Day 5 has is here!
I'm sorry for the delay in this posting. Life happened and I was pressed for time.
On another note, I just wanted to let you all know that I will be a little later in posting the last three chapters due to a busy schedule these next few days. I will work on them when I can, and hope to have them all up by the end of next week at the latest.
I've really enjoyed reading the other stories published this week, and can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for the remaining prompts.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima, and the lovely Pradesh Family is owned by Desna.
…
Prompt: Particular
Dragon slayer magic was a rare, almost lost, magic; One with a deep, albeit largely unknown, history. Those wielding it had yet to discover the limits of their magical abilities. Due to this, it was understandable that the small group of mages gifted with dragon magic primarily relied upon trial and error, and learning from one another's experiences.
Upon realizing the gap in the literature, those closest to the dragon slayers joined them in putting together the first ever primary source accounting of dragon slayer magic, and all of the additional abilities, instincts, and other behaviors that came along with it. It was their hope to provide a history and reference for future slayer generations. The group had been officially formed a month prior by the Fairy Tail guild's resident rune, script, and celestial mages after a discussion they'd had about working with their dragon slayer teammates.
In the months following the eclipse gate fiasco in Crocus at the Grand Magic Games, the Council had released Cobra, formerly of the Oracion Seis and Neo Oracion Seis, into the custody of Fairy Tail. The poison dragon slayer was on a probationary status in recognition of his assistance in battling the dragons.
The introduction of the second-generation slayer brought to light the knowledge gap between the different slayer generations. Those that had been taught by dragons not only had more general knowledge, but were also better prepared and able to identify and control the instincts tied with the magic. This led to monthly gatherings of all available dragon slayers in Fiore. Initially, the purpose was for the first and third generation slayers to pass on their knowledge to the second-gens'. It quickly evolved into other discussions, training, and simply socializing with others who could relate to their experiences.
Around the time of the fifth christened 'Meeting of Slayers', Bickslow was visited by his four younger siblings, two of whom were renowned first and third gen slayers themselves. Cristoff and Emzadi had been extended invitations and had attended the meeting out of curiosity. Needless to say, they soon became routine attendees in the following months.
With their draconic partners and siblings away, the remaining Pradesh siblings were swiftly pulled into discussion by the Raijinshuu, Lucy, and Levy. The group soon found them sharing their own experiences with their draconic fellows' abilities, instincts, and other behaviors.
This brings us to the meeting currently being held in the Fairy Tail guild's library.
A runic barrier separates the amassed group from prying ears and ensured complete confidentiality and privacy.
"Have you ever noticed any 'odd' behaviors?" Levy brought up.
Lucy laughed, "Loads! Natsu could be defined by the word in general, but I can name some I've noticed about the others as well."
"Ooh! Story time! Do share" Bickslow encouraged with his trademark tongue-grin.
"Well, to start with, we've already established that slayers in general have enhanced senses. When I first became Natsu's partner, I had to throw out all of my perfumes, a bunch of my hair-care products, and had to change the detergent and body soap I used. He would often break out into hives or get overwhelmed by the strong scents."
The rest of the group nodded their agreement, having experienced similar affects with their own slayers partners and siblings.
"But then it gets a little… weird," the celestial mage continued, "I asked Natsu why he insisted on sleeping in my bed—purely platonic! Just Sleeping!" she quickly clarified upon seeing the smirks of Bickslow and his youngest brother Vander. The men pouted at being denied their fun. "Anyways, I asked him about it, and he said that he was scent-marking."
"Whoa, wait a minute. Scent-marking? As in dog-pee-on-a-tree type scent-marking?" Evergreen clarified.
"Yep, only not as gross."
"Gajeel had mentioned something similar to me once. It's how slayers, and dragons, tell other slayers and dragons what is their property or under their protection." Levy shared.
Xally nodded, "Em and Cris would often cuddle with us for a while as kids if we ever came back from a long trip somewhere."
"They also said it could be something as simple as using a hug to transfer their scent." Vander added, turning to the Raijinshuu with a smirk, "Haven't you found it interesting that for all he seems to dislike a lot of personal contact, Lightning Bolt allows the three of you into his space and doesn't fight or protest you giving him hugs?"
Bickslow gaped at his younger brother, "You mean… he was scent-marking us?" The Seith mage frowned thoughtfully, "I'm not quite sure how I feel about that…it's kind of weird."
"Agreed, and I never thought anything of it before." Evergreen conferred, fan covering her face to hide the light blush at the idea of her leader using such sneaky tactics.
"Laxus is a brilliant strategist. I'm not surprised he found such a secretive way to protect us" Freed loyally supported.
"Then there are the cuddles," Lucy continued, gathering everyone's attention once again, "Slayers in general, even the seemingly socially averse slayers, are tactile by nature. Some don't like to show it, but they are all closet cuddle-bugs at heart."
"Isn't that the truth!" Vander exclaimed, elbowing Bickslow with a Cheshire grin, "Remember how big a cuddler Cris is? And Em was always giving out hugs."
The Seith mage chuckled at the memories, "Yeah, anytime you had a bad dream, Cris was the one you wanted to go to," Bickslow snorted, "Of course, he's always had the strict rule for us that no cuddles will be given unless you are wearing some sort of pajamas. And Em could get a bit overenthusiastic with her hugs; sometimes they were more of a tackle or wrestling match."
"What's with the past tense, brother? She still gets overenthusiastic at times" Xally added with a smirk that made the Fairy Tail mages laughed.
"Lastly," Lucy stated with an amused smile, "all the slayers seem to have certain…particularities."
At the questioning looks on the visiting Pradesh siblings' faces, Levy provided some clarification. "Basically, we've noticed that each slayer, here in Fiore at least, seems to have an interesting… habit. Primarily, it seems to be around what they collect in their 'hoard'."
"Hoard? Like treasure or something?" Xally asked.
The Fairy Tail mages traded looks, "Or something" they responded with amused grins.
"As an example, Laxus has an esteemed preference for fabrics." Freed began.
"Not clothing, no, but literally rolls of fabric," Evergreen explained, "He keeps it hush-hush, but the man has the equivalent of a fashion warehouse in his basement. There are essentially racks upon racks of different fabric rolls."
"At my last count, and that was a few years ago, the guy had little over a hundred rolls down there." Bickslow shared with his now wide-eyed siblings.
"Huh, never figured Lightning Bolt to be a fan of fashion." Vander pondered.
The Fairy Mage snorted, nudging her visored teammate with her fan "And you thought I was bad; you should go with him on one of his 'expeditions'. The man becomes obsessed in getting what he wants and has to look into every shop." Her teammates nodded in agreement, faces slightly pale.
The Seith mage was shaking his head at the memory, "So. Much. Shopping"
His sister giggled at her brother's plight.
"Then there's Gajeel," Levy continued the discussion, "While it's not surprising that the man does collect various pieces of scrap metal, those have nothing on his enormous book collection."
Lucy nodded enthusiastically, "The tough guy is secretly a bookaholic!"
Her fellow bookworm grinned at the rune mage across from her, "He has a lot of rare books that have been out of print for ages too!"
"But Gaj gets really embarrassed if someone finds out or mentions it." Lucy warned, "It was sheer chance that I opened the door to his basement when I was looking for the bathroom."
"And you were in his house because…?" Bickslow teased, gaining a huff from the blonde.
"Gaj, Levy, and I had just gotten back from that translation and treasure hunting job we took in Akane last year. We had stopped by for him to drop things off at his place, since it was on our way to the guild."
"And here I thought Iron Man had managed to convince you two goddesses into a threeso—Ow! Shit, Ever!" The Seith rubbed the back of his head gingerly where his teammate had just whacked him with her fan. Said teammate ignored his pout and glare, instead turning to address the blushing script and celestial mages.
"Ignore him, he forgets his manners at home most days, and thinks everyone needs to hear all of his perverted imaginings."
Bickslow's siblings laughed at his plight, and teased him a little before Freed brought them back to the topic at hand.
"Lucy, didn't you mention Natsu collected mementos last week?"
The blonde rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Oh my stars, yes! He has to have some sort of souvenir from any jobs we go on together. He says it is so he can better remember it."
"But it gets interesting mostly when Natsu gets creative in how he defines 'souvenir', right Lu?" Levy snickered. Her blonde friend narrowed her eyes at the blue-haired script mage.
"You laugh at my pain."
"What are we missing here?" Vander interrupted, eyes gleaming with mischief.
"About a month ago, Natsu picked a mission for us to take down a minor dark guild located in the forest outside of Oaktown. The mission actually went without a hitch since demolition was called for, so we were actually going to receive the entire reward for once. However, in the process, the entire guild hall and everything in it was utterly destroyed. The rubble was partially smelted together, and any of his usual pickings: papers, coins, weapons, jewelry, flags with guild emblems, etc., had either gone up in smoke or were otherwise destroyed."
"…So what did he use as his 'souvenir'?" Xally inquired.
When Lucy only buried her face in her hands, Levy patted her back consolingly, "Before the building was demolished, they'd been fighting the guild master. The man was a lesser requip mage who specialized in daggers. Lucy's clothes were cut up pretty badly, and one of her bra straps had been severed on a lucky throw. It wasn't reparable so she'd thrown it away. But…well…" The script mage snickered.
Evergreen's eyes widened and she let out a snort of laughter. "Don't tell me he…?"
Freed and Xally quickly caught on mere seconds later, the rune mage covering his smile with his hand, "Oh, dear."
The celestial mage raised her head to nod woefully. "Apparently my bra strap being damaged in the fight with the guild master led Natsu to determine that my bra had 'memento' status. I didn't even know he'd stolen it out of the trash can until I saw it hanging on his 'wall of missions' at his house the next day."
By this time, Vander and Bickslow were hugging their sides from the force of their laughter.
Lucy frowned at them, fighting down a blush, "It's not funny!"
"Yes, it is! Haha!"; "Ha! Sorry Cosplayer, but it's hilarious!"
"Sorry, Lu, but they have a point." Levy smiled, trying to fight back her own laughter.
The blonde huffed, "It's bad enough that he took the thing, but to now have to see it hanging on his living room wall?! Ergh! It's embarrassing!"
After another minute or two, Vander and Bickslow finally managed to calm themselves and rejoin the group.
"You know, compared to that, the other Fiorian slayers' hoards don't seem as 'out-there' anymore." Evergreen giggled.
Xally nodded. "Yeah, Cris and Em's collections, I mean 'hoards', seem pretty normal now."
Vander snickered, "Aside from their fascination with pretty and shiny things you mean?"
Lucy perked up, "Shiny things?" she turned to Levy, "That sounds similar to Cobra and Wendy."
The script mage nodded. "Wendy collects copper and gold coins. I heard Carla talking arguing with her about it a few months ago. The girl has quite the collection apparently."
"What about silver coins?" Evergreen asked.
"She either avoids them, or trades them in for copper or gold." Lucy explained, "For some reason, she absolutely despises having any silver coins in or even near her collection."
"Emzadi is similar in her pickiness toward her hoard." Vander noted, "She has a massive collection of beaded jewelry, but for some reason she absolutely abhors anything without a perfect cut or with defects in it."
"It makes buying jewelry for her the biggest pain in the ass." Bickslow agreed. Xally nodded eagerly.
"Not to mention she guards the things with her life."
"Huh, so the females seem to be the more selective hoarders." Freed observed.
"That sounds about right," Lucy considered, "Kinana shared with me once that Cobra collects 'shiny and colorful' bottles—her words not mine— but she said that what made it interesting is that it seems to be almost an unconscious behavior with him."
"How so, Cosplayer?"
"Well, Kinana said that more often than not, Cobra doesn't even recall where or when he picked the bottle up."
Vander snickered. "Let me get this straight. Sexy'n'Poisonous nicks bottles he deems 'colorful and shiny' without any thought about the action?"
"Seems like it. I think it might have to do with him learning how to pick pocket at a young age, but I can't say for sure."
"Hmm, well Cris isn't very discerning in his hoard either, that I can tell at least." Xally offered.
Vander and Bickslow snorted. Seeing Lucy's questioning look, he smirked. "Dear Crissy collects rocks."
"…Rocks?"
"Em-hm. You heard me, rocks." The shadowquip mage quipped back with a grin.
"Technically, they're crystals," Xally amended, "All sizes, shapes, and colors, built all crystals."
Bickslow smirked, "So, basically, yes, Cris collects rocks."
"So Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome collects, of all things, rocks."
"They're crystals." Xally mumbled from the side, but even she was biting back a smile at the image.
The group pondered that image, and all the other particular hoarding tendencies of their fellow mages.
"I believe that the general consensus reached here today is that dragon slayers are odd."
"Agreed," was the chorused response.
…
I look forward to hearing your feedback :)
Until next time,
-JB