NOTES:

—————

Although the current plan for today had now changed to "Avoid Ace at all costs", it felt practically enviable she was doomed by the time they'd reached the Alchemy classroom.

The good news was, they were still able to lose their shit in mutual respect when Crowley appeared out of thin air to drag them and the other current members of the first year idiots alliance to his office.

After a quick mental recap, it clicked that this was probably leading to the explanation of blot scene, which she had totally NOT forgotten about in the mayhem of her first few days here.

A distinct difference she noticed upon entering the office however, was the rest of the Overblot fighters, Lilia, Cater, Trey and Nevermore, plus Riddle and a seemingly invisible to most Che'nya, considering he had yet to be banished by Crowley, were present.

This revelation , however, did not stop her from wanting to bang her head against the wall from mental exhaustion the second Crowley started speaking.

—————-

"In light of..ah..Recent events, we have brought you here to discuss some matters, the first being the Overblot.  I am of the assumption many of you don't know what it is—Yes, Mr. Spade?"

Deuce was standing, raising his hand, before awkwardly sitting back down.

"After everything happened, I tried to find out about it, but not much came up.  What I was able to find said it was something about overuse of magic?"

The Headmage seemed oddly impressed, Che'nya giving the Heartstabyl Freshman an invisible pat on the head as Crowley cleared his throat before continuing on.

"Correct, Mr. Spade, an Overblot is....."

Ophelia began zoning out near instantly as he droned on, in no way interested in discussing what she already knew. 

Che'nya seemed to be of the same opinion as he summoned a ball of yarn, and began some form of Juggle-Knitting before Riddle whacked his shoulder and whispered about him being disruptive, even though he ironically could only be seen by 3 people in the room at the moment.

She was completely staring off when a bubble popped infront of her, courtesy of Elephys, to get her attention, another bubble turning into an arrow pointing to Crowley, who was looking directly at her.

𝑺𝑯𝑰𝑻!

Snapping herself back into reality as fast as she could, Ophelia squished herself against the couch.

"Uh...Sorry, Did you say something? Other then the Overblot explanation stuff?"

Ace snickered as The Headmage drummed his golden claw rings on the desk.

"I take it you weren't listening?"

𝑭𝒖𝒄𝒌, 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝒊𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉.

"You said that blot accumulation is triggered by using magic in general, and an excess use of magic, coupled with high strung emotions, can result in an overblot.
The good news is, only really powerful mages can overblot.
The bad news is the thingamagigs behind the overblotted person basically wring them dry, so if the person in question isn't stopped in time, they're a goner, and it only leaves behind the Shade...Phathom...y thing."

Looking back to the group, everyone seemed to just be looking at her in an odd way that could only be described as "What the hell was that.",
a fact that made her slightly squirm in her seat.

When Crowley held his chin in that "thinking sprite"sort of manner, she knew for sure she had fucked up.

"All that is true, yes, but that isn't what I said at all. I intended to wait til after the demonstration to explain in detail, but you have gone and done me that favor of doing it in such simplicity!
I must say, you seem to be quite knowledgeable on the topic!"

Aces annoyingly victorious smirk at her slip, plus her trying to squirm herself deeper into the couch helped in no way shape or form to her anxieties.

"Thanks...? Uh, just a bit of research goes a long way, y'know?"

What Ace did not need to do in the situation was absolutely terrify her by leaning over just to whispering "Liar" right in her ear.

Deuce did her the honor of pushing his face away, which did start a quiet bickering war between the two while she and Grim sat in between, herself praying to escape the situation sometime soon.

——————————

After mostly everything had been figured, Riddle was in no way letting Crowley off without the demonstration, which unlike the original scene, they were forced to walk through an underground "shortcut" to the seemingly unmentioned ingame indoor training area.

To escape Ace (again), she intended to start up a conversation with Riddle to the best of her abilities as the group trailed behind the Headmage, but Cater coming over to her was a huge change in plan.

He was doing some odd thing where he waved his phone around as he talked, which distracted her quite a bit from actually listening.

"Ok, not to sound creepy, but I know you haven't picked a club yet, right?"

"How do you know that?"

"It would have been all over Magicam, trust me! So, any clubs in mind?"

"Uh.......not to be rude, but why do you ask?"

Another jumpscare was Nevermore, who was walking far infront of the group, answering the question.

"Ace Trappola is in Basketball, Deuce Spade in Track, Vyr Ambrose in Science, Elephys Pachydubb is interested in Film, and the beast sleeping on your shoulder created his own club, Gastronomy.

"Hold up-'!"

It would be a lie to say Ace speeding up to be closer to the aviary before questioning him was a surprise, but Deuce being the first one to talk was unusual in this situation.

"Why do you know our clubs?"

"It was on a sheet of paper in the hall, I read aforementioned sheet of paper out of curiosity. Case closed."

Ace was having absolutely none of this, if the scowl on his face said anything.

"Yea? Well you didn't need to memorize it!"

"And you didn't need to be born. Atleast one of the two resulted in something useful."

All that followed was a choked silence until Lilia chirped up, giving who she guessed was Ace a quick pat on the shoulder as he did.

"Don't take it to heart, I suppose something just has his feathers ruffled today. Back to the question at hand,  any clubs in mind?"

𝑵𝒐𝒑𝒆, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒓 𝒑𝒉𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆.

Wringing her hands, she stared down at her feet for a moment while speaking.

"Not exactly.  I guess I just planned to use that time to relax at the dorm or catch up on things if I need to."

Riddle did an immediate 180, arms crossed with a stern frown.

"So you just intend to slack off during a required enrichment course?"

𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻

She couldn't help from glancing around between the group, who seemed completely unfazed by that.

"Clubs are required?! Are you kidding me?"

"Did you not read the handout?"

"I gave it to Grim! Clubs were never required back home so I just-"

Treys voice cut through, which was a shock, considering how quiet he had been.

"I think I get it.  You're dealing with an entirely new school system, right?"

Nodding, she looked up.

"Yea, back where I'm from, we don't exactly have Astronomy, Flying or Practical Magic,and Chem is the closest thing to Alchemy.
Clubs have always been optional, after school or during lunch things."

"Thats what I guessed. It makes sense that you're used to something completely different. Maybe pick a club that would be more relaxing at the end of the day?"

Just listening to him speak felt near therapeutic, additionally a little silly when he shot Ginger no.2 a joking grin.

"And if its any help, the reason Cater and Lilia were curious is because the Pop Music Club needs one more member, or its going to shut down in a few days.

The only reason they haven't is because they convinced Crowley that you and Ace couldn't exactly pick a club while in a coma, so he should hold off on disbanding it until you two were back in classes.

Don't let them rush you, but you've been warned, they're getting desperate."

Cater made a face that reminded her of a hamster with its cheek pouches full, a puffed out pout of sorts, while Lilia just laughed.

"You Trey-Tor!"

"You guys were hoping she didn't know clubs were part of the curriculum, right?
I'm guessing thats why you invited her to visit, too?"

"If we're not considering alternative motives, then Guilty as charged!"

"Lils, what alternative motive are you talking about? Did I miss a text or something?"

A shiver went down her spine when he grinned, raising a hand to his chin.

"Oh, fret not, its just a little something she can't refuse."

𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒘  𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚  𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒅

As it intentionally desiring to make her life more stressful, everything went dark , and she felt that gut dropping feeling of being teleported.

————

Perhaps it was due to the lack of witty response or Banter, but Ace and Deuce going quiet had him unnerved, however, Ophelias silence raised his suspicion to the point of turning around once more.

Only Trey, Cater, Lilia, Nevermore and himself remained in the hallway. Something was undoubtedly wrong.

"Where have the other freshman gone?"

"Hey, Headmage? I think we lost the freshies—Headmage?"

Cater glanced in every direction, but the Masked Educator was nowhere to be seen.

Two possibilities he could think of remained, so he addressed the one he felt most likely.

"Artemiy Artemiyevich Pinker, if this is a some form of ill humored prank, You will lose your head!"

"Taste Testing and Snack Privileges too."

Only an echo of their own voices followed.

Trey's threat of free dessert removal always made Che'nya reveal himself or cease whatever buffoonery he was up to. 𝐀𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬.

It struck him now that the hallway they had been lead to was not at all familiar.
The upper floor and lower floor training grounds he had visited many times, and they had been going in the exact direction of it, meaning they were directly beneath it.

A large barrier now covered their exit, and all the light from the room vanished, along with the aviary fae, Nevermore.

The Vice of Diasomnia's eyes darkened as he drew his pen, Riddle and the others following suit.

"I say we separate into groups, Cater and Trey, go left, Riddle and I will take the right. If you find any of them, have Cater message me."

"Understood."

—————————————-

Hehehehehe things about to get funky

Also, three OCs in the next chapters ! Whoop!

ONFORTH!