⇨ 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

dinner time, 172

[kingsroads]

Strange is just quietly horrified. That's a garnish, Peridot, you don't eat the garnish. He's far enough away that he doesn't want to yell across the table but close enough that he can make eye contact with the gem. So, Strange just stares down Peridot as he eats his food, cutting his pheasant with knife and fork. If she makes eye contact, he's just going to slowly shake his head, hoping that his mental message of 'stop that RIGHT NOW' comes across loud and clear.

Otherwise...well, he's going to have to find a way to talk across the table, to one of the supervisors, to find a way to tell her to eat differently. It's a triple crown of rudeness that he's not entirely sure how to navigate.

[periphrasing]

She's actually pretty bitter about being put at the end of the table with the other supervisors? If she'd had her choice, she'd have chosen to sit closer to Strange so he could help keep her on track better, and she could quietly ask questions. Instead she's stuck sitting WAY closer to the Prince than she's comfortable with, and she has no good way of talking to the people who know better than her.

That said, even in the throes of her food frenzy, Peridot is wary enough of making a mistake that Strange's direct disapproval automatically stops her in her tracks, one hand still on the lettuce. She makes a confused face at him and jerks her head slightly, as if to say, but this is food, right? Why would they put it on the platter if they didn't expect you to eat it!?

They really should've come up with some way to talk to one another ahead of time, in the event that they wound up seated far apart. Now they've got to rely on meaningful eye contact and pantomime. Ugh.

[kingsroads]

They really should've come up with some way to talk to one another ahead of time. As is, all Strange can do is shake his head and hope that Peridot gets his message. No, that's not food and no, don't eat it.

He's almost finished with the pheasant on his plate...maybe if he serves himself a bit more, Peridot can at least mimic what he's doing and know what not to eat. Thankfully, there's a dish of bird close enough to him that he doesn't have to ask someone to pass it or reach over someone. With very deliberate movements, Strange reaches over towards the bird, picks up the serving utensils, and cuts himself another piece of pheasant. Obviously his attention's on the knife and fork and bird but whenever he gets a moment, Strange deliberately looks over to Peridot, with an expression like see, THIS is how you do it.

Whether she interprets that as what he's going for or not is a whole different story. Maybe after dinner they could come up with a code over drinks.

I made a new icon and deleted one to make room for it just for this tag

[periphrasing]

Why don't you use your fancy abilities to ask the wood of the table to send her a message or something, magic man. That's what this poor gem is half hoping he'll do, anyway.

Peridot just continues to stare at him, and then back at the bird, and curls her lip. Honestly, the lettuce seems much more appetizing to her than the pheasant does? The idea of eating the flesh off of something that is so easily recognizable as a dead animal is kind of extra weird and foreign to her, anyway. She slumps back in her chair, defeated. This is stupid. She's going to look for something else to eat. Something she can just shove in her face without any fuss.

Her attention falls on a bowl of roasted potatoes next. It's interesting, because she's grown potatoes in her garden before but she's never actually eaten one. So sure, this seems like a safe bet! She spoons some out onto her plate and then stabs one with a fork, holding it right up to her face to peer at it curiously.

contemplate those vegetables

[kingsroads]

Strange chews and swallows as he watches Peridot go for the potatoes (okay, that makes sense), scoop some out on her place (oh wonderful she hasn't scooped out the entire thing), and then stab one potato with a fork—and then here's where Strange's relief veers right back into worry. Nope, that is way too big a bite, time to use a knife.

As he takes a sip of water and holds the glass with one hand, Strange just rests his other hand near his knife, as he tries to discreetly point at it. You have a knife, Peridot! Use it!

[periphrasing]

Peridot pauses, spots that, and looks kind of indignant. She wasn't going to take a bite out of it like that, she was just looking at it up close! Is scientific observation forbidden at the dinner table or something!?

Oh. Wait. It probably is.

She huffs and puts the potato back down on her plate, picks up a knife and slices off a piece. Then she stabs it with a fork and holds it up to her mouth... and sticks her purpleish-blue tongue out and gives it a good, solid experimental lick first.

[kingsroads]

This is the reason why Strange is going to spend evening drinks every night downing at least half a bottle of wine. This, right here. Being able to look at Peridot, look her directly in the eye, try to tell her that she can use a knife and then be immediately rewarded by Peridot realizing she can use a knife but then doing something else even worse.

Granted, it's not Peridot specifically that's going to drive Strange to drink. But right now, this moment, is emblematic of all the ridiculousness and all the sheer annoyance that Strange occasionally feels about this place. How can so many people not know the basics of fucking table manners.

He cuts another piece of his meat off and then eats it, taking care not to show his tongue in the process while continuing to stare at Peridot as if this will somehow imprint on her mind not to lick things in the first place.

[periphrasing]

This time, she doesn't pick up what he's putting down. She only has eyes for this potato slice, which she is going to stuff in her mouth now with gusto.

It's after that that she catches Strange's eye again, and makes an exasperated gesture. What the heck did she do wrong that time!?

[kingsroads]

How on earth is he going to try and convey to Peridot not to lick things. Strange pauses for a moment, mulling things over...before he lightly taps at his mouth with his index finger.

This is an absolutely shitty signal. But what else is he going to do, stick his tongue out at the table?! That's rudest of all!

[periphrasing]

Yeah that means absolutely nothing to her. She just stares blankly at him, looking vaguely annoyed, with a mouth still full of potato.

[kingsroads]

Well, he tried. There's a few moments where Strange looks over at the Ringmaster and the Prince, idly watching their conversation. When the Prince turns away to look at the Ringmaster, Strange turns to look back at Peridot, sticks out his tongue for a second or two, then puts his tongue back in his mouth as he shakes his head.

Hopefully she's watching him. Otherwise he just made a damn fool of himself.

[periphrasing]

She is watching him, with narrowed eyes. Maybe watching a little too closely, actually. One of the earliest Earth customs she picked up from Steven, back when they were still MORTAL ENEMIES, was the concept of sticking ones tongue out as an insult. Which might explain why Peridot just swallows the mouthful of potato so she can give Strange an affronted look. Is he sassing her?

[kingsroads]

Strange responds to Peridot's affronted look with a confused one of his own. Why is she looking at him like that? She's looking at him like he insulted her which, at least in Strange's mind, he obviously didn't. How exactly is he supposed to respond to this?

So he just...kind of stares at her in confusion.

They really need to have a talk after this because this attempt at a conversation is going absolutely nowhere.