#htryds ask

Great question! The short answer: kind of. The long answer? I'm using your ask as an excuse to attempt to explain souls as Bickslow sees them, and his magic, because Bickslow doesn't ever want to do full breakdowns of it in his pov lmao, and also since it's hard to explain in general, by design. (I have a oneshot coming that gets close, but just in case Bickslow keeps fighting me, here's the infodump with visuals lol.)

So. Bickslow doesn't always see souls: he has to look, but it's very easy for him to look. Sometimes he does it on accident. It blinks in and out of vision and sort of blends together for him. If he's not trying, it's all very faint anyway, obscured by the flesh and whatnot.

Every soul is very unique. They have their own mix of colors, their own textures, their own patterns, and they move. With emotion, with change, with just being alive. They're wriggly things like that. This combination does mean that there are very few "rules" for how things are supposed to look. Doubly so when magic gets involved, because that also gets reflected in it. Different species have different "shapes" in a way, and that's solely because of how they interact with their own bodies and they're magic. The soul is the essence of character, sure, but it's also life magic. It's all of the above.

For example, humans—which is the default for Bickslow's magic, but he can see and to an extent control anyone now thanks to the uhhh *ahem* conditioning—have a very basic structure. They are flexible above all else, and they're magic doesn't really affect their bodies as much, so Bickslow would normally see the soul essence concentrated in the chest, the hands and feet, and eyes. Pretty standard for everyone. Demons are similar but theirs also spread out a little more, because their bodies hold more magic and in turn is more affected by it; their core areas are connected by more prominent areas, following the magic channels.

For mages, it gets extra complicated. In the diagram above (I was lazy with these don't hold them as *too* canon or anything), the lefthand side are non-mages, so their soul qualities are purely reflective of them. On the right, we have... let's say ice mages. Their souls are brighter, with brighter spots, solely because of magic, but also those spots may look like little ice flecks—snowflakes and icicles and frozen surfaces. The more they practice, the more it reflects.

History can also reflect. Physical scars, emotional scars...

(Erza was such a bad example to use because her armor effect makes it hard to see lol, but I committed.) Not every scar is reflected in the soul, for instance. In Erza's case, ones she received during her stint being literally tortured by cultists (and thus "causing" Jellal to trade and go "crazy") cut deeper than some scratch by a wild animal. It varies.

As for dragons... well. They are very magic, and thus very dense. Their core areas are nearly indistinguishable, because they (like celestials/spirits) have a very direct relationship between soul and body.

Bickslow might not have known what Acno was at first, but he knew he was big. Or very powerful. Or both. (The answer was both.)

Acno has to condense himself into his human body, and it works, but he's not sacrificing his dragon body either, so sometimes Bickslow can see the flare of where the rest of it should go. (Which, sometimes, really powerful people also have that bigger than life flare, like Gildarts. It's the literal aura, and whatnot.)

So, for a dragon that, say, pretty much sacrifices their body to completely condense themselves? In another soul? A bit tricky to spot.

Bickslow can mostly notice because they are extra dense and move differently, but dragon slayers are like mini dragons, although with some base species in there too, so there's a lot going on. Now that Bickslow knows they're there, it's more noticeable, of course, and even more so if they become more active and Bickslow can see the big imprint behind the very smol dragonlings. These things certainly don't come with a visual manual, though, so Bickslow spends a lot of time guessing and ignoring. Especially when it comes to *wild* bodies like whatever Natsu is. And it's all on fire, because he's a fire guy. (I drew the fire badly because I was too lazy to change brushes, shh.)

Before getting a response Erik is climbing on Cubellios' back who takes off. (I forgot if she has wings in your AU, if not Erik just gets carried by someone). He leads them to the cave. Bickslow either has been there or knows about it, Erza and Jellal are slightly curious about the place but mostly tired and eager to go home.

They use the portal to get back to the Dragon Slayers' house.

A few people (not Acno) are there and heard the portal activate, Erik basically tells them "we're fine now let us sleep" all of them pile up on blankets/cushions in Erik's room and fall asleep.

Acnologia does end up interrogating them once he's home and they wake up from their nap. The Thunder Legion comes over for Bickslow. There's a big family dinner with the dragon family, Laxus' team, Erza and Jellal. Only Acno and those who were there know everything that went down and how it tied to their pasts, the others are only told a little (Bickslow's team knows his part, Erik's family his - and while they don't know exactly how Erza and Jellal fit into it everyone knows they're connected to Erik's past somehow. Wendy is told about the Nirvit(s) dying.)

The dinner is sort of weird, sort of nice. Also there's way to many people, thankfully the weather is nice enough to eat outside.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my daydreams.

1). Is Josiah an oc for the story?

2). Is Josiah the master of Sabertooth before Jiemma (Minerva's shitty father)?

3). Why is the Sabertooth in Freesia when sources say it's in the city of Gazania

Hey! Yeah no problem.

1. Yes. I needed a placeholder character. He will never show up again except in passive mention.

2. Yes, he's Jiemma's predecessor (and father) as the Sabertooth guild master. Since it was only X779, I didn't want Jiemma to be the master juuuust yet, because he's an ambitious guy so his efforts would become at least slightly noticeable as soon as he starts. He's around at this point, definitely, but another few years before he snags that position.

(sorry this took so long for me to answer)

Man, that scene kicked my ass. I tried to write it from a few different perspectives but it felt too... repetitive? I guess? Couldn't nail the tone. But it's a good question to ask.

Sting was the newest to the fold, so knew Acnologia the least. However, he had been operating on the coping thought of "dragon slayers are meant to slay dragons" for a year at this point, because Weisslogia's implanted memory, so the full impact didn't really set in for him.

Wendy, sweet Wendy, really has a hard time imagining it all. Acno? Hurting their parents? Seemed fake. Except Acno doesn't lie and he's really upset over this, so maybe it did happen. Conflicting points of interest, for sure, because she loves them both. Still hard to imagine that Acno used to be bad though. It's like if your straight-laced parent, whom for all your life wore sweater vests and drove the speed limit and discouraged violence went "oh yeah when I was in high school I was in a gang and did drugs and killed people."

Rogue was admittedly a little cowed. Had to rethink everything and re-contextualize, for sure. Its the gut instinct of "oh no my dad" versus the fact that he had been observing Acno for months at that point and he seemed legit, but he's also six so his confidence in his profiling is not the best. (Except Rogue is very good at people watching.) Obviously the fact that Acno is visibly distraught and has never done anything to hurt them won out. After all, Gajeel had yelled at him and said nasty things too when they met and didn't quite remember each other, but they're brothers now, so things change. Kids this age roll with things very well.

Gajeel was pissed at first—he doesn't like being lied to, for one—but then it quickly switched to being more upset that Acno looked one word away from leaving forever. His unresolved abandonment issues didn't handle being left behind again, so he mostly yelled at Acno to get his shit together at this point. Teen angst at its finest. Later though, it pieces together everything he knew from Metalicana and the others and realized it tracks. But Acno has nothing to gain from telling them this if he was still like that, so clearly he's different now.

Happy is also a baby and doesn't really understand the severity of it at the time. It's the sort of simple moral formula: you did something bad, you said you're sorry, and it's better now.

Charle, despite being the same age, absolutely is on guard around him for the next few months and religiously watching over Wendy and all of the others because those boys have bad self-preservation. Charle, for magic reasons as we all know, comes pre-packed with trauma and trust issues. But. Acno gets its so he just lets her be vigilant around him and lets her have space and eventually she calms down and has an epiphany about dragon slayers and people in general. Her thing actually comes up a bit in this oneshot I want to do with her and Erik soon, when Erik first gets adopted.

Laxus doesn't have any emotional stake in this but it definitely re-contextualizes stuff. He keeps calm but has a momentary small crisis of "wait did this guy kill my dad because he was insane back then, or...?" and then quickly remembers he has loads of evidence that Ivan was insane and that Acnologia still, ya know, saved his life. He's got this moral gray stuff figured out, and clearly Acno isn't still Like That. Plus it makes sense to Laxus now why Acno bailed so hard and fast when Laxus was a kid, because he's watching it now in real time. It was the bone deep guilt.

From August side alone, he knows that Zeref's curse kills everyone he loves. So he understands that Zeref can't allow himself to love him. Yet he sees small signs that Zeref DOES care about him. Basically adopting him when they first met. Letting him stay by his side. Perhaps teaching him all he knows. Giving him the highest authority of his empire. Perhaps he might've wanted to reveal that he is his son, but never did for various reasons. Then Zeref created Lacrade. Someone who looks so much like a child Zeref and Marvis might have together. So this is the proof that Zeref did wanted a son. Someone like him. But what is he to do? He's already gray and old, yet his father remains the same. He knows that he's going to die soon, so isn't it better to keep it a secret to prevent further heartbreak? Maybe even wondering if Lacrade is actually a replacement goldfish. A preparation to replace a son Zeref saw in him when he died of old age. So it's perhaps proof that Zeref did see him as his son. Yet also painful because he's going to be replaced after he died. But shouldn't he feel glad about this? The entire reason he hid his relationship is so Zeref won't be in pain after his death. So Lacrade being there after him should be something he should be glad about. But it's still so painful that one day, he might be forgotten and replaced by Lacrade. Someone he knows is a demon of Zeref. With the ability to live as long as Zeref allows it.

(One platonic pair I always loved in canon were Lucy and Juvia, their relationship is so sweet whenever the writers aren't making Lucy Juvia's "love rival")

Man, there are so so soooooo many. The friendships really are the bread and butter to me and I am a bread lover XD

Yess Juvia my beloved, her time is coming. I do want to explore her and Lucy a bit, but I think I am most excited for Juvia and Cana. Their friendship started in the Battle for Fairy Tail arc was so cool and it's criminal it didn't really go anywhere. Although for this matter, Juvia in general is very exciting to me. She's gonna get soooo friend-adopted lol.