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

"Hm. Not a bad idea. Maybe it'll actually put some meat on those arms." He's just being a shit -- he knows perfectly well Yuya is a growing boy and is therefore going to be stuck shooting up (okay, maybe not that far up) faster than his body can develop the muscles to match.

"I'm just surprised performance doesn't have something like it already. Always makes a fun show -- shooting apples off of heads, that kind of thing." Fun until someone gets sick with a stray arrow in the leg, anyway.

"Hey, I have muscles!" He pouts and flexes just to prove his point, which means nothing under all the fabric of his clothes, and he still is skinny even if he's toned from gymnastics.

He leans slightly against his bow before he remembers he needs to stand straight up. "I think most of us are acrobats and magicians... Yugo does daredevil stunts, I guess that's more like what he'd do?"

Except it probably doesn't have enough movement or flashiness for him.

Edited 2017-10-10 21:59 (UTC)

There are plenty of ways to make that flashy. Too bad it's also likely to be kind of deadly if they went that route. Ah, well.

"Yugo." Lambert blinks, slowly. The name triggers a vague recollection, but he doesn't think he's actually spoken to the kid. Although he does have one (thoroughly disoriented) memory he'd mostly forgotten about, which makes him smirk as he glances at Yuya.

"Well, he did stab you, so he seems like he doesn't mind weapons." For a ritual, sure, but... "Never did get around to asking him what he did with that Hand of God." Between one thing and another, it seemed sort of pointless, but man, that's just not the sort of thing you misplace, is it?

"That was... special circumstances." He'd really rather Yugo not wield weapons near him in literally any other instance.

But at Lambert's question he just shrugs. "I assume he gave it to the Ringmaster? He didn't want to keep it, and Miss Pru probably wants it back."

Yeah, but Lambert would like to see what that thing could do to the Prince. He'll keep that thought to himself, though.

"Probably." Though his memories of Pru are vague. Portland in general is a blur with bright spots of color, and he never really had a chance to have a conversation with the angels' leader the way other people did. "Seems like they could use all the help they can get."

"Yeah..." He scuffs the ground absently with his foot. He wonders how they're all doing in Portland with the Severing gone. Everyone probably went back to their realms for the first time in a while, but how are they doing since then? Is the Earth Spirit okay?

Yuya doesn't expect to get the answers to those questions, however. "I'm sure the Ringmaster will get it back to her. Or did."

Portland seems to be less of a sore point for Lambert, by now -- or perhaps it's because the topic they're discussing isn't so personal. Whatever the case may be, he doesn't show the terseness he did in the Summerlands when it last came up.

"They can take care of themselves," Lambert answers, noncommittally. The Ringmaster would have to have a good reason to do that. Fae rarely do anything for free. He could share those cynical thoughts, but he'll let it be.

Instead, he glances across them, frowning at the perpetually twilit sky. He doesn't like this place, though he'll readily admit that's more to do with their host and the situation than anything else.

"Maybe it's just me, but I liked the Summerlands better," he jokes, idly.

Edited 2017-10-13 01:14 (UTC)

Yuya chokes on a laugh at that. Maybe it's rude to say out loud that they prefer a completely different Fae to the Prince, but...

"The Summer Maiden was really nice. All of them were. I'd like to go back there sometime and give them a real performance." He really appreciated their hospitality, and that's the best way he can think of to repay it.

Lambert shrugs. He didn't really interact with the Summer Maiden himself, but he did catch the tail-end of the Ringmaster interacting with her, and those quiet days after Portland ... he hates to admit it, but they did need that.

"Maybe. I'm still wondering why the Ringmaster didn't just stay there. Would've made life a lot easier, wouldn't it?"

Yuya pauses for a moment, glancing down thoughtfully. The Summer Maiden was definitely powerful, and the Ringmaster would probably be completely safe with her. But the Summer Fae were trying to avoid mingling with moral races, and besides...

"A carnival that stays in one place isn't as good, right?" He shrugs with a smile. "We're always meeting new people and bringing them something to smile about. It's supposed to be about having fun."

It's just too bad it's not the Prince's idea of fun.

They're also a carnival that occasionally tricks people into working for it, which doesn't make them much better than kidnappers themselves...

"You ever think it's strange?" he asks, after a beat. "Every other fae we've met seems like they like staying put." Granted, they've only met a handful of fae, but...

Strange? Well, the Ringmaster probably is strange for a fae. Most of the ones they have met were Court fae--or ex-Court fae. But the Prince is a wyld fae as well, and he seems to hole himself up in his castle.

"I dunno," he says it with a shrug. "Maybe she is weird for a fae, but that's not a bad thing. I really think she wants to make people happy with the carnival."

"I don't think she just wants to make people happy with the Carnival," Lambert answers, a touch of his typical cynicism creeping into his voice, but he's smirking as he finally finishes whatever it was he was fiddling with his bow and straightens up. He pauses, looking around and raising a hand -- almost as though he were summoned out of nowhere, a servant appears to calmly place a quiver refilled with arrows into Lambert's hand.

The witcher waits for the servant to melt back away into the shadows before he continues, putting the quiver on the ground and beginning to stick arrows into the ground, point-first, speaking as he goes.

"In Portland, she made it like Wyld Fae have a real bone to pick with the Courts. Arcadia sees them as something to order around." Satisfied with his arrangements, he gets into position and test the bow's draw, wood and string creaking as his strength bends it into position and he sights down the arrow he's nocking without actually loosing it.

"And now we're here. With someone who wants to be like them, but isn't exactly in a hurry to run to them either. What do you think of that?" Swish, thunk. The arrow snaps forward, burying itself cleanly into the target just outside the edge of the bullseye.

Yuya frowns a bit at his cynicism. Maybe it's not the only reason, but Yuya's sure it's a big one.

But he's easily distracted by Lambert's question. Why doesn't the Prince associate with the Courts? He doesn't know anything about him, really, so any answer is going to be colored with his own imagination.

He scrunches his face in thought, silent for a moment before he just shrugs. "I dunno. Maybe he can't be a Prince in the court? He lives all alone, maybe he only likes doing things his way."

There's obviously no room for compromise in the castle.

⇨ HEARTSTONE MANOR

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