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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Whoa!"

Apparently, Rita chose a bad time (and a bad angle) to approach Strange, because it looks like she startled him so badly she thought he might take a swing at her. She jumps back a step, similarly startled by his reaction.

Though she looks mostly the same as usual, her face is flushed, not with any emotion, but with a feverish heat. While the bodysuit is ever-impervious to sweat, it seems, her bangs stick to her forehead with beads sliding down her face. She wipes some of it away as she asks, "What's with you?"

It's just as the words come out of her mouth that Rita actually sees his eyepatch and fixates on that, her eyes narrowing.

Trying to navigate a sudden blindspot is a pain. Trying to navigate the blindspot when people keep walking in it is even more of a pain than Strange was expecting. As he sees that it's Rita, he calms down, still amazingly tense, but no longer in fight or flight mode.

"They took samples of my mirrors," Strange explains, deliberately underplaying it. After all, the bodysuit covers a lot of the vivisection scars and patches of healing material on his chest and legs. But there's no much you can do about a broken eyeball aside from slap some healing material on that and slap an eyepatch on that.

He frowns a little as he notices how...oddly sweaty Rita is. Surely she couldn't have been working that hard. "What's with you?" he asks, obviously confused.

That they took samples doesn't surprise Rita, and considering what Strange said the last time they spoke, it probably didn't surprise him, either. But from his eyes? Rita's face scrunches up a bit as she continues staring at that eyepatch, and for an uncomfortable moment, imagines what that process might have been like.

But it looks like Strange quickly catches on to the fact that something isn't right with Rita, either, and she takes another step back, holding a hand over her chest, uncertain of how to explain. "It's... also a result of one of the trials. I wanted to talk to you about it, actually. Got time for a break?"

Strange knows a little bit about the Ignatius trial thanks to what Zangetsu told him. Whether Rita's going to talk about that or a different trial entirely, he's not so sure. But no matter what, the fact that she wants to talk to him about one of the trials is a good sign. It'll make things a bit easier when he bugs her about possibly the same trial.

"I do," Strange responds, with a nod. If his hypothesis is correct, signing up for a trial would mark him as satisfactory, even without taking into account the fact that he's been trying to work as hard as possible (because fuck you productivity board). "Shall we go somewhere a little more private?"

Said as he gestures in the vague direction of one of the groves of fruit trees. His aim's a little off but hey, this is on his blind side, he knows it's somewhere vaguely in that area.

Rita nods, then follows his gaze to that grove. It'll do. She walks along with him to the indicated area and, finding a crate seemingly meant for collecting produce, she flips it over and sits on it.

"Right, so..." she begins, absently pressing her hand against her chest. "I've done two trials so far. I thought you'd be interested, because the thing is... both of them had something to do with him." Rita gives Strange a pointed look. He can guess who she means, right?

He does indeed know who she means. And Strange's expression lights up with excitement as Rita obliquely mentions Ignatius. As much as Strange knows he should cut free and forget about Ignatius, he likes the fae too much to actually do that.

"Zangetsu told me about one of the trials. He said he could sense someone who he thought was our man. Since the two of you are closer, did anything different happen with you?"

Rita is his changeling. That's a more intimate relationship than someone who's just signed a contract less than a week ago. Strange doesn't know the ins and outs of the trial's specifics and is obviously waiting for Rita's input, but if Ignatius were to manifest to anybody, it would logically be one of them.

Rita frowns. Does he really have to put it like that? "I don't know about close, but..."

Well, it is hard to deny that they have some kind of connection. It's one that's probably stronger than ever, now that...

She sighs and answers the question. "I sensed it, too... It felt like he was there with me, somehow. There was this... pressure, like his will was being imposed on me. But it wasn't really his. Something was forcing him."

Strange gives Rita a Look. "You're his changeling and I'm his wizard. We've both been physically changed by our stay under him, we're closer than anybody else in the carnival."

Like, it's obvious. This isn't Strange trying to butter them up and seem important, this is Strange pointing out the very obvious fact that if anybody in the carnival is going to have a stronger connection to Ignatius, it's these two.

But back to what Rita's talking about. He can't help but frown a little as Rita mentions the idea of something forcing Ignatius to force his will onto the group. "He's probably strapped up and experimented on even more than we are," Strange sighs. "I wonder...if something like that happens again, do you think you can communicate with him?"

Rita raises one hand to cup her chin, while the other remains pressed against her chest. "Maybe... When it happened, I was able to feel what he was feeling, or some of it. I don't know if he perceived me, too, but if we could recreate that sort of connection, maybe I could try to send my own thoughts down that channel..."

But can they expect the facility to perform a repeat of that first experiment? Or could they find their own way to open such a channel...?

Strange is unintentionally thinking along the same lines. It's good if Rita can send her own thoughts down the connection. The problem, of course, is how to renew it.

"All we need to do is figure out where he is." And then break in there and then free him and then deal with the inevitable Technicians trying to stop them but hey, baby steps. "If the connection can tell us that, then we should take advantage of it...but we'd have to know how the connection works in order to use it."

Not for the first time, Strange really misses his magic. "Thinking hard about it sounds silly, but it's the only thing I can come up with at the moment."

"If I make it to Delta, then maybe I'll be able to get access to that information," Rita says, considering the options. "Other than that... I don't know. It'd be convenient if they decided to retry that earlier trial, considering it didn't seem to give them the results they wanted... but we can't exactly count on that."

She sighs, letting out a slow, ragged breath. Despite resting, she doesn't seem to be sweating any less, and she brushes a hand over her face once again.

"And once again, the easiest solution to our problem is simply to move up in the world." Easy and yet it's still intensely difficult and he's got no idea just how he'll do it aside from 'a shitton of trials' and 'hoping for the best.' Sound strategy, there. "On a different note, do you need any water? You still look terrible."

Strange might only have one working eye at the moment but he's not blind. Rita's sweating a lot, more than expected. They might not need to eat or drink, but there is plenty of water for watering crops. He can just get Rita a watering can or something like that.

With a hand lingering over her forehead, Rita glances over to some nearby farming supplies, and nods at the offer. "...What I'd really like is to get out of this uniform and into a cold shower, but it doesn't look like that's an option."

"A lukewarm watering can of water it is," Strange gently teases. "I'll be right back."

It takes him about five minutes to return because it's surprisingly had to pick things up when your depth perception is shot and your upper arm strength isn't the best. Strange drags over a watering can and sets it down awkwardly close to Rita's feet. Hmm. He thought that was further away than he actually set it.

"Is that from one of the trials?" said as he gestures to Rita's bizarre sweatiness and light-headedness.

Rita jerks her legs to the side when he nearly drops it on her toes, but she doesn't waste time in going for the water. She picks up the watering can and tilts it over her head, dumping a heap of water onto herself. The watering can is then set aside, and she takes a moment to rub her hands over her face, letting the water cool her skin and wash away the sweat. Finally, she gives her hair a shake, then looks back to Strange to address his question.

She starts with a nod. "Yeah... it's..." Though she's already explained it once before, Rita really doesn't know how to just say this.

"...My heart. They took it out and replaced it." She holds a hand over her chest, but there's nothing she can show him to demonstrate this fact.

Strange doesn't do anything like ask how (because magic) or why (most likely a half-assed attempt at research.) Instead, he simply winces as Rita mentioning her heart being replaced. That...well, that sounds positively barbaric. And he's not entirely sure how to respond.

"I'm sorry." But curiosity wins out and Strange can't help but ask, "What did they replace it with?"

Rita's gaze falls to the hand resting over her chest. Unable to see the glowing core, it feels almost like the whole thing might have been a dream. But she knows it wasn't, and this burning in her chest, in her veins, serves as a constant reminder of how real it was.

"A magitek core... something like a blastia. But the magic it generates... it's his." She lifts her eyes to meet Strange's.

Strange understands the significance of what Rita's saying. As she mentions the core and whose magic it is, he meets her eyes. There's a look of horror mixed with a little bit of wonder on his face. Obviously this is absolutely barbaric, completely horrific...but at the same time, a part of Strange can't help but wonder how they did it.

"Well," he simply says. "That makes your connection to him closer than ever."

Rita folds her arms uncomfortably. "I suppose..." If this were two weeks ago, it would be a terrifying reality for her, to be bound to Ignatius in such an intimate way. Now... she still isn't thrilled about it, but she doesn't consider that to be the worst part of the ordeal. There are so many worse things, like the horror of seeing herself cut open and helpless, or the fact that she had a perfectly good heart that, for all she knows, is rotting in a trash bin somewhere, and...

"This thing... it feels like it's burning me up from inside. It shouldn't be possible for a human body to contain it like this..." And right now, one of her fears is that it isn't possible, that she's just going to overheat and die, and there's nothing she can do.

"Then it's a good thing we aren't humans anymore," Strange responds, as he points to his eye, realizes that he's pointing to the eyepatched one, and then swaps hands so that he's pointing to his unhurt eye. He's got eyeballs made of mirrors and Rita can fly: human is negotiable.

"As for your heart...I know this sounds callous, but you'll just have to deal with it for now. We can try to find a solution once we leave this place or one of us moves up to Delta."

Callous is right. Rita doesn't look too happy with that response.

"Hmph," she scoffs. "I'm almost there, anyway. I just need to keep working for a little longer..." How long is 'a little longer'? She doesn't know. She wants to believe that this next evaluation will be the one to place her in Delta, but it's not like there's any guarantee of that. She doesn't know how much time they have...

There's a small little pause before Strange starts very tentatively talking again.

"I realize asking this is an imposition. However, if you make it to Delta before I do, can you try and get a look at my lab records? They withdrew something silvery from my brain that didn't look at all like my interior mirrors. I'd like to know what it is."

He knew the Silver Mirror had changed him. He just didn't know to what extent: the silvery whatever is equal parts interesting and worrisome.

Also surpriiiise, Strange has inside mirrors now. Does Rita know that? He's not sure if she knows that.

"From your brain...?" Rita knits her brow. There's another uncomfortable mental image to consider.

No, what's more than that... "What do you mean, your interior mirrors?" That is, in fact, news to Rita, as he can probably tell from the disturbed look on her face.

He didn't tell her about that before? Whoops. Strange's tone of voice is very matter of fact but a little wary, as if he expects Rita to yell at him any moment.

"My veins, organs, and some of my bones are covered in a thin mirrored coating. I don't know the extent of what's covered, but underneath the skin of my legs, face, and arms are covered in that coating."

Strange pauses for a moment before he realizes, "On the bright side, this means you can't punch me anymore!"

Yeah, no, that's screwed up. Rita just stares with a look that's equal parts perplexed and horrified. Not that her internal organs are looking all that normal right now, but still, what the hell.

"I knew we should have gotten you out of there sooner..." she mumbles, once she seems to find her voice again. She can't even bring herself to comment on that bit about her punching.

"So... what the hell does that mean? There's glass in there? You bang your elbow, and it'll just... shatter?"

⇨ POLARIS

day 108

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