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

"Hmm... when d'ya think it'll come in handy?" Doll comes around to Ginko's shoulder so she can read over it-- or try to read. Her level isn't too high, to be fair, but she always liked reading when she could!

"Maybe here, for one thing. The Prince certainly seems interested in European culture, but, uh... most of the time, I have no idea what's going on."

He shifts the book so she can see; the particular page he's on seems to be about French court customs from various time periods. It is... no coincidence that he was on this page.

"We've been to a few other worlds with cultures like this, too. This one is just a little more... strict than most about cultural norms."

"Augh, tell me 'bout it!" Doll deflates against Ginko's shoulder with a big eyeroll. "Bein' on time ta everythin', doing all this stuff, tryin' ta figg'r out that game with th'little gates 'n mallets? 'S exhuastin!

"Lucky I had some practice with all them little forks 'n big forks, bowin' 'n curtsyin', otherwise I'd be gettin' in trouble all th'time!"

She tilts her head at the page and points at a word. "Eh-tee-queue..." She's trying to sound out 'etiquette', and having a rough time of it sounds like.

"Oh, yeah - some of this stuff was practiced where you're from, right?" It's pretty weird to think of Doll dealing with much of this before now, but he supposes it makes sense, given that she's from the same world as Joker, and he sure seems familiar with it all.

He gives her a bit to sound it out before correcting her, gently. "Etiquette. So... basically bowing and curtsying and all that."

"Sort of," she shrugs. "When I was smaller, our 'Father' had us live with 'im for a bit. Got some nice clothes, some readin' lessons, numbers-- 'n then we went off t'the workhouse, 'n then the Circus! Never really had ta use m'manners much. I might've been too young ta present ta people," she says with a sheepish laugh. Doll was a sweet and quiet child, but she knows somebody would have pushed her bangs aside and seen what was under them. And that would have been quite the upset for a fancy lady.

"Ahh..." she nods. "Yeah I know th'word! Jus' didn' have much time ta learn readin' 'em!" She keeps going along the page, carefully trying to figure out what it's talking about because maybe she could learn a thing or two, too.

"Th'servants keep on givin' me th'strangest looks y'know," she giggles. "Or maybe they jus' think m'bow looks a lot like a lady's curtsy."

It's probably a good thing that Ginko has such a good poker face. He'd promised Joker that he wouldn't tell Doll about their conversation, but with what he knows now, the mention of their "Father" sends a chill down his spine. His expression stays stable - a little too steady, if anything, but if that's what it takes to keep from reacting visibly, so be it.

Even that only lasts a moment, then he gives another smile, turning back to look at the book. "Well, some practice is better than none, right? And I guess they just don't know what to make of you, one way or another."

"I s'pose. I'm not too clever at figg'rin' out how some people feel 'bout me." Speaking of which-- that reminds Doll of a certain conversation she had with Joker on a certain lake.

"Not too clever at figg'rin' out how you felt 'bout Joker, neither," she says with a defeated sigh. "Thought f'r sure y'were sweet on 'im."

If Ginko were drinking anything right now, he would probably choke on it. As it is, he loses his grip on his book mid-page-turn, and it thumps to the table while he turns with a start to look at Doll again.

"On-- wh-what... where'd you get that idea?"

She tilts her head and frowns like he asked her a question with a fairly obvious answer. Is this some kind of trick?

"'Cause y'brought 'im home when y'didn' hafta. He's real difficult when he chooses ta be." Doesn't she know it. "'N y'said you'd take care'a him." A sad shadow comes over her face, like she just remembered something particularly upsetting and the effect is strong and immediate. "Y'weren' lyin' were ya? You'll take care'a him, yeah?"

He seems better at it than she does, at least.

Ginko blinks, something like hurt crossing his face at that, just for a moment. "--Of course I wasn't lying. I'll do whatever I can for him, Doll. But..."

Now he looks at the book instead of her, making sure its pages aren't bent or folded before he closes it. "Caring about someone doesn't necessarily mean... feeling that way about them. Joker is just a good friend."

Who he had a very long emotional conversation with in some hedges. Normal friend things.

"Oh..." This is a little hard for Doll to wrap her mind around-- Doll, who loves immediately on contact, imagines that most people feel the same. They either love someone, or they really really don't. But ultimately that inability to figure out when someone was pretending to like her had cost her family their lives, probably. Someday she'll figure this out, hopefully before it becomes that vital again...

"Yeah, yer probably right. Ya know, like I said before, 'm not too good at this." Doll figures that's enough of this conversation, and gives Ginko a quick and firm hug around his shoulders.

"Gotta wash f'r supper, happy readin'!"

In that moment, it very much feels to Ginko like there's more he should say here, but, as he so often finds to be the case, he can't think of what.

He could really do without these moments. But they seem to keep happening, all the same.

Of course, as usual, being hugged is a pretty efficient distraction from any thoughts of protest or further questioning. "Uh-- r-right. See you later."

⇨ HEARTSTONE MANOR

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