⇨ 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

Blue - OTA

[diamondsare]

[Copying other people; threads will be made for other days.]

Day 170, 171 - In Which Blue is Primarily Sad

[diamondsare]

Day 170 Settling In

Blue Diamond arrives with very little by way of luggage, but being able to modify her own appearance at will means as soon as she has a solid idea of the sort of outfits the Prince expects, she conforms. All will be proper and appropriate to the period save the inevitable blue cloak she wears, delicately embroidered along its edges in gold. It allows her to hide her face now and again, something she does frequently. The servants seem only to be paid attention to when they are absolutely required and otherwise utterly invisible. She's figured out they're all Pearls, and Blue knows how to treat a Pearl. Leave them alone to do their jobs. None are troubled with frivolous questions.

It's easiest to find her after the brief tour of the manor and room assignments handed out; she has no idea who the person is she'll be forced to stay with but if she spots someone she does recognize as from the Carnival she'll reach to stop them carefully.

"Do you know who .. 'Yuzu' is?"

Day 171 Croquet

Blue's definitely attending the events outlined, and the mealtimes required, but she is a pale azure and usually silent ghost through all of it. She'd strike an almost beautiful figure, carefully dressed in the exquisite gowns required by this place and shrouded in a favored wispy cloak, if it wasn't for the cloud of distant grief that she seemed to wrap herself in as much as the cloak. She'd been quietly sad all through the musical performances, a piece or two drawing suspicious tears before she regains her composure, and then it's back to her cloud of subtle woe.

It lingers.

Even during croquet, the Diamond sorrowfully shepherding her ball through its hoops and towards the ordained stakes as if it were at a funeral. She maintains her composure relatively well but ... there's really no mistaking it. There should be a great striped cat at her side, and there isn't. Her mind's there instead of the game and BOY is it taking her a long time with her turns because of it..

Wildcard

[got something else in mind for these two days? hit me up.]

croquet

[pipers_son]

Well. As far as Joker has been able to tell, Blue has never really been the most rambunctious individual. Sure, she's been pleasant enough in the brief zoo visit he indulged her in during Greysol, but she wasn't excitable like he can tell Tamaki or Strange are.

Yet he'd thought she wasn't quite like this, a wraith of an individual haunting the croquet course. Joker indulges her politely for a while, as a gentleman should, as he tries to figure out what might be wrong. When it's clear that she's going to wallow in her own little world, he finally decides to do something.

Joker's never really played croquet before. There wasn't really any chance or reason to, his class what it is. Yet that hasn't stopped him from hearing about it, both from managing the Baron's things and simply chatting with the right people. (Or eavesdropping, a time honored favorite.) So when he gets a chance to knock his own ball into hers, sending it right into the hedges, well...

Of course he's going to do it.

"Ah, my bad," he says lightly. "Didn't mean ta send it goin' that far. Shall we fetch it together, my good lady?"

[diamondsare]

Blue has successfully wrapped herself in her own misery for thousands of years. This brief respite was apparently just that, a brief respite! Whether Joker's up to the challenge of being able to shake her out of her haze of grief is a good question ... but it's also something humans haven't tried before.

Nor are there usually games involved. She's been keeping tabs on where her ball is (it is of course, blue. How could it be anything but blue??), and so far although she knew it was a thing, nobody's really interfered much with her playing, so when her ball ricochets right into the foliage, she watches it go with an expression most people reserve for kicked puppies.

She had been aware that Joker was here of course, it just hadn't really seemed to sink in until he actually speaks up, whereupon his light tone and what seems like amusement draws her attention from the lost croquet ball to him instead.

"... You did that on purpose." The accusation is very quiet, and has not a trace of anger or hostility in it. "How cruel." And yet there's really no sense that she actually thinks it's cruel, either. He hadn't been mean before, and it's just a game now, that matters. "... I am.. unsure what the rules are about the ball in the ornamentation.."

Hedge. It's a hedge, Blue.

[pipers_son]

"Aw, now, Miss, yer breakin' my heart with such accusations." Of course, he's still grinning and... Is that a wink? Of course it's a wink. Once upon a time in a different court with different royalty, he'd almost gotten beheaded for being so cheeky. One would think he had learned his lesson, but quite clearly he hasn't. "I'm just playin'."

And trying to be a little clever, but that's for a bit later. Still smiling, he sets his mallet to the side and offers his hand up to her. Things aren't going to be as easy in Greysol as they had been, where she'd been roughly human sized (if still very tall). Still, he offers it anyway. It's the gentlemanly thing to do, to escort a lady.... although technically it should be one he's engaged or married to but details.

"The rules about the ball is that we go get it together. Shall we?"

[diamondsare]

Thankfully this is not Blue's court and she feels no pressing need to maintain the proper decorum suited to a Diamond. She rather liked the atmosphere of the Carnival in some ways - and this one most of all. Respect was good, she thrived on it ... but it was nice to also be treated normally, as another Diamond might. Joker was no Diamond, but that was alright. "It is fair by the rules," she acquiesces easily enough. It was a game.

He still did it on purpose!

"I believe you get another turn as well, does that come before finding a ball?" The one lost in the bushes, which would wreck havoc on her dress had she been wearing one actually made of fabric and not weird gem-stuff. By the way some of her sorrow fades to the faintest twitch of a smile, she's very aware of the change in size differences, but the offered hand is taken gently anyway.

[pipers_son]

Glancing back to where his own ball is, Joker shrugs languidly. "It's not goin' anywhere, I think," he says, still smiling a little even as he escorts her. Well. As enough escorting as the size difference allows. None of the etiquette he's ever heard of has quite accounted for this.

He stays mostly quietly until they're around the hedges, a decent distance from the rest of the game. Quickly, he takes a glance around. She's too tall for this to really be subtle but... Oh well. It's the best that can be done. At least this will make people work, if they want to overhear a bit of chatter. Stepping away and at least making a go of looking for the wayward ball, he glances up at her from the corner of his eye.

"...Yer lookin' a bit more sad than usual, if I may say so."

[diamondsare]

And yet in spite of the height difference somehow it's easily done; Blue is used to everything being FAR smaller than her by way of other beings, and knows how to be mindful of not accidentally causing harm or even being ungraceful.

Experience is at least good for something.

Although it is just a touch uncouth, the mallet is used to cautiously poke a bit at interfering foliage. Hedges, she wasn't much fond of. Or plants. But they really were everywhere!

"..I suppose I have been." Five millennia of grief and she'd managed to put it away for a little while! How everything conspired to remind her of loss, though. "I do not mean to trouble others with it. Vajraneel's absence and ... the reminder of other absences have weighed on me of late." She missed her tiger so. No one else had fit so perfectly into her life, not even Yellow! Likely, as she could spot no flitting little bird, Joker might know precisely how that feels. "All will be seen to in time but ... in the meantime, it is hard to put it aside. I don't see your little companion here either."

[pipers_son]

No one knows better than Joker that it takes a while to confess to things, especially grief. Hell- there's a lot he hasn't confessed and he knows he won't for a good long while. So he waits patiently for her to figure out her words while they poke about in the trademark hedges of people who have the money to afford it. At least, that's how it was in his time.

The words that finally come have him frown a little bit in sympathy. Ah... "Well, she is and isn't, if I'm understandin' the whole thing properly." It's magic, and business about souls, and that isn't his strong suit. At least, it hasn't been just yet. He'd changed that a little when they'd had that issue in the Matrix, but that might not be enough. "Still... It ain't the same at all, I know."

Fortunately, this is something that has... Perhaps not an 'easy' solution, but one he knows. "Have ya ever considered takin' up magic?"

Day 170

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

"'Yuzu'?"

Oh, hey, it's that girl you're looking for, Diamond. Like the other, she doesn't have too much in terms of luggage, really, but it's probably for the best. She doesn't mind the touch, though she is curious and confused.

"I'm her. Is there something the matter?"

[diamondsare]

Pink.

"Ah. No."

This was the person she was to be staying with for the duration? Yuzu is studied for a long thoughtful moment, but nothing strikes Blue as being a likely immediate problem. "I merely.. wished to know whom it was I am to be sharing a place with while we are here, before I wandered about."

And it seems to be this small pink human! She did not know humans came in pink, and frankly approved of it.

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

"Oh!"

Yuzu smiled at that, nodding at Diamond. She didn't looked to be too bad of a person. She was very blue, but honestly, that didn't bother her much. She extended a hand out, intending on shaking her hand.

"I understand. I'm Yuzu Hiiragi, but you can just call me Yuzu. You are... Blue Diamond, correct?"

She seemed a little hesitant. She's sure that's the name she was given...

[diamondsare]

The hand is studied. She's seen this done before! The right thing to do was .. take the offered hand, and be careful to not squish it in the process. Blue does her best; she's not exactly warm to the touch, a middling and odd coolness that isn't entirely unpleasant.

"I am. Please call me 'Blue'. It is simpler." And very, very easy to remember. Enormously tall blue woman named Blue! Who wears blue! "I have never been in the presence of humans after nightfall, if there are rituals you require, please inform me and I will do my best to accommodate."

Aliens, man.

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

Wow, she is cool to the touch. Such an odd feeling. But at least she seems nice!

"Heh, just one - I require rest and it's hard to do so when there's too much noise, so if need to need to be up and about, please be as quiet as possible?"

She grinned sheepishly at that. She hoped that would be easy to understand.

[diamondsare]

That's it? Just quiet?

"That will be no difficulty." Oh good, something she can actually do. She glances up and then down the hallway, as if expecting someone to suddenly pop up, like those ubiquitous servants with all the rules. "As I understand it our host dislikes noise after curfew." And a lot of other things goes unsaid but somehow it's distinctly implied.

And she requires exactly what they already had to do! How convenient! Blue would simply have to .. find a book or two perhaps to tide the time away. "... if there are other ways I may be helpful, do not hesitate to ask." She might not agree, but it's worth communication as long as this lasts, surely.

CROQUET...

[otoko]

Gongenzaka at least briefly is oblivious to the woe-he is, perhaps, more focused on maintaining something that the manor considers...decorum, however. It is quite difficult, especially when he is delicately holding this tiny mallet, attempting to properly hit his ball, get it through hoops and-

"AUH....." S h oo t

"M-My apologies..!" Gongenzaka announces rather suddenly, as his ball clacks against Blue's own. "That was not intentional..!!"

....though it does put him at an advantage now, oops.

[diamondsare]

For most of them it's just a matter of herding a ball about through the wickets and not trying to tangle a dress or fancy pants in the process.

Poor Gon has so much more going on than the rest of them. This game is most certainly not designed or suited to quadrupeds! As a ball bounces off her own in a suspiciously jaunty manner (or at least she thought so, it looked so smug there by her own), Blue regards this invader ball for a long moment, then up to the person who had done it.

He certainly did seem as if it were truly an accident. Back down to the ball. "I admit I am surprised that you are capable of managing such a comparatively delicate instrument," she murmurs. "It is quite remarkable."

There's no sense she's even remotely joking, it might be genuine admiration. "I believe you get a second turn now."

[otoko]

Quite a lot more, and yet somehow he's doing better than a number of his fellows. Gongenzaka at least, looked far from smug when his ears shot up in alarm-though he seems to relax when Blue Diamond instead compliments him, and he sighs. "Auuh...I, the man Gongenzaka, must admit that it has been fairly difficult... Though holding it is easy enough, managing to hit properly without the rest of myself coming in the way has been...another matter."

Well, that aside. "Do I indeed?" WELL. A second turn it is then! With a nod, he trots toward his ball. "Aauh, in that case..." Carefully...avoiding the arches...and....he taps. "...There we go..."

[diamondsare]

Blue wasn't doing too badly by where she estimated points to be. The servants had explained the rules quite thoroughly when she'd made it clear that was all she was interested in, but having her ball knocked awry did mean free turns..

"It is unfortunate a tool could not be crafted to suit your size," she murmurs, certain he'll be able to hear her anyway. Raising her voice in such genteel circumstances seemed ... wrong. Like yelling at court. "But I suppose in turn that could technically give an advantage.."

Though how it was, as Gon works to precariously tap his ball further along the path they had to go, was certainly also a disadvantage. Blue's content to wait while other balls are tapped about before working on shepherding her own back in the proper direction, but she's not aiming for those so-useful hits of other balls. The game might end too soon. "Do you enjoy it? It is certainly not an aggressive game."

[betheman]

Admittedly, Gongnzaka had tried to keep track of how things worked, but in the end by the time they reached scoring, had somewhat given up. As long as he could follow the rules, it would be fine. Every now and then after he's taken his turn, he has to sigh with relief, watching the ball sail through its determined course.

"Auuh....in a few ways, it is certainly enjoyable.... ....the greatest disadvantage is, naturally, the size of myself in relation to the course..." She was right to think he would hear him, at least-these ears pick up considerable amounts of things.

[diamondsare]

"I wonder, if I were to ask for a course more suited to my own size, if it would be better for you as well?" Politeness and reasonable requests seemed to go far with the servants, so long as those requests were also in the same lines of the things they were supposed to be doing anyway.

So; still playing! But perhaps playing on a scale that suits eight and nine foot tall beings instead of five and a half foot tall beings. "Though by the time it is set up, the evening may be upon us."

Croak Kay - 171

[mylastchance]

Lauren doesn't care much about the game at hand. Sure it's something to do, but it's simple, and honestly a bit boring in his opinion. Mostly he's been making sure Susan doesn't use the mallet in ways he's not supposed to, but it's hard to ignore the cloud of gloom that surrounds Blue Diamond. He doesn't even really know her, aside from knowing she's part of the carnival, but it bothers him to see someone looking so gloomy. So despite his natural aversion to conversation he approaches, still feeling apprehensive, but overall wanting to help.

"...Are you okay?" he asks, after a moment's debate over what to say to the tall woman.

[diamondsare]

Boring games have their place, but the downside is they really left one with the time to think and sometimes thinking wasn't exactly good. The game was a little more interesting with some other people (someone got hit by a ball not long ago, though she'd missed that), but frankly.. Lauren's right. It's boring.

Being spoken to drags Blue out of her reverie only gradually, to study him with a suspiciously teary looking gaze for a few moments. She didn't recognize him immediately, but that didn't mean much. "I am as well as to be expected," she concludes eventually, her tone apologetic. "I merely ... miss my friend, from our previous visit.."

Greysol; some people had kept their daemons, she hadn't quite worked up to it yet.

"I apologize if I have disturbed you."

[mylastchance]

He shakes his head, honestly not even understanding what she's apologizing for. He was the one who had approached her. If anyone was being rude here it was him, interrupting Blue during her reverie. Still, she had a consistently gloomy look on her face for so long, he couldn't help feeling just a bit concerned. He is glad to know it isn't the croquet or anything in the manor that's bringing her down though. Unless, it is because she can't have her daemon here? Some people got to keep them, he thought at least. Was it that she couldn't keep it or that she couldn't have it currently. He isn't sure, and it doesn't even matter, but he wants to know.

"The Ringmaster didn't let you keep it?"

[diamondsare]

"I am not quite prepared for faerie magic, it seems." A little more experience and that could change, a little longer, maybe after this world's visit was through..

Though frankly little stood out to her as being particularly strange here beyond the games. Herding a ball around and through hoops seemed awfully pointless. "In time, that will change and I may make my request." Her smile is brief and a little forlorn; of course being able to get it LATER doesn't help right now. "I merely have to wait. As I must with so much else, though I admit I get a little impatient sometimes."