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

He laughs at the thought, just a bit.

"You're not saying that because there's a monster in your room is there?"

"No! I mean... I didn't look. I just wanna make sure you're okay and nothing's gonna bite you or anything."

Lauren laughs, but he has the forethought to take his finger off the talk button while he does so.

"There's nothing dangerous in here." he finally says, when he's done. "Unless you count Fluff as dangerous."

"She could be dangerous, if I told her to be."

The cat just blinks at Lauren before yawning. Very dangerous cat over here.

He watches that before answering in a deadpan, "Absolutely terrifying."

Susan laughs, falling quiet again after. He's glad they have the radios, that Lauren can talk to him whenever, that he can look through Fluff's eyes to make sure he's okay, but still -

"I wish you were in my room instead."

He's quiet for a moment, before he responds.

"I do too."

"I know it'll only be a couple weeks, but... It's weird. You're always there, but now you're not. I guess it's only at night, but still..." He's not really sure what he's getting at, but it's strange to feel like he's missing Lauren when his brother is only down the hall.

Always there, and now he's not. That's how quickly things could change too. That's why it's so hard to actually be separated from his brother like this. It's why he hardly ever leaves his brother's side, because he knows every moment away from Susan is another moment something could take one of the only things he has left and he wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it. It was why he was at this stupid carnival in the first place.

"I miss you too."

"I didn't say I miss you, I just saw you." But he totally does miss him, somehow. It's weird thinking of sleeping in this room here without Lauren. The last time was when he was at the school in Phlan... That was hard enough, and it was only a week. At least here they had the radios.

"You'll keep your radio on, right? All night?"

"Yeah." He wouldn't even think of turning it off when Susan wasn't with him. How else would he know if Susan needed him? Even if it was just something stupid Susan wanted to say he'd want to be there for it. He actually genuinely likes being with his brother. It would be stupid to shut off one of their only lines of communication.

"All night."

"Good."

He's quiet again, after that, not sure what else to say. Normally he just talks about dumb things, or doesn't talk at all, or whatever, but it's weird when Lauren isn't here with him to hear it. He doesn't want Lauren to bother his roommate, or for Lauren to not sleep because of him, or anything like that... He's just overall kind of unsure of what to do at all, and staying quiet is the easiest solution.

Lauren waits for Susan to say something else, and when he doesn't he just laughs.

"Make sure Zap doesn't bother Stanley too much."

He laughs a little too.

"I'll try... Zap doesn't always like listening to me though."

Uh oh.

"Susan..."

Sudden concern.

"What? He won't hurt her, I promise! She just... Might get annoyed at him, or something."

Lauren just laughs in disbelief. Stay strong Stanley, and also, he's sorry.

"As long as she's okay..."

"She should be... And she can tell me if she's not, right?" Not that he's really had many conversations with her, but still.

"Yeah, she can. And will." he trusts Stanley to at least do that much, even if she isn't much of a talker. He pets Fluff, absentmindedly as he speaks. He trusts Susan to look after he though.

"As long as your listening."

"I will! I'll listen for her, and I'll listen for you, and I'll listen for Fluff. That way everyone will stay safe, no matter what happens." He settles on his bed, Zap sitting next to him as he looks around the room. Everything has to go okay, he's sure of it. They just have to be careful.

He sighs, shaking his head, but he is still smiling. Susan is so insistent. It's cute, not that he'll ever tell him that.

"Thanks."

"Yeah! I'll make sure everything goes as good as I can make it." Hopefully it works. He's sure he can manage it, he's good at doing things when he decides to... If that means playing by the rules, then that's just what he'll have to do.

"I know you will." It doesn't even need to be said, but if talking is the only connection he can have with his brother now then talking is what he will do, even if it means stating the obvious.

"I'll be looking out for you as well."

"And for Fluff?" Not that the familiar really needs it, but still. He'd rather not have to resummon her if he can.

He laughs, just a bit.

"And for Fluff."

⇨ HEARTSTONE MANOR

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