Chapter Text
You come from the Island of Woe. Rude as it is, you really thought the place was cursed due to the closed off personalities literally everyone had.
You weren't complaining. Socialising wasn't your strong suit anyway.
But anyway, you were having a nice morning; woke up, brushed your teeth, and immediately jumped back in bed. Whatever more could a shut-in ask for?
Definitely not this.
"Give me your uniform, before I burn it off you!"
Huh?
Not what you expected. The voice didn't sound too human either if the growls meant anything. There was another voice, which sounded much for human, though.
"A raccoon?" Sounded pretty youthful, probably around the same age as you.
Not even a second after, a loud, resounding BANG! echoed through the chamber along with frantic footsteps and even more growling.
Maybe even a fire breathing cat too.
Anyway, not your problem. You casually lean back as if you didn't just hear an attempted arson attempt. You don't remember your bed being this stiff. Or creaky. Or enclosed.
Perhaps your parents weren't happy with the late night gaming you've been having.
You digress. Your new bed wasn't actually that bad; you had to resist the urge to return back to your interrupted slumber.
So you did.
Well, attempted to.
"Hmm? An open door already?" The voice was maturer this time, a nasally hum following after. "Impatient, I see,"
Next thing you know, clicks and metal scraping on metal was all you could hear. Could this guy be any louder?
"Scorch marks? My, my. Someone must've been eager to make their debut!" This guy could not have been louder. Even though you were confined and lacked vision, you still assumed there would be at least some trace of fire.
"Housewardens!" Multiple footsteps sounded. "I entrust you to open the rest of these doors while I find the wild student!"
And with that, the loud and quite frankly, annoying, voice fled.
It's as if the supposed Housewardens agreed with your thoughts. "Huuuh. That crow never finishes anything he does," a deep voice groaned, clearly already fed up.
So were you, but you didn't say anything. Mostly because you were still confined and too afraid to speak your mind.
"No matter, we must get a move on. The sorting ceremony is a sacred tradition, after all," A young, almost-haughty voice commanded. You could already smell the dislike this guy gets without even meeting him.
Not that you wanted to.
A few clicks and screeches later, you finally felt movement on your bed-slash-confinement. The wall in front of you turned out to be a door.
To a coffin.
So, this wasn't your bed. Your parents weren't actually mad.
"Welcome to Night Raven College. Step in line with the other freshmen to get sorted," The almost-haughty voice spoke to you.
Being faced by a commanding force of power wasn't really something you practiced for, or ever would practice for, left you trembling from the thought of disobeying.
You could only nod and scramble off to join the other robed figures not too far from you.
Looking to your right, you could see the commotion from earlier. A completely burned coffin with the door in even worse condition on the floor was avoided by all of the people with you.
So maybe it wasn't a fire-breathing cat.
With you joining the line of other freshmen while waiting for the remaining coffins to be opened, you collected your thoughts.
Floating coffins, cool, detailed robes that felt really nice to touch. Even other people were wearing the robes. Maybe it was a best-seller.
"Freshmen of Night Raven College, we Housewardens welcome you. Please, in an orderly fashion, approach the mirror to be sorted to your dorms,"
This time, the guy speaking sounded even haughtier than the one before. He was taller but held himself in the same manner; confident and probably a lot more powerful than you were.
With no other instruction, the student at the front went foreward.
You mostly zoned out for the whole ceremony, tuning back in when an especially long amount of silence happened.
Like now.
"State thy name," The very threatening mirror boomed. The figure in front of it seemed confident in himself, posture straight and head held high. "Ace Trappola!"
You swore you could see him duck into a bow. Embarrassing.
After a minute or so, the mirror finally opened its mouth. "Heartslabyl!" it boomed. Clearly, the figure did not want to be sorted there if the immediate slouch and sigh meant anything.
The almost-haughty voice from earlier crossed his arms. "Time is of the essence, stop dawdling!"
Wow, you were right. No way anyone likes this guy. Especially you. You hated these types the most.
Eventually, the line shortened until it was your turn.
Your dreaded turn.
You slowly stalked up to the mirror, spine definitely not as straight as that Trappola guy from before, and confidence falling into the Underworld.
The big, intimidating mirror with the mask appeared, staring into your soul. Totally not creepy.
"State thy name," it repeated. At this point, you felt like you could replace it and do it's job.
Your name shakily left your throat, leaving the whole chamber silenced. Not because you were special, no, it's just because they had to be quiet for the mirror to make it's mind up.
Thing is, you didn't actually know what was happening. You don't remember signing up for this at all. You would've remembered if you had agreed to be analysed by a mirror with a mask.
Also, freshmen? If you remember correctly, you did not have the qualifications to be attending a college. Like, at all.
You didn't even remember what a square number was.
So, you definitely shouldn't be here, lest you fail miserably and have to retake every single year.
Your thoughts were interrupted by the big, booming mirror-mask. "Savanaclaw!"
Huh???
Looking to your left, Savanaclaw was NOT where you belonged. If that Trappola kid was disappointed with his placement, then what were you? Bamboozled?
Either way, you slunked your way towards the not-so-haughty dorm leader. He glanced your way, emerald green eyes and all, and sighed.
Great first impressions.
Towards the back of the Savanaclaw crowd stood a very, very tall figure. You weren't that short yourself, but this guy? Even without the large ears atop his head he still stood taller than 6 feet.
You felt humbled.
Either way, you went to stand next to him. Glancing down at you, he nodded before looking forward again.
Again, the almost-haughty voice rung out.
"Listen up. In Heartslabyul, I am the law! Break any rules, and it'll be Off With Your Heads!" He definitely had a stick up his ass.
In front of you, your own dorm head groaned out lazily. "If we're done with sorting, Savanclaw, with me," He gets ready to leave.
Opposite your crowd stood a tall and gorgeous man. He looked pretty familiar. "Hmm? I just noticed the Headmage has been gone this whole time. Where's he gone?"
Another voice popped up, much gloomier and not haughty at all. "He's probably slacking off, as usual..." The voice didn't even have a body. Instead, a floating tablet took the place of the Housewarden. Honestly, he seemed way more laid back than the rest of the Housewardens. Maybe not yours, though.
"Maybe he had a tummy-ache!" An extremely out-of-place and cheery voice suggested. Only to be shut down by the Headmage himself, who slammed the grand doors open, feathery cape fluttering and all.
"Not at all! I was only looking for the lost student who ran away before the gates even opened!" Total social nightmare.
"Go on then, I'll watch your raccoon for you," the Headmage's voice lowered, ushering the lost student to the mirror.
The robed figure walked towards the mirror with as much confidence as a lost student could have. "State thy name,"
Everyone waited in anticipation. "Yuu," the student didn't seem all that shocked about a talking mask inside a giant mirror.
"This soul..." Oh? Finally some detail. "It is unclear to me. The soul possesses no magic, and therefore belongs to no dorm!" It boomed.
Luckily for you, you weren't that student. You couldn't live it down if you were humiliated in front of a bunch of teenagers like Yuu was.
"What?" The intelligent Headmage gasped. "In all my years of teaching, this has never happened! My, how unprecedented,"
Speaking of unprecedented, the wild raccoon that you definitely didn't forget about decided to set himself free.
"Pwah! Then let me have their place!" the crazy raccoon yelled. And just to make it better, he decided to spew fire everywhere too. "Look at this! This is the power of the Great Grim Extraordinaire!"
What a mouthful.
The useful Headmage gasped. "What a mess! Could someone please take this beast away?" You sighed. If he was oh-so-powerful, surely a measly raccoon would be no problem?
It seemed your dorm leader agreed with you. "Aren't you the Headmage? Catch it yourself," it seems he was quite blunt.
The really pretty Dorm head flicked his hair over the shoulder. "Aren't you a lion? Thought you would think of this like predator and prey," he was pretty haughty too.
You felt the side of your head grow warm. The raccoon decided to aim towards you as well. "Ah!" you squeaked, jumping to the left where the tall, wolf guy was.
Instinctually, you used his arm as leverage to swing yourself to his other side, out of the way of the blue flames. The freshman didn't seem too shocked, only a little bit wide eyed from either the wild fire or you swinging on his arm.
Still, no one did anything.
Well, until the haughty guy who was probably a scammer spoke up. "My, it certainly has motive. Riddle, care to help me?"
What's up with everyone sounding super posh?
The red haired, almost-haughty guy walked forward. "Hmph. The Queen of Heart's rule 23 states One shall not bring a cat to a formal affair!" This guy definitely has a stick up his ass.
"I have no choice but to intervene!" These guys are really self righteous, huh?
However, the raccoon didn't seem too happy about any of this. "I'm not a cat, damnit! I am the Great Grim Extraordinaire!"
"What a mouthful," you slipped out, garnering an amused huff from your dorm leader and a smirk from the big wolf beside you.