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

The servants will at least bring her another glass when he beckons them to and he'll wait until they leave again before saying anything at all.

"I must say you look... different. It's not bad just not what I was expecting underneath all that costumed beauty." Not that he's saying she's ugly now. She's still a lady and he will treat her with respect.

He grins behind his glass of water as he takes another sip to clear his throat, "Joker, hmm? Yes, I am one of his magicians. I know him well enough." Closer than he likes at the moment. It'll bother him later.

"I can tell when someone has had even an inkling of upbringing especially brought up the way I am now. You're though. If a party was hosted it was usually only afternoon to evening. Rarely overnight unless there was a special engagement." Which is why he trusts nothing at the moment.

"Yeah, well..." Doll smooths her bangs over her eye nervously, but maintains a smile. "Ev'rybody says I'm a princess. Gotta act the part, righ'?" There's a lot that's unexpected under her 'costumed beauty', a lot that she doesn't like to share. Who she is and who she is when she's performing-- they're two different people. A princess, and someone else. Just a girl, or a guttersnipe...

"You know my brother?" This is much better to talk about. Doll seems to glow when she thinks she's met a friend of Joker's. Anybody who gets on with her brother is a great person, in her opinion. "Yeah we uh, we were taken in by this nice ol' bloke, real upscale fella. I learned all m'forks 'n everythin'!

"So lemme see!" She settles into her seat a little, shuffling happily. "Lemme see some magic!"

He's a little off guard right now which is why he won't pick up on any of her nervous habits. He sets the water down now on the table between them. He stirs his tea gently before setting the spoon on the proper side of the cup. "I won't go on about that any longer."

He nods as the subject moves onto Joker, "Yes, he is the Stage Manager and I do well to make him happy with me and my performance."

She's a bundle of joy and he laughs softly, "Put a napkin over something and hold it out to me. That should be the easiest example."

Doll grins, excited to see this in action. She scans the table before picking up a spoon and covering it with a napkin and holding it out to him.

"Alright, how's this?"

"Perfect," he says in response to her excitement. Her being so excited only amplifies his mood. After all there was no point showing a trick if the other wasn't going to least be on board with it. It's why Joker is such a bad influence on him. He lets him indulge too much.

His hand moves underneath hers and rests there gently like a proper gentleman. It's more of a distraction than anything as his other hand rests on top of the napkin. His power to choose activates silently and when he presses his hand down she'll feel that spoon disappear from her hand from under the napkin. He raises his hand to show that he's not holding it either and will gesture towards the napkin for her to look. In truth it was temporarily inside of his hand but he won't tell her that.

And she wouldn't understand it at all, the method behind the trick. All she knows is the spoon is gone and she has no idea where it went. When Doll lifts up the napkin and sees it's gone, she gasps and cheers.

"Wow, bravo, bravo!" she claps with a big grin. "That's the best trick I've seen in a long time!"

He could explain it but the nature of the trick was to not to know so that it was believable and he'll gently bow in his seat a little too naturally when she starts to praise him.

His grin is a little too wide for a gentleman right now and he'll clasp both of his hands together before opening them to reveal the spoon, "Why thank you, little miss."

She gasps at the reappearance of the spoon, and nearly leaps out of her chair in amazement. Doll didn't even see him hide it up his sleeve or anything, what a great trick!

"Amazin'! You're amazin' mister! No wonder you're our magician, I bet you'll keep the crowds real entertained!

"I'd show ya my floor tricks but uh..." she looks around the room and shrugs with a sheepish grin. "Not th'place."

This is feeding horribly into his ego to the point he's forgotten his tea all together. It was likely sitting there next to him but he had lost interest in it. To see this young lady so bright and entertained just gave him the utmost pleasure and joy.

"It is what I aim to do, Miss Doll. I want to give them something they can't turn their eyes away from."

He laughs softly as if he understands, "There's always later. I'll be in the carnival for quite a while after all."

⇨ HEARTSTONE MANOR

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