⇨ 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

[periphrasing]

Well it works, thankfully. Peridot freezes and looks over at him, casts a quick glance at the Prince and the Ringmaster to make sure they are otherwise engaged in a separate conversation, and then leans in with a serious expression to find out what he wants.

"MMmmmphgh?" she grunts anxiously through a mouthful of food, ears laying flat against her head in her concern.

[pipers_son]

The whole thing would be kind of funny and endearing if their lives weren't on the line. As it is, Joker takes care to discretely bow his head down a bit as he takes his next bite, both to make it easier for Peridot to hear him and to hide his own attempts at quiet conversation.

"Chew, swallow-" Because, as a man who worked with Amethyst, he knows exactly how gross Gems can be. "And then slow down, alright? Yer drawin' attention ta yerself."

Something that, quite honestly, he's pretty sure no one wants here.

[periphrasing]

It probably doesn't help that Amethyst is one of her biggest inspirations when it comes to doing human stuff like this.

But yeah. Peridot, for once in her life, absolutely does not want the spotlight on her here. At least, not for this. There's a low, upset grunt. The engineer's ears droop and she stares shamefully at the table. She looks pretty embarrassed! Best to do as her colleague suggests, though. So she tries... Aaaannd runs into another obstacle.

Her mouth is too full to chew properly.

The gem clenches her jaw a few times. Makes some agonizingly slow attempts at mastication (and inadvertently making some gross wet noises with her mouth in the process). Then she looks back to Joker in abject panic.

[pipers_son]

Even not here, Amethyst continues to be a gross inspiration. Amazing.

Still, at least Peridot seems to understand now, and Joker gives her a slight and encouraging smile before looking back to where the Prince and Ringmaster are chatting at each other. As long as the Fae continue to be Fae (aka utterly involved in themselves and each other), then hopefully they won't notice any bits of awkwardness.

...Except then Peridot is making quiet noises, because of course things can't be that easy. Joker promptly looks back at her, meeting that panicked gaze, and bites his tongue as not to sigh. Oh boy. Still, he thinks he has a good idea here.

Making sure she's watching closely, he goes to take a large bite of some bread himself- it's the easiest thing to do with one hand that won't draw attention, which is the goal here. Then, bread down, he picks up a napkin as if to pat and wipe at his mouth. The trick is how he makes sure to angle his hand, showing her how he drops a little bit of his food into his napkin so that he can chew the rest. With that done, it's easy to slide what he'd spat out back in... hopefully no one else the wiser.

Or at least the Prince. Which is their goal here.

[periphrasing]

For some inexplicable reason? Peridot finds this objectionable. Disgusting, even. She watches Joker's demonstration with increasing dismay, sinking lower in her seat. Still... She doesn't see any other way out of it.

So she mimics the action, spitting out half the food and swallowing the rest, and then goes back for the remainder.

That's when she discovers she has texture issues with food. And it's bad. She nearly starts gagging, but she gets it down, and then slumps a little as though exhausted from the effort of putting herself through that.

"Thanks," she hisses at Joker, reluctant but also genuine.

[pipers_son]

Oh, Peridot.... You poor soul. Joker is completely sympathetic, because it's gross even to him as a human, but this is the lot they've been given in life. All he can do is keep watch for her and make sure this disgusting little display goes unnoticed.

When she's done, he smiles a little to her. "Gotta stick together," he mutters, nodding to her, before he goes back to playing house with a fae prince. Still, the whole time throughout the meal, he makes sure that she doesn't go choking again.

Hopefully, she can manage that, right?

[periphrasing]

She does, at least, manage that much. There's a few close calls, but everything goes off relatively smoothly until the meal is finally over.

While the group is migrating together to the next activity, Peridot falls into step next to Joker and whispers quietly to him. "That was awful," she complains. " I don't think I can keep doing this! Five times a day for the entire time we're here? There's no way!"

[pipers_son]

A Peridot that can still complain about mundane nonsense is a Peridot that's alright, and Joker smiles a little. Reaching down, he pats her shoulder sympathetically. This poor Gem.

"Well, try ta stomach it, alright?" He shrugs. "We can't do much besides that. Although-" And he raises an eyebrow. "It probably would've helped if ya didn't almost choke. Seemed like ya were likin' it up until then."