⇨ 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

[stillwinningthehardway]

"Yeah, but wouldn't they be idle during that? This place is huge and the Prince probably needs a lot of attendants but they can't just spend all their time cleaning and polishing. Can they?" Scout's not inclined to notice a dearth of either unless it's extreme.

"You'd think so. Even if they were forbidden... well, I guess it'd depend on if he told them not to mingle, and they were afraid of him." She presses her lips together. "They seem happy."

[kingsroads]

"Servants have breaks as well," Strange explains, with a little shrug. Whether it's taking a pause from their duties, chatting with someone while running errands, there should be times when the servants could pause and talk with each other.

As for Scout's other question, he sighs. "It's a damn pity we can't simply ask one. Every time I've tried to start conversation, I've been shut down."

[stillwinningthehardway]

Maybe the Prince goes as far as having his servants grow and slaughter food and render it into the intermediary forms that they then make into fine dining. Seed plants to milled flour to bread to croutons. Maybe he has them make things so sell at some mysterious faire. Scout struggles to see what most of these people do when there's not several dozen guests to watch and shepherd and arrange for.

In the Temple there was a large staff of droids, in the last several years. Before that, before the war, there had been fewer and people handled a lot of things themselves. Padawans might have chores, but it kept Knights and Masters humble, if they cooked for everyone sometimes and mended their own robes. Scout has trouble imagining having this kind of authority over people.

She starts to make a face but visibly stops herself. "I know! They're so reserved! Universally reserved. I think - I'm not sure, but I think a lot of the ones moving around at night are different. Maybe they're more talkative, but I can't just ask." The risk is too great, and her sometimes gift for anticipation doesn't stretch out that far.

[kingsroads]

"I can't ask either," Strange responds, with a little shrug. It's no great secret that he's completely awful at subterfuge. There's no way he can find one of those servants, ask them, and get back to his room without getting caught. Besides, the Ringmaster said not to break curfew and, at least at that part, Strange is definitely going to listen.

"It's a pity that he isn't well-known enough to have the obligatory social climber and hanger-on. They're usually a wonderful source of gossip."

From Strange's tone of voice, he's definitely thinking of one person in particular. For all his faults, Christopher Drawlight had an annoying way of finding out information.

[stillwinningthehardway]

Scout leans back in her chair, dissatisfied and unable to take it out on anyone.

"As far as I know he keeps to here and to himself," she says, flicking at the tablecloth in a not-that-I-know-much way. "If he had a proper court, with a bunch of people closer in status to him, we'd have to worry about them, too. But absolutely we'd hear more."