Nevermore: Docks

The next morning comes, and that means it's time for the Poe Cup. A slightly tired Y/N walks over towards the docks after putting more work than what was probably necessary into that Hop-Frog boat of theirs. It's a large crowd out here, larger than he honestly expected. Either attendance was mandatory, or this thing has a lot more hype for it than even he anticipated. The sun is out bright today, shining on the dirty river, so hopefully that doesn't provide such a strong sun glare. All of a sudden, determination is now combated with a strong feeling of nervousness, anxiety of what will happen when he fails. But it's too late to take it back, he made his bed, now let's hope he doesn't sink in it.

As he walks, he passes by the twins, not giving them even a glance of attention they likely expect from him. But then he passes by Wednesday, who he does blink at, surprised to see her standing next to the Black Cats. As in, six feet away, but even that's closer than normal. Is she actually participating in this thing? Divina notices his stare, a glint of green in her eyes.

As soon as Y/N makes it to the tents, Xavier approaches him, watching the guy scan his competition with a blank expression and shaded eyes. "Are you sure you're ready for this?" He asks him for what feels like the third time today, to which he gives the same reaction, staring back at him with a confident smirk.

"I was born ready..... yesterday." Y/N answers half-truthfully, before letting out a hard yawn. Xavier blinks as he once again notices his slight exhaustion. "Did you do the sketch?" He then asks.

"Yeah, which almost sacrificed my entire wall." Xavier answers as he rubs his head just thinkign about it.

"Good. Today, is the day for some good old fashioned-Jester payback, marked with a humiliation for Airel's meaner cousin that's so great, that even a vulture wouldn't want to eat her corpse afterwards." Y/N states as he rubs his hands together like a old-school cartoon villain.

"Yikes." Xavier simply comments with a nod, admiring his motivation that's still fueling him up. Though, he's still a little concerned, even more so when Y/N lets out another yawn. "Hey, did you get any sleep last night, man?"

"Bold of you assume such a thing." Y/N responds mid-yawn, wiping away some tears it creates. He still remembers how Ajax said, ' you pretty much being able to do whatever you want to succeed' and took it into extreme consideration. That, and Bianca and the twins being the master of the water makes her a deadly force. What will happen on the island? That will be up to his friends. "Don't worry, my Uncle Freddy raised me in a survivalist compound for a good long while before I came to Nevermore, I picked up a few tricks from him."

"Y/N L/N! Hot damn!" Ajax exclaims excitedly as he walks over, marching over to high-five the two, though they do it very pathetically. "Now it's a team!" He pumps up as he beats his chest, wrapping a hand around Xavier's shoulder to pull him in for a brief hug but also forcing him to smell the aftermath of his morning routine.

"Dude, please tell me you didn't wake and bake on the one day I told you not to?" Xavier requests pleadingly as he pulls Ajax off of him in, slightly uncomfortable at the smell of weed. Y/N blinks, giving the gorgon a 'really?' kind of look.

"What? No! No, no. Relax, man, I'm in full focus, and even if I was, I'm still in focus full!" Ajax assures him, backing up in a way that's supposed to make himself look cool, only for that to end in him bumping into a random vampire girl. "Oh, crap, I'm sorry-"

Then he trips on a rock and starts rolling down the hill.

Then he crashes into a pair of boxes beside another team's tent, getting them all and entire thing to fall right on top of him. Y/N and Xavier watch this entire sequence of events play out with faces that are just not surprised or mad, just disappointed.

"Anyway...." Xavier sighs, shaking his head as he turns to his roommate. "Your costume's in the text."

Y/N blinks, staring at him wide-eyed.

"Costume?"

Twenty minutes later, Y/N steps out of the Hog-Frogs' tent, now literally looking like a medieval Jester. From the clown make-up, to the silly looking hat, to the red-ish maroon clothes, he certainly looks the part. "Oooh! Looking cool, Joker!" Ajax quips with a grin as he and Xavier come up to admire his new look, the two of them also in their jester costumes. "If I was a girl, I'd make myself your Tripetta."

"Don't ever say that again." Y/N pleads with a cringed face as he proceeds to walk to the boat, Ajax laughing like an asshole as he follows him. Xavier shakes his head at the two as he does the same. "Something tells me that it's not going to be just the Queen that I'm killing today."

"Oh, chin up."

The players are all now lined up, Ajax in the front, Y/N right behind him, the other player right behind him, leaving Xavier all the way in the back. After the L/N kid finishes making sure everything's set one more time, they all ready their paddles. Ajax feels eyes on him and looks over to see Enid blatantly smiling at him, causing him to sheepishly smile back, shaking his head with a slight blush.

"You're gonna throw the game for your girlfriend, are you?" Y/N whispers in his ear teasingly, causing the boy to rapidly turn his head to him with a glare. "'Cause you know what they say about black cats...."

"Shut up, she doesn't like me like that." Ajax retorts with a slightly embarrassed look, facing forwards so none of the boys can see it. Y/N shakes his head in response.

"You are hopeless...."

"You're one to talk...."

"What do we have here?" Bianca chimes in, looking directly at Wednesday who turns to her. She's loud enough for the other players to hear though, as Y/N also looks over to listen in on the trash talk.

"The runt of the litter." Divina adds onto these, the two girls smirking tauntingly at the unexpected player of the Poe Cup.

"For the record, I don't believe I'm better than everyone else." Wednesday informs them, causing both girls to squint as she references something she shouldn't have even been in the room for. "Just that I'm better than the two of you." She says, causing Divina to glare as they all face forward again, using that to fuel their fire. Y/N finds himself smiling at that line, slightly wishing he said it first.

"Hey." Xavier whispers over at Y/N, noticing him watching Wednesday. "Once you're done staring at your own girlfriend, you mind telling us what you were doing last night?" He asks with an inquisitive look, followed by the rest of the team.

"And spoil the surprise? That's not the Jester way." Y/N quips with a wink as he faces forward without giving him a satisfactory response, causing Xavier to roll his eyes as they all get set and ready again. He shouldn't worry though, Y/N took every bit of survival training he got from his Uncle Freddy into this race. Just then, the feedback of a mic infects their ears, and Mrs. Weems takes the metaphorical stage in front of the spectators.

"I want to welcome you all to the Edgar Allen Poe Cup." Weems greets the excited students and teachers alike, all with their own expectations and hopes for the possible winners of this annual event. "This is one of Nevermore's proudest annual traditions dating back a hundred-and-twenty-five years. Each team must row across to the Raven Island, pull a flag from Crackstone's Crypt, and hustle back without sinking or being sunk." She states the usual, during which, Wednesday looks down at Thing who walks under the seats, while Y/N taps his foot against his bag filled with tricks under his seat, ready to cause all kinds of mischief. He searches through it, and while the others aren't looking, calmly rolls a strange looking ball over across the docks where it plunks into the Gold Bug's side, hitting nothing. "First team to cross the finish line with their flag wins the cup and bragging rights for a year as well as some special privileges."

Y/N fixes up his costume, Wednesday taps on the paddle, Bianca's glares at the other teams, and the fourth team is.... doing whatever, who cares?

"Let the Poe Cup begin!"

https://youtu.be/_hKV_n9C3ZI

With one gunshot into the air, the race is on. The students behind each boat pushes them out of the docks, and everyone quickly gets to rowing. "Go! Go! Go!" One boy from the Vampire team orders as they find themselves in open water. The crowd cheers behind them as they are all close with one another, moving their arms and pulling at water as hard as they can.

The Hop-Frogs find themselves catching up fairly quickly, though, the shared determination of half of their members showing. "Oh, excuse us!" Xavier playfully quips as they pass by the Black-Cats, taking the lead. They slightly bump into their boat, still maintain their heading, straight towards the goal.

The Sirens are in last place, but that doesn't mean they are losing. Bianca looks over at an abandoned dock where Kent is currently standing. She nods at him, prompting him to quickly rip off his shirt and dive into the water, his lower half turning into a massive scale that allows him to swim faster than the average Normie and his hands into dangerous flappers with claws that can push an entire anvil if it fell underwater.

Meanwhile, the Black Cats are in the second lead, but that doesn't last long as the Vampires catch up fairly quickly. "Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!" The pilot rallies his team as they all turn at the girls with a hardened stare. That's when one of the boys pulls a switch that activates the axes planted onto their boat, revealing that they aren't just for show. They swing at the cats who duck down for dear life since they didn't account for life insurance.

However, this little encounter gets interrupted fast as Kent, from underwater, starts pushing against the Vampires' boat. The four of them are all confused as they start moving left instead of straight like they should. Bianca and Divina giggle as she watches the team desperately try to turn themselves in the correct direction, not knowing the true cause of their troubles. "Turn! Turn! Turn!" They all yell, but it's too late, as they crash into a giant, floating buoy-like structure, capsizing their ride.

The Sirens behind them get to watch as they all fall into the water with a big splash, much to their delight. Ten minutes in, and already, a team is knocked out of the race. The Vampires cough out water they accidently sucked in while having nothing else to do but tread water, defeated. "Come on, man, we lost because of you!" They argue, throwing their paddles at each other.

Kent grins pridefully before sinking back under the water.

Farther ahead, the Black Cats and Hop-Frogs are still rowing alongside each other with the latter only ahead by a few feet. During which, Y/N's eye catches something a little too big moving in the water. "Hey, did you see that?!" He asks loudly at the guys.

"See what?" Xavier asks as they all look around, apparently having missed it. Wednesday saw it too, however, and puts down her paddle for a few seconds to grab her monocular. She scans the area and catches the large fin of a Siren flopping back into water, cueing her in on the potential danger that's coming after her team.

"Thing." Wednesday calls out his name, and the hand doesn't need to even be ordered as he crawls around and finds the appropriate switch. Right as they know he's close enough, he clicks it, and from under boat, a huge net shoot out and down towards Kent, ensnaring him in a swift and sudden trap.

Thankfully, that distraction for them helped the Hop-Frogs take the lead. They dock onto Raven Island first and quickly hop out of the boat. "Alright, me and Ajax will go get the flag." Xavier states as he turns to Y/N and the other teammate. "You two stay here and make sure the other teams don't mess with our boat."

"Why do I have to stay? I'm literally the woods man." Y/N questions as he points to himself, however, Xavier just smirks at him as they both take off into the wilderness to grab that flag, leaving the guy to drop him arms with a sigh. "Glory hound..." He grumbles childishly to himself. He taps on his boat as his mind gets to racing.

Eventually, The Black cats then pull up after them, and the Sirens are not that far behind. Wednesday runs to go fetch the flag while Bianca and Divina does the same for their team. Y/N and the other player are still idly hanging about, and Enid starts coming up with something devious as she stares at the two boys who are bored out of their minds. She looks down at the hand looking up curiously at her.

"Thing, I need you to distract a couple of jokers." Enid instructs the helpful little fellow, and Thing salutes the way a hand can before hopping out and circling around the woods towards the Jester's boat itself. He glances between the two targets before recognizing Y/N, and how he dumped him in that vat that one time. He picks up a tiny pebble and flicks it towards his forehead.

The hit lands and the guy yelps, grabbing at his head before looking over and seeing the walking hand was responsible for that. "You...." Y/N growls, recognizing him too, and Thing flips him off before jogging away. Him and the other player share an angry look.

"Let's get him!" The teammate encourages, and the two stand up to go after the little turd. This gives Enid the perfect opportunity to crawl on over to the Hop-Frog's boat and unleash her claws, scratching a good chunk of the wood that it's made out of....

And pissing off the bees that are inside it.

"Oh my gosh!" Enid screams in terror as another one of Xavier's sketches pops out from under the boat and begins flying towards her. Although they are obviously fake, the werewolf's fear of the little things gets the best of her and she takes off, the bees made of black chalk chasing after her.

"Enid, wait!" The other Black Cats yell as they mentally groan before standing up to go fetch her before she wanders off to far. Meanwhile, Y/N and the other player pop out of the tree they were really hiding behind, laughing and hooting as they watch them run like a cat with it's tail on fire. They high-five, having fully embraced the Jester-way of trickery.

Y/N then walks over to the now undefended Cat boat, glancing at the rest of the Siren team who just smirk at him. For once, they aren't looking at him with disgust and allowing him to do his thing. Grinning, the boy pulls out a little a tiny bag, doing a little trick with it too before unwrapping it.

"My turn."

Meanwhile, Xavier leads Ajax through the woods, knowing the path to the Crypt better than anyone. Within only a few minutes, they find all of the flags, which proves just how far ahead they are in comparison to the others. "Here!"

"Alright, let's go, man!" Ajax rushes Xavier frantically as he looks back and sees the compitention starting to catch up with them. "She's right there, come on!"

"Yeah, despite what your weed is telling you, I'm not moving in slow motion!" Xavier tells him with a look as he shows him the flag in his hand, and the two quickly run back in the direction they came from. "Later, Wednesday!" He says to her as they pass the girl. She does the same thing they are doing and rushes to the black flag, grabbing it as her hand touches the crypt...

Which sends her into another shock..........

...........................

................

However, this isn't like a standard vision. Wednesday wakes up to find herself in the same place on Raven's Island, but the entire world around her has changed. It's now sunless, foggy, and cold as death itself. She turns around, bewildered until she once again bumps into Y/N, now earing a trench coat and hunting boots.

However, just one look at him and Wednesday eventually realizes that this isn't actually Y/N. The way he smiles at her feels incredibly different that the cheeky way the real Y/N does it. "You look just like her...." He whispers as the figure reaches a hand towards her. Wednesday step away from human contact, however, causing him to chuckle.

He then pulls on his coat, turning into smoke and dust as Wednesday finds now a clone version of herself standing behind his original position. It's like looking in a mirror, if the mirror turned all of your black clothing and hair into pure white and gold. "You are the key." She says to her.

Then she disappears.

.................................

....................

Wednesday wakes back up to find herself now on the ground, likely having fell over with no support after suddenly getting that vision. "Taking a cat nap?" Bianca mocks playfully as she and Divina smirk at her as they take off with their flag, now ahead of her as well. Wednesday looks up at the Crypt, the name Joseph Crackstone engraved on it, curious, but then quickly gets her head back in the game of revenge.

Meanwhile, Xavier and Ajax comes back to their Hop-Frog where they find Y/N and the other Jester clapping each other up. "Did she try to scratch the boat?" Xavier asks them with a knowing look, to which the L/N boy points at them, laughing.

"Yup, Ajax was right on the money!" Y/N answers as they all hop into their little boat, grinning like clowns as they now have the flag in their possession.

"Of course! I knew it!" Ajax says with a hand into the air. "Who said I was wrong?!"

"Nobody." All three of the other players answer as they once against start padding, Bianca and Divina returning just in time to do the same. Ajax shrugs as they get their ride back into the water.

And lastly, the Black Cats have gotten all their chickens, or in this case, Cats, back into line. They row down back into the river, right behind the other two which are rowing very close to each other. However, the Hop-Frogs are still ahead, making them a prime target for Kent who has broken free and is on his fin again.

Before they can realize it, they are suddenly getting pushed. The boat suddenly tilting causes them all to almost fall off but they manage to regain their footing. "What the- who's turning right?!" Xavier questions in confused anger, as the Jesters all look over to see the floating Vampire team's boat and they are heading towards the same structure that they ran into. 

"I don't think that's the current, Human Printer!" Y/N quickly responds stressed, as he quickly remembers that odd thing he saw before, and slowly puts two and two together. He doesn't have the hardcore mechanical prowl that Wednesday has. But that doesn't mean he didn't bring a defense mechanism. As the canoe starts getting into an angle before for the Hop-Frogs to join the fourth placers, he reaches into his bag and finds his Uncle's gifted rifle. He lines himself into the position as taught, and looks down at water until he catches the silhouette of a merman swimming. 

The boat is three seconds from hitting the buoy. "Y/N!" 

"I got it!" Y/N quickly assures Xavier as he aims down the sights, finally getting the perfect shot right as Kent looks up and finally spots the edge of a barrel. "Smile, you son of a-"

*BANG!*

A tiny ball quickly shoots out of the rifle and bonks Kent right in the eye. It doesn't do anything to him though, only the things suddenly start cracking popping, into tiny balls made of rock that smack him relentlessly, forcing him to let go of the boat and still knocking him out despite the heaviness of the water. Y/N drops the rifle with a grin as he quickly gets back to rowing. However, things aren't exactly optimistic, as the Gold Bugs are now way ahead of them. "Come on, stroke!" Xavier yells at his fellow Jesters with conviction, not ready to give up yet, and the boys are right behind him, not literally though.

But then, they glance to the left and see the Black Cats have caught up with them due to their little distraction. Y/N glances down and sees some holes in the boat opening, and spikes come out of his swiftly. The cats are threatening to puncture a hole into their Hop-Frog. "Oh no..... we're gonna sink!" Ajax screams in terror as the spikes are inches away from their wood. It land a soft poke, but thankfully, only scratch a layer of the surface for now. However, they quickly line it up for another strike......

Until a sudden boom and shockwave from inside the book suddenly knocks it over-board, taking the rest of the cats with them. "Holy crap!" Ajax exclaims as he watches all of the kids, Enid and Wednesday included, increase their chances of being sick today with all of the water they are now going have to clean of their own devices. "What the heck was that?!"

"My uncle's canon fuse, their spikes ignited it." Y/N explains while taking a sigh of relief, honestly just hoping to his religious figure that it would work. Despite the obvious good feeling, this little fact makes the others blink.

"The hell does your uncle need canon fuse for?!" Xavier asks the obvious question, to which Y/N looks at him as if wondering what he thinks.

"His canon." He answers with a shrug.

Meanwhile, Weems with the binoculars, watches as the boats return into the spectator's field of view. "The final two teams are the Gold Bugs...." She announces, prompting the students of that dorm to wave their yellow flag. "And the Hop-Frogs...." She announces next, prompting that dorm to start waving their maroon flags as well. Weems pulls down the binoculars, slightly surprised, but impressed, nonetheless. Coach Vlad is seemingly clapping nonchalantly, but deep inside, he's feeling like a quokka.

However, now is still not the time for cheers from that dorm, as the Gold Bug is still way ahead of them. "Uh, guys?" Ajax whimpers in front of them, seeing the distance and knowing that it's not looking good. Y/N hands him another clown-like toy, and the gorgon points it straight at the enemy boat, ready to take the lead. A boxing gloved connected to a spring shoots out....

But misses the boat by an inch. The Sirens smirk at their failed attempt as they are now about to make it back to the docks. "Great...." Xavier mutters in frustration as it's starting to look like all of their little tricks have been for nothing.

"You got anything else in that little bag that'll slow them down?" He quickly questions Y/N, starting to depend on his tricks just like he depended on his be sketches at this point.  However, Y/N regretfully shakes his head in response. 

"Nope." 

"So we're screwed?!" Ajax questions as they try to row as fast as they can, but the girls seem to be getting farther with every stroke. However, Y/N shakes his head at this too, smirking.

"Nope." 

Just then, the Gold Bug rubs on something that's been floating since the start of the race, the ball that Y/N threw into the water earlier. The second it feels physical contact, it suddenly erupts and turns into a large net, entrapping the canoe and everyone inside it, adding a lot of weight that threatens to bring the Sirens down. "Can't lift them up and set them on fire, but for the Mermaid Mafia, that'll do!" Y/N quips, and the boys start laughing as the feeling of obstacles rolls off their shoulders. 

By the time the Sirens are still trying to figure out how to break free from the snare, the Hop-Frog makes it onto the docks. "Go! Go! Go!" Xavier encourages as everyone quickly and somewhat frantically gets off the boat. The psychic and Y/N take the flag as they all begin running up the hill alongside the loud noises of the spectators. 

Without wasting a single second, they then cross the finish line, officially winning the race. "YEAAAAAH!" Xavier exclaims excitedly into the air, the most excited and happy anyone's ever seen him. No gloom or doom on his face whatsoever, not today. He quickly covers his roommate in a bear hug while Ajax and the other Jester high-five, having only come for the ride, but not refusing to soak in the sows of victory.

"Ow, ow, ow......" Y/N winces as he never felt Xavier be so close to crushing his rib cage, rubbing his chest when he finally lets him go. Looking around, his emotions turn to shock as he starts to realize that, despite his make-up being clean, despite him clearly being the Woods-Creep with a nasty record, everyone's..... cheering for him? Maybe the team, mostly, but..... no one's glaring at him with disgust. He stands there, frozen, before finally busting open a smile. "Alright!" He exclaims as he starts celebrating with his team too.

"Hey, you know what man?" The fourth no-named Jester taps on his shoulder! "You clearly don't act like how they say you are."

"Yeah, you're awesome! The dorm hero!" Ajax adds onto this as they both pat on his back. 

"I think it's fair to say that the Jesters have once again repeated history." Xavier also says with a proud smile, Y/N grins before looking back and seeing both Bianca and Wednesday reach the docks. For the first time in his life, he doesn't feel like such a loser. One glares at him, the other stares blankly at him, mentally perplexed. I bet you can guess which is which.

Y/N grins.

"You didn't say it was such a splashy, wet history."

 _______________________________

Nevermore: Quad

Everyone is now standing in Nevermore's favorite spot, with all members of the Hop-Frog standing next to Weems and in front of everyone. Xavier looks like he's trying to get back to his normal self, but his body shaking betrays his persona. Ajax smiles with his arms crossed and Y/N just stands there next to his roommate, now a little shy due to the both of them standing in the center the sort-of stage.

"The first Poe Cup took place in 1897 as a way to not only honor Nevermore's most famous alumni, but to celebrate those values that all Outcasts share. Community, perseverance, and determination." Weems gives a speech that's likely be repeated multiple times to the student body every time a race comes to its conclusion. "And we certainly saw those values on display today." She says, even though half of the excited parts took place out of view from everyone else. That side, she concludes the speech by taking the massive trophy from the pedestal, and hands it to the winners.

Xavier obviously is the one to take the massive cup with absolutely no hesitation. "ALRIGHT!" He exclaims in another burst of proud excitement, prompting almost everyone else in the crowd to scream and cheer in celebration along with them, even some of the students that aren't in their dorm. Y/N, not really sure how to cheer, just waves and smiles which slowly turns into a grin due to all of the happy emotion he's feeling.

"Congratulations to (Unestablished dorm name that I would just make up with if it wasn't going to likely be corrected in Season 2)!" Weems announces as she gestures towards the Jester team. "As a former resident, I'm sure Coach Vlad will be happy to see the Cup back on the mantle after all these years."

While clapping with his fellow teammates, he looks over and spots a girl in an easily noticeable black version of the Nevermore uniform walking away and into a small alleyway-thing of the Quad. He squints, wondering if she actually cared about winning or something, or maybe it's all of these loud people. "Come on!" Xavier taps on his shoulder as the team gathers around a random empty picnic table and sets the cup down where they and other members of the dorm can admire it up close.  

"Wow, I didn't think I'd be so stoked to have this sitting right in front of me...." Ajax shares with the others as he's super busy staring at the massive trophy in awe. The other boys obviously can't help but join in that with him. "I was kinda forced into this whole thing by Xavier..."

"Are you telling me you're still wishing you weren't?" Xavier asks with a raised brow, to which Ajax shrugs in defeat.

"No, definitely not anymore."

Y/N smiles before awkwardly clearing his throat, turning to Xavier. "I'm sorry about..... bringing up the whole, 'ex-best friend is murdered' theory constantly onto you." He sincerely apologizes to him in a way that makes the psychic blink at him. "I know that I was probably pushing something that didn't need to be tested."

"Hey, you know what? don't worry about it, your theory may not be so far off." Xavier assures him, tapping his shoulder. Y/N squints as he wants to ask what they means. "But forget about all that man, let's live in the moment!" He encourages as he gestures back towards the trophy, as the gang starts cheering again, Y/N smiles as he gets the hint to keep what he's thinking to himself for now. 

"Yeah bro, you just became the official dorm hero!" Ajax agreeingly states, prompting yet another cheer from the boys. Y/N sheepishly chuckles as he glances down while Xavier pats him on the back as a way to say that he should embrace it while this good feeling lasts. "Man, we need to celebrate this somehow...."

"Oh! That reminds me, they're bringing us cake, I'll get us some waters to wash it down with" Y/N brings up, remembering the way Xavier described how all of this little after-Poe Cup parties turn out. "Be right back."

He quickly jogs away, during which, he bumps into Wednesday right as she's about to peep back out from her hiding spot. "Sorry." Y/N quickly apologizes, though finds himself stopping upon seeing her. Wednesday doesn't give a response to that basic human dialogue, obviously. "So, are you hiding?"

"All those people can create a lot of noise." Wednesday brings up as she stares at him with her arms crossed, still able to maintain such a blank and robotic posture despite everything right now. "It's unsettling." 

"Yeah.... it kinda is." Y/N agrees, having had that same exact feeling while talking the trophy earlier. The awkwardness of having an actual polite conversation with one another is turning the other off, and they can both see it on each other. "So, you're not mad about losing?"

"My goal was to make sure Bianca suffered a humiliating defeat. I've still accomplished that, even if it wasn't by my own hands." Wednesday tells him, looking very nonchalant. "I don't follow such trivial school events in a way you seem to do."

"Really?" Y/N hums as he leans against the railing of the quad, raising a skeptical brow. "Because according to your own words, we were after the same thing."

"Whatever..." Wednesday dismisses, walking away the second she detects Y/N's attempt to try and 'get along with her', something she would rather avoid at all if possible. The boy finds himself chuckling despite his still-negative opinion of her, and while watching her go, glances at the Siren table where he sees Bianca sitting bitterly like Divina scolds her defeated brother who now has a black eye about getting himself knocked out. He then continues to go get those drinks..... which he's sure is totally non-alcoholic. 

Meanwhile, as Wednesday finds the exit to this quid, she ends almost running into Weems, who stares at her with that obnoxious smile again. "It's good to see you fitting in." She comments, apparently having notice her brief, non-hostile interaction with Y/N. "Just like your mother."

"My mother and I are two entirely different people-slash-species-slash-everything." Wednesday corrects the woman, once again finding it appropriate that she avoids all types of connection with her parents whenever possible, even if she has gotten used to this teenage slum called a school. 

"You know, the last time anyone other than (Gold Bug's dorm) won the Poe Cup, your mother captained the team. I was he co-pilot." Weems shares with Wednesday as she glances at the boys all still hooting and hollering about the trophy they just won. "Maybe you two are more alike than you think."

Wednesday can certainly see the resemblance, not refusing to let it dawn on her, but the idea about it still makes her uncomfortable.

Y/N then returns to the quad, where Xavier quickly walks up to him before he fully joins the table. "Hey, me and the guys were talking, them and Ajax want to know if you're willing to hang out next weekend." The psychic asks them, not looking like he's bluffing. Y/N blinks, trying to make sure he heard that correctly. "What? No one's gonna stone you, I promise."

"N-No, it's not that, it's just....." Y/N stutters, trying to remind Xavier than literally yesterday, people were still turning the corner every time they'd see him in the hallway, and now they want to hang out? Sure, maybe it's just the guys from his dorm, and the treatment will still continue, but still, this is all just so baffling to him. "I'll think about it." He ends up saying, and his roommate smiles before nodding him over to the table.

"Come on, we got a win to celebrate."

__________________________________________________

Nevermore: Boys Dormitory

After spending most of the day reminding himself about how he won at the Poe Cup, Y/N returns to his dorm room. Surprisingly, he doesn't find Xavier in here at all, the bathroom's lights are off, and he's not on the balcony admiring the view either. Guess one of those special privileges meant he can spend the night wherever he pleases, and he's far from tired yet.

As he does the usual, brush his teeth, take off his uniform, change into pajamas and a more comfortable shirt, he's about to hit the hay until his eyes land on that box, once again still locked. However, after going through the depths of water-hell and almost gotten his team's canoe sunk multiple times, he thinks he's found the answer to the code.

He walks about and sets it down on his desk, Y/N takes a big, deep breath before typing it in. 

T-E-A-M

Bingo.

Y/N chuckles at his Uncle's sense for cheesy like answers. But it makes sense now, he just needed to use his brain for once to solve it. With a click and a snap, the box unlocks itself, and he slowly opens it up not to find any jewelry or knife or anything of that nature. Instead, he finds a bunch of pictures, papers, and what might be a note folded up. Curious, he goes through multiple of them. 

He slightly regrets it when the first thing he picks up and flips over is a picture of a Hyde, the monster. Not just a sketch, but the actual thing somehow letting itself be taken in a photographic image. He swallows, but his happy emotions outweigh any ideas of him ruining his vibe.

There's a lot of these, probably take up 76% of it, but then, he spots another picture. This one is much different than the photos, this comes in a rectangular envelope looking thing, with an oval in the center to show the face of someone that must be blood related to him, because his name is Chax L/N. However, despite the obvious difference, and the fact that the date clearly shows 1672, there's something about him that sets a bad cord with Y/N.

Mostly... the fact that this boy carries his face.

This distracts him long enough for a hooded figure to sneak up and gag him. 

_______________________________________

Nevermore: Quad

The night has now fallen over Nevermore, giving Wednesday the moment to once again sneak out with no one noticing her absence. During that moment where she had to hide from the crowd. She sat next to a statue of Edgar Allan Poe, and noticed that the book that was molded has a symbol on it the same as the one in Rowan's drawing and the book in Wednesday's vision. It's not the real one, obviously, but it's something she has to check out.

Nevermore continues to be an enigma, a place where the questions far outweigh the answers. But sometimes.... the answer is staring you right in the face. She walks back to where she previously hid and re-finds the statue. She turns on the flashlight, briefly staring back at Edgar Allan's sanctimonious smirk before noticing some writing on the 'pages' of the book part of the statue.

She sees a much of one line paragraphs that make no sense at first, but Wednesday knows that Edgar's penchant for riddles was legendary, and this might be his cleverest one yet. Reading each one at a time, she realizes that they aren't part of one big riddle, each line is it's separate riddle. She opens up her notepad and solves each one at a time, pulling out a pen to write each answer.

The opposite of the moon: Sun.

A world between ours: Nether. 

Two months before June: April

A self-seeding flower: Pansy.

One more than one: Two.

Its leaves weep to the ground: Willow.

It melts in the sun: Ice.

It's beginning and end never found: Circle.

Every rule has one: Exception.

Now, that still doesn't put anything together on the surface, but Wednesday knows that there's some next step to this riddle. There has to be if you want to understand Edger's complexity when it comes to this. She circles the first letter of each word.

S

N

A

P

T

W

I

C

E

Snap Twice.

Wednesday smirks as she sees that she still has something that even Y/N can't beat yet, intelligence. She steps back and stands in front on the statue directly, snapping her fingers twice precisely. Right after, there's a loud crack from the raven before the statue moves and reveals a hidden staircase. 

She walks down and observes the circular room. It's mostly dark in her, aside from the small lights that are shining on the many portraits of old figures she only recognizes half of. Once she reaches the last step, she looks down at the floor and at the center where the moonlight shines on, paints the symbol of the Nightshade. She starts recognizing this room. This was where she saw those few seconds of Rowan pulling out the book, ripping out the drawing, and then dropping it in her visions.

This is definitely the place she needs to be.

Secret societies, hidden libraries, a portrait of Wednesday's mother staring at her in a judgmental way, these are all things she's come to expect. It's a breath of fresh air to encounter, rather than be brutally hit with the unexpected like the past few days of brought. She finds a bookshelf with an entire row of books matching the same color as her target, but upon seeing a spot where dust has clearly has something drag through it, she finds the appropriate one. She opens it up and sees the other half of Rowan's drawing, still showing the haunting silhouette of a large and menacing pilgrim. 

Finding what she needs, she stuffs the book into her bag and heads out.... only to suddenly have a bag forced onto her head.

Luckily, Wednesday's not scared of the dark.

__________________________________________

(A/N) And with that, we end Episode 2!

Hope you guys enjoyed it! Once again, a slightly different ending than in canon, but only slightly. All of the needed events for the story to continue still happened, obviously, but it gave Y/N more room to shine! Let me know what you guys think of the book so far, I know I'm probably unknowingly screwing up on some aspects, but I'm also trying to make sure I do whatever it takes to stick to the route and set up the ending that I'm going for, which can get in the way of fixign those problems.

For Episode 3, which takes place on Outreach Day iirc, I'm thinking of putting Y/N and Wednesday into separate places so I can have much more space to continue both plotlines without the Male Reader insert being trapped by the continuity of canon. Though they will obviously meet back up with each other to resume their romantic subplot. 

Anyway, plz vote and comment, any counts as feedback, and I'll see you in the next one!