⇨ Special Event: BEAUTIES AND THE BEAST

[ringleaders]

PREPARATION↴ On Day 170, the Ringmaster will announce that she will be leaving the carnival for a visit to an 'ally', and that in the meantime everyone should just stay in the carnival grounds and wait for her to come back. She will shrug it off as being a simple matter, and say that it shouldn't take much time at all, and that it is something for the good of the carnival. Of course, a few hours later, she will return with another announcement - actually, her... "ally", has "requested" that all of her underlings join her in visiting his castle while they negotiate the terms of a potential agreement. She will insist that it's a diplomatic affair, and that while really all that is required of everyone is to behave themselves and to not provoke the Prince's ire, it's extremely important that they listen to her this time. This announcement will be made by radio. The evening of Day 170, everyone will be brought to an enormous manor house, apparently suspended in some kind of twilight void. They'll all be randomly assigned rooms in pairs of two (OOC RNG time!) and instructed to arrive for breakfast at 8AM sharp. Follow the schedule, be polite, and everything will be great. Right? Right. SETTING↴ Heartstone Manor is a spooky looking cross between a castle and a monastery, floating in the middle of realm filled with nothing else but empty twilight. Specifically, it is the home of a High Fae called The Prince - or so the Ringmaster will explain. He's one of the Wyld Fae, like she is, and when he fled from fae civilization eons ago, he hid himself away here to live in solitude as he saw fit. No one and nothing else lives here except for the Prince and his servants, and there is no visible sun - only stages between twilight and darkness. The Manor itself is a massive stone construction, filled with old fashioned looking architecture and filled to the brim with art. Frescos, statues, and engravings line every hall, ranging from classical to abstract. The subject matter is almost always that of beautiful humanoids - in the form of fae, angels, and the more seductive forms of demons. The servants mostly appear to be traditionally beautiful as well. This seeming obsession with beauty is tied directly to the desires of the Prince himself. While you are in his home, formal attire is mandatory. He will be gracious enough to provide everyone with appropriate wardrobe - that is, formal wear that could ambiguously fit anywhere from the 1500's to 1800's on Earth. PATRONS↴ ► THE PRINCE: Some kind of lion monster stuffed awkwardly into a humanoid shape and a fancy suit. According to the Ringmaster, the Prince is a Wyld Fae like her, and one that she has a personal connection with. The carnival is allegedly here to negotiate something with him, but he must have the upper hand, because the Ringmaster is actually bending to his wishes to some degree. His disposition is gloomy and strict, unwilling to put up with the nonsense of naysayers after thousands of years of living on his own terms. If diplomacy is the plan, he certainly doesn't make himself an easy target. Despite that, he has a great love for beautiful things, both living and artistic. He composes himself with the dignity of actual royalty despite his obvious Wyld Fae heritage. He doesn't come across as overtly cruel despite his grumpy disposition, but it's hard to say what goes on behind the scenes. ► HIS SERVANTS: The Prince's manor is filled with a large number of servants, all of them humanoid in origin, and seeming to fit the aesthetics of the Court Fae and traditional human ideals as much as possible. While many of the servants you see out and about are almost entirely without the marks of a Wyld Fae servant, some do have the beginnings of horns, claws, or other animalistic features. Others will have stone-like complexions, or bits of gems of metals woven into their anatomy. All of the ones that speak to you will be congenial to outright cheery - from their perspective, they appear to be perfectly happy with working for the Prince, and will go out of their way to compliment his kindness and grace. They seem pretty genuine about it, though there's no telling what further investigation would unearth, based on what most of the carnival already knows about fae and their changelings. DANGERS↴ ► FAE TERRITORY: The carnival is the guest of a High Fae, and that's enough sign of danger to be seriously concerned. Daily life in the Heartstone Manor is smoothly organized, and even pleasant if you let it be - but can you really trust any fae, after what you've seen? Especially when even the Ringmaster seems on her guard. The Ringmaster is not being very forthcoming about outlining everything that could go wrong, as is her way, but she is being far more cautionary than usual. That has to mean something by now. REWARDS↴ There are no automatic rewards as a part of the setting, beyond that may come up as part of investigations or roleplay prompts. Characters do have the opportunity to affect the setting around them, but there with be plot consequences for doing so, mostly in the sense that performing certain actions may force a character down a certain path. Not so much in the "you will get instantly dead" kind of way. Though, people in the carnival do always manage to find a way. CHANGES↴ There are no automatic changes as part of this setting, but there are certain paths characters will be able to take that will result in changes happening. Those will be handled on a case to case basis. There is the possibility of some potential bodyhorror if that floats your boat. Beyond that, this is a PLOTTING POST, which means you can use it to make plans! The game chat is also a great place to discuss plots, so we welcome you to pop on in if you haven't already! The Ringmaster will be making a public address closer to the end of the month, and there will be an opening log posted after things in Greysol have wrapped up.

Comments

⇨ QUESTIONS

[ringleaders]

If you got 'em! Yes, your character can bring their own outfits, as long as they fit the dress code. Also, all characters who would have reason to are allowed to know about the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast!

[soft_focus]

HOW RUDE IS UNCONTROLLABLE EMPATHY uh, I mean-

Really the question is in general if the entire location would have some effect on that particular ability-would it dampen it, would Reira end up picking up on various npcs as easily as she does most of the employees, etc etc.

It's the kind of thing I feel like I ought square away as soon as I can before plotting...

[whattaprick]

Do Supervisors get any more of a heads up or specific warnings of what to expect here, or what RM is trying to do, or are they in the dark as much as anyone else?

Will characters be able to return to the Carnival during their stay at all, or will they be forced to remain in the Prince's realm for the duration of this world stop (and is there some IC idea of how long that will take)?

Lastly, and this is probably obvious: what can characters bring in terms of weapons/self-defense, and are there consequences for using offensive/protective magic?

[otoko]

It says anywhere from the 1500s to 1800s, but are we referring to the European sense of fashion here, or could it be from elsewhere on earth if appropriate for the character?

Asking more for Carly. GON'S GETTING STUCK IN A SUIT IF IT KILLS ME.

[hippocarnival]

Will there still be a performance week for the castle and the Prince or are they treating it as a long off period?

[tacosgay]

So! Will the Prince provide "men's" clothing only to the men, and "women's" clothing only to the women, or will characters like Taako be allowed to wear dresses, etc?

[espigeon]

Is Julien's bird body gonna be relegated to the stables?

[dressedtothe]

Will 9S be able to build a rough map of the castle's layout, as per his scanning abilities? Normally he's able to create something similar to a general floorplan, just without any labels of what any of the rooms are. Or will it be blocked/distorted/(unknowingly) incorrect because of the fae magic in the place?

Also, will bringing the non-iron robot buddy be frowned upon?

[destiny_key]

I THINK I ASKED THIS ON PLURK BUT

What level of Knowing About Beauty and the Beast are we talking here? Sora's literally met the people from that story, so would he actually know what's going on around here? Or would it be more of a 'huh this is vaguely familiar i guess' sort of sense? He's never heard the actual faerie tale before, but he does know the basic story through, uh, being there.

[wild_magic]

At the end of the nights, how... monitored I guess are they going back to their rooms? Like escorted directly, or just kind of general dismissal, etc? I know first night is escorted but what about other nights is mostly what I am asking about.

[spaghettimonster]

Given the Prince has a Thing for manners, will he be using any particular rules for seating arrangements while dining?

Like, I figure it'd be a big pain in the ass for you, logistically, to assign seats on top of rooming and all the rolling for trouble makers... So I'm more asking, is there an overall system he'd be using?

Would everyone just choose their own (besides RM, who I assume is stuck eating with him every time)? Assigned seating, but it changes with each meal so tagging meal threads is flexible? Some setup where he insists on RM and whatever guests he thinks well of to be seated near him?

[atouts]

Not terribly important, but regarding the upcoming hunt, would the Prince be against Childermass using his arcanine as a hunting dog?

⇨ VIOLATIONS

[ringleaders]

If your character refuses to cooperate with an activity, does something disastrously wrong in terms of decorum, or does something risky like sneaking out of their rooms after midnight, you must report it here.

Take this seriously! If your character acts out too much or is caught breaking the rules, then they may end up being taken aside until the Grand Ball, and suffer other consequences for their actions. Breaking the rules is accepting that your character may have to deal with traumatic or unpleasant situations.

Re: ⇨ VIOLATIONS

[mirrortide]

Lapis is going to be sneaking out at night to visit either peridot or steven or just NOT BE LOCKED UP IN A SMALL ROOM ALL NIGHT LONG WITH SOMEONE SHE DOESNT KNOW. would it be easier for her to just get to know this person and make friends? good question, its lapis.

hit me with those dice rolls

[kingsroads]

so, being a fairly well-off guy from the 1810s who regularly hangs out with sirs, attends fancy parties, and actually met the king one time, Strange has all of this manners shit in the bag. He'll gladly help out and teach people how to tie a cravat, how to waltz, how to formally introduce themselves to an important person, which fork's the salad fork and which isn't, how to be polite, and so on and so forth. I'm up for threading or handwaving these, but I'm totally up for characters hitting Strange up for ✨ fancy lessons ✨

(this also might be an attempt to distract himself from the fact that during his canon update, he got stuck in a tower of darkness himself and that he's NOT TOO PLEASED and KIND OF PARANOID about this whole realm of twilight thing)

[dressedtothe]

Please teach 9S all the fancy things, ESPECIALLY how to waltz! I'd be up for threading it :> Hopefully 9S' canonmate will be arriving in time for this event, so he'll be extra wanting to impress her with things that he's learnt from Strange. He wants to know how to make her swoon and Strange is the perfect person to ask for that, right? Right??

[hippocarnival]

YUYA Is going to try his best not to cause any trouble, but after Portland and the Summerlands he's very interested in trying to find a redeemable aspect to other fae and see if they can cooperate as friends vs a series of alliances.

So! He'll be wandering within their limitations, talking and playing along with the nature of the castle. He'll also probably put on some small-scale performances for the servants and other carnival members and generally try and keep the mood positive and friendly.

He has... decent manners but will need a crash course in civility and a lot of reminders not to talk with his mouth full.

stuff to do: Get dragged along with his antics, performance buddies, reminders how to behave, shake their head at his attempts to befriend the fae, and obvioisly and dinner or dancing mingles.

SYRLYA Will be maintaining more of a polite distance with the scene because he doesn't understand noble court politics and is pretty sure he never will. He'll bring his sword just in case (that's gentleman's armourment, right) and as a merc/bouncer probably mostly make sure other carnival members stay out of trouble.

If anything he can fake fitting in decently but he'll mostly try and stay in the fringes on the excitement since the Ringmaster seems so worried about this. Having your powerful boss nervous doesn't make this easy to enjoy.

stuff to do: Try to explain nobility to him, get reminded to behave, general CR building since he's a lot newer.

[whattaprick]

Lambert is here for poor explanations of nobility and faerie tales coming from a totally biased source, if Syrlya feels like subjecting himself to that!

[whattaprick]

Thanks to the heads up from the Ringmaster, Lambert isn't going to treat this as flippantly as he otherwise would be inclined to, much to his own annoyance...

Having no intention of being caught off guard by unpleasant surprises, he will be bringing his silver sword acquired from the Summerlands, concealing a couple of daggers, and probably stashing some firepower under his fancy clothes (luckily, the Celebration has left him with a coat with generous amounts of hiding space). He's also bringing Pig the Mudsdale and Butcher the dog-horse baby Mudbray.

He and Sans will (probably) be contacting the other supervisors about working to keep their people's noses out of trouble. Whether that's successful or not is another story.

He wiiill also be making a closed radio post for his Nightrunners, because if shit goes sideways they're obviously going to have to clean up the mess, and he wants all of his people ready to fight and/or center in on whatever's going on! The general gist of his expectations are to keep in touch over the radio and be ready to intervene if other Carnival members look ready to start shit ... which isn't going to make them popular, but whatever!

One of his stated priorities will be to develop a map of the place (if that's even possible, which he doubts because FUKKEN MAGIC CASTLE), see if there's anything like a library, and identify points where people with teleportation/transportation abilities can travel through.

For non-nightrunners, Lambert has a mental suggestion spell he won't hesitate to make liberal use of (or like, knock someone out) so lmk if that's something you wanna do something with. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Other than that, uh, have fun??? People can be pleasantly surprised that Lambert apparently has a functional grasp of dining etiquette, but he really doesn't like it here, he's convinced it's fucking cursed.

[dressedtothe]

9S can easily cover off the basic castle floorplan and give it in material (paper?) format to Lambert to distribute so other Nightrunners can add to it. 9S will probably complain about having to manually draw this stuff, too.

[sunflowerfields]

The last time everybody had to dress up fancy, a bunch of them got kidnapped and turned into vampires, so you bet Hinawa is side-eyeing this entire venture. STILL, she's not one to make waves, so she'll be following everyone around and making sure they behave. Buuut if there's a general suspicion party going on she'll probably be involved when she's not Mom-ing everyone.

Alphys, meanwhile, is going to try and stand in one spot and not touch anything god this is so awkwaaaaard can she just go home.

[periphrasing]

Points at eyes points at you

Peridot and Alphys let's make it happen

Peridot's going to be super high strung for the same reasons Hinawa is going to be side-eyeing everything so I'm sure that'll make her SUPER PLEASANT TO DEAL WITH I'm so sorry Alphys

[dontpokethat]

lmao oh boy my guys sure are gonna HATE THIS

GINKO super does not trust this. the fact that this guy is apparently a friend of RM's helps some, but he still does not like the whole 'stuck in a fae castle' thing. he does not like being told what to do all day, he does not like fancy clothes, he's definitely expecting this all to go to shit. BASICALLY he's gonna be a little bit of a nervous wreck, though he'll be trying really hard to hide it from everyone but his close friends.

MIKO doesn't know if she trusts this or not but she HATES IT either way. fancy clothes sound SUPER FAKE and bad, as does being expected to do like. Polite Fancy Activities. gross. she won't be as nervous as ginko but she'll definitely be pretty pissed, and will complain to anyone who will listen.

[osteothropy]

GO TO BED, MIKO

[moonfang]

OH BOY. Neither of my boys are very good at MANNERS and the like. Rin is a little punkass bitch and Zangetsu has ZERO MANNERS at all. At least Rin can kind of make an attempt. Zangetsu just wants to find a way to stay at the carnival and away from all this manners nonsense.

Also, fancy restrictive clothes? nothx.

[otoko]

please laugh at gongenzaka, zan
the servants shoved him in a 15th century royal top

[atouts]

OKAY, ACQUISITIONER FOLKS: First and foremost, to Zangetsu, Tyki, and Reira, Childermass will be making a request. It's a pretty simple one for now since stealing is a definite "no, do not" for playing nice in the castle. Instead, he'll be asking them to either inquire politely about the Prince's likes and dislikes, hobbies, very general small talk with the castle's staff (and not the Prince directly). Either that or to keep an ear out and listen in on anything interesting that might be passed between the servants.

That said, he will also warn them that servants are rarely stupid people. Get too pushy or too weird and they'll catch on, of that much he can assume to be true, having been a servant himself (which he would only mention if asked how he's so sure about that).

Childermass may ask a few other people to ask around, too, but he won't be asking the carnival as a whole and will be requesting everyone keep what they're doing to themselves. He would like daily reports if possible (these can be handwaved or simply dropped off as a note in the IC inbox or however you'd like to handle that).

And moving on to how it may not be possible, well, since he comes off as fae-blooded on top of being a supervisor, he may have more than the wanted share of the Prince's attention (the preferred share would be none at all, but this is his life now). Depending on how that goes, it's going to get super irritating super fast, but he's thankfully stoic and very English, so. Yeah. He'll survive. Just don't try to give him any messages or reports while he's anywhere near that guy.

More general plotting stuff, he's pretty much stuck having to dress up and attend all this bs the same as everyone else, so he'll be around if anyone wants to bother him with fancy castle related things. He is also going to be keeping an eye on anyone for misbehavior and is a good option if someone needs their character to have a save or time-out real fast to avoid getting into too much trouble.

He's also bringing Baker, his Arcanine, with him, though he's keeping him in his pokeball unless needed.

[soft_focus]

Hey Childermass does deliberately standing in range of the Prince and getting a read on his mood half the time count-

That in mind, she can (rather, has no choice but to do so) feel the emotions that the servants themselves experience, so she could PROBABLY take a guess as to if they're lying about something or if there's just. Something amiss.

Fortunately she is also Seven and will probably get away with some extremely dumb questions.

She's probably aware of this (except not with the word dumb, just 'there's lots of things I don't know about that most people do, so I can probably ask more things')

So expect some results when her investigation threads kick off I Guess

[stillwinningthehardway]

My characters will weather this.

Scout will adjust okay to a rigid schedule. She grew up in boot camp, it's kinda reassuring in a way to have your whole day planned out for you. Even if those plans are boring and pointless, she knows how to follow along and can manage a long list of rules of etiquette. And hey, the long skirt she'll end up in hides her legs and tail tolerably well so she'll look... humanish.

She also has stealth magic which is fae-based and would work fine on many of the servants, but not on the Prince. Scout will be very careful with this and try and rely on her other powers to know when it's an acceptable risk to go unseen.

Julien will mostly just be easygoing and tolerant about this nonsense. His bird body will be sleeping in the stables area, which is annoying, but he'll keep that to himself. He will probably try to make friends with the servants and be chastised about being familiar with them.

[dressedtothe]

I'm interested in getting a thread with Scout, seeing as 9S is also a scout and will be presumably be working together with her either now or in the future! He's a soldier, so he can similarly adjust to the rigid schedule, buuut the key difference is that he'll complain a lot about it. Possibly in Scout's direction.

I also am intrested in threading with Julien; I didn't get around to doing it in Greysol, but learning that he is also a bird will def wig 9S out a bit.

[spaghettimonster]

PAPYRUS can handle and even thrive with the rigidly scheduled day, and adapt to a specific set of manners provided he's taught about them (thanks Strange).

He's under official Ringmaster instructions to try to avoid the Prince's attention, to avoid being so... himself, around the fae. And to somehow wrangle Sans into not being gross and obstinate, a task Papyrus has been trying and failing at for many years. So that's much tougher.

The worst part for him is... curfew. Papyrus basically doesn't sleep. Being stuck in his room all night is gonna grate. I'm not sure yet if his solution will be looking for all-night radio chatter buddies (and thus bothering roommate Rin), borrowing stuff from the library all night, and/or trying to hang out in another room for a not-slumber party. Rumor has that Sans is gonna be checking on his bro, so the last is unlikely without some extra motivation.

[flashover]

pap, bro, friend. rin can sleep through a hurricane. CHAT ALL YOU WANT

[prazerbutterfly]

Tyki Mikk is a Lord of the court from home and from the Victorian Era so he'll fit into this setting rather easily. He won't mind the change of pace at all even if he was starting to settle into the casual life through adaptation. He'll work into the schedule without fail, looking fancy and on time. He also won't mind giving pointers or mingling around enough charm and subtle compliments in order to gain information.

For his room mate Yugo he'll take a good while to get ready to make sure every inch of his person is straight and suited to the proper manners of a Lord from any stray hairs on his coat to his hair being put up neatly.

He'll be hiding his newly acquired panther ears under his top hat.

[dressedtothe]

9S doesn't know shit about being fancy, though he sure as hell will be dressed to the nines. He can deal with a rigidly scheduled day and specific sets of manners (if he's taught about it), but he sure as hell is gonna whine about it. His sword and robot buddy will be coming along for the party, too.

He'll be developing a basic map for the Nightrunners, but ultimately he's a curious and nosy busy body so he'll be poking his nose into everything (especially since a fae castle is new stuff to him). He doesn't really know the RM well enough to be uneasy at her unease, but since everyone else who's been around longer is on edge, he'll at least try to stay out of trouble.

Try, being keyword here.

[periphrasing]

I'll finally be off hiatus to do stuff with this guy CB

Peridot will probably be a huge hypocrite at first and give him shit for being nosy while going around being nosy herself.

[destiny_key]

Okay so Sora is kind of an island bumpkin and has no idea how to act in Higher Society. He's incredibly casual with just about everyone, regardless of status and doesn't really get the point of some of the more nuanced rules of etiquette.

However, he's not an idiot, and he knows when to shut up and let someone else do the talking. He also knows that he needs help in this area of things. He's polite enough, but is it good enough for advanced society? idk man you tell me.

So, like, the biggest thing is that I need someone to 'keep him in line' so to speak. He's a good kid, but he needs some pointers.

Also, someone to sneak around with after curfew would be neat >_> He wants to wander around and look at everything and find secret passages and whatnot. Schedules are lame.