Chapter Text
The thing about emotional conversations is that, on one hand, you want to have them. You have words you need to get out, maybe you need to cry in someone’s arms and have your thoughts be reaffirmed of denied. On the other hand, emotional conversations require you to be vulnerable in a way that you usually aren’ts and that can be very uncomfortable, if not painful should the person you’re having this conversation with reject you.
It’s a double edged sword, so to speak. Which is probably why it takes a mental breakdown for most of us to engage in one.
Eric had yet to let go of his son ever since he found out about Vil’s overblot. Theatrics aside, he was genuinely distraught at finding out his son had been bottling up so many negative emotions that it caused him to almost die. How do you, as a parent, live with that? To say Eric felt like a failure of a father would be putting it mildly. And that he didn’t even know about it until Vil’s teacher informed him??? Getting shot would be less painful.
Meanwhile, in Vil’s mind, he was a mess. The overblot was one of the most embarrassing and dirty things he had ever done, in his opinion. I mean- How? How do you loss yourself to your emotions so badly that you try to kill people? He knew the mechanics behind it, but that doesn’t change the fact that he felt incredibly ashamed of his behavior. Perhaps that is why he never told his father about it. He couldn’t stand the thought that his father, who he loved and looked up to, would look at him with shame in his eyes.
“So…” Vil eventually broke the silence that resonated through the office. Eric held him tighter.
“... maybe we should sit down,” the elder said after a few seconds. They migrated to the nearby plush couch. It was a little awkward as they refused to part, but eventually they got there. The silence continued to stretch.
“Do you want to start?” Eric prompted his son, to which Vil hesitantly agreed.
“Do you remember the VDC?” Vil decided to begin, to which Eric nodded, a little confused but wanting Vil to continue.
“Our performance, it was a little rusty, was it not? I mean, don’t get me wrong, i was happy with my team but- the reason it wasn’t as good as it had been during practise or in the teaser video shot just before that is because I overblotted an hour before we went on stage.”
Eric drew in a sharp breath and Vil looked down, ashamed.
“When Neige's teaser video of his, quiet frankly unimpressive, performance went viral and still got more praise than my teams did, i lost it,” Vil took a shacky breath, “I tried to kill him.”
Eric chocked, “Vil-”
“I know, i’m sorry. I- I don’t know what came over me, but i tried to poison him. I was jost so tired of always being second place to him, even when i felt i did much better. No matter what i do, I’m always the villain- Always the bad guy! I doesn’t matter if i’m nice, or beautiful, or work harder, or care- it’s never enough!”
Vil was crying now, tears rolling down his cheeks. It was quiet the ugly sight, actually, but Eric didn’t care about that. He cared that his son was in such distress and he didn’t notice.
Vil took a minute to collect himself, “I know i shouldn’t be jealous. It’s ugly and he probably also worked hard to get so far, but why is it that i can only be his enemy? Why is it that people only view me as the bad guy, as vile and cruel. What did i do to them!? All i want, for once, is to be the hero. Be the person the people look up to and root to win. But it’s as if they think i can’t do it, especially when he is there. I’m just so tired Papa. Tired of being viewed as a villain, when i don’t think i’ve done anything to actually give that impression.”
The younger schoenheidt let out a shaky breath, “so i thought, if being a villain was the only way to win, then i’ll be a villain like they’ve never seen before.”
“Vil…” eric looked at his son sadly. Vil rubbed his eyes.
“I know, i never should have done that, but i was just so tired and mad. It felt like i couldn’t breath so i lashed out.”
“-and that’s when you overblotted.” Eric finished, to which Vil nodded.
“Vil,” Eric began, “no matter what you do, not matter who you play, you will always be my son, and i will always love you. I can’t say that it was good that you tried to kill neige, but truthfully, i am more concerned about the fact that you almost died!”
Vil blinked up at him in surprise.
“Don’t look at me like that, I’m your father. I can be selfish if i want, especially when it comes to my child.”
Vil snorted a laugh in surprise. Eric held his hands.
“Vil, do you have any idea how terrified i was when i found out that there were overblots at your school? That there is rumors of kidnapping attempts? Do you have any idea how scared i was when Proffesor Trein told me that you were one of the overblotters?” he asked.
Vil looked away, embraced, “I didn’t want you to know.”
“I could have lost you. You could have died and i wouldn’t have known untill after the fact. You could have been injured and i would be oblivious untill someone finally decided that i should be informed that MY SON is in the hospital. Please, I don’t care what you do, but tell me when these things happen. Everything else can wait, but their child getting hurt or dying is every parent’s worst nightmare.”
Both father and son were crying at this point as they hugged Vil nodded into the embrace, “alright, Papa. Love you.”
“I love you too.” they stayed like that for a little while.
Then the doors burst open to show Crowely, who immediately looked like he regretted the decision, “Oh, you’re still here?”
Eric was even more enraged after the talk they just had, “YOU MOTHERFUCKER-”
____________________________________________________________________________
Back in the library, while Yuu and Riddle were writing up the statements, Jamil had taken the despondent Kalim to the side.
“Alright, what’s wrong?” Jamil asked bluntly. Kalim let out a whine. Jamil raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.
“Words, Kalim. I cannot help you if i don’t know what you want.”
Kalim whined louder.
“Oh, for fucks sake- Kalim-!”
“I don’t want you to get in trouble!”
“Hah?”
“I know we didn’t tell our families anything and we’re working to make sure no one knows about your overblot, but my parents are smart. They’ll figure it out for sure even if we do manage to keep it hidden from the public, and i don’t want them to hurt you!”
“Kalim, it’s fine-”
“You could die!”
“-I could also die testing your food for poison. Or protecting you from an assassin. Or scanning gifts sent to you for bombs.”
“That is not helping!”
“Kalim, panicking won’t help us either.”
“Well- well then- We’ll just kill them!”
“-exCUSE ME WHAT!?!”
“Yeah! I mean, it’s not as if most of my family members hasn’t tried to kill me before. Really, they shouldn’t complain-”
“Hold on, hold on- your parents-”
“I’m sure they’ll understand-”
“Kalim, if you kill them, on my head it be!”
That finally kalim to shut up,”...”
“Kalim,” Jamil let out a rough sigh, “as long as i am alive, i will always be treated as your scapegoat- you might not want it, but that is what will happen. So i need you to snap out of it and actually think of this that will help.”
Kalim scowled, “but that’s not fair-!”
“Welcome to my life.”
“Jamil. I know we have only recently started to reconnect, and i know that i’ve only really just started actually acknowledging our situation. But whether or not you doubt me, i do care about you. More than anything. Please let me protect you for once.”
Jamil considered him for a moment and they sat in silence. Then Jamil flicked him in the for head.
“-ow!”
“Fine, but if you’re going to try that, you’re going to do so in a way that’ll actually work and not expedite my execution.”
Kalim tackled him in a hug, causing them both to go down.
“Thank you!” Kalim’s voice was muffled by jamil’s clothes. Jamil just sighed, “yeah, yeah.”
A bit further away, Yuu and Riddle did their best not to over hear them.
“.... if anyone asks, you’re blind and i’m death.” Yuu deadpanned.
“Understandable.”
____________________________________________________________________________
Outside, a small group of white clade students made their way through the daunting woods.
“Ow, ow, ow, i just stepped on a rock- why is it so sharp??”
“Are you ok- pfeee- a branch just hit me in the face!”
“Why is it so dark? It’s the middle of the day!”
Archer let out a tired sigh as he brought up the rear, “I swear to god, if we’re caught by security, or worse: the NRC students, i’m leaving you to your fates.”
“Oh, common Archie! It won’t be that bad, and i’m sure that Night Raven would appreciate our support!”
“You do know that what we’re doing is illegal, right?”
Rielle paused at that, “i’ve never done something illegal before…”
Archer looked to the heavens to give him strength, “rielle, we’re princes. ‘Illegal’ doesn’t really exist for us.”
“Really!?”
Archer stared at him, “that sounded a little too excited.”
Rielle pouted, “what? I can break the rules too!”
“Didn’t you use to bully your now crush? Fairly certain you’ve gotten away with enough bad things already.”
“Ok, ok, i get it.”
“Are you sure you’re going in the right direction, Chenya?” Neige asked the cat, breaking up the building argument. The cheshire was rather entertained by the back and forth, but answered Neige anyway.
“Of course! I have Purrfect memory and we should be reaching the a path of the campus right around… now!”
They came face to face with Leona, Jack, and a group of mixed savanaclaw and diasomnia students.
“Uhoh.” Neige yelped.
“Uhhhhhhh, hi?”
You could hear Archer facepalming in the background. Leona in turn looked like the gods themselves cam down to punish him.
“Right, just to get it out of the way: you’re RSA students?”
“Yeeeessss.”
“No one else is with you?”
“Not that we know of.”
“Anyone know you’re here?”
“Nooooooooo…”
Leona pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head, “i am so holding this over Falena for the rest of time. That’s what he gets for bragging about how good RSA is.”
“Right,” he snapped back to attention, “why are you here?”
“We’re here!” Neige interrupted Archer from apologizing for their intrusion, “to make sure you guys are ok!”
The group of NRC students stared at him, completely unimpressed. Awkward silence ensued before the only sensible prince stepped forward.
“Neige and Rielle have the hots for two of the students here, Vil and Azul, so they want to make sure they are alright,” He explained, much to the two’s protest.
“Archer!”
“What? You guys are painfully obvious.”
The NRC students continued to stare. Finally, Leona sighed, “fine, not like we can do anything about it, given how tied our hands are at the moment.
“Jack,” he continued,” continued patrolling so that we don’t have even more wanderers coming in. And block off this entrance. Clearly, it’s been compromised. I will escort our guests to the command center. And let Yuu know who’s incoming.”
Jack looked surprised before coming closer to the lion and asking quietly, “I thought you’d be pissed with someone else wanting your fiance?”
Leona snorted, “please, Vil’s a treasure, i know that. I knew that since before we got together. There’s no point in being jealous when i’m the one he chose, though. That and Vil is going to tear him apart and i want to be there to see it.”
Jack looked disappointed, “of course there would be an ulterior motive.”
Leona snorted, “i thought you’dve learned by now, pup. This is NRC, there is always an ulterior motive.”
“Come on, RSA brats!” leona called out, turning to walk back to campus, “Lets go before some crazy press fanatic spots you and we have even more bullshit to deal with.”
___________________________________________________________________________
Night Raven College Official @/NRCOfficial
It has come to our attention that information was leaked about students overblotting on our campus. Night Raven College’s priority will always be, first and foremost, the safety of our students. As such, we made the decision to deal with these incidents privately, with the help of several government agencies, in order to let our students recover without being forced into the public eye. Furthermore, we would like to remind the public that the students on campus are minors, and as such, it is not appropriate to announce their business for the world to see, especially without their consent. We would appreciate your support at this time, as we navigate to find the best possible way to keep our students safe and protect their privacy. Thank you.
Royal Sword Academy @/RSAOfficial
As their sister school, Royal Sword Academy is prepared to help the students at NRC through any means to protect them, whether it be from a threat on the outside or the inside. We support their decision to prioritize their student’s safety and privacy, and as such do also ask that the public refrain from blowing the situation out of proportion and acting against their best interest in the pursuit of curiosity. We would also like to ask the public to refrain from contacting our students for information, as we were also unaware of what has been going on, and this situation does not give license to harass the students from either campus for any reason. Thank you.