redacted ★ claude

[infreefall]

i need you to know how much i hate this image

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[infreefall]

So... which were you? The eagle, or the lion?

[riegan]

Neither. At the Academy, there are four houses... four classes, basically.

Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, and Ashen Wolves.

The guy you saw was Prince Dimitri. He's the leader for the Blue Lions class. The princess you saw at the end is in charge of the Black Eagles. The Wolves don't really get out much...

(Which just leaves one,)

People from the Alliance attend the Golden Deer class.

[infreefall]

The Leicester Alliance you mentioned before? Hilda-san's part of it too, right?

[ but if the others have royalty, then... ]

They don't have a prince or a princess like the others?

[riegan]

Yeah. The Leicester Alliance is run by a collection of noble houses but we don't have a monarchy like the Kingdom or Empire.

The closest thing to a King or Emperor we have would be my grandfather, Duke Riegan, who oversees the council. That could change easily, though. If I decided to give up my place, it would probably go to Count Gloucester or Duke Goneril next... that's Hilda's brother.

Our history is... complicated. The Alliance is made up of lands that used to belong to the Empire and Kingdom. We're independent now but the titles we have are holdovers from back then.

[infreefall]

[ well. ochako's listening, but this is... a lot of information for one modern girl who's only heard of most of this in movies? hnnngh, she can barely keep track of her own country's history.

at least that explains the "noble past times" - claude actually is a noble. she hates that! a lot, actually! ]

That's... a lot of titles. Um... congrats on winning?

[riegan]

Thanks. The prince and princess never stood a chance against a genius tactician like me.

(He's so proud of his victory and yet... it doesn't completely feel like his own. Interesting. This should be one of his happiest memories and yet... he isn't nearly as pleased as he thought he would be.

Huh.)

[infreefall]

[ hm. ]

Wouldn't a genius tactician have come up with a better way to defeat their opponent than teasing him about a crush?

[riegan]

Like drawing him into combat away from his allies and picking him off?

(Hmm, that... doesn't quite feel right, though. It's something he would do and yet, he feels like he can't take credit for it. He must have gotten the idea from one of his advisors.)

... I think it would have worked on other people. I guess Dimitri isn't easily swayed by words, though. He's more stubborn than I thought.

[infreefall]

Then maybe you're not as good at judging people as you think?

[ that could maybe explain some things, she thinks. anyway, she's changing into something more like this (except with pink, it's always gotta have some pink). much better for horses! ]

I don't think drawing him away would've been a bad strategy, though--

[ it's when she's putting away the old costume that the skirt she'd been wearing swings a certain way, popping a bubble. both of them are treated to an entirely different scene (10:50-11:40):

restrain as many enemies as they can, huh? a boy in green runs off to play decoy, leaving just ochako and a costumed boy to hide behind the rocks. her eyes linger on his back for a moment longer, before she nods and turns away, eyeing their surroundings: rough, rocky terrain, with loose debris in every direction, just waiting to trip up anyone who gets too reckless. it’s far from ideal for anyone who’s grounded, but for ochako…

“Uraraka, take some of my tape. We can set a trap.”

A nod, as she presses her fingertips together and places one hand on the nearest boulder. “Okay. We can stick it to the rocks, and I’ll make them float. Since Deku-kun’s drawing them together…”

“...we can use the tape to trap them when you drop the rocks.”

it takes another minute to finish setting it up - just enough for the boy in green to draw a crowd. “sero-kun” races out after him, as ochako waits behind a crop of rocks, watching both the duo and the other students following them carefully. the second the boy in green picks the other boy up and jumps away, she hears the signal, checks the positioning one last time, and presses her hands together.

“Release!”

there’s a resounding crash as ten boulders slam into the ground, a chorus of indignant shouts as the tape attached to the debris pins most of the crowd down. only a few stragglers remain, and sero makes quick work of restraining them, too, as he explains their plan to the other boy.

“In order to make sure no one was in a position to be hit by the debris,” ochako says, finally coming into the open to join them, “I hid and figured out the timing!”

a voice echoes across the field: ”Currently, seventy-six people have passed. We will be at capacity soon.”

“We don’t have much time, and I’m sure others will come attack us soon, too. Let’s take these, guys.”

ochako pulls out the balls, and carefully presses them against the sensors stuck to the trapped students. the moment she hits three, her own sensors light up, and a mechanical voice pipes up with, “Those who have passed should go to the anteroom.”

there’s not enough time to worry about the others, so the three walk off to leave the field.

by the time it ends, ochako is looking vaguely puzzled. ]

[riegan]

(It's a curious memory, one that doesn't make complete sense to him so he

Decides to toss out everything he knows. There are no preconceptions, there are no expectations, he only watches what happens in front of him and takes each thing in as it happens. The costumes are unusual-- they're nothing like the armor he's used to seeing people wear. The powers are curious. He's never seen magic or anything like that before either. And it's all so fascinating.

Ah, so that's it, he thinks. It's a sticky trap of sorts, like using a net to catch a large group of people. The rocks are like weights then? It's clever, really. The fact that she's able to do everything without seriously hurting anyone is impressive, too. It takes a good eye and even better timing to pull something like that off. There's definitely more to Ochako than what meets the eye, he thinks.)

I take it that was your school, then? And those were some of the powers in your world?

[infreefall]

Those were quirks, yeah. But that wasn't my school. It was the provisional license exam, for the people who want to become heroes - it's like the first step to becoming pro heroes. I remembered it recently, but I'm still not sure why I was there.