⇨ 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

Day 171

[puddingemote]

A: Mealtimes (Anytime)

There is one thing Tamaki likes about this Victorian castle set-up, and that's eating five times a day. This is something he could really get used to.

Unfortunately, it does require knowledge of the fancy cutlery, and while Tamaki attended the dinner the night before back at the Carnival, he's clearly struggling to remember what he's supposed to use when. Memorizing things like this is hardly his strong suit.

After awhile, he'll lean toward the person next to him, keeping his voice low as he drawls, "Um... which fork are we supposed to use now?"

Alternately, one might catch him attempting to sneak bits of food off the table and tuck it into his sleeves or the folds of his shirt. Someone should probably stop him before he gets in trouble.

B: Croquet

Tamaki has never played this game before, and he's barely seen it played on television. It wasn't exactly the popular thing to be playing when he was back home in school; basketball is more his style.

But there is no basketball here, so he has to make due. Still, the rules haven't really been explained; he was just handed a croquet stick and a ball and told to enjoy himself. Looking at everyone trying to hit the ball through the metal rings, he thinks it must be a bit like golf. So he decides to do his best impression of a golf swing, and, THWACK!

It's not very high off the ground, but it's definitely flying. Tamaki's eyes go wide and tries to cry out in time.

"Look out!"

C: Charades

This is perhaps a safer game for Tamaki to play; no chance of him smacking a ball into someone's shins here. In fact, he's had some practice with trying to get his thoughts across through gestures, curtesy of a mushi that took his voice sometime ago.

So he goes about finding a partner with enthusiasm! Turning to someone who doesn't seem to have partnered up yet, he grins encouragingly.

"Wanna partner? I'm good at this. Promise."

B

[pipers_son]

The good news is that Joker is tall, with good reach, and also maybe can fly a little. A lot. The flying may be the most relevant news here. So all it takes is a slight hop, a stronger flap, and he's snatching the ball skillfully before it can go and give someone a concussion.

Which really wouldn't be a good look for any of them, honestly.

"Tamaki," he says lightly, with a faint hint of scolding in his tone even as he smiles a little, "I think yer a bit confused on how ta play the game."

[puddingemote]

Tamaki watches as the ball sails away, only to be pulled right out of the air by Joker, in a pretty impressive display. But before he can say anything about it, Joker is scolding him, and Tamaki visibly deflates a bit.

"Ah... sorry, Manager." He at least looks appropriately bashful about it. "Was I not supposed to hit it hard?"

A game where one has to show restraint is maybe not the game for Tamaki.

[pipers_son]

"S'more about accuracy than power," he says, letting the ball roll out from his hand. Let's try that again.

"Have ya ever played billiards, Tamaki?" If Joker had to guess, he would say no, but you never know with kids these days. Or literally anyone in the carnival.

[puddingemote]

"Uh... billiards...?"

He's pretty sure he knows what game that is; some of the older guys like to play it, especially when they get together with the guys from Re:vale and TRIGGER.

"Is that where you knock the balls around on the table?"

[pipers_son]

"There ya go, that's the one!" Joker taps his fingers together. "It's a little like that, but with a mallet and a whole field instead of just a table."

He nods over to where the small hoops have been set up in various spots all over. "Ya have ta get yer ball through those... and occasionally knock other people's balls away ta try and mess 'em up."

[puddingemote]

"Sabotage?" Sounds fun in this context. He nods his head in understanding.

"Okay. I get it." He looks around the field, as though sizing it up. "How do we win?"

gdi i actually had to read croquet rules for this

[pipers_son]

"Well-" Joker grins a little bit. "Technically, it's any and everybody for themselves. But it's just a bit of fun~."

Says the guy who has occasionally fucked with other people's balls. Do as he says, not as he does.

"But basically, ya get a turn. If ya get yer ball through a hoop, or knock it inta someone else's ball, then yer turn can continue. Ya want ta get all of yer balls through all the hoops, and then hit that center peg over there."

A

[wild_magic]

Susan's not quite familiar with Victorian table settings and table manners, but it's similar enough to what he knows from the few fancy events he's been to that he's actually getting along pretty well. It helps that when he doesn't know, he can easily take a look at the people who are closer to the right time period knowledge-wise to confirm his guesses, too.

Which means that when Tamaki leans over to ask about forks, he's luckily asking one of the few people in the group who really knows what he's doing. Susan smiles before glancing around to make sure no one's looking, pointing at the proper fork once he's made sure.

"It's that one... You start with the outside fork, every time." A whisper from Susan is really more of a stage whisper, but at least he's also trying to be quiet.

[puddingemote]

"Ah, thanks!"

Tamaki's response is maybe a bit too loud, but he quickly grabs the correct fork. It's so much easier when everyone has just one pair of chopsticks that they can use, but if he just has to go from the outside to the inside, that's not so bad.

(He'll probably forget by tomorrow though.)

With fork in hand, he can finally eat... whatever this is. It looks like some kind of salad, but the vegetables in it aren't resembling anything Tamaki is familiar with, except the lettuce.

"Fae food's kinda weird, huh?" he says, taking an experimental bite. It's not bad, actually.

[wild_magic]

"It really is... I think it's good though." Just not things he's familiar with at all. Of course he's not very familiar with a lot of food that other people eat since it's not things they have in his world, so he's gotten used to unfamiliar food.

"I hope we have something good for dessert though." They may only be on some kind of salad course but he's already looking forward to the end.

[puddingemote]

Tamaki nods in agreement, but when Susan mentions dessert, his eyes light up again.

"Ah, yeah... like some cake, or maybe ice cream? Or pudding! They ate pudding back in the old days, right? Figgy pudding?"

Talking about desserts gets him much more animated than usual.

[wild_magic]

"Yeah, there's gotta be pudding, we had pudding back home!" Maybe not exactly like the pudding that Tamaki's thinking about, but still. Pudding is definitely one of the foods he actually knows.

"Or maybe... Do milkshakes count as dessert?" He had one once, in Portland, and it was really good - and something he hasn't been able to have since. Maybe they'll have those here too!

[puddingemote]

Pudding is so good. He'd be more than happy to talk about pudding for the rest of the night, but then Susan brings up milkshakes; going by his nod, it's also a good choice.

"Ooh, yeah. Milkshakes are great! I think they have to count as dessert. 'Cause of the ice cream.

"Maybe they'll have pie, too. Chocolate pie." All other pies are just an attempt to try and make him eat fruit.

C

[dorkypantsuit]

The Psionic smiles wide, glad to see some people are actually enjoying themselves so far. There is a lot to be concerned about at the manor, but at least right now they could forget that for a few minutes and play a dumb game.

"Sure. Should I guess for you?"

[puddingemote]

Charades, at least, is a pretty fun game to fill time with. Tamaki isn't (completely) stupid; he knows something has been going on, and that's why Strange has to spend all night scrying on people. But he's doing his best to just play by the rules for now, not only for his own sake, but to make things easier on the rest of the Carnival.

So he grins back and nods his head. "Yeah."

When their turn comes around, Tamaki grabs a slip of paper off the table that has something written on it. After thinking for a moment, he turns back to Psi and makes tries to mime out the answer: shuffling his feet across the rug while holding his arms out.

[dorkypantsuit]

Psi looks at him curiously. His hand is on his chin, the picture of a man in thought, still, he's smiling. There's no way he can pretend this isn't funny to watch.

"Dancing?" he offers, not sure but think it might be something along those lines. "Tap dancing? You stepping in something gross?"

[puddingemote]

He frowns at Psi, shaking his head. Really, Psi, he's a professional dancer, he could mime that better than this!

Still, it's close enough that he keeps doing the same thing. Then he does a little hop and a twist, not quite all the way around in the air, before landing on one foot, the other extended behind him.

It's really amazing he didn't knock anything off the furniture (or clock anyone in the face) doing that.

[dorkypantsuit]

"Oh! Ballet! A balerina! Swan Lake!"

Does he even know what Swan Lake is? Probably not, but he thinks he might be onto something here, so he is just going to start shouting out anything that might possibly be related.

C

[steadydollypegs]

"Y'took th'words right outta my mouth," Doll says with a grin. They're going to dominate this contest, they have so much practice between the mushi incident and Tamaki being a ghost.

[puddingemote]

"Yeah, Doe-chan!" Tamaki cheers in response, holding out a hand for her to high-five him. They are going to be the best at this that there ever was, he's pretty sure. They've trained for this; this is their moment.

(And, well, having a reason to hang out with Doll is always a good thing.)

[steadydollypegs]

(Having a reason to hang out with Tamaki is great in Doll's book, too.)

Doll's seen this motion before! It takes her a moment, but then she smacks his hand gently in what she still thinks is a very odd kind of gesture. But it does get her pumped and ready to wipe the floor with their opposition.

There's a big bowl of little strips of paper, and Doll reaches in and draws one. Immediately, she giggles and grins. This is an easy one! She holds up three fingers-- three words-- and then one finger-- first word.

Then she starts miming rolling up her sleeves, then holding something with one hand while she makes circular motions with the other.

[puddingemote]

It occurs to Tamaki that maybe Doll doesn't entirely understand what a high-five is. Oh well, he'll just have to teach her later.

Three words, huh? Starting off with a big one, but from the way Doll giggles, he thinks it probably isn't that hard. He watches her movements carefully, focused on her pantomimes, before making his first guess.

"Painting?"

[steadydollypegs]

Doll shakes her head and changes the motion-- now both of her hands are curled like she's holding something, and she's moving them up and down in front of her body. Like a washboard.

[puddingemote]

Oh, now he thinks he's starting to get it.

"Clean? Wash?"

He wants for her to signal which, if either, is correct.