#can you see the part where this went from a quick 'i love lamias' post to 'here's my hard projection sona that i've clearly had for months'

[visibun]

Funny note about me suddenly being more openly passionate about lamias:

By default, I have prey brain. Full rabbit mode. I am bnuy. Hop hop wait why are you licking your lips like that

But, like... every very sudden once in a while, I get this "predator brain" impulse. And in those moments, lamias are all that I can think about

I seem to like projecting on the idea of a hybrid kind of lamia, that has the serpentine body of an African bush viper, with the tail ending of a rattlesnake. The human half is brown like me, but with pointed ears, and longer black hair that's either kept loose, or is tied back into a ponytail. The serpentine scaling will most likely extend into her human half; to what extent, I'm not sure just yet, but it might be covering everything up to and including her neck and minus her chest and stomach, leaving just her head/face, chest, and stomach down to her hips covered in human skin. These scales are tough, allowing her to take hard/sharp blows with minimal impact as if she were wearing armor.

She's wearing something light and easy to move in (maybe adjacent to a belly dancer's outfit, in black and antique gold), and is also kitted out with antique golden jewelry for vanity reasons. She's got teeth like a vampire's to showcase the marriage of her human and beast parts (all normal human teeth, but with sharper/more pronounced upper canines; those canines are where her venom flows to, and they don't retract since visible fangs are The Best), slitted golden eyes, a forked tongue, and sharp black nails (she's okay with melee weapons, but her combat preference stays at "hands, claws, and biting, with uncommon constricting").

She's also trans, has a small chest, and has defined/toned abs and arm muscles, of course, since this is me my hard projection that we're talking about. I just want her to have a body that's strong enough to do constricting, if deemed necessary! No thinly-veiled thirst motivations behind this choice at all.

The snake half is more along the lines of the colors/scales of the bush viper here (black scales + alternating black and yellow underbody), plus the rattle tail ending:

She's wearing jewelry on the tail, too, that's tied into the bottom-most notch there, that can be loudly and aggressively jingled about and clashed together as the tail is being shaken. Not sure what kind of jewelry, but something stringed/tasseled comes to mind.

She's long as fuck, by the way. To the song and dance of this visual:

Which, when laid out more accurately, looks like this:

So, like... picture this. If you will.

The enemy or target's been spotted, and now she's rearing up nice and horribly tall while hissing and bearing those sharp claws and teeth, all while there's a mix of heavy and rapid rattling and loud metal scraping and clanging behind her that all together are disheartening, distracting, and disorienting for whoever is standing in front of her, but is practically like a heart-racing and blood-pumping hybrid war song and battle cry to her for what's about to happen next. All the while, her eyes are locked on theirs, and she's got that confident, ruthless grin painted on her face, as if this fight was set to be the high point of her day.

And, because I exist for music, she fights to this song. Or, this song. I often choose either one of these two songs for exercising with kickboxing (to the point where I manually extended both of them to play on a nonstop loop for an hour, just so they last for the whole routine), so they always gets my blood rushing by default. And, with that scene description up there, it'd feel more like you're fighting a dragon rather than a serpent.

Do you get it. Do you see what I'm putting out there. Being a bunnygirl is nice and all, but I very badly want to be her, too. If I could draw, I would absolutely detail this as a sona for myself. But, at this rate, I might end up feeling enticed enough to just try and doodle her, anyway.

[sealpointselkie]

Big Ben

A big thank you to @vex-bittys who wrote a very sweet adoption scenario for my lovely full-size King (UF!Papyrus) Skele-Lamia. I hope you enjoy reading this!

(Please forgive the editing at this point. This is the first time I’m posting a story on to Tumblr and I’ve just realized I have NO idea how formatting works here. This is a copy-paste from an email. -_-;; I’ll do better on the next one.)

-----------------------------

I fill out the paperwork that Vex provides for me, pleased with how my kittens have reacted to the big King Lamia. I felt confident that Vex picked out the perfect match for my family! I paused when I came to the “Lamia’s Name” portion of the form – I wanted to ask his opinion before giving him a name but I also didn’t want to interrupt the sweet scene of him snuggling my fur kids.

I cleared my throat quietly to get Vex’s attention: “Could I give him a name for now and then let you know if he doesn’t like it and we need to change it?”

Vex nodded encouragingly, “Yes, of course! That’s no problem. Here’s my card and the shop’s address is on your copy of the adoption papers in case you have any questions or concerns!”

I thanked her quickly filling in the name: Big Ben. I then double checked that all the paperwork was filled out properly and was in order.

After a few more formalities I escorted Vex to the door an thanked her for her thoughtfulness. A home delivery was something I hadn’t even considered! I promised to visit the shop soon, just to see all the Lamias in one place and to let Ben visit any friends he left behind. I waved as Vex left and only closed the door softly once she was  out of view.

I returned to the living room to the room filled with pleasant rumbling purrs. The Lamia’s purrs were an octave lower than the cats, it was almost more felt than heard, his eye sockets were closed and he wrapped his coils loosely around himself an the two felines. Beacon was happily purring along with his constant mid-frequency vibrations - kneading happily on his brother’s back. Bumble Bee was the quietest of the three with his short breathy purrs; his eyes like slits in a doze, enjoying his “massage”. I smiled and snapped a quick picture with my phone, quickly making it my new background screen. They looked so comfortable that I figured I could show my new friend around later so I made myself comfortable on the couch, pulling out a book to read.

After a couple of hours the sun had started to go down and I checked the time on my phone to confirm that it was the kitties’ dinner time. They were all still snoozing in a loose ball in the middle of the living room so I figured I’d get their food ready and they could eat when they woke up. I went to the kitchen and got a fresh bowl grabbing a tin of their food and opening with a satisfying shlick sound. I felt a bump at the back of my legs as Beacon took his usual seat between my feet. They could really move when they wanted to! I reached down and scratched his ears looking over my shoulder seeing Bumble Bee pass by doing his usual slow, cowboy strut down the hall to where I keep their dry food and water. About 30 seconds later the Lamia poked his head around the corner and I felt butterflies in my stomach. Since I met him he was trying to keep himself small so not intimidate the kittens; I hadn’t realized how TALL he was when he sat up on his coils! He had to be at least half a foot taller than me… Which was probably average for King standards, but it would take getting used to! I wave at him shyly then turn around to finish food preparations. While I was happy that the King liked my kittens, the two of us hadn’t interacted much. My darkness told me that he liked the cats more than me and that I was just an afterthought. I tried my best to bury that feeling - we barely just met, there’s still time.

When I finish I slowly make my way to the hall; Beacon wobbling between my legs, nearly tripping me at least twice on the short walk through the kitchen to the hall. I sigh in frustration, this was our usual song and dance, especially if I was holding something hot and likely to spill. Poor kitten likes to use the inside of my shins to help him keep his balance which, of course, throws off mine! The Lamia slowly worked Beacon from between my legs and helps him balance using his hands and forearms as the catling slowly follows me (and his food). I place the food down in its usual position and the kittens are immediately on it, lapping enthusiastically. I give them each a couple of strokes but they were to engrossed in eating I didn’t get any response. I turned to the King, who was still “standing” a respectful distance away from me – as if he wasn’t sure if he’d disturb us. I sympathized; I think he’s as nervous about me as I am about him. Probably worse for him, he was in MY home. Usually I’d go to the  shop for an adoption and we’d be able to meet on more neutral terms before deciding a home-visit or adoption was in order.

I smile at him and extend my hand, inviting him closer: “Would you like to see your room now?”

“My room?” he rumbled, coming forward to take my outstretched hand gently.

“Yes! I want you to have a space of your own where you can get away from me and the cats! My space is my bedroom, so please ask permission before entering and I’ll do the same for your loft. Oh, there isn’t a door but there’s a staircase. Please always make sure that you close the pet gate behind you: stairs are really dangerous for the kitties since they could tumble down the steps and hurt themselves. Okay?”

The Lamia nodded solemnly.

“Perfect!,” I beamed; pulling gently at his hand I invited him to follow me up the steps. He closed the pet gate behind us as we mounted the steps to the loft.

I let go of his hand when we made it to the loft: “Here we are! Please feel free to rearrange the furniture to your liking and let me know if you need anything! I’ve got you a bed, a heat lamp and a chest for storage…”

I glanced at the huge Lamia, he seemed to be taking the space in – but it was hard to get a read on his expression. My darkness started whispering again as I watched him observe the space. What if he doesn’t like it? Did I forget something important? Is he disappointed in me? He eventually slithered over to a low bookcase I had set up for him about three-quarters full of different books. He ran his hand over the top of the case, eye-lights flickering over the titles.

“I heard Kings like to read..,” I interrupted shyly as his eyes met mine again. “I’ve read most of those already, but I’m the kind of person who likes to read books multiple times. So I thought… If you want of course! That you could choose one and we could read a couple of chapters a night? We could do it in the living room and give Beacon and Bumble Bee an excuse to climb all over us…”

The King slithered back to me quickly eye-lights like bright stars in his sockets: “Yes, please! I’d like that very much!”

His tail was wiggling in excitement and his hood positively quivered, this was the first time I really felt like he was smiling at me and I couldn’t help but grin back at him.

“Oh… By the way. Vex’s paperwork asked me to name you…” the Lamia retreated slightly, so I wasn’t craning my neck to look at him. “Now… You don’t have to keep this name but.. I was wondering if you’d like to be called Ben. Big Ben.”

His eyes narrowed, I think he got the reference, and then he slowly wound around me in a snake hug.

“I like Ben. I am big.,” he said, proudly.

“You are.,” I agreed immediately. “Just to warn you - I like to give nicknames.”

Ben began to rumble with purrs, “Like what?”

“Benny Hill, because when you lie on the floor you look like a hill.” I said, patting the thickest part of his tail.

Ben scoffed good naturedly.

“Udon…,” I continued, relentlessly.

“Why Udon?”

“Because you are the thickest noodle I’ve ever seen!”

Ben spat in outrage, flaring his hood. My stomach dropped, I felt paralyzed. I thought I had gone too far when the rumbling of his purrs got louder, passing through my body and tickling me pleasantly. I giggled from the feeling and leaned into his hug, going almost limp in relief.

Vex was right, he was the perfect match for me and my family!

[natsubeatsrock]

My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Fairy Tail’s Ending

To start with, stop.

I don’t care what you think about the ending. I don’t care what you think about the series. I kind of care why you’re reading this post. (Hi.) Just stop.

Now, do me a favor and take a deep breath.

Before I start to talk about this chapter, I just want to say that this has been a crazy ride. I started Fairy Tail in October of 2014 and I never would have thought that I would be running a blog about Fairy Tail and such a relevant name in this fandom back then. I’ve had tons of fun running this blog for years and if it weren’t for Fairy Tail, I probably wouldn’t be an anime/manga fan. Even though this series is nowhere near perfect and this arc is nowhere near the best, I’m glad that I’m a Fairy Tail fan. And this ending hasn’t changed that for me.

Also, I actually did make a Quick Notes about this chapter. So if there’s something you think I missed in this post, check that one. I also talked about my thoughts on Nalu’s ending in a separate post, which goes exactly how well you’d think a post about it from me would be. This was supposed to come out the same week, but… 

Life.

So, with that out of the way, let’s talk about this chapter.

When I saw that this last chapter was going to be 45 pages, I was pleasantly surprised. Consider that the end of Naruto is simply two normal length chapters that came out at once. Likewise, the last chapters of Bleach and Death Note are about as long as a normal chapter. So seeing that this chapter was going to be that long gave me the hope that more ground will be covered than in those endings. Though. Rave ended with more than 20 pages more than this and, looking back, I’m not a huge fan of some parts of that ending.

Speaking of those series, the last chapter starts with a jump to the future. This is a weird trope for me. My only real issue with the Naruto ending was that it felt like there was a huge disconnect between the Last, which I had just finished, and this chapter. However, the ending of the other series (yes, even Bleach) worked so well for me because we got to see how the world moved on after the events of the previous chapters.

I’m glad that Lucy won an award for her novel. I’m also glad that the popular fan theory that Lucy was writing the events of Fairy Tail out for a story is also proven wrong. I never liked that theory and I’m glad Lucy won by coming up with her own original story.

Even though the main character based off her.

And seeing how the guild is acting at this party makes me realize that Lucy’s friends are jerks to Lucy. I said this before, but I’m shocked that they’re even worried about other people ruining their reputation when they’re so good at making themselves look terrible. I have to believe that Erza and other members of the guild are genuinely concerned about a thief pretending to be a Fairy Tail mage. But hey, she was worried about other people in the guild at her introduction.

And Juvia is still stripping…

You know, I remember when Juvia stripped to join Gray during the anime for a thing she didn’t need to. It was messed up, but it was kind of funny.

Only kind of.

And then Gray and Juvia stripped together in the Avatar arc. Like I thought it was cool back when I shipped Gruvia. But looking back, it’s weird that Juvia developed the same habit Gray formed that after training in fewer clothes to get used to the cold and doing ice magic that even the person who had the idea to do it thought was unnatural…

Because Gruvia is a “good ship”. Like, why else did this need to be a thing? Mashima should have stuck with the water body thing because that’s awesome and only kind of comes back later on in the series.

Anna is in this timeline as a teacher which is kind of cool. I guess, since she wanted to teach the dragon slayers, she gets to teach another group of young kids. Gajeel jokes to Natsu about liking Anna and…

I’m conflicted. 

See, in pretty much any other case, I’d be totally fine shipping Natsu with anyone that people joke about him liking except Lucy. But, aside from not even thinking he actually liked her the way Gajeel meant, I’m not sure I can be comfortable shipping Natsu with anyone when the age difference is much bigger than that of Jerza-

I mean Graytear.

So we learned about the other guilds. Lamia Scale has a thing called Thanksgiving Day and they dragged Wendy into performing with Chelia. I’m actually excited for this to be animated. I hope we get an actual full song from the earlier performance of these two. For those who might be wondering why, Wendy’s Japanese VA, Satomi Sato, has also been in some roles that have involved her singing.

And then there’s Mermaid Heel. (Get used to this phrase. I’ve used it a lot.)

So, out of everything that happened in this chapter, I’m shocked that this didn’t get more people angry. What even is the point of having Mermaid Heel be exclusive models for Sorcerer Weekly? That was never important to them before. Kagura even questions what the point of this was. It’s almost as if Mashima was saying, “Screw anyone who thought I was going to give the only all-girl guild a dignifying ending! This is Fairy Tail!” 

Oh, but it’s okay because not many people cared about them and of course we’re going to have sexy girls in outfits so we can appeal to the target demographic of teen boys and where do I stop?

The other guilds did stuff. Like, I know that a lot of people love people outside the guild and I have my favorites from outside Fairy Tail. But, I don’t have much to say about what we learned about the other guilds.

And then we got a block of ship moments. Oh, the boys.

We started with Gajevy. And, man, I wish I had anything to say about them. I really don’t want to continue the trend of not talking about them. I have a few posts for them in the works, but for now…

I guess they had sex?

And then there’s Gruvia. 

I can’t just leave it there, right? No?

So I’m not actually sure that Gruvia is actually canon.  Yeah, me having a view that seems very different from most of the fandom. Shocking, right? I mean, there’s a lot of noise on both sides and it was a weird scene to include. But I didn’t see that conversation as a “Gruvia definitely is/isn’t canon” moment.

When I saw Gray say that Juvia’s body belongs to him, my mind immediately went to chapter 499, which I’ve had to look at multiple times for a post I’m going to get done on August 30th. When Juvia (somehow) revealed to Gray that she (somehow) used Water Make Magic, she told him that her life belongs to him. So Juvia’s body does belong to him.

Kinda.

So, the questions I think a reader of this should have to answer is whether Gray feels awkward about this because he likes Juvia or because even kind of owning Juvia freaks him out. As you can tell, I’m not really sure how to answer this question. Of course, this doesn’t mention that Gray might also be hesitant in making a statement Juvia may think is either offensive or romantic, as different people in the fandom have been arguing it is.

At any rate, this was the kind of ambiguity I was afraid of. I wanted to voice my fear that we’d get an ambiguous Gruvia ending. However, I was assured by the Gruvia fandom that Gray would definitely give an answer and that that answer would be yes. So, while I disagreed with the latter, I bit my tongue on the issue. It turns out, neither was the case and I was right to be worried.

Elfgreen is probably canon. I don’t think it’s a huge leap of faith to say that. (Yeah, that’s all I got.)

All the popular guy-girl Laxus ships have been de-confirmed in one go. I’m actually impressed that Mashima did that. I said this before, but I find it hilarious that Mashima made sure to empathize Miraxus as a rumor. I feel like the Laxana camp is as huge, but he had to take shots at that other ship. I’m honestly not sure what that means for Fraxus. And to be honest, I don’t really care Laxus ships.

And then there’s Jerza.

Like many people in this fandom, I’m actually shocked by Jerza in this chapter, but for a different reason. I was actually shocked that any time was given to Jerza at all in this chapter. I honestly wasn’t expecting Mashima to address this issue in any way at all. But, oh the boys, did he address it. While I understand the frustration of the Jerza fandom, I actually pretty cool with this ending. I figured he would give Jerza a non-canon ending. 

This kind of situation feels reminiscent of Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye’s relationship from FMA. They’re nothing like each other, material wise. However, in both cases, it looked a lot like they liked each other. However, the series ended without them hooking up. (At least officially.) I figured this kind of thing would happen a long time ago so I’m not surprised by this.

What did surprise me was about 5 pages spent on Mashima’s Zervis AU. Or any time at all spent on any version of Zervis at all post ‘taking Nalu’s One Magic” a while ago. And I kind of liked it. It makes no sense to exist in any way shape or form, but it was kind of cute and I think this is better than real Zervis.

Somewhere in all of this, we learned that Makarov lost the ability to use his legs. Well, something had to happen because of Makarov’s return. I’d actually be disappointed if everything was fine. My big complaint about the Rave Master ending, without spoiling much, a lot of losses and sacrifices made in chapters prior were rewritten. So, in this one aspect, Fairy Tail’s ending is better than Rave Master’s ending.

But, similar to Rave Master’s ending, Chelia can use magic. This is was one of the other big things I was afraid of Mashima doing in the last chapter of the series. To be fair, it’s only to a limited ability, but it’s still pretty annoying. I hinted at this, but I didn’t say it out right because I was in a fight with someone who thought I hadn’t read Rave at the time and I wanted to be petty.

So, Lucy blanked out and wakes up in her house. And, pretty much everything about this scene up until the flashback annoys me.

After 541 chapters and almost a decade of both real world and in-universe time, Natsu still breaks into Lucy’s house. Happy decides to polish Lucy’s newly acquired trophy with his claws. And this is all played for laughs. Like I’m actually supposed to look at this and think that this is funny and not sad.

Keep in mind that people were able to get past this point and still think that Natsu was going to confess romantic feelings. Look, I think that Natsu and Lucy have an amazing bond, but it would be really bad if this was just before a romantic confession. I can understand people who were disappointed with the Jerza ending. If you thought this was going to lead into a Nalu ending, you played yourself.

Luckily, there’s more to be annoyed with. Lucy ends up remembering the embarrassing stuff she did when she was drunk. A while ago, I made a post about being annoyed with the way things were made up. This is a great example of this.

Why did we need this? This isn’t funny and I didn’t learn anything about Lucy. I don’t like these “I’ll never get married over this” jokes in anime unless it’s over something legitimately embarrassing enough to warrant the reaction. She’s not ashamed because she was teachers yelled at her for promoting a club she was dragged into while being forced to wear a sexy red bunny outfit. (You either get this reference or you don’t) She did some stupid stuff in front of two people while she was drunk. (And apparently, she liked one of those people.)

But Natsu uses the joke to segway into a reminder that they can still work together. And Lucy remembers many of the missions they shared together. Considering recent events on my blog, it’s funny how there’s nothing from the Galuna Island, but she remembered being wrapped in towels with Edolas Lucy. At any rate, she thanks Natsu and Happy for changing her life for the better.

It’s times like this that I have to remember that Lucy’s dream was to join Fairy Tail. (A point I had to remind fic writers of.) It’s only because she met Natsu that she was able to. Recently I’ve been rereading the old arcs and it’s crazy to see how much has happened since Lucy has joined Fairy Tail specifically because Lucy has joined Fairy Tail.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: you don’t have Fairy Tail without Lucy and Natsu. They don’t meet, they don’t go on adventures. They don’t go on adventures, the world would probably cease to exist at about the time we would get to Edolas. Remember, Mystogan needed her and Gajeel to help Natsu and Wendy. If Lucy’s not in the guild, Gajeel’s not in the guild. So assuming everything else is the same, which would probably be a stretch, they’re screwed.

Anyway afterward, Natsu takes Lucy on the mission with him saying that the fact that their lives are different doesn’t matter. And yes, I think it’s a jerky thing to have done. Of course, if you thought this was going to be a lead-in to a Nalu confession, I can’t help you. But that doesn’t mean he did a good.

However, I like the reasoning. Natsu isn’t worried about the past. He’s excited for what the future is going to bring them… 

…and the rest of Team Natsu…

On the Century Quest!

This is probably my favorite thing from the chapter. I actually screamed after seeing that they were going on the quest. Forget Nalu, this is probably one of the most Natsu things that Natsu would be excited for.

But I have two big problems with this.

First, if Gray’s conversation really was a confession, does that mean he left Juvia after confessing to her? Even if he told her that he was going on the mission, that’s still a pretty messed up thing to do. By the way, if you think that Gray’s scar comment was bad, this would probably make it worse.

Funny enough, I saw a comment on this. OP questioned whether or not people really believe the Century Quest would actually last 100 years. And my response is…

That’s the other problem: we don’t know how long this quest is supposed to take. Now, chapter 165 tells us that Decade Quests take at least 10 years to beat and so it should stand to reason that Century Quests will take at least 100 years to beat. However, consider everything that we’ve been told about the Spriggan 12 at the beginning of this arc and how free they ended up being. So will this take shorter than expected or will it actually take 100 years?

As a side note, is this the same Century Quest Gildarts failed or is it another Century Quest? It’s referred to as “The 100-Year Quest” and we’ve only known about one Century Quest? And why is it 100-Year Quest here instead of Century Quest? 

The fic writers are going to have a field day with that.

So, overall, what did I think of the chapter? After reading the chapter a few times and thinking about the things that have happened in order to make this post, I feel good about it. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of issues left unresolved. I totally understand (some of) the reasons people don’t like this ending and I absolutely think we could and probably should get more. However, I’m fine with this being the way the series ends. And, as I’ve said before, I’d happily reread this series again.

Now comes the main reason that I want to talk about the ending in this format. Fairy Tail has officially come to an end. I feel as though there is two knee jerk “my series ended” reactions I want to address.

The first is the feelings over everything in the ending.

As I said in an earlier post, nothing is wrong with feeling sad or happy or angry over anything about everything that has happened in this series. Nothing is wrong with expressing or explaining those feelings. That’s fine.

What isn’t fine is getting mad at or blaming people for the things you don’t like about the ending, including and especially Hiro Mashima. What isn’t fine is destroying everything Fairy Tail related you own out of spite.

I’d even say that it’s not okay to feel betrayed by the ending. Mashima doesn’t owe you anything. He doesn’t owe you ships. He doesn’t owe you moments. He doesn’t have to bring characters back. He doesn’t have to kill anyone. About the only thing Mashima had to do for his fans was get the next chapters of the series out on time. Even though those chapters weren’t always necessarily good, that was about all he owed us.

The second one is a desire the series to continue on, either it should continue on as a spin off or just never end. Some of you might want him to get to working on his completely new series right away.

Not so fast.

I get the desire to want to see more of a series or writer you’ve enjoyed for however long you have. I get that you might think the series didn’t have a proper ending. I get that you may have no idea what you’re going to do now that Fairy Tail is over.

That being said, I think Mashima should take a break.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d also love more Fairy Tail, even as I’ve ragged on some of its failings. But this guy’s been writing Fairy Tail for more than a decade. It’s one thing to be an artist whose job depends on how much you’re able to create. Having to create something new in an ongoing series every week is baffling to me as a musical composer. It takes me weeks even months to get works done to a level they can be called finished.

Mashima’s work on Fairy Tail is nowhere near the best thing in the anime/manga world, but I’m not going to accuse him of not working hard. I want this guy to enjoy the break he’s getting for now before he launches head first into his next series. For now, I’d like to see what fans do now that the story is complete(-ish).

Speaking of which, many people might be wondering what I’ll be doing on this blog now that the series is over. I still have things to say about Fairy Tail as a series and I’ll definitely have some things to say about this fandom as the dust settles. I have some posts I’ve been working on specifically to show after the end of the series and, thankfully, I only have to change a few paragraphs because of this ending…

I don’t know that I’m going to start throwing my focus onto any one other series. I’ve said this before but despite any and all problems this series has, Fairy Tail is the only series I feel comfortable running a blog for. I’ve seen other series I think are better and I have things to say about them you might see on my main blog. But I don’t see myself getting so into another series that I could do everything I’ve done with Fairy Tail.

To that point, I do have series I have been reading. To give a sense of the time I’ve been planning this post for, when I started writing this post, I had over 100 chapters of Bleach left to finish. I’m sending this off having finished that series and (as I promised) started reading My Hero Academia. Incidentally, I’ve started writing posts for those series I may post to my main blog as well and I’ve had to pull myself away from reading MHA to finish this post.

I’ve also been reading Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches and, once I’m done, I’ll finally be able to catch up with Twin Star Exorcists (yes, I’ve decided to turn to the dark side). I’ve also started reading  Astra: Lost in Space. I’m not sure this will be the next breakout hit in the manga world, but I’m enjoying where this series is going.

Somewhere along the way, I started reading Yona of the Dawn through the volumes and collecting Bakuman volumes which I will read all at once. And of course, I’ll still be buying the volumes for Rave Master and Fairy Tail until I’ve collected them all. 

To wrap it all up, there is one more question some of my followers may be wondering that I want to address: When will I read One Piece? 

Soon.

At the very least, I want to catch up with the currently running series and get all of that I’ll be following weekly and get/read all of Bakuman before getting into the beast that is One Piece. At the latest, I’ll end up following my Big 3 tradition of starting to read the series at about the time it’s starting to end. And if your fandom causes another stir over ships, I think I’m actually going to go crazy

In Conclusion:

Fairy Tail’s ending was pretty messy, but I’m fairly happy with the ending we got. But even though Fairy Tail ended, I’m still going to have fun talking about it and other things. 

I’m all fired up!!!!

[impracticaldemon]

GRAYLU SIBLING EXCHANGE 2017

For: @clerfait​

From: Impracticaldemon  CC: @graylu-angstweek​

Chapter 2 will be ready tomorrow!  Sorry for the delay:

(1) My computer drank my tea; (2) I am apparently incapable of writing reasonable length one-shots.

I hope you enjoy this!

Art commissioned from the talented @miss-zei​

New Year's Resolution

Language: English, Rating: Rated: T+

Published: 01-07-17, Updated: 01-07-17

Chapters: 1, Words: 3,939

Chapter 1: A Kiss Goodbye

Author's Note:

To all my readers: thank you so much for being here. If you have a moment, please post a few words when you're done to let me know what you think!  All likes and reblogs much appreciated! Tumblr version is missing a few of the formatting and up-to-date edits of FF.net.

~Impracticaldemon

\(^u^)/

Once upon a time, there had been four of them—Natsu, Erza, Gray and Lucy. And Natsu's Exceed, Happy, who got annoyed at being overlooked. They had all been young, and rather prone to mistakes of different kinds. Even Erza, who always seemed mature, focused and practical, was only a year older than Natsu and Gray, and Lucy now knew that the warrior could be as prone to emotional upheaval as anyone, under the right circumstances.

They had all become close friends, with bonds that went beyond what mere words could express. Amazingly, even though Natsu and Gray had sort of grown up together, and Erza had joined the two of them when she was still a child, all three of them had treated Lucy as special. Lucy had been very happy at Fairy Tail, until last Christmas.

Christmas had been a disaster. Well, not a disaster, but not good either. Okay, not exactly bad just… disappointing. Except that for some reason, the disappointment had been crushing.

Last year at around Christmas, Juvia had shocked everyone by getting engaged to Lyon Vastia of Lamia Scale. Lucy had been just as surprised as everyone else. More importantly, she had seen Gray's face when Juvia had made her announcement—he'd looked stunned, as if he'd suddenly realized something very important and it had knocked all the wind out of him. She'd been sitting beside Erza at the time, across from the guys, and her eyes had gone immediately to her dark-haired team-mate. Natsu had summed things up well with his usual combination of genuine kindness tempered by genuine insensitivity:

"That kinda sucks for you, Ice Princess—we all thought that Juvia wanted to marry you! You okay? … Still, I guess she got tired of waiting, huh?"

"Shut up, Natsu. You are the last person in the world to comment about keeping a girl waiting."

Ignoring the stares of his three friends, and the covert and not-so-covert interest of half the guild, Gray had gotten up and walked out. The funny thing was that he hadn't looked angry, or jealous, or even upset, precisely. Lucy remembered thinking that he looked almost frightened, as if he had suddenly become aware of some terrible danger.

After the doors had closed behind Gray, Natsu had turned to Lucy and Erza.

"I guess he really is upset, huh?"

Erza had nodded slowly. Then she had smiled at Lucy:

"We should go congratulate Juvia; she needs to know that we're her friends no matter what, right?"

"Right!" Lucy had dragged her eyes off the door and hopped up, trying to seem more like herself.

"Right!" Natsu had given both women his brilliant, unmatchable grin. "She's been an important member of our team and Fairy Tail, so yeah—of course!"

The three of them had clustered around Juvia, who had brightened up at their approach. Mirajane had been admiring the glittering, new bracelet on Juvia's left wrist, trying to make up for the way that everyone else had been staring, but obviously the water elementalist was most worried about those who were closest to her—and closest to Gray. Fortunately, Natsu could always be counted on for enthusiasm, Erza was far kinder-hearted than she appeared, and Lucy… Lucy had been genuinely happy. For some reason, she had felt as though a shadow had lifted from her own heart. It had been troubling.

Of course there had been an impromptu party, and of course Natsu had complained about Gray not being there to brawl with (not that he had put it that way), and of course Erza had dragged Natsu off by the ear to "remind" him that it wasn't very nice to mention the man who had been Juvia's violent crush for the past two years. Lucy had found herself drifting from person to person, drinking some kind of blue-coloured drink and smiling.

After an hour—because she had made herself wait that long—she had told Erza that she was going to check on Gray. Erza had given her a very level look and insisted on walking her to the door.

"You just want to make sure he's okay?"

"Well… yeah, of course." It had been a lie. She just hadn't quite realized it.

"Give him my regards," Erza had said, watching Lucy shrug into her jacket and pull on bright blue gloves.

"Um, sure."

"Be patient."

Erza's eyes had seemed to be searching hers, and Lucy had made a show of adjusting her scarf in order to look away.

"… Patient?"

"Good night, Lucy. See you tomorrow."

For some reason, Erza had given Lucy a quick hug goodnight before turning in a swirl of bright red hair and going back inside. Puzzled, Lucy had blinked at the door for a moment, before shaking her head and walking off. In retrospect, Erza had understood things better than she had.

Gray wasn't at home and he wasn't out drinking at any of the nearby bars. Despite growing anxiety, Lucy had reluctantly given up and walked home, shivering with cold and unsettled about her strange reaction to Juvia's announcement. After an hour walking around in the cold and dark, she had finally identified her main feelings as relief and happiness. The problem was that it hadn't been happiness for Juvia and Lyon. It had just been… happiness. That had made no sense, at the time. Although she'd never been sure exactly how Gray felt about Juvia, he had finally seemed to be returning the water mage's very persistent, but genuine interest. Moreover, he had always looked out for Juvia in his own way, maybe because he had been the reason that she'd overcome enough of her unhappy past to be able to make the decision to join Fairy Tail. Juvia truly loved having friends.

"Mind if I come in?"

Gray had stepped out of the shadows as she had reached her own doorstep, and she had been so immersed in thought that she had gasped and jumped at the polite question. Embarrassed, she had snapped out the first thing that had come to mind:

"Where the heck were you anyway? Everyone was worried about you!"

"I was waiting for you. I figured you'd be a while so I a walked around a bit first. Then I came here."

His voice had been strangely disinterested, as if he were just going through the motions by answering her question. That oddness had made Lucy quickly turn the key so that they could both go in. Once in her apartment, she'd pointed him at a place to sit at the table and made hot cocoa. She remembered having wondered whether Gray even drank the stuff, but it had seemed like the right thing to do. He'd said nothing at all until she'd put a mug in front of him and sat down with her own.

"So, um, are you doing okay? I mean, not that you have to talk about it or anything… but if you need a friend to talk to then I'm here."

Lucy had tried to sound casual, even though her mouth had been dry and her fingers had been a little unsteady as she'd sipped at her cocoa. Even then, she hadn't quite figured out what was going on.

"Yeah, thanks," Gray had answered, in the same slightly mechanical tones. "Good cocoa—I haven't had any in ages." He'd given her a rather awful smile.

"Oh, good… I mean that it's good—the cocoa, I mean…"

Lucy remembered that part perfectly; she'd babbled like an idiot. She'd caught herself staring at the Fairy Tail mark on Gray's upper right chest, and she was pretty sure that she had blushed like an idiot, too. He had been wearing a slightly dressy, navy blue collared shirt, but it had been hanging open over his favourite dark jeans so that most of his lean, muscled torso and well-defined abdomen had been on display. Nothing new, right? Nothing different to account for the weird tightness in Lucy's chest.

"Anyway, I wanted you to know: I'm going away for a while. I figured you could tell the others."

"Oh sure," Lucy had murmured automatically in response, before his words had impinged.

She didn't think she'd imagined the dark shadow that had seemed to cross his face at her casual answer, but whatever he'd said next had been lost as she'd all but dropped her mug onto the table as his words had sunk in:

"Wait—what?!" She'd reached out halfway across the table to him with one hand, while waving the other one in a rather wild gesture of denial. "You can't go! I mean… why would you go? Juvia probably won't even be around much, and we can, you know, go out on missions, right? I mean, with Natsu and Erza, of course."

Gray had sat perfectly still, his thin, dark brows drawn down into a slight vee, as though there was something he didn't quite understand or didn't know how to explain. Heedless, Lucy had rushed on:

"Or, if you feel like you need to get out of town for a bit, that's fine too, but you don't need to say it like it's going to be months and months or something, you know?"

"I think Juvia needs a chance to be happy. And… even Lyon I guess, though he acts like he's got an icicle stuck up his butt most of the time. Plus…" Gray had paused and swallowed before going on. "Plus, the pink-haired dork'll look after you, right?"

"Right, sure, no problem," Lucy had said quickly, trying to deal with the prickling cold that seemed to be closing around her heart. "So, I'll tell the others. When will you be back? Because, um, they'll want to know."

She'd tried to look perky, and not as though the answer to that question had suddenly meant far too much to her. She'd found out later that her acting job had been too successful. Gray had eyed her for a long, thoughtful moment, and then he'd set down his mug. He'd finished all the cocoa—funny the details she remembered. Or maybe not. She could picture pretty much everything about that night.

"Oh, I'm really not sure when I'll be back," Gray had told her, rising to his feet. "Could be a few months, maybe longer, hard to say. Besides, you get along great with Juvia, right? I'm sure she can, you know, persuade Lyon to join you on missions from time to time—he'll make sure that Flame Head's ego doesn't get too big for his puny mind to handle. "

It was as if all sensation had left her. Detached, moving numbly, she'd walked him to the apartment door, which was weird in itself when she'd considered it later—after all, the guys always behaved like her place was their own, so she'd given up treating them like guests ages before. She'd smiled and nodded and… sparkled… covering shock with forced cheerfulness.

They'd stood awkwardly for a few minutes—it was the one part of the whole episode that Lucy couldn't clearly recall—and then Gray had suddenly caught her face in his cool, slightly rough hands and bent down, whispering so softly that she'd barely made out what he'd said:

"I'm sorry, Luce, I'm so sorry… I tried…"

She'd felt warm breath on her cheek the moment before he'd kissed her, hard, on the lips, one hand sliding behind her head to tangle briefly in her hair. Caught wholly off guard, she'd frozen as though he'd summoned ice magic. Before her brain had sorted out her reaction and told her that she really, really didn't mind and why hadn't she realized sooner, Gray had released her face, closed his dark eyes for a just a second, and then run off down the stairs. The outside door had banged open, there had been a gust of cold air, and… then he'd been gone.

Lucy had gone through the first two months of Gray's absence with a strange kind of half-alive feeling. It hadn't made any sense. They'd been good friends, good partners, but that was all. She'd relied on him, felt safe with him, had known that he'd always do whatever he could for her. Just like with Natsu and Erza—and those two had been far more demonstrative than Gray.

Despite his constant fights with Natsu, Gray had always been the more serious of the two. He'd accepted Lucy from the start, but without Natsu's unabashed enthusiasm or Erza's vibrant warmth. Rather, it had been a steady kind of acceptance, the kind that never made Lucy feel like an idiot, even when her magical skills had proven to be far below those of her companions.

When the guild had fought Phantom Lord, and Gray had battled and—in some way—saved Juvia, Lucy had been as taken aback as anyone when the beautiful and powerful blue-haired woman had fallen head over heels in love with the ice mage. Not that Gray didn't attract women—he did—but with his friends and partners he wasn't romantic in any way, so Lucy had never seen Gray in the same way as those other women, or Juvia. Juvia herself was tremendously romantic, of course. Once they'd become friends, Lucy had heard of her tragic childhood and the unhappy path she had followed until meeting Fairy Tail—meaning Gray—in battle.

Despite their friendship, the water elementalist had always maintained that Lucy was a "love rival" for Gray's affections. Lucy had always scoffed at this, but it had never made a difference to Juvia. As February's dreary skies lightened into March's promise of spring, Juvia had taken the unusual step of coming to Lucy's apartment one afternoon to ask after Gray. She had been as perfectly turned out as always, but it was such an everyday thing with Juvia that Lucy had stopped feeling self-conscious around her a long time ago. Mostly.

"Have you heard from Gray-sama, Lucy-san?"

Lucy had shaken her head, and then asked the obvious question:

"And you, Juvia—do you have any news?"

"Juvia does not have any news. But Gray-sama did write to Juvia after he lieft, to congratulate Juvia because he had not done so at Christmas. That was all."

"Oh."

"You will have to be patient, Lucy-san." The blue-haired woman had stared at her quite intently. "To be honest… Juvia came here to ask how Lucy-san was doing. Because Lucy-san is Juvia's friend and she is sad."

"Oh, I'm fine," Lucy had said. The words had sounded unconvincing, even to her. "I mean, sure, I'm sorry that Gray took off like that, but Natsu and Erza and I can take jobs and pay the bills—well, not that they aren't awfully destructive though…"

Juvia had waved an elegant, perfectly tapered hand dismissively.

"No. You are not fine."

Both women had looked at each other for a moment, caught by surprise by Juvia's use of a pronoun, rather than a proper name. Juvia had blushed. Lucy, in an effort to change the subject, had asked about wedding plans. She was going to be a bridesmaid, and was already in love with her dress, even though it wasn't actually finished yet.

Juvia had answered Lucy's questions on the wedding, but had returned to her original point before leaving, much to Lucy's discomfort.

"Lucy-san, are you sad because Gray-sama isn't here?"

"Yes." Lucy had blurted out the answer, and it had hung there in the air between them.

"Then will you let Juvia tell you about Gray-sama, just a little? Because, Lucy-san is Juvia's friend?"

"Okay."

Lucy had felt her chest and stomach tighten, wondering what Gray's most ardent-previously most ardent—fan had to say about him.

"Gray-sama loves his friends. That is the most important thing in Fairy Tail, is that not true? To love one's friends? To be like a family?"

Juvia's tone had almost been pleading. Hesitantly, Lucy had nodded. It had been a fair description of the foundation on which Fairy Tail's true strength had been built.

"Then, you see, Lucy-san, that Gray-sama does not want to hurt his friends. He does not want to hurt Natsu-san, who is his best friend. But Natsu-san brought Lucy-san to the guild and Gray-sama sees that the two of them are very close. Also, Lucy-san seems to like Natsu-san a lot, and she keeps insisting that Juvia is not a love rival."

"But I wasn't in love with anyone!" Lucy had protested, hands clenched tightly on top of her legs to prevent her from jumping up and pacing, or maybe kicking something. "Everthing was fine the way it was!"

Juvia smiled a little sadly at Lucy. "But it was not fine for everyone, Juvia thinks. So Gray-sama tries to be kind to Juvia, and he tries to be just friends with Lucy-san, because he doesn't want Natsu-san or Lucy-san to be upset. Juvia has spent a long time watching Gray-sama. Juvia thinks that Juvia was not wrong: Gray –sama was in love with Lucy-san."

As Lucy buried her face behind her teacup, Juvia fell silent. Neither of the women had said much during the rest of Juvia's short visit. Lucy had wanted to deny Juvia's words, but how could she? Eventually, Lucy had found herself escorting another friend to the door. At the last minute, she had detained Juvia with a touch.

"Why didn't he tell me before he left?" Lucy hated to be so vulnerable, but she didn't understand what had happened and it seemed like Juvia did. "I mean, I would have understood if he'd been disappointed about you and Lyon…"

Once again, Juvia had looked sad, and then she had touched her bracelet from Lyon and smiled gently.

"Juvia thinks that Gray-sama had finally decided to love Juvia, because Lucy-san was not for him and everyone wanted him to love Juvia." The gentle smile had brightened into something charming and a little wicked. Having somebody to love her back had given Juvia a little more self-confidence lately, which was a good thing. "And then, just as Gray decided that he would make Juvia happy, Juvia says that she will marry Lyon-sama, and Gray-sama knows that he should be sad and angry, but he isn't. He realizes that he is still in love with Lucy-san, and she still has no idea, and Gray-sama is not as brave as Juvia."

"Not as… brave?"

Juvia had shaken her head briskly.

"No. Because if Gray-sama had not been too afraid of losing his friendships and being a fool—and he hates to be a fool—then Gray-sama would have told Lucy-san the truth a long time ago." Juvia had paused, and then added smugly: "I did not mind being a fool, and even though Lucy-san's friendship means a lot to me, and the friendships of everyone at Fairy Tail, of course, I would always be honest with the person I love."

"And are you sure you love Lyon?" Lucy had asked, feeling unaccountably defensive.

"Yes! Juvia does love Lyon-sama." Juvia had given Lucy a roguish look, although it was shy at the same time. "Lyon-sama has a lot in common with Juvia. Juvia enjoys looking nice for Lyon-sama. Lyon-sama makes Juvia feel loved. He even kissed Juvia!"

Lucy saw her friend's blush and laughed. "I hope he has if he's going to marry you! You deserve to be happy, Juvia."

"Thank you," replied Juvia, with a dainty curtsy. "I hope you get a chance to be kissed soon too, Lucy-san."

In April there had been cherry blossoms on the trees, and the magical rainbow tree had looked particularly beautiful. Lucy had gone with Natsu to the town festival, remembering when Natsu had brought the rainbow tree to her because she'd been too sick to go to the tree. She truly loved her excitable, impetuous partner—and she thought that he loved her—but she wasn't in love with him, and he didn't seem to demand that sort of affection. Not that she had been very perceptive about such things with Gray or anyone else, apparently.

She had watched the sparkling, brilliantly-coloured tree with Natsu and Erza, but when she'd looked at her friends it had occurred to her that of the four of them, only Natsu's happiness seemed entirely clear and untainted. Gray was gone—supposedly due to blighted love, but love of who?—and Erza had been very quiet. Lucy had thought she was missing Jellal, the strange, blue-haired man who had done terrible things, but couldn't remember most of them.

Lucy herself had been remembering a short, passionate, unhappy kiss. Looking around at the lovers in the crowd—and there had been a few from the guild, such as hulking Gajeel and petite Levy, fingers laced tightly together—Lucy had finally, fully admitted that she wanted to be kissed again. When would Gray come back? What would she do when he did?

On the way home, with Erza striding ahead and Happy flitting high above, Natsu had surprised her by giving her a quick one-armed hug around the shoulders. His pink hair had looked like cotton candy in the gentle spring moonlight.

"Aw, I miss Gray too, Lucy. Try not to worry: he'll be back. He's probably just practicing 'cause he doesn't want to get pounded the next time he tries taking me on. You know he won't be able to stay away from Fairy Tail forever."

Lucy had hugged him back, a little cheered, as well as reminded that Natsu noticed quite a lot when he wasn't caught up in fighting somebody or something. He was a good man.

That night she had dreamed of snow and hot chocolate and sadness. When she had finally gotten up and made herself tea, in defiance of the dream, she had thought of Erza's counsel, echoed by Juvia: be patient.

END OF CHAPTER 1

A/Note: See you next Chapter! Thank you for reading. :)