The moment Sora stepped out of the mirror leading to the Heartslabyul dorm, he was instantly hit with the smell of lively fresh roses and the chirping of flamingo's. He could also smell warm earthy yet hot tea and various sugary sweets all mixed together. It was unlike anything he'd ever smelled before and it was amazing.
The first thing he saw was roses upon roses all painted red with a gradient green to blue backdrop. The colors red and white were seen all throughout the garden where the main party was being held. Without even confirming it, he knew that to his right was a full on rose maze and in front of him was the mad hatters tea garden.
"Wonderland..." He let out an excited breath like a child at Christmas. His suspicions had been confirmed. This is wonderland! Atleast, this dorm was.
He jogged ahead to admire the garden in awe, his eyes were sparkling and his smile blinding as he danced around. Yuu and Grim stepped out of the mirror just in time to see his delight and instantly development embarrassment. Yuu ran up to Sora and tried slowing him down.
"Having fun in your first minute of seeing this dorm?" Yuu looked around to make sure no one had spotted them.
"You were right Yuu, it is Wonderland!!! I mean just look at the roses and this garden and the party and-" He was cut off by the click of a phone camera.
"Whoa! You're super photogenic, you know that? You look so happy and genuine in this pic, definitely posting it if you're okay with that. Oh and hey Yuu how are you doing?"
An arm was slung around Yuu as they sighed and posed for a selfie that was over in seconds.
"Sora, this is Cater, Cater this is Sora. He's my newest dorm member."
Cater gave a peace sign to Sora and introduced himself.
"I'm Cater Diamond. And wow, Yuu got someone to actually be in their dorm besides a cat? Looks like ramshackle isn't helpless after all. Maybe we should make a magicam account for it and watch it grow!"
Yuu glared at Cater for the comment and shook their head.
"We are not doing that."
"It's nice to meet you Cater, I'm Sora. And uh, I guess i'm fine with you posting that pic if you tag me. Are you also using kingstagram? And what's Magicam?"
Sora smiled at Cater as he admired his outfit. It was white with red and gold mixed around and it seemed to have a type of heart-rose theme to it. A striped yellow and black sash stuck out as a belt and there were pins on his blazer with various designs.
Cater finished on his phone and put it away before letting out an offended gasp, putting his hand on his heart and leaning back dramatically.
"Oh my Seven you don't know what magicam is let alone have one?? Also you HAVE to tell me what kingstagram is! Is it like magicam or faetube or what?!"
Sora nervously laughed at this guys enthusiasm for social media. Sora also didn't know what faetube was and figured if he didn't know what kingstagram was then they probably didn't have it here.
"Oh it's not anything great actually. I was probably just misremembering the name."
"Well, we definitely need to get you a magicam account then asap!"
Heavy frantic footsteps approached and everyone turned to see who it was.
"YUU YOU GOT ANOTHER STUDENT?!!!?"
Two people stopped in their tracks, one of which was hunched over out of breath. The first had dark blue hair with a blue spade tattoo on his right eye. The second one who was out of breath had orangey hair with a heart tattoo on his left eye.
The tattoos reminded Sora of something, but he couldn't place his finger on what that was. They also donned the same outfit Cater was wearing with some different pins. Must have been some type of uniform.
"How did this happen???!! Who are you? You better not be rude to them!" The bluenette spoke up addressing Sora.
"Well my name's Sora. I guess Yuu and I share a similar situation so that's how they got me as a dorm member. Uh, I like your tattoos." Sora tilted his head with a awkward yet genuine smile.
The two lightly touched their symbols with their hands before quietly commenting in unison, "It's makeup but thanks."
"My name's Ace Trappola." He looked at Sora and then his hair. It was somehow spikier than his own. He also looked harmless now that he got a better look at him. He was wearing some casual clothes, cheap ones, that Yuu probably gave him. That would probably upset Riddle.
"If you even think of hurting Yuu or Grim we will end you, we do have magic."
Deuce punched his hand and agreed. "Yeah, but you don't seem like you will so uh don't. I'm Deuce Spade by the way."
Deuce relaxed and gave a friendly smile to Sora, who happily returned it.
"Of course, I'd never even think of hurting anyone! It's nice to meet you two. Also I do have magic, but it's probably not the same as your magic so."
"Well, now you've met my two idiot friends who I spoke about earlier. Also, how in the world did you guys know so fast? It's been less than a day!" Yuu gave Ace and Deuce a questioning look. How did they find out when this was Sora's first public appearance?
The duo didn't even answer, just motioned to Cater who was taking selfies with some of the hedgehogs. He looked like he was having fun, which also reminded them that they had to tend to said hedgehogs ALL DAY as punishment. They let out a defeated sigh.
"Well we should get back to hedgehog tending..."
"But we came over here to specifically avoid that!"
"Guys, if you're gonna get in trouble AGAIN for avoiding your punishment then, LEAVE. ME. OUT. OF. IT."
And with that, Yuu left to find Grim who was probably on his third tart right now. Hopefully only his third.
Sora watched Yuu leave him by himself. Now was time for recon. Gathering information about the dorm and world he was in. Though he was more excited to try the snacks and meet more people.
Ace and Deuce sighed. "Well we're going to get back to our jobs." Deuce glanced at Ace who was ready to make a run for it. "The main party is over at the tables. I hope you enjoy your visit to our dorm. It was nice meeting you."
"Yeah, we'll probably see you around a lot more. Have fun." Ace added before turning 180 degrees and walking off with Deuce behind him.
"Thanks!" Sora waved at them as they left. This place was so nice! Everyone seemed pretty lively and caring.
Boy how wrong Sora was though.
He went over to the entrance to the rose maze and sniffed the roses. Fresh and cool, they somehow smelt red. A hint of paint and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on. It was light and warm giving comfort and ease. It was magical.
"This place is like a warmer, nicer Wonderland. The other one felt colder. Scarier maybe? Not that many friendly people either."
He thought back to the wonderful Wonderland that he had visited when he first left the Destiny Islands. It was the first of the outside worlds he had ever visited willingly and always held a place in his heart.
Sora closed his eyes and remembered the rabbit hole. The twisting dizzying corridor that led to the bizarre room. The infinite maze of a rose garden surrounding the castle... The Castle! How could he forget?! Yuu's friends and Cater, they all had card symbols on their faces! Just like the cards he fought to save Alice!
Sora was putting the pieces together when someone silently came up from behind him. He was too lost in thought to notice until they spoke up.
"You must be Yuu's new dorm member."
Sora jumped at the sudden voice, being brought back to the present as he turned around to greet them with a apologetic smile.
"Huh?! Oh, yeah I'm Sora. Kinda new here and all that. Sorry, I was thinking about something."
Sora rubbed the back of his head as he greeted the new person. When he finally took a look at them he saw that they had the same clothing as everyone else with green hair and a fedora. Most notably was the clover tattoo on their face. 'Another card.' Sora thought.
The man smiled. "Sorry if I scared you, i'm Trey Clover, the vice housewarden of this dorm. I see you're taking a liking to the roses. Everyone worked hard to paint them the shade of red they are now. Also, I hope the other dorm members aren't giving you a hard time."
"Oh no problem, really! It's nice to meet you Trey. And I've had a great time here so far."
Sora turned to the roses for a second. Light and warm... A magical feeling to them... There was magic in these roses!
Sora's eyes lit up in awe as he turned back to Trey. "Your whole dorm painted all these roses? But there's so many! And there's no way I could've noticed unless you told me! Wow that's so cool!!"
Sora looked up at Trey with wonder in his eyes. Trey just chuckled and replied. "It's not like we painted the whole maze, just the roses everyone can see here. It's nothing too crazy really."
Sora shook his head. "No way, this is still so cool. At least take some of the credit! These Roses feel so magical too."
"Well, thats probably because most of us use magic to paint them, it usually leaves some sort of residue."
Well, that explained it.
"The toast is going to start soon. We should probably go over to the tables. Afterwards we'll be playing croquet and you're welcome to join." Trey motioned to the tables behind him and led Sora to them.
Sora had finally arrived at the main tea party. Everything about it screamed the same vibe as the mad hatters garden in the other Wonderland. Every little detail even down to the mouse in the teapot, with jam on the side no less!
The tables were covered in the most beautiful white cloth accented with gold lining. Decorations exploded all around him from hanging above to the tabletop below. A plethora of delicious and unique desserts dressed with the fanciest toppings too good looking to eat lined the tables with sugar cubes and teacups scattered around.
In short, it was thrilling.
Before Sora could say anything back to Trey, a subtle yet ear catching clinking was heard, which silenced the countless students who were previously talking amongst themselves.
"Thank you all for quieting down so quickly. I would like to say this day has been quite lovely so far and everything is going well. I welcome all of you to Heartslabyul's weekly Unbirthday Party. As housewarden, I am very pleased to say that today has been a very organized day with very minimal rule breaking."
"I hope you all enjoy the rest of your day in a rule abiding manner, and wish you all a Very Merry Unbirthday Party."
A/N
I am SO sorry this was so late. I may or may not have completely looked away from twst and kh and got obsessed with ffxiv. I have a few more chapters written and will post them in due time!! Sorry once again for the inconvenience. >.<
On another note I will admit I procrastinated posting this because I wanted to figure out the TWST canon youtube name but do not know if it exists or not and I just wanted that detail to be perfect. Oof.