⇨ 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

Card games

[chronosynthesis]

That pulls Syrlya's attention from side-eyeing the bar, and for a moment he's caught with mild interest.

"Oh, did they? Poker is a familiar game to me," he muses, discarding two cards from his hand without so much as looking at them--nor is he very attentive of the two he draws in their place. "What was it like?"

[atouts]

"They had cards with suits like songs and serpents and angels and illustrations on the cards to go with them," Childermass answers, waiting for the rest at the table to figure out what they're doing with their own incredibly plain cards. "You would go around matching suits until someone the angel of death card, then everyone would show their hand. Most matches won. The amusing part, however, is that cheating definitely seemed encouraged..."

Which isn't very gentleman-like, but it made an easy game for someone with sticky fingers to win regularly.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya pauses as he visualizes the game. A game designed around connections and subterfuge, versus a game of structure and false feelings...

"Oh, was that your favorite part of the game?" He leans over to say it a little more hushed and smiles wryly.

[atouts]

"The part where I won more often than not," Childermass replies, his answer just quiet enough and his own smirk just as dry. It isn't a direct admission to cheating, but, really. Considering his job's title, one can make some educated guesses here. However, on that note, he lays down his hand at the end of whatever round of poker the table is on.

He has, unfortunately, not won this round, but he just shrugs. It's all in good fun, after all, right?

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya snorts, looking down at Childermass's hand before laying his cards on the table. Syrlya doesn't have a great hand either, so it's pure luck that it manages to win out Childermass's.

He glances over his shoulder again as a servant passes behind them to take some empty glasses to the bar. He reaches for his own, swirling the alcohol around inside it and staring into the glass as the cards are collected. "This is all very lavish... how long has it been since he'd had company?"

He says it with a light enough tone to easily be taken as curiosity rather than insult.

[atouts]

"Oh, quite a while, I suspect," Childermass makes a guess and he's pretty sure he's right. There's plenty of other things he suspects, too, but those aren't polite things to say in such polite company. So, he won't. "I don't imagine many carnivals swing by this close to his manor. It's an interesting location, but a bit remote."

Like 'own pocket dimension' remote. That's about as remote as you can get. Anyway, seeing how it's Childermass, everything he says carries a fairly bored note to it, so even if he meant any of that as an insult, one could be hard-pressed to prove it. Seriously, he could go on all day like that (and probably has, in the past).

[chronosynthesis]

"I wonder if being reclusive is a common habit of the fae..." That might explain why, if they're capable of dragging small dimensions around and connecting them to other worlds, none of them have ever made it to Tyria.

He glances down at the cards as they're dealt again, but when he picks them up his attention is back on watching people move to and from the bar.

Once he's satisfied there's no familiar faces, he finally looks down at his hand. "Still, I suppose we must appreciate the hospitality. Do you suppose he wants to make a good impression?"