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31_days2007-03-06 01:12 am
dqbunny.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2007-03-06 01:12 am
[March 6] [Slayers] Sins of the Grandfather
Title: Sins of the Grandfather
Day/Theme: March 6. no more curses you can't undo, left by fathers you never knew
Series: Slayers
Characters: Zelgadiss and Gourry
Rating: PG-13 (For language. Zel isn't keeping his thoughts very clean.)
Day/Theme: March 6. no more curses you can't undo, left by fathers you never knew
Series: Slayers
Characters: Zelgadiss and Gourry
Rating: PG-13 (For language. Zel isn't keeping his thoughts very clean.)
The library was old, musty and crammed full of books - similar to the hundreds of other libraries that Zelgadiss had visited in the years since he first embarked on his search for a cure. He glanced up from the spellbook he was hunched over and kneaded his temples absently.
How many years has it been by now? He'd been 15 when Rezo inflicted the curse on him, and 18 when he initially met Lina Inverse and had been at her side when she killed Rezo using the Giga Slave. His hand dropped limply to the book. Four years had gone by since the day Lina killed Rezo and Zelgadiss wasn't any closer to a cure than he had been the day he was cursed.
"Damn it!" Zelgadiss snatched up the book and heaved it across the room. It disappeared behind one of the bookcases. His hands curled into fists. Seven years. Seven fucking years. He hadn't found a damn thing. Sure, he'd helped save the world on a few occasions. It didn't mean anything if he couldn't enjoy it as a full human, a real human.
The book hit the wall and slid down, hitting something else - or rather someone as that person gave a cry of surprise.
Zelgadiss blinked and slowly turned. That yelp sounds familiar...
A tall blond-haired man emerged from the stacks, marking his place in a thin volume with one hand and reaching for Zelgadiss's spellbook - now on top of his head - with the other. Zelgadiss quirked an eyebrow, quite sure he was starting to conjure up wild hallucinations. After all, the last place he expected to see Gourry Gabriev was in a library, looking like he was reading a book.
"I'm sorry, did you lose...Zel!"
Zelgadiss quickly schooled his features into a beign expression as he crossed the room to shake his friend's hand. "Good to see you, Gourry. It's been awhile." With his hand still in a firm handshake, he glanced over Gourry's shoulder. "Where's Lina? I haven't heard any buildings in this town come crashing down yet."
"She's back downstairs." Gourry waved toward the stairwell. "She's looking up something on some goblet that contains blue fire, or something like that. I decided to wander around on my own." He leaned in close to Zelgadiss's ear. "Besides, it's that time of month," he whispered.
Zelgadiss swallowed and jerked his head in a nod. Lina Inverse was dangerous enough as is. Lina during PMS was truly a force to be reckoned with. He pitied the fools who got on her wrong side during a hormonal attack. There weren't much things in the world that scared him. That was one of them. Of course, there was the part where he would win any fight they had right now, and that did please him. The fact that he would pay for it in a couple of days? Usually kept him from starting anything.
Gourry pulled the book off his head and handed it out to him. "This landed on me. Is it yours?"
"Ah, yes. Thank you. I...slipped." Zelgadiss had lied and both of them knew it. Out of the usual foursome - five if one counted Xelloss (and Zelgadiss didn't) - Gourry tended to be the most tactless member of the party when it came to certain issues. But now, he simply remained quiet and followed Zelgadiss back to his table.
"What are you researching?" Gourry asked as they seated themselves. "Have you made any more progress on your cure?"
Of course. Gourry had to ask the one question that Zelgadiss didn't want to even dignify with a response at the moment. There was much more pleasant things in life to discuss - such as devising methods of torturing Xelloss. Now, there was a nice topic. From there, they could move onto other things like Amelia's justice speeches or if it was really true that the moon was made of green cheese and...
Zelgadiss glared at the book he'd thrown across the room. He tapped the cover. "Do you know what this is, Gourry?"
He rolled his eyes. "A book. I'm not that stupid, Zel."
"Not just any book. It's one of the volumes upon volumes of magical lore penned by my esteemed ancestor, Rezo the Red Priest." Zelgadiss spat out the last few words.
He expected Gourry to immediately ask who Rezo was. When Gourry didn't and simply sat back to look through his own book, Zelgadiss lifted an eyebrow. He had to be dreaming. Did Gourry actually remember who Rezo was? Was Hell freezing over? And where was Lina to witness this miracle?
Zelgadiss drummed his fingers on the book. "You know who Rezo is, right?"
Gourry nodded, flipping a page. "Bad guy. Wanted the stone thing Lina pawned off on me when we first met. Turned into that big Shabra-thingy."
Would wonders never cease? "Rezo was also my relative. My grandfather or great-grandfather. I'm not quite sure which. I'm leaning toward grandfather, but he lived to an abnormally long lifespan." Zelgadiss snorted and leaned back in his chair. "Of course, I will too thanks to that curse of his."
"I know. Lina told me about it."
He quirked an eyebrow again. "And you remembered it?"
Gourry gave him an exasperated look. "I remember the things that are important to me, Zel. Don't you?"
"Well...yes. Of course. I definitely place a priority on the things that are important to me."
"Such as?"
Zelgadiss indicated the room with a grand sweep of his hand. "This. My cure. The cure to this little disfigurement that's been plaguing me for the past seven years of my life. Or has that escaped you?"
If he'd spoken like that to Lina, there would had been a fireball with his name on it. If it had been Amelia, he would had received the mother of all justice speeches. But this was Gourry and he simply stared back at Zelgadiss and quietly said, "No, it hasn't."
Zelgadiss ignored him, leaping to his feet. He paced the small area like a trapped animal. And he was a trapped animal, caught in this horrid mixture of a body that caused him to sink like a stone and look like a freak. With a growl, he swept out his arm and sent an entire shelf of books crashing to the ground. He snatched up the volume of Rezo's work and tore it with his hands - hands of superhuman strength that his dear ancestor had chosen to bless him with.
He hurled the pieces across the room and pivoted around to face Gourry once more. "For seven years...seven long years...I have walked every inch of these lands that I could - and lands even beyond the Mazoku barrier. Not once could I find even a scrap of something that would enable me to reverse this death sentence my loving grandather, or whatever the hell he was, bestowed on me. I. Am. A. Freak! And I'm cursed to go through life looking for a way to undo what Rezo's done because there's no other choice for me!"
Gourry kept his gaze on Zelgadiss, a calm expression that caused his blood to boil even more. "You have a choice," Gourry told him in the same quiet tone he used earlier. "There's always a choice. You can either be just like Rezo, or you can defy him." He glanced around the room briefly. "It looks to me that right now, you're just like him."
Trembling, Zelgadiss sank into his chair, not quite sure his knees could hold him. He blinked and swallowed a few times. "Excuse me?" he asked, with enough testiness to make most people cower.
Gourry ignored it, an action that was either very brave or very stupid. "I don't remember much about that Rezo guy, but he was looking for a cure too, right? That cure caused him to turn evil and Lina had to kill him."
"Rezo turned evil because he had a piece of Shanbranigdu embedded in him," Zelgadiss pointed out.
"But didn't looking for his own cure to...I forget what it was...add to that?"
Rezo's blindness. Zelgadiss' eyes dropped to a defaced picture of the priest, smiling benignly off the ripped pages of the book. He traced a finger around his closed eyes.
Rezo had spent his entire life looking for a cure that wasn't there. In every other person with blindness he had met, he had been able to cure them. His own cure turned out to be a seal to one of the most evil beings to walk their world. His hand curled on top of the torn page. Now, he was doing the exact same thing. In his quest to defeat Rezo, he had become Rezo.
Zelgadiss closed his eyes, the rest of his energy seeping away. He wanted to place his head on the table and cry like a child. It seemed that no matter what, Rezo would win. If he searched for a cure, he would be just like him. If he lived with the curse..."What do I do?" he asked in a hoarse voice. "What the hell do I do now?"
"Do the one thing Rezo wasn't able to do."
Zelgadiss's head snapped up and Gourry smiled. "Just be happy, Zel. Get a life. Get married and have kids. Be comfortable in your own skin. Do all the things Rezo couldn't."
He sat for a moment and let the words sink in. Zelgadiss's lips curled into a feral grin as he tore the picture of Rezo from the book, crumpled it into a ball and tossed it across the room.
How many years has it been by now? He'd been 15 when Rezo inflicted the curse on him, and 18 when he initially met Lina Inverse and had been at her side when she killed Rezo using the Giga Slave. His hand dropped limply to the book. Four years had gone by since the day Lina killed Rezo and Zelgadiss wasn't any closer to a cure than he had been the day he was cursed.
"Damn it!" Zelgadiss snatched up the book and heaved it across the room. It disappeared behind one of the bookcases. His hands curled into fists. Seven years. Seven fucking years. He hadn't found a damn thing. Sure, he'd helped save the world on a few occasions. It didn't mean anything if he couldn't enjoy it as a full human, a real human.
The book hit the wall and slid down, hitting something else - or rather someone as that person gave a cry of surprise.
Zelgadiss blinked and slowly turned. That yelp sounds familiar...
A tall blond-haired man emerged from the stacks, marking his place in a thin volume with one hand and reaching for Zelgadiss's spellbook - now on top of his head - with the other. Zelgadiss quirked an eyebrow, quite sure he was starting to conjure up wild hallucinations. After all, the last place he expected to see Gourry Gabriev was in a library, looking like he was reading a book.
"I'm sorry, did you lose...Zel!"
Zelgadiss quickly schooled his features into a beign expression as he crossed the room to shake his friend's hand. "Good to see you, Gourry. It's been awhile." With his hand still in a firm handshake, he glanced over Gourry's shoulder. "Where's Lina? I haven't heard any buildings in this town come crashing down yet."
"She's back downstairs." Gourry waved toward the stairwell. "She's looking up something on some goblet that contains blue fire, or something like that. I decided to wander around on my own." He leaned in close to Zelgadiss's ear. "Besides, it's that time of month," he whispered.
Zelgadiss swallowed and jerked his head in a nod. Lina Inverse was dangerous enough as is. Lina during PMS was truly a force to be reckoned with. He pitied the fools who got on her wrong side during a hormonal attack. There weren't much things in the world that scared him. That was one of them. Of course, there was the part where he would win any fight they had right now, and that did please him. The fact that he would pay for it in a couple of days? Usually kept him from starting anything.
Gourry pulled the book off his head and handed it out to him. "This landed on me. Is it yours?"
"Ah, yes. Thank you. I...slipped." Zelgadiss had lied and both of them knew it. Out of the usual foursome - five if one counted Xelloss (and Zelgadiss didn't) - Gourry tended to be the most tactless member of the party when it came to certain issues. But now, he simply remained quiet and followed Zelgadiss back to his table.
"What are you researching?" Gourry asked as they seated themselves. "Have you made any more progress on your cure?"
Of course. Gourry had to ask the one question that Zelgadiss didn't want to even dignify with a response at the moment. There was much more pleasant things in life to discuss - such as devising methods of torturing Xelloss. Now, there was a nice topic. From there, they could move onto other things like Amelia's justice speeches or if it was really true that the moon was made of green cheese and...
Zelgadiss glared at the book he'd thrown across the room. He tapped the cover. "Do you know what this is, Gourry?"
He rolled his eyes. "A book. I'm not that stupid, Zel."
"Not just any book. It's one of the volumes upon volumes of magical lore penned by my esteemed ancestor, Rezo the Red Priest." Zelgadiss spat out the last few words.
He expected Gourry to immediately ask who Rezo was. When Gourry didn't and simply sat back to look through his own book, Zelgadiss lifted an eyebrow. He had to be dreaming. Did Gourry actually remember who Rezo was? Was Hell freezing over? And where was Lina to witness this miracle?
Zelgadiss drummed his fingers on the book. "You know who Rezo is, right?"
Gourry nodded, flipping a page. "Bad guy. Wanted the stone thing Lina pawned off on me when we first met. Turned into that big Shabra-thingy."
Would wonders never cease? "Rezo was also my relative. My grandfather or great-grandfather. I'm not quite sure which. I'm leaning toward grandfather, but he lived to an abnormally long lifespan." Zelgadiss snorted and leaned back in his chair. "Of course, I will too thanks to that curse of his."
"I know. Lina told me about it."
He quirked an eyebrow again. "And you remembered it?"
Gourry gave him an exasperated look. "I remember the things that are important to me, Zel. Don't you?"
"Well...yes. Of course. I definitely place a priority on the things that are important to me."
"Such as?"
Zelgadiss indicated the room with a grand sweep of his hand. "This. My cure. The cure to this little disfigurement that's been plaguing me for the past seven years of my life. Or has that escaped you?"
If he'd spoken like that to Lina, there would had been a fireball with his name on it. If it had been Amelia, he would had received the mother of all justice speeches. But this was Gourry and he simply stared back at Zelgadiss and quietly said, "No, it hasn't."
Zelgadiss ignored him, leaping to his feet. He paced the small area like a trapped animal. And he was a trapped animal, caught in this horrid mixture of a body that caused him to sink like a stone and look like a freak. With a growl, he swept out his arm and sent an entire shelf of books crashing to the ground. He snatched up the volume of Rezo's work and tore it with his hands - hands of superhuman strength that his dear ancestor had chosen to bless him with.
He hurled the pieces across the room and pivoted around to face Gourry once more. "For seven years...seven long years...I have walked every inch of these lands that I could - and lands even beyond the Mazoku barrier. Not once could I find even a scrap of something that would enable me to reverse this death sentence my loving grandather, or whatever the hell he was, bestowed on me. I. Am. A. Freak! And I'm cursed to go through life looking for a way to undo what Rezo's done because there's no other choice for me!"
Gourry kept his gaze on Zelgadiss, a calm expression that caused his blood to boil even more. "You have a choice," Gourry told him in the same quiet tone he used earlier. "There's always a choice. You can either be just like Rezo, or you can defy him." He glanced around the room briefly. "It looks to me that right now, you're just like him."
Trembling, Zelgadiss sank into his chair, not quite sure his knees could hold him. He blinked and swallowed a few times. "Excuse me?" he asked, with enough testiness to make most people cower.
Gourry ignored it, an action that was either very brave or very stupid. "I don't remember much about that Rezo guy, but he was looking for a cure too, right? That cure caused him to turn evil and Lina had to kill him."
"Rezo turned evil because he had a piece of Shanbranigdu embedded in him," Zelgadiss pointed out.
"But didn't looking for his own cure to...I forget what it was...add to that?"
Rezo's blindness. Zelgadiss' eyes dropped to a defaced picture of the priest, smiling benignly off the ripped pages of the book. He traced a finger around his closed eyes.
Rezo had spent his entire life looking for a cure that wasn't there. In every other person with blindness he had met, he had been able to cure them. His own cure turned out to be a seal to one of the most evil beings to walk their world. His hand curled on top of the torn page. Now, he was doing the exact same thing. In his quest to defeat Rezo, he had become Rezo.
Zelgadiss closed his eyes, the rest of his energy seeping away. He wanted to place his head on the table and cry like a child. It seemed that no matter what, Rezo would win. If he searched for a cure, he would be just like him. If he lived with the curse..."What do I do?" he asked in a hoarse voice. "What the hell do I do now?"
"Do the one thing Rezo wasn't able to do."
Zelgadiss's head snapped up and Gourry smiled. "Just be happy, Zel. Get a life. Get married and have kids. Be comfortable in your own skin. Do all the things Rezo couldn't."
He sat for a moment and let the words sink in. Zelgadiss's lips curled into a feral grin as he tore the picture of Rezo from the book, crumpled it into a ball and tossed it across the room.