I think the roybel thing could work if it’s framed not as a self chosen stance but rather one thats almost forced onto certain characters.
Put it this way: legacy day just happened and the student body is splitting itself down the middle to take sides. The vast majority of people seem to have chosen within seconds of Raven tearing out her page, but there are a handful who seemingly haven’t; Cedar and Maddie who like their destinies but don’t think others should be forced into them, Poppy who doesn’t care for destiny but thinks those who want it should be able to follow it, Kitty who purposely keeps things vague, Sparrow who seems to be following the law but not the spirit of his destiny or maybe vice versa, etc. And this grey area bothers a lot of people, because it’s infuriating to the rest of the student body that theres a small group of “undecided” peers who aren’t smart enough/brave enough/wise enough/etc. to choose the “right” side (read: their side).
Maybe it’s originally an insult from Faybelle or Duchess to mock those undecided. Maybe Poppy, ever the loyal sister, did come up with it as a way to try and stay in the same group as Holly despite her rebellious tendencies. Maybe Apple even came up with it during the days following legacy day; as we see in the beginning of the second book, she didn’t want to encourage separation of the students based on stance, mainly because she didn’t understand the weight of reasoning behind the rebel stance. She thinks they’re being selfish and made a mistake, but that friends are supposed to stick by and help one another when they do things that aren’t fairest to work through it.
Heck, all three could work together! Holly and Poppy have an emotionally charged conversation a few nights after legacy day; Poppy cheered when Raven rebelled and Holly didn’t. The look on Hollys face that night was devastating to Poppy She didn’t know, she thought Holly was still afraid of the tower, she thought they were always on the same page, she didn’t know. Holly wants to know if Poppy believes she shouldn’t get her happily ever after now that she’s on Ravens side, and Poppy insist she’s not on Ravens side, at least not like that. She just, doesn’t want a destiny, you know? A destiny would change everything, it means leaving behind her salon, her passion, to most likely be a queen in another land far away from Holly. Even if she got a small Princess role, it would force her to part ways with certain parts of herself that she isn’t comfortable doing. She wants Holly to be happy. And if being happy for Holly is following her destiny than Poppy will support that. Holly looks confused by this stance; she still wants to know if that makes Poppy a Royal or a Rebel. Poppy tells her something along the lines of “neither? Both? Cedar and I were talking about this earlier. We… I don’t know - I have a mixed perspective on this I guess. I mean if you had to put a name to it maybe I’d be a Roy-bel? Even that sounds off though…”
Holly doesn’t pay attention to that last bit; she’s too busy thinking. Her sister is scared! Thats why she doesn’t want to know her destiny! She supports destiny! She supports Holly getting her happily ever after! But she’s scared of change, and thats not right! Are the others also scared change? She supposed it would make sense; Nona did say that this was the year big changes happen for kids her age after all. Hollys scared too of the changes that have recently happened; no one sits together at lunch any more, and everyone’s worried about where the future will go next. But Holly believes in her sister; if Holly can make it through the scariness of change thats been happening the past few days, than she can help Poppy tackle her fear of change as well. And so the next day Holly marches into the Royal student council meeting with the biggest smile any of the royals have made since legacy day, and tells Apple and the others that they don’t have to loose hope with the rebels because a lot of them aren’t really rebels. Poppy, Cedar, the others, they aren’t rebels or undecided, their Roybels who mostly support destiny but have personal reasons not to want to follow their own or to support others that rebel, but that thats ok, because Hollys gonna work with Poppy to get through her issues with her destiny, and if Poppy and Cedar can still want to work together with Royals and Rebels despite their stance than the Royals should too! “Maybe instead of trying to convince the most extreme Rebels they could all work together with the Roybels and help show them that whatever’s keeping them from embracing their destiny isn’t worth destroying fate for, and since the Roybels are still close with the Rebels, they’ll be able to help us reach the Rebels when the time comes!” Apple and Holly exclaim at the same time.
Duchess laughs like it’s the funniest thing she’s ever heard. But Apple is ecstatic at this news; it seems like a much better course of action to bring everyone together than sitting grumpily separated in classes and lunch. The Royal student council race is coming up. She’s against Maddie, and while Maddie is a sweet girl and fableous friend she shouldn’t be able to run as a commoner per school rules. It’s another example of Ravens rebellion breaking apart the school. A few votes could swing the whole election in either direction. So Apple sets about a 54 step plan to bring the rest of the student body back to destiny, to reason, and it starts with setting up a Royal-Roybel-Rebel alliance lunch in the Royal common room. Most of the student council is there, as well as Maddie (heard it was supposed to be an open dialogue and loved the idea), Raven (Maddies ride or die,and begged by Apple to come; tried to hide in a corner at the start since her appearance at things recently keeps ending in shouting matches), and Cedar, Poppy, Sparrow, Hunter, and half a dozen other students.
Hunters the one who bites the bait. “So… what does Roybel mean?”
Poppy dies a bit inside. Oh my Grimm what did Holly do.
Apple straightens her skirt and tells the room that she’s been informed that it’s what the neutral party among the student body have began to call themselves. They hold a variety of different beliefs on destiny, but the thing that distinguishes them from others is that they hold at least some form of thought from both sides of the destiny argument; wether thats wanting their destiny but not feeling others have to follow theirs or not wanting their destiny but believing others have the right to follow theirs.
Several around the room including Cedar and Poppy perk up at this; it describes Cedars current predicament pretty plainly she thinks. Apple is emboldened by this and moves forward with the preprepared speech she has in her head. So far moving according to plan!
She says something along the lines of Roybels don’t all see eye to eye on everything, but they don’t let that split their friendships apart, and neither should any Royal or Rebel in this room. They should look at this meeting as a starting point for mending the relationships they’ve all callously abandoned the past few weeks.
Dragons above, Raven thinks, we’re finally getting somewhere
Apple watches Raven stir from her corner to turn towards Apple and listen to what she has to say next. The plan is working fableously.
Which is why the Royal student council is offering their help to any Roybel who needs to talk about their more … sensitive feelings regarding destiny. The Royal student council knows now that there can be some negative emotions surrounding destiny due to … personal issues, and they want to help any student who feels uncertain with destiny to get back on the right path, the path of honoring and taking pride in their family legacy. And Rebels too!
The Royal student council politely claps and … no else does. And then Duchess laughs.
And the plan smashes against the rocks like a ship torn in the ocean.
Poppy stands from the table and faces her back to the table to look out the window, with a distressed Holly trailing after her. Cedar looks disappointed. Raven looks at her and mouths “really” before she droops her head back onto the table. Duchess keeps laughing, and since she’s the only one not feeling some level of mortification right now, everyone turns to her.
“Roybels Grimm what a joke!”
Cedar asks her what’s so funny about this all and Duchess in true Duchess form goes for the throat.
“I mean it’s just dumb. It’s all Ooo, I want my destiny but I don’t want the discomfort of holding others accountable to do what’s right, even if the others are needed for my story and society to exist, or Ooo, I don’t want my destiny because I’m scared, but it’s fine if you follow yours so long as you don’t ask me to do anything scary. Grow up. You’re either a reasonable person who follows destiny or your an irrational child trying to do what demands the least of you. No in between. Honestly Poppy, I cannot believe you came up with this. I mean I know Holly can be all naive or whatever-after due to tower schooling but you at least seemed like you had more head than hair on your shoulders”
The plan is now at the bottom of the ocean.
Poppy runs out of the room,and several people are yelling. Cedar decides right then and there that if the royals are going to only see her as either confused or selfish she’d rather be seen as selfish. Apple joins Raven in her corner and looks at her with her best please help me stop our friends from fighting look. Raven shoots back with her best you brought this upon yourself look, and the two end up bickering until Grimm comes in and demands everybody goes to class.
1. Roybel gets cemented as an insult that the more mean royals use against anyone not staunchly in support of one side, or who they perceive as abandoning the Royal cause. Ashlynn gets called a Roybel a lot during true hearts day.
2. Daring calls Dexter a Roybel once he learns about his crush but like, not in the insult way, more in the original your-confused-but-can-get-help-way that Apple meant. It goes about as well for him as it did for Apple.
3. Duchess gets detention from this. This is because Holly was to distressed to go back to class and breaks down in Grimms office about how Apple and her had a really good plan to help the more confused students and Cedar seemed interested and Raven listened to it and her sister was gonna do it and it was all going really well until duchess made fun of it. Duchess can’t really deny this accusation, there were like, 20 other people in the room at the time, and Grimm is loosing what little patience he has. His star student and her council finally made some inroads to tackle the problem and now it’s all for nothing due to school yard insults. I hope you learn something from this Ms. Swan; your a good student, destined for a great story, but you can’t be an embodiment of good if you plan to hurt others rather than help them.
4. This is not the lesson Duchess takes from this. The lesson Duchess takes from this is that actions would be better than words since everyone’s too sensitive for words. She uses those actions to expose Ashlynn on true hearts day. It’s a … slow journey to acceptance and kindness for her in this au.
5. Apple and Maddie get tied for Royal student council president and agree to co lead in hopes that by showing they can work together despite their differences it’ll help heal the rift in this student body. It does work a bit! People start eating lunch together again and classes no longer feel so hard to breathe in.
6. Poppy distances herself from Holly for a bit after this. Not very far but still. That conversation felt very personal to Poppy. She doesn’t know how to feel about Holly telling others about it or using it in the way she did. They make up in the end but it gets rocky for a bit there.
