Work Text:
Love isn’t a one lane road with a sure destination in mind, Idia Shroud can say this with experience. It’s a roller coaster filled with twists and turns around every corner with no guarantee when the ride and all of its excitement will come to an end.
He started his ride with familial love, the love showered at his younger brother. He was Idia’s world and his love kept on rising. The start of the roller coaster is always filled with anticipation, you're excited for what can come next as you ready yourself for the speed to come. The love he held dearly for his brother was only meant to be the beginning. Soon, that love would branch out to others and he himself may find somebody to love for the rest of their days.
Most roller coasters though can’t start without their drops. The point in love where you realize that the first just wasn’t meant to be. The day Idia started his descent was the day he believed his ride to have come to an end. He can still remember that dreaded day. The corpse of his beloved brother ripped up right in front of him. He remembers how that monster didn’t spare even a drop of mercy. By the time the monster had finally been dealt with, all that remained of Idia’s love was just as much as was left of his dear younger brother; not even a shred. He recalls the time during that never ending plummet when he locked himself away and attempted to recreate that love. He wanted to go back up again instead of being trapped in the endless pit of gravity taking its course. He managed to relight a spark of that former love but it wasn’t enough. The new Ortho Shroud just wasn’t the same. Artificial love could never replace the real thing however it was enough to make his way down a little less steep. His fall transformed from an infinite drop to rolling down a hill with no destination in mind.
This song and dance continued for years to come, with each new one making the hill more and more flat. Idia arrived at the small bumps of his ride as he entered Night Raven Collage. He didn’t have love for anything besides his brother however it just wasn’t enough. As much as the improved artificial love tried to lift him back up, it was just impossible. Idia loved his brother, he did but that’s all that would ever be. He wasn’t capable of going up another hill for somebody else. All those normies surrounding him would never be anything else, his ride had reached an impasse of which nothing in the world could fix.
That is until the loop comes. It arrived in the form of a magic-less human not from Twisted Wonderland. The otherworldly being was something else, Idia couldn’t describe it. You, a magic-less normie, were the solution to his problem. If nothing in this world could fix his problem, then the answer must lie within someone not from here. He felt his emotions flip over as he watched from afar. The way you were so caring, you were strong despite the fact you had no magic, and you were brave enough to stand up to what you disliked. You were a new light for his darkness and he knew you were the one who could restart his ascent on the coaster.
He couldn’t do it though, despite his efforts, he couldn’t bring himself to start the uphill journey. All those years with no real relationships left him with no experience to actually reach out. So instead he resigned to stay watching from afar. The loop continued as he silently came with you on your adventures in this alien world. He watched as you helped defeat countless overblots each time with the fear that you would end up just like his younger brother. Although it gets tiring to be upside down for too long and the loop must stop eventually. He finally met you face to face one fateful day as he was actually heading to class in person after being pestered by his brother. If the fates are real then they seem to have an agenda in mind for him. For after incidentally bumping into you, the scene looked like it was taken out of one of those old school dating simulators at that point where the mc bumps into the hot and popular love interest. He couldn’t believe his luck then, not only did he interact with you, but as an apology you offered to take him out to dinner at a small restaurant in town. In hindsight, accepting was probably a rude thing to do especially because Idia was aware of how low on cash you were. However he decided to take that olive branch for the only true way left to go was up.
And right he was, his roller coaster was finally ready for the next ascension. That night had gone off well and the two of you decided to have another dinner together in the upcoming week. This became a pattern and after 3 months of this, Idia decided it was finally time to break the cycle. He took you to a nicer restaurant this time around and insisted it was a gift for all the hospitality you had shown him. He wasn’t sure beforehand how to go about asking but as he watched the floating performance in the sky, he sincerely believed this was the best way for him to ask you. It took countless hours of planning and building to make his design into the shape he wanted but it was magnificent. He saw your face light up with wonder as dancing blue flames finally stopped their performance and shaped into the words ‘Would you dear Prefect allow me the chance to be your boyfriend?’ He remembered this moment well for this is the moment where his roller coaster finally started to function like it did all those years ago. He was no longer the outcast who would never love another, he was the beloved boyfriend of a wonderful person who he didn’t deserve at all.
The roller coaster ride wasn’t over here though, in fact it truly had only just begun. But to show the ride further means that one would have to reach the end of the ride where no happy ending awaits. It’s a good idea to end at the peak of the ride, where everything is just right instead of tying up loose ends. For it’s best to end on a joyful note then tell the story long enough to give it the true sad ending.