World-building for my version of TWST
Yuu is still female/feminine presenting AFAB enby, because again, drama and angst potential.
YUU IS AN UNRELIABLE NARRATOR!!!!!!!!!!! They have so much trauma happening, and let’s be honest: every single NRC character is emotionally stunted and bad at expressing themselves at the best of times. Showing they care to the person they have hurt the most in the world, who they also know is extremely vulnerable and traumatized??? Rough. Plus, some actions and discussions are happening behind closed doors, so Yuu is unaware that they are happening.
Every person born in Twisted Wonderland has magic. The vast majority of the population have enough to do maybe the equivalent of a cantrip every other day (if that). Some are unable to ever do any actual feats of magic. But everyone has magic. There hasn't been a single person born without magic in centuries. Thus, a lot of tech has evolved to use magic signatures and readings in order to function. Some of it is annoying for Yuu but not necessarily a big deal: automatic sensors not working for them, some payment systems needing to be upgraded or fiddled with in order to work, etc. Some of it is beneficial: most hunting creatures or even people in general are used to feeling magic signatures, so they overlook Yuu, hence why they are able to sneak up on overblots more easily. However, it can also be dangerous, because some medical devices rely on a person’s magic signatures, not just to verify they are treating the right person or the right amount, but some will not actually scan or treat something without it because they think it’s a training dummy. One of the devices that stitches wounds together (in cases where the cut is too severe or the patient can’t have healing potions for some reason) couldn’t acknowledge that Yuu’s literally profusely bleeding hand under its sensors because there was no magic signature (it was just a slip of a knife when chopping potion ingredients, but given the wounds that Yuu faced from Overblots, this is obviously extremely worrying).
Similarly, Yuu can’t really process magic. It’s not truly toxic to them or cancerous, but it can be painful. Healing potions (and some healing spells) don’t really work on them because most of them trigger the magic stored in each cell to react in a manner to hasten regeneration. Yuu doesn’t have magic to react with, so the potions do nothing but add magic that builds up in their body. Eventually, the blot residue, potions, and other magic stuff build up enough in Yuu’s system that it starts to hurt, specifically in their joints, fingertips, and in any overblot scar. They need a specific therapy at the nurse, or a highly specific and difficult-to-make potion. With the compounding exposures and all the blot they’ve been exposed to, Crewel secretly changed the third year’s advanced extra credit potionology final to be making that potion because Yuu needs the treatment more frequently. Lucius acts as the barometer of when it’s time (when ortho doesn’t pick it up in his regular scans) because Yuu has difficulty feeling the pain over the other chronic pain she has.
The magic that pulled Yuu into Twisted Wonderland caused so much instability and entropic decay that it obliterated the universe. That universe never experienced magic before, and then was exposed to reality-shattering levels of magic with no notice and no way to filter or recover from it. There was nothing that could’ve happened except this destruction. The reason the magic mirror says that Yuu has nowhere where they belong is because they only place they did belong is now dead.
Yuu doesn't find this out for a long time because the magic mirror is incredibly specific in the wording of both questions and answers, and only allows Yuu to ask a certain amount each day. Yuu has to harass it with questions as they slowly whittle down to the right phrasing that will provide them clarity. Towards the end, they realize or suspect what is happening, but refuse to believe it/stop until they hear it explicitly from the magic mirror. In my head, this happens either towards the beginning of winter break or in the middle of SDC. (I have a mini scene in my head for this that I may eventually share).
People always wonder why Yuu feeds Grim so much, even though they don’t have a lot of food and Yuu often goes hungry as a result of it. There are multiple reasons for it: 1) Grim is Yuu’s only magic protection. The ghosts are good for distracting or running out some of the wannabe attackers at Ramshackle, but Grim is Yuu’s only line of defense if they get in the building, during the regular day outside of Ramshackle, and during overblots. She trains him to have specific words that he must follow like it’s life or death (some language variant of the words “left, right, fire/shoot, move, and down” so she can physically direct him out of danger as well as tell him where to attack). 2) Grim is a monster. He runs on magic. If his magic reserve becomes too empty, he becomes sick and weak and can die from it. The flames in his ear are a sign of this constant magic metabolism. He has to eat so much more in order to keep his magic levels up, not just for protection but for his life. 3) That’s just who Yuu is. Yuu will always be a bit too selfless and self-sacrificing, but especially for the people she loves, and there is no one in Twisted Wonderland Yuu loves more than Grim. That is her son/other half/soulmate/partner in crime/boss. Yuu is going to make sure he grows to be the best mage in the goddamn world, and is happy and fed while doing so. Heartsabyul is the only dorm to truly know this for the longest time. She relies a lot on the unbirthday parties to stay fed, but never eats too much because of overblot trauma and the rules of being a guest. Trey is losing his goddamn mind about it. Trey and Riddle have been reviewing how many unbirthday parties they can have and what rules they can bend/use to get Yuu to have more to eat. Adeuce often brainstorm with them for how to give Yuu snacks and other food. Cater is the one who asks what is going to happen during break when the dorm kitchen will be empty, and there will be no cafeteria food. No one likes the thought of it. But it somehow gets lost in some of the chaos that follows until suddenly they are all back in their own homes, and it seizes them like a death grip.
Yuu is kinda in a time loop but not really. This is her first time living all this, but she has nightmares about each time another universe/timeline Yuu dies. She experiences and feels every single aspect of it. It happens after the event occurs, so for a while they think it is just a trauma thing and an overactive imagination. I think at some point, she suspects what is really happening, but I don’t think it is truly confirmed for her until Malleus puts her into her own dream and she basically meets/sees all those versions of herself dying. These dreams, along with the trauma (and potentially Yuu’s general mental health even before coming to Twisted Wonderland), make her deal with at least passive suicidal ideation.
Yuu knows that Lilia is much older and also a war veteran. He is very good at hiding it, but like sees like. No one else can understand the weight of what Lilia has lost and the trauma that comes from a battlefield, the ache to return to the adrenaline-filled chaos that clashes with the screaming desperation to never become a weapon ever again, the devastation from both what was done to you and what you did, and the soul-shattering certainty that you should not be the one still breathing. Yuu lost an entire world. Everyone they knew and loved, centuries of history that only they remember (and even that is iffy. How many cultures, stories, histories were completely and utterly erased because Yuu was never exposed to them or never bothered to fully commit them to memory? How many more were lost due to time and repeated head trauma?) and has fought the most promising mages in the world in their overblot form, without any magic. Let alone the battles she fought alongside Lilia during Malleus’ overblot, though the recognition of each other happened what feels like eons before that point. Sometimes, Yuu will speak aloud in a whisper, hidden away from every other prying ear, and knows that Lilia not only hears what she is saying but has experienced an identical pain. Two souls, seemingly opposite in every discernible way to the outside world, yet identical in every way that matters. A mirror image that for once doesn’t make either of them shy away in disgust.
Please take this as an offering while I continue to work on the second part of my response to @sushigeeg's post. Azul is like 45% done now, and I have some other small blurbs about timeline/story things for this world written down.
The usual disclaimer: I am not really a writer, so these may not be super coherent. Please let me know what you think!
