⇨ 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

[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.

[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]

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.

[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.

[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]

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.

[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?

[kingsroads]

Probably about thirty minutes. He will have to time it so that he can float down, poof into human form, take a minute, and then poof back into the vents a few times b/c magical time limits but who knows, maybe spending this much time as smoke is helping him lengthen those limits.

If he spots that gateway opening and a group of people enter the maybe-elevator, he's going to wait and watch how the gateway opens. If he spots that gateway opening and just one or two people enter the maybe-elevator, then he's gonna fuckin BOOK IT over there in smoke form.

[ringleaders]

After about fifteen minutes, a pair of technicians will come out of what looks to be an airlock system behind the exterior gate. Does he book it into the airlock?

[kingsroads]

He books it. Nyoooooom.

Strange will stay in smoke form as long as possible. Considering that he's purple, however, I've got a feeling he'll be spotted fairly quick.

[ringleaders]

Not long after, the interior airlock door will open, with a couple of technicians behind it. They will obviously see the cloud of purple smoke, but for the moment they are just sort of staring in confusion.

Behind them, there is something that looks like a teleport pad, not that Strange would necessarily realize that.

[kingsroads]

The hell is that thing?

Having no idea how teleport pads work but realizing that whatever that is looks kind of important, Strange floats over to the teleport pad and...just lingers over it for a moment, as if this will somehow make whatever this weird platform is do something.

Are there any conveniently placed signs that say "teleport pad" or something like that?

[ringleaders]

There are no signs with words besides an indication of what sectors it can lead to. Right now it's set to go wherever these two just came from. Hovering over the device is apparently enough, mostly because it's still active from the two technicians that just stepped off of it.

So whoosh, he ends up in another teleport bay that looks very similar. The major difference is that the two technicians are gone. There is a closed airlock ahead of him.

[kingsroads]

Almost instantly, Strange gets off the teleport because holy shit, what was that. He'll poof to human for a few seconds to reset the metaphorical clock before doing the exact same thing he did before. Turn to smoke, wait for the airlock to open, book it.

[ringleaders]

Sadly, at this point, a few of the light goes from blue to red, and a robotic voice says:

'SECURITY BREECH DETECTED. INITIATING LOCKDOWN.'

And then the teleport pad turns off.

[kingsroads]

Well there's not much he can do now, is there. Strange will try to do anything to find an exit: smoke around, try to set something on fire, randomly press a button on the teleport pad, etc.

He'll use all three forms (smoke, fire, naked dude) in an attempt to find an exit.

[ringleaders]

Sadly, there isn't much to be done: his naked dude powers will not avail him. The teleportation bay is locked down tight, and it will be a matter of a few minutes before something acts on him.

The room starts flooding with that same, freezing vapor. If he's in his smoke form, it will force the molecules to return to a solid form, and if he's in fire form, it will put him out. Then all he has left is naked man powers, which aren't much use in the face of a misty cloud that induces some kind of rapid onset freezing. It won't kill him, but it might feel like that's what's happening.

It will render him comatose not long after, at which point he is collected by the security team. Then, he's going to wake up strapped down in one of those examination rooms, and interrogated about what he was doing and how.

What does he say?

[kingsroads]

Strange wakes up, looks around, decides the situation is shit, and falls back on literally his last resort.

"Take me to the fae that caused the explosion this morning and I'll tell you where the Silver Mirror is."

This is not an actual answer as to what he was doing. Strange is going to be as tight lipped as possible about the specifics, just repeating that he'll trade that information if he can see Ignatius.

[ringleaders]

The technicians look absolutely flabbergasted - at least as much as you can tell when their faces are partly covered with visors. They look at each other.

"That wasn't the question," one of them says. "And that information is not our priority."

They don't seem very interested in it at all.

[kingsroads]

Now it's Strange's turn to look absolutely flabbergasted.

"It's an all-powerful fae artifact that could kill a True Fae. How the hell isn't it your priority?"

He's still not answering the question.

[ringleaders]

"Answer the questions we have asked, or face demotion to Theta," the technician says, just as firmly. "We will not engage in bargains with test subjects."

[kingsroads]

"I suppose I'm demoted then."

Sorry technicians, he's not selling out the bae.

[ringleaders]

WELL FINE THEN WELCOME TO THETA, ASSBUTT.

[kingsroads]

BITE HIM, DICKHEADS

hey guess what it's this bitch

[amphibiopathic]

Eruka will indeed zip herself back into her suit like someone slamming a home run with her big toe in the nick of time. She'll be a little visibly frazzled, but you know, she's been zapped with radioactivity and is already obviously a peaky individual, so this is just about baseline for her state of being.

Given that Eruka succesfully makes it back to the Farm, how good an idea would she have of the general layout of the area/sector they're in after Vent Adventures(tm)? Was there anything noteworthy to see besides more labs/farm areas/hallways?