lostcarnival | ⇨ POLARIS 2.0

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⇨ POLARIS 2.0

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!

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She's rooming with Jasper! So she'll probably convince her to keep an eye out while she works.

Once she has that made, things are gonna get a bit risky... but she's sort of running on limited options here. She's gonna get out Stumpy's pokeball, and some tape. She's gonna tape that fuckin camera to that fuckin isopod, and she's going to let Stumpy loose into the ceiling through the hole that she cut the camera out of.

She doesn't expect Stumpy to come back any time soon. She's pretty much sending there out to do some recon in the hopes that her naturally small size and flat stature will let her get around the facility undetected. Pokemon are pretty smart, so she's going to try and convey the following instructions:

1. DON'T LET ANYONE SEE YOU.
2. If you are seen, do not get caught at ANY cost. Use any moves necessary to secure your escape.
3. Your primary objective is to explore the facility and record a general layout of it beyond the areas where the subjects are allowed to wander.
4. Be careful, and remember Peridot loves you very much. Smooches.

Assuming Stumpy makes it back, I'll have some followup questions about the footage she manages to record but let's just see how successful the little bug is first!

Syrlya doesn't actually mind skipping the small talk, when it feels like every minute counts.

"I've been better." Honestly, even if he's still not inclined to admit how bad it was. He crouches closer to Steven's level, his good hand holding the rake straight against the ground.

"Actually... I was hoping I could talk to you about what happened with the Blue Rose, back in the Athenaeum."

Before we can get to Stumpy stuff, I think there might be a misunderstanding here is regards to scale.

1) The camera in the wall was smaller than a pinkie nail, and so the hole created by its removal is nowhere near big enough for Stumpy to get through.

2) I was not assuming that she cut a big hole all the way through the cell wall to the outside. Trying to get through the outer layer would be a problem and would also be super obvious. The assumption was that she was removing something from the interior of the wall, not cutting all the way through it. Right now my assumption is that the hole made to do this was a finger's width and nothing more.

So, at the moment there's no way to commence the "releasing Stumpy" part of the plan because there isn't a big or deep enough hole.

Steven immediately looks uncomfortable, that whole event being something that gives him shivers whenever he has to remember it. He looks away from Syrlya, his lips pressed in a line as he tries to push down the fear.

"Oh... Yeah? What about it..." It doesn't help that he just recently had them open up his chest and pluck the seeds that the Rose Queen put in there out. The whole thing was clearly Rose-motivated.

It's a while to wait, but it's not like Lambert has anything better to do. During that time, his attention shifts between the techs and the display: does the green dot move at all, during that time, or remain stationary?

He doesn't have any particular hope of escape, even when he's eventually left alone with the saltier of the technicians -- considering he may or may not be missing some parts of his anatomy right now -- but given the general flashing lights and how clearly distracted everyone is, it doesn't make sense not to take a chance. He speaks up, just loud enough to get the tech's attention.

"So does this ... happen a lot?" If he has to lose his spine, he's determined to at least keep his sense of humor, even if the words are dragged out and faintly slurred with pain (only partly for effect).

"You don't seem ... surprised."

The green dot stays where it is. It seems like a stationary marker on the overall drawing.

The technician ignores him, this go around, just sitting hunched over at the console table in an ostensibly grouchy manner.

"Foolish," is all they say.

Well, that's where this just gets worse.

"They requested me for a trial a couple days ago, and... I suspect the seeds they planted in my arm came from it." From Steven, but he's mindful not to outright say that. He doesn't want Steven to feel responsible for this.

"So I wanted to ask how it felt to you, after we retrieved you." After the Rose Queen wasn't actively manipulating it. He wonders how much of this connection is just him.

His ears fold back, clearly not liking the sounds of that at all. He already knew that Syrlya had been touched by the Rose before, but it never seemed as out of control as it was with him.

"...My hands and feet were all crystal for a while," he says, hesitantly. "It didn't even feel like... like me, at all. And... even once that went away, its kind of like the feeling of it is always there. It's especially loud when I'm near Mr Strange, or..."

He glances at Syrlya, trailing off, zeroing in on a sensation he's just been sort of ignoring as a weird side effect before. There is a faint connection of magic between him and Syrlya, like the Rose parts of both of them recognize their kind. Syrlya's arm will get excited and want to grab at Steven, even if he ultimately manages to stop it.

As Yuya mentions Ignatius, Strange can't help but perk up a little. So he wasn't the only one who felt that? Strange doesn't know if that's good or that's worrying.

"I felt him as well," he whispers, under his breath, as he brings his hand up to his heart. And for all of Strange trying to school his emotions and trying to seem like he's disaffected about a lot of this, here's the part where he breaks. Ignatius is hurt and suffering despite the fact that he's done so much for Strange. Strange doesn't want to let that stand.

"I'm afraid that something's happened to him," Strange admits, looking over at Yuya. Hell, might as well tell somebody who isn't Eruka. That way if they're fucked over, at least someone still in the system knows. "I have power right now, though I don't know how long it will last. While I've got this, I'm going to act and I'm going to try and save him."

Syrlya grabs his crystal arm quickly, tightly, his expression becoming briefly tense.

"I see." He tries not to grit his teeth. "You said it became stronger around Strange? Was that after he was influenced by the Silver Mirror?"

Resonating with the other Miracles, that's new. At the time he saw Strange, he'd really been too preoccupied with all of it to notice if any of it was their proximity. Burr he's not inclined to find him right now.

"Yeah," Steven says, pleasantly oblivious of the Rose's grabbiness. "And... I felt the same thing when Lilith captured me. When she was there, it was like... we were connected, and I could feel the Mirror through her, because she made it a part of herself."

Of course, Lilith had been a lot more powerful than him, with a much stronger grasp on the Miracle in question. The Blue Rose just does whatever it wants, and its hard to imagine using it for anything constructive.

Yuya looks up, finally. It was Strange, too, so maybe Rita also...?

"There's someone who wants to help us, as long as we help Ignatius." His voice becomes a little stronger, then, breaking through the despair of their situation. "I wanted to anyway, but they'll come if we find him. I can help!"

He doesn't even know what Strange's plan is, he just desperately wants this to be the break they need to escape. "If Ignatius reached me the same way, then..."

Syrlya nods once, battling the urge with the Blue Rose. It's been a long game of resistance, but he knows how inclined it is to keep growing with no sense. That was less alarming when it wasn't planted directly into him.

"And the Blue Rose itself? Could you still feel its pull, even after the seeds were dormant?" He assumes they went dormant, since some of the crystal seemed to reverse.

Lambert doesn't have enough information to make sense of the image beyond the obvious notion that the red flashing thing is probably the core, but he'll commit it to memory as best as he can, in the hope he'll have the chance to pass it on to someone who can actually use it later.

"We're good at foolish," he mutters, looking at the red flashing light. He wonders if someone else would have been able to make more of this situation. A talker like Yuya or Strange. He isn't much of a talker, and talking is all he's got.

With an effort, he carefully levers himself up to sit, or at least attempt to, at the edge of the examination table or whatever he's on. If he's even capable of it or the technician doesn't stop him first.

"Well... I don't know if those seeds were from the Rose," he says, sounding a bit lost in thinking about it. "My... The Rose Queen made them, and the whole thing was that she wanted to get the Rose back, so I don't know how she could have seeds from it."

"I can still feel it sometimes, but it's more like... I feel its feelings, than it trying to make me do anything. The Rose had already changed me, and I think the Rose Queen just did something to make it worse."

"I doubt trying to ask her would go over well," he says wryly, with just a bit of humor.

He glances down at his arm. The Rose Queen was old and had history with the Rose, so he won't doubt its origins. Either way, it seems to be having the same effect.

"I have been... feeling a pull of its energy I had not experienced since I physically held it." He starts slowly, deciding to be honest in case this goes sideways. Something deeper must have been changed in him. "It feels like the Rose's will fighting with my own. I have been trying to keep it tempered."

Just, you know, that leaves him with a crap arm.

It's just a regular bed, like in the other holding cells, except its in a holding cell connected to the examination room, with a force field barrier in between. They can ostensibly see him getting up, but they don't care, because he's locked behind the force field and it isn't their problem.

After another few minutes, a voice identical to the one coming from the drone that met with the Huntsman picks up over some kind of intercom system.

"The Code Red has been resolved," she says, crisply. The reds lights stop flashing, fading to a softer shade of the colour that looks more like an angry scab. The screen seems to be suggesting things about 'hull damage' and the like, but it is no longer critical.

"I guess the seeds made it worse for you, too," Steven says, after a moment. He doubts it would have the same effect on anyone who hadn't already been touched by the Rose... but imagine of the Mother figured out how to clone those effects onto anybody. He frowns, staring at the ground.

"When I was rooted into the ground, my fingers and toes were growing roses all over the place, that I couldn't really control, and I could feel the Rose trying to make me come to it." He's staring at his hands, flexing his fingers. "All it wants to do is grow, and to find pieces of itself. It doesn't know how to do anything else. So... the pieces that are in you probably want to do that stuff, too."

"It isn't a very intelligent plant. I do not think it has the capacity for any more feeling." Which is definitely the pull he's sensing. He flexes his fingers, trying to reassert some will over the Rose.

The silence hangs between them for a moment, before he looks back up at Steven. "But it has not consumed me completely, and I don't intend to let it. Thank you for explaining it to me, Steven. I think I understand a little better what to do with it, now."

Well, so much for that. Lambert cocks his head, listening for a moment, then frowns.

"Guess that's good for you. Back to business as usual," he says, not really expecting a response given the technician's surliness so far. Certainly not a good thing for the Carnival, if it's at all related to them (and where something strong enough to rock a hunk of magic metal in the sky is concerned, Lambert's pretty sure it's related). He plants his feet on the floor to steady himself and just concentrates on trying to breathe.

"Hey. What's your name, anyway?"

"My Classification is Gamma-238," they say stiffly, sighing at the screen. Back to business, indeed. They switch off the screen they were looking at, and go back to fiddling with the schematics of Lambert's new spine.

"I asked for your name, not your classification," Lambert point out, with a huff of maybe-amusement. "You haven't been here so long you've forgotten what that is, have you?"

He's less thrilled to see his spine on display again -- hopefully, this doesn't mean they're going to be making any 'adjustments' while he's awake.

Edited 2018-10-18 20:45 (UTC)

"It is against protocol to share such information," Gamma-238 says simply, and moves over to another schematic of yet theoretical additions to the rib cage, shoulder blades, and collar bones. A ill portent of things to come.

It's at this point that the other technician comes back.

"The core is secured," they say, regardless of the fact that Gamma-238 likely heard it on the intercom. "They've collected the injured and cleared out the entire sector."

"Volatile materials under pressure," Gamma-238 comments. "Hope that you don't find yourself reassigned to Omicron duty in their absence."

Strange takes Yuya at his word: no questioning if the kid's hallucinating, no question if he's making something up, Strange just 100% straight up believes that someone's reached out to Yuya because he desperately wants someone to have reached out to Yuya and to help save Ignatius as well.

"Stay near a watering can or something reflective. If I do find Ignatius or any information about him, I might be able to talk to you and tell you what I found that way."

Not 'I'll tell you in person.' For all his previous bluster about how he was going to go at it by himself, Strange is acutely aware that if he does this, there's a high chance of him getting caught. Still, what's life without a risk or two? And even if there's the slightest chance of him saving Ignatius, it'll be worth it.

"Okay." He'd rather go with him, but Yuya knows his physical power is comparatively limited. Maybe he can find a reflection big enough to travel through, though.

"I haven't felt him since, but before then... it was clearer around noon and midnight. I think maybe those times are safest for him." When he's being hurt less, maybe even alone.

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⇨ POLARIS 2.0

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