lostcarnival | ⇨ POLARIS

Entry tags:

⇨ POLARIS

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.

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Syrlya's definitely one of those doing better in the second week, although he realizes he's still short a trial. He's been attentive of the job board, and so he's caught on after a bit what the Triad trials probably refer to.

Steven looks so lost, standing there, so Syrlya drops his sheers and makes his way from the push to Steven's side. He crouches down to his level, not trying to startle or surprise him.

"Steven. Do you need any help?" He won't specify what. He'll let Steven fill in those blanks.

Steven startles when Syrlya talks, despite his efforts to avoid it. He was lost in his own head. He looks at Syrlya for a moment, and then rubs his eyes with his hands, crouching down next to his basket and putting the fruit inside.

"I dunno," he says, his voice quiet. "We can't really help each other, can we?"

He feels like maybe he's a lost cause, now. Just like most of the Eta.

"That depends what you need help with, I suppose. But I don't intend to turn my back on anyone," he says it calming, with a faint smile.

"It was painful, wasn't it?" The trial. He suspects they all are, and it's a clear message that they aren't allowed to deny them. It's a situation Syrlya thinks he could pull through... but there are other, much more vulnerable people here. "I'm sorry."

Steven doesn't really want to describe it, so instead, he just holds out the hand that is now missing a pinkie finger, which is conspicuous even through the coating of his body suit. There are more important things that are messed up right now, of course, but he doesn't know if Syrlya understands gems well enough to know how messed up it is.

"Yeah," he says, his voice still really quiet, like he's worried that speaking too loud might offend somebody that could hurt him again in his moment of vulnerability. "I shouldn't have ignored them the first time. I just made everything worse."

Missing a finger when he's this troubled means there's probably more missing, but he can't guess the gem immediately on his own. Still, he's not going to press for details because that's not the important part of this.

"It's understandable. We do not really want to give them everything they ask of us. Especially like this." Syrlya certainly dodged trials, and if he wasn't at Eta status he probably wouldn't have done a single one and skated by on farm work.

"Is it still wearing you out?"

He did okay last week, but with Amethyst falling behind and the time he missed for this trial with nothing to make up for it, he is worried about this upcoming cycle end. It's hard to articulate what's wrong with him right now.

"It... kind of hurts? But..." He stares down at his hands again. "I just can't... focus or anything. Everything feels really weird, and..." He sniffles, tearing up. "I don't know what the point is if they're just going to make us fail anyway..."

He's been so set to try to boost other people up, but Childermass is right, it's impossible. They made it so it's impossible, so they'd feel exactly like this.

"It's..." He explained it to Strange, but somehow it's a little harder to deliver the cold truth to Steven. Is this how other races usually feel about kids?

"They are not concerned with our feelings or failures. They are seeking answers to their own goal. But--" He puts a hand on Steven's shoulder. "We aren't like them, and we've pulled each other out of equally harrowing situations. We can do it again, but we need to be strong enough to take it a step at a time."

Steven falls quiet for a few moments, thinking about that. He's not the sort of person who pushes away people's attempts of positivity without considering it. He really wants to be optimistic. It's just so hard sometimes.

Finally, he swallows and wipes his eyes again.

"We need to help the people in Eta first... if they don't get help... you guys might have something even worse happen."

If he fails this time, at least he won't be immediately demoted. Amethyst wasn't. Maybe he just needs to take the fall this time.

"You're right about that." They're the lowest denominator, and the closest to sliding off this slippery slope. "But you needn't worry about me. I know how to keep myself from slipping further."

With painful trials. "But you cannot help if you let yourself fall to our level. Then we have one more person we have to save, so--why don't we work together for a bit, until you are steady enough on your own."

Syrlya's not getting hit with the same physical exhaustion so far. He can afford putting extra effort on top of his usual for a moment to help.

He's a bit hesitant, but he tentatively nods his head. He stands up again slowly, picking up his basket with both hands. He really misses his super strength.

"Okay," he says. His ears are folded back and his wings are tucked in closely as he contemplates things. "I was just... I thought that maybe if people take turns failing, so that other people succeed... if we all bobbed up and down so much, they wouldn't know who to demote."

Of course, it seems like there are consequences for being at Below Expectations, but wouldn't it be easier to bear for only four days at a time?

"That's a clever idea. I suspect they would find a way to break the pattern, however."

It's hard to say how much time that would take, however. Would they catch on immediately, or could it buy them a couple weeks of time?

He looks thoughtful as he plucks a fruit free and places it into the basket. "But it may be the delay that we need. I'll field the idea to Lambert and Sans, see what they think. Until then, do not fail yourself until we have an order for it."

There's not enough productivity for everyone, but there's also not so little than half the carnival fails. They may be able to cycle a group of this while others work to an elevated position.

The testing staff could always break the pattern just by arbitrarily demoting people, or punishing people for gaming the system in the first place, but it's his only good idea. Or, at least, his only idea that seems like it could work at all.

Steven nods a little, still feeling dazed and distracted. They're already halfway through this testing cycle, and he's not sure what will happen if people fail twice in a row. He grips his belly again.

"I just don't want to fight each other. Childermass said that he thought they were going to try to make us do that, because that's what the Winter Court is like."

And with these trials being the alternative to screwing people over... hoo boy. He slowly starts picking fruit again, his hands feeling clumsy and numb, ruminating on it all.

"Then... let's not. If what they want is to break our unity, then it is all the more important that we work together as one." Which is easier said than done, but at least they've never left people for dead before.

He drops a couple more fruits into the basket. "You are not alone as they try to tell you. They want to break your will, so you cannot let them."

"They didn't," he says, tentatively, but his expression shifts to something wary. There are complications now that there weren't before. "But..."

"They took my gem," he says, laying a hand over his belly where it usually is. The hole is beneath his suit, but he can feel when it dips instead of bulging. "It... It's like half of what I am. If they have it, I don't know what they might end up doing..."

So maybe this is a preemptive apology for messing anything else up later.

"Oh." Syrlya only knows pieces of what the hell gems are, but he at least knows that's something integral to Steven's actual anatomy in a way that... well, it's probably not unlike the way he's lost his connection to his people out here. Except a lot more personal.

"Stevenm I'm sorry... can you still feel it?" That's probably a really weird question, but. Magic rock from the belly, you never know.

"Kind of..." he says, unsure of how to describe it. "It's... It's kind of like it's still attached to me, even if it's not here."

He frowns, looking up at Syrlya.

"I don't think I can even live without it, so I'd probably know if it was gone for real. It's kind of like... a brain, for gems."

Ah, shoot. He hopes the Technicians have figured that and don't try and smash the thing.

"We will get it back." And hopefully find a way to put it back in him?? "Until then... will you be all right?"

He doesn't want to see Steven slip into Theta because of trauma from losing his gem. Like, it's understandable, but the less people that disappear before they have a plan of action the better.

"I don't know," he says softly, looking back down at his work. "I guess so."

It's hard to be more enthusiastic than that, because inwardly he already feels like this cycle is going to wind up with him in the red. Of course, nobody got demoted last week from being in the red, but...

"But I'm probably going to get Below Expectations, and then... and then I'll have to be hungry all the time, and it'll just make everything worse."

"I know." There's really no sugar coating the reality of that. "But if you can focus on the farming... that should be enough to keep you going, and if you succeed after then perhaps the hunger will lessen."

They really don't know the qualifications of this, and the Technicians aren't really the most informative group. Still, better to give Steven a little hope. "If you need any help, I will find a way. Do not forget we still have each other, and we are all holding on until we escape."

He offers him a faintly reassuring smile. "Can you trust us enough for that?"

Steven looks up at Syrlya again, and despite everything, his expression softens as he offers a more genuine smile. He's got a weak spot for that kind of sap, okay.

"Of course I can," he says. "You're my friends."

It seems like he's reminding himself of that as much as he's telling Syr.

There's a brief flicker of surprise in Syrlya's expression. But then he just lets out a breath, holding that faint smile.

"That's right. You have friends here, Steven."

He wonders, himself, if there's really anyone in the carnival he'd call a friend. He's not going to argue with Steven about their closeness, but... it's been a while since he's been so comfortably open with people. Without being drunk.

He's thrown a lot away for duty, but there's a numbness to it that he can't quite find regret in.

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⇨ POLARIS

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