Ace’s hands are covered in far too many scars and calluses from nights that he spends practicing card tricks over and over regardless of how many times he cuts himself because it's better than the nightmares
Deuce has gotten collared many times because he woke up screaming from a nightmare about Riddle’s Overblot
Jack has been locked out of his room multiple times by his roommates whenever he comes back late from a Ramshackle study session. He always sleeps on the floor instead of asking to stay at Ramshackle or for Leona to unlock the door
Epel often grows dizzy and faint from the poison lingering in his veins because of Vil’s poison gas, but refuses to sit down and let his queen see the damage he's done to his precious poison apple
Ortho sometimes gets asked by Idia, usually whenever his brother is extremely sleep-deprived, if he remembers something from their childhood. The childhood that never belonged to Ortho.
Sebek has gotten far too good at using concealer to hide his eyebags from staying up too late because he's terrified of ending back up in one of Malleus’s dreams
Here is what Ace knows and hates:
At this point in the school year, Yuu no longer cares if they survive the next Overblot. This scares him far more than he's willing to show
He's shared more late nights with Deuce, talking about everything and anything to avoid the elephant in the room, otherwise known as their nightmare-shadowed eyes and shaking hands, than he ever would have expected from their disastrous first day
Jack is surprised each and every time he's dragged out by Yuu to watch his and Deuce’s track meets. He's also disappointed every time anyone else from his dorm refuses to show up for him
Epel has to hide the scars that Vil gave him because his Dorm Leader considers them unsightly, rather than a sign that he survived
Ortho remembers all of their preferences down to the letter, but is always surprised every time any of them remember any of his
Sebek’s hands and voice sometimes shake whenever Silver, Lilia, or Malleus catch him awake from a nightmare or fear of them. They never notice
Here is what Deuce knows and hates:
Sometimes, Yuu goes to bed without eating anything because Grim ate all of their food
Ace still flinches every time he hears Riddle yelling, especially the incantation for his Unique Magic
Jack often pushes himself too hard during his morning Spelldrive training with his dormmates. They've never noticed, or, if they have, never cared
Epel asks him far too often to take him to a beach so he can scream his frustrations into the ocean. It's penciled in his schedule as a weekly occurrence by now
Ortho only shows his full face when they're safely inside Ramshackle, because it reminds his brother too much of painful memories
Sometimes, Sebek’s body aches from all his years of dedicated training. He refuses to ask Lilia or Silver or himself for a break
Here is what Jack knows and hates:
Every time Yuu smiles out in public and not in the safety of Ramshackle, it looks more and more fake. No one but the other first-years notice
Sometimes, in the mornings, Ace and Deuce have to do each other's makeup because the other's hands are shaking too badly. On mornings when both their hands are shaking, they have to sneak out and ask Yuu for help
On the mornings when they can't sneak out, they always get collared for having their symbols messed up, as if the reason for that isn't standing right in front of them
Epel knows how to cover the bruises they get from fighting with other NRC students who badmouth their group far too well
There are far too many common experiences that Ortho hasn't experienced because of the circumstances of his creation and the habits of his creator
Sebek has to hold back flinches at the sight of Malleus using his Unique Magic. None of his dormmates have noticed
Here is what Epel knows and hates:
Yuu is extremely underweight because of how much food they let Grim steal from them. He always forces apples on them to try and remedy that, only for those to get stolen as well
Ace’s gloves don't hide the shaking of his hands every time he sees Trey and Cater flanking Riddle, a little to the back of them. He still pretends they do
Deuce likes writing. The one time he tried showing it to one of his upperclassmen, he was told that they were too busy
Jack's skin is covered in scars from Leona’s Overblot. He knows that his dorm leader knows, just doesn't care
Ortho still gets treated like he's a robot by his Ignihyde dormmates, no matter how much he insists he's not. Idia doesn't even know
Sometimes, he finds Sebek with a knife in his hands, about to take it to his skin to remind himself that he's awake
Here is what Ortho knows and hates:
Yuu's skin is covered in many more scars than the start of the school year. He doesn't think that the upperclassmen have noticed, or, if they have, care in the slightest
Ace Trappola has gotten better at lying as the school year has progressed. His upperclassmen accept his lies immediately every time, no matter how bad they are
Deuce Spade asks to borrow the blastcycle every week. Ortho knows it's to take Epel Felmier on a ride to the beach so they can have the experience of screaming on a beach to experience catharsis. Every time they come back, he notices just how high their stress levels had been before
Jack Howl always sleeps with a knife underneath his pillow, even in Ramshackle, held in an extremely tight grip. He's mentioned it's saved him a few times
Epel Felmier still has levels of magical poison in his bloodstream, likely from Vil Shoenheit's Overblot, yet refuses to see a medical professional about the bouts of dizziness and muscle weakness he experiences
Ortho often has to purchase magical healing cream from Sam's shop to hide the injuries Sebek Zigvolt gains from fighting on someone in their group's behalf. He insists on not telling his upperclassmen, despite how much they appear to care for him
Here is what Sebek knows and hates:
Yuu doesn't get nearly enough money from the Headmage to feed themselves, let alone Grim. They still refuse to ask for help
Ace’s smiles are growing more and more fake as his eyebags grow ever darker. None of his upperclassmen notice this obvious fact
Deuce struggles to breathe sometimes because of the poison from Shoenheit's Overblot. All of them have experience guiding him through deep breaths so that he doesn’t pass out from the lack of oxygen
Jack has stumbled into Ramshackle with overuse injuries before. They have to channel their magic into healing said injuries, despite how much it hurts him
Epel doesn't even blink nowadays whenever he cuts himself while carving something. He rarely bothers to bandage the wound either, merely stemming the bleeding and continuing his work
Ortho has been threatening to pull out his technomantic beams every time one of them gets insulted, but doesn't blink at being called a robot
Here is what all of the first-years know and jate:
None of them care about the facts related to themselves on the list above
As far as I can tell there are four kinds of time loopers:
1. Time and time again I fail to save what I love; their lives, their happiness, the perfect outcome slips through my fingers and I wonder if it ever existed, if it even is possible, I am in a hell of my own making and I hold the key to escape but I hide it in the core of my being because I refuse to get out until I have accomplished my goal, I shall lose until I win it all, even if that makes me a god, even if that makes me a sinner.
2. Stumbled into someone's loop, probably number one's, and has to solve it for them and it's like ugh whatever, L + ratio + skill issue + don't drag me into your shit + 🎶 Let it go~🎶
3. I looked at infinity in the eye and it looked back at me and it spoke "I am not asking you to endure nor am I commanding you to persist, I am telling you these are the only options someone as hopeless as you has, your path stretches into infinity with no beginning and no end, no entrance and no exit, happiness and misery are not goals, they are but fleeting moments in the endless cycle of life, do you understand yet? You are a story that is reread, retold and reinterpreted until the end, ever-changing yet destined to the same fate. You poor soul, you will never know rest."
4. Oh shit Oh fuck I have to speedrun this shit before the 20 second loop is up, FUCK I FORGOT ABOUT THE CODE *time loop restarting sound effect*
Silver, chronically ill [the sleep curse and that], and staying inside a lot of the time as a way to take care of himself.
a lot animals will come by and he cares for them. giving dogs treats and letting cats hide away from the rain. helping anything else which passes by the window that he keeps open.
and perhaps the animals think hes lonely so they drag anyone who passes by over to the window to meet with Silver and get to know him.
had a fucked up dream i had a book that turned out could never be read again the same as the first time because each reread the characters became incrementally more aware that the events of the book had happened before and they were “reliving” it and i reread enough times that they became self aware, figured out they were in a book, acknowledged me as the reader, and some lost their minds or had existential crises, became violent to other characters or themselves, some begged me to never stop reading or they ceased to exist and others begged me to end it all stop reading and keeping them trapped in the endless loop of torment, and the literal only way to get the book back to its first run was to hand it off to someone else to read for the first time and for some reason i physically couldn’t tell anyone about it so i’d have to just hope whoever i gave it to would only read it once and i could never open the book again to check if they were okay and back to normal because i was terrified of fucking them all up again :(
"oh food now has so much added to it, past food was so pure and untainted" victorians used to cut bread with chalk and aluminum powder. romans put lead in the wine, which was made from dirty feet mushing unwashed grapes covered in horse shit and road dust. i think our species will survive a few additives in food. our food systems have never been cleaner and safer. it has room for improvement, but we're not putting fucking plaster of paris in the milk
i love your blot stages sm i need more 👀👀 specifically what stage each overblotter is. especially more about jamil though because hes my favorite and i love the way u draw him.
Hell yeah !! Here's the other subjects from back in book 6 + a bonus Idia. As indicated in the og post he'd be stage 0 regardless due to the family curse (+ i am Slowly making my way thru book 7 with various lil spoiler nuggets here & there.) (also the whole. Fae. thing. makes Malleus a biiiit trickier to ponder AJDKSGHLEWQT)
and! jamils :) Thanks to the whole overblotting-during-break and the sending-everyone-to-the-edge-of-the-dorm whatnot he's a rare example of stage 3- with all the fun that entails. Lots of check-ups and prescriptions and impromptu nurse's office visits.
Hiii hello I went down a rabbit role and now I made a guide of (almost) all the fonts used in the game, here's the link for the drive I put them all in:
Riddle, Silver and Cater get together but they actually never told anyone about it.
i mean, its not against the rules, and with Cater deciding that perhaps this thing doesn't need to go on social media, they just... dont say anything
and they increasingly get up to shenanigans as everyone wonders who is dating who and how to break them up
Chenya comes over, sneaking in and hanging around them. Trey tells him about it. Chenya, who figured this relationship out after observing, decides to keep it secret
Malleus comes over and tells Silver, very sincerely, that he is worried. he is so very confused. he explains the thought process.
"none of us are cheating?"
"forgive me. what?"
and their relationship is eventually shown to the rest of the world, yet still held close. this is one of the few things for them.