⇨ POLARIS 2.0

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Days 110 - 114
Where: Polaris
What: After a mysterious explosion shakes the station, the staff of Polaris struggle to maintain order while the test subjects fight for freedom with the aid of hidden allies. Productivity info is here.
Warnings: More graphic experimentation.

THEORY & CONCLUSION↴ At the midnight between Day 109 and Day 110, something happens. For most people, it won't be clear what - yet, they are shaken by it just the same. Violent tremors appear out of nowhere, rattling the entirety of the Polar station, violent enough to throw sleeping test subjects off their bunks. The source is unclear, but there is a sudden flurry of activity from staff as power flickers and is lost in various parts of the facility. Subjects, for the most part, will be left to their cells while they try to sort things out. The next morning, the staff are late picking people up. It's more like 6:30AM than the usual 6AM when they arrive to take people to the farm, which is a bit of tardiness that is entirely without precedent. Any questions about the incident the previous night will be waved off with the explanation of 'technical difficulties' that have been 'resolved.' ► DELTA: The three new Deltas will be left in their cells for even longer, waiting to be picked up, instructed that they would be escorted elsewhere instead of to the farm. Around 6:45AM some unfamiliar technicians will arrive and tell them that they are here to begin their processing into Delta. They are led into a previously untouched section of the station, where they are invited into a somewhat more intimate medical room to be asked some cursory questions and given a check up. Then, their suits will be removed, and they will be provided with their new uniforms, which they can apply like normal clothes. Delta life begins there. There will be a top level for the initial parts of their processing to be played out. Ultimately, however, they will end up being given a tour of the new Delta facilities, which amounts to a waterfront area that borders the new apartments they'll be staying in, as well a small supply shop where they can pick up an allotted amount of 'amenities' per day, based on their level of productivity and other achievements. This includes luxury items like food, pleasant smelling soaps, or other hygiene related tools. There are even small things like decorations or pictures of other places available, though they are fairly expensive. The first day will mostly involve the processing, a tour, and some basic training regarding the new tools they will be using, such as the mandatory visors and basic computer access. The next day, observation shifts in the farm will start, as will participation in trials. ► FARMING: The Farm will continue as normal, though it seems like there are fewer staff observing it at the moment. The ones that are there seem a little bit more tense than usual. Power is still down in some places, but the Farm is thankfully still active. Sometimes the productivity turn-in scanners might be a bit glitchy, so try not to panic if it measures fewer points than you're due. ► TRIALS: Trials are continuing as projected, though with the most broad of experiments already under way, they may be more selective. If you have an idea for a trial you can be sure to share it with the staff, and they will take it under advisement! Any information you want to provide is encouraged, they will say, especially if it involves notable traits about you or your fellow test subjects - or perhaps behavioral patterns you've noticed. You might even be rewarded!

Comments

[hippocarnival]

What does not too loud mean??

Finding things? Like Ignatius? They always move us between the farm and cells, we can't walk very far.

Damn, he hasn't seen Strange yet since they last spoke. He wishes he could have told him to wait.

[ringleaders]

The vents all seem to curve around before getting too deep, or to anything resembling a 'core', as if the framework is built to only circulate the one area of the station and not go any deeper.

What's worse, not long after Strange turns into his fire form, something that looks vaguely like a roomba is going to start chasing him through the vent, trying to hose him down with vapor spray that will freeze like ice and try to put him out.

It will totally ignore Eruka.

[atouts]

What is even happening... Alright, they can't hear him if he speaks. That leaves a pretty obvious sign to try correspondence with this mystery archer. He just needs a—

"Ah," Childermass looks down at his other hand, now holding a quill pen. That makes about as much sense as the arrow so he doesn't really dwell on it. He'll turn the first note over and write 'WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU MEAN?'

And what? It's not as though he can hand it to them? He stares down at the note for a bit, then at the arrow.

"But I don't have a bow," he mutters, running into the same ridiculous dilemma as he did previously and not even realizing it. Does he just throw it? Well, yes, he'll do that. He'll chuck the damn thing back the way it came.

[ringleaders]

It says 'out loud', Yuya.

'MY SENSES WON'T PENETRATE THE STATION.

BUT FROM THE INSIDE YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO TRACK HIM.'

[ringleaders]

It's a while later when an arrow finally comes back to him.

'I THOUGHT WE WENT OVER THIS

ALSO THAT MESSAGE BARELY GOT TO ME

WHAT'S GOING ON?'

[hippocarnival]

You said someone's inside. At the core? Can we contact them?

Should we find them, or find Igantius and tell you?

[kingsroads]

And then everything goes to shit.

When danger roomba gets back on the scene, Eruka straight up panics and turns into her cold steam form, meaning she’s totally useless as Strange gets chased away. by the time she gets herself back together, she has no idea where he’s gone, and she sure as hell thinks his go to the core idea was stupid in the first place, so she’s going to work on trying to find an exit, trying to follow the flow of air circulation in the vents to see if there might be a way that heads towards a different, less core-y part of the station. Ideally she’d like to get back to the farm, but she may not exactly remember how considering how far they’ve gone

Strange's plan has suddenly shifted to get the hell away from the roomba. The thing chases him until Strange finds the first exit he can find that isn't swarming with Technicians. He'll pop out of the vent there, still in fire form, and wait to see what room he landed in before he does anything else.

[ringleaders]

'LET THEM COME TO YOU.

WE NEED TO MAKE THIS A UNITED EFFORT.

ATTACK ALL AT ONCE.'

[atouts]

'Something happened.' Obviously. So this is someone he should know? 'If we've spoken before, I've forgotten.'

This time when he chucks it back, he'll direct it on wind magic instead, shooting it along through a stream of wind rather than just chucking it haphazardly into the dark.

[hippocarnival]

Okay, I'll try not to act by myself.

Jury's out of he has to if he drops to Theta, though.

I'll share his location. Anything else?

[ringleaders]

Against all odds, Eruka rolls a 20 on escaping and saving her ass, and a manages to follow the air currents directly back to the Farm. She even does it fast enough that she gets to her suit (and Tadpole Jackson), shortly before the little guy accidentally hauls it into the path of some oncoming technicians. She will have to zip back into there quickly and pretend she was laying on the ground in a pile, and that's totally what they saw.

As for Strange, he emerges into one of the examination labs. Unfortunately, one of the local machine arms immediately comes to life, somehow spotting his arrival.

"PRESENCE OF UNDOCUMENTED FLAME DETECTED. EXTERMINATING."

Then it attempts to spray him in the face with the same shit the roomba was chasing him with.

Late 110-Early 111

[whattaprick]

Perhaps surprisingly, Lambert shows up on the farm late in the afternoon of Day 110, looking tired but otherwise alert. Whatever has been done to him isn’t immediately obvious, but he’s moving stiffly and — from his expression— evidently with some degree of pain. Where his bodysuit molded around the thick muscle of his tail, it seems much thinner now, and oddly ridged and segmented, though it still seems to move independently.

Notably, he isn’t taking part in farmwork. Instead, he can be found doing small menial tasks around the farm, like using a power spray to hose down farm equipment or organizing scattered tools. He won’t be actively avoiding people, though his demeanor is subdued, and his voice has an air of forced cheer as he speaks up to whoever he might have ended up close to.

“Friendly advice: I can’t really recommend working in Theta, so you’d better not be joining me.”

[chronosynthesis]

"I can only think of one person who might be imbuing more than one of us with that sort of feeling." Ignatius, obviously. It's not familiar to Syrlya, but it arrived outside the usual pattern for him to assume it wasn't any Technician or experiment.

But he doesn't know what else it means, yet.

[kingsroads]

And that one hits. As Strange's flame is snuffed out, he turns back to his very human & suuuper naked self. He'll try to poof back into smoke but who knows how fast this thing is and how the machine arm will react to presence of undocumented weird poison smoke detected.

[whattaprick]

Talkative bunch, aren’t they? Lambert looks them over one more time, then snorts, moving to settle down on the bed again. Damn it, his back really does hurt...

“The fun just never ends here, does it? No wonder Shimmer and Scald got out.” He keeps an eye on their reactions, though for all he knows, they don’t know those two as more than just their rank and a series of numbers.

[ringleaders]

The robot seems to let him do that, though it's a bit confused by what's going on.

"POTENTIAL HAZARD OBSERVED. RECORDING."

It sprays him again as he enters his smoke form, which is really just balls cold.

[kingsroads]

"I am," Strange says, with a little nod. He frowns a little, biting his lip, before he speaks again.

"This might be a bit callous to say, but I hope you can find a good enough trial to raise your rank."

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya's relief at seeing Lambert again lasts .3 seconds before he notices a change in his tail and familiarly stiff movements. By this point Syr has a more cooperative arm, but then there's still all the blue around his face, his eyes and hair, and they both know what that look resembles.

"Lambert," he starts slowly. "What happened?"

[ringleaders]

The other technician looks at Gamma-238 in confusion, who only frowns and keeps staring at the screens.

"Theta-701 is attempting social manipulation," they say. "Simply record and do not engage."

[hippocarnival]

Ah, the trials. Yuya's gaze floats down. "I... I know you don't mean it that way." Gongenzaka didn't, either. Putting Yuya through that pain was never intentional, but it--Yuya sucks in a sharp breath.

"Her poison still scares me," he admits in a rush, a faint tremor being barely held back in his voice. "I couldn't focus on what they did after that."

It's the uncertainty that leaves him more afraid.

LATE 110

[soft_focus]

Know who's been panicking, quietly? This kid. It's to the point where she lashed out just a bit at Yuuya over it- and while she might have Mostly smoothed that over later, the consequences remain.

It doesn't take words to get any reaction from Reira however- no, as soon as she sees him she runs over full tilt to latch her arms around for a hug.

"Y...You're not gone..!"

She's not yet caught the difference in tail.

Or quite cottoned on to the internal emotions going on, for that matter.

[kingsroads]

Jesus Christ, this is annoying.

Strange is far too stubborn to give up right now (plus he's got a feeling this dumb thing's recorded his face so he's kind of fucked no matter what! Might as well try to get something useful out of this!) He'll float back into the vents and do a bit more searching. This time, however, he's specifically looking for rooms that look like he can see stairs or an elevator from his tiny little vent hole.

[whattaprick]

Lambert gives the more hapless technician a shitty little grin.

“What, you haven’t heard of them?” he asks, liltingly. He only has this account second-hand, so he has to scrape the details from his memory of Strange’s reports, but spite is a good motivator.

“They worked for the Mother of Invention, just the same as you. Cutting up changelings, helping her figure out a way to make iron hurt fae less, or whatever else she’s trying to do here. Worked their way right up to the top, got high enough to be trusted to go out there and—” He raises a hand and spreads his fingers wide, making a pshewww sound. “—they ran.”

He settles back down, still thinking out loud. “‘Course, they never said anything about the rest they left behind. Did the Mother of Invention even care, or did she just some other sucker to promote?”

[ringleaders]

The closest he finds is a closed gateway that has an upwards arrow painted above it, which is possibly an elevator? Unfortunately, it looks locked, and there is no vent path inside. How long will he observe it?

[ringleaders]

'IF YOU DO FIND IGNATIUS

TELL HIM I'M SORRY'