lostcarnival | ⇨ HEARTSTONE MANOR

Entry tags:

⇨ 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

For anyone who knows Susan, it probably isn't a surprise to see the boy already fidgeting within ten minutes of entering the library. Having to sit still and quiet while reading or thinking just isn't his thing. Speaking in his head to his familiar keeps him occupied for a few extra minutes, but after that he's back to fidgeting, looking around the room at everyone else instead of reading, or moving around as he tries to follow the rules.

It's just too hard though, and soon enough he's leaning in to anyone nearby, trying to see what they're up to instead.

"What are you reading?" At least he remembered the being quiet part, even though his whispering isn't the quietest around.

Lauren glances at Susan before looking back to his book. He's quiet for a moment, and expression of deep confusion covering his features.

"I don't... Know."

"Then why are you even reading it? You should just... Find something better to read." Which he gave up on like eight minutes ago, but still. Maybe there's actually some hope for his brother.

"I guess?" He just doesn't want to be the only person still looking for something to read. He didn't even know if it was okay to change books or not. Everything here seemed weird and confusing. He flips his book over, looking at the cover before looking over his shoulder towards the shelves.

"Is there something better?"

He shrugs a little as he peers at Lauren's book.

"You could try mine? It says it's about a battle or something." Which sounded more interesting than the other choices, but... No, it really was just boring.

He sighs, letting his book drop the table as his shoulders slump.

"I don't care about a battle that happened on some world I probably know nothing about."

Susan frowns down at the books before looking back at the shelves.

"I'll see if I can find something about... Animals or something."

And unless Lauren stops him he sets his book aside and goes to do just that.

He looks to Susan in confusion as he says that, but his brother has already gotten up and wandered off towards the shelves of books lining the room. Lauren debates wandering after him for a moment, before picking up both of their discarded books and making his way towards the half-elf as well.

Susan glances at his brother when he hears his approach, but he stays quiet as he peruses the shelves, frowning as he tries to find something that actually looks like it's a topic he's interested in and that doesn't use a lot of long words in the title. It's kind of difficult to do.

Lauren puts their books back on the shelf before coming to see which ones Susan's looking at.

"Found anything?" he asks, voice a low whisper.

He shakes his head after a moment.

"They're all too hard," he whispers back, although from Susan it's more of a stage whisper.

He looks back to his brother, before shaking his head and taking a look at the books on the shelves.

"Well, none of them are about animals."

"It doesn't have to be animals... As long as it isn't boring!"

Which is apparently the hard part, when faced with a lot of stuffy old books about history or whatever.

He really isn't sure what qualifies as not boring to Susan, is the problem.

"This is a book on disease... This ones on plants."

"...Maybe the plants one." It still isn't super interesting, but... At least he knows about plants. He might be able to make himself read it long enough to pass some time.

He frowns, that was the one he wanted to read, but he passes it to Susan anyway.

They'll probably end up switching again at some point or something anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Right now what matters is Susan taking it from Lauren, looking over the title with a look of distaste before going back to sit and try and read this stupid thing.

Lauren grabs a few more things off the shelf, hoping one will at least be understandable, before moving to sit with his brother again.

"Is it any good?" he asks, voice quiet.

He's already trying, but already frowning at it, too.

"It's still too hard." He's trying, but... It seems none of the ones they're finding are really meant for kids to be reading.

He frowns, looking at their books again. He really doesn't feel like anything here will be appealing to Susan.

"I wish they had more books that were just stories."

"A story would be a lot more interesting." Because apparently all of these books are super boring, even if they're about things that could be interesting.

He scratches his chin, thinking things over for a moment.

"I could... Tell you a story?"

He thinks about it as he glances around the room. Everyone else is just reading (or attempting to, at least), but...

"Do you think it's allowed?"

He shrugs, looking around as well.

"I'm not sure."

Well... Maybe if they're quiet, and Lauren is technically reading or something...

"We just have to be really quiet."

the third day - reading and contemplation

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