lostcarnival | ⇨ HEARTSTONE MANOR

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Joker has had a few manners to take care of while playing croquet, from chatting with a sad giant woman to making sure one of his performers didn't accidentally give someone a concussion. It's only the first day, one which they have not finished even remotely, and he already thinks he'd be fine with just hiding in a tree forever.

Or maybe that's the constant quiet thrum in his head, one he's doing his best to ignore for now but is still affecting him regardless.

Either way, he seems a bit preoccupied as he lingers near the back of things, trying to keep an eye on everyone to make sure no one goes running off. Really, a perfect moment for Strange to approach him, and Joker blinks a few times to come to his senses as he looks to the magician. "Well, by all means," he says, raising an eyebrow curiously.

There's not that many people around Joker, lingering near the back. Strange has a glass of water in his hand, something he bothered one of the servants for, and the thing he's using as his excuse as to why he's not playing croquet at this very moment. You can't play if you're drinking water, right? Maybe?

"Last night, I used my magic to spy on the Ringmaster," he starts, in a quiet tone of voice. And before Joker can pipe in with a 'goddammit Strange' or a 'in what universe did you think that was a good idea,' Strange continues talking, ignoring any comments Joker might have. "Already the negotiations are going terribly. I don't know if this means we'll be leaving here sooner or staying here longer, but I doubt the Ringmaster will get what she wants easily."

Fortunately, Strange doesn't have to steam on through any objections. All Joker has to offer is a slight click of his tongue, but he lets the magician keep on going. Obviously he didn't get caught, or things would probably be a lot worse.

Which doesn't exactly make the news any less worrying. Joker lets a slow breath hiss out between his teeth. "Ah, bugger," he mutters. "Still, if things haven't come ta blows and she hasn't made an announcement, it can't be the worst case scenario yet. What'd ya pick up on exactly?"

"Not much," he'll admit, with a frown. "Her and the Prince were having a conversation about something. The conversation grew tense, the Ringmaster grew annoyed, and eventually she turned into a dragon and left."

Left to probably sulk about it, but Strange is leaving that added bit of commentary to himself. He's relaying the information in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, looking over at Joker as he does so. Strange doesn't look all that pleased himself, he's got a feeling the stage manager is just as annoyed and just as worried.

It's fine if he doesn't outright say the sulking part. Joker knows their ringmaster; he can make a reasonable guess that way himself. Instead, he focuses on other things, foot lightly tapping against the ground as he thinks.

"Ain't much we can do," he finally mutters, heaving out a sigh. "She doesn't want our help for this, and, knowing our lot, we'd probably just bugger it all up anyway. We're just meant ta be pretty background decorations." Well. Some of them more pretty than others, but that's not the point. This was obviously a power move from the beginning, and they were never a factor more than bargaining chips.

"Are ya gonna keep watchin' her and him?"

Surprising no one, Strange doesn't look like he's taking well to the idea of sitting and waiting. He lets out a little huff of a sigh, obviously annoyed by Joker's reasoning. Because he's right. There's not much they can do, which is driving Strange up the wall.

At his question about watching the two, Strange looks over at Joker like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "Of course I will," he simply responds, paying no attention to the fact that it's creepy stalking. "I doubt she'll tell us how the negotiations are going and I refuse to simply stand around and wait."

Who has two thumbs and a whole host of trust issues with regards to not knowing things, this guy.

Edited 2017-10-11 00:10 (UTC)

Honestly, that paranoia is something Joker can't even blame him on. If he could do the same, Joker thinks he very well would. As it is, well... Until they're out of this mess and he can talk to the Ringmaster about that, he has to rely on everyone else.

Doesn't mean he's happy about it, and it shows as he reaches over to press his hand onto Strange's shoulder. "Just don't get caught, alright?" he asks, serious for once in a way he's been doing his best not to show most of the carnival, especially for this. They're all worried but, as someone in charge, he can't be allowed to show it. "Wouldn't want ya ta get hurt or whatever nonsense is punishment here."

Oh. As Joker puts a hand on his shoulder and his voice turns serious, Strange realizes just how serious the man is. He knew that Joker was paying more attention to their situation than he let on—he was a supervisor, after all, the man couldn't have been as flighty and light-hearted as he tried to appear. But until this moment, Strange had no idea just how serious the man was.

"I won't," Strange responds, with utter conviction. "I can scry on the two without leaving my room and I'll change up the magic every once in a while so they don't notice me. And trust me: the last thing I want to do is get hurt or get caught." He's already had a few terrible experiences with the fae. Let's not add to that.

"Good." He eases up, and lets his hand fall from its place with one last pat. Strange is a bit of a loon, and set Childermass on fire once, but Joker is aware that the man knows what he's doing when it comes to magic. He just desperately hopes that he knows what he's doing around two highly powerful fae.

"If anythin' else suspicious shows up, let me know. I know I'm only the stage manager, but I'm tryin' ta make sure no one buggers up either."

"I shall," Strange responds, with a nod. "Likewise, if I see anyone who appears to be overwhelmed, I'll direct you to them."

And here Strange can't help but smile, an ironic little smile like the kind he usually gives. However, he can't hide the fact that it looks forced as hell.

"After all, I've a feeling people would be more willing to listen to the stage manager than the mad magician!"

In return, Joker's smile is a little more dry than usual. He's better at faking his own, perhaps even moreso when things are under pressure, but still. The feeling that smile has is one he knows well.

"It's because I'm so handsome," he says, nodding to Strange as he starts to take his leave. After all, it looks like most has been cleaned up now, and he can't linger for too long. "A pretty face gets ya everywhere."

"Are you saying I'm not attractive?" Strange teases back. His expression is pure teasing: despite what Strange said, he won't be hurt if Joker points out the obvious that yes, he's kind of funny looking, often forgets to brush his hair, and is more of a gangly string bean than anything resembling conventional attractiveness. Likewise, he doesn't take any effort to stop Joker, instead letting the man make his leave.

"Brush yer hair!" is the only thing he says over his shoulder, laughing even as he disappears into the manor with the rest of the group. They have a long day of more trivial nonsense to get through, after all.

⇨ HEARTSTONE MANOR

i was going to have them bicker like losers at croquet but this works too

being snippy about croquet can happen after the plot.

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