Chapter Text
"Are any of you perhaps vegans?…or vegetarians? 'Cause if you are then I feel the need to run away…" Srs if they were part of the vegan cult she'd kill them with whatever she had with her rn.
After being right, worrying about going to sleep over in general. While walking to a nearby convenience store with her friends, A had gotten run over by a creepy dark carriage and its horses. If the fact that horses were huge creatures, compared to her, wasn't a good enough reason to fear them, this was sure to establish an actual phobia of the creatures.
Suddenly appearing in a dark shut off container wasn't a good way to comfort her either, as nothing seemed to open without having to force herself onto the surface. She banged on one of the walls and hit it with all the force she could and with all her body, finally getting a coffin shaped door to open. Gasping at its shape, she turned to look at her surroundings, and while they were quite beautiful, the sight of at least hundreds of hooded individuals made her heart race.
"What an impatient young lad, I mean really?—Ow! What was that for?!" An Old man in a crow mask tried to say before she threw her bag at his face, the keychains and pins all dangling and crashing down on the cold floor.
"Who are you?! Was I kidnapped??! OH GOD I WAS KIDNAPPED WASN'T I—"
"Calm yourself! I assume your mind is hazy due to the Time-space teleportation…Fear not, Kindhearted Crowley will explain!"
After the crow man explained that the place was a well known academy called "Night Raven College" in some place called "Twisted Wonderland", with some 7 dorms or some harry potter type shit?! She was sure this was a dream.
"We have our final student everyone! Now lets hurry back and—"
"Did you mention that students here study magic?" She asked, picking up her bag and holding it tight in her arms.
"Why yes—"
"OH OK! So next you're gonna tell me that I am somehow rich and get to go on a date with some random ass man to a yogurt lake?! Yeah this is a dream, bye!"
Then she simply walked out, the students muttering to each other, and he—Crowley was it?— yelled at her to come back. Before she knew it, she hear a small voice yell,
"And this is where I come in!" Before a gray cat with blue flame in its ears jumped through a window.
"If the human doesn't want the spot, then I, The Great and Magnificent Grim shall take her place!—"
"A KITTYY" She shrieked, quickly going to pick it up.
"Its the Great Grim! And put me down!" He said, squirming to break free. The audience around them started laughing at the cat, telling it to go back to wherever it came from, and saying how a creature couldn't be a mage.
Before she knew it, the cat was now spitting our the same blue flames from its ears out its mouth, aiming for the crowd. She let go of him, and suddenly, the room was covered in flames, with multiple students running for the exit and others staying behind?! One even got his butt on fire and ran around saying, "Azul! Someone! Help me put this butt fire out I can't take it anymore!" When there was a literal fountain right next to him.
A bit after everyone had left, there was a red headed boy left, walking slowly towards the cat. When the cat was about to fire at him, she rushed to help, pushing him and taking some of the fire herself. Once the attack had ended, she asked him, "Are you okay?!".
He spaced out for a second, and instantly pushed her off, furious at her actions. He yelled at her before turning back to his original target, taking out a small black pen with a little red gem and aiming at the creature. Soon enough, there was a heart shaped color around his neck, half red half black.
"Queen of Hearts Rule #023, One must never bring a cat to a formal affair."
He said. Once the flames had died down, she though, maybe the pain from the fire did too? Maybe they were parallel in the dream. But as she touched the now red spot on her hand, she felt nothing but a sharp sensation clawing through her nerves. So maybe this dream was vivid? Maybe she fell out of her bed…But wasn't she awake before coming here—
"its not enough that you intrude, but you would dare insult me as well!"
How? By asking how he was?!
"That is tantamount to insulting the Queen of Hearts herself, you prodigious buffoon!"
Okay, but what the actual hell does tantamount or prodigious mean?
""I will not tolerate such an affront to the crown! To wit. Your punishment will be swift and righteous. And your head will roll!" The boy sounded like he was about to explode or at least shoot her with how he was pointing that pen at her.
"…Literally or figuratively?" She gulped and genuinely asked, at this point a swift cut at the head felt like the right thing to wake her up no? Like Tanjiro in Mugen Train (Fuck my chud ass life)
The boy growled in anger. Maybe he was like those parents that get mad at you for answering back. A boy with green hair and glasses stepped forward, trying to get the red headed one to calm down, if that was even possible.
"You can't expect him to know all th rules, he's only just arrived—"
"He?! Now I get that sometimes I have more hair than the guys I know, but to the point of calling me he is a bit far!" She answered, standing up in pain.
"Hey we're trying to help you here," Whispered a ginger with a diamond on his face.
"A girl attending this school is unheard of, so is a student without any magical essence—" The red headed boy tried to reason in a very hysterical way, until a mirror spo—A MIRROR SPOKE?!
"It is as the girl says," It began with a deep voice.
"The young woman speaks true. No magic is found in his form or his hue."
"No talent nor gift, his soul devoid. No skill there is to be employed."
Now that's just mean, isn't it?
"This is quite difficult to believe," Said the crow man. "But if it's true, you're not permitted to enroll here, and we must ask the Dark Mirror to return you."
And so he did, if this wasn't a dream, at least she found a way back home. No more sleepover EVER again. The thought of them was always just wrong, trusting another parent with your child in their most vulnerable state of sleep is like, a bit too trustworthy. Sure her mother had known those people for years, but as their children change so do they. I mean, years ago a girl in her class was so cute, almost resembling fluttershy, now she was bullying people for no reason at all? She even barged into her house to harass a girl that used to be her friend! (Yes this did happen once with a friend)
However, at least this old man of a mirror, who was shining too much green light for her taste, would finally guide her home—
"None." eh?
"No such place exists."
"Searched far, have I, through fog and mist."
"the young woman's home does not exist."
How could her home not exist?! She literally lived there, if not she'd be homeless!
"Well—Uh, maybe its some confusion, you see I have double nationality, like, both mexican and from the U.S.. Does that make sense?" she explained to the mirror, hoping it'd understand. But no answer came at all. Then she turned to the other men around.
"..Mexico?" No reaction. "Mexico!" Now in Spanish. "Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos?!" Government name that shit, but they still didn't react.
"Estados Unidos de America, Mexico?! CUALQUIER PINCHE PAIS DEL MUNDO?!—"
"Now now, calm down. I can tell by your behavior this isn't a prank…But whatever land you speak of, I have not heard of it exist at all," The crow man said. It was like salt on a wound. Repeating that her home did not exist. it felt just like the reality of being the woman and probabilities of success going down, then Mexican, then short, then more and more thing that just sucked the hope out of her being.
"Then where the fuck am I?!" She threw the bag on the ground, it could burn for all she cared. She stomped out the room in search of a window, with the rest following after her, yelling at her to come back. Once the view was clear, she couldn't believe it. Boy were flying on brooms, the stars were clearer, the moon so close it'd already be an apocalypse, or there would at least be people outside trying to bring attention to the issue.
"Why'd you run off like that?!" Yelled the red headed boy.
"…Where am I?" She choked out. Her knees finally giving up and crumbling down to the floor. She didn't know her way home. If this wasn't her world she couldn't contact anyone. She was stranded.
The crow man, out of his kindness I suppose, gave her a home, an old and broken down house he claimed to be an old abandoned dorm. The ghosts inside tried to scare her, but she couldn't care less. The rooms were covered in dust and germs, so she took the least destroyed. She'd take up odd jobs around campus, as the man said, to be able to pay for her housing, needs, and more.
The next day, her chore seemed simple: Clean the statues of Main Street. Cleaning was always a good way to de stress for her, even if it was a chore, it was a good way to shut her brain up. And even though there was no service, at least her phone could play whatever she had downloaded…Which were some mp3s she needed for some projects but music is music so it's fine! She rolled her sleeves up and got to work. Using the soap and water bucket she was given to the best of her abilities. One statue was done!…now on to the 6 left that were more and more detailed and complicated than the last..
"Who even are these people…Is that a furry?" She said to herself.
"You don't know the Great Seven?" another ginger boy asked, now with a heart on his left eye (his left our right)
"That sounds like some fairy tale shit…"
"Well, they're the greatest mages from this world, look at that one there! The Queen of Hearts! They say she was able to rule over a kingdom of crazies, because if they broke a rule, it was of with their heads!"
"Sounds like a bitch…"
"HEYyyy…Aren't you the student the Dark Mirror chose? The one without magic?"
A blue haired student appeared next to him, either she was so spaced out she hadn't nticed him, or they could teleport.
"Hey! Don't be so rude to someone you barely know!"
The two were freshmen, Ace Trappola and Deuce Spade. She wondered if their names were just coincidence due to the card symbols on their face, one had a heart and the other had a spade. One acted flirty and the other had a literal spade on his face along with his name.
The three, along with Grim, the cat from the opening ceremony, would eventually burn the statue of the Queen on hearts, almost get expelled, go to an abandoned mine to get a Magestone, fight a monster, and finally be enrolled as students in Night Raven College. A would have to share a student spot with Grim, as Crowley could control them. Soon their adventures would start in this new world, and she'd become an accidental therapist to them all.