The past few days since Ivory arrived at the dorm, I'd been especially careful about potential jump scares. Giving them a list of things not to turn into was futile. There were so many things they could possibly take the form of.

Thanks to that mimic, I now opened doors and cabinets with extreme caution, no longer wore slippers, double-checked cups before using them, and paused in every room to play a silly game of Where's Waldo? Most of the tenants didn't seem to mind. They enjoyed Ivory's antics for the most part. Ines and I, on the other hand, were mere humans with preconceived perceptions of mimics from fantasy fiction that didn't portray them in the best light.

I cracked open my room door to peek outside.

A pair of yellow eyes peered back at me.

"What are you doing—"

"AAAHHH!"

Ange flinched when I screamed. She threw open the door and folded her arms, seemingly unamused that I was freaked out by her.

"Oh, god… My life's probably been shortened a good decade from that." I sighed.

"I terrified you just now, didn't I?" The succubus smirked. "Aren't you perhaps a little too jumpy about Ivory's presence? I understand they're a mimic, but it isn't as though they will eat you."

"You know damn well I scare easily and can't help it!"

For the very same reason I could still be scared while playing a video game, just because it won't hurt me doesn't make it any less terrifying. Things like mimics were designed to do just that to begin with.

Before I left, Ange stopped me to get another word in. "Tamara wants to speak with you about something. I tried to coax it out of her, but she seems unsure of herself. I can't imagine why."

"Huh. Alright, I'll see what's up."

I left the room to go downstairs so Ange could do her thing. Cresta, Tamara, and Remmy were in the living room, preoccupied playing video games on the T.V. No sign of Ivory anywhere.

"Hmmm…" I rubbed my chin, glancing around the room for where they might be.

"Did you lose something?" Cresta asked from the couch. "I can help you sniff it out!"

"Sure, Cresta. Where the hell is Ivory lying in wait right now? The stool?!" Rapping my knuckles on the island stool elicited no response.

"Dunno. I haven't seen Ivory all morning," she said, which I suspected was a downright lie through those fangs of her.

The only way to distinguish Ivory from an actual object was the pendant on their chest. It was the one thing they couldn't change about themself.

Having looked up and down the living room and kitchen, I finally gave up and took a seat on the couch next to my tenants. Maybe Ivory was asleep somewhere else.

"How's school treating you, Tamara?" I asked the sheep girl, who was making exaggerated arm movements with the controller as she played Mario Kart with the other two.

"Everyday is a lot of fun! I just wish classes were easier… There's a lot of things I don't understand, but Elaine and Ines have been helping me a lot," Tamara replied with a smile, but it looked like she had more to say and wasn't confident enough to get it out.

Lately, Tamara had been growing distant. I thought it was just her teenage phase as all adolescent humans went through. Even I had a short stint of being rebellious to my parents. Tamara, though, would throw glances mine and Ange's way with a sad look.

My instant reaction was to suspect something going on at school.

"Ah!" Tamara groaned after getting last place in their game, with Remmy at an obvious first and Cresta in second.

"You know if anything's bothering you, we're all here for you, right? Is it bullies at school again or bad grades?" I pressed further.

She shook her head until all that woolen hair became a mess. "It's not that… Tomorrow, we're supposed to bring our parents to school. Elaine told me not to worry about it, but…"

"That's it? You should have told me sooner. I'll definitely go with you!" I promised.

"R-Really?" Tamara hugged her knees and fiddled with the controller, probably to distract herself from tearing up as evidenced by the quivering voice.

Bringing parents to school. Not an unusual thing for schools in this day and age to do. I'd probably have to call Elaine myself about it later and let Professor Markel know. Ange might not be able to go after what she did, so I either had to go alone or pull one of the other tenants to accompany me. Cresta was a no, since she had work tomorrow.

"There, there." Cresta consoled Tamara while detangling her hair. "We're all family, so of course Akira was going to say yes!"

"It's just… whenever people talk about their parents… and when they ask me about mine… I-I don't have anything to say…" Tamara put the controller down to rub her eyes.

Remmy reduced herself to blob form and sat on Tamara's lap to give the girl something to hold. Meanwhile, I grabbed a tissue from the table to dry her eyes, then squeezed her chubby cheeks that were like marshmallows.

"You should talk about your real parents. Thanks to them, you're here today living with us. I thank them everyday for blessing this dorm with the most adorable tenant I ever had. Then, once you're done gushing about your mom and dad, talk about how cool your caretaker is. You have a lot of good things to say about me, right?" I grinned.

"Hehe… You're right! I can't wait to show you off to my friends and class next week!" Tamara beamed.

Ah, yes. This is what every parent lives for, I thought to myself, feeling the warmth of her smile and joy.

"Hey, hey! Since you're already down here, play a couple of rounds with us," Cresta insisted.

Well, I didn't really have anything else to do.

Remmy extended a slime tentacle to pick up and hand me a controller.

"Wow. All that sappy stuff was really touching! How come you ain't that way with me?" someone below me said.

I followed the voice to the controller in my hand, flashing me a toothy grin. "Boo!"

"Fucking Ivory?!" I flung it to the other couch, and a cackling Ivory transformed back to their humanoid form.

"Gotcha!" everyone exclaimed at once and erupted into a raucous laughter.

"Were you guys setting me up for that the entire time?!" I cried.

"Threw us a curveball by being all sweet with Tamara," Cresta said, clutching her stomach and in tears from laughing. "We were waiting to invite you to Mario Kart the entire time to scare— uu… not my cheeks again! What about Remmy and Ivory?"

I pinched Cresta's cheeks so hard they turned red and puffed up.

Sighing, I got out of the seat, marched right over to Ivory and stuck a finger in their face.

"Okay, I'll hand that one to you this time."

"Ahahaha! It was good, wasn't it? This one was Remmy's idea!" Ivory outed their partner in crime.

When I turned to Remmy, she had a controller up to her face.

"I wanted… to try pranking you," she said.

If one day Ivory successfully influenced Remmy to be a full-time trickster, it would be a very tragic day for me. I wondered how I could get back at the mimic. Putting them in Ikea? Too bad Halloween was over, otherwise they would have made for great decoration outside.

"You guys carry on, I'm going to go get Tamara's thing for tomorrow in order." I let go of Cresta's cheeks and went to look for Ines.

The college grad was in her room, head deep in textbooks and in the middle of typing up a paper. She had a hot patch stuck to her forehead, glasses on and squinting at the monitor as ten fingers clacked away furiously at the keyboard.

"What are you writing this time?" I asked as I entered the room with some snacks and coffee for her.

"Oh, you're a saint." Ines stuffed a handful of rice crackers into her mouth, then chased it down with scalding coffee like it was cold. "I'm typing up a research report on the effects human interactions have on netherfolks when exposed to new environments. Did you need something?"

"I was about to ask if you could go with me to Tamara's school tomorrow. It's bring-your-parents day, so I thought I'd go as her caretaker. But… it looks like you're a little too busy for that," I remarked of her workload.

"Ahhh! I'd love to go, but this takes precedence. Ange can't because of the school incident, right? What about asking Irapesha? She exudes the hot-mama aura, and Tamara's pretty close with her," Ines suggested.

Irapesha hadn't crossed my mind until Ines mentioned her. I knocked on her door, and the dragonewt answered after a moment of shuffling inside. As always, incredibly hot air and particles of sand blasted my face when the door opened.

"I'm not bothering you, am I?" I asked.

"No, I was merely meditating. Have you need of me?" she asked in return.

"Tamara and I do, actually. We were hoping you could come to her school tomorrow to act as her guardian."

The dragonewt thought for a moment and nodded. "To see Tamara's place of education? Very well."

"Great! I'll make some calls so everyone involved is on board."

Irapesha was possibly one of the most behaved and disciplined tenants in this dormitory. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

At least… I hoped that was going to be the case.