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arksginisis · 3 years ago

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Halloween Special 2022

In which (Y/n) falls asleep in the library on the day of Halloween, only to awaken to an entirely different universe.

In this universe, all the students the prefect previously knew seem to have the opposite personality.

Disclaimer: This was just a little crackfic for fun! Have a happy Halloween!!

"Wake up, (Y/n)! Wake up~"

A soft poke to your side stirred you out of your sleep, and you slowly regained consciousness — however, you didn't want to. In your dazed state of mind, you lazily swatted away the soft paw that continued to jab your shoulder.

"Just five more minutes, Grim..." you grumbled under your breath. "I'll be with you soon..."

Much to your dismay, the poking never stopped. Even worse, you felt something wet being dragged across your face. The texture was rough — and together with the sloppy wetness, you let out a disgusted whine. At once, your eyes fluttered open while you automatically pushed the assailant away from you. Your fingers dug themselves into a soft pelt of fur. Together with that scratchy voice... This must have been Grim.

After you had blinked the blurriness out of your eyes, you spotted tufts of grey fur. Yes, this couldn't have been anyone else but your trusty old cat monster.

"No, you need to wake up now," Grim continued and shook you awake energetically. "You can sleep in your nice and comfortable bed when we're back at Ramshackle Manor."

You immediately shot up, wide awake and senses all focused on your surroundings. The cosy, warm air that inhabited the library attempted to lull you back to sleep, as did the soft cushions of your chair — but you remained strong and awake. A flabbergasted expression appeared on your face. "Wait, did you say nice and comfortable? Since when is anything at Ramshackle nice and comfortable? It's one large dusty ruin!" you cried out and rubbed your ears in confusion. Perhaps you had heard him incorrectly.

Grim let out a series of barking laughter. "In what universe do you live, master?"

The flabbergasted frown on your face intensified even more. "Did you just call me... master, Grim?" you asked and turned to him in confusion.

"Woof, of course!"

A scream escaped your lips upon finding a grey dog monster sitting in front of you. Just like your trusty cat monster, blue flames flickered in his ears, and he wore a collar with a bow on it. Yet, it was a dog that stood in front of you, not a cat. And that fact was what led you to jump onto your chair in panic. "You're not Grim! You're a dog!" you exclaimed fearfully. "And you're nice! Where is my snarky cat monster? This is some sort of Halloween prank, isn't it? Ace and Deuce set you up to this?"

The adorable dog tilted his head to the side. "Ace and Deuce would never do anything that would compromise their status as model students. They're like the most responsible people I know on campus, much unlike their dormleader," he explained and continued laughing, the sound of it more akin to a bark.

It took you a little while to calm down your breathing, and once your eyes had shrinked to their normal size again, Grim took your hand with his paw and carefully helped you off the chair. You let him do as he pleased, but never ceased to eye him from head to toe suspiciously. "What? That's just outlandish— impossible," you muttered under your breath while he led you out of the library. The absurdity of the situation, however, soon drew a bout of laughter from your lips. You shook your head in disbelief.

"You're behaving strangely today, (Y/n). It's so unlike you to smile and laugh like that!" Grim shot you the happiest smile you had ever seen, and it was adorable how his tongue hung out at the side. "I like this side of yours, though. You should laugh more often."

"I'm laughing because all of this is so funny," you said and wiped a tear from your eye. There still was some part of you that wanted to deny this whole otherworldly experience. "Just tell me where the real Grim is and who set you up to this. If it wasn't Ace and Deuce, then probably Lilia? Yes, Lilia the mastermind." You seemed so confident in your guess.

"No, that's very unlike Lilia. He's the strictest student I know! He has no sense of humour and always complains about the youths. As if that old grandpa would play pranks at all..." Grim rolled his eyes in frustration.

Your laughter increased tenfold. Yes, someone really was playing a prank on you, and they were putting a lot of effort into it, too. "Alright, this is getting kind of spooky now. Consider me frightened out of my socks." Your laughter faded away into a distant echo, and you tried to remove your hand from the dog monster's paw. A disappointed sigh escaping your lips, you begrudgingly muttered, "I'll need to go now, though. My nap was way too long already. I need to study some more at home."

"If you don't believe me, then let's take a tour around campus! You seem like an entirely new person than the prefect I know, master." Again, Grim took a hold of your hand and dragged you away. "Come on, let's go! I wanted to meet up with Ace and Deuce, anyway. It's so hard to hang out with them nowadays... They're always so busy studying and doing extra-curriculars."

"I really wanna see this now." A little grin adorned your face as you trotted along beside him.

"Great, just follow me, master!" Grim chimed enthusiastically and let his tail wag.

You furrowed your eyebrows at the word 'master.' Never had you thought that you would hear that word from his maw, but now that you did, it still felt unreal. "That needs some getting used to..." you muttered under your breath, huffing. "Why have you stopped calling me henchhuman?"

"Henchhuman? That's so disrespectful!" Grim let out a gasp of disbelief and cried out, "You're the one who provides me with a roof over my head and food. I wish to show my gratitude and respect towards you."

"The next thing you're telling me is that you don't like tuna."

"It's not that I despise tuna... I'm just more fond of vegetables."

That was the last straw! None of this was real... perhaps just a fever dream that had gone on for too long already. You pursed your lips and merely laughed the absurdity off. "This can't be real! The Grim I know never eats his vegetables..." Chuckling to yourself, you casually strolled past a row of bookshelves. Through a few holes, however, you managed to spot two familiar students. Curiosity befell you at once. "Wait, who are these guys over there?"

"Those are the brightest and most hard-working students on campus: Kalim and Leona."

Your jaw fell to the floor. "That's not what I know."

"Leona is very nice! He's also very helpful with whatever you need — perhaps you need tutoring sessions?" Grim rambled on quietly, somehow talkative in this strange universe. "Kalim, however... isn't all that outgoing, and he's also very stingy with his family's fortunes. You should see Azul, though! Azul throws parties all the time and buys himself all sorts of unnecessary luxury items."

Just then, Kalim turned around and shot you two a glare that could almost kill. "Hey! Keep your voices down in the library!" the Scarabia student yelled. The rudeness of his tone almost made you faint, especially so when his neighbour chimed in.

"Kalim, no need to shout," Leona reprimanded and shot you an apologetic smile. "That's rude."

At once, you walked away as quickly as you could, by then practically dragging Grim along with you. He needed a little bit of time before he managed to match your pace, and only then did he notice the ghastly expression on your face. "Yeah, this turns everything upside down..." Now that you had seen that everyone really seemed to be the opposite of their real self, you grew giddy. A little grin appeared on your face as you eagerly chimed, "But look, Deuce and Ace are over there."

The two of them looked strange on a closer look; their hair was gelled back neatly. The strange sight caused you to stare at their hairdos in fascination, only snapping out of your trance when Ace began, "Prefect! It's so nice to see you, and you're smiling." He had his lips pursed in surprise. "Oh my, are you feeling unwell?"

"What are you doing out here? You rarely ever leave the Ramshackle Manor," Deuce continued in disbelief. "I thought you disliked spending time with us?"

A gasp escaped your lips, and you stepped forward to ruffle their hair, unable to hold yourself back anymore. "How did you get to that conclusion? You're like my closest friends on campus..." you said before playfully punching their shoulders.

Ace and Deuce gave each other concerned glances before they turned to you again, smiling in delight.

"Someone must have replaced the prefect we know, Ace."

"Strange, huh? But this is a welcome change!" Ace chimed politely. "Would you mind helping us with assisting our dormleader? Riddle is such a clumsy ditz sometimes... I swear, he wouldn't get anything done without us!"

At once, you clapped your hands in delight. "Yes, you needing my help is familiar now! Of course I'll help you."

"Wow, since when are you so willing to help?" Ace asked. "You usually don't want to hear any of our problems..."

Deuce waved him off at once and pushed him away. "Shh, don't question it! Let's just get back to the dorm." Without another word, each boy grabbed your hand and dragged you off into the direction of the Mirror Chamber.

Upon entering the Heartslabyul dorm, the stench of burnt food entered your nostrils and caused you to scrunch up your nose. The further you ventured, the worse the smell became. Eventually, you were forced to pinch your nose with your fingers, unable to bear it any longer.

"Ew, what's this smell?" you asked in disgust.

A shiver ran down Ace's back as he woefully explained, "That would be Trey and his visitor Jamil cooking again... They do this all the time." He motioned for you to stay down and increased the pace of his walking to near run. "Stay low and try not to inhale the fumes... It's not good for your health."

"What?!" you whined in confusion. "But Trey is usually great in the kitchen, Jamil as well!"

"You don't want to try their cooking, believe me..." Deuce muttered and feigned to gag. "But if you want really good food, you should go to Lilia from the Diasomnia dorm. That guy can be quite boring with his no-fun attitude, but his food is amazing!"

As you hurried past the kitchen on your toes, two figures suddenly emerged from the black smoke that shrouded the kitchen. There, in all their glory, stood Jamil and Trey, equipped with baking gloves and a large baking form.

"Hey guys, wanna try our newest creation?" Jamil asked chipperly. "It's supposed to be apple crumble... but it didn't turn out the way we wanted it to." He broke out into laughter entirely uncommon for him, and Trey joined in. Their laughter was loud and carefree, as if they hadn't just destroyed the Heartslabyul kitchen.

"Oh no, they spotted us!" Ace yelled in panic. "Run for your lives!" He grabbed Grim and you by your hand — well, paw in the dog's case — and pulled you past the kitchen as quickly as he could. Luckily for you, Trey and Jamil made no attempt to follow you.

Once you had created enough of a distance to the destroyed kitchen, you slowed down again, all of you out of breath — not only because of the running, but also because of having inhaled perhaps a little bit too much smoke. At last, you had arrived in the common room, where you would be safe from the smoke. However, a little frown decorated your face, and you couldn't help but complain, "Hey, that was mean." You pursed your lips in guilt.

"If you had stayed one more second," Ace said, "you would have died on the spot, believe us."

Suddenly, a little grumble could be heard from a couch in the farthest of corners in the common room. You watched curiously as an orange mop of unstyled hair peeked out from the back lean. "Shh, can you cause a ruckus somewhere else, please?" the student complained before returning to whatever he had been reading previously.

"Huh?" you asked after you had left the common room. "Who was that guy earlier?"

"That's Cater, I don't know much about him, though. He's not all that outgoing," Grim began.

"He's a third-year. He reads all day long and rarely ever goes out," Deuce continued. "He's nice, though— and not afraid to speak his mind. If you need someone to talk to, he's your guy!"

Ace nodded along, then added, "He's also one of the few people on campus that don't have Magicam, can you believe that? I think he and Lilia are the only ones too old-fashioned to even have a phone. Idia is pretty bad with technology... but at least he tries his best?"

"Oh my..." You gulped your shock away. "What happened to Cater..."

When Ace and Deuce came to a halt in front of you, you almost crashed into them. Luckily, you managed to stop yourself before such a thing could happen. Grim remained by your side, curious when the other two turned around to face you.

"Well, (Y/n)," Ace asked seriously. "Are you ready to face our dormleader?"

His attitude somehow instilled a sense of unrest in you, and you suddenly didn't feel prepared at all to handle the Heartslabyul dormleader. Thousands of scenarios flooded your mind... What if he was even worse than the Riddle you knew when you had first met him? Even more rules? Even more strictness? Just as you were about to turn around and run for your life, Deuce began laughing at your terrified expression.

"Please tell me that Riddle isn't that scary," you begged with folded hands.

"Scary? No, our dormleader is the complete opposite of scary," Deuce explained and punched Ace's shoulder for having scared you so much. "He's the most relaxed and fun guy around here! Although... he can be very lazy, and you can never trust him to be reliable when it comes to projects and managing the dorm."

"It's basically Deuce and me running Heartslabyul right now," Ace explained, a soft sigh escaping his lips.

That sounded stranger than you would have liked to admit, but at last you had no opportunity to voice your disbelief. Not wasting any time, Ace grabbed the door knobs and twisted them to the side. The door swung open easily, revealing an unimaginable scene of chaos in the dormleader's room. Papers were strewn everywhere, as lay all sorts of clothing items on the floor. The scenery was very, very unlike the Riddle you knew.

What shocked you the most, however, were the flamingos that walked around in his room. Weren't they supposed to be kept in their shed in the garden? In this universe, apparently not.

"Guys! Come right over," Riddle exclaimed between wheezes of laughter. "Wanna join me in building the world's largest flamingo tower?"

Just as he had said, the flamingos were standing on each other's shoulders. Two or three were already managing to stand on top of each other, barely even keeping their balances. Next to the beginnings of the tower stood a ladder that the dormleader had climbed. In his arms was the next flamingo he intended to place on top to further increase the height of his tower.

"Those poor flamingos..." you said and winced when the lowest flamingo lost its balance. Thus, everything toppled over, as well.

"Perhaps we will help with the flamingos another time, dormleader," Ace said, deadpanning. "You need to do your homework first! We know that Professor Crewel is very lenient... but you can't always slack off like this."

"Fine..." Riddle crossed his arms like a small child after he had climbed off the ladder again. "I'll do my homework if that will make you happy."

The two first-years hummed in satisfaction, then turned to you, smiling. "We'll have to stay here, so that he doesn't break any of the Queen of Hearts' rules," Deuce said while guiding Riddle over to his desk. "But you have a fun time around campus on such a special day as this!"

"And come visit us again sometime, (Y/n). We like this version of you much more," Ace added with a wink.

"Huh, okay..." A queasy smile on your lips, you waved at them one last time before Grim dragged you out of the room again.

"Let's leave! Ace and Deuce will have their hands full..." Grim announced in excitement. "I'll show you around campus! How about the botanical garden next?"

"Sure..."

The sound of birds chirping and the smell of the flowers that decorated the large flower beds brought some much needed sense of normalcy back. Today had been a strange day — and your friends here at Night Raven College had been behaving especially strange. The small break allowed you think: why were you here, how had you even gotten here, and how would you be able to return to your own universe?

There were hundreds of questions, of none you had the answer.

The panic that would have otherwise already taken over your senses was warded off by the peaceful atmosphere that the botanical garden brought you. Perhaps you should enjoy this little encursion. There was no benefit in going mad, was there? And, this could be a lot of fun, too.

A soft sigh escaped your lips as you trotted down the cobbled paths alongside your dog companion. "At least the botanical garden is still as beautiful as before..." Your closed eyes fluttered open when your ears noticed the sound of soft snores not too far away. After a while, your searching gaze found a curled up figure in the shadow of a large tree. You tilted your head in curiosity. "Who's that napping by the tree? Leona?" you asked the dog monster.

He, however, shook his head vigorously, as if you had just said the most outlandish things ever. "No, that's Ruggie's special napping place. He's pretty lazy and sleeps all day long— never worked a day in his life. He doesn't really believe in hard work, similar to Jack... That guy always bullies me and inflicts all kinds of injustices upon unfortunate students!"

"That's really disturbing... Jack would never do something like that," you muttered and shivered in discomfort. The confused look on your face disappeared at once upon spotting a familiar pair of twins in the distance. Even from here, you could see their pearly white yet sharp teeth in their mouths. You gulped audibly and tried to pull Grim behind a bush. "Oh no, Floyd and Jade are approaching us—"

"No worries!" Grim said, not budging. "Calm down, they're really nice."

Deciding to trust him, you remained where you stood despite your instincts telling you to run for the hills. The eel twins approached you slowly, a carefree swing to their walk. Only once they stood in front of you did you notice that their blue hair was much longer than you were used to. Even stranger, their lips were twisted into genuine smiles.

"Yooo— peace be with you, brother," Jade said and extended his hand towards Grim for a high-five. Once his palm was hit by a paw, a little chuckle escaped the merman's smiling lips. "I hope you've been well."

Floyd shot you the calmest smile you had ever seen on his face. "Oh? And the prefect! May your life be full with peace and happiness." A little bit concerned, he waved his arms around, as if to ward off the bad aura that surrounded you. "You look so shaken. Just chill— Don't let the bad energy weigh you down."

"Your vibes are really not it right now," Jade said and furrowed his eyebrows. Then, he joined in on warding off the bad vibes. You had to suppress your laughter as the twins continued to flail their arms around you in a form of some ritual. After they were done, they looked at each other and nodded in satisfaction. "Let's go see how Rook is doing!" Jade chirped and pranced off into the distance. "That boy needs some of our positive energy in his life."

Floyd remained behind to give you a wave. "It was super nice to meet you, prefect! Remember to always chill~" he stressed and patted you both on the head. "Choose the way of the pacifist!" Then, he followed his brother into the distance, an eternally satisfied smile on his lips.

This was the strangest thing you had seen all day, and you could no longer hide your shock anymore. Your jaw basically laying on the floor, you cried out, "What. Was. That." Your eyes were still as wide as saucers as you slowly turned your head to the dog monster.

"Those were the hippie brothers!" Grim explained, as if nothing was wrong. "Very nice, like I said."

You shook your head in horror and buried your face in your hands. "Let's just go somewhere else... I feel creeped out now."

"Sure, would you like a snack at the cafeteria?"

"I feel faint... so why not."

The cafeteria was fairly quiet at this hour, much to your delight. Having met such a strange version of the Leech twins had somehow put you into a strange state of mind. You were disturbed, to put it lightly. But after a little snack from the kitchen, you felt much better already. Still, you wished to get back to your real world where things weren't as hauntingly strange and unnerving.

It was like the creator of this universe had taken one singular trait of these complex characters and twisted this one singular trait into the opposite, disregarding everything else. Thus, the complex and diverse personalities of your friends had been turned into flat and one-dimensional caricatures of themselves. This probably was what made this entire universe of opposites so scary.

The only good thing you got out of this whole experience was that, in retrospect, most of the counters had been genuinely funny. But more importantly, you felt like you had grown to appreciate your friends more now. Perhaps it was good that Riddle always insisted on order. Perhaps it was good that Trey and Jamil could cook...

Your gloomy thoughts disappeared when you finally recognised another familiar face. You poked Grim's side until you had his attention and pointed to a table full with mouth-watering food. Two people occupied the table, a blond and a lavender-haired boy. They seemed to be talking with the camera that stood on the table, as well.

A sigh of relief fell from your lips. "Oh! Finally, someone I recognise! That's Vil and Epel, right?" you asked in amusement, though a sense of dread befell you. "You better tell me that Vil is still some sort of mentor to Epel, and that Vil is still famous and pretty."

"Yes, all of that is correct!" Grim nodded between snickers.

Yet, the smile of relief dissipated at once when you took a closer look at the table: there lay a massive quantity of food. You gulped nervously, a little bit scared when you asked, "Wait... what are they doing? They're not eating all of that by themselves, right?"

"Didn't you know? Vil is famous for eating lots of food in his live streams. What do they call it again? Hm... oh yes, mukbang! He's a mukbanger."

Then and there, you wanted to pull your hair out. The other things had been funny... but this was a little bit too bizarre to be entertaining. You felt plain out horrible, and you had to avert your gaze from the massive quantity of food. "No, no, no. That's so unlike him! That's not true!" you cried out in despair. "Vil always makes sure to have a balanced diet. This amount is definitely not balanced..."

"Look! Over there, we have another streamer," Grim said and pointed to another table with a camera. "That's Idia and his little brother Ortho."

You were baffled when you saw with your own eyes that he was smiling into the camera, talking in a chipper and cheerful way. "Wait, Idia is outgoing enough to be a live streamer?" you stammered out in disbelief.

"Yeah! Malleus, Vil, and Idia are like the most popular people on Magicam right now." Grim let out a little chuckle when he noticed Idia fumbling with the controls of his computer. "Although... Idia is really bad with technology, so his little brother Ortho always helps him out."

"Wait, how do I end the live stream, Ortho?"

"Just press the 'end live stream' button, brother."

You broke out into laughter as well. "Oh man, and Malleus knows how to use technology?" you asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah! He always posts about all sorts of parties he's attending."

"What kind of universe is this..." you asked yourself in amusement. This was funny, you had to admit. Your laughter grew even louder, by now catching the attention of the live stream stars in the cafeteria. "Let's go outside. I think we're disturbing them."

"Sure, I could use a breather, too!" Grim chimed and led you outside to the courtyard.

The fresh air managed to cool down your warm cheeks and soothe the aching of your face from all the laughing. Your eyes soon fell on a hunched over student by the other end of the courtyard. Seated on a lone bench, he seemed to be scribbling away in a notebook. You couldn't see his face though, his deep-black bangs covered his face.

"Who's that emo kid with the bob cut over there?"

"That's Rook. He's always had such a pessimistic outlook on life!" Grim warned, looking like he wanted nothing more than to turn around and walk away from him. "Don't talk to him, or else you'll become depressed in seconds, as well."

"No way that this is the Rook I know," you muttered under your breath, and against his warnings, you stepped forward and decided to approach him. The Pomefiore student didn't react to you until you stood right in front of him, your shadow looming over him. "Rook, is that really you? Are you alright?"

When he raised his head, you were indeed graced with the face of the usually optimistic hunter. However, this version of him had bags beneath his fox-like eyes and an unusual scowl on his face. "Oh prefect... My feelings? Don't worry about those, nobody does anyway," Rook said bitterly. "This world only brings you pain, only pain! It's full of ugly and dangerous things! There is absolutely no beauty left. But it's not as if you could ever understand me, nobody does!"

Alarmed by his sudden breakdown, you raised your hands into the air and stepped backwards. "Sheesh, you were right, Grim," you muttered once you were by your loyal companion's side again.

Just when you thought you had seen one of the weirdest things today, you noticed two figures approaching you from your right. Upon closer look, you soon recognised them as Sebek and Silver. The former especially walked at the speed of light — towards you.

A calm smile graced Sebek's features as he wrapped his arms around you. "A human... I love humans," he said and stroked your head gently, like you were a costly artifact. Then, he hummed in satisfaction and turned to his second-year friend with hopeful eyes. "Can I keep this one, Silver?"

Silver shook his head in embarrassment. "Shh, don't just go around hugging people, Sebek— I told you that it's creepy to treat humans like pets."

"Silver, you're wide awake?" you asked in curiosity. "How strange."

"I'm always wide awake," Silver replied matter-of-factly.

Yes, this was the very last straw you could take. A sense of panic made itself evident in your chest after you had freed yourself from Sebek's embrace again. You stumbled over to the dog monster and cried out, "Grim, I need to get out of here—" You couldn't take it anymore; this was all too much. All you wanted was to go back to your real friends with their real personalities.

"Why? You should stay here!" Grim whined and pawed at your blazer. "Everyone likes this version of you. The prefect from this universe is always grumpy and hates helping people — the opposite of you!"

A sigh escaping your lips, you rubbed your temples in exhaustion. "Hey, I don't smile 24/7... I'm also grumpy when I'm stressed out." Though, you pursed your lips and insisted, "I'm not from here... I want everything to go back to normal."

"Wake up," distorted voices suddenly said. "Wake up. Wake up."

You snapped your head around to find the sources of these voices, but nobody else aside from Grim stood in the courtyard with you — Rook, Sebek, and Silver had already disappeared.

Suddenly, Grim in front of you chanted, "Wake up, (Y/n)."

At once, you shot up from your table. Your back ached, as did your bottom despite the cushioned chair you had been sitting on. Your head snapped around you, and you soon realised that you sat in the library. Next to you stood none other than regular looking Ace and Deuce — as well as a cat monster!

"W-What happened?!" you cried out, still startled.

"You've been asleep for a while now, henchhuman," Grim explained and rolled his eyes. "We were worried about you! But at least you chose to fall asleep in the library..."

Upon hearing him call you 'henchhuman,' you extended your arms out to the cat and picked him up. Despite his squirming, you squeezed him close to you in delight. "Oh, Grim! Grim, my dearly beloved— I had a horrible nightmare! Everyone's personality were switched to the exact opposite— They were basically opposite, one-dimensional caricatures of themselves. It was like someone took just one character trait and twisted it into the exact opposite extreme. It was horrible! Everyone was so scarily flat... You guys were barely even human anymore, more like caricatures."

Deuce furrowed his eyebrows in concern. "Huh? Poor you, (Y/n)."

"The nightmare made me realise how much I love all of you — with all your strengths and flaws," you said, a bright and relieved smile on your lips. "There's nothing about you I would want to be different..."

"Wow, so the nightmare was that bad?" Ace asked, grinning.

You nodded, a shiver running down your back. "Let's just say I got a hell of a spook for Halloween..."

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