——-
NOTES:
WARNING:
I will be mentioning a genetic mutation (sort of?) that I and my sister actually have, and my mother and Grandmother used to (and got surgery for) called Gigantomastia.
Basically, (this is so awkward to say, and a bit TMI, so skip if this piece if you want or need to)
It makes breast tissue grows excessively, and more then it should, causing disproportionately large breast sizes, and it runs my family on my moms side.
Since this chapter will have Ophelia trying to pretend to be a male student as to not draw attention to herself, and that she is based off me (sorta). I thought I should mention this beforehand, so nobody gets confused and thinks I'm trying to pull the Anime Boob trope.
(I swear that trope pisses me off so much.
Like how are you not suffering while fighting some giant evil thing with no breast support?!? As someone with large breasts, I WOULD BE SUFFERING)
Alright, with the awkward stuff out of the way, ONWARDS.
———————
"Just come right in when it happens,
I'll probably be asleep by then."
Gazing up at the old decaying walls of Ramshackle, Ace fought off his desire to not stay the night there out of spite. Its not like he had anywhere else to go, and Ophelia already had given him an invitation, more or less.
It also gave him the ability to question her the second she woke up, so thats a bonus.
Also, she did say he could sleep on the couch, but she never said he couldn't just share the bed with her, and no way on hell was he sleeping on a 100 year old couch tonight.
————————-
Admittedly, she did not want to face today
Dealing with Ace, then Cater was already going to be an ass pain, classes she knew nothing about, hiding her identity as the female student, running into Trey and Cater at lunch, and the housewarden meeting right after that might cause her to self destruct from anxiety.
She had a general plan to disguise herself as an Ignihyde student, so she didn't have to take much since she already had a tablet from Idia, and Noise Canceling Headphones and a ribbon Che'nya stole for her from god knows where.
The only issue was the whole... chest protrusion specific to females that was going to be a problem, since it ran in her family for them to be unusable large.
Scientifically, it was called Gigantomastia, which sucked in may, may ways.
Even before trying to disguise herself as male, they were a pain in the ass. Like two bags of flour strapped to her chest.
Yea, not as great as the celebrities, shows, advertisements and anime's make them seem.
Crewels hoodie had hid it decently yesterday, but she hadn't fooled Deuce and straight up gave up on fooling Ace, so maybe using the spare hoodie she was gifted would be beneficial, since the person is was meant for was almost triple the size of her entire body.
Curling tighter into the sheets, a snoring Grim still in her arms, a small poke to her cheek alerted her of the fact she was unlucky enough to not pass on in her sleep so she didn't have to attend classes.
Another poke, this time closer to her abdomen, caused a half-hearted attempt at swatting whatever was doing it, her instinct assuming it was Che'nya.
It wasn't until she heard someone lean over that something seemed off. Right then, a newly familiar voice, this time purposefully made to sound sweeter, bombarded her ear.
"~Morning sleepyhead~"
She had never jumped out of bed and moved across the room faster.
"ACE!! WHAT THE FUCK?!"
Howling laughter came from the redhead responsible for her rude awakening, followed by Grim, somehow remaining half-asleep in her arms, starting to fight with the air.
Her eyes wandered to the clock : 5:30 am
𝑻𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒕
--------------------------------
As she scoured the kitchen, prepping materials for breakfast, aswell as an extra frying pan to hit Ace with, if need be, the ginger in question slid onto a seat near the counter, partially glaring at Che'nya, who was staring at him from where he curled around her neck while continuingly knocking Grim off, who eventually gave up after Ophelia finished his bacon.
"Did you know that magic purple cat is an asshole?"
"Ch—Shire is not an asshole, you probably did something to piss him off."
Leaning further onto the counter, a groan came from the redhead as he tried to settle comfortably on his arms with the collar on his neck.
"He kept wacking my face and pressing on this stupid collar when I was sleeping, then pushed a pillow onto my face like he wanted to suffocate me."
Flipping the dough on the pan, then passing more bacon to Grim, who was making grabby hands, she wondered what Ace did that caused a lowkey homicidal faecat.
"Last night, I remember him sleeping on the headboard of my bed, so you might of been getting pranked by the ghosts."
"Uh, yea no. I was in the room with you, so obviously it was your cat having a personal vendetta against me."
Nearly dropping the jam she had been carrying, she turned around fast enough to cause several levels of whiplash.
"You were WHAT?!"
Even though his face was barely visible from where she stood, she knew he was grinning ceremoniously, as he got away with escaping her notice.
"You didn't know?"
"FUCKING OF COURSE I DIDNT KNOW!?
I TOLD YOU TO SLEEP ON THE COUCH!"
"And get two thousand different ancient diseases from it? Hell no, not happening."
"Ace, you snuck into someone's, a person you just met that morning keep in mind, room, and decided to sleep there without asking?? Do you know how many lawsuits that is worth??!"
"Zero. You're too broke for that."
"Well SORRY I'm from a different fucking world, and haven't even laid eyes on your currency yet, but that doesn't excuse...whatever the fuck that is! No wonder Shire was pissed!"
Patting Che'nya on the head, she turned off the stove cooking Aces crepe out of spite and switched to making the fae an extra cheese omelette for defending the fort.
"Good job Shire, Death to the Soulless Ginger."
Noticing a missing quip from Ace as she cracked an egg, she turned to see his eyes near bulging from his head, mouth hanging open.
"Wait, hold on, back it up. Did you say DIFFERENT WORLD?" You're a freaking extra-terrestrial?!"
𝑾𝒂𝒊𝒕 𝒂 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅
As she was passing the purple fluffy knight his omelette, who was fighting off Grim for it, said hellcat piped up.
"Ya didn't know? My Henchman is from some wacky place called New Pork City, Apear a -ca or something."
"Grim, its New York City, America, and
Ace, I thought...you're supposed to know that already-"
𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑶𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒚. 𝑺𝑯𝑰𝑻
Mumbling "butterfly effect" to herself, she passed Ace his food, then sat down with her own food and drink, forgetting how nosey the person next to her was.
"What do you mean "supposed to"? Kinda like how we were "supposed" to get attacked by ghosts at the Mines?"
𝑶𝒉 𝑭𝒖𝒄𝒌
Giving him a puffed face, she stabbed her pancake with the aggression of an angry baby fox., wondering how much it would mess up the plot if she knocked him out.
"Shut up and eat your crepe, its Cherry Jam , by the way, so no telling me you won't eat it."
"How did you know I like Cherry?"
Sighing , she began feeling a magnetic tension between her head and it hitting the wall.
"Please for the love of anything, stop torturing me with questions, ok? I'm not awake enough for this."
Then she heard the dreaded response, something she hoped wouldn't occur, but alas.
"Nice try on the pity card, but you promised to answer two questions yesterday if I worked with you guys. You hoping I'd forget?"
"Yes, very much so."
"Sucks to be you I guess."
Playing with his fork, he drew who knows what in the air, still smiling mischievously. Before he could ask anything, she laid down a quick rule
"Ok, fine. But there are some questions off limits, for...safety purposes. Mine specifically.
I'll tell you if you ask one, and I have a feeling most of your questions will be one, but I'll be nice and not count it towards your 2, got it?"
"Yeah, Yeah. So-"
Wagging his fork towards her, a piece of crepe still attached, he started his interrogation.
"First off, Why are you here?"
Watching him devour that last of his first crepe, she was completely thrown off. Her expectations for what he'd ask definitely did not include this.
"What do you mean "Why am I here?"."
Wiping some jam off his cheek and continuing to cut more crepe, his expression made it more or less obvious he thought she was playing dumb.
"You basically just admitted to being a whole ass extra terrestrial, alien, whatever, right?
In almost every SCI-FI movie I've scene, they have some weird plan to either take over planets across galaxies or something, and hide in human disguises, and you look pretty human to me, and lack magic, are low-key psychic, have weird cats..-"
"-Ace, I'm human, I will literally take a DNA test, or prick my finger to show you I have blood and not blue goo that makes me sing like I'm in a musical."
"Thats oddly specific."
"Its a reference to a musical I like. Anyway, no,
I do not intend world domination, I was dragged here against my will, but chose to stay to help out with something.
My world is almost the same as yours, except without magic or magical races and whatever other fantastical crap you guys got here."
Finishing off another crepe, freckles scrunched on his nose, Ace looked even more confused, but switched topics quickly.
"By the way, do you know how to get this dumb collar off?"
".....Talk to whoever gave it to you, I guess?"
"Or you could just tell me instead of hiding it"
"I don't know how!"
"Yea, sure you don't, Ms "You'll know when you know."
"I just told you—!"
A rattling but soft knock at the door alerted her that the 4th group member had finally arrived, giving her an escape from the gingers pestering as she bolted for the door:
𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚, 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑨𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒚
Opening the door, she found one Deuce Spade on her porch, pretty much fully awake, compared to the others. He was the morning bunny to Aces night owl and her weird spot in the middle.
"Hey, good morning Ophelia! Did Ace stay here last night?"
"About that...."
A loud clatter plus what sounded like miniature War-Fare came from the kitchen, and two voices fighting loudly could be heard.
"PAWS OFF THE CREPE, ITS MY LAST ONE YOU MUDRAT!"
"HEY! I AIN'T NO RAT! AND IF MY HENCHMAN MADE IT, ITS GOTTA BE GOOD, SO HAND IT OVER!!"
Sighing deeply, she moved out of the entry way so that the bluette could walk by.
"Welcome to Ramshackle."
——————————————————
Anxiously fidgeting with the string of her new (excessively large) hoodie as she looked at herself in the mirror again, she still struggled to find any reason not to have a mental breakdown then and there.
The gigantic blue hoodie was warm and comfortable, hid her breasts entirely, and the sleeves were long enough to hide her hands in and use it to slap her friends (Ace) jokingly if they annoyed her.
Someone had embroidered a design of dark blue acorns down the sleeves, aswell as a small chipmunk circling the cuffs.
The shirt had a shrunken and ironed on patch that read "Junior Chipmunk" on it, making her smile just a bit as she tied the Ignihyde ribbon onto her bicep.
𝑰𝒇 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒔, 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝑰𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒉𝒚𝒅𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒉𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚.
Getting Ace, Deuce and Grim to understand her plan was tough, but they finally managed to understand at some point.
Since she had made the executive decision to not let the group go to Heartstabyl before school, entirely to avoid Cater tricking them into painting the roses. They had a bit of extra lounging time for her to explain in depth.
(and attempt at running Deuce through how to continue improving if someone kept asking him about the "person in the blue hoodie", as she had called her role during it, since she knew from ingame that his abilities for improvised lying was concerningly bad)
Zoning back into reality, she felt her hair being braided, and a soft humming behind her, Although upon looking at the mirror, not a soul was there.
Ironically, it gave her a good idea of who was with her by not being able to see them at all.
"Mew ready for the first day?"
"Physically, yes, emotionally, no."
"You'll be pawsitivly fine, since meow'rs truly with be with you."
"Don't you have..I dunno, classes?"
"No, yes. I have clawsses, but I already know what I need and don't need to, and getting my paws on the answer key is easy-peasy."
Watching him pluck little items out of his pocket from her peripheral vision, unable to see what they were made her realize it could range from tiny hair clips to shrunken tactical nukes.
"And nobody suspects you? At all?"
"Purrhaps its Vice Housewarden privileges."
"Or you're just way too good of a criminal. When do classes start?"
"For mew? Usually 8, but you don't have any today silly! The Doc gave nya a pass furr today and tomorrow, Mew're welcome!"
Peeking at the clock, she realized they still had nearly an hour before everything began, and an idea hit.
"Maybe we could use that time to look around tomorrow, since I just plan to shadow Adeuce today so I get a grip of classes.
I've always wanted to explore a gothic castle, and nows my chance. I might also be able to get a general idea of where the hell everything is."
"I like how mew think!"
"Please stop putting cat ears on my headphones, though."
"I sometimes like how mew think."
——————————-
Finally making it downstairs after checking her bag several times to make sure she had everything, Che'nyas odd braid-bun mixed with random flowers she swore she heard singing hidden by her hood. The Fae Charm was clipped to her left hoodie string, a matching replica on the right to disguise it as simply design.
Che'nya, now in his officially named "Shire" form, aka cat form, rested happily on one shoulder, and Grim perched on the other, declaring he only was sharing because Shire was the "Great Cat King"
"Hey! Hey Kid! Wait!"
The Trio of ghosts she had met yesterday morning, finding out their names were not infact "Ghost A , Ghost B and Ghost C", but Phin, Gus and Ezra, floated over to her with a small box.
Giving Deuce, who was at the doorway, a heart attack while Ace laughed at his terror.
"We found an old magepen for you!"
"Thought it might help with the whole disguise thing, so we cleaned it up a bit!"
"It ain't fancy, but it does the job."
Ezra took it from the box, and clipped it to her hoodie, patting her head before floating back to the others.
"If anyone asks, just say its a vintage model."
"And if anyone gives ya trouble, we can get our friends in the castle to give em a good scare for ya kid."
A bright smile reached her lips, warmed by their kindness. It seemed they must of emotionally adopted her in their own wacky way.
"Thanks you guys!"
Floating closer to the bluette and ginger, Phin gave then a stern look, which, considering he looked like the Pillsbury mascot, wasn't all that threatening.
"Take good care of our girl, ya hear? A true gentleman treats any lady, stranger, friend or more, with only the best attitude, intentions and actions they got.
Don't matter who they love, what they look like, how much money they got or where they come from, who or what they were before ya met em, you treat em with respect, ya hear?"
Deuce practically army solider saluted in response, shaking just a bit, where as Ace just nodded and looked off, annoyed.
"Yes sir! My mom always told me to do that!"
"The fact people still have to remind some guys to do obvious shit we should learn as toddlers in this day and age is honestly depressing."
Seemingly accepting these answers, Phin moved aside to let Ophelia reach the other two, all three ghosts shouting and waving goodbye to her as she turned to leave.
"You got this kid!"
"Show em what you're made of!"
"Don't forget to tell us everything when you get back!"
———————————————-
Closing the door behind her and beginning their trek to the main school grounds, Ace started up conversation, which she for once felt grateful for.
"Those three were acting like they were your dads or something. The only thing I got from the older people in my dorm was this collar and a lack of somewhere to stay."
"Now you know how I felt before meeting my henchhuman and the Cat King. That stupid thing is itchy too."
"Speaking of the collar, I don't think Ophelia knows about the Housewardens.....uh...temper, yet."
Looking over to the smallest human of the group, Deuce gave her a look of almost pity.
"So, just so you know before the housewarden meeting, our housewarden is Riddle Rosehearts..I think thats his name. He's..."
"A fucking stuck up prick?"
"ACE! Don't speak about our housewarden like that!"
"Would you prefer I say A Rose Red Tyrant?"
𝑷𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆. 𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻
𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 1 , 𝒊𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒊𝒕?!?
𝑾𝒆𝒊𝒓𝒅...
It took her a moment to register the hand waving infront of her face.
"You good? You look like you totally zoned out"
"Sorry.. just..thinking."
"You really think too much, y'know?"
"Well, what else am I supposed to do Ace? I'm just—"
"You're scared?"
A brief silence passed, Grim, who had decided to nap on her shoulder, was snoring silently.
Deuce seemingly hadn't noticed the other two slow down, and kept moving, but was still obviously listening.
"No—"
"You so are. The backup plans, the disguise, the info hiding, the cryptic wording,
You're freaking out!"
Turquoise eyes wilted with concern, their bearer joining in on the conversation.
"If you're scared, you've got us! Plus. Professor Crewel made Crowley put us in all the same classes just so you'd feel safer.
You saved us yesterday, its only fair we return the favor, right?"
"Speak for yourself Deucey."
"Stop calling me that!"
"Nah, Im good, thanks."
Looking up at the school entrance, she silently wondered if she would survive the day.
———————————————-
NOTES:
YAY! NEXT CHAPTER IS HERE!!
I crossed posted this on AO3, if anyone finds it there.
I apologize for my heavy Ace and Che'nya centered interactions, I am jack shit at writing Deuce and Grim sometimes.
Lets keep going!! To school!