⭐Lucky⭐

like bear with me here, but aruvu and rudolf's career stories must look pretty similar from groove's perspective. you start with an umamusume that people have named a "prodigy" and have placed high expectations on and both are set on winning their classic triple crown/tiara, then you add in a sense of isolation from their peers (and aruvu/rudolf go about this in different ways, but it leads to the same result), and finally you get the "too independent to rely on others" overworking and riding the edge of burn out.

so groove sees this new student and is struck with the baby rudolf vibes, and is like "someone needs to step in before she self-destructs." but when she tries to broach the walls aruvu has up, she can't. but groove knows the path aruvu is on, she watched one of her idols go down it, keeping everyone at an arm's length and trying to do everything yourself while going after goals that need a support system, so she has to find some way to intervene. so, she goes for the trainer, starts giving them advice for helping aruvu and trying to keep up-to-date on all things aruvu, and becomes part of aruvu's support team without her even realizing it. so when aruvu reaches the breaking point and thinks she has nobody, air groove is there to yell at her "i've been here the whole time!" and the trainer is also there like "i understand you"

also, where aruvu reminds her of rudolf, i think the trainer reminds groove of herself (being on the sideline, wanting to help someone, but not knowing how to do that), and that's kind of why she takes over a mentorship role there, too.

Air Groove gif set! free to use without credit:) so long as she gets her time in the spotlight

bonus rudoguru:

any time a younger student leaves crying from the intimidation of the stuco, they have a moment of silence and then move on without acknowledging it further

rudolf managed to convince groove and brian to dress up as clowns with her one halloween because they're so fun and not scary at all and no one will be scared of us at all, they'll be laughing it will be great

however, when groove was telling taiki about rudolf's plans, taiki misunderstood her and spread the rumor that stuco was dressing up as killer clowns and rudolf's scheme failed, they were voted "scariest costumes"

one time rudolf fell asleep at her desk and brian drew a mustache on her (air groove stopped further doodles)

along with brian's snack drawer, they also have brian's mini fridge, which is stocked with juice boxes and sports drinks

narita brian who would rather sleep than do any stuco work & tokai teio, serial stuco couch napper 🤨 obviously they've cuddled in their sleep before (rudolf has a picture)

one time they decide to have a little "talent show" just for themselves because they are all deprived of love and affection in different ways, they need this

rudolf demonstrates flawless technique in penning a letter and sealing it in an envelope aesthetically, air groove brings a photo book full of pictures she's taken, fuji and hishiama do a jazz routine (they've been going to a couple's class for fun), and brian turns in a completed stack of forms for stuco's upcoming event (rudolf tears up a little)

teio invited herself along and brought twister so she could challenge rudolf to a duel and everyone ended up playing

the result was a three-way tie between brian, groove, and teio that happened when hishiama tackled brian because she pushed her out really early when ama still thought this was going to be a fair game. groove was startled by ama lunging over her to get to brian and fell, taking teio down with her. fuji's final ruling was that they all left their colors/hit the ground at the same time (no one was happy)

brian, "If you're going to be here all the time, why not just join the student council" teio, "but then you could tell me what to do and i'd have to listen"

a piano gets delivered to the stuco office, and while they're figuring out what room it was supposed to be sent to, groove teaches hishiama the basics and teio provides (un)helpful commentary

at least twice a month, teio arrives at the stuco office sopping wet, opens one of the drawers of rudolf's desk and grabs a chance of clothes, says "i don't want to talk about it," and leaves (she is a water magnet and she doesn't understand how this keeps happening to her, but it's easier to keep dry clothes there than walk all the way back to the dorms)

rudolf decided the stuco office needed to be redecorated and fuji volunteered her assistance (the changes were quickly reverted)

bakushin and bamboo memory are giving their monthly summary of all golshi-related incidents to air groove and when they finish, teio, who was listening in, asked, "that was all of them?" "yes!" "you missed one" and then she leaves without clarifying

Turning TWST equestrian club's horses into umas

Like- Vorpal (Riddle's horse) as an uma. Riddle is still Vorpal's trainer, but Vorpal is a literal horse girl now.

If we learn enough about the horses this could be plausible!

OMG THIS IS SUCH A CUTE CONCEPT!!! also I wonder what their preferred aptitudes and style is!