Different Footsteps, Same Heartbeats

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

Had to share these, from u/Ok_Razzmatazz3798 on Reddit. Now these are some replays I would read voraciously. (I'm pretty sure they're only playing D&D because the artist isn't familiar with Sword World.)

My own notes on what I think is going on:

Zenno Rob Roy: Commits HARD to the DM bit. Mulligan levels of planning ahead.

Bourbon: Was all in the minute ZRR told her about Warforged and Artificers

Rice: Rolled an Assassin because she wanted to play a high DEX class

Urara: Berserker Barbarian, because ZRR mentioned hitting stuff with an axe and she immediately went "That sounds like fun!"

Sweep: Keeps trying to homebrew spells that aren't in the rulebook because she wants to be the next Mordenkainen (or Widogast)

Doto: Got pulled into this by Opera O and Urara. Crit fails every time she tries to wildshape into anything that doesn't have hooves

NTR: Best Paladin ZRR's ever played with, but can't keep the party in line worth a damn

Ayabe: Rolled a Ranger because it appealed to her inner survivalist. Was having more fun before Opera O joined

Opera O: Was originally going to roll a College of Valor bard before she found out they don't usually play instruments

Taishin: Spent four hours minmaxing her monk build before the first session even started

Brian: One of those players who put down absolutely nothing for their PC's backstory. It's literally just her with a sword

Biwa: Even bigger rules lawyer than Brian van Hoose from KoDT. Once spent twenty minutes proving geometrically that she could cast Fireball in an enclosed space and not cause an instant TPK

yeah what if this "transcending" process is real? but what if it also comes at a cost of having yourself destroyed in such a fundamental way that you stopped being a person? and what if this is the potential that tachyon have been looking for, not knowing the dangers of it to herself? And the closer an uma comes to reach it, the bigger the risks.

tachyon ran so fast, she saw a glimpse of herself, of her back, almost similar to how manhattan cafe always see her friend's back whatever she does, and when she feels like shes close enough to reach it, something happened, that potential isnt what she thought it was. and, she found herself injured. something similar happened to suzuka, except for her, in the game's case, stay gold tried her best to prevent it, thinking maybe her being there challenging suzuka would push her over the edge. shes going to spend the rest of her life feeling strange and slightly unfulfilled because she saw the view that she wanted, but it was off, as if it wasnt really the thing that beckoned to run, as nice as it is to realize her legs carry the hopes and dreams of others.

like, i find it really fun to imagine there's something nefarious waiting at the edge of every uma's potential, something so alien that it doesnt care if an uma would still care about their life outside of racing, their friends, families, or their future as a person. they will be transformed, and their being will be shattered, left as pieces that can only show its back and sometimes even slowly destroy the health of the few people who can see it, left as pieces with barely any trace of their old personalities left, just the pure inherent drive for speed. and for what?

still in love, IRL was so inbred, she went insane during her later years. and its reflected with her racing side being a split personality. WHAT IF ALL UMAS experience the same, just at a much much milder rate that its unnoticeable, just an uptick of them being eccentric or easily frightened? what if the force that made oguri a beast, the force that drive symboli rudolf, are all the same force that drives still in love to ruin herself and her trainer?

More detail to my thoughts>

My thoughts are Rudolf didn't really notice anyone before this moment. She kinda had no need. She was top of her generation and the generation previous, no one was really worth mention. Except for Mr CB but even that was more in a 'maybe this one will finally be a challenge' kind of way. Ace was not even on her radar.

And then the unthinkable happens and she lost. Even more, to an uma no one thought had a chance. And worse, she feels something stirring in her chest at the thought of Ace.

Is it bloodlust? Must be bloodlust.

So she chases Ace to the Arima Kinen cause she needs to deal with this, she can't keep feeling like this, she needs to race her again. And she wins but it doesn't make her feel better. She only feels worse. She won by a convincing lead but Ace still came second and did respectably. And something about the thrill of chasing down the speeding girl in front of her felt like she was on fire. But she pulls herself together cause she's still in the public eye and congratulates Ace on a good race, maybe better luck next time-

Wait. What do you mean there won't be a next time?

It's a good thing she's been trained to keep a steady outward appearance no matter what cause inside she feels like the ground dropped out from underneath her. She hadn't known. She'd only cared that it was Ace's next race. She hadn't realised it was Ace's Last Race. She only got this for two races, two races of feeling like she actually had to fight, and now she'll never get it again. But an emperor can't show emotion over such things so she smiles with gritted teeth and tries to move on.

And oh goddesses, she tries. But her races through spring do not give her the same feeling; none in them that she has to chase, only those who can't catch up. It leaves her dissatisfied. Meanwhile she tries growing closer to Ace off the racetrack. Maybe it was admiration or a desire for friendship she was feeling before? Those don't sound right, she's fairly certain she knows what those feel like, but it's her best working theory.

And it's so much more than what she imagined. Ace has the brightest grin and the biggest heart, always willing to help someone in need and quick to jump in and champion a cause. She likes puns too and actually makes Rudolf laugh, and has a garden on campus that she takes great pride in. She's a shining light to other umamusume, they flock around her like moths and she listens to all of them, always happy to help anyone who asks. And so many ask now, she has quite the number of admirers since her Japan Cup win. She is absolutely swarmed during summer camp, everyone eager for advice or training from the runaway champion. And she's just as easy-going with Rudolf herself, any awkwardness from the sudden attempts at connection had faded within a day and she was quickly talking Rudolf's ear off with anything and everything she knew. She is bright and warm and even Rudolf is not spared her light.

She just...doesn't seem to be watching Rudolf's races. Not that she needs to, it's certainly not a requirement. Maybe she even is, but she never mentions them to Rudolf. And Rudolf can't work out why that burns her. She wants to run, she wants to win, and she wants Ace to see her, watch her ascend to her throne. She can deliver something incredible.

And then she messes up terribly at the autumn Tenno Sho. Even worse it's entirely her own fault. She pushed herself too hard and injured herself just before the race. But she refused to pull out, she'd already had to at the Takarazuka Kinen, what would people say if she had to pull out a second time? Now that it was all over, perhaps that would have been better than what they would surely say after that poor performance.

A knock sounds on her dressing room door and she's horrified to see Ace coming in. Oh goddesses, of all the races she could have watched, it had to be the one where Rudolf made a fool of herself. But Ace doesn't berate her, only came bearing an ice pack and asking quietly if she was okay. Ace helps set the ice pack over her injury, chiding her lightly about what she was thinking racing like this, she could have really hurt herself, you know? Rudolf doesn't reply. There's silence for a while before Ace asks if she's still planning on running in the Japan Cup. Of course she is, she has to.

"...Hey," Ace voice calls her attention and she looks to see Ace the most still and serious Rudolf has ever seen her. She takes Rudolf's hands. "...Win it for us. Heal up, rest, and show the world why they should take Japan seriously. Don't let us lose it again so soon." Rudolf is silent for a moment, then swears it; she will, she promises.

Recovery is agonisingly slow, everything in her yearns to begin training again. She needs to be ready. But she holds herself back each time. She made a promise and she refuses to do anything that might endanger it.

And when she finally gets on the turf, surrounded by the best racers of all nationalities, she could swear she almost sees her runaway ahead of her, guiding her to the finish line. She chases after the figure in her eyes, leaving everyone else in the dust. And when the dust settles, Japan has won its cup for the second year in a row and stands full of spectators are cheering her name. And there's Ace, her eyes find her almost immediately, screaming and hollering Rudolf's name, leaning so far over the railing she's almost falling. Rudolf gives a proud smile that feels like it's aimed for one person, and lifts six fingers into the air.

Later she's in her dressing room getting ready for the winning live, the image of Ace cheering for her still in her mind. She's pleased the other came to see this race of hers, that she got to see her promise was upheld. She hopes the other was entranced by it. Rudolf herself is still trying to calm down, still feeling her chest fluttering and like she was overheating. The last time she'd felt like this after a race was the Arima Kinen-

She catches sight of herself in the mirror. Cheeks flushed, features softened, smile warm, and then proceeds to watch in real time as the blood drains from her face. No, no absolutely not! She refuses! But she feels like someone dumped a bucket of ice water on her and the revelation cannot be unrealised. Her, the emperor, in love- no, not love, a crush. Just a crush, surely. A simple, fleeting, useless crush. Just a temporary lapse in judgement. It would pass...right? Later reports spoke of a frustrated scream being heard from somewhere in the building, though none were sure who it might have belonged to.