Why Did the Dagger Cross the Road?

In Perseus Dagger’s mind, he was late.

The young man had meant to enter the Magnolia-based guild hall hours ago. In fact, it was the whole reason he’d come to the town. However, as soon as he’d neared Fairy Tail’s building, a thief had run past him clutching a stolen guitar case. The altruistic scientist couldn’t resist using his special gauntlets to beat up the man and take the item back, and from there on had been an adventurous side-track. He’d made a new friend, had a meal, and generally helped the homeless girl get back on her feet before he was able to get back to his own intentions.

As he pushed the door open and entered the office-like building, he felt his nerves starting to twist and sucked his busted lip from his fight earlier into his mouth. A non-mage joining a mage guild wasn’t common. People like him usually joined a merchant guild like Love & Lucky, especially being an already wealthy member of the Dagger family. Fact was, he wasn’t interested in making more money. He made plenty as the head of the Dagger Corp. research department. He wasn’t bored since he had plenty of research and work to do. He loved inventing things, learning things. However, one thing he could make no progress in was acquiring his own magic, and this lead him to try an new tactic. Maybe if he immersed himself into a guild of mages, he would eventually uncover a new avenue to investigate. Percy was desperate for magic. He’d try anything.

Besides, he’d always wanted to join a guild. As a little kid he’d dreamed of being a Rune Knight, or maybe a rough and rowdy hero from a big guild! His dreams had been crushed, but the younger Dagger wasn’t one to give up. While he surrounded himself with magic, he could take jobs with his guild mates as a hobby, have a little fun. Meet some new people. Make some friends. The social and fun aspects of his life were sorely lacking, so this seemed like the perfect solution. His only concern was if they’d actually allow someone like him to join or not.

“H-Hello?” he stammered out, nervously adjusting his navy coat’s fur hood that the draft from the door had thrown askew. Actually, now that he was inside, he found his clothing rather uncomfortable. The gray turtleneck sweater seemed like it would rather strangle him than let him join. Maybe this was a bad idea. Percy’s body already angled back toward the door, as if he might escape before anyone saw him.


[wc: 435]

The jarring motion and subsequent roll and thump caught Percy's attention enough to pause his flight for the door. He watched as a girl slowly picked herself up off the ground, though from this distance he could hardly make out anything about her other than her pale hair color due to the damaged vision in his left eye. The younger Dagger wondered if she was ok but still stood frozen mid-turn with indecision. He wasn't the type of guy that would run off if someone might need some help. What if she was hurt and there was no one else around? At the very least he could make sure...

Any chance he'd had at reversing his decision to join Fairy Tail was now dashed to bits. The person he'd vaguely noticed snoozing on a bench nearby was the last he expected to bounce up and prevent his escape, but here he was, staring at a lightly disheveled version of the girl he'd met back in autumn while he'd been trapped in a maze attraction. Nessa Cordelia Lux, a Wizard Saint and just generally one of the many strong mages he'd read about and looked up to. Coming face to face with her brought a slight flush to his cheeks, especially since someone as well known as her remembered him. "I've been well," he meekly responded with a shy duck of his head, "I-I thought I might join a guild. This one...obviously," Percy continued, cursing how awkward he was, especially with women. After a small pause, he spoke up again, eyes tense with concern. "Are you alright? I saw you roll off that bench..."

[wc: 273 || thread total: 1183]

Oh yeah. Bringing up her clumsy moment was probably not the best ice breaker, hm? The more he spoke, the more he realized why he stayed locked up in his laboratory in solitude. The premature death of the Dagger charm grew more evident by every second his lips parted and sound made it out. His own cheeks remained flushed, now mirroring her blush on a more minor and shamed scale, but at least she was open to continue talking with him about joining. "P-Please, don't be embarrassed," he quietly pleaded, feeling rather bad about everything so far. He'd rather feel bad alone.

As she prompted they move on to sit and have tea, he nodded gratefully, wishing to move on both from the subject at hand and from standing awkwardly at the threshold of the guild hall. "Oh, tea is fine," Percy assured her, sliding onto a stool on the customer side of the bar. As Nessa made herself a beverage and made an effort to confirm his name and intentions, Percy nodded to the first. "Yes, Perseus Dagger. Percy for short," he clarified, figuring the ace of Fairy Tail would want such official information. The next thing she wanted to know was a little more complicated and one of his weak spots for sure. It was something he had no choice but to always talk about, but was painful nonetheless. "I want to be around more mages," the two-toned young man answered truthfully, seeming to grow comfortable enough after the initial fluster from before to finally lose his stutter. "I...don't remember if I mentioned it when we met before," he started, though he was reasonably sure he had. It seemed he always did. If he hadn't, it'd been an oddity indeed. "I don't actually have any magic ability. I've hit a dead end with my research efforts alone on how to acquire magic, so the next step is to immerse myself into a more magically concentrated environment and hopefully I'll make a breakthrough."

After letting that hang in the air for a few fleeting moments, anxiety balled in his stomach. How unprofessional! As someone who acted as a boss and sat in interviews for potential employees, he'd have rejected himself at this point. This was a disaster. That didn't make him sound like an asset to the guild! Why would they let him in if all it seemed he could offer was watching them, studying them, and generally mooching of their magic and time. "A-Ah! That sounded- er... Please, don't misunderstand. I'm not helpless, even without magic. I can keep up, even if it's with physical strength and technology instead of innate magic power. I shouldn't be a burden...I just want the best chance at becoming a mage!"

[wc: 459 || thread total: 1914]

Arcadia had stayed up extra late the last couple nights, and finally, finally finished off the last of her seemingly insurmountable pile of paperwork. The stress and lack of sleep though, seemed to have helped her catch some sort of cold. She sat in her room in Fairy Hills wrapped in her comforter. Being sick and an ice dragon slayer translated to her room looking something like a an indoor winter wonderland at the moment. Every time she sneezed, out came a small spray of powdery snow.

Some hot spiced cider was sounding really good right about now. The unfortunate thing was she was just sick enough to not be aware of triggering her dimensional scissors to get that cider. Without a more conscious trigger, the portal opened under her and in the ceiling of the guildhall across the street.

The sick slayer landed behind the bar with a thud. It took her a moment, but she got up on her own, apologizing to the probably started bar staff. ”Sorry... sorry.” She back some congestion as she made the face of someone trying to stifle a sneeze. It only delayed the sneeze for a few seconds, spraying powdery snow into the air behind the counter. ”Sorry... stay back.. I don't wanna get any of you sick. I guess I really wanted some hot spiced cider.”

while the staff was kind enough to prepare a cup of cider for her, she sniffled and offered a smile over to Nessa and Percy. She sneezed into the crook of her comforter covered arm, but puffs of powdery snow still escaped out the sides. ”Uh... I probably shouldn't get too close. I'll just get my cider. Your in good hands with Nessa.”

Percy added sugar and milk to his tea as well, stirring for a moment before he took a sip. He listened to the pale-haired girl intently, smiling shyly as she complimented his resolve. It was comforting that Fairy Tail already seemed so open, even to someone like him. Maybe this would be the key to cracking his case, finally leading him to gain the magic he longed for so much. However, seconds later he was sputtering on his tea in his cup, hastily setting it on the table and coughing a couple times as his hands slightly waved in panic. "While I'd love to s-study your magic...I don't want to make a t-t-test subject of you," he blustered as quietly as he could, again blushing.

When she continued with the initiation process, Percy calmed back down and listened very closely. This was a serious matter. There was a question he had to answer, something that would convince her he could be trusted. What would it be? A blood oath? After what happened in the cursed woods, he was a little shaky about any dealings that were sealed with blood. But it turned out much more benign than that. Nessa just wanted his word that he wouldn't hurt the guild, people or building. "O-Oh, I would never, Nessa," he started, intending to intensely promise quite the opposite, "I might not be a mage, but I'll protect my guild ma--"

His words were cut off as a girl fell from the ceiling mere feet from him and the Starlight Maiden. Percy paused, blinking his mismatched eyes for a second. Part of his brain buzzed over the magic the girl used. Portals? How useful! The other half was concerned for her well being, but too shocked to say much of anything.

One thing the youngest Dagger sibling wasn't fond of was germs. As the girl rose, sneezed snow, and sniffled while waiting for her cider, Percy tried to stealthily move his bench back a few extra inches while also covertly covering his nose and mouth with a palm oh-so-conveniently raised in thought in front of his face. "U-Uh, thank you. Yes, Nessa is taking care of me. I...hope you feel better soon," he offered, turning his body back to face Nessa directly.

Wanting to get back to the important part of the convo, mostly because he wanted to become officially part of the guild but also a smidge because he wanted to escape the infected airspace, Percy tried again to reassure the young woman of his intentions. "I promise I won't bring any malicious harm to Fairy Tail. Even if I could do so, I wouldn't. The worst I can do is maybe punch someone while sparring, but that is consent-based..."

[wc: 458 || thread total: 2762 without Arcadia, 3050 with Arcadia]

Okay, the story about her hair was actually pretty funny. He raised a loosely closed fist to his mouth, faking a cough to stifle a chuckle. Imagining her with green hair was more than he could take, as well as how blasé she was about it. Once he calmed back down his hand went back to his tea, taking a few sips before he lowered it again at her affirmation that she believed him. That was great news. He smiled, watching her as she went to fetch the stamp. He hardly noticed as his busted lip split open again from the stretch until the dribble of blood made it to his chin. Percy hastily blotted it away with a napkin before she returned, though he could just barely stifle his grin to keep from bleeding. This was it. He was about to be an official member of a mage guild in mere seconds.

Nessa returned and asked him where he wanted it. "On my right shoulder," he said, shrugging his navy coat off. It was here he hit a snag. If he'd been wearing literally any other kind of shirt other than a turtleneck, he could have stretched it down enough to either pull his arm free or at least revealed the top part of his shoulder. In a turtleneck, he could do neither. The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. He paused for a moment, considering any other available options, but none seemed feasible. A light blush rose to his cheeks and he cleared his throat nervously. Reaching for the bottom of his sweater, he pulled it up his torso until the hem was high enough that he could slip his right arm out from under it, but it basically left him sitting there with his shirt basically off save for his neck, right shoulder, and arm. Despite how soft he often looked, a peek under his garments told a very different story. His muscles were all well defined from years of martial arts training. His body was like a finely honed blade. What he didn't have in magic he had tried to make up for in physical strength, but it still wasn't enough. He seemed ashamed of it. "R-Right here, please..." he said quietly, tapping the upper part of his exposed shoulder while his eyes peeked around for anyone who might be around to see his immodesty.

[wc: 402 || thread total: 3737]

Great. Now they were both embarrassed. "S-Sorry about this..." he muttered as she stamped him without looking, feeling awful for what a position he'd put her in. "I hadn't considered the s-stamp when I put on my turtleneck this morning," he explained, cheeks growing redder. Thankfully it was over soon and after just a quick glance to make sure it was there, he hastily pulled his sweater back down over his body.

When he looked around again, he noticed he saw fairies now. Magical fairies! His eyes lit up as they always did when he saw anyone or anything with magic. "Cool," he whispered, then recovered himself and composed. "Thanks," Percy said after brightly after her official welcome, offering her a small smile, hoping he hadn't put her off too much. He was looking forward to the direction this new path might take him. Maybe this would be the key to changing his life!

[wc: 154 || thread total: 4160]