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's slightly disappointed when the image disappears, but luckily he's too distracted by the conversation to complain about it.

"You've never been in a forest?" He says it like he's hearing that someone has never eaten before, like it's totally unheard of. He thinks for a minute before actually answering.

"It's like... You're alone, with just trees and plants and animals and stuff everywhere. It's peaceful, and it's really quiet, even when you know there's animals, 'cause all the sounds kind of disappear into it. It's fun to go to the town sometimes, or be around people, but it always feels weird, being so exposed." It's maybe a disjointed explanation, but it's hard to describe it when he doesn't have much to compare it to.

That sounds... awful??? Being alone has always made him feel so empty. But he can understand peace and quiet... it had been nice going fishing with 2B, doing nothing but listening to their surroundings and not talking at all.

"It's hard for me to imagine something like that. Living in a forest sounds... lonely."

He laughs a little at that.

"I guess it kind of could be... But it's nice, since it's me and my brother, not just me. So it's just the two of us, like our own little world I guess." Which honestly is how he likes it; he enjoys people, likes seeing all the different people in the world and talking to them and hearing their stories, but in the end, all that matters is him and his brother.

"Oh!" 9S brightens considerably. "Yeah, okay, that sounds way better if you have family with you."

If he was in a quiet place with someone he really cared about, then he'd cherish every moment with them. At least, that's what he thinks.

Family's still a pretty shaky concept for him, but he thinks he's starting to understand the gist of it.

"So what's your brother like?"

"Lauren is..." He has to pause to think about how exactly to describe him. He loves his brother, but that doesn't mean he's without flaws - and a lot of those flaws make him seem like a really boring person, or someone no one would want to be around, but really he's great. He just has to think of a way to talk about him that makes him seem cool.

"Well, he's really quiet, most of the time. But he's really good at figuring things out, and he likes helping people, and taking care of people. He took care of me my whole life, after our parents died. Lots of people don't really get to know him, 'cause he doesn't like talking, but he's really the best person around." He can't help but smile when he talks about his brother, even if he ends up a little sad afterwards. He doesn't think that 9S will be a bad roommate or anything, and he can handle it, but... He wishes Lauren were sharing with him instead.

9S' expression twists into sympathy at the mention of their parents dying, though he can't truly empathise. Androids like him... they don't have family and that sort of attachment. And it's hard to really feel the impact of death when... they just get uploaded into a new body.

But the way Susan talks about Lauren... 9S nods in understanding, mirroring Susan's smile. "A person doesn't need to talk a lot to be really great. My partner, she's kind of like that. Quiet but caring, I mean. I'd love to meet him. He sounds cool."

Does that mean that he's maybe found someone who can actually appreciate Lauren? It's really hard, so the thought of someone already knowing how to talk to quiet people... Well, it makes him grin even wider.

"Oh, then you already know how to talk to quiet people! That's good. Lots of people don't and then they get mad at him, or think he's dumb, but he just doesn't like talking much. You should definitely meet him then!"

9S leans back, the bed sinking quite deeply from his weight. "Heh, looking forward to it. What's his name?"

"His name is Lauren! He's a performer, so if you go to a show you might see him... But you probably couldn't tell it's him, I guess, 'cause most of his shows he just turns into an animal. But I know he's gonna do a new show soon with lots of people's pokemon."

It's probably ridiculous, but Susan doesn't care. He's honestly happiest thinking and talking about his brother.

Ooh.

"Do you think he'll let me record his show?" He raises his hand, and Pod 153 hovers close enough for him to pat the boxy robot on the back of its 'head'. "I got my pod to record Strange's magic show for everyone back home to see. I'm sure they'd love to watch Lauren's, too."

"So... Like a movie?" Movies weren't something he was familiar with before, but after some of the world visits he's familiar enough at least. He thinks for a second before shrugging with a small smile.

"He might get shy about it, so I'm not sure... I think it'd be cool to show other people though. We'd probably just have to ask him!"

⇨ HEARTSTONE MANOR

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject