⇨ HEARTSTONE MANOR

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[ringleaders]

Phew okay let's do this.

Bunny and bicorn will tell you pretty much anything you ask, because they have absolutely nothing to lose at this point. They want to be free and they want their fellow servants to be free as well.

1. As far as they know, from their combined information, all of the large and medium sized game were people at one point. As for the smaller creatures they aren't as sure - though the bunny looks extra nervous about the thought of that. The bicorn can only speak for herself, but she says that she was somewhere deep within the castle - she believed it was a part of the Prince's personal quarters.

2. It was more of a panic reaction - there's nowhere she could run to while in the castle, since it's floating in the middle of a void and she has no capacity for making portals. The only thing she had in mind was that she might hide somewhere in the castle, or that the Manor itself may be able to shelter her, but that was not the case. She was basically a concubine at the time, and it seems that why she ran off is fairly self explanatory.

3. People are punished by being put in the ground, as far as they know. Dropped into holes and then disappearing, being turned into animals or objects, etc. Anyone from the carnival's side that disappeared could be A) transformed into something, B) in the underground prison enduring whatever that involves, or C) dead.

Stuff happens and back to questions.

4. They don't really know, but from how he talked about it to the servants (according to bunny), they think he is trying to impress or manipulate her somehow. He was very pointed about making sure everyone was on excellent behaviour for her presence, because he didn't want his household to come across as weak. He also has a history of attempting to force romantic affections on disinterested people, so that could be related.

5. They will explain that there are no specific entrances places because the Manor house is actually alive in its own right, and can shift its tunnels around to accommodate them. All they have to do is basically ask for the Manor to open a tunnel for them, and it will, because the Manor has permission to open tunnels for the servant's work. The Manor house doesn't actually like the Prince and supports the servant's activities as much as it can without breaking the rules of its ownership. They could open the doors for people from the carnival probably, but otherwise they'd need to come up with some sort of loophole to allow the Manor to work for them.

6. Probably in his private quarters, which is a large chunk in the middle of the castle's central tower that no pathways lead to. If there are any servants that work there, they are't in contact with the rest of the household. The bicorn had been to his private chambers only a few times before being cursed, and afterwards was kept in some kind of inside stable within it. There were other animals there, presumably being kept as trophies, unlike the other animals that disappear into the dungeons.

7. Some of them are so afraid or broken down that they are loyalists - they won't risk angering the Prince because they know that their life can get worst if he wills it. Others are fairly desperate and would be willing to risk their life on any chance at escape, however. The Butler can be difficult to read, but they've always been under the impression that he is willing to help - the problem is that the last Butler was cursed and sent underground as a punishment for their crimes against the Prince as part of a rebellion related manner. With the last Butler getting booted for treachery, the current one, LeFlamme, has had to keep his nose especially clean.

8. Everyone who works for the Prince has had their true name taken - this means that they can't remember any of their real names, whether given or chosen, and no one else can either. It also means that no other name given to them or chosen to them will ever stick - not matter how long they use it or are called by any particular word or name, it will never feel right on either said, and feels about as familiar as being called random fruits every time you're mentioned. It basically robs them of their identity outside of being a servant, and they don't know how it can be fixed, besides by having the Prince willfully give the names back.

They will find that this is true: even if they have been mentally revering to the servants as a name, it won't feel RIGHT, and it will always lack the intimacy or familiarity of a name that really belongs to someone.