#look my posts havent been showing up on the twst tag so im just living my best insane life out there in the sidelines

[blanketorghost]

Welcome to Yuuposting pt. 3 this time... relationship charts! Side A is Yuu's perspective, Side B is other characters' perspective. Template can be found here!!

Some relationship highlights + doodles ahead (possible spoilers for Book 7!!)

1. Special

Ace, Deuce, Epel, Jack, Ortho: Yuu, despite being a freshman in NRC, still is 18 years old and was a university student back on earth. This obviously means he's slightly more mature than his other peers and has kind of taken the role of pseudo big brother of the first years and has also unofficially made them Ramshackle dorm members. Each (aside from Ortho) even getting their own bedroom to hang out in whenever they need a break from their official dorms. To Yuu, it is a bit weird to have this newly found authority. He was a younger brother and even the youngest in his friend group for the longest time, so he feels a newly found sense of responsibility towards his weird, rambunctious set of children.

Grim: Yuu used to have a black cat named Kafka back home, so when he found out he'd be babysitting Grim on the daily, he thought it would be pretty similar to taking care of a pet. Of course, he was woefully wrong. At first, he found it extremely annoying to have to take care of what was essentially a superpowered toddler, but now he has become extremely protective of little Grim. Even awakening a 'maternal instinct' as he likes to call it. Yuu and the ramshackle ghosts are the only family Grim knows of, so his little mind considers Yuu, his primary caretaker, as some sort of parental figure.

Trein: Yuu is this lost, barely legal child that is being used by the headmaster to do his dirty work with the looming threat of being thrown out if he does not succeed. As a self-respecting teacher who cares about his students, Trein couldn't just ignore the poor kid! Of course he cannot play favorites with his students while in class, but he still worries. Trein is also very displeased with Yuu cheesing it through his classes, and after learning he could even be a straight A student with a little more motivation, he does not hesitate to push Yuu to achieve his full potential. After learning that Yuu had to stay in Ramshackle over the winter vacation, basically doing janitorial work, Trein has offered Yuu a place at his home instead. If Yuu ever decides to stay in Twisted Wonderland permanently, Trein has also voiced his concerns about documentation, and has off-handedly offered once or twice to legally adopt him into his family. For documentation only.... of course. Yuu respects Trein a lot, and truly sees him as a mentor/father figure he can trust whenever he gets into trouble that he may not be able to handle all on his own. He may get annoyed at the fact that he can no longer purposefully half-ass his work at Trein's classes, but he appreciates the challenge— especially when he never had that sort of motivation growing up. Also, Trein is great at babysitting Grim.

2. Best Friends

Riddle & Trey: Look. If you're friends with Riddle, best friends even, you are automatically friends with Trey. They are a package deal, period. That said, Riddle, Trey and Yuu have shared custody of the Ace2 duo, so of course they have stories aplenty to share about their dumb, dumb friends' shenanigans. Yuu also really values having friends his age and especially friends he can reliably trust and not look after like a distressed mother hen. After Riddle's overblot, Yuu does feel a little bit bad that he got sorted into such a strict dorm, but Trey assures him that Riddle's truly best suited for it. Either way, Yuu's always invited to the monthly unbirthday parties (Even when he complains about Heartslabyul's "gaudy" uniforms).

Vil: Them becoming best friends was a surprise to everyone, especially Vil and Yuu themselves. After SDC and Vil's draconian training of the NRC boy group, he was able to piece together that Yuu had some sort of musical experience judging by his management and mentoring of some of the members (mainly Deuce and Kalim). This ended up becoming the route in which they'd become unlikely friends, as Yuu's view of musical performance as a hobby clashed with Vil's extreme dedication to the arts. Either way, the two balance each other out. Vil pushing Yuu to practice and perfect his rusty knowledge, and Yuu encouraging Vil to have more fun with his art. While true they grind each others' gears very often and most of their conversations are comprised of insults, they are very close and are literally ride or die for each other.

Kalim: Look, Yuu loves Kalim. He really does. But does Yuu think of him as his best friend? Hell no. Yuu distinguishes his best friends from his regular friends by the amount of trust he has on them to keep his secrets and Kalim... He's got a pretty lose mouth unlesss it comes to Jamil. Kalim, on the other hand, thinks everyone is his best friend... he is literally so lovely but at what cost. Yuu's very protective of him.

3. Crushes and General Romance

Azul/Yuu's perspective: Yuu didn't mean to get a crush on this conman. He really did not. He loathes the fact that Azul has managed to sneak his way into his heart and refuses to let go. It is even more embarassing to admit that Yuu caught feelings for him as soon as they first spoke. He was immediately attracted to his wit and cunning, how his each move was so carefully calculated to provide the best possible outcome. After it was revealed that Azul wasn't actually a genius like Yuu, but that he actually had to study and hone his abilities, and also how he was actually an (absolutely adorable) underdog during his childhood, Yuu's admiration for Azul only grew, him coming to truly appreciate and adore that stupid octo-jerk's personality even more. He knows having feelings for NRC's most notorious blackmailer is extremely dangerous, and so he is very tight-lipped about his crush and only has allowed his best friends to be privvy to that info (mostly so they can slap some sense into him). He doesn't really hate Azul. In fact, he thinks that if he didn't have a crush, they could have been pretty good friends. What he hates is how vulnerable he feels around him and how, if Azul somehow learnt about Yuu's crush on him, he most definitely will use those feelings to his advantage. This is why Yuu keeps his interactions with Ashengrotto to a minimum— having to pretend he is not absolutely head over heels for this stupid cephalo-punk gets exhausting fast.

(I know Grim picked this up from Yuu gushing over Azul's grade school pic. I know it.)

Yuu/Azul's perspective: (Un)fortunately, Yuu's confusing feelings for Azul can only be rivaled by Azul's themselves. At first Azul didn't think much of Yuu. Sure, he'd solved some overblot cases with the power of friendship or whatever, but he had never thought that Yuu would not only beat him at his own game, but that he was aware of his every move all that time! Azul had finally found a proper intellectual rival, and he couldn't wait to win their next rematch. Yet, Yuu kept on surprising him in many other ways. First, by revealing that Yuu had been hiding his own academic potential under a guise of mediocrity— having Grim as his perfect mask and lowering his GPA to a fairly believable rate. And second, by subtly pointing Azul towards Jamil as the possible cause for Kalim's sudden bout of madness. Yuu seemed to be always one step ahead. Even when he fumbled, he still managed to regroup and recover so quickly, it seemed impossible to Azul that Yuu would be completely magicless. And not only that, but through some kind of ungodly power, Yuu managed to chip away at the walls he had put up for years. Azul felt at ease, comfortable even, whenever he and Yuu hung out— even if it wasn't as often as he would like. Behind all of the banter about contracts and shady deals, Azul found himself trusting Yuu even more than the Tweels themselves (not like he trusted them that much either...). The insecure, pudgy, nerdy octopus of his childhood came out and was completely embraced by Yuu with absolutely no judgement. Overall though, his crush on Yuu is often overshadowed by his much more prominent crush on Jamil, one that is certainly less confusing and, therefore, much more easy to focus on rather than the undescifferable mess that are his feelings for the Ramshackle prefect.

Malleus: Look, its no secret that Malleus has a gigantic puppy love crush on Yuu. He has been intrigued and enamored by the odd huamn's behaviour ever since that one fateful night at Ramshackle dorm. Though fairly rusty on his courting knowledge, he sure does try. And he tries real damn hard. When Yuu left Twisted Wonderland, Malleus' biggest regret was never properly confessing how he felt— and yet he cannot find the courage to tell him how he feels even after Yuu has chosen to stay indefinitely. Yuu, on the other hand, considers Tsunotaro to be a very trusted friend. Maybe if he wasn't so cryptic and if they spent more time together, he would even be promoted to best friend status someday. Yuu is sort-of-kind-of aware of Malleus' crush. And he wishes he could return his feelings. But, as his bad luck would have it, his heart is already dead-set on a certain, annoying cephalopod.

Jamil: Though Yuu does not harbor any romantic feelings for Jamil, the biggest, and most obvious reason he cannot stand the guy is pure and unfiltered jealousy. He is jealous that Azul shamelessly flirts with Jamil only to be met with a cold shoulder. He hates how, every time Jamil mentions Azul off-handedly and his advances, it makes him wish he was in Jamil's place instead. And what he hates the most is that Azul seems to forget Yuu's existence whenever Jamil is nearby. Either way, he cannot completely hate Jamil because, if Azul's crush on him is obvious, then Jamil's own disastorous crush on Kalim can be seen through space. Yuu, once again, thinks that if it weren't for his crush on Azul, they'd be on fairly okay terms with each other.