⇨ 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

Syrlya

[chronosynthesis]

Day 110-113

[chronosynthesis]

[110]

Syrlya hadn't been struggling with the labor of the farm until after his trial. The signs are pretty obvious for anyone who got a glimpse of the Blue Rose--the foliage for his hair has become a gradient from deep purple to vibrant blue from root to tip. The previously slightly tealish hue to his pale skin is now blue as well, and around the Blue Rose on the back of his head there's another bloom and a tangle of crystalline vine.

He also seems to be struggling to use one of his arms, which is where the trouble with the farmwork comes in. It moves stiff and sluggish, and where he can he just lets it hang losely.

[110 | Closed to Steven]

A little afternoon, Syrlya's farming path will happen to cross Steven's. He's been doing absolutely terrible, shallow raking of the soil, but he's accepted in his current crippled state this is the best he can manage.

It's worrying, though, still combating the influence. But he sees Steven and remembers someone else has experienced this.

"Steven!" He raises his altered hand a little as he approaches. "Do you have a moment?"

[111+]

By the next day he seems to have mostly figured the arm out, after having been absent from the rest of the carnival members for an hour or two. He came back with fruit, though, and that's an easy excuse.

Actually, fruit picking ends up being the perfect excuse to pesture other workers. He's attentive of the route he follows, and as he comes across others from the carnival he stops a respectful distance. "How are you holding up?"

[starseedling]

Steven is trucking along, enough he's pretty withdrawn and quiet as he does it, like most of his effort is going into concentrating. As soon as Syrlya speaks to him, however, he brightens up a bit.

"Oh, hi! Sort of..." he says, looking down at the rake he is also using. "Just trying to keep busy..." Then, he cuts right past other pleasantries to get to the point.

"Are you okay?" Syrlya's rake technique has been really weird today.

[chronosynthesis]

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."

[starseedling]

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.

[chronosynthesis]

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.

[starseedling]

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.

[chronosynthesis]

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.

Night of 112

[periphrasing]

Another night, another roommate. Waiting to see if she gets bunked with someone is basically the most exciting part of Peridot's day, and considering the last interaction she had with Syr, she's actually pretty jazzed when he enters the cell. She's sitting up at attention from her perch on the top bunk, eyes bright despite the incessant hunger pains she's currently dealing with.

"You!" she exclaims. Then she waits for the technician escorting him to leave and leans down to whisper: "Don't worry. I already took care of the camera in here."

[chronosynthesis]

Most of Syrlya's nights have actually been alone, so he's a little startled by Peridot's outburst at first when he doesn't expect to find anyone in there.

"Oh, Peridot." He smiles briefly as the door closes behind him, actually equally pleased to see her. He's more confident in their ability to work together.

He leans over to catch her whisper before glancing to the corners of the cell. "That's good. Did you feel it, too? That power from Ignatius?"

[periphrasing]

"Yes!" she whispers excitedly. "Granted, I don't think I've quite returned to full power, but, look!"

She flashes a brief, sharp-toothed grin and pulls up her gauntlet, summoning a wrench into the palm of her hand.

[chronosynthesis]

That earns a wider grin from Syrlya. So he was right. "Wonderful! That means whatever happened, it has put things a little more in our favor. I've recovered some of my magic as well--" He pauses, looking down at his hand and flexes it.

"Not enough to act on my own, however. I know Strange had intentions to do something he would not specify to me," he wrinkles his nose a little. "But we need a more unified effort."

[periphrasing]

She cocks her head at the mention of strange. The wrench disappears back into the gauntlet in a flash of light. Last she talked to Strange he was a lot more interested in getting himself out than he was in working as a team, so it's oddly refreshing to hear that he maybe has (sort of) changed tact.

"Unified efforts do tend to have a much higher success rate than individual efforts do, historically," she hums. "Well. Whatever Ignatius did, it's quite possible that any member of the carnival who took his pact had at least some of their power returned by his actions. I'd have to take a broader survey of the population to really know if that's true or not, but if it is, it would lend significant support to my theory that conflicting fae ownership can potentially weaken or challenge the effects of an opposing contract."

She shakes her head, realizing she's getting a bit off track. "In any case, it gives us a lot more to work with. The question that remains is how we can tie it all together..."

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya nods once. They had talked about it, and it's something he's glad is proving right here. Maybe deciding to work with Ignatius did some good after all.

"Let's look at what we have again. Ignatius is somewhere in here, alive, with enough connection that he was able to grant us some power." He pauses, considering the score board and the state he's seen some others. "We are trapped in some sort of technological station. Lambert is now in 'Theta', but--well, he is not missing or mentally compromised, it seems. Rita is in Delta, as are Yukio, Sans, and Tyki, so we should see how much freedom and information that gets them."

They need to think in the short term, because this needs to be a short term solution. They don't have years. "I don't believe anyone has seen the Mother of Invention, among us, so we aren't certain how involved she is in our particular case."

DAY 112 | MORNING

[betheman]

It is at some point in the morning that he encounters Syrlya- he's been trying hard not to make it seem as though he was looking for the other after all, and that's tricky to do at the moment. Once he spots him though, he greets him easily. "Auh...as well as I, the man Gongenzaka, can be..." he starts slowly, clearly between tasks. If there is anyone he can trust some intell to, it's this guy- so he looks about for another 'task'.

...Harvesting the corn will do. "I, the man Gongenzaka, was on my way to another task for the moment- you?" It sounds casual. It looks casual.

But there is an edge of focus in Gongenzaka's eye, and something brushes against Syrlya's soul. A sensation of 'importance', perhaps. Contemplation, Thought.

Someone is planning something, and they need to work somewhere he doesn't need to focus too much on moving, in order to explain it.

[chronosynthesis]

Truthfully, Syrlya is just as much making rounds to assess the current state of other members of the carnival. The more people start to falter, the less time they have to act. And this is a difficult experience.

"About the same," he nods. "You--"

Syrlya doesn't actually know much about Gongenzaka's soul abilities. General awareness from their use in Eden, sure, but he didn't experience it so there suddenly being feelings besides his own throws him for a loop, and he stops and completely loses his train of thought. This isn't someone he expects a sudden, very pointed empathy connection to.

"What?"

[betheman]

There is the image of a leaf, with the word 'SHH' on it. Gongenzaka, for his part, is apparently much better at covering at the moment.

Perhaps because he's the one doing the magic. "Auh- I, the man Gongenzaka, believe the...'corn-like' things will do for now," He casually carries on, already slowly walking in that direction.

More insistently, the feeling repeats. Let's GO, Syrlya, they need to plan! ...In a place where 'Cameras' and 'Radios' won't see their faces whenever something surprising comes up.

[chronosynthesis]

That leaf means nothing to him. Is it because he's a plant??

"R... right." Okay, he's just going to follow Gongenzaka's lead. Using feelings to translate a conversation is... not typical for him at all, mostly because it doesn't really come with images or direct association. It's more a feedback.

But he's going to follow Gon's lead, assuming he knows where he's going to talk.

[betheman]

It said 'SHH', Syrlya. As in Keep Your Mouth Shut, it's telephone time.

But regardless, once they're in the stalks...Gongenzaka starts picking.

The symbol of 'shh' comes to mind again- But then on top of it there's a symbol of their radios connected with wire.

(He has a feeling Syrlya has never seen tin-can telephones)

"Have you been doing well thus far, Syrlya? ...We have not spoken since recovering Yuuya..." It's obvious that his words are a ruse- especially since the thought speech for lack of better terms continues.

There is the feeling of 'hope', and the image of the sun. A shrouded figure in front of it, but the overwhelming sense of someone they can trust.

Considering that he's opened the conversation with memories of their own escape efforts, perhaps there's a link. (Really, he just thought of the last thing they did together. Convenient, though.)

[chronosynthesis]

"I'm... holding up." The ruse is kind of distracting when he tries to focus on whatever Gongenzaka's telling him over this telepathic connection, and it shows on the way his face scrunches up in confusion. Especially because these images largely don't make any immediate connection to him. He's not projecting it, specifically, but Gongenzaka can probably get the sense that he's confused.

"And yourself?"

Day 110

[amphibiopathic]

The technicians are generally hands off, approaching them only when one of them needs to be escorted away for a checkup or heading for a trial. Which is why it's unusual to hear one of them speaking so close by, an unfamiliar, even cadence of voice saying something that's hard to make out.

The high-pitched, frantic voice that follows is likely only marginally more familiar, since they haven't exactly spoken, but in either case, if Syrlya was trying to place it, he won't get long to try -- the conversation ends abruptly and Eruka lurches through the hedge, eyes wild, the tips of her frazzled hair going from wobbling, globule-filled slime to puffing steam, and she almost bowls Syrlya over in her haste to get away.

"W-w-watch where you're going!" she yelps, despite the near collision being entirely her own fault.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya stumbles as he tries to twist and avoid her, looking surprised--before he reaches on impulse to try and grab her arm to steady her, too.

"You're the one running." Which, hm. Why does she seem so harried? "What happened?"

[amphibiopathic]

Syrlya grabs her arm and it has entirely too much give in an instant, Eruka instinctively trying to wiggle out of his grip. It only makes the panic worse.

"Nothing!" Eruka near-screams, only barely remembering in time to catch herself and keep her voice to a low, panicked hiss. "Nothing happened, why would you think anything happened, I've been here this whole time doing this farmwork like I'm supposed to!"

[chronosynthesis]

That's... weird and strange. He tightens his grip on the flattened cloth, to at least keep her from running off as he leans in.

"Calm down. Breathe. You are going to draw more attention with shouting."

Which is probably the last thing she wants (or needs) right now.

[amphibiopathic]

That, at least, will effectively get her to shut up. Eruka's mouth closes with a snap and she chokes, shuddering under his hold as she sucks in a deep breath. It's not calming in the least, but it does give Syrlya more of a chance to get a word in, if he wants to.