⇨ 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

170-172

[hippocarnival]

[171 | ARCHERY]

[Archery is new for Yuya, but he has the strength and coordination to pick up on it pretty quickly. After a few bungles with holding the arrow, and one shot straight into the ground, Yuya gets the hang of consistently hitting the targets. It's not always a bullseye, but he's also not losing any arrows in the foliage beyond.

There's at least one in the center at a bit of an angle, as Yuya draws the string back on another shot. He's taking each one seriously--he's not as good as a friend he knows, but he's proud enough to give it a real effort.]

Hey. [He shifts his hold slightly, glancing over to the person next to him.] What if I get it exactly in the center?

[172 | FREETIME]

[There's less activity the next day, and while Yuya liked the performance he's glad to have time for finally pull himself away from the servants and a chair and get to roam on his own.

He escapes down one of the halls, glancing around for the servants. When he doesn't immediately see any he lets out a sigh of relief and lets his posture slump.] I hope this is working...

[WILDCARD]

[For all other activities and free time for the day! You're free to reference any of the required activities since... everyone has to be there.]

Freetime!

[diamondsare]

[As Yuya slumps in relief, glad to finally get away from the rigid daily schedule they've all been wedged into, Blue, in the doorway of the room she'd been assigned, watches for a moment, choosing whether or not to speak.]

I have heard no complaints so far. I believe you are doing well.

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya snaps up to attention the moment he hears her voice, a little worried he's caught slacking by a servant--but no, it's just Blue, so he visibly relaxes again.]

Um, thanks. [He rubs the back of his neck.] I guess if nobody's in trouble or kicked out we're all doing okay, right?

[At least, Yuya hasn't heard from anyone getting in trouble. Yet. But he's going to have some hope in them because the alternative is death.] How are you doing?

[diamondsare]

Yes. And that is all that is required.

[All these individuals with no idea how a proper society functions, having to do so for a few weeks.. she did feel sorry for them, they were entirely out of their elements! Especially ones like poor Yuya, to whom this seemed to be psychological torture..]

As well as can be hoped, without my tiger.

[Which is to say patently awful, she's been miserable since. But she'll try to pretend something other than sorrow for his sake, for now.

If it helps a little, count down the days until we are free to go. There is only a little while left, after all.

[They just GOT HERE.. but perspective is everything.]

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya smiles a bit wryly at that. Counting down the days just seems like it would be the opposite, just waiting for it to be over instead of trying to make the best of it... but Blue is trying to comfort him. He appreciate the sentiment.]

I'll be okay, it hasn't been all bad. [It's hard to treat it like a performance when his audience is so... disaffected, but he can tolerate this fanciness if good is going to come out of it.

And Blue has something troubling her, too.] You miss your daemon?

Archery

[espigeon]

[By contrast, Julien's consistently getting arrows into the ground near the targets, or into said foliage, though they are at least marching closer to his target and are starting to clip it more often. He's not totally out of shape but the strain of holding the bow steady and pulling the cord back keeps surprising him, as does the cord striking his fancy leather armguards when he lets go. Archery looks so much easier in movies! This is work!

He glances right back and smiles.]

Then you win, maybe? Maybe it's like darts and you get points tallied up at the end. Nice going so far. [There's no sarcasm in that at all. He's happy to see that another carnie's getting better at this.]

[hippocarnival]

There's points? [Yuya had just been fishing for a response of attention-- some sort of 'that'd be cool' or awe so he could either succeed or fail hilariously and maybe get them to smile. He wasn't happy here either, but everyone else was so much more dire and anxious. Except Julien, maybe.

But this might be actual competition and he's been goofing off.] Uh, thanks! I've never really played darts, honestly. It's pretty straight forward, right?

[espigeon]

In video games! And in, like, cool fantasy books where the heroine has to show boys she's better than them.

[Julien's not immune to the tension of all this, but even aside from being inherently easygoing and mellow, he's got an advantage: while he's here, he's also lounging in the stable, with no one watching him or making demands. He has to pretend to be an animal for the stablehands, when they're nearby. That's it!

If that was all that was going on for him he'd be bored and angry, but as it stands, it's pretty easy for him to be less stressed than most of the other carnies.]

There's a ton of games involving dartboards and they can get pretty baroque. But it's also fun just to see who hits closer to the center more.

[He draws his bow again, arms trembling with the unfamiliar exertion. This time he does hit somewhere on the target, but the arrow glances off; he hadn't pulled back far enough, or positioned the arrow properly so that it flew true.]

Hmm. Wanna bet you get a bullseye before I get a halfway decent shot anywhere on the board?

[hippocarnival]

But this isn't a video game. [Obviously. He also has absolutely no idea what 'Baroque' is. Julien challenges him before he can ask, however, and instead Yuya regards his shot carefully. He can see that tremble.]

... Is 'halfway decent' halfway to the middle? [They're going to need something more defined here.]

archery

[puddingemote]

[Tamaki is proving to be not too bad at this either; he has the strength to pull the arrow back but not so much the patience to aim, though most of his shots do make the target. He's not good enough to make a bullseye yet, though.

He looks over when Yuya speaks, giving a shrug before letting another arrow fly almost blindly (it plunks into the very edge of the target).]

Maybe you win?

[hippocarnival]

Like a game, right? [Yuya smiles as he releases the arrow--it pops into one of the inner rings, but doesn't quite make the center.]

We could make our own game if it's not. [He's actually enjoying the archery as is, but maybe they'd get more into it if they added a more engaging goal that 'hit the target'.]

[puddingemote]

[It being a game perks Tamaki right up. Engaging in friendly competition is way more fun that shooting on his own, in his opinion.]

Yeah. Like, closer to the center, you get more points?

[hippocarnival]

Five points for the center, three for the inner rings, one for the outer rings? [That sounds easy enough to follow, he's pretty sure.] We'll only count the arrows we start firing now, so we're trying our best from the start.

archery

[pipers_son]

Then it means yer a good shot.

[Joker can't exactly participate in this little hobby like everyone else for fairly obvious reasons. Still, he's here regardless because schedules are schedules, god help them all. So for the time being he's "observing" everyone's skills, nodding occasionally at a good shot someone makes or raising his eyebrows at the poor souls who have no idea what they're doing.]

Have ya ever done this before?

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya smiles wryly. That's the obvious answer, yeah, but not the one he was looking for.]

Nope. [He releases the shot. He hits the second-most inner ring.] But I kind of like it.

[He lowers his bow as he turns to Joker.] Are we doing all right so far?

[Etiquette and all that. Not being total embarrassments.]

[pipers_son]

Well, maybe ya can pick it up when we get back ta the carnival.

[If they do, anyway.... But the job of a supervisor is to guide people and be an example of some sort. Getting all agitated himself will only make things worse.... and no one needs pessimism right now.]

[As Yuya turns to him, Joker hums quietly.]

No one's manners are perfect.... But most folks are managing to stay quiet and not be too bad. So yeah, s'goin' all right so far.

171!

[otoko]

[Kyuudo! That is what Gongenzaka thinks of as they're handed bows and arrows. He never found himself practicing the art at home of course-the Gongenzaka Dojo specialized in hand to hand, with the occasional assist for the purpose of absolutely risky moments of time. Fortunately for him, he's observant enough that he can figure out how it works....though the measure of strength involved, not to mention the limits of the short-bow versus the long-bow are evident.]

Hmmmm.... [Fww-p! ...His arrow is..already rather close to the center himself! Hoo! He smiles, and looks down to his friend.] ....You will have mastered this with more skill than myself if you manage that, Yuuya!

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya lowers his bow with a grin, so he can give Gongenzaka a thumb's up.] Hey, good shot! In that case, I really have to try my best.

[Yuya lifts his bow up again and closes one eye to take him. He waits a second longer before he releases the arrow. It hits very close to Gongenzaka's.

He starts fishing for another arrow.] It's kind of relaxing, isn't it?

[otoko]

Hmmmmmm... [Hooooo. Deep breaths of calm, and he gives an encouraging nod, once Yuuya's arrow has reached its target.] Aaauh, thus far, I, the man Gongenzaka, must say...there was certainly truth in the Ringmaster's words...

[Specifically that if they played along, the whole experience could well be a pleasant one.

Even if they were wearing what he frankly thought was frivolous and ridiculous.]

171

[mylastchance]

[Lauren isn't having an impossible time with the bow either. He at least managed to shoot the arrows forward, even when he wasn't hitting the target. Now he seems to be hitting them, most of the time. He'd count that as good enough. He pauses when Yuya asks that though, honestly confused by the question.]

What do you get?

[He asks the question back, as though to make sure he's heard Yuya correctly.]

[hippocarnival]

[It's just he repeats the part of the question that leaves Yuya unable to tell what he means about it. Is Lauren asking if he knows he gets something for it?

He stares blankly for a moment.] Uh... I guess we probably won't get anything.

[mylastchance]

[If Yuya already knew the answer than why did he ask Lauren? The half-elf only looks more confused. Maybe he was misunderstanding something here. Was Yuya asking Lauren for something if he hit the target? Perhaps rewards were integral to training with bows on Yuya's world.]

...Probably.

Archery because why not?

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

That's a 'bullseye'.

[Yuzu can't help but be impressed with Yuya's skill. Sure, it's taken him awhile, but at least he's showing improvement!]

That's pretty much the best of the bunch.

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya leans over to see how Yuzu is fairing so far. At least a dress doesn't really get in the way since they're all standing still.] Maybe if I practice enough I can compete with Sawatari?

[He doesn't sound dedicated to the idea, however--not because he doesn't think he can, it just isn't so important. Sawatari can have darts to be best at.]

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

[Yuzu... Yuzu's actually kind of the same way, honestly. Even with the ridiculous dress, she's actually able to nail a few strikes on the target. Of course, there are a few spots where she missed and her fingers look absolutely red from poor bowmanship.]

You just might. Heck, you'd probably compete with him in anything.