lostcarnival | ⇨ HEARTSTONE MANOR

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 170 - Day ???
Where: Heartstone Manor
What: The carnival arrives at the Heartstone Manor. Do your best to play along, and try not to get too far ahead of the schedule with threading if you can avoid it, in case something that would affect your character happens early on.
Warnings: Individually marked! Could be a lot of things.

BEAUTIES AND THE BEAST↴

When the carnival arrives at the Manor, everyone will be taken into the Throne Room to greet the Prince for the first time. He will be lounging on his throne, and will take a look at the guests that the Ringmaster has brought before eventually dismissing everyone so that he can talk to her alone. After that, they will be given a brief tour of the Manor by some of the servants, and then brought to their rooms to start picking out clothes for tomorrow. On the first night they will be permitted to wear regular clothes, but starting the next morning the dress code will be enforced.

There will be a number of servants helping guests with clothing, and making alterations to suit the non-humanoid features they may have. The tailors work with fabric by hand, but their stitching is impossibly quick and accurate, with changes being made to complex clothing at unbelievable speed. Some guests may note while working with them that one of the seamstresses has wooden mannequin-esque hands instead of human ones, and another has two sets of arms. The arms are one of the most obviously inhuman traits that they'll see while first touring the building.

Come the morning of Day 171, the daily routine will begin.

⇨ THE DAILY SCHEDULE ⇦

► FIVE MEALS A DAY: Between breakfast, lunch, tea, supper, and evening drinks, the meals you are required to attend are frequent and long. Each meal (except drinks and tea) will have multiple rounds, and use all of the fancy cutlery. It will be difficult to keep up for those that are untrained. The food will vary greatly, but will generally to be palatable to those that are into whatever kind of food it might be. Some of them are odd delicacies that are very much an acquired taste, however. People who cannot eat will be given a pass once the Ringmaster explains it, but will be looked down on for it.

► DAILY ACTIVITIES: There are scheduled activities for every morning and afternoon,
and everyone is required to attend. Descriptions of each activity are provided on the "Event Descriptions" tab of the spreadsheet linked up above. There is only one hour of free time scheduled per day, after supper, and beyond that the servants will almost constantly have you on the go. The Prince and Ringmaster will not be present for most of the activities, but they will be there for every meal. If you character refuses to follow the schedule or makes a huge mess out of proceedings, make sure to report it here.

► AFTER CURFEW: At 11PM, everyone is expected to return to their quarters and spend the rest of the night there. Wandering after curfew is unacceptable by the Prince's rules, and if you do it there will be the chance of discover. Based on your character's stealth abilities, there will be dice rolling to determine if they are discovered or not, and by whom. Make sure you report any after curfew activity to the mod post here. This can also take place as an investigation if they are actually looking for something instead of just farting around.

► ROOM AND BOARD: The servants will remain upbeat for most of the time the guests are here, unless something is done to provoke them. They will be present at every activity, and there will be a variety of different individuals. One frequently spotted character will be the butler, a man with dark hair and small, sharp horns. He seems to be the main organizer of things.

► ODDITIES: Even beyond the obvious, there is something off about the Manor. Doors, windows, and other household objects will sometimes move seemingly without cause, and other times there will be banging sounds in the walls, or mysterious voices heard at a distance. It feels like you're being haunted. If you have a moment to wander the corridors, then you'll sometimes see open doors abruptly slam shut the moment you lay eyes on them, and wall sconces turn off or on. It's weird, man.

► THE HUNT: The Hunt activity will have its own event post, and some sign ups for those that will participate meaningfully. There will be some dice rolling to determine who hunts the most impressive game, and rewards handed out accordingly. Before that post goes up, however, you can do some investigations for the start of the event, if your character is interested in looking into the specifics of the contest and overall context.

MAKE SURE THAT ALL DECORUM VIOLATIONS ARE REPORTED HERE.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Syrlya's experience so far has been the opposite--he hardly knows what a horse is, having never seen one before, has never ridden one or anything like a mount. On top of that he's found what might be the most disagreeable horse in the stable, and no matter how he pulls the reigns it doesn't appear interested in going where he wants.

"No, stop it--the course is that way!" The horse, instead, is going right for Taako while Syrlya vainly pulls the reigns.

Wow, okay, that's fantastic. Fortunately for Syrlya, Taako is a flip wizard, gets himself firmly out of the way before he's run over.

"Uh, whoa there, pardner, do you wanna... take a second and get that thing under control?"

"Sorry!" He would certainly like to get things under control, pulling harder against the reins to try and get it to stop and steer away. That really just irritates the horse, and it stomps around before Syrlya let's out his own frustrated sound and throws them instead.

"Fine, nevermind if you are going to be like that." At least with his release the horse stops moving around. He probably can't actually just... refuse the activity, but this is hard.

He glances over to Taako to make sure he didn't trample him or something.

Oooh. Taako is fine-- he straightens himself out, smoothing out his riding habit and straightening his hat as he approaches Syrlya and his horse. He reaches out a hand, gingerly, to try and touch the horse, maybe calm it down a little.

"Uh, you know these things don't really speak Common, right?" Taako grins up at Syrlya.

The horse, not being bossed around by Syrlya, does seem to be calming down--it's not immediately friendly to Taako, but it also doesn't make any move to get away.

Syrlya just sighs, shoulders slumping. "I know that. Thing would be much easier if it--" Wait a second. He raises a brow, surprised. "You are familiar with Common language?"

Well, in all technicality they're speaking Fae. But details.

"So are you," Taako responds, sounding surprised that Syrlya knows what he's talking about. "Huh! Go figure. Small world. Anyway, uh, have you tried maybe not riding the reins like you stole 'em? Like... chill out, the horse is right under you, he's not going anywhere, bubbale. You've gotta guide him, not f--"

He takes a breath, catching himself about to swear again... and then lets it out, a pleasant and clearly-fake smile taking over his face.

"... not dragging him along behind you."

Syrlya frowns deeply, looking back at the reins. Was his grip really that hard? He got everywhere by foot, or waypoint, or airship... not mount or those strange Charr motor vehicles.

Although he looks back at Taako with a raised brow as his demeanor shifts, just that much. What, is he irritated with him? "I'm... extremely new to this, I am not familiar with guiding animals. Or horses. How would you hold them?"

"Just... lightly? The horse knows what's up, you've just gotta give him the signal." Taako reaches up to take the reins in his hands, and shows Syrlya a much less... severe way to hold them; securely enough not to drop them, but not pulling on them. "Like this. All you're doing by jerking his head around like that is pissing him off. I mean, let's be real, you'd be pissed off if somebody started jerking you around by your face, too."

⇨ HEARTSTONE MANOR

Horse Riding

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Time for that high fantasy rpg confusion

OH BOY

And then they try using it and realize they can't understand anything from the other

THAT HIGH FANTASY LIFE...