ohtobearandomftblog

[ohtobearandomftblog]

How Fairy Tail could have had a really cool thematic parallel if they Committed to the Bit:

I often joke about my constant urge to spew essays on characters and topics I have thought too much about, but I refrain because translating all the thoughts in my head to words takes time and effort, and sometimes I am speaking to the void. However. I am spinning in my chair, gnawing at the bars of my enclosure, and frankly thinking way too much right now so I must scream.

It would have been so impactful if Fairy Tail emphasized Jellal being brainwashed.

Jellal is my boy, of course, but I’m not even just talking about the impact to his character: I mean the impact of the entire plot. This, of course, if we went the whole mile with the theming. The machination of being controlled, emotionally or magically influenced, or even unable to fulfill a desire due to an insurmountable obstacle, comes up numerous times throughout the plot, to both primary characters, supporting characters, and antagonists. While Fairy Tail is absolutely a series about friendship, it is also about choosing your path, with a large recurring theme of, regardless of connotation, about being selfish, and what that means on both ends of the spectrum. It’s a matter of free will, and the antithesis to this is all manner of external control. So really, it makes sense that this should be a thoroughly explored theme.

I could talk all day about all the different examples and aspects of this but I came here to talk about Jellal. First, the slavery aspect really hits the nail on the head, so we’re off to a great start—this, of course, applicable to multiple characters, which I really enjoy. Things go wild, however, when Jellal effectively chooses to trade himself for Erza in the punishment game and gets the ever-living shit beat out of him at the ripe age of eleven or twelve years old. He is, understandably, not in a good place, and he comes to the stunning conclusion that… he hates the slavers. Yeah. Checks out. Then, he hears the voice of ‘Zeref’ spewing rhetoric about hate, and it overwhelms; this, we know in hindsight especially, to be Ultear casting a mind-fuck spell in order to manipulate him, under the guise of pretending to be a figure young Jellal believed to be a god. 

When I first saw this flashback, watching the anime, I was unbelievably hyped. For all of Fairy Tail’s odd relationship with foreshadowing, I got the gist of it as soon as the magic went into his right eye and overwhelmed him. In Japanese media especially (largely due to the prevailing symbolism of the daruma doll), the right eye is a huge indicator of free will and the future—namely one’s goals. Creepy magic ghost entering the right eye with magic-bind looking things and immediately warping Jellal’s goal? A+ delivery. Of course, at the time Zeref—an unrevealed ‘evil’ entity—seemed a likely culprit, but Ultear being the puppeteer changes little of the result. In fact, it actually creates a super interesting parallel, but more on that later.

First, there are the consequences of Jellal being an antagonist who is not in control of his actions. I see people lament that it “cheapens” the severity of the arc and provides a cop-out redemption for Jellal, and while the execution of the latter certainly could have been different, I don’t think the premise of mind alteration cheapens the overall plot and theme of Fairy Tail at all; on the contrary, it could have been used to further emphasize intra- and inter- character conflict as well as provide a super engaging parallel for the end of the series. The theme of nakama, family, and friendship is huge, so what better way to emphasize that than to show a twisted example of it?

Jellal goes from ride-or-die loyal and ‘good’ to circumstantially loyal to an ideal (and the people attached to it) and ‘evil’ with the flip of a magic switch. Erza gets the immediate short of the stick when she is the first victim (aside from Jellal himself) to this meddling, and the caring friend she had seen days or weeks before is now cruel, insane, and full of threats—threats she takes heed to as she is cast from the island. Now, Erza is also a child, and one full of trauma, so I am not trying to invalidate her fear or blame her for any outcome. This also does not dive into the intricacies of saving friends at cost to oneself, and all of the conflict thereof; if anything, the complication of the matter bolsters the drama and impact. And then, we have the rest of the squad. Sho, Wally, and Milliana buy into the idea without any trouble, and they continue to buy into it as they get older. Beyond morality, it’s a power fantasy, and those are easy for formerly powerless people to latch onto. However, Simon is the only one who realizes that something is fundamentally wrong and twisted with Jellal… and his ultimate goal, developed over the course of roughly seven to eight years, is to wait it out until he finds the opportunity to kill him, or get somebody else to do it. Ultear, even after integrating herself into the group out of nowhere, gets away with her plan, because ultimately nobody questions that Jellal’s sudden change was anything but a result of trauma and his own will—even in a world with magic, where the very first arc revolves around the use and mistreatment of charm magic.

(Now, as an aside, I unfortunately have some experience in friends suddenly changing. In real life, it is rarely so sudden and obvious, of course, and the culprit is usually those horrible little signals and hormones within the mind, and nothing so fanciful or external as magic. I had a friend take a nosedive into some truly batshit ideas—cult-starting worthy—and exhibit wild mood swings and displays of unprecedented behavior. It admittedly took me a moment to ascertain it among the known issues, but once the pieces clicked, it clicked. I wished I had noticed sooner, and even though she was more culpable of her choices than a person supernaturally influenced by an outside force, I still can’t hate her for all the harm done. This is all just to say that I have, especially in recent years, a personal perspective on this trope and an appreciation for the painful nuance.) 

Refusing to reveal this mindfuckery in the arc diminishes the severity of it a great deal, I fear. We, along with the characters, spend time believing he died an insane villain… and then when he comes back amnesiac, it softens his character but does nothing to contradict how awful he had been. It’s not until years later, arcs later, that we get this random instance of the long overdue reveal to tell us that the manipulation has been discovered off screen. Not only is this utterly underwhelming, but Jellal is now actively working with Ultear and is fine with it! He’s still (understandably, after all this damn time thinking otherwise) blaming himself and lighting his own pyre to atone for things started by a factor completely outside of his control, and every character lets him. The discussion of autonomy is wasted. So, too, is all the juicy emotional fallout. We don’t see Jellal grapple with the horrifying reality that he has not been himself, that years of his life were wasted as a mental slave instead of a physical one; we don’t see Erza beat herself up (likely unnecessarily) because she could have potentially protected him but she hadn’t out of fear, and then she condemned him unknowingly; we don’t see the others truly come to terms with the fact that Jellal had been stolen from under their noses and they never noticed; we don’t even get more than a glimpse in Ultear’s head, who committed the deed because she thought her means wouldn’t matter and then they did. 

It’s horrifying. It’s tragic. It was, perhaps, preventable—in that the problem was a punchable one, to a degree—except the people involved were just children, just human, and it wasn’t enough. Friendship and flashy magic power could not trump trauma and entrapment, not this time. No matter how I think the series could have and should have handled it (and I have several ideas, of course), Jellal’s story provides a haunting case of failure regarding the themes of friendship/community and freedom that our protagonists embody. 

Which brings me to the perfect opportunity to follow up this occurrence of stripped autonomy and loss of freedom with a culmination of the affected themes, plot points, and more: the books of Zeref. 

Namely, the idea that the etherious—sapient, cognizant, and fully capable of autonomy via every depiction given of them, from Tartaros to even Lullaby to especially Natsu—can be and have been resolutely manipulated and controlled via the books by Zeref. Now Zeref, infamously hands-off up until the finale, barely utilized this. The most we ever see is instilling a directive and supernatural need to kill Zeref in the texts, which serves as an externally imposed goal. (Sound familiar, yet?) Provided Larcade clearly doesn’t have these instincts, it is not a guaranteed addition either, which further adds to the sense of deliberation. Natsu experiences this only in the last arc, in what I assume is supposed to be a very tense and jarring plot of a friend and protagonist suddenly losing himself, but it does not get expounded on for long enough to hammer the point home. The plot point of reclaiming the book becomes about saving his life only, and not his autonomy. Not only could this have been emphasized to be properly horrifying and devastating, but the effect—and the suspense—would be doubled with the prior establishment of Jellal’s arc and the tragedy therein. 

To back up for a moment, this parallel is further accentuated by the fact that Ultear and Zeref are clear mirrors of each other. Ultear was afflicted by a magic condition outside of her control and she was enslaved as a lab rat for it. When she broke free, she perceived her mother to have abandoned her, so Ultear, in her unresolved anger and grief, aims her entire goal to rectifying it, which culminated in planning to undo the entire timeline in order to make the one she wanted all along. Any casualties, any cruelties—including the mental enslavement of a slave child—are means to an end, and will ultimately be forgotten. Zeref lost his entire family to tragedy, and in his grief, he refused to forfeit the idea of regaining what was lost, namely his brother. He became afflicted with a curse—a magic condition outside of his control—and experienced cognitive dissonance for it. Ultimately, this miserable existence culminated in the idea of erasing the timeline entirely and forging his own. Any casualties, any cruelties—including subjecting his creations to the same lack of complete cognitive control—are means to an end, and will not matter. 

I mentioned that selfishness is also a recurring theme and this is a prime example of the dark side of it. For Lucy, claiming her independence and following her own path against the wishes of her estate, it is a wondrous thing. Freedom cannot be achieved without some selfishness, and this is a wonderfully handled theme in Fairy Tail, where our protagonists unabashedly put their friends above concrete morals and follow a creed to live their life to the fullest—the eternal adventure. For characters like Ultear and Zeref, their personal desires—born of horrible tragedy and frankly understandable things to want—come at the cost of the autonomy of everyone else, especially the pawns they use to further their goal. This, in true fictional hyperbole, begs the question of where the line in the sand is to be drawn, of what is acceptable on a moral standard and what is not. It is, of course, colored by the protagonist’s point of view as clear antagonism, but as a viewer of the media it provides to us to question when protecting one’s ideal becomes irrevocably an attack on the sanctity of others. 

Which brings us back to the matter of the books. The intended horror of Natsu losing control of himself, I think, could have been really emphasized in order to highlight these aforementioned themes. Imagine if, instead of a complete menagerie of new characters as the final invading force, Zeref’s key piece of his invasion was Natsu. With the intended goal of undoing time, having Natsu kill him is no longer necessary, so it would be more pragmatic to use Natsu instead as a weapon of mass destruction for his goal. Not only is he inside of Fairy Tail, but Zeref is, theoretically, doing this for Natsu too, and he won’t remember this upon success—nevermind that the Natsu we know, that presently exists, that we have watched develop over the entirety of the series, would be forever erased regardless. 

Armed with the knowledge of what happened to Jellal, and how he ultimately had no one to intervene for him, this increases the urgency within the characters and will likely expedite their discovery of why Natsu turned against them out of nowhere. This time, a resistance is launched, and characters have the chance to intervene on the behalf of a friend. Gray couldn’t save Ur, Lucy spent years ensnared by the will of a family member, Erza didn’t recognize Jellal’s plight until it was too late, but they can save Natsu, and save him quickly. Fairy Tail, Team Natsu especially, can rewrite the book of E.N.D. solely for the great cause of freeing their friend and handing him back his free will, and in the process, Fairy Tail saves their own future as well. This doesn’t preclude the ability to free Zeref from his curse, but with or without that we have a beautiful culmination of fighting for the sake of a friend, for the individual and for the whole group. This time, friendship wins. 

I just think it could have been really cool.

[ohtobearandomftblog]

dragons hoard things. laxus and erik will tell anyone who says that that that is a stereotype and not true for every single flying lizard and their slayers. and while that is true for acnologia and god serena... it's definitely not for those two and the others.

natsu hoards people and relationships. definitely not something a typical dragon would want. but it makes him really not see anything wrong when he keeps breaking into lucy's apartment. erza and gray were used to his shit after years of him doing the same to lisanna and others, and they just started doing the same since when natsu does it, it means theyre a good person. they've got a seal of approval. he tries to talk or fight almost anyone he sees so he can say he's more than a stranger to others. he'd rather be acquaintances or rivals than strangers.

gajeel hoards shiny and musical things. now that's typical dragon shit. shinies go in his face or somewhere on his person to show them off. he polishes them perfectly every single day and gets annoyed whenever theres a speck of dust on them. and he likes the sounds of things, but not necessarily music. guitars are great. singing is alright. violins and oboes and saxes and whatnot are good. but triangles? shiny AND musical? thats the shit. a handful of marbles in a glass jar? thats that good good. the sound his fist makes on natsu's hollow head? fantastic.

wendy hoards scents and flowers. she has shelves of perfume in her room and sometimes spends an hour going through them and reorganizing based off favorites or citrusy scents or musk scents or whatever. she saw it as an affront to life itself that ichiya was like THAT with perfume magic. she assigns like seven different perfumes and some colognes to her friends even if theyve never smelled them before. the flowers are also a scent thing but are mostly a fresh and soft thing. flowers brighten the air just by being nearby and the leaves are so different between them. sometimes she shakes any fresh pollen off onto her bed for the soft textures.

sting hoards art and cups and plates. hes stolen more than twenty very expensive art pieces from the sabertooth guild hall before he was master. most of his paychecks go to supporting local artists. he mostly likes paintings and, while he can very easily see the differences, doesnt really pay attention to things like acrylics and oils and watercolors. he gets some sculptures and engravings and embroidery, but its rare for those to have the vibrant colors he loves of paintings. the cups and plates were something he picked up once he saw good quality glazed pottery. theres very few of those he allows anyone to eat or drink from, and its mostly the duplicates he likes least. it gets to the point he's got "dad of the year" and "princesses need their coffee" type cups because the colors are just. so. good.

rogue hoards books and utensils. hes got his own library of alexandria of every single piece of paper hes ever gotten his hands on, all meticulously organized and locked away if its important things that he legally should not and does not have (wink wink). limited edition covers are placed in protective wraps. banned and discontinued and outlawed books are hidden like theres going to be riots that he even has them if it ever gets out. his utensils are similar to gajeel's shiny and musical hoard (he totally did not add these to his own hoard because of that, sting, shut the HELL UP). theyre all rare and one-of-a-kinds, polished and hung on his walls like trophies. only the lesser liked duplicates go with sting's own for anyone to use. every room has at least three different spoons on the walls that he takes down and clinks together, making random music, whenever hes thinking of something.

erik hoards food and pillows. brain and the tower were not kind to him. he always keeps smaller food like berries and nuts on him at all times and fills his fridge with the bigger meats and vegetables. and some hidey holes that are damp and dark and perfect spots for mold to grow or things to go rancid. unfortunately, since his taste is the absolute worst, if kinana doesnt clean out every spot, erik will eat spoiled food. its a toss up on if he gets sick from it or not. he doesnt have a bed, nor chairs or sofas or anything like that. he just has pillows. soft and smooth and sometimes a bit rough for different textures. the large pile he sleeps on is also a great place to hide food until he or kinana shifts in just the wrong way to squish it. but then he gets to just smell his berries or raw meats all the time and doesn't see anything wrong with it. kinana thinks otherwise.

laxus hoards music and clothes. he has boxes upon boxes of music lacrima because no matter what, whenever he hears something vaguely musical, he records it. even if he doesnt like it. even if its just the blacksmith hammering away at something in a consistent pattern. ivan was always annoyed by most noises, and laxus was never allowed any music or was hurried past anything noisy at all. he likes to think he just records all these noises to spite his deadbeat dad. ivan also didnt usually get laxus new clothes. it was always makarov or his mom who got him clothes, but ivan always hated it when laxus would wear them. his requip space has essentials, sure, but the rest is just filled with anything he could want at any point in time. hed shown up to the guild in one outfit and leave within two hours in the seventh outfit of the day. he regularly refreshes his requip space with the clothes in a spare room of his apartment, because he has too many for any regular closet. at least he has a sense of style, or gramps wouldve had an intervention years ago.

[ohtobearandomftblog]

The Eastern Continent: Xuěhuā (雪花); Also called Snowflake. Laxus's mother is from here.

Despite the multitude of languages and cultures within this continent, there is only one country. Several generations of royalty and nobles have attempted to divide the country between themselves, but it never lasts more than seven years. The people do not like being kept from one another after the Vanished War of x041.

The cultures and languages are widely shared throughout Xuěhuā, but there are still more of some in certain areas. Southwest houses Indians, southeast has more Nepali, northeast is primarily Chinese, northwest is home to Thai, the central mountains have Koreans, and the islands and most coasts were the birthplace of Filipino, Vietnamese, and Japanese. Though, there is more minutia to it.

Laxus Dreyar was born in his maternal grandparent's house, the Hou (호우) Estate, when his mother, Nejire (ねじれ), was visiting from Fiore. Ivan wasn't present for the birth, for he was 'on a quest' when Nejire went to Xuěhuā. In reality, he was trying to find something incriminating to get Makarov to resign from his spot as the Guild Master.

Nejire, after divorcing Ivan when Laxus was six, resides with her parents and used to get Laxus for half of the year. After Ivan implanted the Lacrima in his son, he tried to keep Laxus from his mother... against court orders. Nejire was able to raise him for two years in Xuěhuā before her son wanted to stay primarily in Fiore with his gramps. With Ivan out of Magnolia, she had no reason to deny him. But she made sure he had her big black coat with fur lining the edges—something she started working on when they were free of Ivan, with the materials from the three main cultures she grew up in.

She regrets that, years later, when Macao Conbolt knocked on her door and informed her that Laxus was killed with the total destruction of Tenrou Island.

The moment she heard he was back, Nejire sailed to Fiore and stayed in Magnolia until Tartaros was finished, where she went back to Xuěhuā and dragged Laxus and his team with her for a month.

After the timeskip, Nejire is twenty-seven years older than Laxus. Her storm-travel magic was useful on quests and not so much in a civilian's life, but she's figured out a good way to tie it in with her herbalist job. She's never remarried and never had another child. Well, so long as the little girl who kept stealing from her garden actually goes back to the small town at the river mouth when she's done healing. She's getting too old for rambunctious kids; It's half the reason she never rejoined Fairy Tail!

(map creation link btw. i added the legend in mspaint lmao.)

[ohtobearandomftblog]

the dragon slayers' motion sickness can be attributed to three different causes:

there weren't many different kinds of vehicles for the ones raised by dragons

the leftover consciousness of the dragons within them/the lacrimas

psychosomatic

now, for the first one, the best those five could get that weren't riding on their parents was wagons and carriages. which they likely never went on after learning slayer magic. they didnt learn how to temper their senses to withstand or tolerate carriages because their parents couldnt even fit in them.

the leftovers of their beings that were placed within the five and whatever imprints withstood being created into lacrimas, again, couldnt fit in them. theyre just as weak as those theyre in, maybe more so being actual dragons.

psychosomatic means caused or aggravated by a mental factor. like how natsu, wendy, and gajeel arent sick when carried by happy, carla, and pantherlily. natsu said it clearly: theyre friends, not vehicles. and it could be that they were fairly small and they cant comprehend vehicles being small. but thats highly unlikely since the christina, blue pegasus' flying ship, probably wouldve felt more like the dragons' flying than anything else. but,,,, its a boat. it looks like a boat. it IS a boat. boats are water vehicles. so--blerg--its more vehicle than--urk--comforting.

which brings the question of what counts as a vehicle? can they even rest on a surfboard? a paddleboard? a plank of wood floating in the ocean? and if not, then clearly size doesnt matter. so there comes the second question of what counts as a friend? happy's a friend. erza's a friend. lucy's a friend. but is, say, an enemy a friend? or a vehicle? or a secret third thing?

wendy typically isnt affected by motion sickness mostly because sky dragons are far better at air travel than any other element. eastern sky dragons would probably be near the best, maybe tied with wyverns, with amphipteres as the best. but all sky dragons know how to balance properly, how to adjust their weight, how to subtly manipulate the body into doing what they want with minimal drawbacks, etc. its innate to the sky dragon, and therefore its magic. and it mightve taken her a moment to learn to apply the 'settings' when shes not in flight, which wouldve either been with mystogan or cait shelter. theres times where those 'settings' mess up, of course. when shes ill, or just woken up, or suddenly on a vehicle when before it was the ground.

the others can learn to adjust their balance and bodies over time, but it wont be the same as wendy. theyll probably always be a bit motion sick. though, laxus and erik, who only have the lacrimas, can probably be fine if they take some medicine on top of the training. natsu and gajeel are jealous. sting and rogue, on the other hand, will always be wobbly and nauseous and its really better if they just lay down.

[ohtobearandomftblog]

bouncing off of this hc a little bit.

the ophiuchus isn't a 'thirteenth gate', it is a black key. one of twelve, all of whom are older than the current iterations of the golden zodiacs. because they were the golden zodiacs.

to start near the beginning: zeref and anna didn't create the eclipse gate. they found uncompleted schematics for it and finished it. its first creation was thousands of years earlier. it was the turning point in time, causing a distinction of 'before' and 'after'. 'before' being 000x, with 'after' being x000.

the twelve golden zodiacs and their masters were the ones spearheading the creation of the gate, but there were plenty of silver keys that had helped in secret. they wanted to go back in time and stop a particularly devastating war from wiping out too many humans.

all was fine, with the celestial spirit king either none the wiser or purposefully turning a blind eye--no one could tell. until they needed to activate the gate. that was the main part of the schematics that were missing, and anna heartfilia learned that all twelve of the golden gate keys could sustain it without any sacrifice.

that was not known in 000x.

ophiuchus was known at the time as 'pisces'. a daughter and her father, for every iteration of pisces has to be a duo of some sort.

the daughter sacrificed her unwilling father to open the gate. two became one.

the only reason she is called anything other than 'the disgraced pisces' is because yukino agria has the current pisces key. and it is... not quite forbidden for the current zodiacs to interact with the black keys, but it's certainly not looked upon highly.

aquarius sacrificed his and his master's weapon and the plans to make more. one that was a fusion of celestial steel and mortal iron. a harmony between the two realms, destroyed forever.

taurus spilt the blood of his master's lover despite multiple orders not to. there was no compulsion to follow the order. no magic binding his will to his master's. now there is.

sagittarius threw his horse into the spell. two became one, once again.

gemi and mini split themselves in half and sewed one half of their bodies together, using the other halfs as their sacrifice. they shared one head, fused two halves of a brain into one, and only had two arms and two legs. they kept one heart for themselves.

cancer and her master had built the gate in their estate, purposefully drawing the magic circles big enough to swallow the grounds whole. a family house, cut out of existence.

virgo dressed her masters up in the prettiest of celestial clothing. she fed them well and with ingredients gathered from the celestial realm. they drank from the milky-way and feasted upon the stars. and she tied them up like hogs and left them within the consumption circles.

aries took the prized statue he made for the spirit king and ripped it from their realm, letting it break and shatter across the marked circle.

scorpio made a deal with his new master, one that came about after the gate began construction. an elderly widower ill with heartbreak. if he helped with the creation of the gate, scorpio would ensure that he meets his husband in the afterlife. a promise he was unable to keep, for the gate took hold of everything given to it and did not let go.

capricorn gave up his own body. he transferred his consciousness to a goat and used his magic to mold it into a humanoid shape.

libra gave up everything that was hers. her home in the realms, her magic, her symbol. she became little more than dust until her master helped her succeed at gravity magic.

leo had no master. he had no home in the realms, no art that he mastered, nothing in particular that he could give up. except for the one that gave him this freedom. his human wife. and their daughter. and their granddaughter. he wasn't able to use the granddaughter in the sacrifice--his daughter had a vision mere days before the gate was finished and sent her daughter to an orphanage.

the gate didn't work. it took and it took and it took, but it did not rewind time. the celestial spirit king, who saw all that was fed to this faulty device, knew he had to do something.

he banished all twelve of the golden zodiacs from the celestial spirit realm. this was long before he knew how to bar them from the stars, however, so the most he could do was rip them from their constellations and keys and place them within a new part of the sky. place them within darkened keys that had another part to them--a magical and mechanical piece that had to be near the keys in order for a summoning to work.

for pisces, it was a flower that the father gave to the daughter before they were golden. the very one that rests within yukino agria's hair, that changes color and is never destroyed.

despite the many millennia that separates them, the current iterations of the golden zodiacs can still remember parts of their first lives. not the contexts, not the reasonings, not the minutiae of it all. just little snippets.

loke wasn't as surprised as he should've been when karen died. he's always had the resolve to kill his masters, after all. he's just thankful that he feels remorse for it this time. he's grown since that first life, with his heart and his little philea's blood on his hands, a distant and cold sense of triumph barely remembered.

[ohtobearandomftblog]

Not sure if you’re ever active on this account but this is one of my favourite fairy tail blogs ever thank you so much ❤️❤️

!!! thank you!!! im active whenever the hyperfixation strikes again, which seems to happen near the start of the year? so far? it's happened twice... we'll see when it happens again!

[ohtobearandomftblog]

the dragon slayers are all more likely to sink than swim

having reinforced everything so they can do dragon slaying magic makes all of them kinda heavy, and for the 2nd & 3rd gens, their lacrimas do add a bit of weight to them

its all good, though, because they can probably just propel themselves up whenever they wanna, since itd take like ten minutes for them to need to breathe. gajeel and either sting or rogue, depends on how bright the water is, can last for longer than ten minutes. wendy can filter the air out of the water if she focuses hard enough, but shed probably just make a pocket of air.

natsu's fire can withstand being submerged if he adds more magic to it. erik cant even get water in his ears--theres an odd film that covers them when it gets moist, like rain or even high humidity.

laxus. shouldnt use magic in the water. its hard to control, so unless everyone needs to get knocked out, itd be better for him to just walk/swim around and punch people. he still doesnt get wet, though, and thats when juvia starts thinking that maybe. just maybe. hes a bit more than a lightning dragon slayer

[ohtobearandomftblog]

the stars never forget

well, they are able to forget in the short-term, but everything comes back eventually. be it memory magic (mest was able to affect loke), time (the spirits never mentioned the eclipse that sent the dragon slayers forward in time), or excessive trauma (... probably also the eclipse gate, actually)

spirits remember the beginning of time, the end of time, and everything within and outside that rigid format.

aquarius is able to see the markings of the very first heartfilia in lucy. she looks at her and, sometimes, forgets when she is

sagittarius remembers every animal to exist on earthland. hes not sure any currently alive even make the top 100 of his favorites

ultear and dimaria arent even close to the only mages who use time-based magic. their usage of it is fairly tame, compared to those of years long passed and years never to be seen. no matter how many times someone messes with the timeline, the spirits remember

taurus remembers the faces of everyone he has ever protected. if they had one, that is. hes not sure he likes the running tally he has, of how many features and names can be attributed to those long since dead

capricorn hates nothing more than getting information wrong because of the butterfly effect. how was he meant to keep the pasts separate when they were so similar? it should not hurt so much that he doesnt even know who were 'truly' his masters

do you know how much it hurts, to be unwillingly thrown back in time something as small as a week, and see people that do not recognize you? to be thrown further and further back, months to years to decades, and have the people you hold close not know you? not even be born yet? possibly never to be, if you put one single toe out of line

gemi and mini remember a time when the agria sisters were together the whole time, never separated, never criminals, never taken advantage of. they feel more sadness than hate that the sisters were split, that they ended up with sorano, that sorano turned to the oración seis

leo twitches and never takes his eyes off of sorano, whenever hes summoned in her presence. he remembers, more so than anyone else, of a time when aries was the cause of karen's death. of when leo was the one taken by angel. of when leo was further abused and tortured by those who shouldve protected him as he does them. and he cant do anything about it. not now, when it was aries taken by angel, when he wasnt abused again, when he cant talk about it. she wasnt terrible to him in this time, so who was he to blame her for another's actions?

he says his wariness is because of what she did to aries and scorpio and gemi and mini. lucy doesnt fully believe him. he cant say anything, though, because what if this changes the timeline again? they already messed up, with the existence of 'loke' instead of 'kirase'. what if another point against angel means lucy actively antagonizes her? they need her still, yes they do, they need sorano for future fights, so he cant say a damn thing

[ohtobearandomftblog]

magic circles are different depending on the magic type. caster, holder, lost, transformation, elemental, etc. but theyre also different depending on the source of magic

a regular mage who uses the magic within them has the "standard" circle. for a small spell, its diameter is in the middle of the typical sizes, and the amount of rings within it can range from two to eight, depending on the amount of magic put into the spell. there would be dead space within the rings, but the writing and designs would still be breathtaking. gray making an ice fairy tail symbol used a small amount of magic, making a smaller-than-average magic circle with two rings. gray making an ice-make: shield would be standard size or larger, with four or more rings.

a nonmage who uses items has the smallest circle. the item has to use far more of the magic within it in order to operate. sometimes the item draws a bit too much or not enough from its reserves, making it a bit unstable for nonmage usage. it also means they run out faster, and it costs more to purchase anew than it costs to refill the magic container of an item. the biggest of these circles is maybe the diameter of a standard person's wrist. it has one ring, if any at all. the designs of the ring would be mostly empty, with just enough writing to fulfill its purpose. mystogan tried very hard to make sure people could barely see the circles of his magic, since the strongest item he had would cast a one-shot spell with maybe three rings, but a small circle.

a mage who uses items has a fluctuating circle. something like loke's rings would act more like a nonmage, with a small circle and one to three rings. something like silver celestial spirit keys would be a slightly-smaller-than-average circle and three or four rings. golden gate keys would be large, with five to eight rings, depending on both the contract between mage and spirit and the amount of magic put into the summoning. depending on the type of item used and the magic of the mage, the rings could be empty or bursting with writing, more than designs and patterns

a nonmage with a lacrima, if they survive the implant, would have the most unstable circles. ranging from smaller than their pinkie is thick to larger than a snake is long, with no rings or fifteen, with empty rings or swirls and patterns and words spilling out into the air. they are the most likely to experience fatal magic exhaustion. it's not that hard of a statistic to dominate, however, when there have only been twenty-four to ever live past the incubation state.

a mage with a lacrima implant would vary depending on how their magic is used. if they needed a lacrima to use any magic, then they would likely be similar in size and rings to a normal mage. if they could use magic already and had a lacrima to help with a different area of magic, then the circles for both could be on the upper-end of average, since lacrimas can generate magic/absorb some from the atmosphere. a mage with a lacrima implant that aids in their magic field could have massive circles with over twelve rings, all intricately written and drawn from the fusion of natural and artificial magic.

any others who can use magic, like a machia, would be similar to an item. they have a set amount of stored magic, and some can siphon magic from the environment. their circles and the rings depend on the spell used. the bigger the circle and the more the rings, the more likely the being is to destroy themselves.

these are the average, however. happy, who would count as a mage, would have one-to-three rings when using aria magic, but a circle proportional to his body and wings. despite that, the design within the rings would paint a story, with little writing. pantherlily, when transforming from small exceed form to his larger form, would have three or four rings and a large circle. there would be more writing than art, but nothing excessive, with the thin rings.

erza's requip magic has a standard sized circle, but seven thick rings, filled to the brim with writing with some sword- and armour-like art to show just how much is within her space. laxus's lacrima dragon slaying has the potential for magic circles larger than the fairy tail guildhall, more rings than a snowflake has crystals, more intricate art and writing than anything the fiore royal family could have commissioned... if he wanted to die. the amount of magic it would take for something like that is more than makarov brings together for fairy law.

the more a mage uses a spell, the more refined the circle can become. it may take a lot of magic to use a new spell, but one used for years may only take a little, transforming a large circle with plenty of empty rings to a slightly small circle with just enough thin rings for the essentials.

[ohtobearandomftblog]

the amount of times he forgets his name is leo and loke is embarrassing

he had to train himself out of responding to leo when he left blue pegasus (was already conditioned to only respond to karen calling out to him, if any human did). there were too many people talking about karen or leo the constellation or leo the spirit for the first few months after her death and he tried to make it not affect him by just. discarding it and taking up loke

which worked until he became leo the spirit again. it was fine sometimes, because the humans he was around most often still called him loke for the most part, but being back in the celestial world? nightmare. 'leo, can you get me the wine?' 'leo, let me cut that mane of yours' 'leo, we have a meeting in thirty' 'leo, lucys far moooo-re receptive to my flirts than yours'

it got to the point where, around the oración seis arc, loke had two masks, similar to that celestial eclipse arc in the anime. there was loke the human and leo the spirit. loke would flirt unabashedly with anything that moved, leo would focus on the mission first and relationships second. loke would grab almost anything someone handed him, leo would be far more reserved and skeptical. loke would eat almost as much as natsu for the hell of it, leo would never touch human food.

when aries showed up on tenrou, he had such an identity crisis it heavily impacted his fighting ability. he was summoned as leo, so he was trying his damnedest to not let distractions cloud his judgement, to not let relationships hinder him, to not let memories drag him down. but aries was right there and his own memories were pulling the loke mask up while still drowning him in hurt and pain and he dealt with that with the loke mask but he was summoned as leo

the more he's been able to heal from karen, the more he's able to be both leo and loke at the same time. sometimes he jokingly ignores the other spirits when they call for leo. sometimes he genuinely forgets when the humans call for loke. sometimes he gets such whiplash when a spirit calls him loke or a human calls him leo that he just short-circuits for a solid ten seconds.

it gets to the point some of the more reactive ones (aquarius, lucy, freed, sting, etc.) start calling him 'lion'. and he still forgets that he's the lion spirit, come on dude—

[ohtobearandomftblog]

hii can u do lucy x fem!reader headcanons? mostly fluff and some nsfw :’)

sorry its a bit short, i just never clicked with lucy so its hard to write her (nsfw below read more)

lucy's pretty touchy feely. loves holding your hand and resting her head on your shoulder/head when youre both sitting next to each other. doesnt really cuddle in public but will koala hug you in private

she would love sharing clothes. if you two are the same size then theres One wardrobe. if youre not, then theres probably a lot more of the larger size for a shared wardrobe, but thered be a distinct line

if you get her a keyring for her spirits shes gonna act like you just proposed to her

if you get her a new belt shes probably gonna whine and be a nuisance for a while before accepting it

she really trusts her spirits and values their thoughts, so if even one of them doesnt like you, shes gonna have some apprehensions

if youre also a wizard that can use the celestial spirit keys and she and her spirits trust you, she might just figure out how to let a spirit have two ongoing contracts so you guys can share them

shed probably be more relaxed if you couldnt use the keys, though. in her mind, itd help calm her fear that youre using her to get the keys for yourself like angel/sorano did

she wouldnt try to gush about you. honest! its just. sometimes people bring you up in conversation or in passing and she just!!! cant help it!!!!!!

she does talk about you unprompted to her spirits and (team) natsu though. it gets to the point where leo starts flirting HEAVY with you whenever hes out, compared to the light teasing he does with lucy

lucy will absolutely order leo to stop if you felt uncomfortable. but if youre fine with him, then leo's the ONLY guy allowed to flirt with you. one time laxus tried in a joking manner to get back at lucy for something. he got lucy kicked in the fucking nuts

the times lucy expects/knows that you two are gonna go further than making out, shes putting her keys Away. like in a separate room. she doesnt want someone to pop out unprompted (leo or virgo) in the middle of her eating you out. Embarrassing

magical toys are almost a must-have. with lucy's magic interacting with the enchantments of the toys, well... youre in for a time

she would be great at aftercare. either already had water and a snack next to the bed or would immediately get that and start running a bath for you two to share (shed absolutely put a bath bomb or flowers or salts or whatever in there)

THIS is when she gets cuddly. skin-to-skin contact is best for her, and it kinda interferes if you ever wanted to get rough like hair pulling or spanking or whatever. she doesnt want to hurt you even a little

[ohtobearandomftblog]

Could i ask for some generic Erik x male s/o headcanons?

if hes overwhelmed he'll probably try to isolate the both of you and then just cuddle

hes extremely touch starved so he'd almost always be holding onto some part of you

he uses your heartbeat to drown out thoughts

will absolutely give you his coat every chance he gets. doesnt matter if its hot out. take his fucking coat damnit

youd probably be very pushy on making sure he eats properly. like sure you survived off poison with brain but you BARELY survived. eat this weird concoction of steak blueberries and noodles since you can barely taste and need these nutrients you bitch

both of you would affectionately just. tear into each other. roast each other. whatever its called nowadays. diss? erik doesnt know why the FUCK would he know fucker he hates dealing with lacrimas which you would KNOW if youd LOOK UP FROM YOURS NOW AND THEN BITCH

he hates long distance relationships so after you two are official then at most hed spend like two months in jellal's guild before quitting and moving in with you

you two share a wardrobe. it doesnt matter if youre smaller or bigger than him, he will either put his clothes on you or wear your own so often that your wardrobe is mostly the bigger's size and a few smaller ones

honestly. hed probably slowly poison you. on purpose but NOT with the intention of killing you or making you sick or somethin. hed make sure youre immune to the more basic poisons within the first six months together just in case you eat some of his poisoned berries or somethin. if you guys get married then youd probably be nearly immune to his own poison

youd get used to his hearing or youd leave him pretty damn fast. and used to to the point that honestly sometimes you forget to speak out loud bc he treats your thoughts like you are speaking aloud. it means a few awkward situations in public where erik seemingly speaks to himself or you think you said something to someone but, again, you thought it

cubellios gets her own room fit for a human and a snake. if you live near fairy tail then she probably also stays with you but no matter where you are she has a room. she stays over like a few days every two months if she doesnt live with you

[ohtobearandomftblog]

the dragon slayers dont really use utensils

like if they need to be all Fancy then they probably will but thats only the ones that Care like laxus and maybe sting when he first starts out as master until he realizes that he can be feral and still be respected

cause like. what are they gonna use a knife for. cutting up their food? they got sharp teeth to tear it all apart. whatre they gonna use a fork for. stabbing shit? they got claws.

spoons are tolerated for most of them, though. except for natsu. he will never use spoons. he will either tilt the bowl or shove his face into his ice cream and move his tongue around. his tongue is his spoon.

sting eventually replicates him and rogue is So Done

gajeel does use a spoon for like. at MOST. half of his meal. cause eventually he either gets so sick of it or is so out of it that he eats the spoon. unless its a wood spoon in which case he'd probably just throw it away at that point.

[ohtobearandomftblog]

hey! just wondering, what's your top 10 favourite ft characters?

laxus

gray

erza

natsu

mirajane

pantherlily

rogue

mystogan

frosche

loke / leo

it was honestly difficult to think of any past my top 3 sjkdfh

[ohtobearandomftblog]

generic sabertooth hcs?

they try not to talk about the time before sting was master

they try not to talk about the minerva that was before she was taken by tartaros

they try not to talk about tartaros at all

the general vibe of the guild post-sting and post-minerva is like if blue pegasus was just a bit more fairy tail

theyre fancy and professional but theyre also batshit insane

biggest guild even a year after alvarez

most popular guild even a year after alvarez

after sting became master a lot of the ex fairy tail members from 7 years ago either rejoined fairy tail or joined sabertooth. hence why sabertooth is big and popular

sting, no matter how serious and professional he tries to be, is always known as the goofball dumbass master to the members. even the newest members

rogue, no matter how unserious and relaxed he tries to be, is always known as the no-nonsense hardass to the members. even the eldest members

again, the newest members mistake rogue for the master and sting for his assistant. because sting made rogue the one to show the new ones around

the eldest members also refer to rogue as their master bc its hilarious

rogue honestly does more of the paperwork than sting unless it needs the masters magic signature. he knows how to forge signatures and does it most of the time

sting is still the master bc rogue doesnt like all that publicity. sting genuinely does think rogue would be a better master. hes basically already the master

stings still has the final say, though. guildhall needs renovations? talk to sting. guildhall needs a new shipment of something? talk to sting. going on a quest? tell sting. wanna be s-class? talk to sting.

they have their own s-class trials. it used to be fighting the old master and whoever drew blood would be the only s-class for that year. now it changes every year, but its never fighting your family. never again

honestly sabertooth and fairy tail ruin whatevers left of the magic council. theyve gotten to the point of wondering if joint guild membership can be a thing. then they can lump st and ft together for taxes and punishments

it would probably help the confusion whenever the ft dragon slayers show up at st for a 'slayer meeting' or when the st slayers show up at ft for the same

[ohtobearandomftblog]

Saw the last ask and really liked it, how would sting try to make things up and get back with his ex?

he wouldnt

his slayer instincts would either be screaming at him to kick your ass so you leave the area and he wont be in pain again or to try and 'win you over' again

his instincts are better at telling when a relationship is more abusive or parasitic or beneficial for all parties.

if its not beneficial, then itll say to kick your ass and scare you away from his den

if it was more beneficial then theyll try and get him to bring you food and gifts

it would try to get him to physically brush against you and purr deep in his chest as an apology given or accepted

it would try to make him present himself as better than before

it would try to make him show off his strength or his caring nature all over again

no matter what the hell his instincts say hes going to be professional and cold if he ever has to interact with you.

hes never going to go out of his way to interact with you

if anything hes going to ignore your very existence unless it would harm either of you to do so. then when hes done remembering you exist hes gonna go back to ignoring

if he was in the wrong then hed try to do better but he still wouldnt go back. hed be better for the next s/o. prioritizing his guild over any relationship isnt in the wrong, to him.

if rogue or the other slayers tell him that youve changed or that youre willing to try again then he might. after two months of sitting on that information.

doesnt matter if he loved you. at best, youre a stranger from a competitive guild (even if you are in sabertooth). at worst, hes tossing you into the fairy tail guildhall because if he spends another second with you near him hes going to lose what humanity he has left for like ten minutes and is going to regret it so much

[ohtobearandomftblog]

what about some sting x ex! boyfriend angst hcs?

probably broke up bc it felt like sting was prioritizing the guild over your relationship

he kinda was

hed drop unimportant shit to do what you wanted tho

just so happened last month or two was way too important shit bc the gmgs were starting up again

this was the kind o break up where you two couldnt be friends after

sting wouldve thrown himself into work after maybe two hours of reflecting

he wouldnt take care of himself until rogue drags his ass back to their apartment

then rogue would take over as temp master and hed absolutely send the other slayers on your ass

if you were part of sabertooth they wouldnt kick you out and wouldnt do anything unprofessional. that also means you probably ruined your friendship with rogue/yukino/minerva. especially if they didnt know your reasoning

youd probably try to keep the reason to yourself and sting. unless erik was around and was also sent on your ass. cause then hed just blurt it out

everyone would probably understand tho. being guild master is difficult, and being friends with them is difficult, so being an s/o with them was probably even worse

sting still wouldnt really take care of himself until the slayers got on his ass

give it some time and minerva and yukino might come around to you again. rogue probably wouldnt. sting definitely wouldnt