cover art by KegiSpringfield 
A man dies and gets reincarnated into the Fairy Tail world as a man named Bishop Vern, sounds awesome right. The problem is that the only magic he is good at is illusion magic, a magic type that is looked down on and regarded as nothing more than party tricks. He also has some light sociopathic tendencies, which isn't exactly a good thing in a world that runs on the power of friendship. Life's Illusion is story by BETAsatchel on fanfiction.net.Life's Illusion contains examples of:
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Jose Porla, rather than having an obsessive hatred of Fairy Tail, is a Reasonable Authority Figure who genuinely cares for his guild. His beef with Fairy Tail is that thanks to them taking many of the jobs Phantom Lord used to do, Phantom Lord can no longer maintain the funding needed to keep all it's branches open and shutting said branches down would force Jose to get rid of some of his guild memebers due to regulations. He didn't even want to start the guild war at first, but Gajeel taking things too far and Fairy Tail's subsequent retaliation forced his hand, and even after he started it he planned to take all the blame for the attack in order to ensure his guild could continue on. This has some consequences, as Makarov overhears Jose's Motive Rant and is forced to acknowledge they are not so different, which means Makarov can't use Fairy Law on him because he can no longer completely see Jose as an enemy.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Cana has a gambling addiction as opposed to a drinking one, thanks to Bishop. Mirajane and Elfman respond differently to Lisanna's death than in canon. Mirajane mellows out like in canon, but retains some of her Hair-Trigger Temper thanks to Bishop's influence. Elfman chooses to put his effort into becoming a gentleman as opposed to his manly canon self.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Cana, Erza, Gray, and Natsu are now siblings thanks to being adopted by Bishop's mom.
- Lucy and Gray end up dating.
- Juvia latches onto Elfman instead of Gray.
- Big Brother Instinct: Bishop has this towards his adoptive siblings Cana, Gray, Erza, and Natsu.
- Combat Pragmatist: Bishops basic illusion magic isn't good for direct combat so he takes every advantage he can get, such as poisoning his opponents while they are distracted by his illusions.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Bishop tries to use one on Jellal, keyword being “tries” as the spell puts such a strain on him he passes out before he can even say the full name of the attack.
- Defrosting the Ice Queen: At first Bishop only intends to to use Fairy Tail as a means to get stronger and plans to abandon it at when the time comes. This plan goes out the window as he finds himself becoming attached to serveral of its members and slowly comes to enjoy being in Fairy Tail.
- Emotion Suppression: An involuntary and downplayed case with Bishop. While he can still feel emotions they are usually toned down versions of what he should be feeling (anger turns to annoyance, sadness to disappointment, etc.) and this serves as a recurring source of self loathing for him. Thankly he has slowly begun to break out of this.
- Enemy Within: Implied.Bishop has been repeatedly dealing with whispers that urge him to kill his opponents. He is distrurbed by them and can usually ignore them, but they have been showing up more frequently.
- Loophole Abuse: A horrifying example with Mammon Amon. His magic is called alchemic exchange and one of its inbuilt rules is that it cannot be used on anything living. Since he is a sociopath, he doesn't view other people as anything but objects, so he can use his power directly on others with horrifying effects.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Several of the Phantom Lord mages are hesitant to or express guilt over attacking Fairy Tail, but their loyalty to guild outways their personal feelings.
- Rage Against the Reflection: Bishop does this after he realizes that he can barely feel anything about his father’s death.
- Samaritan Syndrome: A downplayed case with Bishop, as one of the few emotions he can geniunely feel is guilt.
- Shout-Out: Two of the stories that Bishop tells Cana and Gray are based on Pokemon and Courage the Cowardly Dog. Also a bizarre mage with nose hair magic is briefly mentioned several times in newspapers Bishop reads and has a major role in a minor arc.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: A downplayed case with Bishop. While respected, his lack of social interaction with his guildmates, barring his small circle of friends and family, means that most of the guild lacks any kind of relationship with him outside of a profesional one. Subverted during the guild war arc after the guild learns that Bishop casts illusions over all of them to keep them safe, but got beaten up by Gajeel because he forgot to put one on himself.
- Took a Level in Badass: Partially thanks to Bishop's influence, several characters are have become stronger than they were in canon
- Elfman fights Sol during the guild war and manages to pull off a fullbody takeover.
- Thanks to Bishop's prompting Lucy buys some silver celestial keys whose spirits have a lower magic cost than the gold ones, allowing her to summon more than one spirit at time (at point in canon this takes place Lucy only has enough power use one gold key at a time). This allows her to but up a good fight against Gajeel, and even earn his respect. Later on she learns whip magic to allow herself to fight along her spirits.
- Training from Hell: Bishop puts himself through this after he is nearly killed, dosing himself with a poison that causes every nerve in his body to become so sensitive that it the slightest sensation causes excruciating pain.
- Unequal Rites: Each different type of magic in the Fairy Tail world has “inbuilt rules”, which are hard limits on what a mage can and can’t do with a particular type of magic, making the type of magic stronger at the cost of versatility. Attempting to force past these rules can have lethal or crippling consequences.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: After nearly getting killed by the Blade Mage, Bishop realizes that he has grown complacent in his training and resolves to grow stronger.
- Weak, but Skilled: Bishops magic has few offensive options and his physical strength isn't as impressive as most other mages but his skill with illusions has become great enough to allow his to affect all of a person's senses and even make his illusions powerful enough to cause pain.
