I’M SO GLAD YOU LIKE IT :DDDD
I still have so many other thoughts about them that I cut out of my original ask for time!
Like imagine even if the first years hate themselves and what they’ve become they still see their friends’s good traits and don’t understand why they would be ashamed of them.
Maybe the one thing Sebek has for himself and no one else is his hobby of writing. Maybe he writes these beautiful stories, poems, analyses that are so good and so rich in passion and emotionally they could be professionally published. Yet he hides them, posting them online under a disguised pseudonym, treats them like a guilty pleasure he should get rid of, because according to him they are nothing but prove of his immaturity and weakness compared to those around him who seem so composed.
And Deuce cannot for the life of him fathom why because to him Sebek writing shows just how strong he is, how talented in so many fields, and how intelligent and empathetic he can be. Everything he wants himself to be but cannot achieve because he’s just not good enough. Not good enough for his mother, not good enough for himself, not good enough for the group of people he finds himself with. He is ashamed of himself for his inability to be better.
Despite that Ace can’t see Deuce as anything other than incredible. Can’t help but envy his persevere and endless drive to pull himself higher and higher. Even when he fails he keeps facing the problem head on over and over again, so completely unlike Ace. Who can only hide and run when faced with defeat, who when faced with Riddle’s temper for barely a month ran while Deuce stood strong for years. Who is so stubborn and confrontational he can’t even hold a job down for more than a year.
While Jack looks at him and sees a sort of freedom he always yearns for. The tenacity to say everything that’s on his mind, to stand up against the injustice and the cruelty that plagues the world around them and the strength to keep doing so even when those actions causes him harm. He wishes he could do the same, wishes that he had the guts to do it, wishes he could change compared to the complacency that keeps his afloat like a coward.
But when Epel looks at him he is filled with admiration and envy for Jack’s confidence. Because Jack is comfortable in his own skin. Because he can exist in a world that nips and ridicules him for being him without blaming himself. He can have the endurance to outlast them compared to Epel who blows a gasket every time, who has no patience, and no self control or respect. Who looks like a fool every time he tries.
Yet Yuu wishes they had that anger. They wish they had the stubbornness to asset themselves, to repeat over and over again who they want to be and who they were even when the world forces label after label on them. They wish they had the power to hold onto every part of themselves and not let go no matter what people thought.
Even so Ortho admires their ability to change and to cause change. To make themselves heard and seen, to push against the tides of circumstance and fate around them no matter the odds. To come out on the other side different from what they were before. He admires so much of their independence, something he cannot have himself.
And when it comes all around Sebek looks at Ortho with admiration. Because Ortho is strong where he isn’t. Ortho understands people where he doesn’t. Knows how people feel and knows how to act when he can do neither.
All of them have their own flaws and problems but they still also have strengths inside them that only the others can point out and force them into realizing and growing
Additionally I think it could be fun if the rest of the upperclassmen had their own parallel story line as well
For example while trying to find out more information about their attackers the group run into the gang’s other target Prince Kalim and his assistant Jamil who was brought along side him on vacation. So the groups are forced to work together for their mutual benefit not knowing that one of them has less than pure intentions that ultimately spike the group’s danger and paranoia
And then maybe the group gets desperate enough to ask for outside help, but considering one of them is an active fugitive beforehand, another is not legally a person, and the rest of them cannot fathom asking their superiors for any sort of help they cannot go to the police, or any of the upperclassmen. So they turn to the only other option, a certain octopus and his two henchmen who most definitely has his hands in underground businesses —who coincidentally is also at risk of this gang damaging his business empire— forming a deal that brings them to the other side of the law by necessity
Both instances drive the first years deeper into hiding, switching off their phones, avoiding cameras at all costs, using magic to hide themselves, trying their very best to stay hidden while uncovering the situation the got themselves in
On the other side of the city the police finally manage to gather a contentious group of people into the same room.
A famous actor, a disgraced prince, a tablet, and many others who look like they would rather be anywhere else rather than here. But still they stayed in their places watching the grainy street camera footage of 7 figures disappearing down the street late last night chased by unknown pursuers, somehow the only evidence they have of the group.
The police are predictably unable to help in any other way, so our beloved upperclassmen have to take matters into their own hands and work (sorta) together to get their people back even though most of them dislike each other and the last time they’ve seen one another is in high school.
A extremely difficult task as they now suddenly can’t contact the first years, tracking magic doesn’t work, and they have to get their raging problems with each other and with themselves under control to actually get anywhere.
But as we know they are nothing but stubborn and will do everything they can to find their people. And as we also know the only ones to match that stubbornness is the first year, who will attempt absolutely anything to prove themselves and avoid asking for help
Creating a goose chase as our 7 tries to outpace the gang after them, the police, the upperclassmen (and the consequences they bring) while the upperclassmen tear through the city trying to find them, narrowly missing at every turn
(I still am conflicted on whether the overblots should happen in this universe or not, because on one hand I’m pretty sure that’s the only way anyone would get these idiots to talk about their emotions, but on the other I’m not sure there’s enough time to fit in 8 overblots and also the drastic difference between Malleus the (undeniably strong but still a) student overbloting and Malleus goddamn Draconia future king of Briar Valley overbloting so please give me your opinion on that if you want to :D )
Thank you again for your additional ideas!!!
banger after banger, like srsly what
i can't emphasize enough how so ridiculously SCRUMPTIOUS it is for all of the freshmen to internally hate themselves, meanwhile every other person in the group is looking at them like "this. this is the person i should've been". it's like they're glimpsing into our world, the world they never got, where their friendship in nrc helps them in ways they can't describe, and it only makes them hate themselves all the more.
i wouldn't say the group of this universe is toxic necessarily, but they are unintentionally rubbing the salt in each other's wounds, and it's so so so so so GOOD.
and the fACT THAT OUR MAIN CAST COMING BACK TOGETHER IS A CANON EVENT LIKE HONESTLY. LIKE THESE FREAKS CAN'T STAY AWAY FROM EACH OTHER HUH. LIKE IT ALWAYS GOTTA BE THIS WAY HUH. the freshmen don't really trust kalim, jamil, azul, or the tweels (not like they do in our universe, anyway (except for kalim)), but they're forced to rely on them. it could've been anybody else in twisted wonderland, but no, it was them.
i can imagine that kalim hands the first-years some money so they can set themselves up in a decent apartment so they can lay low for a few days so they don't get caught, and azul's restaurant automatically becomes a meeting spot so they can strategize on how to get out of this mess.
on the flipside, can u imagine how insane it would be to be called into a missing persons investigation that's linked to a criminal organization, and u show up, and every single other person they've called to interview are all somehow people you knew back in high school. like that is so funny and like straight-up ya novel level shit.
and, like it or not, all of the upperclassmen are worried about their subordinates. the diasomnia group most of all since they've known sebek the longest, but i imagine the others aren't doing so well, either. bcuz, like i said, this is straight-up ya novel level shit, and so that means smth's going down.
and the first-years are literally doing everything they can to avoid getting caught by them. epel starts wearing long overcoats and fake mustaches whenever they go out for groceries. deuce teaches everyone how to properly dye their hair. sebek starts wearing contacts and headphones to avoid his reptilian eyes and his fae ears. everytime they have to go out, they bring ace, who can come up with a good distraction in a hurry if they ever get caught.
i imagine this is where they would start to bond. they're forced to live together, so might as well at least try to get along. it's rough at first, but like in the original universe, the adversity of their situation brings them all together.
as for the overblots, i'm unsure. the first-years don't really have a reason to go directly against the upperclassmen in this universe (in fact, you could say they're actively avoiding engaging with them, lol), and so, four of the main overblots can never happen.
without ace and deuce, riddle never overuses his signature spell, and thus, never overblots; without yuu and jack, leona never gets caught in whatever sabotage he's come up with this time, and so, no overblot; without ace, deuce, yuu, and jack, azul's scams never lead to his contracts getting sanded and so he never overblots either; without yuu, jamil never gets found out for his scheming, and so he doesn't lose it and overblots.
the only people i can reasonably think of that would still overblot regardless of the freshmen's involvement are vil and malleus, because those were due to entirely external factors that had been building up for a very long time. but again: this is a universe where assumably nobody overblotted in high school, so i don't think they're about to start now.
which is a shame, because i desperately want the overblots to happen, because it would make the freshmen's trust/avoidance issues SO much worse, and i live for that tasty, tasty angst.
(and like sebek would be the worst, because can you imagine? you live your whole life dedicated to this one guy and this one family, but the very second you start to stray, start forming your own identity, start building genuine friendships, he goes and overblots and almost kills you and everything else you were starting to hold dear.
and for the first time in your life, you resent your liege and everything he stands for.
like if that happened to me, that would destroy me, that is the worst possible thing that could happen.)
anyway, if you can come up with a good reason for them to overblot anyway, i'd be glad to hear it, lol.
