ᴢᴇʀᴇғ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
deathsought) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
genessia2015-09-03 06:13 pm
deathsought) wrote in genessia2015-09-03 06:13 pm
Entry tags:
"No good deed goes unpunished." - Oscar Wilde
What: The Curse of Contradictions is back and nearly claimed another victim. Zeref contacts Mavis immediately after.
When: Backdated to just after this.
Who: Zeref and Mavis.
Where: Cave in Everglade Park. Look for the dead trees.
Warnings: Mentions of death and dying. Inevitable major spoilers for Fairy Tail if you haven't been following the manga.
Come find me in Everglade. It's happening again. You know what to look for. Come alone. - Z
It was painful to write. He both did and didn't want Mavis to come. On one hand, she was the only person here who truly understood the implications of what had just happened in Everglade's cemetery. On the other... no, no, the memories were too painful to start thinking about again. He pushed the thoughts from his head, leaving behind the cemetery, now stripped bare of plantlife and graveworms. Even the Pokemon there got the hell out of dodge once they felt the miasmic aura radiating from him, leaving that boy behind. He never even looked back to see if he had lived.
He didn't want to know.
All of this time, he had managed to get away with it, not because he didn't value her life, but because she had managed to convince him that she no longer had a life to value. He had taken it for granted, back at that gala where the two of them danced, her wearing that outfit that reminded him of those days he spent teaching Fairy Tail's founders the magic they would use to defeat Blue Skull. He grew complacent, and now he was paying the price.
Finding his way into a small cave in Everglade's central park, he sat down on a rock. A spider making a web in the corner dropped off of its small threads, shriveling up on the mossy floor. Perhaps it was inevitable, perhaps he was tempting fate when he told Lucy that Ankhseram's control in this world was weaker than in their own world. It had been building up, waiting for an excuse to come out. Seeing what he had thought of as a game, a sport involving living creatures fighting for his own entertainment and personal gain, turn into a fight to save a child's life... that was it. That was all Ankhseram needed to remind Zeref who was really calling the shots in their twisted game contradictions.
Save him, and kill him. Don't save him, he dies. What does it matter? He's dead either way. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Zeref digs the heels of his palms into his eyes, forcing the thoughts from his mind. What is going to happen if Mavis comes here, and it turns out that what he had been seeing all along was her real body? Fairy Heart free from its crystalline prison, despite what she told him? It wouldn't be the first time this world has thrown the laws of life and death out the window. The laws of their own world no longer applied. Indeed, if Ankhseram knew of this world's existence, pretty much the entire population of Genessia would be cursed by now.
That's why he had to tell Mavis. If she was alive, she needed to know that their curse was still active, even if Ankhseram's influence in this world was weak, and they could get away with far more than they could in their own world. If she was still dead and he could still see her, feel hear, and hear her for whatever reason in spite of it, fine; she was still the only person here who knew what it was like to live under the God of Life and Death's yoke, and probably the only other person who could, period.
All he could do was wait until she arrived. It was so quiet. He remembers the silence; the silence of being all alone, without even as much as a blade of grass for company. It was peaceful, but at the same time, a stark reminder of how lonely he was in the world. The operative word, of course, being 'was.'
She was right. This world, and everything about it, was different.
When: Backdated to just after this.
Who: Zeref and Mavis.
Where: Cave in Everglade Park. Look for the dead trees.
Warnings: Mentions of death and dying. Inevitable major spoilers for Fairy Tail if you haven't been following the manga.
Come find me in Everglade. It's happening again. You know what to look for. Come alone. - Z
It was painful to write. He both did and didn't want Mavis to come. On one hand, she was the only person here who truly understood the implications of what had just happened in Everglade's cemetery. On the other... no, no, the memories were too painful to start thinking about again. He pushed the thoughts from his head, leaving behind the cemetery, now stripped bare of plantlife and graveworms. Even the Pokemon there got the hell out of dodge once they felt the miasmic aura radiating from him, leaving that boy behind. He never even looked back to see if he had lived.
He didn't want to know.
All of this time, he had managed to get away with it, not because he didn't value her life, but because she had managed to convince him that she no longer had a life to value. He had taken it for granted, back at that gala where the two of them danced, her wearing that outfit that reminded him of those days he spent teaching Fairy Tail's founders the magic they would use to defeat Blue Skull. He grew complacent, and now he was paying the price.
Finding his way into a small cave in Everglade's central park, he sat down on a rock. A spider making a web in the corner dropped off of its small threads, shriveling up on the mossy floor. Perhaps it was inevitable, perhaps he was tempting fate when he told Lucy that Ankhseram's control in this world was weaker than in their own world. It had been building up, waiting for an excuse to come out. Seeing what he had thought of as a game, a sport involving living creatures fighting for his own entertainment and personal gain, turn into a fight to save a child's life... that was it. That was all Ankhseram needed to remind Zeref who was really calling the shots in their twisted game contradictions.
Save him, and kill him. Don't save him, he dies. What does it matter? He's dead either way. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Zeref digs the heels of his palms into his eyes, forcing the thoughts from his mind. What is going to happen if Mavis comes here, and it turns out that what he had been seeing all along was her real body? Fairy Heart free from its crystalline prison, despite what she told him? It wouldn't be the first time this world has thrown the laws of life and death out the window. The laws of their own world no longer applied. Indeed, if Ankhseram knew of this world's existence, pretty much the entire population of Genessia would be cursed by now.
That's why he had to tell Mavis. If she was alive, she needed to know that their curse was still active, even if Ankhseram's influence in this world was weak, and they could get away with far more than they could in their own world. If she was still dead and he could still see her, feel hear, and hear her for whatever reason in spite of it, fine; she was still the only person here who knew what it was like to live under the God of Life and Death's yoke, and probably the only other person who could, period.
All he could do was wait until she arrived. It was so quiet. He remembers the silence; the silence of being all alone, without even as much as a blade of grass for company. It was peaceful, but at the same time, a stark reminder of how lonely he was in the world. The operative word, of course, being 'was.'
She was right. This world, and everything about it, was different.
no subject
She briefly wondered what could have triggered Zeref's curse to activate. But she didn't dwell on it. That was not her priority right now. What really mattered was not to leave Zeref alone to deal with it. If he was to break down, that would be terrible.
As she ran, her heart still felt lighter and more hopeful than it had been in a long time. He had reached out for her. She'd felt them getting closer and closer again, ever since she was brought to Genessia. It made her strangely happy to see it was not just wishful thinking on her part.
"Zeref!" Mavis called out when she stumbled upon a path of dead grass and dying trees. She followed the trail, still running, until she spotted the shadow of a man, sitting on a rock near the entrance of a small cave.
Only then did she slow down, quietly entering the cave, the expression on her face soft yet serious, betraying her genuine concern.
"I came as fast as I could. ...What happened?"
no subject
He felt her presence long before he heard her voice. The presence he spent so many years with on Tenroujima. He'd know it anywhere. "In here, Mavis," he called out, both happy and terrified that she was here. If she died a second time, if she were truly alive again... he'd never forgive himself.
He turned to face her, the expression on his face one she should know well. "I..." he took a deep breath. He should be numb to this by now. He shouldn't even value life anymore. He'd grown complacent. He allowed himself to hope, to believe that this world could be different.
Wait, didn't he just think to himself that Mavis was right, that it was different? No... no, he couldn't have.
"I tried to save a little boy..." He lowers his eyes, breaking eye contact. "He was in the Everglade Cemetery. Either he was a ghost and was never alive to begin with, or..." He doesn't even finish that sentence. His eyes close.
no subject
She went to sit down next to him, not touching him yet so close their clothes were almost brushing again each other. And when he turned to face her, she didn't avoid his gaze. She knew he was doubting right then but she was not. And she had almost managed to convince him this place was different. Different enough for them to start hoping again. She didn't want all her efforts to go to waste now. He couldn't lose faith now.
"What did you do exactly to try and save him?" She was talking quietly, softly. "He could very well have been a ghost. Such beings aren't uncommon here."
no subject
Not now.
As she sat down next to him, he made no attempt to move away, but at the same time, for the first time since arriving here, he felt reluctant to touch her. Their eyes met, and she'd notice the familiar sadness was back. As much as he often tried to hide it when around her, such as that bittersweet night in the woods outside of Magnolia when he asked her to look at her curse from a different perspective... it was always impossible. Mavis was too smart for her own good. She could always see right through him. Not only could he never bring himself to lie to her, it was pointless to even try.
"He was surrounded by ghosts. They were going to attack him... I had no idea what they were, but a ghost-type Pokemon appeared to protect him. My curse nearly activated right then and there, until I started telling myself that I was only doing it to catch it. I sent out Torchic. The ghosts turned out to be Gengar. But then... then he was gone."
He sighed. He closed his eyes, fighting back tears. "I didn't even try to catch it after that."