Twisted Wonderland Victorian AU

WELCOME TO THE HEARTSLABYUL APARTMENTS!

The Hearstlabyul Apartments are welcome to all who wish to enter the service of Her Majesty, The Queen of Hearts and become part of her court.

Plenty respectable young men call the Apartments their home. It is a very pleasant place to live indeed, with separate quarters where you could fit plenty of people in! There are communal areas like the kitchen, lounge and garden. But! do not be mistaken, every apartment has their own bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen, it's quite modern for that! The residents are welcome to receive guests as long as they don't overstay.

...Let's just hope the residents can pool in enough money to pay the rent this month...

THE RESIDENTS:

Riddle Rosehearts

Riddle comes from a well-off family, considering both of his parents are doctors, his life was planned out before him and he's had to follow a pretty harsh routine from very early on.His mother is trying to live vicariously through him. She managed to become a doctor, a very well-known one at that. Stubbornness and determination played a big role in her success and it would seem her son inherited those traits as well.Riddle is expected to become a doctor, just like his parents, but he'd rather become an attorney. After an incident, he's decided he would try his best to persuade his mother to agree to let him study the law. He's not had any success yet, unfortunately. Riddle is anxious that he would have to cut out his mother completely, if she refuses to see and accept that her son is his own person that can make their own decisions, though he is also afraid he might loose his inheritance and might end up needing to fully finance his education himself.But Riddle's not anything, if not stubborn and he will make this dream a reality, he will be at the top of his classes like he's always been, he's got he self-discipline required for it. He's memorized all of the Queen's rules, after all. He will succeed. There is no other option.For now he'll have to find a place to stay. He's heard the Hearstlabyul Apartments are a decent place to stay at. Apparently and old acquaintance lives there now... it would be nice to rekindle old friendships.Will Riddle be able to fulfil his dream of becoming an attorney worthy of being part of The Queen of Hearts' courtroom and prove his mother wrong, or was his mother right all along?

Trey Clover

Although expected to take over the bakery chain his parents own, Trey is not entirely sure what he truly want to do. Sure he enjoys baking and caring for his family, and it's not like he doesn't want to settle down at some point, just not this early... there has to be more to life than this.He talks it over with his parents and suggests he'd like trying to live on his own for a while, this is something they aren't exactly opposed to luckily. His parents point him in the direction of the Heartslabyul Apartments after he promises to write and visit every once in a while.Trey enjoys his newfound freedom, even though it's not that much, not when he's still helping with the bakery as well as his new role of general caretaker at his new residence. If people have a problem they seem to always find their way at his door... it can be quite exhausting, as much as he's used to taking care of other people.Maybe he needs someone to take care of him too? At least for a bit.Trey's quite surprised when he meets Riddle, an old childhood friend in the Apartments hallway. They quickly decide to share some stories over a few pastries and some tea. After Riddle gets settled in, the two start making some slight changes to the Apartments, some more welcomed than others. Well... at least they make a pretty good team.

Cater Diamond

As the only son of a bank owner, Cater is expected to follow in his father's footsteps and keep the family name going... But it's all so boring! He'd much rather engulf himself in the periodicals and the idle gossip of his fellow party-goers.Cater understands this is pretty important and a very good thing to have... but no one actually bothered to ask him what he wants.Cater's quite popular, making appearances in newspapers has become more and more frequent. Attending parties, throwing parties. Leaving home before the sun sets and coming back before it rises. Almost anything to get away from "home".His parents aren't really pleased with his behavior, his father especially, though he can't do much about it as he is mostly absent from home. Cater hasn't done anything too outrageous anyway, he's careful enough to not ruin his or his family's reputation.His mother and sisters, ever the socialites, mostly wish he'd spend more time with them. Like he did when he was younger.Cater for his part has taken up photography, he makes sure to show his work off... maybe he'll become a photographer. That would be nice. The little money he gets from the gossip and insider information he shares with the journalists is not too bad either.Maybe he should finally move out. It would do him good. Those Heartslabyul Apartments sound interesting. Maybe he'll get an apprenticeship with a more experienced photographer or maybe he'll figure it out on his own.

Deuce Spade

Deuce used to be part of a gang. Working mostly as the muscle of the group, he's made a nice bit of money out of it... unfortunately he squandered most of it away through activities not really befitting of a proper young man.He decided to give it up when things started to get a bit too dangerous. Coming home with more and more bruises, each one worse than the other... gang squabbles, turf wars and the like. His mother was growing more worried as days passed. Worried that he'll either end up dead or in prison. So he got out and swore to turn over a new leaf.Deuce has been working various odd jobs since, trying to save up as much money as possible. He wants to make his mother proud. He's put her through enough grief already.He mainly works as a deliveryman for rich households. He brings fresh produce to the kitchens, sometimes getting a cup of tea or a sandwich for a job well done.He plans on getting enough money to move together with his mom in a nice place. He's heard word of some apartments up for rent, Heartslabyul Apartments or something.Now Deuce's trying to be a model citizen, even though some of his old habits do come out to light in certain situations.He met Ace while out on a job where things quickly got out of hand and the two had to team up... even though they hated every second of it.

Ace Trappola

Ace almost got disowned because he lost quite a big sum of money on poor investments and gambling. Now his parents expect him to make the money back, hopefully through actual work. No shortcuts... But hard honest work isn't exactly something Ace is interested in. Who know what kind of tricks he has up his sleeve this time.So after basically getting kicked out with only a suitcase, little to no money to his name and a piece of paper with an address on it he made his way to the indicated location.That's how Ace ended up at the Heartslabyul Apartments. If he remembers correctly, his older brother stayed here for a while too.He's got enough money for two month's rent and to feed himself... he'll have to find a job fast.Card tricks at the street corner counts as work, right? Well, it doesn't really matter since he's added some betting to the mix, he should really widen his repertoire of tricks. After all, people love those cup and ball games where all you have to do is guess under which cup the ball is... he could make some nice money out of that!Ace met Deuce while he was running away from the consequences of his own actions a few patrons that were not happy with his services (read: he tried to scam them, but they caught on). So now he's making every turn possible in hopes of losing his pursuers, who would no doubt give him a beating and take his money, when he runs straight into Deuce, the impact knocking them both to the ground.Well, now Ace has to pay for Deuce's damaged produce as well as his help in fighting off the "attackers".

+ Che'nya (Artemiy Artemiyevich Pinker)

Ever the mischief lover, Che'nya loves visiting his friends at the Heartslabyul Apartments. He's always ready to swipe one or two... or multiple treats that just happen to be lying around, be they on counters, plates or someones hand, Che'nya is not one to pass up such an opportunity.Careful where you step, you never know when he's lurking about. Many of the residents like to refer to him as a stray cat, given his disposition. He doesn't mind it. Though he needs to be careful with his "borrowing" of sweet delights, lest he be chased out with a broom. He doesn't pay any rent here anyway, as the Apartments residents like to remind him oh so much.Not much is known about him since he likes to keep himself a mystery. If you catch him in the act of playing a prank he might try to confuse you with riddles before he makes his exit.As a childhood friend of Trey and Riddle, Che'nya thinks he can get away with a lot of things, and he's right... for the most part.He's had a run-in with the Apartments owner, his name was Crowley, he thinks. Unfortunately Crowley didn't seem too pleased with a visitor such as himself... the fact that he's been living in Trey's quarters for the past three days didn't help his case. His grandfather had to smooth things over.