So, recently I saw and very briefly read a fic about Sebek replacing Yuu as the protag of the game.
And you know what that made me think of?
Ace replacing Yuu as the protagonist :))
The year starts the same, of course. Ace gets to NRC, Grim crashes the ceremony, but. There’s no Yuu. And Ace feels very, very bad about the dorm he’s been sorted into.
The first day is mostly the same as well—Ace antagonizes Grim, Grim burns a statue, they get in trouble, Deuce gets involved, the Mines.
Until Ace gets back to Heartslabyul and eats that tart.
Riddle kicks him out, as usual.
But Ace doesn’t know where to go—he doesn’t have any friends here, he doesn’t know where to go at all.
So he wanders. Just walks around campus because, well, what else do you do when your only place to stay is violently ripped away.
Eventually, he stumbles upon Ramshackle, and when he gets inside? There’s Grim, shaking in fear and freezing in the drafty building. There are scorch marks on a fireplace he doesn’t know how to light, the couch he’s on is in rough condition, and the laughs in the air make Ace’s stomach curdle in faint terror.
So Ace takes pity on him. Cradles Grim in his arms like he’s a baby, tries to push away the fear and the cold and the terror at his newfound solitude.
When Ace gets to school, Grim in hand because he can’t just leave Grim alone, Deuce asks where the hell he went. Why Riddle won’t answer, or doesn’t seem concerned that Ace doesn’t technically have anywhere to go aside from Heartslabyul, why Deuce couldn’t find him and where Grim came from.
Ace tells him, very plainly, everything he needs to know. Outlines that, though Heartslabyul is his dorm, he won’t be attempting to return until Riddle gets over himself.
The story continues. Ace tries to apologize, the replacement tart, Riddle kicking Deuce out too—and, truth be told, Ace only wants the collar off and to never have to associate with Riddle ever again.
The Overblot happens, of course it does. They manage to defeat Riddle, manage to get him to apologize, and.
And Ace refuses to come back to Heartslabyul.
In fact, he’s quite happy to remain in Ramshackle and ignore Riddle entirely, and Riddle feels quite terrible about that.
Crowley drags his feet accepting Ace’s request to transfer dorms, until Ace threatens to get his parents involved, and then Ace is Ramshackle’s first official student in centuries.
He gets Grim established as a familiar because Crowley won’t accept him as a student.
They discover, eventually, that Deuce can’t really take Heartslabyul on his own without getting violent. Ace is usually there to engage in a battle of wits instead of fists, and without that, Deuce can’t do it on his own. Ace gets him transferred, too.
Riddle is horribly guilty, tries his best to indulge Deuce to make up for his treatment of him and Ace.
Deuce’s transfer into Ramshackle has Ace getting promoted to Housewarden of Ramshackle, gets them a bit more funding towards repairs because they’re an actual dorm now.
So they start fixing themselves up, changing Ramshackle. Making friends with the ghosts. Becoming a proper dorm.
And then comes Leona’s overblot. And then comes Jack. And then comes the rest of the story.
N e ways I don’t have any ideas for what to call this au 😋.