⇨ 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

[starseedling]

"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."

[chronosynthesis]

"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.

[starseedling]

"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."

[chronosynthesis]

"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."