#first year polycule

I've seen some pretty hot debate for whether Ortho should be considered ~8 years old or 16, and personally, I don't think he's either! He's his own experience unlike anyone else in the world. That said, at least after the events of book 6, his narrative of growth and maturation is really compelling! Everything about him in Fairy Gala IF was so fun. If I have to choose, then I do like to see him as 16 more, and I really do want to see him with the other first years!!

I always think of Ortho as being this really extroverted, popular kid, especially now that he's good friends with Vil and can be seen walking around with him a lot. Most people at NRC respect him (as much as an NRC student can) and think he's super cool and useful. He's so popular, and we're all so proud of him :") it just makes sense that he'd fit right into a big, weird friend group like the first years, and as for a polycule...

I kind of see it less as an agreed-upon situation they all decided on, and more like something that just added up over time until it was undeniable that something was going on between all of them lol like, deuce and epel are dating, deuce is also dating jack and flirting with ace, ace is dating sebek, sebek is flirting with jack and dating epel, and so on lol Ortho might be the only one to straight up say "hey, can I date all of you? It looks fun :)" and create such a storm of chaos omg

And now that I'm thinking about it, Ortho does still look a lot like a younger kid, so I'm sure most of them will have reservations about it (though Ortho can be super pushy when he wants to be. They'll end up going along with him pretty fast). Sebek is the only one I can think of who wouldn't be bothered at all by his looks. Fae, like Lilia and his mother, can look really young despite being centuries old, so it's not something he thinks about, especially since he has barely had any interaction with people his age anyway. He's way more concerned about the fact that Ortho is made of technology... But otherwise, I think he takes this very well. He respects Ortho and his abilities, and he has much to learn from him!! Omg, can you imagine Ortho playing teacher with Sebek... Putting on a sultry voice like "let me teach you about my core ;)" god lol

I think, in private with them, Ortho would be super flirtatious and touchy. For Deuce and Epel, they're going to be so sensitive to it, and he's going to have a lot of fun teasing them, especially if they point out how young he looks. I can just imagine Deuce being like "aren't you too young for this..." and Ortho's all cocky like oh :) am I?? And yet you're the one getting hard for someone like me?? :) poor Deuce isn't going to last a minute with him TT and Epel doesn't fair much better, he's all "this is weird!!" when Ortho starts getting really handsy with him, and Ortho's like "oh is it? Why's that?? Do you want to explain in detail why it is so weird? I just want to understand!!"

Jack would get straight up angry with him for teasing him, but it'll just get Ortho excited to tease him more until Jack hits a breaking point 😔 Jack holding him down and having his way with him, super frustrated and mad about it, like this isn't exactly what Ortho wanted him to do?? omg. He's going to be so upset with himself when the post-nut clarity hits...