Cater knew the second he saw Riddle during the orientation for Heartsabyl for the freshmen that something was terribly wrong. They had plenty of time to warn the dorm about their Queen's gender fluid nature, but Riddle had become even more prickly and stricter about the rules than he had upon becoming housewarden, if that was possible.
Cater was even more alarmed by the fact that Riddle's pen had been growing steadily darker as the week drew on. Ace was not helping matters in the slightest by his attitude and lack of social awareness when it came to living in a dorm.
Honestly, he deserved being beheaded for eating the tart meant for the Unbirthday party.
He felt no joy tricking the two freshmen and the otherworlder into painting, but his mind was elsewhere. Riddle had started to loosen up, just a bit, by the time his first year had ended.
While he hadn't come to terms with his feminine side yet, he had loosened up slightly in regards to the rules and only beheaded the most serious infractions or those who were repeat offenders.
Then again, he strongly suspected some of the repeat offenders did it purely to see Alyssa dominate them. He was not going to comment on his dormmates kinks, as he really, really didn't want to know.
It was beginning to really worry him.
So when he saw Crowley in the dorm during the Unbirthday party with Ace there as well, he knew they were fucked. Riddle had been acting off all week, and he would sometimes flinch for no reason, as if he was in extreme pain.
Riddle beat Ace easily, but Cater's attention was on the odd bracelet he hadn't registered before. It began to crackle with a dark, malicious energy as a strange collar formed around Riddle's neck.
Riddle cried out in pain, as the scent of ink rose in the air and began to almost choke anyone close to him with it.
Cater had never seen it before, but he knew in his bones what this was. An Overblot.
Riddle dropped his spell pen, and nearly collapsed on the ground. A strange aura formed around him, and for a brief, if terrifying moment, Cater feared that he would go into Overblot and do untold damage.
Crowley had a dark frown on his face, as he stormed up towards Riddle looking rather pissed about something.
Riddle's ears popped out, as did his tail which was writhing in pain.
Everyone was in a state of panic, as it was clear the bracelet and collar was killing their housewarden and they had no idea how to help him.
Crowley came within range of Riddle, and said something none of them understood. The air crackled with ancient magic, as the collar around Riddle almost seemed alive. Crowley continued to speak, using an ancient tongue none of them recognized.
Then the bracelet snapped in two, taking the collar with it.
Riddle began to collapse onto the ground, exhausted. The moment his body touched the earth, there was a slight 'pop'. In his place was an absolutely adorable fox-creature.
The fox had vibrant red fur, with darker red at the tip of it's tail. The underbelly was lined with silvery-white fur, and there was an imprint of a rose on the tail. His ears were white with red fur lined inside, and he was wearing an altered version of his dorm uniform which only made it cuter.
Without thinking twice, Cater walked up to the small thing which was half Riddle's size and scooped him up. The fox immediately began to burrow into his side, whimpering from the residual pain.
"This is most troubling. These were banned for a reason," said Crowley, picking up the two halves of the bracelet.
"What is that thing?" asked Cater, letting Riddle cuddle against him.
"This is a class S restricted item banned to anyone without authorization for disposing of known dangerous criminals. Mostly because certain anti-beastkin factions used them on influential beastkin or were using them as torture devices. They use the victim's own magical energy to fuel the restriction spells, causing intense pain. The stronger the victim, the worse the effects. Most of the known examples were either destroyed or were rendered inert because of how dangerous they were," said Crowley, scowling at it.
Trey looked at little closer at the bracelet, before recognition hit.
"Oh Seven. I think I might know where that came from," said Trey, pale.
He had Crowley's full attention now. The headmage was not happy having this thing in his school, and would be making serious inquiries as to where it came from. It was a political nightmare waiting to happen!
"I've seen that thing in Riddle's house before, briefly. He's had to wear it a few times too, usually whenever his mom found out Alyssa had been out again."
"Are you telling me his guardian had this on him before?" said Crowley sharply.
"He said it was a 'punishment for misbehaving children' and he would wear it for like a week before his mother would let him take it off again."
It was also one of the main reasons Riddle was traumatized by the idea of anyone learning about his feminine side. He always looked so pale whenever his mother made him wear it before too.
Crowley looked downright pissed at this information. Mrs. Rosehearts was already under suspicion because of the fact Riddle's true nature had been revealed last year, but having this in her possession now only confirmed things.
Riddle was taking to the infirmary for observation. His magical levels were dangerously low, and he was clearly in an energy-saving mode until he was better.
The scent of fresh roses greeted him as he woke up. He vaguely remembered the pain and agony he felt as the bracelet went into overdrive, and the scent of ink pervading the air, drowning out the comforting smell of roses.
After that, nothing.
Attempting to get out of bed resulted in a loud yip of confusion and pain, as he hit the ground hard.
Disoriented, he went to the nearby mirror as something felt terribly wrong.
His rising panic at seeing the small fox where he was standing caused no end of chaos outside. Not that he was aware of this, as he wasn't eye level with the windows.
Hearing the door open, Riddle turned to find...Cater?
He let out a confused yip, which made things worse.
Cater calmly went up to him, and made soothing sounds that calmed his anxiety just a tad.
"Easy, little kit. You're causing the roses outside to go nuts," he said gently.
Riddle blinked, and Cater picked him up so that he could see outside properly. Sure enough, his magic...or something akin to it...was causing the roses to lash out at anything that came too close. A few students had already been hit, and everyone was wisely avoiding the flora for the moment.
Guilt racked his conscience.
Cater cuddled with him, picking up the special brush Che'nya had recommended for Riddle's tail.
Riddle was still confused and worried, but the soothing motion of the brush seemed to calm him down a bit. Enough to at least listen to what Cater was saying.
He had been out for four days so far, and had been in his kitsune form since the Unbirthday party. He was still housewarden, as he had beaten Ace before going into Overblot.
Then Cater dropped the bombshell that stunned him to his core.
"Dr. Rosehearts has been arrested, and her license to practice medicine stripped. You've become a ward of the school, after what they found in the home. Crowley also got a restraining order against her."
Riddle was silent, the shock not fully filtering through quite yet.
His mother was arrested?
He made an inquiring yip.
"Apparently she had a lot of stuff restricted to the public, almost all of it for use against beastkin. She might have gotten away with it, except there were several items that had clearly been used after her husband's death, some of which was recent. Her husband was authorized to own it, but she wasn't," said Cater quietly. Riddle shivered into his side. "Owning any of it was a gray area since she never acquired it herself, but using it was so illegal she was arrested the second the cops got the report from the headmage."
Riddle shivered, and Cater cuddled with him for a bit. Riddle made a few inquiring yipes, and Cater did his best to catch him up on things.
Ace had been made to bake another tart, and given the riot act not by Trey, but by some of the older years. While he had yet to meet Alyssa properly, he understood pretty quick that if he had managed to beat Riddle, none of the upper years would have respected him anytime soon.
Alyssa's fan base second year up was that strong that they'd reject anyone else being housewarden before she graduated.
Riddle was still tired, so he fell asleep easily. Cater went to check on the dorm.
Trey was waiting for him.
"He's awake, but he was still pretty groggy. Was not expecting him to cause the roses to go berserk," said Cater.
That had caught both of them off guard. Made sense though, with how much Riddle liked them.
By the next morning, Alyssa was out of bed and had wandered into the communal kitchen in search of food, as she was starving.
Trey took one look at her before making some pancakes, which were quick and easy, with extra strawberries. Alyssa devoured them.
A few hours later...
Alyssa was glad Cater had helped her to braid her hair, as she still had trouble with it. She was wearing the feminine version of the dorm uniform, which was mostly adding a somewhat frilly white skirt to go along with the top.
She could see the open disbelief and confusion of the first year, particularly Ace and Deuce.
Ace looked to Deuce.
"Am I hallucinating, or did our housewarden suddenly grow breasts?" said Ace in a semi-whisper.
Deuce was having trouble taking his eyes off their housewarden, and a distinct blush was forming.
Cater grinned at them both, having overheard the comment.
"You two were so busy causing trouble that we never got a chance to explain Alyssa-hime to the freshmen. Well, that and that entire mess with that bracelet."
"Alyssa-hime?" said Deuce quietly.
"Our housewarden is a rare beastkin type. Kitsune have the ability to not only hide their features, but also switch genders on a whim. If they look like that, refer to them as Alyssa-hime. If you don't know which gender they are or you want to be safe, stick to gender neutral pronouns," explained Cater. "If you can behave long enough for us to have a proper Unbirthday party, you can get the same invite to the private server we have to share pictures."
Judging by the look on Deuce's face, he was definitely going to be another die hard convert of their Queen. Ace might take a bit longer, but he'd come around soon enough.
Still, the fact Alyssa-hime made a formal apology for the mess at the previous Unbirthday party won over several freshmen. It also reaffirmed the near worship the older students had for her.
It took all of five minutes in close proximity of Alyssa for Ace to fall for her as well.
Cater sidled up to Trey.
"Is it mean or did her charisma shoot up after that mess last week?"
"It's not you," said Trey.
She had converted the dorm within a month last year, and it seemed that whatever aura she had to attract people had only gotten stronger after last week. To be fair, he had noticed that Riddle's popularity had gone up exponentially since he started walking around with his tail and ears out.
"I guess those old stories about kitsune being walking sex appeal was true," joked Cater. There were a number of stories about 'fox wives' and how kitsune lead men astray.
From the looks of things, that particular rumor had some substance to it.
Coincidentally there were a few new pics of Alyssa-hime in a proper dress after the Unbirthday party posted. Cater also took a few with Alyssa and Che'nya together, which he was thrilled about.