⇨ 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

⇨ PRODUCTIVITY RESULTS (DAY 105)

[ringleaders]

This is a top level to represent the productivity results being posted at the end of Day 105. If you want to tag in character reactions and conversations, do it here! The results are a displayed on a literal scoreboard for everyone to see. The display is very fancy and futuristic looking, and everyone can see each other's scores, listed by subject classification.

[atouts]

Below expectations. Well, it's not as though Childermass is terribly surprised by that, considering the entire Eta status and him avoiding the trials thus far. He'll mostly just frown some at the posted results but there isn't a whole lot he can do to change that right now.

[starseedling]

Steven has been looking at the board, and there's a lot to be worried about. On one hand, Peridot did surprisingly well, on the other hand, Amethyst did way worse than he thought. And then there's the other Etas...

Steven glances over at Childermass uncertainly. He wants to ask if he can help, but based on everything he knows about Childermass, that would result in getting stonewalled hardcore.

"What are you going to do?" he asks instead, in a hushed voice.

[atouts]

"Hope there's a trial that suits me coming up, I suppose," Childermass says, though it's difficult not to sound defeated. He doesn't want to play along. He doesn't want them to poke and prod more than they already have. But what else can he do?

"If I don't... I don't care for anyone else doing something foolish on my account."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya lets out a fox-sounding whine as he looks at his own score, tail and shoulders drooping limply. He's staring and worrying over it until he sees someone come up next to him, looking aside.

"... Haha, it's like my test scores," he says as he points right at it. The humor doesn't quite reach his voice, but he tries.

[sunflowerfields]

Too bad, Mom is hovering nearby and she can sense that something is Up.

"Yuya," She says, just the right amount of stern in her tone. "Do you need any help?"

[hippocarnival]

"I'm okay," he offers automatically before weakly flexing his arm. "I just need to work a little harder!"

And maybe not share as much of his work, but he's not going to stop that just for his own sake when others need it more. Especially to make a difference for them.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita approaches the board stiffly, then lets out a sigh of relief, her face brightening for a moment. She did it... After struggling through those first few days, she achieved an 'outstanding' assessment!

Her expression quickly sobers, however, as she reads through the rest of the results. That's a lot of red... and some of them, whether directly or indirectly, may be partially her fault.

[atouts]

"You seem to be doing very well, Ms. Mordio," Childermass says, having lingered by the results to read over them himself, even after seeing his own poor outcome.

[anti_nonsense]

"Yeah..." Rita replies in a murmur. She's partly proud, because it took a lot of effort to achieve. But she's also not, because this kind of achievement can only come at the expense of others. And with the board right in front of her, she can clearly see that Childermass isn't doing so well.

"...You gonna be okay, old man?" she asks after a moment.

[kingsroads]

Strange is glaring at that scoreboard with an expression that plainly states if he could set the damn thing on fire, he'd definitely do so. Below expectations? This is bullshit! So much bullshit!

Well, he knows what his strategy is now.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya, meanwhile, leans over nearby to review the board... and lets out an audible sigh of relief to see the satisfactory marking. So he has an idea the amount of work he needa to float along now.

[kingsroads]

Strange gives Syrlya a look that straight up implies 'I am going to punch you in your face if you make a sigh of relief again.'

"Well, I'm glad to see that someone's doing good."

[scientificist]

Herbert, leaning on the scoreboard, tries to prod Strange with his hand to get his attention, and when that doesn't quite reach at his slumped angle, bats him in the stomach with his new gross tail.

"It's a mind game," he says. The rest of his sweat might get cleaned up by the suit but his face still has a sheen to it and his hair looks awful.

[kingsroads]

As Herbert thumps Strange with his tail, Strange looks over at the other man with a look of pure annoyance. He's done just as well with the farming as Herbert has. How the hell has he done better than him?! The fact that Herbert looks like death only serves to make Strange even more pissed off about all of this.

"It's ridiculous, that's what it is."

[moonfang]

Zangetsu looks a bit more cheerful than he did when he spoke to Strange the other day... it's not much, but there's at least more spark in his eyes than before.

"Hmm. I thought you were gonna work your way up to the top?"

[kingsroads]

The expression that Strange gives Zangetsu is plainly 'I am going to throw something at your stupid spirit head.' This isn't even Strange being lightly annoyed or grumpy or pouty about various teasing. Strange is downright pissed in a way that he hasn't been in a good long while.

"Zangetsu, may I kindly request you back the hell off."

[betheman]

Gongenzaka is noticing that look. He's also noticing that his name has a bright green spot next to it. Hmm. Hmmm...

His ears pin back at Yuuya's. Also. Red.

"Auhh....Do you...suppose those of you in 'Red' will..." ...Suffer? Badly?? He's worried, oh,

[kingsroads]

As Gon is like the fourth person to talk to Strange about his status, Strange just isn't having it. The limit to his patience was reached like two threads ago and right now he just wants to stew, take account of everyone's statuses, plan a different course of attack, and not deal with people giving him grief.

"What do you think will happen," he hisses, giving Gongenzaka a look that implies he'll claw his stupid plantdog eyes out if Gon even thinks about giving him shit for his status.

[whattaprick]

Lambert doesn’t have much of a reaction to his own results. They’re more or less what he expected, after all. It’s some of the other results that have him raising his eyebrows.

“Guess they want us working smarter, not harder,” he comments idly. “Looks like some people will have to pick up the slack.”

[kingsroads]

"This is bullshit," Strange grumbles, not even bothering to hide his annoyance. He knows Lambert will listen to him kvetch, so he's going to kvetch about it. "Sans spends half the day asleep! How the hell is that productive?!"

He's managed to piece out that 'productive' means 'test subjects'...but dammit, why the hell didn't they tell them that earlier?!

[whattaprick]

"Well, Sans is also missing his tail and occasionally curling up in agony, for a trial that was supposed to leave him able to go back to work," Lambert supplies helpfully.

"Maybe productivity is just another word for pain. How much you get depends on how much you're willing to take."

[alphudo]

Yuusei would normally breathe a sigh of relief and perhaps even be pleased with himself that he seems to have done so well this period, but a number of things keep him from doing that. One is the sense that he shouldn't be too complacent in all of this; those watching over them would want him to be pleased, and he's not going to just reveal that now. There's also the matter of intermittent pain shooting through the lower section of his spine thanks to the first trial he took on.

Mostly, though, any sense of pride is stifled by a choke as he sees how Carly and Yuugo performed; he didn't even think to check on either of them...!

[amphibiopathic]

"No no no noooo..." Unlike Yuusei, Eruka isn't remotely worried about other people; she's mostly worried about herself.

"This isn't fair!"

[spaghettimonster]

Papyrus' reaction to the board is a largely happy things. Admittedly, the changes in colors aren't a good thing for a lot of people, and after that trial Papyrus isn't sure how many trials he can do and still have any labor to give to other people... But, at the very least, his conspiring to help his brother paid off. Sans is still in the Epsilon rating, with an even higher score from his own unfortunate trials, and with any luck, his brother will soon be in a position to learn some things and share what he learns.

His grin gets a little rigid when he considers what could happen if they don't get some luck sooner than later, given this place might have its own terrible underbelly like the Manor did... He'll need to think of something to make some luck.