#*hands the pan back to ruggie* here you go sorry abt the pan

[distant-velleity]

i don't feel like giving this one a proper header and everything because it's only abt 600 words but

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

(or Davis' first day in Savanaclaw)

-

“So this is the twerp from Royal Sword Academy? He doesn’t look like he fits in Savanaclaw at all.”

Davis feels himself wither under the intense, judging gazes of his new dorm mates.

Sure, he’d been in a rowdy dorm full of horseplay and roughhousing back at RSA, but that had been by their standards. He doesn’t remember being glared at this fiercely under the bright sun and arid atmosphere. And the people he’d known previously hadn’t been this—this built. Or tall. 

Silently, he curses Crowley for leading him here and then promptly ditching him in the maws of a metaphorical (or literal?) beast. What a sham, and then that rude thought is shoved into the pile of things he needs to mentally rid himself of.

“I don’t get why the Dark Mirror assigned me to this dorm either,” he replies defensively, pointedly staring at the gaps between his upperclassmen to avoid meeting their eyes. He knows better than to make eye contact with predators. “So can you just let me through, please?”

The building entrance is right there. It’s so close. Just let me through, for the love of the Seven…

“A real polite guy we got here, huh?” Before Davis can even look affronted, a tiger beastman grabs a fistful of his shirt and pulls. “We don’t let just anyone in here, y’know. Gotta make sure the freshmen are worthy, ‘specially pampered lordlings like you.”

A pampered lordling? He isn’t sure whether he should feel offended or depressed.  Are you kidding me? I’m one of the least pampered Royal Sword students you’ll ever meet—

In any case, even though he feels terrified and totally out of his depth like he did when he first came to RSA and met all the “newsies,” Davis grits his teeth. Fingers clenched into a fist with his thumb wrapped around them, like the guys taught him. Braces himself to draw back and—

Someone’s voice, approaching, interrupts everything. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Aren’t you guys in too much of a rush?” A lanky beastman—hyena, Davis recognizes immediately, those ears look like they came straight from a textbook—strolls over with a hand on his hip. “The lunch line is one thing, but this is just some run-of-the-mill guy. Sure, he’s an RSA guy so there’ll be some fun in hazing ‘im, but…”

He laughs. “C’mon, you guys have got better things to do. Unless you want Leona to tell you the same thing?”

The guy holding onto Davis slackens his grip before letting go altogether. 

Even though he’s Davis’ height and skinnier still, this hyena beastman looks right at home with the others… No, that’s not quite it. They listen to him even if they lack true respect for him, or at least back down when he’s around, so the dynamic is slightly different. And invoking someone else’s name means he must have ties to that person in… power…

Oh, thinks Davis with tired resignation, there’s a hierarchy here too. What was I expecting?

As the upperclassmen disperse, the hyena walks over and clamps a hand down on Davis’ shoulder. It’s supposed to seem friendly, but if anything, it feels more like the weight of a collar and leash. “Sorry about that, new guy, but you’re gonna have to get used to it. The name’s Ruggie Bucchi, and”—he smiles—“I’m gonna be one of your roommates for the rest of the year.”

“Davis Jayme,” Davis says, cautiously. “It’s… a pleasure to meet you.”

Ruggie’s smile shifts just barely into something like a smirk, eyes glinting, and that’s all Davis needs to recognize that the next few months will not be easy on him.

[traumxrei-archive]

pov: gala leona being mean even after you spent 70 pulls on him

me, sobbing, running low on vignette level up material: please...how many more LPs will it take... i've literally maxed out so many cards bc i keep doing flying lessons, and yet...aND YET—! PLEASE JUST REACH MAX LEVEL ALREADY SO I CAN GROOVY YOU !!!

leona, suffering the side effects of taking flying lessons for almost 5 days straight: no. i think the fuck not. i will stay on this cusp for so long you think you're going crazy. look. is there even a gap there ? who knows ? but you're gonna have to go to hell and back to get me maxed out–