"A good host always knows how to treat her guests, Madeline! Unless the guest is unpleasant, they must be treated with the utmost respect!"
Maddie Hatter, the latest in a long line of Mad Hatters, was taught this at a very young age. Her father was the owner of a tea shoppe, one that she expected to take over when her father decided to retire, so it was an important rule to remember.
Her work in both the tea shoppe in Wonderland and the one in Ever After made sure to drill this lesson everyday, especially when a customer actually was polite themselves. It was a social code to live by, one of few that any Wonderlandian would actually follow. No guest, from the Cheshire Cat to the Queen of Hearts, were treated with disrespect as long as they respected their hosts.
Her father had many customers in his shop, however, so she was also familiar with unpleasant people coming in. Demands, complaints, or even insults were thrown at her and her father, though none that ever cut too deep. Words are just words, after all, so it wasn't like they actually mattered.
Her father was a good man. He wasn't a temperamental man by any means. But his insult his shoppe, his livelihood, or, god forbid, his family, and he'll show you what it means to be a bad host.
Maddie wondered if people in Ever After understood what it was like to be a good host for many years after the migration. It sometimes didn't feel like it.
It wasn't bad at all, moving to Ever After. The generous Snow White made sure that any Wonderlandian's that were cast out by the Evil Queen's spell were given homes, food, and jobs, but it was clear not everyone was happy about it. Snow White may have been a good host, but that doesn't mean her citizens had to be.
Refugees or not, Wonderlandian's had a stigma to them. Crazy. Mad. Insane. That was generally how Wonderlandian's were viewed, which was only slightly correct. Wonderland was mad by nature, but not all of its citizens were.
Maddie's father was respected for the part he played in Alice's story, but not for much else. Her father wasn't even considered for some jobs for a while before he opened up his tea shoppe, mostly based on his perceived nature. It didn't help that whenever someone insulted a Wonderlandian in front of him, he would make sure to give them a piece of his mind.
Like she said, he was a good man. He wasn't a temperamental one. But god forbid you insult his kin.
Not many were willing to let their kids be friends with her. Whether it was how she dressed, how she acted, or simply where she was from, some children were just told to stay away from here. It was lonely for a while since many of her friends had to be separated from her so they could be put into proper homes. It was ironic when the only friend she could make was the daughter of the person who brought her here in the first place.
She never blamed Raven, though. She never could. She was her sister, through and through.
Sometimes, Maddie realized later in life, months before she met the Ed's and started on their little crusade, that it didn't matter how polite of a person you are. You'll sometimes just get a bad host.
Maddie believed to be not only the model host, but a model guest.
That didn't mean that Ever After was always the perfect host.