This is part one of @tokamiart 's, @berribabyyy 's and my MCs in their respective clubs at Night Raven College. All of them are first years experiencing their first day at club.
Have fun and look forward to the rest of them 💕
“Hey, uhm… You’re Blu, right? Can I sit down next to you?”
A nervous blink accompanied Clover’s smile since stepping into her new clubroom.
Choosing a club had been difficult for her, even more so the decision to join a club on her own instead of following one of her friends into theirs. The huge display of board games on club orientation day had left her in awe, inspiring her to take this step of independent character development… but that was now also forcing her to socially interact with strangers if she didn’t want to end up playing board games all alone.
Overlooking the room, she would have thought to see more members. The seminar room was only partly filled with students that all seemed to mind their own business.
But also, between those faces that were fundamentally intimidating to Clover, she only recognized one face among them. That’s why she stood in front of that face now, smirking internally as she mustered how weirdly her opponent was sitting on his chair.
“Oh, of course” he said, quickly shifting in his seat into a normal position to ensure Clover had enough room on the seat next to him. “You aaarree…” Blu then continued, eyeing her intently.” … In my class, and your name isss... Clover?”
“Yep” the girl chuckled. “I’m flattered that you remember.”
“Oh…” Blu gave a shrug. He wanted to say that it was rather difficult not to remember the Ramshackle students, but only gave a smile instead. “I’d say it’s more impressive that you know my name.”
Now Clover was the one to smile bashfully. “I suppose… We haven’t interacted in class, I think, but I guess I remembered your name from the daily attendance check.”
To her surprise, her comment put a pout on Blu’s face.
“Ah” he breathed. “Probably because I tend to not hear my name, huh… The history teacher got frustrated this one time, too.”
Oh no, she had directly walked into awkward territory, didn’t she.
“T-that’s not the reason, really” she blurted out. “I’m just good with names, I suppose, I really didn’t want you to feel bad about…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed his frown had turned upside down again. “... Also I’m talking too much, aren’t I…”
Clover had to endure the light chuckle escaping his lips, but was glad to hear his reassurance that he didn’t take any offence by her at all.
The two continued to engage in some more banter about their classes and their anticipation about the club…
“Do you know when… we’ll actually start?” Clover mumbled, looking around at the other students that seemed to become impatient themselves.
Blu gave a shrug. “Somehow, nobody seems to bother taking the lead. Which is weird, because I remember that at club orientation, there was this…” he did little jazz hands, “flashy guy representing the club.”
A slight frown formed on Clover’s face. “The shady salesman…”
“Salesman?” Blu blinked in confusion. His expression remained when Clover started rummaging in her bag to pull out not one, but several business cards.
“I have involuntarily started collecting these” she said, handing him one.
“… Hm” Blu huffed in curiosity. “He seems to be very passionate about his café.”
Her frown curled Clover’s face further. “Nah, there’s definitely more going on behind that. I don’t know, he’s just…”
The second later, the already opened door swung open further, announcing the presence of none other than Azul Ashengrotto.
“A splendid afternoon to you, my fellow club members!” he mused, taking the time to brush over everyone with his gaze. “I strongly apologise for being late, I unfortunately had to make sure that EVERY ONE of us turns up today…”
His almost sparkly aura had completely overshadowed the fact that he was dragging another student behind him. Which is even more impressive, if you take into account that this other student had long, flaming hair.
“Woah” it escaped Blu’s lips. “This guy’s hair is on fire?”
To his surprise, the nod Clover gave was overly content. “Jup. This is Idia. Ignihyde’s housewarden, apparently!”
Idia wiggled out of the grip Azul had on his long, blue hoodie. His gaze also jumped up to scan the room, but dropped as soon as he noticed that everyone was staring at them.
“Th… those are more newbies than you promised me would come…” Idia whispered towards Azul, who shrugged it off easily by pushing his glasses back.
“Seems like I have miscalculated” Azul said, however grinning. “My apologies.”
“Liar” Idia grumbled. He was about to skedaddle the heck out of here, but Azul managed to grab him by his collar before Idia could even move. With a hearty swing, he got Idia inside the room and closed the door afterwards.
“Now, without further ado, I would like to officially welcome you to the Board Game Club” Azul began. “Whether this is your first or another year of attending our precious club, I am delighted to see you here.”
Both freshmen watching intently, Blu dared to lean in closer to Clover to whisper. “Is he still giving you the shady vibes? I think he's rather polite.”
“He’s after our organs for sure,” Clover mumbled. “Just wait until he invites us to a game of extreme poker…”
Blu chuckled softly. “That bad?”
“Dunno…” Clover shrugged. “I’m just afraid of literally everything, so don’t mind me. He’s probably decent…”
Mustering her cowering on her seat, Blu then dared to gently run the back of his finger over her arm. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure your organs stay safe.”
As Clover looked up at him, he beamed her a kind smile that only increased the sparkles glistening in her eyes. Only when Azul cleared his throat to continue his talk, she was able to take her eyes off him.
“As this club’s president, I was pondering over the best game to start off our lovely activities with.” Azul was frighteningly good at presenting himself in front of others. With blissful ease, he basked in the attention as he lumbered through the room. “Naturally, a game that allows you to face many different opponents is the best choice for such demeanors. That is why I have prepared everything needed for us to hold…” he swung his magic pen to let card boxes and playmats and dice fly across the room. “… our first Magic: the gathering TCG tournament!”
His excitement was followed by… silence. No one seemed to dare speak their thoughts, until from next to Azul, a tiny “boo” could be heard.
“What was that?” Azul confidently turned towards the voice's source. Idia was mustering the Octavinelle student with doubt.
“A tournament?” Idia began. “Really? That’s, like, an S-tier gateway to lose all our new members immediately.”
“And why would that be?” Azul crossed his arms. “It is the perfect way to engage in friendly play while not being faced with too many people at once. I was actually taking YOU into consideration as well, Idia.”
Idia raised a sceptical eyebrow. “Friendly play? More like toxic, try-hard and tear breaking.”
Azul returned the expression. “And how would you come to such a conclusion?”
“Because you’re the biggest try-hard on campus,” Idia huffed. “Knowing you, you even thought of some reward for whoever wins the whole thing.”
For the first time, you could see Azul’s flawless appearance falter. Just a split second, where his eyes twitched towards his pocket in a guilty manner, then he was back to turn up his nose at Idia. “Criticism misbecomes those that don’t deliver ideas themselves, my dear Idia.” he flashed a provocative smile. “What would you suggest we play instead?”
Idia gave a shrug. He couldn’t help but peek at the rest of his club members occasionally, feeling their gazes pierce through him. “It’s best to start with something light. Nothing with competition, and no need to engage in social interactions when not needed. A roll and write, maybe…”
“So, in essence, you want to not talk to any of us and play Railroad Ink until club ends?”
Idia flashed his pointy teeth. “1000 IQ move, amirite?”
Azul let out a sigh. “You’re incorrigible…”
“Like you’re one to talk.”
“Pardon me?”
You can… you can probably guess where this was headed. The two continued to bicker about whose approach was the smartest, best choice. That, with some personal insults dispersed in between, made it pretty difficult to follow the conversation.
Or so did Clover thought… And then, someone else entered the room and made her lose it completely.
“Big brother!”
A robot child flew into the room. Looking like a tiny cyborg version of Idia, the boy made his way to the Ignihyde housewarden in a mix of relief and anger. “I scanned the whole campus in search of you! Why didn’t you let me know you were planning to attend club today?”
“… I wasn’t going to…” Idia mumbled. His formerly agitated expression had softened the moment his little brother had entered the room.
“Hm… Well, I’m glad that you’re here!” The boy cheered. He peeked around his brother at the others, waving excitedly. “Hello! I’m Ortho! Let’s play a lot of fun games together!”
“See, Idia?” Azul spoke up once again. “Ortho also wishes to play something TOGETHER.”
He gained an annoyed glare. “You also play Railroad together. And you love Railroad Ink, don’t you, Ortho?”
“Oh, uh… sure!” Ortho said.
“Yes, but” Azul adjusted his glasses. “UNLIKE ANOTHER SHROUD I KNOW, dear little Ortho also loves to meet new people. Don’t you agree that we should choose an activity that allows for more contact, Ortho?”
“Uhm…”
… So you’ve also guessed that the bickering continued, even with Ortho having appeared, yes? Because it did, the poor child not knowing whose side to stand on.
A bit overwhelmed by the scene playing out in front of them, Clover soon let her gaze drift over to Blu. She was surprised to see him not focused on the upperclassmen at all. Instead, he seemed to eye a board game within the shelf next to them.
Her mouth fell open as she, as well, came to read the game’s name.
“Sushi Go?!” Clover hushed in excitement. “No way, this game exists in Twisted Wonderland, too??”
“Oh, you know that one?” Blu asked. “It caught my interest with how different it looks from the other games. It's all cute and… colourful."
Giving an excited nod, Clover peeked around to see if anyone would bother if she got up, then went to grab the game. “It’s real fun! Violet, Berri and I loved to play it back where we came from.”
She began to explain the rules at Blu’s request, minutes later finding that they had opened the box to look at the cute card images.
Their excitement eventually ripped Azul and Idia out of their argument.
“Look, you’re such a control freak, people grow tired of you already,” Idia growled.
"Waaah!"
Ortho fought his way through the bickering housewarden and flew over to Blu and Clover. “Are you guys going to play? Can I join you?”
“Oh…” Clover blinked in surprise, turning to catch Blu’s reaction.
“I would like to play a round, yeah” the Heartslabyul student smiled. Then, however, he peeked over to Idia and Azul. “But, uh, I don’t know if it would be okay to…”
Still quite pissed, the two made their way over to Clover and Blu as well. Idia’s eyes seemed to widen for a split second when he recognized Clover’s face, leading him to bashfully lower his gaze.
“It seems like you two have made your own plans?” Azul mustered the cards spread on the table. “Well, I can’t quite resent you for that… We ARE off to a rather unpleasant start, due to… CIRCUMSTANCES…”
Idia rolled his eyes at that, but decided to finally let the matter be.
“You two could join us!” Ortho cheered. “I’m sure the other members will find their groups to test out games with, and if not, we can always mix up the groups to a more fitting constellation afterwards.”
Some of the other students were voicing their agreement, the group now seeing that some also had games already placed in front of them.
Azul let out a soft sigh. “This goes against my plans, but…” his lips curled in an equally soft smile. “Who am I to turn down an offer like this?”
Minutes later, the group found themselves around the table, ready to play their first board game of many.
We will not talk about how Azul tried to implement a certain reward for however wins the round… But instead bask in the cute, fun vibes that soon spread across the Board Game Club room…..
