Mio started to talk at length, letting out a litany of complaints against the guild.
It was rather impressive really, even through all Gisela wanted to do was get her out so she didn't upset any of the guild members.
Glancing past Mio for a moment she looked, they mostly seemed resigned and sad, not likely to lash out.
That was good.
So it turned out that the reason that Mio was being bullied was because of Fairy Tail, she went on at length about how Fairy Tail had ruined her life because everyone teased for her having
a useless dad and her parents were divorced because of Fairy Tail.
"So why are you here?", Mio demanded once more.
Gisela felt her muscles lock up, the lump was back in her throat. What am I supposed to say.
They had let Mio speak her mind.
In the manga everyone had always spoken their minds, sure it had always been pro-fairy tail but they had spoken.
Besides, am I really anti-Fairy Tail?
It still felt like she was a deer in the headlights. That won't change unless I do something about it.
Still.
She was going to mess things up somehow. She was going to fail and everyone would hate her and-
The tightness in her chest was back, a pressure that was not going to leave.
"Well", Gisela could hear a foot tapping.
Somehow it helped to get the words a little less stuck in her mouth.
Gisela met the expectant gaze once more. "What do you want me to say?".
"What do you mean?", Mio demanded, eyes wide, shocked.
Gisela could tell this was not part of the script that she expected. "I mean you have valid reasons for being upset", because being bullied sucked and families were a mess on a good day, "and if I say something like 'I love Fairy Tail' you just want to fight", I should stop talking, but she could shut her mouth, "so I don't really know what to tell you. I'm sorry that Fairy Tail has hurt you through".
Mio still looked shocked. "Are you going to try and change my mind".
"You can think what you want, I can't change your mind". So many people had tried to change her mind about things back in Caelum.
Besides, Mio was young, not foolish. "Thanks".
She sounded so suspicious while saying it, it was kind of sweet if it hadn't been so bad.
"Mio, sorry I'm late", one guildmember said as he hurtled down the stairs, "did you miss me?".
"No".
Gisela heard sniffles. So many sniffles.
"Geez don't cry dad", Gisela could hear the eye rolls, it was really impressive for a kid her age.
"But you don't miss me", he carried on.
Gisela was getting such second hand embarrassment from the whole mess, thankfully it ended as Mio strood out of the room, followed by her father.
Gisela was pretty sure he was still crying.
"You handled that well", Laki said, smiling warmly.
"I did?". It had just felt awkward. Totally awkward.
"Yeah, Mio and Romeo, they're the kids two kids that are old enough to remember everyone, have had trouble since the test".
"They have?", this was definitely a story.
"Yeah, Romeo, you haven't met him yet, spends most of his days waiting and watching for everyone to come back. His dad is always pulling him off the pier to go to school".
"And Mio?". She still couldn't stop talking, it was awful.
"I think it's just been different for her. She used to get so upset about how her magic hadn't come in and tried so hard, even if there was tension between her parents".
"Why are you telling me this?", this really was not her place. It was so rude to be prying into people's private lives and-
"Everyone already knows". Laki did not seem at all bothered by the conversation.
"So I should know?". That made very little sense.
"Welcome to Fairy Tail". Laki grinned again.
"Are you gosipping again?", Mickey asked as she appeared, a streak of dirt on her forehead.
"It's important information, Mio seems like she has latched onto Gisela, sides, everyone already knows".
Mickey just huffed, Pi-chan chirping over her shoulder.
"She just keep glaring at me". Gisela was still stuck on that.
"Yeah, that's kinda how it works around here with kids, you'll see", Mickey flounced off, Gisela could tell she was going towards the raised voices on the other side of the guild. Gisela turned back to Laki, she really didn't want to think about what Mickey was about to get up too. "So about Aki and Aik-". She didn't have time to finish her sentence as a flying something split through the air.
"Sorry", someone else who Gisela did not know called, just as they did someone came hurtling at her, Gisela reacted instinctively, catching the body in her clouds.
"No fair", heckled Mickey as Gisela released her cloud grip on whoever it was she caught.
Did she already start fighting again? Somehow Gisela couldn't even find it in her to be surprised.
"Thanks", the blond guy with a slight beard said, "nice elemental manipulation by the way, I noticed you didn't say any commands".
"Thanks", Gisela said awkwardly. He was just standing there, waiting. Right, I need to talk, "do you have elemental magic too?" she asked tentatively.
He slapped himself, "sorry I'm Max and-"
"He is Fairy Tail's silliest drunk", Mickey said, interrupting with a grin.
"At least let me try and introduce myself", Max half said, half sighed.
"Fine", Mickey exclaimed over dramatically.
"Thank you", yet again she could hear the eye roll, members of Fairy Tail were really good at that. He turned back to Gisela, "anyways, before I was interrupted", she could hear the blades in that sentence, "I was going to say I am a sandstorm magic user".
"You summon sandstorms?". That was an oddly specific magic.
"Not just that, I can do this too,'' he turned, looking back to his table, "sand grasp,'' he commanded.
Gisela managed not to flinch as a tentacle of sand shot out to grab his drink, bringing it back to him, "see, sandstorm", he said, drinking a sip of his, likely, beer to emphasize it.
"But that's not just sandstorms". It came out before she could stop it.
"So, it sounds cooler, what is your magic called?".
Gisela looked down, tracing the carved table, "I just say I'm a cloud mage?".
Typical me. It was kind of lame now that she thought of it.
"Do you want a badass name? What about cloud arts?".
"That's not badass, Cloud Punch sounds better,'' Mickey pointed out, butting back into the conversation.
"Pecks, pecks", Pi-chan added.
Gisela really wasn't sure how pecks could be a relevant name for cloud magic so she discarded it.
Max and Mickey were still looking at her through, she needed to reply to them.
"They both sort of sound a little like attacks", Gisela pointed out, trying not to offend them but she needed to respond and-
"Cloud hurricane!"
"Cloud blizzard"
"Cloud chaos!"
"Cloud wind!".
"Cloudstorm!"
"That's just a riff on your magic, at least try". Gisela was kind of glad that Mickey had pointed that out, Gisela had actually thought Cloudstorm sounded kind of cool for a moment but didn't want to copy Max's name.
Besides, it was a little much.
They kept going through. "Cloudfire".
"Cloudburst".
"Cloud Swirl".
"Cloudstorm".
"Already been used. Cloudflare".
Soon it seemed like everyone in the guild was gather around, throwing out increasingly ridiculous suggestions as for what Gisela could call her magic.
It was loud, it was chaotic.
But somehow she didn't want to flinch.
Instead she tried not to laugh as increasingly silly names were suggested. Not calling my magic amazing chaos cloud boom glowing puff, Gisela really hoped that that name had only been suggested as a joke.
Otherwise they should have been banned from naming magic forever.
Or anything.
If they had children Gisela sort of pitied them.
But any child Fairy Tail had would be loved. She shook that thought away, instead focusing on the room and the chaos that was unfolding as she watched and listened.
Nobody was even asking her anymore, just joking around.
It was warm.
And then it got even better when they stopped throwing out cloud names and started to suggest names for each others magic, even though it was apparently already named?
Was all magic named in Fiore. Did like people just name their magic when they got it? Was that how it worked?
Nobody ever told me I should.
Gisela thought about how magic was treated in Caelum. It had been feared and respected, something of the gods domains.
It wasn't at all like that here. Maybe that is why they are so different, a cultural difference, Gisela mused. She had never really asked what peoples magic was named before.
They really didn't do that in Caelum, it was just 'you had x magic'.
Somehow the argument kept going, somehow evolving into a chaotic brawl, Gisela made a not to start keeping track of how many that was, before calming down again.
It was cool to watch all the other members magic.
Max had sand that could dance. Chico summoned soul ghost memory imprint of Magnolia, Laki bent wood, Vijeeter danced more chaos into the room and so much more.
It was wild, there was no theme, no elegance. No one point of commonality between the magic.
Everyone just was.
At one point Gisela found herself up on the stage, showing them how she was trying to perfect her cloud armor while people shouted suggestions.
It wasn't just her, the entire thing had become some sort of chaotic magic improvement sesion. She found herself guiding Max through some of her old exercises, hardly feeling nauseous at all when giving advice.
Mickey was great at punching, Gisela had already known that but just her skill at reinforcing her body with raw, unreleased magic was incredible. It had nothing to do with her familiar bond with Pi-chan but she was just so cool.
Laki amused herself by creating some more chairs- it would have been great if not for the spikes that she had put in the back of all of them. "I thought it would look cool,'' she explained.
Max had just sighed, "sand grinder,'' he commanded.
The room was filled with sawdust as the grinding started. "Whoops", Max said, grinning sheepishly as the cloud settled.
The wooded dust made everyone start coughing uncontrollably, spilling drinks and causing other chaos.
The end result was a mess.
Which just got worse as Jet dashed in after finishing a job, the wind his speed created dispersing the mess even father.
Not to mention the whole running into a table thing, apparently they had moved the furniture a little too much and they now had to clean up after a bloody nose as well.
At least it is not my fault. Or it might have been for starting the whole magic thing but nobody seemed mad so far and Gisela was holding onto that as a good thing.
Besides, the sander was not just her. That had been all Max.
And the chairs did look nice, she was about to say something when the bar maid came back in.
"Really", Kianna exclaimed, "again".
"Sorry Kianna", the entire room chorus, Gisela joining in at the end.
She just huffed, "I'll go get the cleaning supplies".
Poor Max, Gisela wanted to think as she watched some of the other members tease him, except she really didn't feel bad for him.
"Time to get to work,'' Kianna commanded like a general, soon the atmosphere of the guild had changed once again as everyone set themselves to work. It was nice, not peaceful, that would require a level of calmness Gisela was almost certain Fairy Tail was incapable of, but nice.
There was a rhythm to the lack of rhythm as they scrubbed and swept, only occasionally being distracted by the arguments that built like sudden storms but were over just as quickly.
She lifted Mickey up on a cloud as she wiped down the chandelier, throwing down a couple shirts and a few undergarments as she did so.
Gisela did not want to know where the random clothes came from, or why everyone else seemed to get so sad as they threw them into a clothes bin.
Then she saw the label, Gray's shit, put your clothes back on now! Which more graffiti underneath, like everyone had an opinion of sorts on Gray and his clothing habits.
That would do it. Luckily the mood didn't last and soon the guild was laughing about something again, Gisela felt something in her relax a little bit- it hadn't been nice when the room had gone sad.
The morning light burned at her eyes as Gisela moaned, she tried to turn over.
It didn't work out. Instead she got a rude awakening with the floor. The floor that did not look anything like her temporary room at the hostel.
It was shining and clean, even as it was old and scuffed. It smelled like fresh woodpolish of some sort.
It was definitely not her hostel.
It was too clean, too nice and the floor felt a little softer than the bed that she had been sleeping one.
What did I do?
Then it hit her. They had made a mess and Kianna had demanded that they fix it but once they had gotten the initial mess cleaned up she had just kept giving them more and more things to do and by the time they had been done everything in Gisela had been aching.
I had just closed my eyes, Gisela scolded herself as she shifted her body off the floor.
She wasn't alone. Scattered around the place were different people, all curled up. Some alone, some in groups.
The was a whispering noise, Gisela turned her head and saw the bartender shushing her.
Good idea. Gisela wasn't sure she had ever seen Fairy Tail as peaceful as she had in that moment. It was kind of nice.
Quietly, using every little bit of stealth she had ever learned from Caelum or from the Wolves Gisela picked her way through. She through the saw Mickey stir from her nest with Pi-chan on the table but other than that she was safe.
That and she was certain a table twitched, but Gisela was hoping that that was just Laki's sleep magic- not that she would actually be surprised if something inside Fairy Tail was haunted. It was just that kind of place.
"Can I help with anything?", Gisela whispered.
"Let's get breakfast started". The Fairy Tail kitchen was actually bigger than the one at Mermaid Heel, it was much more chaotic through, there was no one theme to the pots and pans and dishcloths, everything just was in a riot of colors and shapes and Gisela's favorite, puns.
They didn't use all the stoves, instead they kept to one corner.
"There used to be more people", Kianna said as they got started, "but well, you know".
"Yeah".
"Are you going to say you're sorry".
"I mean", Gisela said, hemming and hawing, "it does suck, they're gone", and Gisela knew what it was like to lose people, knew that well, "but I think you guys are done with pity", she heard her voice trailing off at the end.
They didn't talk for awhile, it made Gisela it.
"So what are you going to call it?".
"Call what?".
"You're magic"
"I actually have to chose something?". There had been so many names, Gisela wasn't sure if she could actually remember anyone of the vaguely ridiculous names. Very ridiculous.
Kianna just started laughing, pausing to flip a pancake, "they were pretty good, I think we got really creative by the end".
"That's one word for it", Gisela muttered. Can I? It was worth the risk, "what is your magic".
Kianna seemed to freeze for a second, "I don't have magic".
"I thought you were a member?". Shut up shut up shut up.
"I am, I just dont use magic".
"Do you want too?".
Kianna was silent again.
"Sorry", Gisela whispered, feeling like her throat was being squeezed. There was pressure around her ribs again, everything was tight.
"It's fine".
It was still there, the awkward pressure holding her down, the early atmosphere was lost as Gisela worked through making the rest of the pancakes. Outside the kitchen she could hear crashing noises.
Somebody was awake. "Is that okay?"
"Yeah, I bet that Mickey rolled over onto someone and things just developed from there". A particularly loud crash sound rang out. "Lets get going", Kianna said with a quick smile, "the guild awaits".
It was a flurry of people as they all darted, somehow not spearing anyone else's hands and they darted in with their forks in a food frenzy.
The breakfast was nice in the way that Gisela was finding most Fairy Tail things to be nice, load, chaotic with hints of sadness whenever Team Tenrou was brought up.
Still nothing you can do. She reminded herself.
It was nice.
Almost to nice.
"Remind me to talk to the Guildmaster", Gisela found herself saying. Things didn't stay nice for her, she needed to make plans.
"Why'd ya need to take to him?", Mickey asked, her mouth stuffed with pancakes, or at least, what used to be pancakes.
"I just need to figure out my debt".
"Your debt?".
"You know,'' Gisela offered, waving her hands vaguely, "what I owe for the medical help?".
Mickey held up a hand, swallowing, "you don't owe us through".
"I don't?". That was not true.
"Porlyusica probably just helped you because human corpses stink".
Gisela thought of the doctor, "that fits". It didn't help the unease in her stomach.
"Look, just talk to Macao, it will be fine".
"If you say so".
Somehow, Gisela had trouble believing that.