Well, this is nostalgic. I started this a year or so ago, got like two paragraphs past an overly complex a/n, and then forgot about it till now. The story concept is fairly uninteresting looking back, but that wasn't really the point. I had an idea that I still find interesting for the abilities of the protagonist, and I hope you find it entertaining. Further than that, I have no real clue what I'm doing, it's pretty much me seeing how this kind of character would fit into the story of Fairy Tail. This'll likely be updated sporadically, due to the very "winging it" nature of this story. Well, enough rambling, let's get this show on the road!
Disclaimer: Disclaimers on fanfiction to avoid copyright shit is idiotic. Fanfiction is transformative work, 99% of the time does not use assets from the original work, and isn't for profit, so you are in no way legally liable for any type of copyright infringement and legal action cannot be taken, so putting a disclaimer is dumb. Additionally, nobody is going to buy that ponylover684 is J.K. Rowling in disguise writing Drarry smut in her free time either, so the whole " I don't own (insert whatever the fanfiction was based on)" is equally, if not more idiotic. The whole concept has become an inane game of monkey see monkey do, and you guys really need to stop. Therefore, this is the declaration of my one-man crusade against fanfiction disclaimers, to hopefully one day remove this idiocy from the world! Huzzah!
The first thing that Simon felt as he started to wake up was the pain. A throbbing, pulsing pain that came from his head in what had to be the worse headache he had ever had. Next was the feeling of intense nausea, he felt extremely sick, as if he was on the verge of vomiting, but unable to do so. Overall, his day had not started out well, he must be very hungover right now and he had to get to work asap or else his boss was gonna kill him. As he opened his eyes, he noticed how blurry his vision was, but he was able to make out some details, enough to realize that he was not, in fact, in his room, but rather in a large, open room with many beds along the walls.
'So this is one of three things as far as I can tell. A dorm, barracks, or a medical facility of some kind. What even happened last night?'
As his vision started to clear, more details became apparent, enough for him to discover that he was in a medbay of some kind. There was also nobody else present, at least that he could see, and focusing too hard made his headache even worse. He reached up to grab his head and felt that his forehead was wrapped in a bandage of some kind, and when he touched the bandaged area, it stung badly, suggesting a pretty nasty bruise.
'Not a hangover then. Well, now that I think about it, I do actually remember getting home last night. What happened to me then, an intruder in the night, or did something happen at work that I just can't remember?'
Suddenly, he heard a door out of sight creak as it was opened, and someone walking into the room. Simon was relieved, maybe they could explain what was going on and he could get to work so his boss wouldn't kill him. His hopes were dashed, however, at the sight of the person who was coming to see him. It was a woman with long, shocking white hair, and someone he recognized instantly
'Mirajane Strauss? Oh shit, I'm in the Fairy Tail guild hall… OH SHIT, I'M IN THE FAIRY TAIL GUILDHALL. goddamnit, I am very, very screwed.
"Hi. Mira."
"Hello, Simon. I must say you took quite a hit there, you're lucky you got off with a concussion."
"A concussion huh? That… would explain the headache. And the nausea. And, well, you get the idea."
"Yeah, but you must understand, this concussion is far better than what you should have expected after what happened"
"Ah. Well then, what exactly did happen to me?"
"If I remember correctly, Natsu- you would know him as our Salamander- kicked open the doors to the guild hall, the hinges broke on one side because of how often he does that and one of the doors flew off and hit you in the head"
"Ok, cool, two questions. First, If a big ass wooden door hit my head, HOW THE HELL AM I NOT DEAD?! Not that I'm ungrateful to be, well, alive, but that seems like a pretty fatal injury to me. Secondly, why would Salamander be in the guild hall so early? The boss has me and my coworkers work before the sun comes to specifically avoid the crazy destructive mages in your guild "
"Well, I'm not sure about why Natsu was here, but, as for your injury, it was more of a glancing blow than anything, and you have been out for about five days. Master Makarov is enthusiastically looking forward to your full recovery." Mirajane said with an innocent smile, feigning ignorance to the fact that Makarov was an absolute slave driver to his repairmen.
'Ugh. I have to deal with Makarov after I get out, can't wait… Wait. five days? That means… oh no'
"Anyway, Master also wan-"
"Wait a second! Tessa, my daughter, how is she? If I've been out for three days she must be so worried, I mean, I always spend my afternoons with her and I've never been gone this long without telling her first."
" you don't have to worry Simon, we let her know what happened and have had a wizard looking after her the whole time, so there's nothing to worry about."
"Well, that's better than nothing I suppose. Could you tell me who it was taking care of her at least? Call it me being overprotective or whatever but I'd like to actually know the name of the person who was watching over her"
Mira paused for a second then obliged him, " well, to be honest, we originally assigned Erza Scarlet to her care, but, well, we learned very quickly that was a mistake."
Simon's face darkened "how so?"
"Well, it seems that Erza's rather… rough attitude along with how intimidating she can be frightened your daughter. She started crying within minutes and didn't stop until Erza left the building entirely. We decided that it would be best to send in someone else to substitute for her until you recovered."
"So who would that be?"
"Ah, well I believe that you know her already. We sent Levy McGarden instead, and she's done much better than Erza. From what I hear, they've actually become friends of a sort."
"Well that's a relief" sighed Simon, "I don't know her too well actually, but from what I've seen of her, she seems like an alright girl. Anyway, what were you saying about the boss earlier?"
"Ah yes, Master Makarov would like to talk to you whenever you feel up for it, he says it's urgent."
"Damn, and I was hoping to wait a little longer before I talked to the senile old man. Talking to him always makes me happy, so happy I feel like I could do anything, like jumping off of a roof, or seeing how long I can hang from the ceiling 'look ma no hands'." Simon remarked sarcastically
Mirajane's calm smile held, even as she seemed to deflate a little at the way Simon spoke of her Guild master "well, moving on, we had a doctor come by to treat your injuries, but he's passed out at the bar right now, just like the last few nights," Mira added with a grumble, "so I'll go and try to wake him up"
Simon's face took on a confused expression as he asked "I thought you guys had some kind of old lady wizard doctor out in the woods, not some local drunk. Can someone like that even treat someone properly?"
Mirajane visibly cringed at the mention of the old woman in the woods " Porlyusica usually only helps when it's a serious injury, and even then she only barely tolerates the wizards
in our guild. You're an employee of the guild, not a wizard, so we thought it… unwise to bring you to her. On top of that, she's not technically a medical professional, and your contract says we have to get someone with a medical license to treat you for any work-related accidents. That "local drunk" was the only doctor in town willing to associate themselves with our guild. We did the best we could under the circumstances"
He could understand where they were coming from. Fairy Tail had a bit of a shaky reputation with the townsfolk of Magnolia, working for them was considered very dangerous and risky given the destructive tendencies of their wizards, but it was equally as lucrative, because the guild had only one location and many high ranking wizards, including a wizard saint and three active S-class wizards. This led to a guild with relatively low costs, especially when compared to other guilds like Phantom Lord and Blue Pegasus, but very high income from the percent they took from every quest reward that their wizards brought in. the people who worked as an employee of the guild were either desperate for money, or someone so extremely adept in their field of work that Makarov himself sought them out. Simon was unique in his motivation, as he was both of those things. He was extremely adept in his field of practical magical devices, having been to one of the most prestigious centers of learning in Fiore, but still had to take care of Tessa's… unique needs.
"Well then!" Simon exclaimed, "Until Dr. Drunkard gets here, I'm going to sleep off this headache. Tell Makarov I'll talk to him after the doctor gives me the all clear."
"Well, ok. I need to get back to work anyways. Oh! Before I forget, Levy told me to give this to you. She said it was urgent" Mira handed Simon a small letter with the emblem of the hospital that Tessa was staying at on the front.
A feeling of dread crept over Simon. This couldn't be good. He said goodbye to Mira as she left the room and then opened the letter. He read it quickly, and with every sentence, his dread grew. He set the letter down, this was too much all at once. He needed to sleep.
A few hours later, Simon was walking towards the bar to talk to Mira. The doctor had given him the all-clear to get up and move around and said he could go back to work in the morning. Now all that was left was to talk to Makarov. There was one small problem though, Makarov's office was on the second floor and only S-class wizards were allowed up there. Well, someone of his position was allowed up there, but only with an S-class escort. Hence, Mira.
As he walked up, he noticed the pure chaos that was the Fairy Tail guild hall. Everyone was either drinking, eating, fighting, or some combination of the three. Mira looked like she was busy dealing with the rowdy horde so he sat down at the first table he could find to wait for her.
"Oi, are you new here or something?"
Simon looked up and noticed that he had inadvertently sat down at a table that was already occupied by four people and a blue cat. The person who spoke, a strange pink-haired man, was quieted by another at the table, a more familiar face by far. "Oh, hi Erza. it's been awhile, huh?"
"Yes, I suppose it has. But with your job That's unsurprising."
"I guess so, yeah."
"Wait, Erza, you know this guy?" asked a black haired man who was, oddly enough, not wearing a shirt.
"Yes, I do. Gray, Lucy, Natsu, Happy, meet Simon Argenta. He's the magical energy device specialist on the FTRG."
"The who for what?" asked the other woman at the table, Lucy from what Erza said.
"Well I can answer that," Simon began, "the Fairy Tail Repairmen's Guild, or FTRG, is the group of people who fix your guild hall and keep it running, you wizards are very destructive and someone needs to fix it so that the building doesn't come crashing down on top of you. As for what I do, I fix anything that runs off of magical energy, from the lights to the dishwasher. You normally don't see us because we all work the graveyard shift to make sure we have time to fix everything before you guys come to break it again
'Speaking of broken things, you with the pink hair, you're Natsu, right? The salamander?"
"Yep! Nice to meet ya! Why do you ask?"
"No reason, it's just that you literally kicked a door into my head earlier this week, no big deal," Simon said, his voice dripping with sarcasm
"Oh, so that's who that was!" Natsu exclaimed. "Well, why didn't you say anything earlier? We've been back from Galuna Island a whole day ya know"
"You knocked me into a coma! I just woke up today, barely five hours ago! A hit to the head that hard would do that for you, you know. And makarov's stupid "company insurance" meant I had to stay here in the guild hall instead of the hospital. At least there I'd be closer to my daughter, Tessa."
"Why is your daughter in the hospital?" asked Lucy "is she sick?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that. Anyways I need to talk to Makarov about God-knows-what and I need to get to Makarov's office. I was gonna ask Mira because she's technically S-class, but Erza, you're S-class too right? Could you escort me up?"
"I'd be happy to"
"Wait, wait, wait, hold up just a second. Why does he get to go up there?" Natsu asked
Simon paused then answered him, "FTRG regulation states that FTRG specialists are allowed to access the second floor if supervised by an S-class or above wizard, and only for work-related reasons. I need to talk to my boss and Erza is an S-class wizard. Does that answer your question?"
"Yeah I guess so"
Simon stood up and turned to Erza "Alright, let's go now. I want to know what it is that the old man needs from me"
"Alright then."
Well, that's it for now. It'll take me a few chapters to get to the part I want to get to, namely Simon's first fight. His fighting style is going to be very reminiscent of Lightningbending from ATLA, for reasons that will be explained in the story later on. One thing I want to make clear is that this story is going to be slightly AU, but mostly in how I'm going to try and make the world of Fairy Tail make more sense, in a fashion. Most of the story will remain the same, the only changes will be the ones made by Simon, but what I will be changing is the worldbuilding. Laws, taxes, education, non-wizard exclusive technology, actual infrastructure of the government. The FTRG is the first step in that. They were made to answer the question of who fixes the FT guildhall? The only thing we've seen in that regard was the actual wizards of Fairy Tail building the second Hall after the Phantom Lord attack, which I call BS on for many, many reasons, but the Guildhall is almost constantly broken, damaged, or generally treated badly by the Wizards, yet there's no canon explanation, as far as I can remember, so, therefore, the FTRG was made.
Anyways, whatever criticism you have I'd like to hear it. Follow and Favorite if you feel like it. If not, eh. It's not like this is my job.
See you next chapter.