That morning, Ace watches from the porch, leaning on the railing with his arms crossed on it and the collar still firm around his neck, as he watches you help Grim with training against Drifty.

"Drifty! Use Dazzling Gleam!" You direct firmly, and Grim yelps as he barely dodges.

"Myah!? Stop moving so fast!" The cat-monster yowls out, slightly bruised from the training's fights, before standing his ground. "Take this, teal-thing! MYAH!"

Grim sends a blast of blue fire at the Flutter Mane, who screeches as it gets fire slammed into it.

The Flutter Mane is knocked back, it's eyes turning to spirals as you step in and gently catch it.

"Good job, Drifty." You murmur to it gently, crouching down to give it a Revive and use a Hyper Potion. "C'mere, pequeño gato de fuego."

Grim scampers over and lets you also use a Hyper Potion on him, wincing as the spray hits his bruises. "Myah! That stings!"

You smile at him. "Hey, don't worry. It only lasts for a moment, after all."

Ace tilts his head, curious as he looks out at your other Pokémon training. "Huh. So, like... battling is normal for "Pokémon"?"

You give him the blankest look you have. "...yes, Ace. It is."

He immediately goes quiet as he realizes how stupid the question was. You facepalm in exasperation.

"Oh, hello Y/N!" You look over towards the gate, seeing Deuce open it and walk in. He glances over at the Pokémon training against eachother before looking back at you with a confused expression. "...what is this?"

You shrug a bit with a smile. "Training! What brings you here at 6:00 or so in the morning?"

"Uh... looking for the idiot behind you." He responds with a head tilt.

You look behind you and see Grim and Ace standing there. You look back at Deuce. "Which one?"

The offended looks the two give you... it makes you snicker. And only supports the idea these two are stupid. In the name of the Distortion World, you may be the only intelligent human-ish being here right now.

You must own that though. You will be an intelligent queen for these dumbasses.

"So..." Deuce stops beside you, looking amused as you two stare at Ace. "You ate the housewarden's tart. You really are an idiot, Ace."

Ace scoffs and crosses his arms as he steps off the porch. "Oh, shut up! Like you're one to talk! Anyways, is he- uh- still mad?"

"Not at all. Maybe a touch irritated, if anything. A few of our dormmates overslept this morning... but only three of them got your treatment."

Ace facepalms at Deuce's response. "You call that "not at all" mad? Sounds like he's still on the rampage to me!"

You watch as the two boys chat, before looking away and noticing Crowley waving at you from the gate.

You quickly and silently break away from the boys- who are now bickering like a married couple once again- and approach the Headmage. You note he's holding a bundle of clothes in his hands.

"Good morning sir! I hope you slept well!" You say with a polite smile. "Are those my new outfit?"

"Outfits." Crowley says with a nod. "Professor Crewel was kind enough to make these for you after I requested for him to design some outfits for you, and did quite well on such a time crunch! Aren't I so kind to have done this favor of requesting clothes for you?"

You stiffle an amused snort at the sheer insanity of this man's narcissistic tendancies as you take the clothes from him. "Yes sir, thank you. I'll make sure to think Professor Crewel if I do see him, thank you."

You give him a polite nod as you go back over to the boys, glancing back once to see Crowley seemingly having disappeared.

He's so weird, yet feels kinda familar in a weird way... Almost fatherly, though not a good father archetype. No, more like a father who left to get the milk and came back ten years later and is awkwardly trying to reconnect with his child.

You roll your eyes at Ace and Deuce still bickering. "Oh to Arceus, can you two just aggressively make out already? I'm already done with the constant bickering and want this enemies to lovers relationship to be completed already."

That gets the single braincelled idiots (and that's you being generous) to shut up and look at you in shock.

"I- we- were not in love!" Deuce sputters out.

"Ew- no! I'm not gay!" Ace recoils in shock, looking horrified at the idea of him kissing Deuce.

You make a little amused smirk. "Yeah, yeah, sure. I'm gonna go get changed. You guys-" You gesture at Poni, Moonstone, and Grim who are watching this with surprised Pilachu-esc expressions (it's something that just popped up on Pokécam, a picture someone posted of a surprised looking Pikachu, and it blew up into a meme overnight. You like the meme)- "Tell me if the single-braincelled lovebirds kiss."

Ogerpon excitedly salutes and nods quickly, and you walk into the dorm to go get changed into one of your new outfits.

"Sh- she wasn't serious, right?" Deuce asks after a moment of awkward silence outside of Pokémon training with eachother after you left.

"I hope so..." Ace grumbles, rubbing his forehead.

Grim crosses his arms. "Myah... my hench-human is so weird! But eh, she gives me free food. Who am I to complain?"

Ace gives the cat-monster an unamused look. "Is food all you seriously think about?"

Said cat-monster scoffs. "No! I'm also going to be the greatest mage, and my hench-human is helping me get there with extra special training no other mage gets!"

Deuce puts a hand to his chin. "Hm. Y/N's kind of weird, but not in the "silly" kind of way..."

Ogerpon and Moonstone share a knowing look and Ace raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that, Loosey-Deucey?"

"One, don't call me that." Deuce shoots a glare at Ace. "And two, it's like she's... fake. Or at least putting up a front. Like, you see how polite and calm she usually is? And how serious she gets when giving directions. But sometimes it's like her front... cracks?"

Grim nods. "Yeah! I saw it too! She gets annoyed and teasing and stuff! But usually she's all friendly and "we should be nice to everyone", blech!"

Ace shudders. "She can be really terrifying when she gets pissed off..."

Deuce sighs. "Yeah... I saw how she blew up on you at the Mines last night. I didn't even know she could be that angry..."

"Oh, I didn't mean like that." Ace winces at the memory of the pain from yesterday. Damn, do you kick really hard...

"...do I even want to know?" Deuce asks in concern.

"No. No you really don't." The orange-haired boy says with a shake of his head.

"Alrighty!" Your voice comes from the porch as everyone directs their attention to you standing with your hands on your hips. "How do I look, Watashi no aisubeki orokamono no gurūpu?"

Ace blanks. "...that isn't Spanish."

"No," You agree with a nod, "It's Sinnonian. I thought I would switch up some things a bit."

To be honest, you are doing a great job pulling off your new outfit. It's a black, suit-esc outfit, similar to the outfits of the other students who attend. However, the usual vest worn below the jacket but above the undershirt is a light purple-grey, similar in color to the Magestone around Grim's neck. Around your right upper arm is an armband, like the other boy's outfits, that's orange and purple striped. On top of your head is your sunhat (now strangely black where the white used to be, but still your sunhat) and your hair pulled back in a low ponytail with a simple black ribbon. (If your hair short AF, pretend it's not tied.)

Also, different than other boy's outfits, your black and white tie isn't tied like a tie. You decided to tie it like a bow, because you have no idea how to tie an actual tie. You were so bad at it back home, Clavell just gave you a clip on tie to fit in. Except you don't have that here so...

"It really suits you Y/N!" Deuce says with a smile.

Ace lets out a low impressed whistle. "You actually look like a student here now."

You feel a pang of annoyance at Ace's slightly teasing/charged remark but ignore it, opting to smile sweetly as a flush paints your cheeks. "Aw... thank you, you two!"

Grim rolls his eyes. "Yeah yeah... enough with this gibber-gabbing!" He clambers up onto your shoulder. "It's time to show you how I will be mage supreme!"

You make a chuckle. "Alright, alright! Okay everyone, pack it up!" You quickly grin at Ace and Deuce. "Would you two like to ride of the back of the Future Paradox Dragon with me to school?"

"The what now?" The two ask in concerned sync.

--------

Your group (Poni, Moonstone, Grim, Ace, Deuce, and yourself) it on Miraidon's back as the Pokémon casually rolls down Main Street. Naturally, seeing several strange creatures and the weird group as a whole just casually going by gets people's attention.

Especially one specific hunter's attention, but he just watches. Not interfering at the moment but just being... his weird self that I enjoy the presence of.

Oop, fourth wall break. Don't mind me!

"Move it! Outta the way!" Grim yowls from where he perches on Miraidon's head. "Night Raven College student comin' through!"

Grim shoots a smug grin at Ace who looks dead inside. "Oh? Did my collar catch your eye? It's way better than the one you're stuck with! You know, the one that makes it so you can't use magic? But hey, the school could always use another janitor!" Grim bursts out laughing as Ace glowers at the cat.

"Grim, be nice." You scold. "You also were collared by Riddle once."

Ace shakes his head. "Trust me, furball, when I get my magic back, your hide is first up on the chopping block!"

"Ace, be nice." You scold the boy.

"Didn't the Headmage just tell you yesterday, "no more incidents"?" Deuce sighs with annoyance, though still looks amazed by Mi just as when you showed them off to the boys. "Regardless, you're not going to be able to participate in class if you can't use magic. So why not just apologize to the Housewarden? It's a small price to pay for having the collar removed."

"I gave him the idea last night." You comment. "And Deuce is right, Ace. In fact, we should head over there right now so you can apologize, and then we can have breakfast. To the Mirror Chamber, Miraidon!"

Miraidon makes an agreeable, "Agias!" And starts rolling in the direction of the Mirror Chamber as Grim smirks. "Hm... You're right, hench-human! We have plenty of time to kill before class starts! And I am kinda curious about the other dorms... Guess I'll go along and scope out the place while you make with the groveling."

"Since when did this become a field trip?" Ace groans.

--------

You look at Heartslabyul in awe as you step through the mirror leading to the dorm. It's... amazing. A sunlight and cloudless sky cleanly shows off the giant white-ish castle standing proudly. Heart-shaped rose bushes line the path to a garden leading to the castle itself, with a large fountain in the middle of the pathway to the dorm.

Toto flies out of your bag and immediately starts taking pictures excitedly, and you don't pay much mind to them. They usually behave well, so why should you care?

Ace smirks at your stunned face. "Pretty cool, huh?"

You nod. "I must admit, yes. I've never seen anything like this before..."

"Dude, this place is swank! This is nothing like our dumpster of a dorm!" Grim calls from your shoulder, looking annoyed.

"Our dorm is a work in progress." You correct Grim. "Oh, and so you can use "swank" correctly, but you can't bother to ignore when people try to aggravate you?"

Grim huffs and gently baps your face with a paw. "Shuddup!"

Moonstone rolls her eyes and gives Grim a glare, and Poni makes an excited squeak from where you hold her in your arms.

"Ponyo! Pon pon! Poni ponyo po!" The little Pokémon excitedly speaks out, looking around excitedly.

"I agree." You say with a smile. "This place is quite amazing, especially compared to the Dreaded Den."

Deuce gives you a startled look. "You know what it said?"

You shrug. "I can pick up on the conext and understand in a roundabout way, yes. Poni here is quite expressive when she talks, so I can understand her clearly."

"Aww, yeah! I am getting my paint on!" A voice rings out from the garden.

"Ah! Someone's here!" Grim points in the direction of the voice, looking startled.

"Seems so. Well then, let's go introduce ourselves." You immediately start walking towards the voice.

"...why?" Ace asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Being polite, naturally. It's only fair I should be polite and kind and go say hello."

The two boys share a concerned look before following after you.

You step into the garden and look around, noticing the orange haired boy you crashed into at the ceremony a couple days ago. He was singing as he used a paintbrush to stroke red paint onto the mostly white roses. He didn't seem upset, so he probably won't care to much if you go up to him.

"They all gotta be red, or it's off with my head!"

Just like my dream with Tera last night... strange.

"Excuse me?" You ask as you walk up to him, Toto buzzing excitedly next to you.

"Huh?" He stops and looks back at you, Ace and Deuce stepping up to either side of you. "You guys need something?"

Ace crosses his arms and tilts his head. "What are you doing there?"

The orange-haired boy looks taken aback, his green eyes widening. "Are you blind? I'm painting these roses red, duh."

Deuce widens his eyes. "What, why?"

The other boy shakes his head and laughs. "No naïve, you but the n in "newb"." He looks at you three a bit more closey, Moonstone leaning back slightly as the boy's eyes light up in recognition. "Hold the phone, I know you! You're the three who broke the billion-thaumark chandelier and nearly got expelled for it, yeah? And you in specifically-" He points at you with the brush- "You're the one with the weird monster-things who bumped into me during that chaos at orientation!"

"That chandelier is going to haunt us till the day we die..." Ace says with a grimace.

You sigh. "Appears so... and yes, that is me. My name is Y/N L/N, pleasure to meet you. Apologies for bumping in to you a few days ago."

The boy shrugs. "No big deal, heh. Y/N, huh? You never gave me your Magicam..."

"Oh- uh-" You hesitate for a moment, but the boy changes his focus to Ace.

"And you!" The boy points the brush at Ace who looks immediately annoyed. "You're the one who ate the Housewarden's tart the same night you broke the chandelier! Oh, you guys are the hot topic around campus! Especially you, Y/N! I gotta get in on this fleeting fame! I'm just gonna grab a selfie real quick..."

Faster than Ace or Deuce can react, the boy approaches and slings an arm around Ace's shoulders and holds up a phone, snapping a selfie. However, the moment he moves in your general direction you duck.

His smile falters as he stares at the picture, you being a blur moving downwards as he raises an eyebrow at you. You respond by giving him an innocent expression.

"No one's taking photos of me without asking except them." You say as you point at Toto, before pausing. "Say, Toto, why does your case look different?"

"Oh!" Toto giggles maniacally as they fly to you. "I decided to upgrade myself last night, boop boop! I used that new camera you left on the table, so now I can print out any pictures I take automatically! Beep!"

"Camera..?" Realization smacks you like the Cyclizar that ran into you last month umprompted and you immediately panic as you set down Poni and Grim. "Uh- one moment you three, I need to yell at the Rotom-"

-------

The boys stare at your annoyed figure as you grab your phone and storm off to the side, hearing slightly faint sounds of you absolutely ripping into the thing.

They stand there awkwardly, before the orange-haired one speaks up. "It's cool if I post this on Magicam, right? Gimme your names so I can tag you."

"I'm Deuce Spade."

"Ace."

"I'm Grim! And my hench-human, Y/N, has already introduced herself- oh, she's coming back."

They all watch as you come back, with your phone looking a bit droopy yet no longer terrified.

--------

"They are very lucky the camera function still works and they can repair the camera before we head home." You to the Rotom-Phone say as you come to a stop.

"...what even happened?" Deuce asks.

"Toto here decided they needed an upgrade, so they took apart the Ghost Camera and made it so they are also a Ghost Camera, or at least have the funtions of one..." You sigh. "I'd be less upset if Crowley didn't already tell us it was super rare, so I may be in trouble if he finds out..."

"...Sorry, beep." Toto says sadly.

"It's... alright. I'm more worried than actually angry at you." You make a curt nod, before grinning. "So, what were you guys talking about when I was gone?"

"Somethin', somethin'... Magicam." Grim shrugs, as he scurries back up onto your shoulder, "More like we were just saying our names."

You gently pick up Poni when she holds her nubs out to you for uppies. Precious child... can't believe you had to fight Kieran for custody of her that one time.

"I'm Cater Diamond, by the way," The orange-haired boy introduces himself, "I'm a junior here at Heartslabyul. But Cater is fine. Or Cay-cay if your cray-cray!" He offers you a hand for a handshake with a wink, holding his phone in his other hand and allowing you to steal a glance at the picture.

You're there, as a blur that's almost unrecognizable. You can faintly make out an unfazed Moonstone and startled Grim on your shoulders, and Ace looks annoyed at the camera while Deuce looks startled at you. Cater is grinning, like he has lots of experiences taking selfies.

"Pleasure to meet you Cater." You smile sweetly and shake his hand.

"Oh, I couldn't find your Magicam. Could you tell me it?" So that's why he shook your hand right now? Of course...

You shrug. "Eh, haven't set up an account yet... speaking of accounts..."

You look over at Toto, who's back to grinning and taking pictures. "Hey, Toto? Do we still have access to our Pokécam account?"

Toto beeps and immediately flies over, opening up Pokécam. "Well, beep beep, appears no one can access any new posts for now, but we can still see it! Boop!" 

Cater looks interested. "Pokécam, huh? Can I see?"

You smile. "Sure! Feel free to scroll through as well."

You gently grab Toto and offer them for Cater to hold. He stares at your phone for a split second before his eyes widen. "What the- three million followers!?"

"Yeah, heh." You grin sheepishly. "Toto really likes posting things, and people seem to like seeing legendary Pokémon and the head champion of Paldea doing things... so... yeah, heh. About one tenth of the entire population of the world follows me, and they like my content."

Cater grabs your shoulders with an amazed look, accidentally knocking off Grim and causing Moonstone to move aside a bit. "Please, teach me your secrets. How?"

"I- uh- sure! But... later, we're kind of in a situation right now-" You grin sheepishly, and feel your face flush when he suddenly hugs you. You ignore the feeling of Ace and Deuce's eyes boring into your skull.

"Pon! Cater pulls back and looks at Ogerpon, who's staring up at him with large innocent eyes.

"Myah..." Everyone's attention is directed to a face-down Grim on the floor. "Head... hurts..."

"Oh dear, you knocked the pequeño gato de fuego to the ground..." You sigh, before raising an eyebrow as Cater slings an arm around you. "Hey, Y/N? You're the prefect of that so-called Ramshackle house, right? Like, I can't believe you actually live there! It's all gloomy and looks like hot-garbage on Magicam. No filter could savage that dump."

You shrug and pull yourself away from Cater, scooping up Grim who still looks a tad bit dizzy. "You appear to really like dissing people, hm?"

Cater glances away for a moment, before clearing his throat and snapping his fingers with a worried expression. "Gah, what am I doing? I don't have time to chat! The party's tomorrow. If we're not ready, it's off with my head!"

You slowly back away from him to stand with the group, and Grim crawls back onto your shoulder with Moonstone on the opposite shoulder to him.

Cater glances over at the group. "Hey, you kids wanna help me paint some roses?"

You raise an eyebrow. "...we're legal adults, not kids. The humans at least."

Everyone looks at you blankly and Deuce asks, "What..?"

"Legal adults," You repeat, "We're all at least sixteen, right? Legal adults."

"...no?" Ace asks, raising an eyebrow. "We gotta be eighteen to be adults..."

"Wha..?" You ask, your eyes widening as you stare blankly ahead.

"Yeah... uh..." Ace looks away from you staring wide-eyed at nothing to look at Cater. "Why are you doing that exactly? Painting the roses?"

Cater shrugs as he resumes painting the roses. "Because red roses are so much more photogenic! Or... something? And after that, I've gotta start getting things ready for the big croquet tournament tomorrow. And that means coloring all the flamingos."

You don't know what the hell a flamingo is (sounds like a Flamigo so probably similar to that) but you are very much busy processing the fact you are no longer a legal adult here, and then are exempt from taxes.

Grim looks bewildered. "You're colorin' flamingos now? Isn't anything the right color around here?"

Deuce nudges Ace with an elbow. "Now it's coming into focus, Ace! That tart you ate must have been for the Housewarden's birthday. That explains his reaction!"

"Hm?" Cater looks back at Deuce with a confused expression. "Oh, no. It's not Riddle's birthday."

"It's not? Then who's birthday is it?" Ace asks.

"It isn't anyone's birthday." Cater shakes his head in disbelief. "Tomorrow is our dorms traditional Unbirthday party. It's a special tea party we throw when nobody has a birthday, if the Housewarden feels like it."

Ace looks more confused. "And why would you do that?"

Cater sighs dramatically, and you finally snap back to your senses. "Again with the questions! Listen, I need these roses to be red. Like, yesterday. Can't you guys help out with magic or something? Oh, but Ace is on magical house arrest and Y/N is a total normie, so you two better stick to paint."

You tilt your head. "Oh, I'd be willing to help. Heya, Toto, does anyone else want to help-"

You're cut off when Sweet Apple, Chili, Grace, Chompers, Bangbang, Miraidon, and Koraidon all come out of their Pokéballs. "Oh, yeah, they wanna help."

You look back at the others, Grim and Ace looking calm like this relatively normal now, Deuce looking surprised but still calm after last night, but Cater looks startled.

"...huh, guess the rumors about your weird familars are right, huh Y/N? Mind if I..."

You immediately duck again right as Cater snaps a selfie of you and your Pokémon, before standing up again with an innocent expression.

Deuce rubs his chin in thought, curious. "Recolor the roses with magic..?"

Grim leans on your head, resting an arm on top of your head. "Can't say I've ever done this before..."

"Well now you can." You comment.

Cater waves off Grim absent-mindedly. "Relax, it'll be fine. You got this! But maybe do it before I lose my head? K-thanx!"

You look at the others and shrug, before going to grab a paintbrush and paint the roses.

This world is so weird...