Chapter 2: Unoffical Self-Appointed Tour Guide!

"I won't be able to do anything if you don't sit still!" A blonde female mage complained. Dante had told him she was a telepathy mage, but it still made him uneasy. She wanted to study his memories, but what if she accidentally looked elsewhere? He was at her mercy, what if she decided she wanted to take a little peek? His deepest, darkest secrets at her fingertips, if she told anyone, what would people think of him?

The mage, whose name was Katherine, tapped the front of his skull, making a small, yellow circle appear. It looked similar to the one Dante had used, but smaller, and yellow. Also, the circle's details seemed so intricate and complicated they had to be unique. He felt her consciousness slowly dip into his mind, the feeling was unnerving. It was like a large worm burrowing into his skull.

"Nngh!" He suppressed a grunt in his throat, but gripped the wooden chair he was sitting on harder.

"Pipe down." Dante shot in, tired of his squirming.

"I'm done anyway." Katherine muttered, retreating from his mind. Mason eased his vice on the chair and let out a huge sigh.

"And?" Dante asked impatiently.

"He knows nothing." She confirmed, followed by a strange look from Mason.

No shit!

"I learned a little bit about memory, but I also learned something strange." Kathy, as she preferred, stopped and smirked, torturing them intentionally.

"What!?" Dante and Mason demanded at the same time.

"You're a Mage!" Kathy exclaimed, grabbing a stamp-looking thing. She tried to stamp it down on Mason, but he didn't know what was happening and knocked it out of her hand, knocking over his own chair in the process. The stamp flew in the air before falling on Mason's left eye, shining momentarily before dimming.

"What did you do!?" Mason demanded, ripping the strange device off his eye.

"Yeah, I'm curious to know what happened." Dante held Mason's chin as he bent down, making him face towards him. The stamp had stamped his face, but there was no visible tattoo.

"Strange..." The female , muttered. "I'll try again." She bent down with the stamp in hand to try again.

"No!" Mason interrupted, throwing out his hand. Several things happened at once. A moss-green circle appeared at his fingertips, a green symbol materialized in the air an inch in front of his left eye, and the stamp flew against the back wall.

"That's a strange case." Dante pondered, talking about his eye. He bent down and helped him up. "But; admittedly badass." He added with a wink.

"This is all happening so fast." Mason looked at his own fingers in disbelief. "What kind of magic do I use then? What was that?"

"You'd probably be air!" Katherine chimed in from her ducked position she had taken when the stamp flew.

"Air Mage, eh? I like the sound of that." Mason nodded, as if approving of his fingers.

"So I'm part of the guild now?" Mason asked with anticipation. Dante smiled and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. Although a simple action, it made Mason unbelievably happy. It was a silent display of acceptance, while he valued greatly.

"One question. Why does there seem to be so many girls here?" Mason interrupted him before he could do anything. Everyone he had seen at the park was a girl, all of the people that chased him were girls; heck Dante was the first boy he met!

"That must have been pretty confusing to you. In Fiore, Males only make up a fifth of the population." Dante explained, making Mason's jaw drop.

"That explains a couple things." Mason caught himself and raised his jaw.

"What things?" Dante inquired, raising an eyebrow.

God, he loves to use his eyebrows.

"A little after I woke up, a girl walked up to me and asked me out, and then she tried to convince me she would be a good spouse." Mason chuckled. Even when he said it the situation sounded strange.

"Strange, but not exactly rare." Dante answered, beginning to lead him out of the room. "She probably was afraid that if she tried to get to know you, it would take too long and you would be scooped up. And don't mind the mobs, they disappear after a few weeks, they are just excited over a new face."

"A FEW WEEKS!?" He exclaimed.

"Alright, past this door is-"

"DANTE!" Dante gulped, looked truly scared. A girl blew open the doors, pink hair flailing.

"What do you think you're doing!?" She demanded. Her hazel eyes blazed at him, although she didn't seem like the mean type.

"I-"He got out before she cut him off.

"You know I'm the tour guide and show all the new members around!" She shook her head at him, the long pieces of pink hair that weren't tied with a ribbon shook.

"Is she really the tour guide?" Mason leaned towards Dante and asked.

"More of a self-appointed position, but don't tell her that." Dante advised.

"I CAN HEAR YOU!" The girl stuck her neck out and exclaimed. Dante released his hold on the boy and she grabbed Mason by the elbow and pulled him into the hall. Her expression suddenly changed to bubbly and friendly, as if she was a whole new person.

I guess she is just protective of her unofficial position. Mason retorted.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail!" She squealed, interrupting his thoughts. "I'm Maryanna Lux!" She offered a small hand and Mason took it eagerly, being sure to remember the name. She continued to walk him to seemingly nowhere in particular.

"Well I'm Mason Marcotte aaand..." Mason looked at all the passing doors while he said the word, stretching it so the motion would fit. "Where are we going?"

She laughed as if it was a stupid question.

"To meet everyone, of course!" She smiled and returned to her old course. She was in what seemed to be an ivory-colored school outfit. A blazer-type jacket and a frilly skirt, topped off with a plaid bow just below her cleavage. For how old she was, she was average; If Mason had to guess a B or C.

They approached a massive set of oaken doors which she eagerly kicked open, revealing a huge main hall. Inside it was the strangest bunch of people Mason had ever seen.

One guy had a buzz cut, a gold chain, and a black shirt with a large silver S on it. He was talking with a guy who looked like his hair was reaching out to grab someone as he smoked heavily on his pipe, which emitted purple smoke. One girl who was practically in a bra was drinking straight out of a huge, wooden barrel. There was one man who wore a witch's hat and his body shape was that of a perfect sphere about the size of a minivan. Another guy wore a strange black suit and stood there, doing what looked like interpretive dance. There were too many to count, guys who stole Goku's hairdo and dyed it white, people with bull cut's that should never see the light of day, one guy even had skull's dangling from his belt.

"Are you sure we are in the guild? It looks like the town Loonie Bin." Mason muttered.

"Of course! I'll introduce you to everyone! That's Cana, and no she can't really get drunk. The big one talking about manliness is Elfman, she's Lisanna, the pretty one serving drinks is Mirajane..." She kept going on and on and on and ON! He couldn't take it!

"-The flying cat is Happy-"

"How can you tell," Mason snorted. "It's a cat; they aren't exactly masters of emotion."

"I heard that!" It screamed back at him, tacking Mason aback.

"I'm glad for your help Maryanna, but I think it's a little fast. Can I just meet everyone?" Mason asked hesitantly, not wanting to hurt her feelings.

"Of course!" She grabbed his wrist again and led him to a table.

"I meant alone." He muttered under his breath, not loud enough for her to hear.

"This is Gray Full- Gray! Put your clothes back on!" She cut herself off. The black hared boy looked down, and was actually surprised to find himself completely nude.

"You there." He pointed at Mason. "Can I borrow-?"

"Not a chance." He cut him off, knowing where Gray was going.

"Stop scamming clothes off the newbie's!" A pink hair boy approached and smirked, earning a punch in the stomach from Gray. It sent him tumbling over several chairs and a table full of drinks.

"Why are there so many guys here? Wasn't there only like a handful of them." Mason inquired suddenly.

"Nobody knows. Boy's just seem to have more magic in their blood than girls." A kind voice answered for him. He turned and found a blonde girl with rather huge breasts smiling at him. He could still hear the two boys in the background.

"You're an onion-eyed clot-sucker!"

"Shut up you hedge-born cod-piece!"

"Spur-gallied varlot!"

"Clapper- clawed bugbear!" The pink-haired boy ran up and pressed his forehead against Gray's, they began a pushing war with every insult.

"Spleeny ratsbane!"

"Errant dewberry!"

"Maggot-pie!"

"Nut-hook!"

"Apple-john!"

"Bum-bailey!

"Mammot!"

"Jolthead!"

"Harpy!"

"Haggard!"

"Strumpet!"

"Hugger-mugger!" Gray screamed, louder than the rest. Everyone heard it and was dead silent. Pink-hair stood there, awestruck. His eyes began to water and he sobbed.

"Dude, that's hurtful." He sobbed and slowly walked away.

"Uncalled for!" Someone called out from the crowd.

"That's just mean!" The crowd began to turn on Gray.

"They got tired of their old insults." The blonde put her head in her hands and sighed. "So they picked up an Old English novel. They don't even know what they're calling each other." Dante slid in beside her and whispered seductively in her ear,

"Lucy, now that those two are gone you can finally let loose all of the love you've been holding back for me!" he exclaimed.

"Push off!" Lucy explained, keeping him at a distance with her palm.

"Erza-!" He jumped in the air at another person, who reared back and socked him in the face with a gauntlet. He fell down to the ground, stars around his head and knuckle imprints in his forehead.

"Congratulations, I've known you ten seconds and you haven't done something strange." Mason smiled and sat down beside her. Dante previously held the title of "Only Sane Person", but now he was out of the running.

"I guess we are the only sane people in this entire guild." She smiled at him and lifted her head out of her hands.

This guy is one of us, but where is his tattoo? Lucy pondered. She studied his face, visible parts of his body, nothing. He tilted his head slightly, and the chandelier light caught on his eye. Barely visible, you could see a tiny green tattoo reflected in it, as if it was in front of his eye and was reflected in the light. But there was nothing in front of his eye, it was inside his eye.

"Hello?" Mason brought her out of her studying. She blushed slightly and apologized.

"I'm Lucy Heartfilia." She offered a hand, just like everyone else he met.

"Mason Marcotte." He repeated and took her hand. Maryanna still sat there, idly playing with her white hair ribbons.

"Lucy!" the voice of someone who sounded like she could very well be queen of the world shot in. "Why aren't you introducing me to your new friend?"

"Sorry Erza." Lucy's face dropped and she looked scared for her life. "Mason, this is Erza Scarlet." She placed a hand in front of her mouth and scooted her chair over to Mason, whispering,

"Run now while you have a chance."

Mason stuck his neck behind him in surprise, raising an eyebrow at her. He didn't know how he could tell, but these four seemed like the center of the room, the epicentre of attention and focus. The entire building practically revolved around the four. He caught people giving the table occasional glances, waiting for them to do something amazing. He didn't want attention, he wanted simple. He didn't want every eye on him, waiting for him to slip up.

He ran his eyes over Erza. She seemed demanding, and mean. She did have huge tits and really cool armor, but he could tell she would be some kind of weird dominatrix.

"C'mon Maryanna; let's meet more people!" Mason grabbed her wrist this time and led her along. He didn't know Erza yet and he wanted to keep it that way.

"Yay! New people!" Maryanna joked lightly, understanding his ruse. After passing by enough freaks to make any circus jealous, he stopped suddenly.

There was a lonely-looking girl at a table all to herself. She seemed somewhere between sad and vacant, it was hard to read her face. He instantly felt obligated to cheer her up, plus she was one of the few non-freaks here.

He approached her table and sat down beside her and Maryanna with a smile.

"A new face." The girl sneered, but not cruelly. "Run away from this loonie-bin while you can."

"Everyone's a new face to me. And yes, it is indeed a strange place." Mason chuckled. The girl sat there, twirling her two white braids, as if waiting for something. Suddenly, a person Mason remembered as Mirajane brought her some food.

"Finally!" She snatched it out of the tray as she put it down and eagerly tore into it. Mason stared in awe as she chomped down on a ham bone the size of a man's thigh. She stopped eating momentarily and looked at him, surprisingly with red eyes.

"Can I help you?" she asked, her mouth filled with food.

"I'm new here, which you obviously know, I'm Mason." He introduced himself with a smile this time, not a monotone. "Mason Marcotte."

"I'm-"

"She's Synnova!" Maryanna answered for her.

"You know that's a real useful thing you do? Cut off people in case they don't remember their own names." Synnova said, laced with sarcasm. Mason chuckled, but Maryanna didn't get it. She sat there thinking for a moment before answering,

"I never thought of it that way, but it is useful! Thanks Synnova!" Maryanna said. She didn't seem ditsy to Mason, her friendliness and eagerness must have blinded her this time. Synnova rolled her eyes and continued to tear into that dinosaur-sized bone. For a moment all you could hear was Synnova's chomping and Dante's antics. ("Are you a parking ticket? You've got fine written all over you. Slap!)

Why is my table suddenly the party table? Why are these people trying to talk to me? The small shred of Synnova's mind that wasn't currently engrossed in food demanded.

Dante slumped down in a wooden chair at their table. His cheeks and face were covered in bruises and slap-marks.

"I don't think the female population appreciates my abilities." He retorted, rubbing his sore face.

"You don't say!?"Mason exclaimed, tilting his head sideways slightly.

Dante thought for a moment, but realized the sarcasm and grumbled, "Shut up."

"Gray! Ice me!" He turned and called out. Gray pointed at him and a circle materialized in front of his face, spinning slowly. Out of nowhere, both of his cheeks froze solid, literally. The sides of his head were now large chunks of ice. "I mend n ice pag, but dis worgs." He muttered, which was quite an achievement considering he could barely move his mouth. He tried to say, "I meant an ice pack, but this works".

"Excuse me." Synnova said with no sincerity, grabbing her food tray and leaving.

"Was it something I said?' Mason asked Maryanna, feeling guilty.

"Oh no," She happily clicked away on her phone. "Everyone is usually too afraid to talk to her. You're probably her first company all week." Mason frowned, he didn't know what day of the week it was, but it didn't matter. Nobody should go through that in a guild full of people.

"So what do you do in the guild? Sit around and drink?" Mason asked with a smirk, hoping for a yes. Dante answered, although he was still trying to get the ice off his face.

"No, you take jobs for money-WAM!" His cheek hit the table hard in an attempt to break it. "Check out the board."

Money! Mason thought suddenly. He flung open his wallet, surprised to still find it on him, and a single moth flew out of the empty space.

"Some money would be nice." Mason nodded.

Food every day, I'll need more than one set of clothes, rent- wait; rent? I need a place to live!

"Dante!" Mason called out.

"Huh?" Dante rubbed his numb cheek, finally getting the ice off.

"Where are you living?" Mason had every intent on staying with a guy. So far, Dante was the most normal one he could find. The next in line were pink-hair and nudist boy... so Dante sounded pretty good to him.

"Renting a little house down on Baker, why?" Mason hopped out of his chair and on to his knees at Dante's feet.

"PLEASE let me split rent with you! I don't want to live with nudists or girls and especially not flying cats!"

"Err, no problem. It's a two bedroom anyway." Dante stuck his foot out away from his body, which Mason was currently clinging on to. He smartly reappeared in his chair and dusted himself off.

"Ahem, thank you Dante." He dusted the rest of himself off. "Consider my current funds are zero, I had better find a job." Mason walked over to the crowded board that held all of the jobs.

"Defeating a hydra... not likely. Helping with the pineapple harvest, I'm not much of a fruit farmer. Recovering a magical sea turtle... what?" The jobs were more random than Mason could have made them himself. How was he supposed to do one of these? And what was a Jewel?

"A jewel is the currency we use here." Mason turned to see Maryanna walk up to him with a smile. "Everyone knows about your memory situation, they'd be more than happy to help you if you need anything."

"What?" Mason was taken aback. "Who told them? I didn't want everyone to know!" The last thing he wanted to do was to be singled out from the entire guild. Why did he keep drifting towards the spotlight!?

"Sorry..." Maryanna looked down in guilt and held up her phone. "I didn't know."

"If I take one of these on, will you tag along?" Mason inquired, saving her from her guilt and pretending not to hear it. "I'm not very capable and we could split the reward."

"EEEEEEEEK!" Mason cowered and covered his ears. "We should totally start a team!"

"A te-?"

"When a bunch of friends team up and take up missions together!" She answered; the second she was done she took off into the crowd.

"That was weird. Where was I? Oh yeah, magical turtles." Mason muttered, turning to face the board again.

"I'm back!" Mason jumped in the air when Maryanna approached him again.

"How'd you do that!?" He demanded, still clutching the pole he had jumped onto.

"I brought Dante! We are gonna take on a mission!" She said, literally shaking with excitement.

"I'm just going to put it out there that blackmail is a major portion of my involvement." Dante said with a sigh, studying his fingernails. Maryanna smirked evilly at him, she knew everything on everyone.

"You really think we can do this? I can't really do magic on will, Dante is a normal mage; what do you do Maryanna?" Mason said, trying to slow down her crazy train of thought.

"RIBBON MAGIC!" She announced, reaching for her hair. The moment everyone heard that they ducked for cover. Table, chairs, one mage even hoped in a garbage can. Maryanna pulled the white ribbon from her hair, slowly lengthening it. She held it in her hand and it still grew until it was about 4 meters in length and nearly a foot wide.

Mason looked around; he was standing in an empty room, everyone but him and Maryanna had taken cover.

"I'm starting to think-"

"RIBBON WHIP!"

"Wait, what?" Maryanna threw her ribbon behind her head like a whip and cracked it, landing the perfect blow between Mason's eyes. She followed-through, her ribbon wrapping around her right ankle. The momentum easily threw it behind her and sent her face-first into the wood floor.

"Although I'm still learning..." she grumbled, her tied foot still sticking out. Mason rubbed his sore forehead. That ribbon was definitely not made of silk. Steel maybe, or titanium. Whatever it was, it felt like a sledgehammer to the face.

"Speaking of learning..." Mason stared at his hands for the second time that day. "I need a teacher of some sort. What did you say I could do Dante?" Dante shot out of his snooze he was trying to take on a bench at the sound of his name.

"Telekinesis Magic or Air Magic. Or even Gravity. Hard to tell, you just threw a stamp. "Dante mumbled before lying down on the bench again.

"Don't worry; I'm sure you'll do great!" Maryanna insisted with a smile.

"Thanks for the optimism, but I think I'm going to need at least a little bit of training before we go on that mission." Mason smiled back at her.