#coward

General Headcanons (ft. some RSA Mayu)

Continuing from my comic here based on Jasmine’s bazaar scene, he uh… LARPs peasants commoners for fun 😭. He likes to sneak out in disguise and explore, though it’s debatable how good that disguise is and whether or not the locals just pretend to not recognize him 💀

I’m really capitalizing on one single movie reference here, but I hc that (in a sense) “whole new world” to him is like, the world of commoners which he envies the freedom of & is curious about. Being in school is one way of experiencing that life (I presume not all RSA students come from affluent backgrounds), and befriending someone like Mayu who both comes from a complete other world and is familiar with how things work for commoners was like… gaining a “guide” to show him the World of the Peasants (💀) so he’s definitely asking her lots of questions like "Hey. Could you show me this “McDonald’s” thing? I’ve never been to one."

Mina after paying for the KPDH Gakemo collab meal for them both: Appreciate the help, it’s hard to find someone at school to teach me the basics. Though… (looks at the food) is this truly what you eat? Mayu:

He ironically avoids the most obvious oblivious rich guy stuff he could say (like asking for a fork & knife at McDonald’s) because he has some common sense, but asks something else that’s ridiculous like “Where’s the wet wipes?” (For his hands)

Mina after finishing his last “maginugget”: (wiping his hands with the low quality paper napkin) I think the food at our cafeteria is better. This was fun though. Mayu:

(He has smug cat energy. I just know he has ragebaiter potential.)

Re: the common sense thing, with his rebellious nature he’d probably like learning to do stuff himself (against other people’s protest), so he’d know how to do his own laundry, clean his own room, use a microwave etc., but probably still doesn’t know how to cook, since that’s a bit harder. Cue him sending pics of really poorly peeled boiled eggs to Mayu asking her why it didn’t work (bro doesn’t know he needs to dunk them in cold water or just steam them).

He’s genuinely pretty chill and hard to upset. He hates feeling like people are walking on eggshells around him, so he enjoys anything that makes him feel normal/like an equal. If he got told to “kys” he would just find it funny. Would’ve found it funny if NRC Mayu had thrown the apple at him in part 1 too.

Mina after sneaking out in disguise: Bumped into someone the other day and they turned around and told me to kill myself. Actually amazing.

Probably really enjoys certain “peasant” things such as instant coffee or cup noodles. I hope Mayu introduces him to onigiri and he is Enlightened™ by these little rice triangles.

Mayu, getting up from her chair: I’m going to the store- Mina: Oh wait, can you grab me a few of those rice things again? (sends her way more money than she’ll ever need) Mina, later: How much are these anyway? Mayu: Um. Like 300 madol each (~$3). Mina, who sent her 5000: Eh. Mina: Save the rest for next time. (Proceeds to forget about it)

Crazy high spice tolerance. 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Probably would travel to TWST Thailand to destroy his tastebuds with the spiciest pad thai. Mayu, upon knowing he likes instant ramen, introduces him to Buldak and warns him it’s really spicy, but then he just downs the entire thing without batting an eye. It’s his new vice now (although he will, like Umamusume Fine Motion, make the mistake of thinking cooking it longer will make it tastier)

Mayu: Three minutes Minapai, three. Mina: But imagine. [Insert really depressingly soggy plate of Buldak that he later sends her with a 😢]

He can’t keep getting away with it, so I hope he has Buldak for lunch one day but he's too carried away chatting with his buddies and it accidentally goes down the wrong pipe, and for once his 9999 spice tolerance ass feels genuine pain as he's coughing and Mayu just watches him as he experiences peasant food biting back.

Actually. Do you think he’d choke on boba the first time he had it too because Mayu forgot to warn him about The Balls 💀. Y’know what. Yeah.

If he’s online much, then he’s probably decently aware of online jokes too. Maybe even has a ragebait account where he poses as just Some Guy to join mageddit discussions, but little things here and there (like mentioning his shoe closet or something) makes people clock him as rich anyway 😭 howdoyoudofellowcommoners.jpg

Mina: That’s not very skibidi sigma of you, Mayu-chan. Mayu: …Never say those string of words ever again. Mina: Oh. Is it outdated already? Mayu: No I just. I can’t accept that coming out of you… 😰

He speaks so casually all the time that sometimes he accidentally uses casual lingo in the wrong context. He’s at some formal royal event and gets asked what he thinks about it, and he just goes “Meh. Kinda mid.” before he notices the person staring in confusion and quickly corrects his language like “Middle of the road, I would say.”

(Prince who doesn't talk like a prince and also knows a lot about current phrases because he has a ragebaiting alt, while trying out Buldak: Wow. This slaps actually.)

Has the original magic carpet and he loves to speed on it, because the wind in his face feels like freedom. Insert imagery of him slapping the roof (whatever that is) of his magic carpet like that car salesman meme like “And this here, is my baby.”

He doesn’t have a driver’s license but he does have a flying license, and he is the local air traffic nightmare because he loves to fly without telling anyone. Our planes worry about birds colliding with the engines, Scalding Sands Airlines have to worry about their own prince 😭

He has definitely received a parking ticket before. He came back to where he parked the carpet (illegally) and found it surrounded by parking tickets that it kept shaking off like a dog until the officer gave up.

I know it’s popular to depict him with a pet tiger, but I think it’d be funny if he’s just like Jamil with parrots - doesn’t own one but really wants one and underestimates how much work it is. “It’s just a tiger, it’s like a huge cat - how hard can it be?” Mina you do not want to know…

He’s genuinely nice, but also has that unique brand of obliviousness and ignorance that’s a product of his background. He wants freedom and loves experiencing commoner things for fun, but isn’t fully aware of what runs behind that so-called freedom. He probably has some awareness as a prince, of course, but ultimately studying about or pretending to be something is never going to be the same as actually living that life yourself. Things he can experience for a day and walk away from may very well be someone else’s permanent reality.

In true “hero/princess” fashion, he also has a strong sense of justice and a bit of a saviour complex. Guy who hardly says no if you ask for help, and who’d also try to convince you to stop liking red flags such as NRC boys /j

Mina would most likely keep his friendships (with non-royals especially) a secret, because associating with royalty puts a target on your back, plus his parents might do a crazy background check on anyone he knew. So publicly he’d claim he doesn’t know Mayu, for her safety. She’s definitely not featured in any of his Magicam posts, because there are psychos out there who’d zoom into her reflection on his uniform button and track her down 💀

Alt RSA AU version of the apple incident ™ at the bazaar, where Mayu argues with the vendor like “The prince let me have it though” and the vendor’s like “Suuuuure, you want me to believe you know the prince.” She tries showing him photos of them on her phone, but just gets accused of using AI 💔

She plops an apple down on his desk the next day and

Mina: Oh hey. Did you like it? Mayu: Minapai… nobody believes we’re friends and I am 2000 madol poorer. Mina:

There’s also a thing where she won against him in an Uno tournament that I wanna draw where he’s down to his last card and smirking like

Mina: This is too easy. Meanwhile, Mayu with a handful of +4s: Minapai, I will show you a whole new world.

He keeps bringing up having a rematch, but she just never gives him a chance (me when I keep planning to play games or watch movies with friends but we never get around to it bc busy)

RSA Mayu

Ironically, RSA Mayu would happen in the event the mirror did make a mistake.

There’s a huge chunk of context with Mayu’s pre-TWST background that I’ve only shared with some people in her detailed lore document (which I’ve yet to post publicly just because I’m so determined to release it as a comic, but maybe I should just drop it some day with inserted art like this post…), but to very briefly sum up the relevant parts:

Mayu was an only child raised by her mother who unexpectedly passed away, leaving a staggering amount of debt that fell upon her next of kin (Mayu) to pay off. Mayu had no clue about this, because her mom tried very hard to hide it so that her daughter wouldn’t worry about it and could carry on a normal, carefree life as a regular student - but at the same time, she was barely at home because she had to work so hard.

This meant that Mayu never got the chance to make many memories with her mom, thinking she’d always still have “next time,” until she didn’t. Stubbornly refusing to give up on her home that was her only remaining connection to her mom, Mayu juggled multiple jobs to make ends meet and try to survive, but it was still far too much to handle by herself. She gradually withdrew further and further from school & friends, until she just didn’t show up anymore. Permanent 99+ notifications never answered, piles of mail demanding payments laid out on the kitchen table, meals replaced by convenience store food wrappers stuffed into the trash… you get the picture.

There’s something that happens that causes her to get isekai’d to TWST after this that I shall… keep a secret for now, because although it does explain her current personality, it’s not relevant for this post 👍 But she approximately had enough in the bank to keep payments going for ~1-2 yrs after disappearing to TWST, so she has incentive to get back before that runs out.

I hc that RSA is nicer than NRC in that Ambrose gives her an actual roof over her head (instead of some place like Ramshackle), and given her circumstances, she’s allowed to have whatever she likes in the cafeteria for free. She takes full advantage of this Oguri Cap style (which I do have a joke to draw where Minajael can never catch her in the act - he sees her with platefuls of food and the moment he gets distracted for a second it’s all gone, and if he asks about it she’s just like “Eh… it’s a bit embarrassing to have someone watch me eat.” He’s still trying to figure out how that works.)

But despite it being so nice, there’s that special kind of loneliness where you’re surrounded by genuinely great people, but you never feel like you quite fit in with them. There’s people like Ruggie and Jamil who she’d relate to at NRC, but it’s harder to find someone like that among the RSA students. So Mayu likes the people there, but deliberately shares nothing about her past (because nobody needs to know) and is more inclined to go home than NRC Mayu.

Also at RSA she’s kinda surrounded by princes/royalty so uh… she gets a bit desensitized 😭 Mina’s a great friend, but he definitely wouldn’t really understand the life she lived before this.

A few other things that changed with RSA!Mayu:

Assuming no other Yuu replaced her, there’s no Grimmy at NRC because Grim can’t attend NRC without a Yuu. He either gets dealt with by Styx, or just turned away at the door and goes back to wherever he came from, living by himself.

Neither Mayu nor Grimmy ever know the other exists.

The overblots at NRC play out differently and are handled by the students themselves without her.

Isekai Vacation Arc

POV you’re gathered together to send your isekai friend off because she's going home and for some reason your buddy Minajael is not around, so you assume he must've unfortunately had other commitments, but then after she disappears into the mirror a fuckass magic carpet nyooms in outta nowhere and follows her before the mirror closes

I joked in my first post “what if he hitchhiked to her world,” and I think Mayu mentions enough tidbits about her world that Minajael becomes convinced it’d be an interesting place to check out for himself. Plus, with his whole rebellious nature - what better place to run off to than a whole (new) different world? Especially one where his title & status would mean nothing.

So when Mayu’s time in Twisted Wonderland comes to an end, he does exactly that. In sunglasses, bags packed and everything. As a treat.

Under normal circumstances there’s a chance he’d never be able to get back home, but uh… for the sake of Convenience™ let’s say somehow the mirror was kept open the moment they realized he went in too, so that he’d be able to come back any time.

Mayu wasn’t lying about there being no magic though, the moment he lands on the other side, the magic carpet deflates and he has to roll it up and carry it with him (💔)

Poor Mayu gets home thinking it’s going to be lonely again and turns around to lock the door and Mina’s just Right There, arms crossed and smiling like “I was wondering when you’d address me (elephant.jpg)” and she screams 😭

Cue Minajael being in Mayu’s position this time with no identification in an isekai and nowhere to go 💀 she doesn’t have the heart to just dump him on the streets (if any harm came to the literal PRINCE she’s so cooked), so he temporarily crashes on her couch and isn’t allowed to go anywhere without her Supervision. A bit annoying, but hey, small price to pay for getting to explore another world.

Mayu later: Hey maybe you should go home… like I bet people are panicking back home thinking you got kidnapped 🥹 Mina: Mmm 🤔 yeah they’re probably putting up wanted posters of you all over Scalding Sands. Mayu: (Jamil will see this on the news and get an aneurysm)

He also discovers that uh, yeah, his credit card doesn’t work in another world. First time in his life ever that it declines and he’s just like

Mina: Hm. That’s a first. Mayu: Minapai if you make me pay for your stuff I will bleach your favourite commoner clothes 🙂

But hey, it’s time to Swipe That Face Card, Minajael. By Twst standards he’s already attractive, by Earth standards?? Dude. At some point the discussion comes up that he needs to Get a Job while he’s here (she cannot afford to support them both), and he’s like sure where do I start (every new experience is fun to him). So they go to the nearest convenience store that’s hiring and Mayu’s coaching him on what to say so he can get hired without ID/a resume, but bro’s so attractive he just gets hired on the spot and she’s like 😟

And he frustratingly gets the hang of the job really quickly, because y’know, he’s a fast learner (reference)

So despite being here on a trip, he’s now the talk of the neighbourhood as the cute conbini new hire. He genuinely has a blast working there too, because there’s just so much stuff at the average Japanese conbini that he never runs out of things to check out. At some point it really seems like bro’s gonna refuse to leave.

A few weeks later, Mayu: Are you bored/sick of working yet. Do you want to go home 🥹 Mina: Let me think- Nope! Not yet. Mayu: Mina: This is still more fun than being stuck at the palace, so. Mayu: Mina: Also, it makes me kinda sad you're trying so hard to kick me out. Aren't we friends?

It also takes him a bit to adjust to not being able to use any magic. Like dude can’t just do his makeup & hair in 5 seconds with magic anymore, he has to have a routine like the rest of us PEASANTS.

Mayu: You can't spend 2 hours in the bathroom every morning ok Mina: Sorry, I’m still getting used to it.

Except just working isn’t enough, this trip is a once in a lifetime chance and he wants to make the most of it. Maybe check out other spots in the city, maybe even check out Mayu’s school- Wait. School? He realizes she hasn’t mentioned a single thing about school since they got here. He didn’t think to question it at first, assuming it would eventually come up after things settled down.

So he asks her about it, and that’s when she explains she just… kinda can’t go back to school right now. She’s been gone for ages and doesn't even know how to re-enroll after unofficially dropping out (by going missing), plus she can’t attend anyway - she needs to sort out her bills first and reapply to jobs. There’s payments to catch up on, documents to sort through, banks to visit and interviews to attend (if she’s lucky enough - it kinda stings he landed a job so easily, though she won’t say that). He was aware what she’d been working on, but he never quite understood how bad things were, until she finally explains she’s still up to her neck in debt and money still dictates her life right now, so she might not get to finish high school for a while, much less apply for college.

Mayu’s pretty awkward about it because she never wanted anyone to find out, and now the truth’s kinda… forced out of her because he followed her back unexpectedly. Mina has a “Wait… this was your life back home?” moment and she admits yeah, she didn’t say anything for a reason.

I think that’s when it genuinely dawns on him he didn’t really know much about her, despite being friends for a decent amount of time. I’ve done like… a bad job at establishing it, but Mina at some point developed a bit of a crush. There’s that thing where he always wished for someone who’d see him for who he is, and he likes that she treated him like anyone else and enjoyed learning about all sorts of things from her. But now, she suddenly feels like a stranger.

I’ve seen many fanworks depict Minajael as being the confident teasing/flirtatious type, but what if he actually falters when he actually cares? Like he wants someone who’d see him for who he is so badly - titles & labels be damned - that if said person is someone he considers a friend, he’d weigh his options and decide that preserving the friendship’s more important to him than possibly ruining it all. So he maybe toes the line a bit but never crosses it, because he genuinely cares and doesn’t want to lose that person. Guy who makes a friend that treats him like a normal person then doesn't really wanna ruin the friendship by doing anything to shake it up.jpg, so despite his crush he never really let it show around Mayu either.

But now he’s quite conflicted about it, the way he might’ve liked her for what she brought to his life but didn’t really know her, until now. Her stories about her original world piqued his curiosity and he jumped on the opportunity, not realizing she hid a lot about her world from him too. For all his curiosity about the world out there, he didn’t pay attention to the person right beside him.

And now he’s intruding upon her home while she’s working on getting her life back together (he struggles to understand why she couldn’t just stay in Twisted Wonderland too, everything seemed easier there), and he really wants to help (because he’s genuinely a nice person and cares about his friend), but is left without any real means to do so. His title means nothing here, his money has no value here, it’s the most uncomfortable thing ever that he’s forced to feel useless while witnessing the reality of a commoner’s life that happens every day.

At the very least, he has more than enough time to think while staying here. There’s a slight shift in his mood for the next while as their daily life continues at its steady rhythm.

Realistically, I think he would eventually end up going home no matter what. Because as much of a rebel he is, I can't picture him actually being able to completely throw his entire life, family, and friends away. He's still a prince with responsibilities and connections, and probably cares about what he left behind, so this was always going to be just a short trip to another world for him. Plus, despite having a hard time understanding it, he ultimately respects her decision to go home and deal with her life herself. And so, all things must eventually come to an end.

Without Mayu even bringing it up again, he just casually drops one day (after closing the book he’s reading or something), “I think I’m going home.”

Fast-forward to his departure, Mina has his bags all packed and he’s carrying his rolled up magic carpet over his shoulder, and he’s standing in front of the mirror ready to go

Mina: So. I think this probably means I’ll never see you again. Mayu: Probably. It was fun to get to spend a bit more time with you though! Mina: Mhm… (turning around to leave) Y’know. Minajael Tealrajah, first prince of the Scalding Sands, someone who valued keeping his friendship over anything else, now finally with nothing to lose: I liked you.

He steps into the mirror, and doesn’t look back.

(Something something “I’m not leaving without telling you something that won’t let you forget me” kinda mf, Scalding Sands men that make you wanna kill them or something 💀)

End

The way I expanded one passing thought of “what if he hitchhiked” this much 😭 there’s a reason I’ve been saying I’ve written him like he’s my own OC

Said isekai vacation was another "fun" thing and in Mina’s rebel nature to do, but the experience made him self-reflect and realize that, yeah he still hates not having freedom, but he also has a duty and a lot of learning to do. He’s been enjoying “commoner stuff,” but someone in his position should also genuinely care about the people he’ll be ruling over eventually. He isn’t ordinary, and he holds the power to really make a difference if he wanted to.

Freedom was technically right within Minajael’s grasp - he could’ve just ran away for real, or chased love over everything else, but he’s choosing instead to willingly shouldering the responsibilities he once desperately tried to run away from. Because he doesn't want people - his people - to suffer the way the girl he once loved did. He may hate being a prince, but he knows he’ll hate being a coward even more.

About the whole arranged marriage thing - no, I still don’t see him simply accepting it even if he gave up on Mayu, but I think he’ll be more open to trying to talk to his parents about it once he gets back. Y’know, the Sultan made an exception for Jasmine, so I have faith in Mina.

Oh and, he definitely got shoved a bunch of Japanese goodies by the store manager when he quit.

Bonus if he sneakily left Mayu some stuff (e.g. his family heirloom earrings/necklaces) to help her out. It’s not like he’d miss it. When questioned about it back in Twisted Wonderland, he just claims he carelessly lost them in the other world. Or claim he got robbed. (Mayu’s list of crimes against royalty now include both kidnapping and robbery 😭)

As to why he didn’t just offer it while he was there… he knew she’d probably refuse the offer anyway, so the only option was to leave it there as a surprise. If they ever meet again somehow and he learns that it worked he can be like "Wait. If you got into college on my dime… that means you can’t say anything about me repeating high school on the taxpayer's dime now." (Does that tap fist on palm thing like he had an eureka) (Not that I think they’ll meet again)

In the end, Minajael left a dear friend behind. But if you asked him about certain things, like why he knows the best way to cook an egg for his ramen-