⇨ 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

evening of day 106

[drrdrrdrr]

When Peridot enters the room she's been assigned for tonight she'll find Amethyst already lying on her back on the bottom bunk with her paws in the air. She sits up when the door opens, and smiles tiredly. "Hey, Peridot. You been showin' those weird space vegetables who's boss?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot looks up with disbelief at the sound of the familiar voice. To her, being on Polaris has just felt like one single excruciatingly long and unimaginably miserable day. Seeing that she's bunking with Amethyst is a sorely needed pinpick of a bright spot amidst all the doom and gloom.

"Amethyst," she says, sounding weary but nonetheless pleasantly surprised. She pads over to the bottom bunk, pauses a second, and then promptly lets herself drop onto it face-down. Then she drags herself up into the space between her and the wall.

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst grabs her with both hands and hauls her up so Peridot is just lying on top of her. "Yup. You doin' OK?"

[periphrasing]

"Do I really need to answer that," she groans dispiritedly, putting her face on her girlfriend's chest in such a way that that their gems would be touching, if Amethyst's wasn't covered up by her stupid body suit.

[drrdrrdrr]

"Nah," says Amethyst, tugging vaguely and uselessly at the neck of her bodysuit. She's in theory never had a huge problem with her gem being concealed -- the way she usually dresses it's half-obscured most of the time -- but it turns out having it covered up completely like this? Super uncomfortable! "This place blows chunks." A brief pause. "You seen any animals around this 'farm' yet?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot lifts her head, a quizzical expression on her face.

"Animals?"

She rolls off of Amethyst to curl up at her side instead. The body suit makes laying on top of her pretty uncomfortable, she's decided. "Negative. I'm almost positive that the Farm is devoid of fauna by design. Why? Did you see something?"

[drrdrrdrr]

"Yeah, I mmiiight have made some kind of pact with a weird rabbit? But I dunno what for."

[periphrasing]

You know what? Normally, Peridot would probably be having an anxiety about Amethyst making 'pacts' with weird magical anything. Not this time, though! Things are already so shitty, it's hard to get worked up worrying about the possibility of negative consequences.

"Weird how?"

[drrdrrdrr]

Honestly, that was Amethyst's exact thought process!

"It like, gave me a leaf with a weird sigil on it and asked me to 'accept'...?" She sighs, and shrugs. "I dunno, I figured things couldn't get any worse."

[periphrasing]

"So... It was a talking rabbit," she says flatly. Her mind briefly falls on Samyaza, but... Nah. That's a stretch, she tells herself. She's definitely just going there because her mind is searching her memories for any rabbit or hare related information that she can think of.

[drrdrrdrr]

She shakes her head. "Nah, it was some kind of weird telepathy stuff? Y'know, it didn't actually ask, I just knew I had to pick..."

[periphrasing]

Well. Peridot has heard of stranger happenings before.

She has questions, but... Since she knows for sure now that there's some kind of monitoring device planted inside of these cells, she's hesitant to have Amethyst divulge too many details.

"Um... Maybe don't get too specific, but. Did agreeing with the rabbit give you. Um..." She pauses, trying to choose her words carefully. She's so bad at this whole 'being subtle and indirect' thing?

"Would you say that your encounter with it was... a positive experience?"

[drrdrrdrr]

"Uh..." It takes a moment for her to figure out what Peridot is getting at with this, but Peridot is so bad at it that it's hard not to catch on. "Uh... yeah. Yeah, I think so."

[periphrasing]

It's hard to describe Peridot's reaction to this hinted information. She doesn't want to get her hopes up without knowing any further details, but she's also so desperate for any lick of good news that she can't help but feel sort of elated. Maybe someone knows they're here, and they want to help.

"I found out that these cells have extremely well hidden cameras in them," she mutters very quietly, needlessly clarifying her reason for being so squirrely with her questions.

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst nods glumly. "Yeah... go figure." She makes a fart sound with her mouth. "Well, it was probably just some kind of regular farm stuff anyway," she says a little louder than necessary. "If these guys are listening we probably shouldn't be, I dunno, boring 'em with that kinda stuff."

Then she rolls onto her side to look at Peridot with an exaggeratedly stoic expression on her face. "And we definitely shouldn't make them have to sit through a whole bunch of gross kissing noises and talking about our feelings."

[periphrasing]

Peridot, for the first time since arriving on Polaris, breaks into a beaming grin.

"They're just lucky we're physically unable to remove these cruddy suits," she purrs menacingly, flashing sharp teeth.

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst grins back. "Suuuure are! I think we can get pretty gross without even taking 'em off, though."

[periphrasing]

As if in agreement, she lets out one of those dumb, nasally sounding snickers-- "Nyeheheheh--" and then tenderly leans in and. Mashes her lips against Amethyst's.

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst goes out of her way to make this as moist and sloppy as possible, even without the use of a second mouth. Unfortunately for anyone who might genuinely be tasked with monitoring this kind of thing, she's really adept at moist and sloppy.