⇨ 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

⇨ 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

[ringleaders]

Is she doing anything to be stealthy or is she just leaving and wooshing on over there?

[mirrortide]

she could use her shapeshifting abilities to help. SHE DOESNT LIKE THEM but she's been told this is high stakes so. being a little bit more cautious probably wouldn't hurt

[soft_focus]

MOVING IT HERE BECAUSE I'M BRILLIANT....YEAH

ok so!

New thread for this since it's Kind of a Deal-

So on Night 171, Tyki managed to pay Reira a visit in her room before going missing. Mostly a matter of concern-she's kind of sitting tense through her meals and all-he left her a candy, promised to see her in the morning, anddddd vanished. Suffice to say, she wound up more stressed that day than the day before.

AS A RESULT, Julien gives her the offer to use his inventory connection to his bird body to visit the stables once curfew passes, on Night 172 (Logic being that no one will notice her all soaked with weird dimension water this way. Because this is such a great idea compared to that right????)

Now here's the list of things that get to affect how screwed she is in the stables:

First, she's not leaving those stables obviously. She came there for one thing and that one thing was sitting with either a giant bird or a few peaceful animals nearby until she can soak in enough happier feelings to calm down. (Reira will, despite Julien's slight discomfort, go to see nearby stable-mates if the emotions she reads from them are receptive enough. The key word is stable-mates; she won't be wandering the whole stable, she's sticking to nearby stalls)

Second, not only is Julien providing towels for her to clean up after her drippy self, but his bird half is keeping an eye out before she even comes out; kiddo won't be popping into the stables until he's VERY sure none of the animal caretakers are around.

Third, animal feelings are pretty different from...Not. Animal feelings, but even ignoring that difference, the minute she catches the sensation that Any kind of 'emotion' is taking a mobile route in her direction, she's doing one of two things-either scooting back in through the Juliens, OR....assuming she's not close enough, just hiding.

She's 3'8'', spindly small, and familiar with what you need to do to hide, so that factors in.

TlDR though...Small child gets the chance to sit with some animals way past her bedtime, risks getting caught by spooky manor stuff or servants as a result.

[ringleaders]

According to the dice rolling plurk, Reira stable visit doesn't go well. While there are no workers there when she arrives, it won't be long until the Manor's patrol comes by to check on the beasts. Reira's scent sticks out like a sore thumb, as does the smell of salt water.

There is very little warning before a pair of enormous dire wolves pounce the two of them - one dragging Reira back by the arm, and the other landing straight onto Julien's bird half.

[soft_focus]

I CAN BET THOSE TWO ARE ANGRY.

SO BOY, SHE'S GETTING DRAGGED OFF SCREAMING AND CRYING. And well. There's not really much else she can do, she's a half-soaked little girl in a nightgown who's probably going to be bleeding from her arm...

[ringleaders]

Group reply down here.

[espigeon]

JULIEN HAS REGRETS

He probably smells dog, that's the only warning he has before they're there.

Uh, a dozen eyes appear on and around him because it'd be very low light there and he's got less-than-human darkvision. Back in the room his human half cries out, No!, but speaking with a bird body is actually more of an effort, so he just makes a bird sound and tries to fight the wolves and get to Reira.

Depending on wolf size he might be able to subdue one while taking some injuries if this was, like, one-on-one with proper lighting and plenty of warning. As is he absolutely cannot, especially if pinned, but he'd absolutely hurt himself trying and try to follow if let up. If things were prolonged at all the other half of him would leave his assigned room to try to go to the stables. Yes, that's the worst possible idea, but his instinct is to regroup when attacked and overwhelmed, and he'd be too overwhelmed to stop and think.

ETA: Also on consequences I'm actually cool on his bird body being killed. He'd pass out and suffer some effects but live. His human body would start changing but it'd be a few days before that started to show.

If that body lives and is taken to the same out-of-contact place as Tyki then assuming this interrupts the connection between his halves, his human one will go comatose.

[ringleaders]

While Julien is getting mauled by a wolf, a servant girl with white patches of fur and rabbit feet will enter, seemingly by coincidence. Of course, upon seeing what is going on in here, she will yelp in alarm, drop her mop bucket, and immediately flee the room.

The wolves don't seem to be trying to kill, and after managing to subdue Julien's bird body, it will start dragging him off into the courtyard trees adjacent to the stables.

The wolves aren't being gentle, exactly, but when moving both Julien and Reira they are just carrying them as opposed to trying to draw additional blood. So, they may get cut up by teeth if they resist, but otherwise the wolves are carrying them like they would a puppy, with less maternal care.

In the trees, Julien and Reira will be tossed into a chasm, seemingly formed from nowhere. It's in that moment that Julien's human side will lose contact.

[espigeon]

Consequently, Julien's human body is comatose in his room and cannot participate in group activities. whoops.

[sunflowerfields]

Hinawa doesn't know the proper English way for a lady to ride a horse. She also doesn't give the servants a chance to help her mount said horse. Scandalous!

[ringleaders]

NOTED.

[tacosgay]

On day 172, Taako sneaks out of his room using Mislead to become invisible and leave a copy of himself in bed. I don't know how you decide if somebody gets caught at this stuff, rolling maybe? But I'm up for whatever.

Specifically, he's going to Julien and Reira's room.

[ringleaders]

Is he just going to their room, and that's it? That will just change the difficulty of his rolls.

[tacosgay]

Right. He's sneaking to that room to check on Julien's body to see if it's alive, as he used clairvoyance to check in there and saw his nose was bleeding.

He WILL be using his radio to report back to Lambert after, so if that affects the odds any, yknow. That's a thing.

[ringleaders]

He succeeds without discovery. He'll find Reira gone, and Julien's humanoid body comatose.

[pullingamiko]

Miko is sneaking out after curfew on day 173 after realizing that Sans isn’t in their room. She has no idea what to look for though, she’s just kind of generally snooping around. Good job Miko.