Consistency
Title: Consistency
Author: joemerl
Word Count: 1237
Rating: PG13, to be safe.
Summary: Gaia says she loves humanity. Zarm thinks she's a filthy liar. One-shot.
Characters: Zarm, giving an apostrophe to Gaia.
Warnings: Amoral reasoning.
Author's Note: This is my first attempt to post a fanfic on LiveJournal. Please tell me if I'm doing it wrong, preferably in as simple terms possible. Hope you enjoy the story. :-)
You're such a filthy hypocrite, Gaia.
You really are, you know. Or at the very least you're absurdly misguided. Sometimes I wonder how you can even call yourself a nature spirit, when your whole philosophy is so deluded that you've lost all sight of how nature actually works.
And you call me evil. Of course-how utterly simplistic, such an easy way to ignore the arguments that you don't want to hear. And what are my crimes, exactly? Why, treating the world as it truly is, and not choosing to exclude humanity from my auspices like you do.
I've seen the way you run Hope Island; it's laughable, with its carefully-tended gardens and open-air petting zoo, a little utopia of nature's serenity right on your doorstep. Hmph. Please. Is this what you honestly believe these days-do you really think this is in any way natural, are you actually that out of touch with the world that you've been ruling for all these millennia?
Nature isn't peaceful, Gaia. It isn't ordered. Nature is war, destructive, bloody, chaotic conflict where every creature struggles to survive and the leopard never lies down with the kid. You've always tried to ignore that, as long as I've known you-you want to bask in the beauty of nature without ever stopping to look at what it really is, you want forests without the inevitable fires, the nice, fuzzy exteriors without the cruel and apathetic animal natures within.
Animals eat each other, Gaia, do you even remember that? And that's only to start-the truth? Your happy little pets regularly slaughter each other over food, over territory, over mates and children. Dominant lion males will murder the cubs of different fathers while the herbivorous hippo brutally rips apart anything that comes close to it. Do you even know this anymore? You pretend you have endless resources for all of them, and yet they still fight over them, don't they? Why do they struggle so hard just to survive?
Natural selection, Gaia. That is the great force that truly runs this planet, what drives all of its creatures against each other in perpetual, never-ending conflict. And unlike you, my old friend, I'm willing to accept this great and eternal commandment, this holy and heartless edict. And unlike you I can see its cruel beauty, because it is this force, this evil, callous, merciless law that perfects all creatures under its sway, don't you see? It is this tumultuous conflict that gives these beasts strength, that allows one to rise above another in the vain quest for eternal glory. This is the battle that allows the strongest to rise!
But you're trying to subvert that, aren't you, Gaia? And all because you just don't like the species that's winning.
I'm talking, of course, about the humans.
Every other species you just ignore, but the humans...you take it farther with them, don't you, you outright forbid them their desires, their drives, you ban them from their proper place as the lords of this planet. They have proven themselves to be the strongest mortal race, if not by muscle than by merit of their intelligence, their cunning, the mighty tools they have developed with which they manage to dominate this world. They should be the species of dukes and barons, submitting to none other than spirits like ourselves. And yet you deny them their full measure of honor, not for your own glory but for those very lesser beings over which they have striven so hard to rise. All creatures must be left to their own natures, you claim, except for people, whose very natural dominance you and your Planeteers relentlessly suppress.
Do you even hear the madness that your followers preach these days? Humans must not build houses over forests, as if any wolf pack ever felt immoral about taking another pack's territory. Humans must not build dams, as if any beaver ever worried about the safety of the fish it ate. Humans must not breed, , even that most sacred of rights you would seek to rein in! A slimy toad may have a hundred offspring, but shame on the human family that wants more than two.
You think I want to destroy this world. You're wrong, Gaia-I want to perfect it, but unlike you I remember how this planet actually works, and that growth and splendor always comes with conflict and pain. That's why I focus on the humans, those mightiest and yet lowest citizens of your kingdom, to bring my plans into effect. I seek only what nature always seeks, the dominance of the strong, of the best over the worst and the king over the serf. And the only way to perfect humanity is to push it, to force its betterment with strife and turmoil from within. Only then will the best humans come to the forefront, the best nations and the best races crushing the weaker ones under their heels, and progress can finally overcome this stagnation of peace that you've managed to smother over so much of the species.
You like to pretend this is all evil, that I'm some sort of madman, that I'm the one perverting the natural order to fit my own ends. But really, how is this worse than anything you allow? Chimpanzee clans wage all-out war on each other as brutal as any human conflict, brutally slaughtering the young and helpless, as do many insects like bees and ants. Some of the latter even take prisoners, the brilliant little creatures that they are, dragging other species of insect back to their hives to work as slaves. You ignore these beautiful conflicts, you don't call these "crimes," and yet you demand that humans act differently, that the better humans not impose themselves on the weaker as so many other animals do. Why is that, Gaia? Just because they're better at it, because humans can enslave and kill at heights that these puny nothings could never hope to achieve?
Oh, I know your tired old arguments. Humans are "special," you say, just as we spirits as "special," wiser, and for some bizarre reason that means we are meant to serve the others rather than rule. But I won't accept such nonsense, I reject such tricks of unnatural distortion just as I did in the days before you first tried to drive me from this world. Being "special" is not a weakness. Being "special" does not make one a slave. You claim to love humanity as much as any other species, but I reject such a twisted definition, if to you love means merely imposed destitution.
I demand merely the rights of the strong, both for myself and for all the other species, mankind included. And rest assured, we will achieve this, Gaia. You choose weakness, but I choose strength, as do all the animals and what humans there are uncorrupted by your madness. You cannot keep your hold on this planet acting as foolishly as you do; I will take it back one day, and rule alone. For as long as I am strongest, in any event; if humans or some other species can overthrow me, so be it. I doubt that will happen, however; I do not allow myself to lapse into deluded weakness, any more than I demand fealty without proving myself worthy like you.
So what's the problem, Gaia?
All I'm asking for is a little consistency.