Rubbing his eyes and taking another look around, the freshly-shrunken freshman immediately got several clues about his current location. To his right was a wall of decades-old photos in ornate black frames, almost all featuring classes of gloomy young women standing in front of an austere Victorian mansion. To his left was a massive TV resting on a claw-footed black wooden cabinet, currently stuck on what appeared to be the DVD menu of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Behind him, above a black velvet-upholstered couch strewn with handcuffs and eyeliner pens, a gigantic oil painting depicted several other gloomy women sitting or standing atop collared, empty-eyed men. Putting all of this together, it didn't take a genius to figure out that he had woken up in the common room of House Juno—the sorority known to everyone else at Ventus as the "Goth House."

If the jocks in House Diana were the strongest girls on campus, and the nerds in Minerva were the smartest, the kooky, kinky young ladies of House Juno were easily the scariest—an eclectic mix of artists and academics united in their love of black clothing and hatred of men. They were also often quite attractive — enough to give the average House Fortuna influencer a run for her money — although most male Ventus undergrads knew better than to try asking one of them out. After all, the majority were loud and proud lesbians—and the ones who harbored any attraction to men tended to see them primarily as a means to assorted kinky, generally uncomfortable and humiliating ends.

While many of these young ladies arrived at school as fully-fledged misandrists, their chosen sorority's peculiar heritage and even more peculiar customs didn't help. Originally the residence of Ventus founder Volumnia Ventus, a wealthy Gilded Age heiress obsessed with elevating future generations of women "above and beyond" the level of men, the place had always been a magnet for students who shared her ideals—but in the hundred years since its inception, it had mutated from a dorm for "independent-minded young ladies" into an organized cult of female domination. It was also quietly one of the wealthiest and most influential institutions within the university, which was why the goths had never been kicked off campus for their love of harassing — and, sometimes, abducting — male students and faculty members.

Realizing where he was, Max winced. Waking up in a place like this would have been dangerous enough at regular size. Now, though, he'd be lucky if he made it through the next few hours without ending up in some particularly zealous Juno acolyte's stomach—or flattened under her big, black boots.

Already feeling cold sweat forming on his neck, the shrunken freshman closed his eyes and tried to think. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he understood that there would be no escaping this place on his own. The life-or-death question was, who could he trust to help him out?

Reflecting on the few Juno members he knew off the top of his head, he quickly concluded that the best outcome would be running into Ophelia Kidd—a fellow freshman, one of the house's newest members, and the only Goth House goth he'd ever actually spoken to. While the short but curvy 4'9" 18-year-old definitely shared her housemates' love of monochromatic clothing and heavy makeup, she'd always been relatively friendly to Max during their few classroom interactions—which suggested she was still getting up to speed on her sorority's man-hating ways. By fairly logical extension, that made her a much safer bet than almost anyone else in here.

Conversely, the worst outcome would be getting caught by Kali Chandra—the de facto leader of Juno's undergrads. Ruling with an iron fist, a double-D rack, and a butt that looked like it could hide a whole bottle of Jack Daniel's vertically or horizontally, the 6'4" Indian titaness was widely considered the most intimidating and forceful young woman on campus—and during Max's orientation, he'd been warned to steer clear of her by name. Of course, knowing her love of relentlessly bullying and dominating any male student who got in her way, the three-inch-tall young man had a feeling she'd have at least some interest in his current condition. He just had his doubts that she'd do anything to reverse it.

Then, there was Alexandra Ventus—granddaughter of Volumnia, reigning dorm mother of House Juno and certified goth MILF. The spitting image of Morticia Addams — if Morticia Addams was 6'3" and 200 pounds — the voluptuous 50-year-old amazon was almost shockingly pleasant and outgoing for someone with her job title. Max had also heard that she was very well-connected with the school's administration, which made him think that she might have more luck than most in terms of helping him find a way back to normal. Where and how he'd find her, though, he had no idea.

While Max didn't feel entirely confident in any of these options, he knew he'd need help sooner or later. Fortunately, or unfortunately, before he could spend any more time trying to game the whole situation out, he heard the door opening on the other side of the room.

When he turned around, he found himself face to face with...