⇨ 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

[anti_nonsense]

Shortly after the explosion wakes her, Rita's already trying to focus, to reach out to Ignatius's mind... but before she can try to 'say' anything, the fae's feelings seem to crash into her first.

Those tremors. He did it. There's a brief feeling of hope, but there's nothing really triumphant in these feelings she's getting from him, and she quickly grows wary, concerned.

She'll try to reach back, seeking, questioning. What's happening? Can she help?

[ringleaders]

There's a feeling of freedom, at least relative to where he was before, but also the dread of lingering helplessness and time being short. A feeling like his mobility is impaired, and even managing initial freedom has him left stranded, unable to follow up on his attempt. He needs help, he feels, he's practically pleading for it, but it's in a general direction instead of at her in particular. He doesn't know what he could expect anyone do for him.

Everything is burning, and his heart is aching, but there's still nowhere to go. She's going to take him again.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita feels her heart sink. He's stranded? How? What's stopping him from fighting, from escaping?

Panic and frustration well up inside her. She doesn't know where he is, how to reach him, or what she can do... If only she wasn't trapped in this stupid cell...!

[ringleaders]

He tries to get across an image of what's happening to him, but mostly it comes across as raw feelings of disgust and humiliation, completely repulsed by the thought of what's been done to his body. He's being ruined, corrupted, and the feeling of cold metal and locked joints makes it so he can't even stand to face his captor. He hates it so desperately.

He wants to be free so badly.

[anti_nonsense]

As that impression sinks in, Rita feels a chill run through her body. So he's been altered, too...

He'll get free. Even if this attempt fails, there'll be another. She'll help. And not just Rita...

She'll try to communicate an impression of Yuya. Yuya can help. He has something. They just need to find Ignatius. If they can reach each other, they can get out.

[ringleaders]

Rita will get the most visceral impression of what happens, in the wake of explosion. Ignatius is helpless, pleading, desperate, but then something about Rita (and Strange's) responses seems to calm him. A sharp pain goes through him, like frozen ice in his veins, but in that moment he finds some manner of equilibrium - of understanding. He makes a decision, which he tries to impress upon her.

This is the last thing he can do, his thoughts and emotions say, without words. But... he trusts her. He trusts her with this. She's strong. Maybe she'll be able to do what he can't.

Then, his presence seems to shatter, in the same moment that the warm of his fire surges in her heart, like a secondary explosion of flame - almost too much to take, at first. Yet, as it spike of pain fades, she'll find that she's been left with a fragment of his power, a burning flame - the ability to act, where he couldn't.

In the same moment, his consciousness fades away from her, leaving the fire in her heart the only part of him left.