⇨ 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

A

[kingsroads]

Strange has a vague plan of how to get out of here. Unfortunately, that vague plan involves him rising up in the ranks of the Mother's technicians. Also unfortunately, he doesn't know shit about farming. He's watched as Peridot bossed other people around and has decided to swallow his pride (at least for a moment) and let her boss him around.

So, Strange walks right up to Peridot. Without any waiting or explanation as to what he's doing, he launches right into, "I need you to teach me everything you know about farming."

[periphrasing]

Peridot appears surprised by this request... Probably because she has primarily been bossing people around out of a petty need to make herself feel empowered in a situation where she's actually quite powerless. Only a tiny bit of her motivation is coming from a desire to be genuinely helpful. Basically, for a second, it almost feels like Strange just walked up to her and requested for her to give him a wedgie or something.

She blinks at him, and then nods. "I can do that. These weird plants aren't really the ideal practice subjects, since I'm not intimately familiar with their genera, but I can show you the basics."

Just like that.

[kingsroads]

As Peridot nods, Strange gives her a little sigh of relief. He was hoping that Peridot would teach him, but hearing confirmation straight from her mouth has quelled a few of his worries.

"The basics will do," Strange says. Showing him the basics is good enough: useless doesn't even know how to farm back in his world, he needs all the help he can get right now. "I need as many points as possible and I can't do that if I don't know what I'm doing."

[periphrasing]

At that, she cocks her head slightly, frowning up at him. "Points? What do you want points for? You shouldn't break your fragile human spine trying to impress these idiots," she spits, glancing around for a technician to cast a spiteful glare at. Of course, there aren't any in here with them at the moment...

[kingsroads]

"Because I want to work my way to the top," Strange answered. He takes a step closer to Peridot before he drops his voice and continues talking.

"That's what Shimmer did. And that's what gave her the opportunity to leave this place."

[periphrasing]

Peridot's eyes widen. She'd forgotten that they'd ever had contact with someone who had already spent time under the Mother, and it makes his argument a hundred times more convincing than anything she's heard from anyone else preaching the sycophancy angle.

"I want to ask you a whole slew of questions, but who knows if we're being recorded or not," she whispers urgently, casting a furtive look around.

[kingsroads]

Strange does also want to keep things a little bit on the furtive side...but also realizes some of the practicalities dealing with magic.

"If we're not being recorded, we're certainly being scryed on," says the person who would straight up scry on people if he were in the Mother of Invention's shoes. "Show me how to do some farming and I can talk to you while we work."

[periphrasing]

Right. Magic. Peridot frowns wearily, but she gets his point.

"Very well. We'll start with the basics of planting seeds," she sighs, picking up a package of them and waving him over towards a freshly plowed patch of earth.

[kingsroads]

Strange follows, listening intently and paying damn close attention to what Peridot's doing. When they've walked over towards the plowed patch of earth, he admits, under his breath,

"She worked her way up in the Mother of Invention's ranks. Once she did that, she was placed in charge of a colony. The caravan stopped there, she seized her opportunity, and she ran."

[periphrasing]

The gem listens closely, then kneels down to start fussing around in the dirt.

"Two key factors to keep in mind while you're preparing the holes that your seeds will be planted in: hole depth, and distance." She takes a claw and jams it into the soil, pressing downwards, and hisses in a lower voice: "A plan like that will take ages to show results, and you'll be leaving the rest of us behind!"

She is automatically assuming that that last part is just a flaw in the plan that Strange has overlooked; she doesn't even consider that he might be taking an 'every carnie for themselves' approach to this.

[kingsroads]

His approach is less 'every carnie for themselves' and more 'Jonathan Strange is just so goddamn desperate and so goddamn scared that this is going to be the moment that he can't get out of, this is going to be the thing that he can't push past.'

"You don't understand," Strange murmurs, as he watches Peridot stab the ground with her claws. "I can't stay here. You have people like Steven and Amethyst to help keep you grounded. But I...I've barely seen my wife in over a year. I need to get back to her."

It's very hard to vocalize 'I thought my wife was dead but then she wasn't but then I got cursed and in between that I joined a faerie carnival for almost a year and even before that I was away at war for two or so years and honestly I'm a little worried that I'm on my last fucking rope and will never see her again' but Strange is going to try and figure out a way to do so.

[periphrasing]

Peridot startles and looks up at him abruptly, appearing rather taken aback. The implications of what he's saying are slow to land, but when they do, they hit her like a brick.

"Wait. So you know you'd be leaving us all behind?" she says, sounding hurt. She knows that Arabella is important to Strange. Hell, anyone who has talked to the man for more than five seconds would know that. But up until now, they've never been in a situation dire enough to see Strange have to make the choice between the carnival-- his friends-- and his wife.

[kingsroads]

Up until now, Strange hasn't had to make the choice himself either. He just assumed he'd push through his year and a day as best he could and then leave the carnival for Arabella and for England when he was done. Now...it's not like the year and a day mattered, did it. The Ringmaster can't enforce contracts when she's dead. And he's certain the Mother of Invention wouldn't be courteous enough to impose a time limit.

"If any of us can find a better or faster option, then I'll take it. But as it is, what matters the most to me is getting back to Arabella."

After all, it's the reason why he signed onto the carnival in the first place.

[periphrasing]

Slowly, Peridot stops digging. She's unnervingly silent for a time, staring at her hands while lost in thought, leaving the conversation hanging. Being stuck under the Mother's ownership was already a tough enough pill to swallow... She hadn't even considered the insidious long-term effects of being stuck here, of how this could very well spell the end for the carnival as a tight-knit group.

Her expression while she zones out is, mostly, impassive, save for the small frown that quirks her lips. A selfish thought crosses her mind: Why she should even bother teaching Strange this stuff, if he's just going to use that knowledge to abandon them all here?

[kingsroads]

Strange has never met a silence that he can't fill with awkward conversation. So, he keeps talking. He's also noticed that Peridot isn't really showing him how to farm anymore. Should he start digging a hole? Strange starts digging a hole in an intensely lopsided fashion.

"I know I'm not the only one who thinks that. There are others who have someone or something important to them like I do." Rita. Zangetsu. Childermass, if he ever gets out of this annoying self-defeating funk that he seems to be in. "This could all change if by some miracle Ignatius frees himself. But as of now...I've got to think about my future."

And how he's not going to spend the rest of his life cooped up in some technological hellhole, serving as a lab rat.

[periphrasing]

She snaps her head up to meet his eyes abruptly, tail bristling as it sweeps across the ground behind her. Does he seriously think that she doesn't have anything or anyone important waiting at home for her? Does he think that she's somehow more better suited to this captivity because she has Steven and Amethyst here alongside her, despite the fact that their presence here means they're in constant danger?

Normally this is the part where she'd say something harsh or nasty. She almost does. But she's just so sick of tanking friendships, and so mentally exhausted from experiencing one bad turn after another...

"I think I need to go work elsewhere for a bit," she manages to mumble, rising back to her feet and turning to walk away.

[kingsroads]

He isn't really surprised Peridot's leaving for a while. Strange has a feeling she wouldn't take well to the idea of him just fucking off and leaving people. So as she turns to leave, he gives her a little nod before going back to the mound of dirt he's staring at. He should at least get started on doing something.

And apparently that something is ineffective farming. Strange sighs to himself as he starts to dig some really shitty holes, lost in thought and just outright assuming Peridot isn't going to bother him for the rest of the day.

[periphrasing]

It sure doesn't seem like she's going to come back, at first. In fact, most of the rest of the work day seems to pass before she shows up again, and when she does finally return, it's without any particular fanfare. She quietly pads up behind him while he has his face in some work, and just picks the conversation back up right where it left off.

"I'm not grounded, you know. And I have plenty of people back home who I'm terrified I'll never get to see again, too," she says quietly, her posture guarded and surly.

[kingsroads]

When Peridot comes up behind him, Strange has a small stack of weeds that he's pulled. Once again, his technique is a bit shit: he's barely gotten the roots of any of the weeds, just the top of the plants. When he hears her voice, he doesn't turn around.

"You're more grounded than I am," Strange admits, as he continues to ineffectually pull weeds. That's just an honest fact: even on a good day, it's not like Strange's mental state is anything close to 'stable.'

"And you'll have Steven and Amethyst to keep you grounded. If there's a trial where they have to pick between you and someone else, they'll always pick you."

[periphrasing]

"Stop acting like these circumstances are somehow easy for me cope with just because Steven and Amethyst are here! That is a patently incorrect conclusion!" Peridot hisses urgently, stepping around in front of him so he can see her, see how ticked off he's making her. "Having them here means that they're right here in danger with me! The technicians could harm them, or separate us for good just on a mere whim! I constantly feel like I'm going to shatter into a million pieces worrying about what's going to happen to them!" she rasps, wringing her hands anxiously.

[kingsroads]

While Peridot looks ticked off, Strange looks a bit pleading, like he wants to try and convince her of something but doesn't know how.

"Yes they're in danger, but you said it yourself: they're in danger with you. Do you know how many times I've been trapped somewhere by myself? At least when you're trapped with someone else you've got someone with you who knows what you're going through!"

Of course, then we get the 'you're technically not alone, you've got the whole carnival here' but that's a whole different cocktail of issues that Strange doesn't know if he and Peridot want to work through right now.

[periphrasing]

Welcome to: Two idiots, sucking incredibly bad at conveying their feelings and concerns to one another in an emotionally mature and intelligent way.

But yeah, Peridot's not impressed by that logic. She scowls, hands balling into fists at her sides.

"You do realize that you're basically asking for my help in getting you out of here, so that you can go and see your wife again while the rest of us sit here and slowly crumble to dust in this stupid lab. Right?" the gem whispers, words edged with anger. "We're supposed to be a team! All of us! And you're just going to save yourself and leave us here to rot!?"

[kingsroads]

"We're only a team because the Ringmaster was here," Strange points out, whispering to Peridot. It's like he's trying to convince himself as he speaks: there's a little bit of conviction behind his words, but not a lot. It's like Strange is struggling to remind himself that he's making the right decisions.

"Now that she's dead, what then? I only signed up to the carnival so I could save my wife. I'm not like the rest of you, I was going to leave as soon as my year was up!"

He talked with the Ringmaster, got his curse removed, he had everything figured out so that he could actually leave this place. And since that option's gone...now what?

[periphrasing]

That stings. Peridot's whole demeanor seems to droop even further, which didn't even seem possible before now but, hey, here they are!

"Well. If we were only ever a team because the Ringmaster required it, then I don't see why I should bother helping you," she declares, crossing her arms over her chest and turning away to stare sullenly at nothing in particular. It doesn't even feel worth it to correct him that the Ringmaster isn't even really dead.

[kingsroads]

As Strange speaks, every word is marked with hesitation, like he's not entirely sure if he's saying the right thing or not. Is there even a right thing to begin with? Hell if he knows.

"We're not a team anymore." No carnival hierarchy, no sense of structure, no hint of anything that made the carnival what it was. Just sterile technology and vague attempts at digging around in the dirt. "But you are my friend. So I'm asking you, as a friend, can you please at least teach me a little bit about farming?"