Suzi Manyoya

Personality

Suzi is a very responsible person and very diligent in everything she does. She likes order and efficiency and feels the need to step in if things aren't as organized as she'd like or thinks they should be. This almost exclusively applies to how Savanaclaw students behave and daily life in the dorm as a whole, which led her to act as an unofficial vice housewarden since her first year. Leona was against it at first since he thought she was challenging his authority and it caused a lot of arguments between them, but once he realized how much easier she makes things for him he decided to look the other way and only steps in when he disagrees with something. However, other students don't take kindly to her bossing them around, and she gets on some nerves and can step on a few tails, so to speak. Due to her responsibilities with schoolwork and matters back home she has relaxed with this by her third year, but it's still common to have some first-years think she's the dorm leader for the first few days of class every year.

A student at the top of her class, Suzi is very intelligent and knowledgeable not only of academic matters but everything that happens at school, making her the go-to source of information for everything from homework and tutoring to student and teacher gossip. She is very confident in her magical and academic abilities (sometimes to the point of smugness) and doesn't shy away from demonstrating them, which has caused her to be seen as a know-it-all by her classmates – whether she doesn't realize it or just doesn't care is anyone's guess.

Despite being a bit Too Much™ for her dormmates sometimes, Suzi is overall friendly and sociable with students from all dorms (or "diplomatic" as she calls it), and always willing to help. As part of her unofficial vice housewarden duties she's constantly breaking up fights, helping resolve arguments or mediating other people's problems. Like most students in Savanaclaw, she has a competitive streak, although she keeps it in check. She is very loyal to her friends, family and the Kingscholars in general; however, she puts her duty above her feelings and plays by the rules, so Leona didn't even consider including her in his plans to win the Spelldrive tournament, since he knew he'd get an earful about it (he still got it afterwards).

The pressures of school life and her many responsibilities (some of which she imposed on herself) cause her to have a short temper and become easily irritable. She loses her patience quickly, can be snappish and blunt, and can offend people without meaning to or realizing it. While other students know to stay clear of her when she's acting like this, Leona finds her attitude very amusing and loves to tease and torment her any chance he gets just to see her riled up. Secretly, the stress and anxiety also make her prone to panic attacks and insomnia, which she doesn't share because she "doesn't want to inconvenience others" but which is really a fear of showing weakness. She has been working on managing her stress (and snapping at others), but there's not much progress to be seen so far.

Signature Spell

Suzi's signature spell is called Light as a Feather, and it allows her to manipulate the weight of anything she touches. She can make things light enough to float, or so heavy they're impossible to move. It works on objects as well as people, and the amount of blot it produces depends on how long she maintains the spell.

Trivia

• She was accepted into Royal Sword Academy as well as Night Raven College, but both of her older brothers attended RSA for a while and were on the verge of being expelled, so her parents decided not to risk it with her
• She's been pestering Leona to study, go to class and graduate since she arrived at NRC, and every time he has to repeat a class feels like a personal failure to her
• She adores Cheka but can only babysit him for so long before she loses her composure because he loves to test her patience
• She has a nice singing voice, although she doesn't like to sing in front of others. Leona heard her by accident once and blackmails her into singing for him when they're alone sometimes, since he says it helps him sleep (as if he needed any help with that).
• She's a borderline vegetarian
• Loves puns and wordplays; she slips them into conversations unconsciously sometimes
• Will never admit it, but she loves gossip - she calls it "being well-informed" on what goes on around her
• While she scares many a first year into obeying her orders, a lot if not most of the older students know to ignore her rants and nagging, which pisses her off like nothing else
• She has an unexpected sense of humor that not a lot of people get, since she tends to deliver her jokes in the same tone as she says everything else, and it never sounds like she's joking
• She unconsciously shakes her tail feathers when she experiences any strong emotion (like excitement or anger). She has learned to control it more over time but did it very often when she arrived at NRC, causing Leona to call her "Feathers", since it was her most distinguishing trait.

Story

Background

Suzi is the youngest child of the royal advisor of the Sunset Savanna. Her oldest brother inherited their mother's job when she retired a few years after Suzi was born, but left the post a year later due to some disagreements with the king and later became estranged from the family. Her second brother took the position reluctantly, but did not do a very good job and left after his wife had complications in childbirth. The job inevitably went to Suzi then, but since she was 15 at the time her mother agreed to return to her old post and train her daughter to take her place once she turned 20. Being her family's last hope to maintain their position at court, Suzi has felt a strong sense of responsibility and pressure since before she enrolled in NRC.

Despite being familiar with the happenings of court from a young age, Suzi did not know any of the members of the royal family personally other than Falena. Once she arrived at school, she was excited to be sorted into the same dorm as Leona and took it upon herself to "watch over" him, since as a servant to the Kingscholars she should be helpful to the member of the royal family closest to her at the time. However, she quickly became disillusioned at Leona's personality and general attitude; she did not like the way he managed their dorm, was on his way to repeating the school year and was surprised (and disappointed) that he seemed to be nothing like Falena, whom she admires greatly. Leona didn't take kindly to a freshman lecturing him on the running of the dorm and definitely didn't appreciate the comparisons to his brother, so it didn't take long for the arguments to begin. They reached an agreement in time, in which she'd be free to manage the dorm the way a vice housewarden would as long as she doesn't go over his head and in exchange, he'd put more effort into his studies and let her study with him if she felt he needed it. She also convinced him to play chess with her from time to time, since she considers it to be a good strategy exercise for both of them as a member of the royal family and future advisor respectively. He initially agreed because he thought her reaction to him winning every game was amusing, but came to enjoy it over time since it's one of the only moments when she's not nagging at him.

Despite earning a lot of respect for each other and improving their relationship, they still butt heads and argue from time to time, since Suzi still disapproves of a lot of his decisions regarding the dorm and his attitude towards life in general, but mostly towards his family.

Prologue

Suzi is present at the entrance ceremony and sees the commotion caused by Nadire (my Yuu) and Grim's arrival, although she decides to let the teachers handle it and doesn't get involved.

Book I

During their first days at school, Ace, Deuce, Nadire & Grim see a girl with blue braids scolding some Savanaclaw students on their way to class. They're taken aback by her attitude and wonder if she's a housewarden when she notices them staring. Feeling like they're already in trouble, they try to escape but she reaches them first. However, not only are they not in trouble, but the girl is being very nice towards them. She introduces herself as Suzi, a third year from Savanaclaw, and the first years are surprised when she seems to know who they are after they introduce themselves, especially Nadire. She tells them she's well-informed on school matters, but even so, everyone knows about the magicless human and the talking cat that caused an uproar during the entrance ceremony. She offers to help them with anything they need while they're at NRC before sending them off to Trein's class, since he doesn't like tardiness. While Ace & Deuce are still recovering from the whiplash of the interaction (and Grim is still pissy about being called a cat), Nadire says they really should get to class and the group moves along.

After Riddle's overblot, Suzi (who of course knows all about it despite not being present) is seen discussing the event with her friend Kajal in the Savanaclaw dorm. She expresses her disapproval at how the headmage handled the issue (ie, how he barely did anything), and hopes nothing like that happens again during the rest of the year.

Book II

Suzi spends the weeks leading up to the spelldrive tournament in and out of school on work training with her mother, so she misses most of the players' injuries (although she does know of them). She returns to NRC the night before the tournament and goes straight to bed without anyone other than her dormmates finding out. After a terrible night's sleep, she sees that in the morning the dorm is a mess due to the students being too focused on the game, no one is listening to her and she's having none of it. She tries to get Leona to do something about it, but he doesn't have time to humor her and mostly ignores her. Suzi's bad mood rises and the situation escalates quickly, developing into a huge fight that leaves the entire dorm on edge. Kajal & Ruggie eventually decide to intervene and do damage control, Kajal by taking Suzi away and Ruggie by trying to get Leona to calm down. While Leona just brushes it off and tries to focus on the last part of their plan, Suzi takes some time to cool off before going to the stadium.

Once she gets to the stadium, Suzi is greeted by Chrysalis. Her friend is surprised to see her on campus, and quickly asks if she knows of and has confronted Leona about his scheme yet, to which Suzi asks what she's talking about. After a brief moment of smugness for finally knowing something she doesn't, Chrysalis tells Suzi about Leona's plan to hurt spelldrive players from the other dorms, and Suzi is livid. She goes to find Leona, Ruggie & Heidi, and arrives just in time to see the Heartslabyul & Diasomnia students confront them. Already enraged, she starts to lecture and yell at Leona again. Her anger quickly turns to shock and then fear when Leona's signature spell starts to hurt Ruggie and later Kajal as she tries to help him. Seeing the gravity of the situation (and how her words might have made things worse) she tries to get Leona to calm down and talk him out of his tantrum, but it doesn't work. If anything, it seems to make Leona angrier, causing him to direct all his anger at her in the moment and saying many hurtful things to her.

When Leona overblots completely Suzi tries her best to help the others fight him, but she is too nervous and affected to do anything other than offer defensive support. She's in a state of shock once Leona comes to and during the entire tournament, keeping her distance from him and most of her fellow Savanaclaw students. Deciding to postpone her argument with Kajal for being an accomplice to the scheme, Suzi accompanies her to the infirmary to get checked at the end of the day, while still keeping her distance from Leona. Surprised to see Cheka, she quickly returns him to his caretakers once Leona starts to seem truly annoyed, and stays away from the infirmary until everyone is dispatched.

Later that night, Kajal finds Suzi hiding in a corner of the dorm and goes to check in on her. She admits to her friend that she is not only ashamed of the things she said to Leona but afraid of what could have happened if his overblot had been worse, and what that would have meant for her as his servant and someone who had come to really care for him. Kajal asks her if she has talked to him yet, to which Suzi replies she has not. Her friend almost drags her to his room and threatens to not let her into their room until they've patched things up, so Suzi goes out to find him.

She finds Leona on his way to his room and asks to talk to him. She apologizes for everything she said to him that day and for her general behavior. He tries to brush it all off until she starts to talk about their relationship and where it's going, which is much more interesting to him. Suzi eventually confesses her feelings for him, and after a little back and forth teasing, he tells her he feels the same. They go into Leona's room to talk some more and relax, eventually falling asleep. They start dating secretly from that day on, although Kajal & Ruggie find out about it almost immediately.

Book III

Suzi returns from training with her mother early one morning and goes to wake up Leona, only to find a half-asleep Nadire open the door to his room. Her initial shock and rage pass quickly once Nadire & Grim explain the situation with Azul & Ramshackle. Since she had offered to help the first years during their time at Night Raven, Nadire also asks for help retrieving the photo, while Grim asks if she knows of another way to get rid of the anemones. Suzi confirms that there's nothing they can do if the anemones are part of Azul's signature spell, and though she doesn't approve of them attempting to steal anything from a museum, she wishes them luck when she realizes she can't get them to change their mind.

Later, she goes off on Nadire & Grim for causing a ruckus outside Leona's room to get him to help them recover Ramshackle. When she finds out what the commotion was for not only does she join their pressuring of Leona to help them but contributes to their plan as well. Suzi then goes to the Mostro Lounge alongside the other Savanaclaw students to help carry out Nadire's plan. She is present during Azul's overblot and fights him with her classmates.

(Suzi and Ruggie have been trying to find out what deal Leona made with Azul since he destroyed the contracts, and are sworn to share their findings with each other when/if they do)

Book IV

Suzi is seen in the Mirror Chamber returning to the Sunset Savanna for the break alongside Leona, Ruggie & Heidi. She tries to hurry them along, which upsets Heidi and causes her to start an argument on their way to the mirror.

Book V

As a member of an art club, Suzi is seen in the Arts & Crafts Club booth at the Culture Fair, making sure everything is running smoothly and stressing out a few other club members.

Book VI

Suzi is studying with Kajal in the school courtyard when Ferrymen appear to abduct her friend. After fighting them and being defeated, Suzi looks for Leona to let him know what happened, only to see that he is also being abducted. Now in a full-blown panic, she goes to the headmage and sees that he's also been taken in by Styx. Stressed after having lost her best friend and her boyfriend country's prince, she decides to go get them alongside Nadire, Epel, Rook, Chelle & Shahnaz.

With Chelle's signature spell she and Shahnaz are able to sneak into Styx unseen and find their friends. She and Kajal accompany Leona & Jamil and fight the ice titan.

[More TBA, I haven't finished Book 6 lol]

Book VII

TBA

Relationships