#so yeah that's my Gajeel backstory

[firapolemos05]

@ft-platonicweek Day 4 - Silence

AO3

GET YOUR TISSUES READY, THIS IS SAD

They have only each other to rely on, to find comfort in.

CW: child abuse (mostly psychological, some physical), manipulation, dehumanization, disassociation, reliving past trauma, implied ableism, victim blaming, Jose is a piece of shit

Gajeel whump taglist: @heartonxions , @bambamnesiac , @grayseyebrowscar , @ostensiblyfunctional , @blackberry-bloody

“Easy for you t’say, he always goes easy on ya!”

“And Juvia is sorry about that, but we still cannot leave. There is nowhere for us to go!” 

“Fine! Then you stay! Clean his boots while yer at it! But I'm leavin’!”

Three days it's been since Juvia last saw Gajeel. Three days since their argument.

She'd thought she'd been doing the right thing, trying to convince him not to run away. He'd been angry, nerves frayed after a bad scolding from the master. Anger never made anyone think rationally. But she must have not explained that well since trying had only further aggravated his temper.

Perhaps her fear had also influenced her judgment. Gajeel had been so confident the two of them could make do on their own. Live off of the streets, in the woods like he had done before. Just them, no Master Jose, no rules, no punishments. He thought it'd be a good plan.

Juvia had said no.

The floorboards remained quiet as the girl ascended the staircase. She had long learned which spots would creak and stepped to avoid them. The chatter from the main hall offered somewhat of a cover, but she wasn't taking any chances. She didn't want to be discovered with a bowl clenched in her hands and lose the fresh fruit she swiped from the kitchen. Her friend would be hungry.

Master had given the guild a revised story, she was sure there were details missing or twisted out of context.

‘ “The little brat thought he could run off and neglect his responsibilities. Live in the woods again like some animal. Guess the cold was too much for him to handle, cause all I had to do was wait for him to come crawling back to accept the consequences.” ’

It had been cold that night, and Gajeel hated the cold. Which was why he'd been wearing that thick jacket and scarf when they talked. That should've been enough to keep him warm. If he had returned, as the master claimed, it would've never been for a reason so trivial. 

For as much as he hated the cold, Gajeel hated Master Jose even more.

‘ “I know he tried pressuring you to run away as well, Juvia. You did the right thing not listening, I'm very proud. But next time, you must come tell me. Understood?” ’

The revelation that their argument had been spied on, used as a means to punish, had dropped a rock into her stomach. Master Jose praising her should've made her feel good. No adult had ever told Juvia they were proud of her. It should've been good but instead it only made her feel sick. Master only wanted to use her against Gajeel. To hurt him. She would not do that. He was her friend. 

The door to his room stood tall before her. She raised a hand and gently rapped her knuckles against the wood. “Gajeel, may Juvia come in?” she whispered. 

It was enough for him to hear. Should've been enough. But only the silence met her. She knocked again, repeated her request for entry, just a tad louder. But no answer came, and a twinge of anxiety twisted in her gut while the Bad Thoughts wormed their way into her head.

Was he still mad at her?

Was he angry she didn't go with him?

Did he blame her for him getting caught?

The door thankfully wasn't locked, as she'd feared. The master often locked them in their rooms when they've been bad. Gajeel had a talent for picking them.

Juvia opened the door. 

The bedroom was darker than usual, and when she looked up, part of the window had been recently bricked up. Gajeel's jacket laid on the floor, ripped and torn beyond mending. The scarf tossed aside. His bed looked untouched, empty save for a familiar misshapen bundle of wrappings.

She took a step into the room. “Gajeel?”

Still nothing.

She would've thought the room was empty until a shape caught the edge of her peripheral vision. 

Her friend sat curled up far in the corner, scrunched into a tight ball. Knees clutched against his chest, face buried between them, hidden under unkempt hair. Bundled in a dark gray sweatshirt with the hood pulled up.

“Gajeel? Are you okay?” she asked, walking towards him.

He did not speak, didn't even move, made no sign that he acknowledged her presence. Juvia knelt down next to him. His chest rose and fell slightly, so he was still breathing. But as she listened, the more labored it sounded. Shaky. And even under the warm garment, his figure shook with faint tremors.

He didn't make a sound. Not when Juvia said his name again. Nothing to break the suffocating quiet.

A few times his stomach growled loudly and Juvia asked if he was hungry, told him she brought food. But still he didn't respond. She almost reached out to tap his shoulder but thought better of it.

‘Maybe he's asleep?’

The silence stretched. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Twenty.

Until Juvia thought it might be best to leave. Perhaps Gajeel wanted to be alone, to not be bothered. She placed the bowl down on the floor and rose to her feet, making way to the door.

“...‘Via?”

The voice was so uncharacteristically small and hoarse. She turned around. 

Gajeel's head had lifted just enough for her to see his face.

He looked awful.

A strange ring of bruises dotted his jawline and the bridge of his nose a mottled purple. The scars she always remembered seeing him with looked newly inflamed, as if he'd been scratching at them too much again. Dark circles hung under vacant, bloodshot eyes.

Juvia had never seen Gajeel cry, but now there were telltale streaks of tears down his cheeks.

“What happened?” she couldn't help but ask, even though she already knew part of that answer. What had the master done to him for him to be like this?

Gajeel lowered his gaze again and shook his head. “How long were ya here?”

So he didn't notice when she came in. Did he just realize she was even there? “A little while. Juvia tried talking to you.”

“. . .Oh.”

He didn't elaborate, so neither did she. Though part of her was a bit relieved that he hadn't intentionally been ignoring her. He wasn't mad at her.

“Why were you crying?”

At that, he rubbed his face against the heel of his hand, erasing most of the tear tracks. “I wasn't.”

“Gajeel-”

“‘M fine.”

By the small trembles that shook his figure, Juvia could easily tell the lie. Whatever the master did, it was bad. Not even the cane ever reduced him to such a state. She sighed, defeated. He never did like talking when he got hurt. She tried not to take it personally, even though she always went to him whenever something troubled her. She trusted him to listen and he would. Was he too embarrassed? Did he not trust her? Did he not know he could trust her? Perhaps she should-

“How much did ya hear?”

“Hear? You were very quiet, Juvia didn't hear you say-”

“No, I mean, from when I was . . .not here.”

Oh, he must be referring to what everyone downstairs is saying about him. He could likely hear them from up here. “Master Jose told everyone that you ran away, and that he punished you when you returned.”

He buried his face into his arms again, curling his knees in a little tighter. Once more, the silence swallowed the room for a few minutes. 

“‘M sorry,” he eventually murmured. Before Juvia could question what for, he added, “for gettin’ mad at ya the other day.”

Their argument. She'd nearly forgotten. “Juvia is sorry too. She was scared, of things changing too quickly. She wasn't sure how to explain it at the time.” He seemed to understand that, something she would always be thankful for, someone who understood. As simple as that, they forgave each other. “The thought of being on our own to fend for ourselves is scary, but Juvia wishes things were better here. That people were nicer.”

“Yeah, me too. This dump is full of fuckin' assholes. Yer right though.” The sadness in his admittance worried her. “We can only trust ourselves, no one else. As shitty as this guild is, would any other place be different?”

That was something she hadn’t thought about. Had he planned to find another guild to join? She could see herself doing that, a smaller change that kept to the familiar. But Gajeel did make a good point. Would other guild's treat them any differently than Phantom Lord? No one except her appeared to bat an eye when someone left Master Jose's office with new bruises, so perhaps that was just a normal expectation. Would they even be accepted elsewhere? At least staying in Phantom meant the security of assurance, that they've already earned a place amidst the rankings. No matter the discipline and bullying, they were legal wizards with the various privileges that bought them under the law. 

“Juvia, do- do ya think I'm a monster?”

Her train of thought derailed. “What? No, of course not,” she replied immediately. Why was he asking that? He was human just like she was. Of course he wasn't a- 

Oh, Master Jose probably said something to him. 

“You're not a monster, Gajeel.” Another tear fell, and a cold wave swept through her body as she realized she couldn't tell if he believed her or not. “May Juvia hug you?”

The question clearly caught him off guard, if the surprise in his widened eyes was anything to go by. For the several long seconds he didn't say anything, Juvia almost expected him to refuse. He'd never been too keen on being touched. That's why she always made sure to ask or to let him initiate. But something told her at this moment that he needed to be held.

So when he leaned towards her, ever so slightly, it was all the acceptance she needed, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. A safe touch. He rested his head against hers. 

The two sat embraced in the silence for a long time. 

-

Three nights ago

Even before he climbed out of the window of his room, Gajeel was having second thoughts. By the time the edge of Oak Town was in sight, his heart was fighting him to turn back.

Juvia should be here with him.

They were the Freaks Club, they were supposed to stick together. They should both be going. Ditching Phantom Lord and Jose and taking back their freedom. They could do whatever they wanted, be whatever they wanted. No Jose to force them to fight each other, or lock them in their rooms, or deny them food, or beat them when they did something he didn't like. No obnoxious, creepy adults making fun of how they looked or spoke.

He knew how to survive. And the two of them had powerful magic to protect themselves. They could've made it work.

Why didn't Juvia want to leave?

Sure, Jose didn't hurt her as often as he did the dragon slayer, but she still hated being there, right? All the ridicule she got for causing the rain? For her unusual manner of talking? Did she not want to be rid of that?

With each step his feet felt heavier. Until they refused to go any further.

He didn't want to leave without her, the only person he was willing to consider a friend. He couldn't leave her behind with all those assholes. Couldn't stand the thought of being all alone on the streets again. 

Not after what happened last time.

Gajeel turned around. 

If he returned quickly enough, maybe no one would notice his absence. Juvia wouldn't snitch on him, even if she was mad. It hadn't been that long since he left, Jose wouldn't know.

No one else would know. He would go back. He and Juvia would talk. He would apologize for snapping at her even though he hated saying sorry. Or maybe make her something with one of those recipes she gave him. They'd figure out something else.

No one else would know.

The bushes surrounding the guild hall were easy to hide in. It wasn't like a grand castle, guarded with an array of waiting archers or a moat filled with giant crocodiles. Just a simple building with stone walls that were no trouble for the iron dragon slayer to climb.

The window to his room stood dark up above. He could hear no noise coming from within. Good. That meant his escape wasn't discovered yet. He still had time.

A hope that got dashed about ten feet from the opening, when his nose caught a scent.

‘Fuck!’

He didn't get the chance to think of a new plan. To retreat back down and wait for them to leave. To think of some story to give that may save him. Because the stone beneath him liquefied.

There's not many words that can adequately describe the viscosity of dry rock. Unnatural can be one. Mud and clay at least had moisture to them. Lava was its own thing. Magic was the only thing that could make solid rock look wet and act wet but not actually be wet.

It's not a pleasant feeling having it snatch your body like a giant hand.

Gajeel yelped in alarm as a tendril of stone burst from the wall, seizing his torso and limbs like a constricting snake. Squeezing tight. Allowing no room for resistance against the threat of crushed bones. It didn't even give him a moment to breathe before bolting up, shoving the captured dragon slayer through the window and onto the floor of his own room. But even then, it did not release him yet.

The end of the tendril reshaped, reforming into a body, a face, brown suit, green hair, that stupid monocle.

“Tiens tiens, seems I've caught quite the naughty petit renard, haven't I?”

“Sol, ya creep! Get off me!”

His protests get cut off, for a light suddenly filled the room, revealing two other men. Master Jose stood in the center, face neutral but eyes glaring. Behind him, Aria stood by the door, his wide frame a blockade.

In his mind, Gajeel cursed every god he didn't believe in.

“Care to explain what you were doing out of your room?” the master began interrogating. 

“I-” Fuck, he didn't know what to say. He hadn't thought of a cover story. No need for one if you didn’t mean to return. “I was… just takin’ a walk. I couldn't sleep.”

“A walk, is that so? After curfew, when you are strictly forbidden to leave?”

If he can hide that he almost tried to skip town, maybe he can get away with just being punished for breaking curfew. It's not like he's never done that before. “I wanted some air. It's stuffy as hell in here.” Sure, Jose will lock him in some dark, tiny closet somewhere for a day or so, but he can handle that.

“You seem to have this false belief that my rules only exist when you deem them convenient,” the man said, disappointed but not surprised by Gajeel's insolence. He should be used to it by now. “This defiance of yours is getting out of hand. Curfews are important for safety and maintaining order. Keep breaking them and I will find new ways to keep you inside.” Probably a couple days in the closet. He'll be fine. “That would've been the case if you were not lying to me.”

How-?

“I ain't lyi-”

Gajeel's iron scales were durable. He could brush off hits that downed most people. Metallicana made him spend hours honing his defenses until a strike no longer hurt, no longer did damage. His normal human skin retained a bit of that resilience, but not to the same degree. 

Which is why Jose made sure to wear rings whenever he slapped him. The backhand whipped his head to the side and the room spun. The rings left harsh scratches across his cheek, not deep enough to break skin but definitely enough to sting.

“Sol, why don't you show him?”

“Bien sûr, Master.”

Still reeling from the slap, helpless to do anything but watch, Gajeel sat frozen as the stone walls morphed. Twisted and sculpted themselves into new shapes, figures, a boy with long hair and anger in his face, a girl with a furred hat looking worried. Familiar faces. A scene copying a memory not even two hours old.

And voices.

“We don't have t'stay, Juvia! We shouldn't have t'put up with their shit. We can leave and start over somewhere else.”

Incriminating voices. A perfect replica.

“The earth remembers all, petit renard.”

Gajeel's mouth felt full of lead. Nothing to say. What could he say?

Jose spoke instead. “Sol heard everything about your little runaway fantasy. Shame on you for trying to force Juvia into your scheme.”

“Miss Lockser is a respectable young lady. Polite and dutiful.” Aria sang praises Gajeel knows mean nothing. If they actually gave a shit, all the bastards who harassed her would actually face consequences. “You are a terrible influence on her.”

‘You fuckin' know nothin’. Ya only think that cause she stands up fer herself now.'

“I know all about your little nightly excursions too, the many times you sneak down to my kitchen to steal food,” Jose added. Gajeel's blood ran cold. “Is that what you thought you'd do upon running away? Stealing from people again? Did you learn nothing from the last time that got you in trouble? It's only thanks to my generosity that you're in a guild and not a prison.”

Something snapped, sending all thoughts of pretending out the door. How dare Jose bring up that memory. “Fuck you! Like yer any better! Generous my ass, y’all treat me like shit! The scraps ya give me ain't ever enough.”

“Not this again,” Jose shook his head. “Lying to make excuses for selfishness will not work.”

“And taking such foul language with the master is a big non non,” Sol added, like he did every single time he heard Gajeel swear. “Where I come from, children would have a bar of soap shoved into their mouths for talking like that.”

It was so damn frustrating. Gajeel knew he wasn't lying. Everyone seemed to believe he could just eat scrap metal and be fine but it wasn't enough. He needed real food too, but the tiny portions he was allowed always left his stomach gnawing for more. Hunger became a constant pain that refused to go away. Jose never believed him.

“I've been patient enough to tolerate those grievances, but this disrespect has crossed a line.” Jose moved his arms to his front. Gajeel expected to see the thick discipline cane the man kept in his office, hung looming on the wall. It was a tool he utilized often. 

But when Gajeel saw what Jose had actually been holding, he wished it'd been the former. The blazing pyre of anger extinguished, smothered by the icy grip of dread. “Why… do you have that?”

This was not supposed to happen. Jose wasn't supposed to have that thing. He wasn't supposed to be like those other people. 

“I have used various methods of disciplining you, and if tonight has shown me anything, it's that those have proved ineffective. Perhaps this will get the lesson through. Aria.”

Gajeel didn’t pay attention to what the air mage did. His vision had tunneled in on the item in Jose's hands. Not that. Anything but that. 

Sol held fast until the sharp scales snaking over the boy's skin - tearing the warm fabric of the jacket - forced him to retreat. Gajeel managed one step before Jose's shadows snatched him instead. They did not falter as he writhed, kicked, pleaded for them to stop, for them to not put him in that awful thing.

But then Aria raised his arm, fingers dancing across a magic circle, and the air was sucked out of his chest.

When his eyes opened next, it was cold. And he was no longer in his room.

Stone walls, a lashing wind, and the inky black of night beyond. 

He was in the Sky Prison.

With the stiff leather straps of a fucking muzzle enclosed around his face.

No.

No no nO NO NOT AGAIN!

He lurched up, a panicked roar muffled to almost nothing. His balance nearly faltered but his mind wasn't there enough to register the absence of his leg prosthetic. Jaws sealed shut. He tried to claw at it, shred it to pieces, but he could not pull his hands free of the freezing shackles bolted to the floor behind him. Could not call his magic to protect himself.

And with those two simple tools, his mind transported him elsewhere. A dark and grimy jail cell. These same restraints stealing any agency he had. The phantom pains of bleeding gashes cutting across his back and arms, placed by a sharp belt buckle. A nightmare taking shape. A memory returning to haunt.

History repeating itself.

It was cold yet sweat formed on his neck. His ears rang with his own pounding heart. He heaved down breaths of air through his nose because he couldn't open his mouth, he couldn't breathe, the muzzle wasn't even around his neck but somehow something must be choking him because it's hard to breathe. Why can't he breathe? The cold air is stinging his lungs but it must be a lie because there is no air, he isn't breathing, his throat is closed, he can't get the muzzle off, he can't breathe. 

“Control yourself, Gajeel. You're acting like a rabid dog.”

Jose and Aria stood a few strides away. The lingering residue of the air mage's magic still hung in the surrounding space.

‘Take it off!’ Gajeel tried to yell through the muzzle, but anything that came out was unintelligible. He let the sound ground him back to reality. Made him aware of the air that was in fact moving in and out with the rise and fall of his chest. Or was that just the shivering? His jacket, scarf, and boots were left behind and the short sleeved shirt he wore was not a suitable wind buffer. 

“It’s saddening that I have to do this, but your behavior has left me little choice,” Jose chastised, ignoring the protests of his charge. “You will be spending time up here until you prove to me you've learned your lesson.”

“Tis truly tragic, trapping one of our own up in this prison, but it is the only way you'll learn.” Aria's tears soaked his mask, Gajeel always doubted if they were genuine. 

“These are the consequences of disobedience, Gajeel. You've only yourself to blame. I've sheltered you, kept you fed, protected you from the Bureau, and look how ungrateful you are. You should know there's not many people willing to put up with an animal like you as I've had.”

‘I'm not an animal I'm not an animal I'm NOT an animal!’

“What did you expect to happen once you left? Did you think you'd find people who'd want to help you? People more patient and generous than me? You'd sooner find yourself on display in a zoo.”

It couldn't be true. There had to be some who would see he's still human despite everything. People who wouldn't care about the scales on his face and shoulders, the pointed ears, the sharp fangs and claws. 

Jose had to be wrong. He had to be.

“You remember Nerium, don't you?”

At that name, the boy flinched. How could he not? He could only dream of forgetting that horrible place. Where all this began. He had learned its name months after leaving, while learning the language of this country, for the sole purpose of remembering never to step foot there again. 

“You remember how they treated you. They saw your draconic physicality and thought you a monster, a demon. Normal humans don't have scales or fangs. They don't growl at things they don't like or eat metal. Magic is not supposed to change a body like that. You're an anomaly, and most people do not like anomalies that aren't under control.

“That's why I brought you here. Unlike many, I can see you for what you can become. A strong wizard. One whose name can become synonymous with the strongest guild, the prestigious Phantom Lord. People won't dare to disrespect you then, no matter what they think about you. They will fear our retribution too much to even think of crossing you.

“But that only happens if you're under control. Under me, your master. Leave and there will be no one to protect you. And the only treatment you can expect is chains and a muzzle just like that. Or perhaps they'll hand you to the Bureau to be turned into a science experiment, just as those in Nerium planned. So consider this lesson a sneak peek into the so-called freedom you wish for.”

Gajeel didn’t notice the tears running down his face until he saw droplets falling to the floor. He turned away, wiping them off against his knee.

He didn't want it to be true.

But he noticed how people looked at him. At his bizarre appearance and mannerisms. The glares and raised voices whenever he got too angry, whenever he looked like he lied because he didn't like making eye contact, whenever he overheard a conversation he shouldn't have because tuning out the noise was so hard.

The people of Nerium had called a demon slayer to deal with him, as if he were a pest to exterminate. And she'd nearly done it. Turned back not due to him being a terrified child but only because he wasn't her chosen quarry. 

And the Bureau again. The town's plan b before Jose showed up.

Is that really all that he is to people, some wild monster? Something to be chained and caged? Would-

Would Juvia be in danger traveling with him? If not from him, then by the people who hunt him? Would they see her being friends with a monster and think she's one too?

Gajeel turned back and the two men were gone, transported back to the Oak Town hall with Aria's magic.

All alone.

Left to his thoughts and tears in the cold, cruel silence. 

Gajeel hated the silence, so he tried to fill it.

If it weren't for the muzzle, anyone within proximity to the tower would've heard the young teen screaming himself hoarse. Thrashing in his bindings until one shoulder dislocated. Carving grooves into the stone beneath him until his claws broke. But the biting winds drowned him, sapped at energy until they forced him to the floor, curled into a crumpled heap. Trying to stifle a sob.

No one could hear him. They wouldn't help even if they did.

-

Now.

Gajeel had sat beaten and bloody in Nerium’s jailhouse for less than a day before the master of Phantom Lord arrived to collect him.

Jose forced him to endure the Sky Prison for three.

The shoulder that'd been dislocated protested the pressure, but he didn't tell Juvia.

Hugs, he decided, were okay, but only if it was her. The thought of anyone seeing him so pitiful made his skin crawl, but at least he knew Juvia wouldn't judge. Wouldn't think him weak. He could think about this and not think about how humiliating it was begging the master to be released, with desperate apologies for running away.

He would not think about that.

He would not think about how he'd spent the last couple hours crying in his room, ignoring his parched throat and pleading stomach because he was too damn scared to walk down and face the other guild members. 

He can hear them gossiping. Laughing about the ‘little dragon brat’ who tried to run. Who ran right on back because he couldn't handle it, even though that wasn't why he returned at all. Who got what he deserved. Several theories were flying on how he was punished and while none were accurate, they made his ears burn.

He couldn't go down there. They'd be on him like a pack of hunting dogs with an injured fox.

Gods he was hungry.

He didn't know when Juvia entered the room. Those past hours felt like a blur, an emptiness. The pain dulling to a consistent buzz and then numbness. He didn't remember when the tears began falling, didn't even notice they had until Juvia pointed it out. 

What was wrong with him? He usually noticed things like that.

He pulled away from Juvia, stretching out his arms and legs to get some feeling back into them. Then took in the state of his room.

The window had been altered. It had already been only barely wide enough for him to squeeze through. But now the middle was filled in, bricked up and blocked, leaving only two small holes letting in minimal light. 

No more escaping. 

Aside from that, the rest of his space appeared untouched. The cloth he used to bind his chest still lay bundled at the foot of his bed. He's glad he took it off before venturing out, thinking he'd find a better one on the road. It probably would've been bad if he'd worn it the entire time in the tower.

His boots and prosthetic sat on the floor. Bracing with a hand on the wall, Gajeel slowly rose, his left leg sore but holding his weight. Following his eyes and seeing where he intended to go, Juvia stood up as well to offer assistance. Too tired to even use his magic, he accepted it.

He just wanted to lie down.

He collapsed onto the mattress as soon as they were close enough, nuzzling into the soft fabrics. His stomach growled, the emptiness like a monster's claws hacking at his insides.

“Are you hungry? Juvia brought some food.”

His ears perked up. “Ya did?”

She walked back to the corner they'd been sitting and picked up a bowl that'd gone past his notice. Several cut fruit, including a few orange slices.

The memories of getting sick from eating too much after periods of going hungry were all that stopped him from wolfing down the bowl by the handful. Juvia risked punishment by sneaking that up. He wouldn't let them go to waste. If she noticed the dried blood on his fingers, or the ripped up state of his nails, or the scabbed abrasions and dark bruises encircling his wrists, she didn't point it out. 

"Did you? Did you actually run?" Juvia eventually asked. Gajeel paused, then nodded, hoping she could catch the regret in his expression. "But you came back, and Master Jose caught you?" 

He can still see the man's face, that cruel smile haunting his mind whenever he thought about that night. He hoped the bastard dies slowly and rots in the deepest hells. Gajeel nodded again, and mentally prayed to be spared having to explain how he'd been punished as a result. 

For once the heavens listened, for the next question Juvia presents is, "why did you come back?"

'Cause I didn't wanna be alone.'

"Cause I didn't wanna leave ya behind.” It wasn't even a lie. “If I left, ya wouldn't have anyone else fer the Freaks Club.”

And now he could never leave again. But maybe that was for the best if it wouldn't be worth it.

[sammygems]

Things I Have Noticed/Remembered from my MCDiaries rewatch

I will be updating this as I continue my rewatch, currently everything listed is out of order, cause I've started writing this as I am on episode 64 of season 1 and I don't feel like fixing it to be in order, so sorry!

What the fuck was Garroth's "plan" he mentions to Zenix in the first episode 😭

Zenix seems to be younger then Garroth in Diaries, considering the way that Garroth talks about him, but I think in MyStreet, Zenix is either the same age or slightly older then Garroth, so far this is like, the only obvious age difference between the series (besides Travis and everyone else of course)

I forgot how entertaining Brendan's character is, he's far less annoying then I remembered

ZANE AS AN ACTUAL BAD PERSON, I LOVE HIM

I love Vylad, but I legit forgot how much he was in Diaries season 1, I thought he was in it far less

Currently at the stage of Diaries where there is no lgbt+ people, i'm very disappointed by this (we haven't even reached the queerbaiting)

KC's character is....not as bad (racist) as I was expecting, still not great though. I'm choosing to believe that KC is from Tu'lu and Maid Cafes are a thing there, and "Kawaii~Chan" is just a stage name for her work.

Y'all know how Cadenza went missing and she was actually turned into a chicken? Yeah, the way Hayden, Castor, & Laurance talk about her to Aphmau makes it sound like Cadenza is a small child. But then it turns out she's the same age, if not older, then Laurance and Aphmau.

Aphmau should've just made Joh and Hayden lovers, I'm so serious, it would make the whole Cadenza and Laurance being "close like siblings" in season 1 to I think actually being called as siblings in season 2 and in MyStreet a lot easier to understand and make a lot more sense.

Why does Kenmur have like, some sort of romance with all the girls from Meteli??? He was engaged to Sasha and is stated to have feelings for Cadenza.

I love when the episodes open from Sasha's POV, and she goes and talks to Gene and there's just no voices. I love having to pause to read what they're saying. (this point is sarcasm)

The way literally everyone reacted to learning Laurance was blind was....icky. Like, I understand Cadenza and Aphmau reacting as like "we need to find a way to bring his sight back", but the fact that it was literally EVERYONE who decided he needed to get his sight back was so weird.

I don't mind Laurance ACTUALLY getting his sight back, but I wish it was done differently. Like, personally, I'd have him like, have to wash his face with the water of the fountain of Lady Irene.

Emma & Corey, Dale & Molly, and Logan & Donna are very sweet couples.

After Zoey and KC were able to turn Cadenza back to her human form, Zoey mentions that she "recognizes Cadenza from somewhere", but I don't think this goes anywhere???? I'm assuming it was supposed to hint at like, Cadenza's backstory.

ngl, I kinda wish we got more of Zane and Kiki's relationship, I really wanna know what side of Zane Kiki actually saw.

Anyway, Kiki is currently expecting.

Nicole (my beloved) has showed up. I've decided I won't question the logic behind her iron fists being able to break bedrock, and instead say that her referencing her iron fists just made me think of Ace from One Piece and Natsu & Gajeel from Fairy Tail.

I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT NICOLE'S FOX, ROXY, AND ABOUT THE WYVERNS IN GENERAL 😭

I need to mention that in one episode (before Aphmau went to Scaleswind and learned about Lady Irene), Garroth says to Aphmau "by the seven", which I think she was hurt, but the use of "by the seven" is similar to how the same phase would be used in Game of Thrones or to how irl lots of people say "oh my god", so I'm really wondering if there were originally supposed to be 7 Divine Warriors instead of 6.

The way when Aphmau found Levin and decided to keep him and Garroth IMMEDIATLY decided he would be Levin's father figure.

The way when Laurance found out that Aphmau had a kid, his response was to play with Levin and say to Aphmau "you didn't tell me you had this little buddle of joy/energy".

That's all for now, I'll like, update when I have more to add.

[shima-draws]

Saw your tags and omg HARD AGREE. Dragon Cry is SO bad nfkanmdsa

ME AND YOU SHAKING HANDS

Actually yes thanks for giving me the excuse to rant. Hold on. I'm typing furiously rn.

-Okay first of all they gave us the most ridiculously confusing plot I've ever seen. The twist with Sonya being Animus was kinda cool but they never really. Explained why she had a bond with him? She mentioned he used to be kindhearted at some point but we never see that literally ever at any point in the movie?

-The storyline is so all over the place it's a HOT mess. Especially the scene right after Natsu escapes the weird bird cage thing he runs off to find the others and suddenly they're all there? For some reason? Where did they come from. Why didn't they have a little reuniting scene. I literally rewound the movie to make sure I didn't accidentally skip a scene but nope they just made the most awkward cut/story progression in history I guess!!!

-The fanservice was so. SO bad. Like yeah the majority of the time I can at least tolerate it but this time it just made me extremely uncomfortable. Why are Erza and Lucy's boobs SO fucking large. Why did they have to make Lucy dance in like two strips of cloth. I thought I woke up in an alternate universe where Fairy Tail was a hentai. I genuinely wanted to vomit lmao

-The animation style really threw me off like I can tell it was either animated by a different studio or they wanted to try a different art style for the movie? But it just felt wrong and the proportions and faces were weird and. Yeah idk.

-What was up with the Three Stars?? Iirc we never got to learn their names or what their motivations were they were literally just. There. And they were built up to be these super powerful wizards only to get their asses kicked by FT like two scenes later. I get that being a movie obviously the fights had to be shortened but they literally did the same thing in Phoenix Priestess but WAY better. They really were like yeah uh we need some enemies for Team Natsu to fight let's just go with these guys and not give them any personality or backstory or motivations. (Except for the doll dad he was okay I guess)

-WHY WAS LEVY THERE. LITERALLY. ACTUALLY. She literally did nothing she served NO purpose in the movie she was just there?? Did they just want to shove in as many cameos as possible??? I know generally Levy isn't much of a fighter which is fine, I was kinda expecting them to do a Gajevy scene where Gajeel rescues her from some soldiers or smth which would have been fine but they didn't even do that. She literally just stood there and had like 2 voice lines. GO GIRL GIVE US NOTHING

-SPEAKING OF CAMEOS this is more personal beef than anything but man WHYYY wasn't Loke in the movie,, my boy my beloved my stupid idiot lion I'm so mad he wasn't even onscreen for like, 5 seconds

-I'm sorry but Juvia was so unhinged this movie her possessive/stalker behavior over Gray was actually super fucking creepy lmao

-What did they do to Happy. What the FUCK did they do to Happy

THEY MASSACRED MY BOY. LOOK AT HIM. HE'S GOT ANXIETY

-ALSO the scene where Happy and Lucy were crying over Natsu and we got tons of flashbacks from his POV of people who are important to him? WHY THE FUCK WASN'T HAPPY THERE?? They literally showed everyone from Fairy Tail precious to Natsu except Happy and I'm just sitting here like. HELLO?? You are SO wrong for that

-I will say I DID enjoy the little Nalu teasers we got especially the scene where Natsu showed Lucy the stars 🤧

But yeah I was here for this and this only:

The Nalu + Happy family bonding moments made it OKAY

Anyway sorry rant over. Dragon Cry bad. Natsu's brief moment of looking half dragon was a super sexy character design choice but the buildup is not worth it imo

[shinobisage09]

B - rank.

The tier where it was good, but a lot minor nitpicky issues, mainly with pacing to be honest. Or in some cases, some events could have been done better.

Edolas is a great arc. It was nice to see a "bizarro" world where the people in Ishgar are either opposites or just different in some ways. I liked seeing Mystogan's origins, and his farewell is still one of the hardest ones for me to see because despite us not seeing him so much, he's done so much for the guild he loves. Also seeing Happy get some major development, as well as his and Carla's/Charle's origins is great. I just wasn't a fan of how long and dragged out the "we're so helpless" part was. I mean it's a change, but still.

Eisenwald Arc is where we're introduced to Erza Scarlet for the first time, and boy, she's just as crazy as the others in her own quirky way. It was also a nice intro to see what her and Gray could do in a fight as we've already seen Natsu and Lucy fight, the fact too that Makarov thinks of them as a horrible team Due to mass damage being done because of them together is only a foreshadow of all the craziness to come. However another favorite scene is the episode where Natsu tries bailing Erza out of jail,... and utterly fails. It was cute and hilarious and does a great job setting up the idea of ‘Dragon Force’ and Jellal we would later see after the upcoming arc.

Battle of Fairy Tail. It was the first time we finally actually see Laxus do something other than being an arrogant jerk in the guild, and…. the first thing he does is enforce Civil war and turn the entire city into a battlefield. Yeah he has his reasons, and part of it was out of spite, but it was still a nice arc to see the guild Most try to fight Laxus. We're also shown who Mystogan is under that mask as well as the foreshadowing regarding Natsu and Gajeel. One of the best scenes is that we see Mirajane use her 'actual' magic for the first time on screen and… really? Satan Soul? Totally demolishing Fried? Amazing. It also served as the starting point for both Juvia's and Gajeel's "official" atoning for their crimes. While Juvia played a good role in the ToH, her sacrifice for Cana really cemented her as a person who wants to atone and show she does love her new family. Gajeel on the other hand did FAR worse things, but it was still a nice start by not only allowing jet and droy, the two people he wronged out of three, assault him full force without retaliating, but he also defended them from bipolar Laxus AFTER Laxus himself nearly eradicated him. I like seeing characters on screen trying to actively fix their mess. They may never fully be forgiven, but they still want to atone for their mess. It was fun, but a small segment where we're just seeing Guildmates attack eachother was eh. Especially Alzack.

Phantom Lord. Okay I'll just start it out. I think there are a bit too much parts where it dragged out a bit. Okay that's over, let's talk about the things I liked. I liked the introduction of other guilds and how some can be antagonistic… just because. We also get sorta a backstory of Lucy's but… I feel it was a bit shortened and we could have gotten more. I mean we get a lot more later on, but I feel this was the arc we could have gotten more. Don't get me wrong it's still a nice prelude and beginning, I just wished it was extended beyond what we got. It was also a nice showing of what kind of Guild Fairy Tail is, that stacks on from the Macao arc, a Guild that's a family and family doesn't surrender. Everyone is on the front lines because that's how Fairy tail rolls when one of their family members are in danger. We're also introduced to two of my favorites, Juvia and Gajeel. Elfman also gets an amazing character development as we extend on from the Lisanna backstory that was half given.

C-Rank. These were mostly okay, not bad, but not amazing either.

Starry Sky arc, while controversial as its state, is probably the only good and interesting filler arc that's bogged down by it feeling like its a bit longer than it actually is. I enjoyed the initial set up with a religious group being told one thing and them being literally the Ishgar versions of the Edolas generals is equally fun to see. It was also nice to see the Oracion Seis again and given a power boost. Although. the whole Michelle thing felt… Anyways. It wasn't terrible, and if I ever rewatch the series again I definitely wouldn't mind seeing it again. We're introduced to also a couple of quirky characters that are funny. Oh, and I also have a love-hate with the JBG. I don't think its funny half the time, I think it's kinda gross. Like. Seriously. I never understood fart humor and it's taken to like. 10 billion. The jiggly asses? I could deal with. The giant cloud of particles-you don't wanna know- is a different story.

Loke Arc. Yeah it's like, what, 2 or 3 episodes? It was a nice little backstory for out womanizer Loke, and his story of how he came to Fairy Tail, and of course the reason is because of an abuser named "Karen". xD I'm not too much of a fan of dragged out dramas. I get he's going to "die", but it also seems a bit wishy washy. Like. He didn't kill Karen, and like. I guess because he didn't close his gate she still decided to take a job? I kinda feel like she could have just been anyone random and. Yeah. moving on.

Nirvana/Oracion Seis Arc. Okay, learning and meeting the Oracion Seis was pretty awesome. We met another 2nd Generation Dragon slayer, another Celestial Mage, some awesome guy with bending magic and genjutsu powers, and the man ICHIYA. xD The only kryptonite to Erza. Not to mention we first meet Wendy, someone that gravity despises as it will be the first of many times she trips over air. It's pretty straight forward, the fights were amazing, and the idea of guild combining into one so we get interesting tag-teams were cool. Oh, and Jellal is back. Because. Yes yes no one dies in Fairy tail. I suppose the biggest gripe is just… I'm not a fan of characters who are always self pitying and suicidal out of…. desperation? despair? Whatever it is, it really… idk. I feel you could write him out of the arc, and still write something to replace what he contributes to, which… which was just opening nirvana. and feeding natsu special dragon force fire? I mean Natsu used DF through sheer emotion during the tartaros arc, so. Yeah. The biggest thing I wish is that we actually GET an onscreen redemption arc. As I mentioned, Gajeel on screen had been seeking redemption for all the ills he caused, and even Laxus believed he had no right to defeat Hades as he 'only a Fairy tail member can avenge them'. But he was still there for Makarov despite his Exile. Jellal giving the fire… and that's it for his onscreen redemption, Erza cries again, and he kinda just sits around until he willingly accpets being broken out of jail…. despite…. trying to fix his crimes…. by willingly be a fugitive… Mashima needed to work this one better. I feel another set back is the typical "oh the TRUE leader of evil is here!" and then we spent a bit longer with him until he's defeated like, 5-10 maybe episodes later.

|| Oh look, a Fairy Tail story arc tier ranking. I had something bigger in mind but I thought to start with just this. I'll be reblogging with reasons why each arc is in each tier, so if you're curious they will be labeled. The overall explanation wound up to be like. Five pages. So. Yeah I had a lot to say for some. Also to clear things up, I combined the first set of episodes up until the introduction of Erza into one arc because.... they're all very short and I felt it was easier talking about the entire segments as one as they sorta still count as an 'introduction' arc. Also this is strictly going by the anime as I've just rewatched it and I had to use the wikia to remind me which story arcs because I wasn't keeping track. Lol For the rundown: S-Tier: Alvarez Arc, Tartaros Arc, GMG Arc, Avatar Arc. A-Tier: Sun Village Arc, Tenrou Arc, Macao/Homecoming Arc, Fairy Tail Zero Arc, Galuna Arc, Tower of Heaven arc. B-Tier: Edolas Arc, Eisewald arc, Battle of Fairy Tail arc, Phantom Lord arc. C-Tier: Starry Sky/Infinity Clock arc, Loke arc, Oracion Seis/Nirvana Arc. D-Tier: Daphne Arc. F-Tier: Eclipse Celestial Spirits Arc.

[stopbeingrude]

Warning rant:

( Sorry for any mistakes)

I have been seeing lots of Juvia/ Gruvia hate lately again. You know the same things :stalking, schtockholm syndrom , abuse..... yeah you know nothing new. I've also seen video on YT-(presentation) about why Gruvia is toxic made by psychology student ..........and i still can't believe on what i saw...

Ok first of all i can't imagine analyzing relationship of characters from shonen comedy anime where most od characters are potrayed as freaking CARICATURES , and not including the fact that they are well .... from comedy anime( really?). The person who made this video claimed, that their talked about gruvia with their teacher and they agreed with them about everything. I think this person is not aware that , when you discussing certain topic, you should be... OBJECTIVE. While analyzing characters , you're supposed to write/talk about them in objective way, it doesn't matter if you hate them or not. If i were to analize for example Gray or Gajeel, i would still mention their disadvanteges even though i adore both of those characters.

I decided to talk to my father who is also same kind of teacher , I wanted to know what he thinks about this. I told him about Fairy tail, lil bit about both characters in OBJECTIVE WAY , about their backstories and show some clips of them. He agreed with me( he's also a big anime fan and is well acquainted with various anime tropes). Fairy tail i SHONEN. COMEDY.ANIME. Very often many actions done by characters are strange, incomprehensible or even absurd ,so It's obvious that we should not take them seriously. The tropes where someone is madly in love, girls are getting accidently groped or someone loses their clothes are part of japanese comedy. Quoting someone: understand your media before you'll try to write something about them.

Besides do they really thing that Mashima would made supposed ,,sexual abuser "one of the main characters?

I was pretty calm till i saw slide about Juvia supposedly gaslighting Gray....

..... WTF people?

Why do they use term, they not understand meaning of ?

Yess sure ,Juvia trying to cheer Gray up after Ultear death is sure gaslighting, because sulking on sadness/ staying depressed is healthy as hell🤡

What really made me mad was saying that on the end of Tartaros Juvia gastlighted Gray on front of his parents grave ...i just...

Juvia holding Gray's hand is sexual harrasment, even though he innitiated it( dear God 😶). Also when Gray asked Juvia why She's holding his her , this person count this as a rejection??( Yeah i don't get how is this question suppose to mean rejection , but yyy you do you?). Ok. So let's say that i see model on magazine ,according to this person's logic this is sexual harrasment because She's not aware that i have her photo. It doesn't matter that She agreed to pose for this magazine. Yep totally makes sense😏. Stop acting like Juvia harrases Gray, he likes her company, he loves her.

Oh and apparently Gruvia fans harrased Mashima to make ship canon?? Eeh?? And he said it in interview ?? Where that came from ??Im not saying that all Gruvia shippers( shippers in general) are saints but the closest thing to harrasing Mashima were, people spaming about 100yq anime and some Gray x Lucy shippers ( no offense to Graylu's ) being mad at Mashima at the and of main series. I though that Mashima himself said that he likes this couple?

Another thing Gray being in love in Juvia does not ruin his character , it's didn't make him horrible person, or more stupid. So Gray is at his best when he is depressed, because being in love makes him boring buhh. Im not sure if they're aware but most people wants to find love/ start family . It's not really nothing odd

Going by those people logic all of fairy tail characters are sexual abusers , criminals ..

The best one at last... ,, Those who like Gruvia are not normal, many will say that..." when in reality those who critisize them are minority, cause in reality most people seems to like them or are neutral towards them.

I'm sorry this is so long , but whenever i write It always makes me feel better and i wanted to remind Gruvia shippers to not bother with this kind of people , they think that them having unpopular opinion makes them some kind of modern prophets. Let's just ignore those .

[nagirambles]

What's your thoughts on gale? I find it cute but I feel like Levy is more of a love interest than her own person? Which is sad cause I like Levy and I wish that we have seen her backstory .

I’ve answered about Gajevy and what I think about their relationship here and here so if you wanna read the longer versions, there ya go! The short version is: I love it! It’s cute, probably my fave of the Big 4. 

And while I adore Gajevy and Levy’s my favourite girl in the show-- I have to say, I absolutely hate how she essentially became just a device to timestamp Gajeel’s development. In the manga her first big scene (the crucifixion) was there to show Gajeel’s cruelty, and then Levy continued to show up for minor reasons, most importantly just to show us how Gajeel has developed. 

Despite having the most blatantly intelligence-based role in the show other than Mavis, her skills hardly came into play after the 7y time skip, because after that her life pretty much revolved around Gajeel every time. She was an agent in the Magic Council? Cool. The only thing we ever see her do is apparently infiltrate Avatar for all of half an exposition session before it never matters again. She could’ve not been there, or she could’ve been a random Council member that came after to arrest them, and hardly anything would’ve changed narratively. 

My point is-- she was reduced to just being in the show so Gajeel could shine,  or she shone because it’s about saving Gajeel. And that’s great, but I hate that. It’s Juvia all over again-- Levy’s personality went from ‘nerdy cute book girl’ to ‘Gajeel’s short cute love interest that is smarter than him’ and... I can only sigh. 

I really want to see Levy’s backstory so badly. She’s been in the guild longer than Mira-- and yet, she’s the only one of that generation to never get an explanation for that! I want to see how she uses her quick learning in decoding and translating to continue to come in clutch. In fact, I would have loved to see her help Lucy when END came into play-- I get why Lucy did it, but that’s Levy’s expertise?!? She literally could be helping. 

So yeah. I love what we got, but narratively? It sucks. 

[pencilofawesomeness]

Hey, for the fanfic ask game, can I do 10 and 2? Pretty please?

10. What would you change if you had it all to do again?

What a vague and open-ended question? If I had to do my life over again? My writing tincture? easy not be born I kid, I kid.

Let's see, for HTRYDS specifically, I'm pretty happy with the direction, but I do wish I nailed down Acno's backstory and some of the world-lore stuff before I started, especially since it came up in Of Dragons and Fairies a good deal. I ended up having to sneak back and tweak some lines in the prologue/first chapter in order to stay consistent. The other thing I wished (at least for a time) that I had done was keep Ivan alive, only because he would have been an interesting antagonist to work with.

2. What is your favorite snippet of dialogue?

Hmmm lemme tell you, I had to think about this for a while. I'm still not completely sure, because I have so many babies, but I'm just going to give my top three(ish).

Acnologia really wanted that hibernation about now. “Yeah, fine, whatever floats your boat. Wendy?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you go tell that lady Sting passed out, and that I need to watch him?”

“Sure!”

Wendy opened the door. “Sting passed out but it’s okay because Ac-nii knows healing magic!”

Her bluntness did little to assuage the immediate worry the woman held. She rushed forward. “Oh my, what happened?”

“Trauma,” Gajeel said.

Acnologia had half a mind to make him take the train home.

—Of Dragons and Fairies, Chapter 12

-

“I’m a homunculus.”

The kid blinked at him. “Hu..human…clue-less?”

“No. Ho-mun-cu-lus.”

“Ho-mun-cu-lus.” The kid mouthed the word a few more times, seeming more perturbed by sounding it out than reacting to what he was. Most people freaked out. It was refreshing. “Is that a type of shark?”

“Eh?”

Greed was trying to figure out what the fuck he just asked him, completely bewildered by the turn in conversation. A shark? What the fuck was that!?

“A shark,” Roy continued, as if it was completely normal. “They got pointy teeth, like you!”

“Uh…” This was about his teeth?! “Okay?”

—Everything (to me), Chapter 4

-

“Is that all?” Diluc asked impatiently.

“Nope.”

Kaeya took the moment to enjoy the look of pure annoyance on Diluc’s face. It was easier to dwell on the cheekiness than the dooming prophecy.

“Considering your unique circumstance and crime, the Queen and the Grandmaster have something else in mind, instead of just sitting in a cell.”

“If it’s a public apology, I’ll rot here.”

—The Recruitment Spiel is an Art But Destiny Took the Fun Out of It, Chapter 7

Essentially I tend to be proud of it if it's successfully witty. It makes me happy. That said, there's plenty of more poignant lines that I love as well, but they often have to do with how it juxtaposes or flows with the prose more, so for dialogue, I'll stick with these choices. That said, I feel like I could be forgetting something I was particularly proud of, but these are the ones I remember.

[sweetmemories2606]

Gruvia Day 2020: Perfect Beginning

Morning, everyone!

Let us all celebrate the glory of today. A day which does not happen often, but is so special and beautiful.

I'm talking about Gruvia Day, of course. It is time to shower our ship with love and perhaps a little angst too.

Here's the info about the story: 

Title: Perfect Beginning 

Summary: Gray and Juvia's first date went perfectly, reminding her of a time when she had thought that a romance like this only existed in books. Finding herself happier than she had been in a long time, she wondered if perhaps their story could have a happy ending after all. 

Word Count: 2K

Genre: Fluff and (minor) Angst

Warnings: This one-shot is set on Ch 4 of Answers, thus I'd advise you to read at least the 1st chapter because there are MAJOR SPOILERS for the story.

Happy reading!

                                    __________________

                                    Perfect Beginning

                                        July 5th, X791

"This place is beautiful" Juvia looked around the field of sunflowers with a serene smile. They were just outside of Crocus, though this place was so quiet it felt like the city was far away.

“I’m glad you like it.” Gray watched her with a soft smile while he set the flowery blanket on the grass then put the basket filled with sweets which Mira had prepared on top of it.

After they had decided to get together the day before, he had asked her on a date to which she had enthusiastically agreed. Panicking because he had no idea what to do, Gray had come to Erza and Mirajane for help in the planning. 

Listening to their ideas, he hadn't been so sure until Alzack and Bisca, who had been listening to them, suggested that Gray take Juvia on a picnic. The couple noted how this is what they had done for their first date. Judging by how they were now happily married with a daughter, Gray sensed it was a good idea.

"So, who gave you the idea for a picnic?" Juvia asked, breaking him out of his thoughts. 

He raised a brow. "You don't believe I came up with this myself?"

She chuckled and shook her head. "Nope. I know you're not much of a romantic." 

He feigned disbelief and hurt. "Hey, I can be very romantic." Standing up and closing the distance between them, he snaked his arms around her waist. 

"Oh, yeah?" Juvia asked while her arms encircled his neck. They leaned in for a passionate kiss, then another. 

Everything felt so perfect, like a fairy tale. Juvia remembered a time when she had wondered if a romance like this existed outside of books.  

                                 __________________

                                    Many years ago….

"What are still you doing up, child?" Irene came into her room for the daily check up. Instead of being asleep like she was supposed to, Juvia had been reading a book. Immersed in the experience, she hadn't heard the older woman until now. 

"Sorry, Irene," The young girl whispered, putting the book on her bedside table. "I'll go to sleep now."

The Scarlet Queen glanced at the object, focusing on the title, before frowning. "Beauty and the Beast again? Aren't you tired of reading this one?"

Juvia shrugged. "It's my favourite." 

Curious, the older woman sat on the red chair beside the bed. "Why is that?" 

"Well…." The young girl was thoughtful for a moment. "Belle loves reading, just like me." 

"That is true," Irene smiled softly. "But what else?"

"I like that Beast lets her go even though he knows that she could break the curse." Juvia noted once a similar smile adorned her face. "It's like my mamma used to say, true love means putting someone else first."

The former suddenly seemed nostalgic and melancholic. "She was right." 

"Are you okay?" The latter was concerned.

"I'm alright," Reassured the older woman, but her sniffle betrayed this statement. 

Silence fell upon them as Irene was lost in thought and Juvia watched her curiously. Once she felt enough time had passed, the young girl posed a rather complicated but not surprising question. "Irene…do you believe that true love exists?"

It took the Scarlet Queen a while to respond. "I do."

Thoughtful again, Juvia followed up with "Then how do I find it?"

Irene shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know, child." Setting the book back on the bedside table, she stood and approached the bed. 

Glancing at the now frowning child, she offered a reassuring smile. "But I'm sure you will find it someday." 

Juvia's frown gave way to a hopeful look. "You are?" 

"I am," Irene nodded before leaning down to press a gentle kiss atop the girl's forehead. Then the older woman urged her to lie down against the pillow and placed the blanket over her. 

Once the child was comfortably settled, Irene stepped back and glanced at her softly. "Your parents..." Juvia's sleepy eyes immediately became alert. "What they had was true love, so I'm sure that you can have it too." 

                                   __________________

Thinking about her parents, Juvia pulled away from the kiss. Noticing her sadness, Gray immediately became concerned. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine," She reassured, but the tears that began falling suggested otherwise. He wiped them away gently, keeping one arm around her, holding her close.

Grateful for his support, she tried to compose herself in order not to ruin their date. This wasn't the time to think about her parents or how much she missed them. This was a day for her and Gray to enjoy themselves and explore the new direction which their relationship was taking.

Taking deep breaths, Juvia soon managed to stop crying and offered an apology. "I'm sorry."

"There's no need to apologise," He assured while wiping away the last remaining tears. "I understand." 

"Thank you," Able to smile again, she briefly glanced at the picnic basket then back at him. "Now, how about we really begin our date?"

Gray watched her for a moment. "Are you sure? Because if you want to talk about..."

Juvia shook her head. "Not now." Noticing his uncertain expression, she put on a brighter smile. "Right now..." She took his hand. "...I would like to enjoy the wonderful picnic that my boyfriend so kindly prepared."

He nodded. "Okay, then." After squeezing her hand, he led her to sit down on the blanket before grabbing the picnic basket. "You know, it feels weird to hear you call me your boyfriend." 

"Yeah, it does." Juvia agreed. Despite having fantasised for so long that they would get together, the term 'boyfriend' felt out of place.

There was a moment of silence while he took out the strawberry cake and cut up two large pieces. Accepting the plate he had offered, she added. "I won't do it again." 

Unexpectedly, Gray smiled. "Nah, it's okay. I guess I just need more time to get used to it, that's all." 

"That makes sense." Juvia nodded before diving into the cake. While enjoying the sweet, her mind replayed the wonderful moments that they had shared in the last 24 hours, specially their first kiss. 

                                   __________________

                                     One day before

"What's wrong, darling?" Juvia watched as Gray nervously ran his hands through his hair.

He had asked her to come with him outside the infirmary so that they could talk, yet he had said nothing.

"I need… I need to tell you something." He finally looked her in the eyes.

"What is it?" Heart hammering inside her chest; she hoped this was the long awaited moment of his confession.

"Well, I…You see..." Gray stumbled with his words.

"Perhaps we can talk later?" Juvia suggested, gently.

"No." He firmly denied. "I have to do this now."

She waited again. Nothing. "Maybe you could show me what you mean?"

During the time she had known him, it had become clear that he was more a man of action than words.

His eyes widened before nervousness morphed into determination. He moved quickly but cautiously. An arm wrapped around her waist, bringing her closer while watching her reaction.

Juvia smiled, arms instinctively encircling his neck. Then, his free hand reached for her cheek and softly stroked it for a moment.

Gray started leaning in. "Juvia, can I…."

She didn't let him finish. "Yes."

Their first kiss was passionate and even though it didn't happen the way Juvia had been dreaming of, she loved it nonetheless.

(Scene taken from Answers, Chapter 1)

                                   __________________

"What are you thinking about?" Gray asked after a few minutes, setting his empty plate aside. 

"I was just remembering when you kissed me the first time." Juvia chose to be honest. 

"Oh." A slight blush coloured his cheeks. "That was rather...embarrassing."

"It was very sweet," She softly remarked. 

"Thanks." Still blushing, Gray searched into the picnic basket for two caramade franks. 

Her eyes widened. "Where did you get those?"

"Gajeel found a store 2 days ago, so he told me about it last night," He explained while offering one to her. 

Accepting it, Juvia was genuinely surprised. "Gajeel...helped you with this?"

Gray chuckled at her reaction. "Yeah. He really cares about you, so I guess that's why he helped me make this date as perfect as possible." 

Taking a bite of the caramade frank, she reminded herself to thank Gajeel later for truly being her best friend. "That's good. I was hoping you two could get along." 

The ice mage smiled. "I know this is important to you, so I'll try." 

She returned it. "Thank you." 

                                   __________________

The rest of their date went smoothly and both had an enjoyable time. They got to know each other better, learning the most basic and trivial details such as their favourite colours. 

"I do love blue." She expectedly answered, making him laugh. "I figured." 

"What about yours?" Juvia questioned a moment later. 

Having finished eating,Gray moved closer to sit by her side. "Well, actually mine is silver."

"Really?" She stared at him in surprise. "May I ask why?"

Gray's expression turned melancholic once he answered. "It was my father's name."

This led into a conversation which they hadn't been eager for, but it was important nonetheless. He shared details about his parents, Ur and Deliora. 

Juvia was aware of most of his backstory, but there was new information such as the scarf which Ur had put around him and Lyon; it was the reason why he always wore one in the winter despite not feeling cold. The water mage also learned about his favourite childhood toy, a polar bear which had been gifted on his 1st birthday; as far as he remembered.

Gray even told her about the year before he joined Fairy Tail and the adventures he had. For once in his life, he opened up about everything, no reservations nor secrets. He trusted her fully. 

Alternatively, Juvia had to hide many details when they shifted the conversation to her childhood and family life. Trained to know how to lie and manipulate, she made her stories about growing up in an orphanage without anyone to call a friend sound sincere. 

It weighed on her conscience to be lying to him after he had been so honest, but there was no alternative. The truth needed to stay hidden, for both of their sakes. 

                                   __________________

Concealing her guilt was hard, but luckily Gray mistook this for sadness and held her in a tight embrace. His attempt to comfort her soon led to a make-out session and she found herself lying beneath him on of the flowery blanket. 

It was the perfect distraction from the complications of her life, so it's not like she was complaining. In fact, she was hoping their moment wouldn't have to end, but unfortunately their need for air eventually surpassed their desire for closeness. 

Gray got off from her and moved to lay by her side. Sweaty and breathless, they glanced at each other with mirroring smiles. "Wow. That was..."

 "I know." Juvia brought a hand to his cheek, stroking it gently. "Thank you."

"Of course." He took her hand and pressed a kiss to it, recalling that Lyon did that all the time and most women seemed to find it charming. 

Juvia smiled even brighter at this. "I really didn't expect you to be so..." 

He raised a brow in expectation. "What?"

She leaned in for a soft kiss. "Romantic."

Gray smirked. "I told you. I can be very romantic if I want to." 

"So you've never wanted to before?" She inquired, recalling their friends telling her how he was the least romantic person they knew. 

He fixed her with an adoring look. "I hadn't found someone worth being romantic for." 

It was the sweetest declaration, so she couldn't help it but to enthusiastically kiss him, to which he eagerly returned.

Even though he hadn't said those three words yet, Juvia knew that he was in love as much as she was. This made her heart swell with joy and reminded her of the first time she had watched two people fall in love.

                                   __________________

                                    Many years ago...

Juvia sat beside a great oak tree in the gardens, watching the couple embrace. Ajeel Rahmal, a young prince who had recently joined the Spriggan 12, held his now girlfriend, Nadia, tightly. Both seemed immensely glad and relieved after having confessed their feeling. It was the most heartwarming sight. 

"They look so happy," Juvia observed, smiling softly. 

"They do." Turning to her right, she found that Irene had returned from her brief chat with the emperor. The older woman seemed happy too once her eyes found the couple. 

Noticing them kiss, Juvia couldn't help but wonder. "Irene, do you think they will get married?"

Irene stared at her in surprise before raising a brow. "What makes you think that?" 

"Well, according to the books I've read, when two people love each other they get married," The young girl  innocently replied.

"Oh, yes." Irene nodded. "They always end like that, don't they?" She seemed lost in thought for a moment before sighing. "It's a shame that real life doesn't work that way." 

"What do you mean?" Juvia was confused, but also curious. 

The older woman was clearly trying to hide her bitterness, but it still showed. "Just that there isn't always a happy ending."

"I know," The young girl frowned. "My parents...They didn't get one." 

For some reason, Irene looked guilty for a moment. However, her expression soon returned to sorrowful. "They didn't." 

With the mood now heavy and gloomy, they fell silent. Their attention returned to the couple and both felt envious at their happiness. Then, once the silence was becoming unbearable, Irene offered the young girl an assuring smile. "But that doesn't mean that you can't have one." 

"So you think I can be happy..." Juvia glanced at the couple just as they laughed at something Ajeel had said. "...like them?"

"I'm sure you can." Irene knelt down to her level, placing both hands on the young girl's shoulder. "You're beautiful, kind and brave." She brushed back a strand of blue hair. "Just like your mother." 

"Thank you." Juvia blushed at the compliments. 

"I wouldn't be surprised if, someday, you found someone who will love you as much as your father loved her." Irene told her, genuinely. 

"And then we'll get married?" The young girl asked, hopeful. 

The older woman chuckled, then nodded. "Yes. Maybe you'll get a happy ending just like in your books."

[leal-5]

Tomb of Time and Destiny: Chapter 6

Juvia POV

Before Mira left she unlocked my room with a smile. “Everyone will be gathering shortly in the dining hall. Would you like me to escort you and your sister?”

“Not yet,” I said. “Juvia…um…needs a moment.”

“Of course.” She nodded a little and exited.

I paced the floor, suddenly feeling on the border of insanity. What are we going to do? How long could we keep this up? And more importantly, where in the world are Lucy and Levy?! Are they in danger? Did they get captured by the enemy? Phantom Lord, I think. I halted my pacing as fear seized me.

No, I thought as I turned an yanked my door open. Juvia must believe that they are okay and that they're looking for us too.

Two strides later I'm reaching up to knock on Erza's door just as she opens it in a hurry.

“Juvia.” She says in relief. "I was just going to go looking for you."

“What are we going to do Erza? I said in English, stepping into her room. “What happened to our clothes? And what's up with this weird language and why can we suddenly speak it?! How are we going to get back? How are we going to find Levy and Lucy? Can we even get back without them?”

I hadn't even thought of that last part till now.

“Well, the time travel thing only worked when all of our hands were on the hand prints, so I would assume that to get back, all four of our presence is crucial. As for the rest of our fears…. I'm not so sure.”

I swallow and look down.

“T-they use magic Erza.” I whisper.

“…. I know.”

“That shouldn't be possible!” I said, mostly to myself. Erza nodded, deep in thought.

A silence hung in the air as we sat on the bed.

“Well,” She said after a moment. “Right now our main focus is finding Levy and Lucy and ensuring their safety.”

I nod. “In that case, we need to work on our story.”

Erza blinked at me.

“We can't just tell people we come from, say, 600 years into the future and we're looking for our sisters whom we lost in a magical tomb! We need a backstory! Geography and family is everything to these people!”

Erza ran a hand down her face in frustration. “We need more ti-”

A gentle knock at the door made us jump. “Erza?”

Erza looked like a deer caught in headlights as Jellal deep voice rumbled from behind the door. I didn't miss the light blush in her cheeks or the miniscule shake in her voice when she answered “Yes?”

I gave her a ‘You're so totally crushing in him’ smirk and she glared at me.

“It’s time to eat. Won’t you and your sister join us? Gray and I will escort you.”

Gray.

~Doki doki.~

A blush rose to my cheeks. ‘What the hell was that?! Calm down Juvia! He’s taken bacon! You aren't the type of girl to steal another girl's man!'

I lightly slap my face and shake my head wildly.

“Of course, please give us a moment.” Erza answered, shooting me the same look with a smug grin.

“I guess there was no way out of it.” I muttered with a glare. Mira and now Gray and Jellal all seemed bent on our heading to dinner.

Erza nodded and moved to the door, flipped the latch, and opened it. They stood here, a slight smile on their lips. We smiled hesitantly at them as they escorted us.

“Can’t quite tame your hair, can can you?” Gray said while looking to my hair, a gentle, teasing smile on his lips, trying to make conversation.

We passed a mirror he I could see that my hair was indeed a wind-blown mess. Curse these blue curls! If only I had Lucy’s silky, blonde, straight hair. “Oh,” I said in dismay.

“No,” he said, looking suddenly remorseful. “I only meant to say…” He clamped his lips shut a moment, then, “It reminds me of how you looked when we found you. Two nymphs of the woods trapped in a tomb, just waiting to be set free.”

I tried to swallow but found it difficult under his searching gaze. These guys were clearly intrigued. With us? Or just our weird story?

We moved down the corridor through to the courtyard. With this weird dress, my hair a mess, towers all around, and a couple of guards checking us out, I almost freaked out again, very aware of how far away home really was. But I managed to keep it together. Mostly.

“You two are the tallest women I’ve met.”

Well, that was no surprise. That was something that was mentioned everywhere we went. Frankly, I'm surprised they just now said something.

“J-juvia thinks we are going to get that a lot.”

“Yes, well, I rather like it. It’s far easier to hold your arm than Ava’s.”

“Or Carmen's”

They said their names in a mumble, as if realizing too late, that their compliments to us was a dig at their girl.

We entered the Great Hall. There was a long table on a slightly elevated dais at the front of the room where Makarov, Gray's friends, Ava, Carmen, and their peeps, that tall, thin man, and a few others were already seated. All the men rose to their feet, looking in our direction. Some sort of old-fashioned chivalry? I could feel the heat of a blush climb my neck and cheeks, as well as the piercing cold of Ava’s stare- along with the stares of girls who surrounded her, despite their gentle smiles. Below them, two tables stretched outward, each easily seating twenty. All the men at these tables also rose and looked our way.

Ava looked up at me sweetly as I took a seat across from her. “Miss Lockser, Miss Scarlet,  I trust you are refreshed?” She glanced left and right, all wide-eyed and innocent. Innocent Juvia's ass. “We feared you had taken sick when you did not appear to dinner.” Her glance moved to Gray, who was watching the exchange with interest, and held there. Yeah, right. You mean you hoped we’d gotten sick enough to die. You’re not fooling me or Erza. Gray and Jellal left our side and walked around the table, then stood behind his chair.

“We are quite refreshed,” Erza said. “Sorry for being late.”

Makarov rose and gave us a smile. “Don't worry about it. You are here now.”

I looked at my goblet an glanced at Erza. Nothing but wine to drink. No water. No juice. We had tried it before, but never had a whole glass. Erza tilted her head slightly an I nodded. We’d have to be careful. The last thing we needed was to get wasted and start yammering about modern medicine and space travel.

I took a tentative sip, analyzing the girl across from me.  She wasn’t the overly mean girl, she was the smarter, more dastardly popular girl who was always nice to your face and ripped you apart in the shadows. The one who managed to steal your boyfriend before you even realized she was a threat.

It was good that Lucy wasn’t here. This kind of girl routinely destroyed my naive, artsy, trusting ‘sis’. But me? Well, I’d never dealt with it personally, but I'd seen it before. Of course, I didn’t want to take her on. There was no need. I’d be out of here soon enough. But if she thought she had me figured out, she had another thought coming. “So…Ava. Please, tell Juvia about yourself. Where did you obtain such a fine, amazing dress?”

I'll admit, her dress wasn't really my style, but her friend, Carmen I think, smiled, obviously pleased by my compliments, and I sensed a bit of a thaw, but I didn’t get the same vibe from Miss FancyPants. She answered my question as Gray carved a slice of chicken for each of us. But while words were emanating from her rosebud lips, her eyes were fastened on me, considering me, considering her next move. Like chess players. I suddenly had the desire to take her on at a chess table. Knights and queens and horses on a table before me while I was literally surrounded by real knights and horses. How many people could say that? Ha!

But as much as we had to keep an eye on the cat with her claws barely concealed across from me, we were drawn into the banter of Natsu and Gajeel to our left, and across from them, Makarov and a sickly looking young man to his left. The young man, whom I guessed to be about twenty, looked at me and gave me a small smile and a nod. Had we been introduced? He seemed so familiar, and yet not. I could have sworn he hadn’t been there when I arrived.

Jellal saw the direction I was looking and stood. “Juvia, Erza, may I present my cousin Simon.”

“Miss Lockser, Miss Scarlet, welcome,” he said tiredly, but there was kindness and warmth in his eyes.

I felt Ava and her girl's bristle across from me. Oh, I get it. They didn’t want us to hook up with any of the boys here. Gray made other introductions, to Ava and Carmen’s ladies-in-waiting, the other knights, to Bora, the tall, thin man I’d seen earlier. Gradually, I learned that he was Ava's father’s trusted man, here to escort his charge and watch over her. Was it my imagination, or did the man look at me like us like we were the worst sort of nuisance?

“Miss Lockser, tell us of your sisters,” Makarov said, interrupting my thoughts. “Perhaps one of our people has come across her today.”

“Your knights were rather occupied, Father,” Gray said. Was there an edge to his voice? I glanced between him, his brothers, and his father, trying to figure out the dynamics there.

“Yes, and you all saw it through in fine fashion,” he said, like he really couldn’t care less. He turned back to me. “Miss Juvia and Scarlet, your sister? Describe them for us.”

I thought back. She’d been wearing jeans and a t-shirt, but lord knows if the tomb changed their clothes too.... Best to steer clear of the clothing. “They’re quite a bit shorter than both Juvia and Erza-“

“Thank the heavens,” Ava said, giggling. “How might we deal with four women so tall?”

I sent a fake smile in her direction and went on. “Especially Levy, she only comes up to Juvia's shoulder.”  I chuckle lightly as I say it.

Erza continued “Levy has short blue hair, a few shades lighter than Juvia's and Lucy has long, blonde hair-“

“Blonde?” Natsu repeated, clearly surprised.

“Gold. The color of straw, long and straight. They have brown eyes. They're both quite cute.”

Natsu rose, dragging Gajeel up with him. “Permission to go in immediate search of these young maidens, sir,” he said.

The other knights erupted in laughter. In front of us, two girls of Ava's posse bristled.

Jellal smiled but then waved them down. “They were not there when we found them. You know that as well as I.”

“Unless Phantom Lord somehow spirited them off,” said Gajeel lowly.

We looked down the table at him, alarm gathering in my chest. He was not joking.

Gray met my eyes and shook his head slightly. “She was not there. I swear it upon my grave.”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She wasn’t back at the tomb, I told myself. I didn’t leave her behind. There was no doubt in Gray’s mind.

Still, doubt lingered. “Could we… could we go in the morning? To be certain? I mean, we became separated. Maybe they took another path, and even now, are there, trying to find shelter for the night.” Erza asked.

“With castles within view? Why not beg shelter from us or even Phantom Lord?” Carmen said, her voice ringing with the echo of judgment. “Assuming she knows nothing of them, of course,” she quickly amended.

“This is a new land for us, far from home,” I said. “We were so lost, we became fearful of trusting anyone.”

“Logical,” Gray said, stabbing his chicken with his knife and placing it in his mouth.

I stared at him for a moment and then looked down to my own utensils. Only a knife. Well, this’ll be tricky…. The Pre-Fork Era.

“Tell us,” Makarov said. “Where are you from?”

Several people nearby leaned in, studying us.

I glanced at Erza an swallowed. We hadn't figured that much out of our story.

“Enough,” Gray said. “Father, she is our guest.”

“A guest we know precious little about. They could easily be a spy for Phantom Lord or even witches. Their hair color is not normal and their clothes are unusual."

I’m sure our faces showed our surprise and confusion. They thought we were spies or... witches?

I mean, the spy thing I guess could understand, but witches?!

“Juvia fears Juvia’s sisters are in grave danger,” I said. “If Phantom Lord is as dangerous as it seems, Juvia and Erza need to redouble their efforts to make certain they haven’t fallen captive to them.”

Ava coughed. Did I imagine that she muttered something about wishing we had both gone to Phantom Lord?

Beside me, Erza twitched slightly. She did not take well to people speaking ill of her friends. I tapped her knee twice in a discrete warning. 'Calm down Erza, not worth it.'

Jellal shook his head. "I don't believe they're witches. You should have seen their faces of shock when they witnessed our usage of magic! It is obviously unknown to them."

"And I don't detect any magic energy emanating from them." Natsu said while sniffing in our direction.

"Do you really think that we'd bring them if here was the slightest doubt in our mind?" Gray asked him. Makarov silently stared at us before nodding, trusting his sons judgement.

"Sir, we ask for your aid,” Erza says, setting down her knife. “Might your men help us search for our sisters, come morning? We won’t be able to sleep, we're very worried.”

The tall, thin Bora leaned forward, weaving his fingers together and studying us with clever eyes, but Erza's eyes never left Makarov's. "You have our word that once we find them we will return home! It will be as if we never crossed paths"

Makarov regards silently for a few moments as if sizing us up. "Where did you say you were from?"

I could read straight through Erza's stoic face and could see that she was panicking internally.

"Juvia and her sisters are from Bellum." I blurted out. Bellum. That knight from Phantom Lord asked us if we were from Bellum or if we were witches. Clearly, a witch was not a good thing to be, and our limited knowledge of the land leaves us with no choice. I can only hope this doesn't end up condemning us.

"Bellum?!" Jellal said shocked. "That's quite a ways from here!"

Makarov harshly stared both me and Erza down, analyzing us for lies or deception, before nodding slowly as if being from Bellum suddenly explained a lot about us.

“We shall aid you in your quest." Makarov said after a moment. “Take your rest. In the morning, our men will set out and report to you come evening. They are most thorough.”

“Juvia begs you to allow us to join them in searching for our sisters.”

Makarov’s face twisted in astonishment at my request. Then, after a breath, Simon leaned over and whispered in his ear. Makarov straightened and looked hard at us. “I had heard Bellum women were quite audacious, but I did not think so much so.... I grant you permission, even though I believe it foolhardy. Be advised that while my sons and his men won the day, it was but one battle in a long war with our neighbors. I can promise no rescue if you are captured. Or, indeed, if your sisters are already in their foul hands.”

“We understand.” Erza said with a nod. “Thank you.”

[dreamingoffairys]

Rogue Cheney?

send me a character and i’ll list:

favorite thing about them: literally everything? like rogue is such an interesting, underappreciated character and i just…i love you.

least favorite thing about them: ummm this isn’t rogue’s fault specifically, but the way mashima just went “lol yeah rogue’s fine the shadow isn’t bothering him at all anymore”. like umm where’s the DEVELOPMENT? the EXPLANATION? the BACKSTORY? the ANGST? the LITERALLY EVERYTHING?

favorite line: “That’s right. As long as he’s with me, I’ll be alright. If I fall to darkness, the light will surely kill me.” or as Rogue says in the dub “That’s right. As long as I have Sting watching my back, nothing can touch me. If I’m destined to be tainted by evil…then at least…I’ll have his light nearby to strike me down.” (of course I picked the stingue quote who do you think i am asklfgj. also i really don’t know which version of the quote is gayer? someone help i can’t choose which i like better,,,)

brOTP: rogue & minerva is my shit tbh! but i also love rogue & gajeel, of course.

OTP: STINGUE *cries for 50 years*

nOTP: rogue x any girl tbh. nope. sorry. especially ro///lu…kill it with fire.

random headcanon: rogue plays piano and is a great cook!

unpopular opinion: rogue cheney is nonbinary and goes by they/them pronouns sorry i don’t make the rules

song i associate with them: oh man there’s so many? but i think probably in the shadows by the rasmus is the biggest one.

favorite picture of them: i made a collage because how the fuck do you expect me to pick,,, these also were just the best ones i found in my folder on this computer my old computer probably has more,,,

[dusk-raven77]

Who do you ship in fairy tail?

How many times I say ship: 25

If you decide to do this with any other shows please give me credit.

(Might contain spoilers)

Hi again! Last episode or chapter maybe idk I talked about who u guys ship in my hero academia and this time we’re doing fairy tail. Now fairy tail holds a special place in my heart because it wasn’t the first anime I had seen but really the show that got me so into anime (not good for my social life). Some people say that fairy tail was cringey but while I can see where they are coming from in certain aspects I refuse to call it bad because of how much I enjoyed it when I thought it was the best anime ever. As I said in the last one that this isn’t a ship battle but more of a persuade other people to ship what you ship. But yeah let’s got the the ships!

In the My hero academia one my ships were more different than what the show tells you to ship but they are kinda mainstream in this one.

I defiantly ship nalu which is the common ship in fairy tail but with how much time and bonding they have together how can you not. If you were looking for a detailed account on why to ship nalu I’m sure many fan girls would be pleased to do this for you.

Bisca and Alzack has a kid so you can’t not ship that (but alzack needs his emo hair back just gonna throw that in there).

With all the backstory Erza and Jellal have I ship them too hard (change my mind).

You don’t see much of the elf man x evergreen ship except from when evergreen is with elfman when he is healing at the grand magic games (one of the only good tournament arcs of anime) and I don’t ship them with anyone else so I guess I have no objections to this ship.

I’m not really sure who to say for the whole juvia, gray and Leon ships because I feel like gruvia is the most dominant one and it’s okay in the main series but all of her ships are really one sided so I’m not that sure (with Gruvia being one sided and Leon and Juvia too) but I guess the fairy tail dragon cry movie changed my mind because of how gray wanted to defend Juvia. That was cute.

You don’t see much evidence of lauxus x mirajane so I don’t really mind either way (btw I haven’t seen Edens zero yet so I don’t know if Hiro Mashima has decided to make anything Canon in that. I did not enjoy the ending of the anime because I would enjoy to see ft ending with all the canon ships) Oh wait no I do care because we haven’t had any gay ships so far so I’m gonna say I ship lauxus and freed 😂 Sorry mirajane sama don’t go she devil on me!

I think my favourite ship is gajeel and levy because I think that gajeel doesn’t want to admit that he cares a lot for levy and levy feels like she needs to prove herself to him (especially when she saved him when he was drowning that one time) I just think that is a really cute setup for a ship and it seems to me like one of the most developed ship in the series.

I also ship zeref and Mavis but I’m not gonna go into why cuz we’d be here for an additional week. And I also ship Sting and rouge but then if I was gonna choose an x reader ship I would be with rouge (that hair tho...)

I’ve already went on forever so imma go now but let me know in the comments what anime ship battle I should do next

[beautifully-vain]

One-Sided

Ao3

Chapter 6

<Ch. 5, First Ch.

After so much time and anticipating, the next chapter of One-Sided is here!!! Please let me know what you think of it! Enjoy!

Lucy couldn’t help but get excited about her date with Natsu. She’d get to know him and see what he could bring to the table. She knew he was capable of being a gentleman, hero, and an asshole, but which one was the real him? For her own selfish ambitions, she really hoped he’d be an asshole.

Levy was curling Lucy’s hair into tight little ringlet curls before she raked her finger through them to give her hair a beach wave look. Her makeup was done to perfection. She went for a casual look with baby pink lipstick to complete her face.

“Where is he even taking you?” Levy asked as she finished the last few strands of Lucy’s hair.

“Not really sure. That’s why I’m not dressing up too much.” Lucy replied fixing her top. She sported a flowing white sleeveless top that she added a black leather jacket with white sleeves to give it a classier look. She wore a pair of black skinny jeans and finished the outfit off with a pair white low-top converse and some diamond earrings that belonged to her mother. If this didn’t get Natsu’s attention to stick around, Lucy would give up altogether.

“I think you can dress this up or down depending on the place, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, you’re right. You look great Lucy.”

“Thanks Levy. I love my hair by the way thank you so much for doing it.” Lucy reached out to hug her roommate who gladly returned her affection.

“Now since I’m ready, tell me why everything about Natsu ‘screams run’ like you put it,” she asked giggling.

Levy grew quiet for a second, like she was deep in thought. “I just remember all the times Gajeel would call or text me angry about something Natsu had done or was doing. It never affected him, just annoyed the hell out of him. I don’t think they got along that well. Gajeel used to live at the house we went to last night and Natsu lived in the room next to his. He’d always complain about what girls he had over and the pranks he’d pull to get people’s attention. After he moved out, the complaining stopped for the most part. But after every party he would have something to say about what or who Natsu had done. At a certain point, I got tired of his complaining and I told him enough was enough and he’s held his tongue ever since.”

Lucy pondered this. She could find any partying fuckboy anywhere, but something in her felt that there was something different about Natsu because of how he carried himself. There was an air of command around, that made people both respectful and wary of him.

“Just be careful. I don’t know his backstory, but from what I’ve heard, he’s bad news.”

“Is that from other people or just Gajeel?” Lucy giggled.

“Surprisingly, other people. And they all say the same thing – ‘don’t get involved’, they sound like parents being honest. How bad can the guy be? And how has he not been expelled or arrested yet, right?” The girls burst into a fit a of laughter then there was a knock at the door.

Lucy was almost giddy with excitement. She quickly answered the door and saw Natsu in a pair of ripped jeans, a black shirt and the same scarf he had on the night before. He looked Lucy up and down and smiled at her.

“You look nice.” He said kindly. Lucy blushed.

“Thank you. You do too.”

“Ready to go? The restaurant will charge my card if we don’t show up in time for the reservation.”

Reservation? How nice was this date supposed to be? Lucy didn’t try to think about it.

“I’m fucking with you, we do need to leave though. I don’t wanna get stuck in traffic on our way there.” He said chuckling.

Lucy nodded and followed Natsu out of the dorm, receiving dirty looks and heard terrible whispers about her choice of date. She smiled to herself happy to know that just spending time with him would ruin her reputation.

“Look everyone! Natsu’s got a new play thing! Shall we start taking bets now on how long this one will last?” shouted one of the girls in the lounge of the dorm. The words stung, but Lucy just rolled her eyes and kept walking.

“Mad it’s not you even after I let you suck my cock?” Natsu grinned apparently knowing who the girl was.

“Fuck you Dragneel!” she shouted at him with disgust.

“You did, don’t you remember?” he laughed wrapping his arm around Lucy and pulling her close. “I’m really sorry about that. It sorta comes with the territory. You don’t deserve this though.” He whispered into her hair, sending heat through her body.

“They’re just words from people who don’t matter. It’s fine.” It was something that she had been telling herself for years when people would talk about her and her family situation. She had taught herself to at least try not to care about what people said about her. Unfortunately, the pain of the words still stung her heart.

“We’ll have a good time and you’ll forget all about them and your problems. Sound like a plan?” he asked smirking.

“Sure, why not?” she giggled as he walked her to his car.

In the parking lot, Lucy was hoping to see a badass motorcycle or something of that cliché nature. Instead, she was met with a fiery red Camaro. Natsu unlocked it and led Lucy to the passenger side. He opened the door and smiled at her as she got into the car. He felt incredibly nervous because he needed to be on his best behavior, but he wanted to take her in the back seat and get her to scream his name while she came all over his dick. He checked his phone before he got in the car and saw a message from Lisanna.

“I’m not even with you right now, but you need to behave! This is Lucy fucking Heartfilia you're taking on a date.”

He rolled his eyes at the message and quickly typed his reply.

“I want to fuck Lucy Heartfilia Lisanna!” He put his phone on Do Not Disturb and got in the car with Lucy.

“So…” Lucy started.

“Before you ask me where we’re going, don’t. Just relax and enjoy. You won't be disappointed.”

“Okay.” She said feeling scared and excited all at once. She was more anxious to find out what tonight had in store for her and the kind a man Natsu would be.

The calm silence was interrupted by Natsu’s phone ringing. It annoyed Lucy but it also reminded her that she probably wasn’t the only girl he would take out.

“Yes Lisanna?”

Lisanna? Lucy knew that name, she just couldn’t remember who the girl was especially since the name Lisanna wasn’t on the list of the world’s most common girl names. She sat and strained to hear what was being said on the other end of the phone.

“Lisanna, I’m on a date right now. Please go bother Mira or Elfman.” He said obviously ignoring what Lisanna had said to him.

Of course, she knew who that was! Lisanna was Mirajane’s little sister who was probably a senior in high school by now. She was just as beautiful as Mira, but she never liked the popularity that came with her looks. Lucy remembered how Lisanna would intentionally not do her hair and makeup to make people leave her alone. Eventually the effort – or lack thereof – finally paid off and she was just like everyone else.

“Don’t you have homework? It’s a school day tomorrow, right? Lisa I’ll entertain you later, but big kids are busy. I’m gonna hang up now. Make good grades and behave!” She shouted something on the other end of the phone as he ended the call. Lucy raised her eyebrow at Natsu urging an explanation.

“She’s a friend of mine. You probably don’t know her. Trust me, we’re just friends.”

“I mean, I hope you're just friends since she’s still in high school. Unless you roll like that.” Lucy said off-handedly.

“Wait, how’d you know that?!” Natsu was shocked.

“I went to the same school as them. Actually, Elfman and I were in the same class.”

Natsu was still shocked about the news that he had just heard. Did that mean we would have to watch his back for Mira and Elfman even more than before?

“Were you all friends or something?” he asked casually.

“No, we just went to the same school. I knew more of them than I actually knew them.”

Natsu was so relieved to hear that and was glad to be at their destination. When he told Lucy, they might be late for a reservation, he wasn’t joking even though he told her he was. The look on her face was slight horror when he mentioned it so he wanted to play it off and still somehow surprise her. He was hoping she wouldn’t hate the place he chose. Well, Lisanna convinced him to pick the place. It had a semiformal dress code, menu items he couldn’t pronounce, and prices that he had to use the credit card he swore to himself that he’d never use. To put it simply, he hated the place already so Lucy better enjoy the damn restaurant.

He parked in the best place he could find and like a gentleman, got exited the car to get the door for his beautiful date. He gauged her reaction to the setting of the date and he was a bit confused. She almost looked like she was about to cry, and not the good kind. Had he completely fucked everything up by listening to Lisanna?! He was starting to become agitated with her response and he cleared his throat hoping that she would say something that would lead him to believe that he didn’t just waste his time and possible money.

“Natsu, w-where did you hear about this place?” Lucy asked in a daze.

“Lisanna told me about it. Why?” His response was curt and she felt slight joy in his behavior, but she was bothered that his tone was spoiling her complete and utter joy.

“It’s nothing. Are we gonna head inside? You did say you didn’t wanna be late for the reservation, didn’t you?” she smiled sweetly at him while taking his hand.

What Lucy wasn’t going to tell Natsu was that she would fall into bed with him just for bringing her to this very place. This restaurant wasn’t just some upscale pompous rich people restaurant, not to Lucy anyway. This place was her mother’s favorite when she was alive. Lucy remembered the many times that her mother would beg her father to take the three of them as a family for dinner. She began to remember one specific time that her mother had lied to her father about forgetting their anniversary just to take her there. Lucy could still hear the fake weeping her mother was doing while Lucy sat in the room playing with her doll. If she thought hard enough, she could even hear her father’s laugh, a deep throaty laugh that would warm the worst of moods, when he realized that he had been fooled by his wife.

“Layla, I rushed over as soon as the maids told me! How could I have forgotten one of the absolute best days of my life?”

“You didn’t Jude, but you did make me a promise to drop everything you were doing if I ever called for you. That wasn’t that case last time so I decided to get back at you Jude! By the way dear, when is our anniversary?”

Lucy remembered her father’s laugh echoing in the room as he lifted her mother and kissed her lovingly. Lucy knew that technique oh too well especially after her mother passed. He never answered the question, he only replied with gifts or affection. Nevertheless, he brought the family to the restaurant and they had a lovely evening.

“Lucy!” Natsu whispered sharply.

“What?!” she snapped sharply, drawing unwanted attention from other patrons of the restaurant.

“I was going to ask you if there was anything that you were interested in, but your thoughts seem to be elsewhere,” he said with a tight smile.

She glanced at the menu, but already knew what she was going to order.

“I’ll get the Asiago Chicken Pasta cooked witch red peppers instead of the sun-dried tomatoes and I’ll have a glass of Bramito del Cervo. What about you Natsu?”

He was dumbfounded by her response.

“Have you been here before?”

“A few times, is that a bad thing?”

“I was hoping that it would be your first time being here.” He said still trying to figure out what the fuck she said she was going to order.

“To be impressed when you ordered something off the fancy Italian menu? Natsu, if Lisanna is your friend she already told you that I have money. I’m sorry to disappoint but it’ll take more than this to blow me away.” She quickly realized that her words made hers sound as arrogant and pompous as the regulars the restaurant.

“But I’m very happy you brought me here. It’s a very impor–” she was cut off by someone calling her name.

It was some of her father’s associates. She’d known them her whole life. Who she didn’t know was the women she saw the two men with. No doubt they were their mistresses and the men were absolutely shameless to bring those women here knowing that they’re regulars at the dining establishment with their wives. Lucy was completely disgusted with them.

“Oh my, Lucy, how you’ve grown! It’s hard to believe you're in college already,” one said while placing a suggestive hand on her shoulder.

“Jude was just talking about how proud he was of you. I bet your mother is smiling down at you right now.” The other said patting her head innocently.

Lucy rolled her eyes at the two men in annoyance. She knew the only reason they approached her was to make her keep quiet about who they had come with. The one with the hand of her shoulder was making her uncomfortable. Ever since she was young, he would always watch her, but he wouldn’t dare try anything. Lucy knew that he would just be waiting for her in the wings until she become of age to try something then belittle and berate her when she would try to speak out about it. Flashes of the bathroom come to mind and she slightly flinches.

Natsu cleared his throat at the three of them.

“Excuse me, but the two of us were trying to enjoy our evening out. Is there any way that it could remain that way? I’m sure you two gentlemen have your dates to entertain as well.” He said with a tight calm tone.

“And who exactly are you?”

“I’m Lucy’s date. Unlike the two of you, I don’t have a woman at home wasting her worry on me while I’m just out fucking some lowlife whores that will do anything for attention. So, you can either leave now and act like you never saw us, or your wives will receive a phone call giving them anonymous tips about your affairs. Trust me, they’re already suspicious of you so they’ve believe me that you're having affairs. All in all, it’s your choice.” Natsu said with a sickly-sweet smile. Lucy’s blood ran cold with that look.

The men were at a loss for words as they angrily left with their dates, but not without shooting Natsu a dirty look. He let out an annoyed sigh.

“Lucy, I gotta tell ya, if the food isn’t as good as the names make it look, I’ll lose my shit.” He said with the same smile he gave her father’s colleagues but there was mischievous look in his eye.

“I promise most of it is. You have to know what to order.” She giggled while pointing out things on the menu that she enjoyed.

“Miss Heartfilia, it’s nice to see you. Shall I place an order for your usual?” asked the handsome waiter.

“No, I’ll order what my mother always got.” She said with a sad smile.

“Yes ma’am. And for you sir?”

Natsu struggled to pick what he wanted when Lucy reached over and pointed to one of the menu items that she thought he might like.

“He’ll have my father’s usual order.” She said to the waiter.

“Of course. Your food will be out in a moment.” He said walking away.

“Hey Lucy, does that man always touch you like that?” Natsu asked casually.

Lucy didn’t answer right away as flashes of last night. She didn’t want to ruin the night with her own personal issue, she also didn’t want Natsu to know all that much of her personal life.

“No, that was the first time it ever happened. It’s nothing to worry about. Anyway, how did you know those women weren’t their wives?”

“You didn’t recognize them and they didn’t wanna look you in the eye.”

Lucy was amazed by his observation skills. Their food arrived and they enjoyed their meal in comfortable silence as Lucy tried not to get too emotional over the meal she was eating. It was the meal her mother adored when she came to the restaurant. And she adored it just as much her.

The rest of the evening went on very uneventful and that slightly disappointed her. Natsu was still a gentleman and he even refused to answer his phone while he drove her home. When they got back to the dorm, he walked her through the lobby again only this time this girls that were heckling Lucy were silently sneering at the two of them. One girl was a childish enough to trip Lucy, Natsu quickly caught her and gave the girl a dirty look.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Lucy said with an indifferent face.

They got to the door of her room and Natsu was starting to get uncomfortable because everything in him wanted to take her back to his house and fool around with her.

“I hope you had a good time tonight.” Natsu said nervously.

“I did Natsu. Thank you so much.” She said kissing him on the cheek.

Before she could pull away, Natsu grabbed her face and his lips met hers.

[just-absolutely-super]

ALL OF THEM (except for the last one, of course)

Aw yeah let’s do this!

1) What made you watch read fairy tail?

So I was bored and for some reason I went to my brother’s room to look at something and found the first two volumes of FT in his chair.

I wasn’t gonna read them but the title caught my eye because I LOVE fairy tales, and after reading the summary on the back I decided to give it a go.

Queue the slow spiral into obsession lol

2) What do you prefer: Manga or anime?

Manga 100% of the way. I have…issues with the anime.

3) What is your favourite arc?

Phantom Lord will probably always be #1 because for me that was what made me become a the hardcore fan I am today.

We get a guild vs guild story

We get a SECOND dragon slayer

Lucy’s backstory is revealed and we’re shown just how badass she can be

We’re also given other defining character moments (the guild showing their loyalty to one of their own; Mira and Eflman’s backstory with the reveal of their supposedly dead sister; Makarov going all serious because his children have been hurt; etc.)

And last but not least: it’s the first arc where I start to subconsciously ship Na.Lu lol *shot*

4) How much do you love Ichiya?

MY LOVE FOR THIS WEIRD LITTLE MAN HAS NO LIMIT

5) Your brotp?

Everyone but here are my big ones:

Lucy and Happy

Team Natsu as a whole

All the Dragon Slayers (I like to think of them as one big happy dysfunctional family)

Lucy and Lisanna because I love to SPITE those people who think they’d fight over Natsu and hate each other

Lucy and Juvia

Natsu and Gray

Crime Sorciere

And….EVERYONE

6) Your otp?

Look at my icon and take a wild guess motherfuckers

But for those who need help it’s NA-FUCKING-LU

7) Your notp?

My big ones are Gray.Lu; Gajeel x Lucy; and Rogue x Lucy because of very bad experiences from fandom

But generally I hate all Lucy ships that aren’t Na.Lu

…I’m not joking

8) Your favourite dragon slayer?

Natsu of course

What do you mean I’m unoriginal and cliche?

9) What do you love about fairy tail?

This manga is not perfect

The writing has gotten worse with time

And the past couple of months have been me rolling my eyes and begging for the end

But you know what?

I still love Fairy Tail.

I plan on making a separate post talking more in depth about my feelings for this series, but for now I’ll say that it’s stuck with me the most out of all my fandoms. All the other manga I’ve read didn’t get me as excited as Fairy Tail has. And even with the gaping flaws, I still look forward to seeing Natsu, Lucy, Happy, and everyone else kick ass with the Power of Friendship™ and defying the laws of physics.

It’s not perfect. But it’s been a pretty good adventure for me.

10) What is your favourite zodiac sign?

Loke because I’m a biased Leo but Aquarious is a close second

11) Which character do you think is under-appreciated?

This fandom loves their side characters so I don’t think anyone is really under-appreciated?

In the story in general, I think a lot of the new characters Mashima introduced get swept under the rug to the more popular crowd but that’s expected of having WAAAAAAY too many characters to keep track of.

12) Which character do you think is overpowered?

Erza

She just PUNCHED a FUCKING METEOR with BROKEN BONES

HOW IS THAT NOT OP???

13) Where would you want your guild mark to be?

Back of my left shoulder

14) Who is your favourite character?

LUCY HEARTFILIA

THE QUEEN

THE BAMF

THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER IN THIS MANGA

I WILL FIGHT ANYONE WHO DARES TO CALL HER USELESS

[sapphic-apple-juice]

I’m getting pretty sick of hearing only negative stuff going on in Fairy Tail, so let’s talk about positive stuff for a little bit, yeah?

We get to see more of the people in other guilds during this arc helping out Fairy Tail instead of being their enemy.

Gajeel and Levy are canon!

Dragon Cry is coming out soon and it looks amazing!

The anime is confirmed coming back this year and it’s going to be great!

We know Erza’s full backstory.

Plenty of ship moments for everyone.

Gildarts and Cana have a great father/daughter bond and it’s beautiful.

Mirajane is still alive!

Wendy and Chelia totally kicked butt this arc and it’s nice seeing my children grow up.

Mavis came back to life!

Erza is technically still the guild master of Fairy Tail and she’s doing a hecking good job. Just look at how she stopped Gray and Natsu from killing each other. I’m pretty glad they’re not dead.

Anna is back and kicking butt!

Freed is still alive!

Sting has come a long way from how he was in the Grand Magic Games. Just look at him taking down a Spriggan I’m so proud :’)

The artists of the fandom are all doing a hecking good job and I’m proud of them!

The writers of the fandom are all doing a hecking good job and I’m proud of them!

We got to see some of Lyon!

The Fairy Tail memories at the start of each chapter are amazing!

Zeref is fulfilling his role as the bad guy and it’s cool!

Using one spell Makarov defeated a country’s entire army!

Acnologia is chasing after a ship instead of getting some of the not moving dragon slayers on the ground and that’s kinda funny to picture.

Ichiya is saving the day and that’s kinda funny to picture!

Ultear came back for one last hero moment and she was beautiful!

Gray and Juvia are both still alive!

Brandish isn’t a friend or foe! She’s just awesome! And Alive!

Did you see where Minerva apologized to Lucy and didn’t expect forgiveness but received it anyway? I did and that was pure!

Aquarius isn’t lost forever!

Lucy has those cool star dress things and they’re totally pretty!

That Yukino and Angel sister moment was pure

Kagura is still kicking butt!

Acnologia is the dragon who can eat magic and that is just awesome!

Zera returned for a little bit and her reunion with Mavis was pretty hecking touching!

Natsu is holding his own in a fight against Zeref and it’s awesome!

Juvia’s hair.

MAVIS’S HAIR.

The arc isn’t over yet, but it’s getting there. In this final arc try to remember the good stuff with the bad stuff, know that it doesn’t all suck, even if it’s things as simple as your favorite character still being alive.

There’s still plenty more positive stuff for other people to add! 

[natsubeatsrock]

That Woman, Erza!! Review

I originally planned to do this as a special post for Erza Appreciation Day. However, I wasn’t able to finish it on time. But the more I thought about it, I’m kind of glad I didn’t. This is kind of a bad chapter for Erza.

“How could you possibly say that?”

Just click the thing.

For those who don’t know, this was the third omake in the Fairy Tail Festival special. The idea was that Mashima made four special omake chapters that would appear in four different manga publications. I’ve already talked about two of the special chapters that were a part of this: Natsu and Asuka and 413 Days. 

The cover for this chapter is nice for the most part, but it’s kind of weird that there’s a picture of Erza in a bunny suit. Like, if I were seeing this in Young Magazine for the first time, I’d be weirded out by that. But hey, it’s not like it will be relevant later, right? (Knowing the future hurts)

We start the chapter and see a bunch of people talking to Erza about the rules of pool. What, you want me to call this teaching? She starts to change armor, which is kind of weird, but as long as she changes into a decent armor for playing, it shouldn’t be that weird, right?

Well, she changes into her bunny suit. 

I’m going to spare you a tirade on fan service. Not just because I already did one about why the arguments against people being against it are bad. This chapter’s going to have a lot of weird fanservice-y angles and I’m not going to spend time noting all of them. Read the chapter yourself.

Instead, I have a weird question about this fan-service: why this bunny suit? What’s wrong with the Heart Kreutz bunny suit from Fairy Tail X Rave? Was that only for the gag in that chapter where Elie was suspected to be the criminal?

Well, I guess there’s a good reason. They need to wait to see the guild mark on their arm. Seeing the guild mark on her... chest would probably ruin the surprise for this chapter. So there's kind of reasoning for this.

Kind of...?

Erza obliterates the billiard balls, which is obviously against the rules of the game. But then we learn that Erza made a pretty obvious mistake. She wanted to go to the sweets shop for caramel mousse but ended up in the pool hall. How do you go in this building and think, “Wow, this building with like two good places to sit down and enjoy dessert with a giant pool table is going to have great desserts!”

They see her guild mark and decide to get worried. We learn that someone called Moulin Rouge has been using Fairy Tail’s reputation to commit crimes.

Now that I think of it, that’s a weird idea. Fairy Tail has already been in trouble with the Magic Council, so more trouble wouldn’t be shocking. But if Makarov, or anyone in the guild that cares, found out that someone was misusing Fairy Tail’s reputation, it wouldn’t be pretty. Then again, it’s not like the townspeople being too afraid to tell anyone makes no sense.

So Erza rightly decides to do something about the criminal using Fairy Tail’s name to commit crimes...

By stealing a maid outfit in order to go undercover and find out more about the criminal using Fairy Tail’s name to commit crimes.

Erza finds Moulin Rouge complaining about sweets in the sweets shop and produces a sword on the table she’s using. Because a great way to intimidate a person misusing your guild’s name is to destroy property.

Realizing her cover’s been blown, she steals Erza’s panties-

Wait, what? 

Why? 

WHY?!?!? 

WHY IS THIS A THING!?!?!?!?!?

Okay, okay, okay...

This isn’t that bad. I mean, it’s pretty bad. But, look on the bright side. We could actually see Erza without her pant-

...

...

*distant screaming*

...

So, after...

That.

Erza charges at Moulin Rouge and crashes her through the building. If it weren’t for me forgetting *that* happened, I would talk be mad about the fact that she’s destroying property in order to punish someone who’s pretending to be a Fairy Tail member. 

As a Fairy Tail member.

Moulin Rouge and Erza engage in what can only be described as either the coolest or most impossible game of pool ever. There is no way that a game of pool where balls are moved because they were hit by bullets ricocheted by blade can be described otherwise or as both. However, I’m also not sure that this is following the actual rules of billiards, so there’s that.

Anyway, Erza beats her and the patrons-

Oh my goodness, we’re still doing this.

Anyway, she requips and-

Wait, I just realized. If she’s able to requip her clothes and armor, why isn’t she able to just requip her underwear? And don’t say, “She couldn’t have thought of it when she was being embarrassed.” Why did Mashima not think that she would requip her underwear? I’m getting side tracked.

Point is, she gets Moulin Rouge to admit defeat.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. We learn that the reason that she’s been stealing and taking Fairy Tail’s name is that she needs the money. She’s an immigrant and she needs the money to eat and get medicine for someone named Sunny. 

That’s actually a decent motivation for her actions. I mean, it’s not revolutionary, but it makes sense. I can understand why someone would want to pretend to be a part of a strong guild, especially one as strong as Fairy Tail, in order to get money to help their friend. Surely, Erza will be able to extend forgiveness to Moulin Rouge, and maybe even help her into the guild so she can earn money.

And to Erza’s credit, she does.

Eventually.

First, she ought to smack Moulin Rouge in the face and put the wrath of God into her. You know, listening to Erza’s speech about preserving the name of Fairy Tail is jarring on its own. The idea that practicing the ideals that the guild has been teaching throughout the series should take a back burner to preserving the reputation of that guild is bad.

However, this is made even worse once you consider that Erza hasn’t been doing a good job to maintain Fairy Tail’s good standing in this chapter. I mentioned the destruction of property earlier in the scene. However, there’s also fact that she also stole the maid outfit from the maid and destroyed one of the tables. And even earlier, she destroyed pool equipment while trying to learn pool.

And by the way, Fairy Tail’s good name? Are we talking about the same Fairy Tail that’s been in trouble with the Magic Council since the very beginning of the series? If you didn’t know or forgot, Chapter 1 opens up with the council is talking about how they’re going to deal with Fairy Tail. 

Or is this the same guild that got yelled at by its master for destroying too much property in the very next chapter? I mean, he tells them not to worry about their complaints, but the fact that he mentions it isn’t pretty good for the guild’s pristine reputation.

Oh, it must be the guild that got into an illegal fight with another legal guild (I’m not allowed to forget that Phantom Lord was legal), right? Because that was why Laxus got mad at Gajeel and the guild. People were saying too many good things about Fairy Tail that he couldn’t just let the flattery get to the guilds head.

Speaking of which, this was also the same guild that endangered the lives of everyone in Magnolia in order to prove that it wasn’t as bad as people were saying. Yeah, that’ll show the naysayers. What was this guy thinking? “We’re only going to let the strong people in our guild, which is why we also need to endanger the lives of all these random citizens to make sure that the strong people don’t leave.”

Such a great guild with a reputation they can’t let be ruined by someone stealing to help someone close to them stay alive.

But of course, Moulin Rouge does decide to join the guild because Erza’s just so cool. Now, you wouldn’t know this from just reading this chapter, but Moulin Rouge is actually Bisca Mulan. Yep, this chapter also serves as a backstory for one of the more obscure characters of Fairy Tail. In fact, it wasn’t until doing this review that I realized how Moulin Rouge would make sense as a name for someone whose last name was Mulan because they’re kind of similar.

From that angle, this is a pretty interesting chapter. Knowing how Bisca turned out eventually, you can really appreciate the fact that she started out not having any friends or family to have found both in Fairy Tail, both literally and figuratively. And if that was the angle that this chapter focused on, this would probably be one of my favorite omakes.

However, the chapter focuses more on Erza than it does on Bisca. This wouldn’t be a bad thing on its own. But it becomes a bad thing when you try to justify someone who’s doing bad things to punish someone doing bad things for a good cause. So while it’s not a terrible omake, it could have been a great omake.

By the way, Sonny’s a mouse. He’s irrelevant outside of this omake and the episode involving it.

[tigerlover16-uk]

Anime I need to watch (June 2017 update)

Well, another month gone, another update. I’m sure anyone who’s noticed that I do these things knows the drill by now. Sorry I’m a day, almost two late again, I’ve been a bit distracted the last two days.

Okay, so I’m going to be honest with you guys... I pretty much spent most of this month just watching Fairy Tail and a couple of movies on the side.

I don’t know what happened. I was just going to watch one more arc of the show and then go back to either Yu Yu Hakusho or Soul Eater, but I ended up just binging over 150 episodes of this show in a month. I don’t think I’ve ever binged that many episodes of a single series in a month. Compared to Yu Yu Hakusho, which i actually enjoyed even more and yet it took me considerably longer to sit through the Dark Tournament arc, that just amazes me i got to this point.

I dunno. When i get really into a series and it strikes a good chord with me, I tend to get a little obsessive, so that’s probably what it was. Considering next up is a filler arc and I have less than a hundred episodes left to go, since the anime is on an indefinite hiatus, I think I’m just going to catch up on some other shows for July. And since giving my detailed thoughts on a hundred and fifty something episodes would take all day, I’m just going to summarize what I thought of each arc really quick and give some consensus at the end. Ask me for any more specific thoughts if you’re curious.

The Oracion Seis arc was pretty great. The titular antagonists were all pretty fun and interesting in their own right, though Zero was an underwhelming final boss. It was nice to see Fairy Tail teaming up with other guilds, I liked Wendy’s character, it was great that Jellal was brought back and overall it was a pretty exciting arc. I do have my nitpicks, like some weak writing choices here or there, and the members of Blue Pegasus fawning over Wendy and commenting on how attractive she’ll be when she grows up was... more than a little creepy, to say the least. but nothing big enough to spoil the fun. It was a pretty good arc.

The Daphne arc was just okay. Really, there’s not a lot to comment on other than it s kind of fun, but it’s very obvious that it’s just a filler arc.

The Edolas arc though, now that was a letdown. Which is a shame because it starts out really well, but somewhere around the second half of the arc (I think it was just after the episode with Happy’s parents) It just started to drag and feel boring for me. I didn’t end up caring that much about Edolas or the Exceeds, the whole “teaming up with Alternate versions of our heroes” idea is always neat, but not enough was really done with it. And Mystogan turned out to be a big disappointment. After his character was built up so well in previous stories, the reveal of him just being an alternate Jellal who’s a prince of another world, while that had plenty of potential admittedly, was underwhelming due to just how little we actually see of the character until near the very end of the story. And yet i still don’t feel like i knew that much about his character, despite how much importance seemed to be placed on his send off. It all just felt like a waste. And the weak villains didn’t make up for it at all.

The arc had a lot of good moments, both funny and awesome, and a lot of good ideas, but overall i just felt kind of glad it was over so we could move on. Ah well, at least Gajeel finally got his own talking partner, and Panther Lily’s pretty cool, so it was hardly a waste. Wish i could say the same for Lisanna, I actually really like her character, but from what else I’ve seen I have to ask, why would the author go out of his way to bring her back from the apparent dead like this if he wasn’t actually going to do anything with her afterwards? sigh.

Thankfully, the arc right after it with Grimoire Heart was pretty great. It was disappointing that the S-class exam was cut short in favour of Fairy Tail’s conflict with the villains of the arc, but honestly what we got was pretty great anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal for me. This arc had the most tension out of any arc in the series so far, and barring Kain who was kind of annoying, pretty much every member of Grimoire Heart was a fun villain in their own right. The stuff with Ultear was especially fantastic. The set up with Zeref was also pretty enticing, and I’m interested in seeing where everything with that leads. The arc was paced fairly well and it had an exciting climax.

It wasn’t a perfect arc though. While I’d been noticing them in the last two arcs, this for me was where I really started to see where the complaints with Fairy Tail having a lot of contrivances and obnoxious fanservice come from. Some of the ways the main characters beat their opponents were headscratching, and I honestly considered taking a break from the show when i got to the episode where Cana basically decided her battle strategy was going to be to summon swarms of bikini girls to befuddle Freed so he couldn’t fight her and Lucy. And while she made up for it later and I liked her backstory and development, Cana knocking Lucy out and leaving her to fend for herself was... kind of a jerk move.

Not to mention how weirdly executed that time skip was at the end, but that would take all day to cover.

But all of that didn’t stop it from being an exciting, fun arc, easily one of the best in the series.

Wish i could say the same for the Key of the Starry Sky arc, which just felt like a chore to sit through at first and only got better towards it’s final third. And even then while it had a lot of good moments it was a really underwhelming arc that felt awkwardly placed in between the start of the time skip and the Grand Magic Games arc. So, basically your standard filler arc. Ugh, it’s like the Garlic Jr saga all over again.

So i don’t think I’ll cover that in any more detail and just cut straight to the Grand Magic Games arc, which was thankfully a big improvement. Even though it had plenty of issues. Despite their reputation among some parts of the anime fandom, i actually tend to really like tournament arcs. I think they can be really fun when written well, and this arc was fun. The rival guilds had a lot of fun characters (and a few not so good ones), there were a lot of good fights and most of the main characters, as well as Jellal and Ultear, got plenty of good moments (although oh boy, did Lucy just keep getting the short end of the stick thanks to really bad luck). If nothing else, this arc was pretty entertaining and just enjoyable to watch, including having a lot of the funniest moments in the show. So it was a good pick me up after the last arc.

But it did have it’s problems, probably more glaring ones than most of the previous arcs. While a lot of the characters from the rival guilds were interesting and fun to watch, a lot of them got noticeably shafted when it came time for the Fairy Tail members to beat them. Laxus winning over Jura as easily as he did was especially eye rolling. Sting and Rogue felt like they could have been good characters, but they repetedly fell short and didn’t do much that was actually impressive, especially Sting. I actually didn’t mind Raven Tail and it’s members too much, mostly because it was really satisfying to see a bunch of creeps like them be pulverized in the end. But from what i understand neither them or Ivan, their leader, ever appear again after this story. Which... seems like a real waste, considering how Ivan and the guild were built up. They could have served as useful secondary antagonists in a future story with Ivan getting further development, and some closure between him, Makarov and Laxus,  buuut i guess not. Really kind of headscratching there.

And then the stuff with Future Lucy in the final act felt pretty underdeveloped and while tragic, also felt kind of anticlimactic. And while everybody fighting dragons was awesome, Future Rogue was such a lame villain with such poorly defined motivations that it was impossible to care about him by the time he was killed off. Though he did have some cool powers. Ah well, at least the backstory we got on the dragons was pretty cool.

There were several more moments of lazy writing too, but this is all going on a bit long, so I’ll just say that for whatever it’s faults, the Grand Magic Games arc was still a pretty fun story that was at least more interesting to watch than what came before it, and I’ll be interested to see where things go from here. Also, Frosch is now one of my favourite characters for just how adorable he (She?) is!

So, yeah, that was a lot of episodes. Overall, while I see some of the problems people would have with this series by now, I still really really enjoy Fairy Tail. It’s not always perfect when it comes to writing and there’s a number of missed opportunities, but it does have a real sense of fun and more charm than a lot of animes out there. And while i do think i need a break from it to catch up on some other shows next month, I look forward to getting back to it to see what’s next.

Okay, let’s talk about some of the movies i watched this month. Starting with another Pokémon movie, Kyurem vs the sword of justice. And thankfully, this was another good pokemon movie. It’s a pretty simple story, and much of the middle act is basically a big chase scene, but it works pretty well because Kaldeo is a pretty likeable character worth rooting for. The action was good, the legendaries featured were all fun to watch, the animation was nice. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking as far as pokemon movies go, but it was a biiiiiig step up from the movies that came before it, so for that I’m grateful.

And next up is... more Fairy Tail.

Yeah, this month I also watched the first Fairy Tail movie, Phoenix Princess. It was pretty great. The story was good, most of the characters got some time to shine, the animation was lovely, it was pretty funny and had a surprisingly tragic conclusion for a movie based on this series. I don’t want to go into too much detail because this update post is late enough as it is an, but I kinda loved this film.

And next up I watched the second Naruto movie, Legend of the Stone of Gelel... and dear GOD was it boring. Seriously, the Pokémon Black and White movies were more memorable than this thing. The plot was dull and uninspired, the villains and new characters were weak and bland, outside of a few funny moments i didn’t find much amusement in it and  the action was largely unimpressive. I can’t even comment much on the actual story because barely anything stuck after i finished watching the film apart from how much i didn’t care. Honestly i hope this is the worst of the Naruto movies and the next one i watch is an improvement.

And rounding it up, we have the movie Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time. A three way crossover featuring the protagonists of the first three Yu-Gi-Oh series... and boy, is it a dumb movie. The story is the definition of an excuse plot and full of questionable decisions and poor logic. The villain, Paradox, was ridiculously underdeveloped, with his terribly ill defined backstory about how duel monsters as a card game apparently destroyed the world in the future and him coming back to stop that by murdering Pegasus opens up a lot of REALLY awkward questions that the movie never bothers to address, just expecting us to believe that everything will be alright in the end because... our heroes beat the guy that was trying to save the future?

Honestly the whole thing was just dumb and confusing. Oh, it was entertainingly dumb and it did have a bunch of cool moments, so i didn’t have a bad time watching it at all. I probably would have straight up enjoyed the moments with Yusei if i had ever watched 5Ds, but that’ll come in the near future. But oh boy, is it a bad film either way that seems dedicated to fanservice and little else. And i pity anyone who’s not a Yu-Gi-Oh fan who ends up watching this film and tries to make sense of this, even with that dragging exposition dump at the beginning.

So, yeah, bad movie... but it wasn’t the kind of bad movie that annoys me, i had some fun watching it and laughing at the silliness and few genuinely good moments.

So, yeah, that about covers my anime viewing for June. I could have gone into more detail on some things, but honestly I’m behind on this update again and there’s way too much to talk about anyway if i did. And these posts are just meant to be updates and brief thoughts, not reviews. If anyone is curious for further thoughts on anything, feel free to ask.

I don’t know what I’m going to focus on for July. Right now i just got my hands on the Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy, so i imagine that’s going to be taking up most of my free time not spent browsing the internet for a while (I’m having so much fun already! I’m so happy to have Crash back like this, you guys!), but i guess when i can I’ll start catching up on either Yu Yu Hakusho and Soul Eater and then just watch whatever movies I get the DVD’s for. June was a pretty decent month for me, all things considered

Either way, hopefully I’ll have fun whatever i watch. As always I’m open to any and all recommendations. Seriously, as long as the following list looks, I’m happy to add as many more as possible to make my way through for the foreseeable future. And I hope anyone reading this has a happy July.

Series:

One Punch Man (Seen four episodes a while back, looks good)

Mobile Suit Gundam

Outlaw Star

Cowboy Bebop

Digimon Frontier

Digimon Data Squad

Digimon Fusion

Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Sailor Moon (Watched the entire first season and was about halfway through season 2. Should really get back to watching the full series) Sailor Moon Crystal

Yu Yu Hakusho (Up to episode 70)

Ranma 1 ½

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012-onwards series)

Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Fullmetal Alchemist

One Piece

Astro Boy (Any series. I just want to be able to say I’ve watched something from this franchise).

Kill La Kill

Gurren Lagann

Fairy Tail (Up to episode 203)

Little Witch Academia

Tenchi Muyo!

Death Note

Yuri On Ice

Fist of the North Star

Soul Eater (Up to episode 28)

Code Geass

Food Wars: Shokugeki No Soma (I watched about 9 episode, need to catch up)

Your Lie in April

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Mob Psycho 100

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Phoenix Wright anime

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Natsume’s Book of Friends

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Eureka 7

Black Cat

Black Shooter Rock

Gunbuster

Afro Samurai

Space Dandy

Vision of Escaflowne

magical girl lyrical nanoha

Shin Sekai Yori

Baccano

Cyborg 009

Gaogaigar

Danganronpa

Yo-Kai Watch

Pretty Cure

Future Boy Conan

Yona of the Dawn

WataMote

Space Patrol Luluco

Rurouni Kenshin

Movies:

Your Name

Garden of Words

Paprika

Tokyo Godfathers

The Boy and the Beast

5 Centimeters per second

Millenium Actress

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

The Digimon Adventure Tri Movies

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark Side of Dimensions

Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend awakened

Pokémon: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction

Pokémon: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel

Pokémon: I Choose You

Ghost In The Shell

Memories

Perfect Blue

Naruto: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom

Naruto Shuppuden: Bonds

Naruto Shippuden: The Will of Fire

Naruto Shippuden: The Lost Tower

Naruto Shippuden: Blood Prison

Naruto: Road to Ninja

Boruto Movie

Fairy Tail the movie: Dragon Cry

Godzilla: Monster Planet

Mary and the Witch’s Flower

Princess Arete

Tekkonkinkreet