⇨ POLARIS

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Days 102 - 109
Where: Polaris
What: With the Ringmaster kidnapped and the rest of the carnival imprisoned, characters find themselves at the mercy of a Winter Fae called the Mother of Invention.
Warnings: Graphic experimentation in places.

TRIALS & TRIBULATION↴ After a day of cleansing and processing, where all the belongings and attire of their old lives are stripped away and replaced with something newer and more form fitting, the former members of the carnival will find themselves let loose into the Farm for the first time. A sizable green area, filled with orchards growing inorganic looking fruits and field ready for tending, the Farm is where they will be spending their days for the forseeable future. Food and drink are no longer needed, and so every day is an endless cycle of work. Technicians are seen only when necessary, and when being taken from your place of work to your lonesome cells at night. Every day, there are new postings on the "Production Board", where various dire sound scientific trials ask for subjects. The majority won't be forced, at least not yet, but the system is at work to push its participants to the brink and force their hand. After all, volunteers make the best subjects. ► PRODUCTIVITY: As explained elsewhere, characters will be forced to compete to attain enough Productivity Point to be considered Satisfactory. There are literally not enough points to go around for everyone to attain this, which means that at least some people will be deemed "Below Expectations" by the end of the first four-day cycle. What this means has yet to be discovered, but the Technicians have grimly warned against it. Productivity involves many tasks, including orchard picking, tilling, planting, harvesting, watering, maintenance, and more. Any task you can think of that would take place on a plantation is applicable here. Beyond that, the Production Board awaits you, offering precious Productivity Points in exchange for your cooperation. How you become Satisfactory is up to you, but it's every person for themselves. Only one person can turn in the credit for harvesting or preparing fields, and while you can certainly try to help others by letting them take credit for your work, it's a sure fire way to fall behind the herd, especially if you are already in a low Classification. Fruits and fields will miraculously grow overnight, and will be ready for a new day when you are. You've been told not to eat anything you harvest, but right now you aren't hungry anyway. ► POLARIS BY NIGHT: During the night, you are left alone to your thoughts and maybe an annoying roommate. Solo or in pairs, the entire night will be spent in small sleep pods, as shown on the locations post. Is it possible to sneak out? It doesn't seem like it is, but who is to say? The real question is if you want to dare to try. There is one hour of rest before and after seven hours of darkness. Even if you don't usually have to sleep, you'll find yourself oddly weary and inclined to rest. Supernaturally, almost. ► PARTICIPATION: Sometimes participation in experimental trials is manditory, sometimes it isn't. You are free to handwave your character having been pulled aside for minor examinations, such as blood tests or aura scans. Each time, you will be pulled into a separate part of the station and analyzed by a Technician and heavily automated machinery. Anymore more complex than basic check-up level tests will be posted about in a section called "TRIALS" in the body of the post below.

Comments

[alphudo]

Sure, why not. Yuusei'll sign up for this. What could go wrong?

[ringleaders]

The initial procedure is, as promised, short. All three subjects are brought in at once, and disrobed. It's an odd feeling - the charcoal bodysuit simply melts away from their body, leaving them naked in the presence of the technicians and each other. Afterwards, the suit is left as a circle of condensed material on the floor, apparently ready to resume its shape at a later point.

They'll be sprayed with that odd vapor-like material again, and apparently 'cleansed', and then instruction to lay forward onto their chests on a set of medical tables. The one for Yuusei is positioned to accommodate his shape. Then, the bed of the medical table seems to shift like something liquid and plastic, pinning their arms up above their heads, and forming a band that holds their lower back in place and prevents it from moving.

Given the options, they'e decided to segment each of their tails.

The process is surprisingly bloodless. Pairs of metal disks, thin and calibrated to be wide enough for the base of each subject's tail in inserted through the limb by machine. Normally, this kind of movement would have cut the tail off completely, severed as if by a blade, but someone the disk slides between their flesh and remains in place, not seeming to disturb the anatomy of their body at all.

Then, the two disks are pulled apart, with a subtle, twisting locking mechanism. One side leaves a metal disk covering the place where a tail should be, and the other covers the open end of the tail that is being removed. It doesn't really hurt, when it happens.

It seems that the initial process is over. The subjects are freed from the tables, and instructed to stand on the circles of bodysuit material, that will promptly reform around them, just as they were before. Then, they'll be sent back to work.

The real consequences of this procedure come up later.

Once they are back at work and out around the facility, they'll find that they can still feel their tails as sensitively as they could if it was still attached to them, like it never left. Unfortunately, that tail is not somewhere else they can't touch, and it is being held immobile and experimented on in unknowable ways. The sensations will range from itching, tingling, to outright pain, as if needles and blades are being forced between bones, or as if flesh is being cut open and pulled apart.

The bulk of this activity takes place during the day hours, but they may find tingling or burning sensations that lurk through the night. The pain is not constant, but when it shows up, it can debilitating. From what it feels like, their tails are being vivisected and studied somewhere else.

The trial is set to last for one week.