughts visibly seem to be wandering elsewhere already--several different places, really, half of them demanding he actively place his own mental roadblocks in the way.]
You are, yes--so I've noticed indeed. [Quite alive enough to find an impaling piece of sign very disagreeable, and still bleed too--even if the blood in question had still been acting...differently. Either way, the notion that there might in fact be multiple different supernatural things afoot in Natsuno's world isn't exactly something Jade can refute, seeing as a whole world does tend to have a lot going on at a given time.
...And he's still curious. He's still curious, and he hates that he's still curious, and in the end it's this visceral sort of internal disgust at himself that has Jade actively trying to break off that tangent anyway now, regardless of how much other parts of thought might protest. He shakes his head, at length, as if this might somehow help knock those thoughts aside. (It doesn't, of course.)] ...Regardless. All this being said, then--even if death may not seem to have consequences, here...surely we can still both agree that it's something we'd prefer to avoid when at all possible, yes?
[They'd been on another topic before all this, after all--the topic of Natsuno's inhuman resilience, and how it ought to be treated going forward--valiantly, Jade's trying to focus back on that now, whether Natsuno wants to be helpful about it or not.]
I'm sure your unnatural constitution makes it quite a bit easier to be reckless. But if you're going to be leaping to reckless decisions directly in front of me, I'll have to address them accordingly all the same. ...The captain draws his strength from suffering, after all--and you do still seem quite capable of experiencing that.
You'll have to "address them accordingly?" That almost sounds like you're threatening me.
[That's right. When an adult tries to responsible and tell a teen NOT to get themselves killed or mutilated, that's considered a threat.]
Look, I'm not trying to risk anyone else. [And that's the closest Natsuno will come to agree to being a little more careful. Of course, he will still act recklessly if he thinks the situation calls for it... just out Jade's sight.] But pain is just pain. I don't like getting hurt, but it's not suffering.
[Seeing people you care about get hurt, being trapped in the cruel whims of others, carrying on even though you died twice... that's what suffering is.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
come_sailaway
no subject
Or at least, it might have been, if either of them were so inclined to actually talk about it. Jade already kind of hates that he let even that much slip, honestly; Natsuno's entirely correct in the assumption that anything further would be very hard to pry out at this point. But...the topic's still at hand, for better or worse, and...
Broken things. That's just the crux of it, isn't it? Looking at death as an inconvenient break that simply needs fixing. Unbidden and unwanted, the mental image still flickers clearly in his mind's eye as if it were yesterday--Nephry's first torn doll laid out on the snow, and its newly-made replica in his hands, pristine as if nothing had ever happened to it. Surely most anything could be fixed this way? That cold and arrogant sort of thought, running through his head at that time--]
Thinking of people as toys always does seem to be where it starts.
[Jade's expression remains painstakingly blank, and yet the bitterness can't help but seep into those words all the same, something hot and jagged welling up in the back of his throat. Another breath, even and careful, pushing it back down. He shakes his head, at nothing in particular.]
Quite in line with everything else, here. No better tool for prolonging suffering, I'd imagine. --It shouldn't be done. Not here, not anywhere else. [If it is being done--if it can be done at all...no, all the same, that fact remains. Even if--he wonders how--and that's a thought he doesn't want to acknowledge at all. Yet even as Jade tries not to look at it, his attention can't help but refocus on Natsuno all the same, mouth pressed into a thin line of a frown as his words properly sink in.] ...You mean to say that people have come back wrong in your own world?
no subject
[It all comes down to arrogance and selfishness. In one world, an unethical science is created because a young man thought he can fix anything. In another world, a community destroys itself because an immortal girl wanted an undead village to ease up her loneliness.]
no subject
But it's still terribly difficult to keep looking at it practically. Part of Jade very much wants to just drop this topic altogether, but another part--one he'd thought he'd finally laid to rest once and for all--rears its head all the same, and can't help but analyze Natsuno's words all the same with an awful and burgeoning sort of curiosity. The implications therein...] The way you phrase it, that almost sounds as if they became possessed of some bizarre illness reanimating them. Yet not quite in the same state they were before...that certainly couldn't be the same phenomena happening here. Such a thing as that, though...has anyone in your world studied how that could--
[No, no, stop that, don't start thinking about--]
--Hm. No, disregard that. It's irrelevant. [Practically casting out for anything to sidetrack himself, at this point--some portion of thought entirely divorced from the rest of the conflicted mess currently arresting the rest of Jade's head does wonder, very briefly...] ...But, I take it this "resurrecting sickness" doesn't necessarily have any sort of tie to your own inhuman condition at present, does it?
[It's a rough guess, but just going by Natsuno's own admissions up to this point--he doesn't seem to quite fit the description of such 'revenants' himself. Jade's pretty sure he still breathes, after all...and going by skin tone alone, he'd probably even still find a pulse on Natsuno if one were sought out. Natsuno had also confirmed he wasn't immortal either, still quite capable of dying himself; with such limited context to work with, Jade's assuming this wouldn't be the case for these resurrected people in his world that he mentions now...]
no subject
[That is a bald-faced lie. In a way, his kind are the intended outcome of this "disease", with regular shiki being those who failed to survive the full transformation.
But Natsuno has absolutely no intention of even hinting at a link between himself and the "revenants", because despite of his genuine efforts to control himself, Jade is way too invested in this. Natsuno doesn't want to become someone's science project, thank you very much.
(And then Ebalon's gonna end up wanting to dissect him anyway, RIP)]I'm alive, in case you haven't noticed.
no subject
(Ebalon out there just cheerfully leaping directly into the mad scientist shoes Jade's been trying to abandon for years SMH....hey at least Natsuno doesn't have that guy as a roommate!!)A bald-faced lie indeed, but not one Jade could refute right now, even if he were aware of the dishonesty--which he isn't, for once, some fairly effective combo between Natsuno's own pokerface and Jade's current thorough distraction with the topic of resurrection in general. Instead he's nodding a bit, even as his thoughts visibly seem to be wandering elsewhere already--several different places, really, half of them demanding he actively place his own mental roadblocks in the way.]
You are, yes--so I've noticed indeed. [Quite alive enough to find an impaling piece of sign very disagreeable, and still bleed too--even if the blood in question had still been acting...differently. Either way, the notion that there might in fact be multiple different supernatural things afoot in Natsuno's world isn't exactly something Jade can refute, seeing as a whole world does tend to have a lot going on at a given time.
...And he's still curious. He's still curious, and he hates that he's still curious, and in the end it's this visceral sort of internal disgust at himself that has Jade actively trying to break off that tangent anyway now, regardless of how much other parts of thought might protest. He shakes his head, at length, as if this might somehow help knock those thoughts aside. (It doesn't, of course.)] ...Regardless. All this being said, then--even if death may not seem to have consequences, here...surely we can still both agree that it's something we'd prefer to avoid when at all possible, yes?
[They'd been on another topic before all this, after all--the topic of Natsuno's inhuman resilience, and how it ought to be treated going forward--valiantly, Jade's trying to focus back on that now, whether Natsuno wants to be helpful about it or not.]
I'm sure your unnatural constitution makes it quite a bit easier to be reckless. But if you're going to be leaping to reckless decisions directly in front of me, I'll have to address them accordingly all the same. ...The captain draws his strength from suffering, after all--and you do still seem quite capable of experiencing that.
no subject
[That's right. When an adult tries to responsible and tell a teen NOT to get themselves killed or mutilated, that's considered a threat.]
Look, I'm not trying to risk anyone else. [And that's the closest Natsuno will come to agree to being a little more careful. Of course, he will still act recklessly if he thinks the situation calls for it... just out Jade's sight.] But pain is just pain. I don't like getting hurt, but it's not suffering.
[Seeing people you care about get hurt, being trapped in the cruel whims of others, carrying on even though you died twice... that's what suffering is.]