Chapter Text
‘Urgh… what is this? Another dream?’ Mydei tried his best to keep his eyes squeezed shut, but to no avail.
The Queen of Hearts stares down at the blonde girl angrily, clutching a rose bush in her hands. “For painting my roses red, someone will lose his head!” She exclaimed in anger, her face heating up to a tomato-red colour.
The trey looked up at the Queen with pleading eyes, kneeling, “Your majesty! If there’s anyone to blame, it’s him!” He pointed at the Ace, who stared back at him with offense. “It wasn’t me! It was the Deuce, the Deuce!” The Deuce started to sweat. Wait, how could playing cards even sweat? Whatever…
“Y-your majesty, I—”
The rose bush was thrown to the ground, the little blonde girl moved back in fear, cowering.
“ENOUGH! OFF WITH ALL YOUR HEADS!” The Queen shouted, the playing cards started crying in a frenzy, as the other card soldiers came and dragged them across the gardens.
Mydei’s eyes shot awake, sitting up as he panted. “What in Strife’s name was that…” He turned to look at his roommate, Phainon, who was mumbling about; “She… rose bush… off with… heads…” Seems like he’s seeing the same thing.
Mydei looked at the time, 5:00 AM. There wasn’t a practice this morning… so all he could do was sit in his bed and wait.
Ace had told him about this app, Magicam. Mydei ran a hand through his hair, debating on whether he should install it or not. What’s there to lose?
He installed the app, making sure to lower his volume and brightness. He doesn’t wanna wake anyone up, especially his rather brawn-for-brains dormmates. As soon as he’s signed in, he gets bombarded with tons of videos and advertisements. Isn’t that the housewarden of Pomefiore? Mydei mentally asks himself as he saw a skincare advertisement.
Oh well, he opens his bedside drawer, grabbing a piece of paper which had Ace’s Magicam user on it. New message… type, type, type…
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@mdeimos
hello? ace?
Sent… read. Holy crap, he read it already?
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@aceee
dude. om7 its 5am. what could u want
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@mdeimos
sorry. whats om7 thou?
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@aceee
do u live under a rock or wht, it stands for oh my sevens. oh nvm, you’re from a different world right? amphibian?
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@mdeimos
… its amphoreus. but yes. are the sevens like the titans in this world?
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@aceee
titans? is it that kephale guy? whatev, ill ask u about that later. our dorms are based on the great seven, i thought that was obvious? i might just break it down for you. and if phai’s awake then tell him too.
After a very long explanation, Mydei seemed to understand, he texted Ace for about, what? Twenty, thirty minutes? Phainon stirred in his bed, before eventually slowly sitting up.
“Hey. Morning, its 5:32.”
“Damn… so can we sleep a little longer?”
“No.”
Phainon sighs audibly, his hair a complete mess. Mydei rolls his eyes in annoyance, crossing his arms. “Ace explained to me who the Great Seven are. These guys seem familiar though, I think the Trailblazer said there were movies about them in one of the planets they went to?” Mydei said, scratching the back of his neck, getting up and grabbing his uniform. Classes don’t start until 8:30, he has enough time to take a quick shower.
“Huh, those cartoons? They worship these guys? Really?”
“Dunno why. But, I think he said there was a Ruler of the Underworld, do you think they have their own River of Souls here?” Mydei asks.
“Doubt it.” Phainon says, stretching his arms above his head. He saunters to his dresser, grabbing his uniform as well. Mydei nods as he makes his way to the bathroom.
Just like he said before, strange ass school.
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The Unbirthday Party.
“Dude, finally! Took you forever to come.” Ace says as he sees Mydei and Phainon approach. Deuce smiles and waves at the two as well. “Hey guys.” He says simply.
“Hey Deuce!” Phainon says, putting a hand on his hip. Loud trumpets playing a fanfare could be heard from the entrance of the rose maze.
“Please welcome our leader, the red sovereign himself, Riddle Rosehearts!” Exclaimed a student. Riddle walked down the path with extreme poise and elegance, each step taken with grace.
“Hm, the rosebushes are red, the tablecloth's are white… good. A very well executed unbirthday party. And the dormouse, asleep in the teapot, I assume?”Riddle says with a gentle smile, which is slowly pissing Ace off. Trey nods, “We’ve even prepared jam to spread on its nose if necessary.”
And so, the unbirthday began.
“Hey, think now’s your best chance.” Cater whispers to Ace, who is currently holding a white box wrapped with a red ribbon. The chestnut tart stashed away inside. Ace nods, “M’kay.”
He approaches Riddle, the Housewarden stared up at the freshman with an expectant look. “I—I’m sorry about stealing that tart slice a while back, so me, Trey, Deuce, Phainon and Mydei helped bake you a new one as an apology.”
Riddle nodded, “Hmm, what kind of tart did you make?” He asked.
“We were waiting for you to ask that question, we wanted to indulge in your most recent craving so… we made a chestnut tart!” Ace exclaimed rather loudly, his voice filled with excitement, or more like excitement to get this damned collar off.
Riddle’s smile was wiped off of his face in an instant, it was as if someone had cursed his entire bloodline right in front of him. “Is that a good face, or—”
Riddle slams the table, anger evident in his expression. “You are unbelievable! Queen of Hearts rule number 562 clearly states that one must never, under any circumstances, bring a chestnut tart to an unbirthday party! And yet, here you are in flagrant violation!”
“I am convinced you do this entirely to mock me! You have ruined the entire event not just for me, but for everyone, you imbecile!” He shouts, pure rage and venom in his tone. Ace looks in confusion, as Mydei furrowed his brows. The fuck is wrong with this guy? Must he always be on his high horse?
To say the Unbirthday Party was a complete bust was an understatement. Trey and Cater ended up kicking the four of them out, leaving them in the Mirror Chamber, with Ace still having a collar around his neck, with Mydei, Phainon and Deuce having their own to match now too.
They stood outside the gates of Heartslabyul, Deuce was sitting on the floor dejected with Phainon trying his best to cheer the kid up.
“Urgh, damn it! That damn Riddle pisses me off! It’s like he believes he’s the Queen of Hearts herself! Kicking us out for a mere tart flavour…” Ace complains, Mydei crosses his arms and looks down at the grass under him.
“I’m never gonna be an honour student…” Deuce sulks, Phainon tries to scratch his neck but his hand just meets the cold metal of the collar. “I can barely breathe with this thing, so heavy…” The Deliverer mutters.
“Hehehe, you all look so adorable in those little collars though!”
Mydei looked up to see where the source of the voice came from, only to see…
A FLOATING HEAD?!
“Waaah! What in the Seven—“ Ace gets cut off by Phainon sticking to his side. “It’s a disembodied head! Oh Kephale, this place is going to give me a heart attack one day.”
“Oh dear, sorry sweeties. Forgot I’m not all there! Hehehe.” Ribbon-like things swirled around the head—no, cat? Revealing its full body.
“The name’s Artemiy Artemiyevich Pinker, at your service! You might say I’m a cat, or you might say I’m a purrson, but either way…”
“Artemi… Artichoke?” Deuce mutters confusedly, his brows furrowed.
“Oh just call me Chenya~” The boy—Chenya—snickered to himself, leaning against a pillar with his hands behind his head. Ace sighed exasperatedly, waving his hand in a shooing motion. “Look man, I just got humiliated by a tyrant so I don’t have the patience for this. Get lost!”
“Riddle? A tyrant? Ohoho, I can see how you came to that conclusion. He was quite the persnickety little kitty even when he was a little boy.” Chenya says, his eyes on the ground as he recalls memories from their hangouts.
“Wait—even when he was a little boy? You… you know the Housewarden?” Deuce asked, Mydei raised a skeptical brow at Chenya’s statement. He and Phainon have never seen this student around before, well, I guess they can’t say much due to the fact they haven’t met many students in general but his uniform seems to look nothing like the other dorm uniforms too.
With one hand around the pillar, Chenya spun around gleefully, a mischievous look in his eye. “Perhaps I do—perhaps I don’t! Hehehe~” The cat giggled, his trickery can almost compare to Cifera’s.
“Which is it?! We’re gonna need a lot more than that.” Ace says, arms crossed and his expression just reads: I am so done with this school and its weird students. “What happened to him to make him act like such a dictator—waah!”
Chenya stood right in front of Ace’s face, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Forgive me~ but you’ll hafta ask four-eyes! Hehehe.” Mydei grabbed Ace’s shoulder, pushing him away from Chenya. “You mean Trey?” The Kremnoan asked rather dubiously.
“Why of course! He’s known Riddle since he was just a twinkle in his mother’s eye!” Chenya moves back, his tail swishing back and forth. “Huh, so Trey and the housewarden are childhood friends? I never would have guessed…” Deuce said, a little embarrassed he hadn’t noticed sooner.
“Ta-ta~” was the last thing they heard from Chenya before the catboy had disappeared off to who knows where. “Hey, wait—come on! You can’t disappear on us!” Phainon said, the only thing they could hear was humming echoing in the distance.
“He—he’s just gone.” Mydei says, a rather bewildered look in his eyes, before he sighs. He and Phainon should probably get used to more guys like this. Now, all they need to do is find Trey.
________________________________________
The Library.
Night Raven College’s library is quite grand, Mydei’s is tiny compared to it. Phainon was awed by the amount of books and the lines of tall shelves. Deuce’s voice cut through the silent air.
“Guys, I really think we should get back to the dorm and look for Trey.” He said, but Ace seemed incredibly stubborn on not wanting to apologize. “I ain’t gonna say sorry to get this collar off and they won’t let us in otherwise.” Ace says, his arms crossed and his tone clearly indicating his decision was final.
“Hey, there you are.”