Yuu (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
areyuuserious) wrote2022-02-08 08:52 pm
areyuuserious) wrote2022-02-08 08:52 pm
History section!
Prologue: Everyone's an Asshole Welcome to the Villains' World
💎 Yuu's an ordinary teenager from a presumably normal, modern-day Earth. But one day, they wake up in what appears to be a coffin! Because that's always a great start to an adventure, right? In short order, they're immediately introduced to Grim, a monster cat thing that wants to attend Night Raven College (and is rather demanding of their uniform) and Dire Crowley the headmage of this school for magic users in this world called Twisted Wonderland. There are two problems with this: Yuu has shown up here without a single bit of identification, and they don't have so much as a speck of magic in them. Even worse, they cannot be sent home. So rather than kicking them out onto the street in a strange new world, Crowley """generously""" decides to allow Yuu to stay at Night Raven College. In the abandoned and haunted Ramshackle dorm. Which more than lives up to its name. Grim makes his reappearance here (having been booted out during the ceremony that he and Yuu crashed), where he ... has to be bribed to help Yuu fight off the ghosts. Yeah.
💎 When Crowley comes back to check on Yuu, he allows them and Grim to earn their keep as groundskeepers for the academy... Which would be all well and good if Grim didn't pick a fight with a student named Ace on the first day. This ends up with one of the statues of the Great Seven (seven Disney villains that are portrayed as revered figures which... yeah. The dorms at NRC are themed around them don't question it too much) damaged and lands not only Yuu and Grim in trouble but also Ace. The punishment (and Ace and Grim's attempts to get out of it) ends up being an entire comedy of errors that leads to another student (Deuce) dragged into the mess and a chandelier being broken. Unfortunately, the chandelier's repairs require a replacement for a damaged magic crystal, so Ace and Deuce need to acquire that replacement or face expulsion! (It's safe to assume Yuu and Grim are likely in trouble too, but what punishment they'd face specifically is never addressed.)
💎 So of course it's totally fine that three teenagers, one of which has no real way to defend themself, and a monster cat go off to a dangerous abandoned mine all by themselves to get that replacement. Which is just great, considering the mine is inhabited by a monster! After no small amount of bickering, Yuu finally manages to wrangle their fellow teenagers and cat into actually working together to distract and eventually defeat it. Also Grim may or may not have eaten a sketchy black crystal that dropped from the monster after its defeat but it's fine. The group returns to the school, triumphant.
💎 ... Only to find out that Crowley legitimately expected them to fail and had already filled out the expulsion paperwork. Once filled in on what happened at the mine, he declares Yuu to be a "Beast Tamer," someone who can get the proud and hardheaded mages of this world to set their egos aside for just long enough to work together. (Or, you know, it could just be teenagers being teenagers, CROWLEY.) With that, he allows Yuu and Grim to enroll in classes as a single student. So Yuu goes back to the Ramshackle dorm with Grim in tow, ready to get a nice night of sleep for their first day of class...
Episode 1:Heartslabyul Gets a Reality Check The Rose-Red Tyrant
🫖 ... But of course things wouldn't be that simple. Can't have shit at NRC, etc., etc. They're woken up during the night from a strange dream by a knock at the door. It's Ace with a weird-ass collar around his neck. Grim notes it as the one that got put on him during the prologue (courtesy of a redheaded upperclassman), and when asked about it, Ace explains that since he missed dinner, he ate a tart he found in the fridge and was punished for it by way of said upperclassman--Riddle Rosehearts, the Heartslabyul house warden--using his Signature Spell on Ace. With a promise that he'll go back to the dorm in order to apologize in the morning, Yuu lets Ace stay at Ramshackle overnight. Deuce swings by in the morning and the group heads over to Heartslabyul so Ace can apologize.
🫖 Instead of actually getting that apology to Riddle, they get roped into painting roses in the Heartslabyul gardens and being told they'll have to replace the tarts by a third-year, Cater Diamond. It'll have to wait until after class. The school day proceeds, and our intrepid band of protagonists meet their teachers (Cruella Crewel, Lady Tremaine Trein, and Gaston Vargas) and then head to lunch. Over lunch, they meet Trey Clover (another Heartslabyul third-year and the vice warden) and learn about the dorms at the school. Trey offers to help make tarts to replace the one Ace ate! And they turn out great! (Trey also demonstrates his Signature Spell here, Paint the Roses, which can overwrite particular traits of something temporarily--remember this, it'll be important later.)
🫖 ... For all the good those tarts turning out great does. Turns out, the work goes entirely to waste because they're a type disallowed at Unbirthday parties (yeah) according to the Rules of the Queen of Hearts (tm). The group (minus Yuu, who's really just watching all of this escalate around them) makes a show of not backing down and obeying the rules, which gets Deuce and Grim collared as well and the entire group thrown out. Good job, guys. Once thrown out, they encounter a strange boy who advises them to ask Trey about Riddle's past, since the pair are childhood friends. So, when they do meet up with Trey and find out Riddle's background (it's bad)... Ace proceeds to give Trey an earful for enabling Riddle's worse tendencies.
🫖 And then who should show up but Crowley, to scold the group for yelling... despite he himself being the only one who was actually yelling. (He claims to be in the library starting research on how to get Yuu home, but...) Upon hearing Ace and Deuce's plight, he suggests the two challenge Riddle for the position of house warden and, yeah, the two definitely jump on the idea. It forces Riddle to remove their collars, but otherwise goes about as well as you think it would. And that's about the point where things really start going south--Ace punches Riddle! A background student throws an egg at him! Riddle lashes out with magic and very nearly attempts to murder Ace! ... Only to find that Trey has used Paint the Roses to turn the attack into harmless playing cards, to replace Riddle's magic with his own. But this is the last straw for Riddle--to have everyone else in the dorm against him is one thing, but for his own childhood friend to stand against him and tell him he's wrong? He doesn't take it well, and everything that's been building up all chapter finally explodes.
🫖 Riddle transforms. He's Overblotted, having lost control of both his magic and his emotions, and if this state persists, his life will be in danger. Ace, Deuce, Trey, and Cater stay behind to fight him. The group emerges victorious and Riddle returns to normal. After an emotional conversation, a trip to the infirmary, Grim eating another sketchy black crystal, and another Unbirthday party several days later, things finally seem to be resolved, with Riddle slowly trying to better himself. Everything's calm, for now, but that sure as hell won't last with Leona and Ruggie over in Savanaclaw up to something...
Episode 2:Morality and Good Judgment is Stored in the Wolf The Usurper from the Wilds
🏆 An unspecified amount of time later, Grim gets a sandwich stolen from him at lunch, mentioning that when the culprit moved his hand, it was like Grim's paw moved on its own WHICH I'M SURE IS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT AND WILL NOT BE IMPORTANT LATER OR ANYTHING. Yuu, Grim, Ace and Deuce are called into Crowley's office later, where the headmage explains the concept of Blot and Overblot and Why This Is Very Bad. And perhaps surprising nobody, when Yuu asks about the research into getting them home, Crowley gives some sort of excuse which actually ties into the plot--an intra-dorm tournament for a sport called Spelldrive. Which is gonna be televised. If you're already concerned, yeah, you should be.
🏆 Skip ahead a bit and Crowley drops in on Yuu and Grim because he wants to ask a favor of them. And by "ask a favor" I mean "threaten them into doing work that he really ought to have faculty be doing instead of some magicless student and their monster cat." Specifically, he wants them to look into a string of accidents that have been happening around the school that he's fairly certain are not in fact accidents, even despite a lack of evidence. (And this is the part where I remind you that outside of Grim, Yuu has no real way to defend themself.)
🏆 In the process of getting statements from those who've gotten injured, Yuu and Grim learn that Trey's gotten himself hurt too--having hurt his leg bad enough that he's going to be requiring crutches for a bit and having to sit out of the Spelldrive tournament. A quick conversation with Riddle and Cater after reveals further information--the injured students are top Spelldrive players for each of their dorms. Riddle and Cater then agree to help Yuu deal with the problem. Further investigation, unfortunately, doesn't seem to prove especially productive for the time being (though they do meet Jack Howl, a Savanaclaw freshman). The most to be learned from this whole mess is Savanaclaw seems to be populated by almost exclusively assholes.
🏆 For those following along at home, the plot here is probably fairly obvious, especially with my earlier commenting specifically that Leona and Ruggie were up to something.
🏆 Yuu can't get to sleep that night, so they wander outside, only to encounter a Diasomnia student with horns who seems surprised that Yuu doesn't know who he is. He also isn't especially inclined to introduce himself, which lands him with a stupid nickname courtesy of Grim's suggestion later.
🏆 Riddle and Cater meet up with Yuu and Grim in the morning and the four of them investigate another injury that happened--except this time, the victim points out that it felt like someone's Signature Spell was being put to use, and states that said Signature Spell probably made the victims mimic the user's movements. With this in mind, Yuu and Grim quickly put together that the culprit is Ruggie thanks to a certain incident at the start of the chapter. When they try to confront Ruggie, he steals Riddle and Cater's pens (their wands, basically) and makes a break for it. Trying to chase him down doesn't work and with a comment that implies there's still something else coming, Ruggie leaves the pens and ditches.
🏆 Soon after, Jack shows up and he spills the beans--pretty much the entirety of Savanaclaw is in on the "injure Spelldrive players" plan and Jack? Hates it. He also points out that it's because of Malleus that Savanaclaw hasn't been doing well in the tournaments, so Leona is aiming for him (and probably other members of the Diasomnia dorm) on the day of the tournament. Seeing as they have no evidence to prove it was Ruggie and that getting a confession is effectively impossible, the group decides that they'll have to catch the Savanaclaw students in the act on the day of the tournament, and Riddle has a plan.
🏆 Thanks to the efforts of the Heartslabyul students, Jack, Yuu, and Grim, the other Savanaclaw students' plan (Ruggie causing a stampede with his Signature Spell amplified by a potion) is foiled and the Diasomnia students are safe. Leona's Signature Spell is revealed here (turning whatever he touches into sand... and this can include people), and after a bit of a scuffle, Riddle manages to use his Signature Spell on Leona. One especially scathing Reason You Suck speech from the vice warden of Diasomnia later... Leona Overblots.
🏆 ... Yuu misses the tournament due to being knocked out by a Spelldrive disk thrown by Grim. Overall, the incident wraps up relatively happily... as it can, at least. For the time being, Yuu is oblivious to anything brewing over in the Octavinelle dorm...
💎 Yuu's an ordinary teenager from a presumably normal, modern-day Earth. But one day, they wake up in what appears to be a coffin! Because that's always a great start to an adventure, right? In short order, they're immediately introduced to Grim, a monster cat thing that wants to attend Night Raven College (and is rather demanding of their uniform) and Dire Crowley the headmage of this school for magic users in this world called Twisted Wonderland. There are two problems with this: Yuu has shown up here without a single bit of identification, and they don't have so much as a speck of magic in them. Even worse, they cannot be sent home. So rather than kicking them out onto the street in a strange new world, Crowley """generously""" decides to allow Yuu to stay at Night Raven College. In the abandoned and haunted Ramshackle dorm. Which more than lives up to its name. Grim makes his reappearance here (having been booted out during the ceremony that he and Yuu crashed), where he ... has to be bribed to help Yuu fight off the ghosts. Yeah.
💎 When Crowley comes back to check on Yuu, he allows them and Grim to earn their keep as groundskeepers for the academy... Which would be all well and good if Grim didn't pick a fight with a student named Ace on the first day. This ends up with one of the statues of the Great Seven (seven Disney villains that are portrayed as revered figures which... yeah. The dorms at NRC are themed around them don't question it too much) damaged and lands not only Yuu and Grim in trouble but also Ace. The punishment (and Ace and Grim's attempts to get out of it) ends up being an entire comedy of errors that leads to another student (Deuce) dragged into the mess and a chandelier being broken. Unfortunately, the chandelier's repairs require a replacement for a damaged magic crystal, so Ace and Deuce need to acquire that replacement or face expulsion! (It's safe to assume Yuu and Grim are likely in trouble too, but what punishment they'd face specifically is never addressed.)
💎 So of course it's totally fine that three teenagers, one of which has no real way to defend themself, and a monster cat go off to a dangerous abandoned mine all by themselves to get that replacement. Which is just great, considering the mine is inhabited by a monster! After no small amount of bickering, Yuu finally manages to wrangle their fellow teenagers and cat into actually working together to distract and eventually defeat it. Also Grim may or may not have eaten a sketchy black crystal that dropped from the monster after its defeat but it's fine. The group returns to the school, triumphant.
💎 ... Only to find out that Crowley legitimately expected them to fail and had already filled out the expulsion paperwork. Once filled in on what happened at the mine, he declares Yuu to be a "Beast Tamer," someone who can get the proud and hardheaded mages of this world to set their egos aside for just long enough to work together. (Or, you know, it could just be teenagers being teenagers, CROWLEY.) With that, he allows Yuu and Grim to enroll in classes as a single student. So Yuu goes back to the Ramshackle dorm with Grim in tow, ready to get a nice night of sleep for their first day of class...
Episode 1:
🫖 ... But of course things wouldn't be that simple. Can't have shit at NRC, etc., etc. They're woken up during the night from a strange dream by a knock at the door. It's Ace with a weird-ass collar around his neck. Grim notes it as the one that got put on him during the prologue (courtesy of a redheaded upperclassman), and when asked about it, Ace explains that since he missed dinner, he ate a tart he found in the fridge and was punished for it by way of said upperclassman--Riddle Rosehearts, the Heartslabyul house warden--using his Signature Spell on Ace. With a promise that he'll go back to the dorm in order to apologize in the morning, Yuu lets Ace stay at Ramshackle overnight. Deuce swings by in the morning and the group heads over to Heartslabyul so Ace can apologize.
🫖 Instead of actually getting that apology to Riddle, they get roped into painting roses in the Heartslabyul gardens and being told they'll have to replace the tarts by a third-year, Cater Diamond. It'll have to wait until after class. The school day proceeds, and our intrepid band of protagonists meet their teachers (
🫖 ... For all the good those tarts turning out great does. Turns out, the work goes entirely to waste because they're a type disallowed at Unbirthday parties (yeah) according to the Rules of the Queen of Hearts (tm). The group (minus Yuu, who's really just watching all of this escalate around them) makes a show of not backing down and obeying the rules, which gets Deuce and Grim collared as well and the entire group thrown out. Good job, guys. Once thrown out, they encounter a strange boy who advises them to ask Trey about Riddle's past, since the pair are childhood friends. So, when they do meet up with Trey and find out Riddle's background (it's bad)... Ace proceeds to give Trey an earful for enabling Riddle's worse tendencies.
🫖 And then who should show up but Crowley, to scold the group for yelling... despite he himself being the only one who was actually yelling. (He claims to be in the library starting research on how to get Yuu home, but...) Upon hearing Ace and Deuce's plight, he suggests the two challenge Riddle for the position of house warden and, yeah, the two definitely jump on the idea. It forces Riddle to remove their collars, but otherwise goes about as well as you think it would. And that's about the point where things really start going south--Ace punches Riddle! A background student throws an egg at him! Riddle lashes out with magic and very nearly attempts to murder Ace! ... Only to find that Trey has used Paint the Roses to turn the attack into harmless playing cards, to replace Riddle's magic with his own. But this is the last straw for Riddle--to have everyone else in the dorm against him is one thing, but for his own childhood friend to stand against him and tell him he's wrong? He doesn't take it well, and everything that's been building up all chapter finally explodes.
🫖 Riddle transforms. He's Overblotted, having lost control of both his magic and his emotions, and if this state persists, his life will be in danger. Ace, Deuce, Trey, and Cater stay behind to fight him. The group emerges victorious and Riddle returns to normal. After an emotional conversation, a trip to the infirmary, Grim eating another sketchy black crystal, and another Unbirthday party several days later, things finally seem to be resolved, with Riddle slowly trying to better himself. Everything's calm, for now, but that sure as hell won't last with Leona and Ruggie over in Savanaclaw up to something...
Episode 2:
🏆 An unspecified amount of time later, Grim gets a sandwich stolen from him at lunch, mentioning that when the culprit moved his hand, it was like Grim's paw moved on its own WHICH I'M SURE IS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT AND WILL NOT BE IMPORTANT LATER OR ANYTHING. Yuu, Grim, Ace and Deuce are called into Crowley's office later, where the headmage explains the concept of Blot and Overblot and Why This Is Very Bad. And perhaps surprising nobody, when Yuu asks about the research into getting them home, Crowley gives some sort of excuse which actually ties into the plot--an intra-dorm tournament for a sport called Spelldrive. Which is gonna be televised. If you're already concerned, yeah, you should be.
🏆 Skip ahead a bit and Crowley drops in on Yuu and Grim because he wants to ask a favor of them. And by "ask a favor" I mean "threaten them into doing work that he really ought to have faculty be doing instead of some magicless student and their monster cat." Specifically, he wants them to look into a string of accidents that have been happening around the school that he's fairly certain are not in fact accidents, even despite a lack of evidence. (And this is the part where I remind you that outside of Grim, Yuu has no real way to defend themself.)
🏆 In the process of getting statements from those who've gotten injured, Yuu and Grim learn that Trey's gotten himself hurt too--having hurt his leg bad enough that he's going to be requiring crutches for a bit and having to sit out of the Spelldrive tournament. A quick conversation with Riddle and Cater after reveals further information--the injured students are top Spelldrive players for each of their dorms. Riddle and Cater then agree to help Yuu deal with the problem. Further investigation, unfortunately, doesn't seem to prove especially productive for the time being (though they do meet Jack Howl, a Savanaclaw freshman). The most to be learned from this whole mess is Savanaclaw seems to be populated by almost exclusively assholes.
🏆 For those following along at home, the plot here is probably fairly obvious, especially with my earlier commenting specifically that Leona and Ruggie were up to something.
🏆 Yuu can't get to sleep that night, so they wander outside, only to encounter a Diasomnia student with horns who seems surprised that Yuu doesn't know who he is. He also isn't especially inclined to introduce himself, which lands him with a stupid nickname courtesy of Grim's suggestion later.
🏆 Riddle and Cater meet up with Yuu and Grim in the morning and the four of them investigate another injury that happened--except this time, the victim points out that it felt like someone's Signature Spell was being put to use, and states that said Signature Spell probably made the victims mimic the user's movements. With this in mind, Yuu and Grim quickly put together that the culprit is Ruggie thanks to a certain incident at the start of the chapter. When they try to confront Ruggie, he steals Riddle and Cater's pens (their wands, basically) and makes a break for it. Trying to chase him down doesn't work and with a comment that implies there's still something else coming, Ruggie leaves the pens and ditches.
🏆 Soon after, Jack shows up and he spills the beans--pretty much the entirety of Savanaclaw is in on the "injure Spelldrive players" plan and Jack? Hates it. He also points out that it's because of Malleus that Savanaclaw hasn't been doing well in the tournaments, so Leona is aiming for him (and probably other members of the Diasomnia dorm) on the day of the tournament. Seeing as they have no evidence to prove it was Ruggie and that getting a confession is effectively impossible, the group decides that they'll have to catch the Savanaclaw students in the act on the day of the tournament, and Riddle has a plan.
🏆 Thanks to the efforts of the Heartslabyul students, Jack, Yuu, and Grim, the other Savanaclaw students' plan (Ruggie causing a stampede with his Signature Spell amplified by a potion) is foiled and the Diasomnia students are safe. Leona's Signature Spell is revealed here (turning whatever he touches into sand... and this can include people), and after a bit of a scuffle, Riddle manages to use his Signature Spell on Leona. One especially scathing Reason You Suck speech from the vice warden of Diasomnia later... Leona Overblots.
🏆 ... Yuu misses the tournament due to being knocked out by a Spelldrive disk thrown by Grim. Overall, the incident wraps up relatively happily... as it can, at least. For the time being, Yuu is oblivious to anything brewing over in the Octavinelle dorm...