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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"Locations?" A map? Blinking red was surely the issue at the core, especially given it's central.

He gestures to the leaf. "And that? Could you tell where you were on this?"

It sure looks like one, doesn’t it? Lambert uses a trowel to scrape out some more adjustments to make it look closer like it is in his head, carefully marking lines out in the dirt. The end result is pretty much this.

“I think it might have just meant where the lab was,” he frowns, looking down at it. No idea if it’s to scale or not, but one thing is pretty obvious: those major parts seem pretty segmented.

Hm. Syrlya rubs his chin, committing it to memory. "You said you were in a cell by the medical, bay? That puts you still close to the farm and the rest of us, doesn't it?"

So that must put them all in the same general section... and Ignatius in a section further. It's possible the map doesn't show every connection, but it's also possible that they're using teleportation. Syrlya's seen both (Syrlya has broken into a lot of science labs).

"Right," Lambert nods. Seeing as Syrlya's gotten a good look, he's gonna scuff up the map he's drawn. What he'd give for Rita's information spell right now...

"They keep me under close observation while I'm in there. They'll probably keep operating on me too." His tail flicks behind him, with a touch of agitation, and but his expression grows a touch more determined.

"I haven't been put together with other Thetas, and I don't know if it's going to stay that way."

And then a couple of chucklefucks decided to test the technicians' patience, whoops.

"You're the only one from the carnival currently ranked Theta." So since they've also never seen any other test subjects (or rather, Syrlya hasn't) he wagers they're the only ones in this segment and that's why Lambert's all alone.

"You said you took a bad trial, so what happened?" Sure would be nice to know if some trials can even still screw them over.

"It was the 'social experiment,'" Lambert answers dryly. "Had to sign up in pairs. I knew I had to take a trial or I'd be under again, so I signed up with Shima. Then they told us we had to decide which of us was getting promoted and demoted, and that we weren't actually getting any credit for doing the damn thing."

Edited 2018-10-21 04:57 (UTC)

"Ah. That was the same day as my own trial, I believe." The one he was singled out for on the board, alongside Strange. They had surprisingly little to do with each other, though.

"So that's how Shima went to Epsilon..." He'd never really interacted with him too much, but he does keep an eye on the names of the productivity board, to have an idea on everyone's standing. Syrlya wants to say that he might have had more of a buffer, but... were it someone he felt responsible for, as someone in authority, he'd honestly make the same decision to take their fall. It's just most of his men had a little more sense.

"Is there any way to get you out of Theta?" Short of 'get out of Polaris', which they're working on.

"I don't know if you know this, but he was in the Carnival before -- as a scout. Doesn't seem like he remembers anything about it, though." And now he doesn't work for Lambert anymore, but if things had been different, well. That might have been another story.

"But no, there's no way out. I'm only out of here when the technicians decide I am. There's no earning my way out of this, with trials or anything else."

Hm. More amnesia.

"Then... I suppose if you can, see if you can overhear anything else." Syrlya cringes a little at having to say that. "We will get you out of there."

That he'll at least assure, because he won't easily accept a solution that leaves Lambert here to suffer. They just need a plan--an opportunity.

Actually, speaking of plans... "Strange said that you asked him to do something here, but would not tell me what. What was it?"

Of course he expects Lambert to tell him, because he doesn't consider Lambert to be petty.

Oh, that. Lambert had almost forgotten about it with almost everything else that’s happened, but he’ll answer readily enough.

“He can still turn to smoke,” he explains, brow furrowing. “I told him looking at the vents might be worthwhile, and he said he knew someone else he could talk into it ... but it’s pretty risky.”

And now he looks around, like speaking about the magician might be enough to get him to pop out of nowhere. “Where is he, anyway?”

"Probably doing exactly that." This is Strange, they have to know his M.O. by now.

"After the explosion, some us felt... possibly something from Ignatius, and I have not seen him around the farm since that." He pauses. "I will look more thoroughly. Did he say who he was going to speak with?"

Of course. Typical.

"No," Lambert shakes his head. "All he said was he was going to ask 'her.'" Though on another subject, something in what Syrlya says makes Lambert quirks a brow at the Mesmer. 'Feeling something' and 'possibly beneficial,' not hard to piece out how Syr's gotten that.

"So you took the deal, huh?"

"Ah--" Truthfully, he's been evasive around explicitly saying it only because he has no proof except that Ignatius is just the most likely option of anyone who could pass around warm feelings and allow their magic to come back.

He shifts on his feet. "I did not have a lot of faith the Ringmaster would pull herself together and prevent us from being completely obliterated."

And, well... honestly he was kinda right.

Syrlya isn’t wrong, but all the same, Lambert can’t help but frown, looking away.

“Not that any of us helped,” he says, quietly. Himself least of all.

Syrlya remembers seeing a flash of Lambert and Sans with the Hunt, and Strange only confirmed it. So he can take a guess what Lambert is really getting at with that.

"You thought there was another chance, too. But in the end, it did not matter for any of us." So it's hard to argue who was more right when both of them ended up in the same place, anyway. Syrlya glances down at the now scattered vegetables... and then something occurs to him. That surely Lambert didn't also do it on purpose.

"Oh, Strange told me about your contract," he says, bringing his attention up to Lambert. "Do you... know it is still active?"

The whole 'kill me if I join the hunt' thing.

Lambert shakes his head.

“That’s not what I meant,” he starts, though it’s surely part of it, but before he can get into it, Syrlya catches him off guard with — that. Lambert frowns, briefly confused.

“What?” That answers that.

"He didn't even tell you!" Syrlya looks exasperated for a moment, almost throwing his hands up in the air--he stops about halfway there.

"He told me that because there was nothing set for if you were to leave the hunt, it is still active. The magical compulsion on his end to--" he gestures to Lambert's everything. Please, at least remember what he signed up for.

"He was originally asking me to knock him out before he could do anything, if it came to it."

“He didn’t,” Lambert echoes, then more indignantly, “That asshole. He knew exactly what he was asking for!”

No, Syrlya probably has no idea what he’s going on about, but Lambert can probably clarify if he asks. In lieu of that, the witcher drags his hand over his face.

“He put that thing in one of his damn mirrors. If we could destroy it, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Syrlya pinches the bridge of his nose, immediately trying to be the calm one as Lambert gets angry. Less because he isn't, and more because someone has to be the calm one before there's an honest effort to haul off and beat the crap out of Strange.

"The paper isn't enchanted or anything against damage, is it?" He hopes not, please be that short-sighted, someone.

“Not as far as I know,” Lambert says, then sighs.

“It was my idea. Should’ve known it wouldn’t work out the way I thought it would.” Because his ideas never do. He and the Ringmaster have that much in common.

"It's--" He waves his hand. "We can fix it later. I doubt even now he has enough magic to succumb to the compulsion."

The question is can Syr hold off on the compulsion to throttle Strange. His gaze flicks out to the farm, briefly, then back to Lambert.

"I will see if I can't find him, if even that he might actually come back in one piece with useful information. Otherwise... I will continue to do enough to keep my rank from falling."

So he can have at least this much freedom of mobility. "Are you..."

He pauses, pursing his lips before shaking his head. This isn't the best time for it. "Hold on, we will get in touch as often as we can."

Lambert nods, beginning to turn to go -- and pauses, looking at Syrlya narrowly.

"When you said 'something beneficial,'" he starts, slowly. "Just how beneficial are we talking, here?"

Syrlya glances over his shoulder, before leaning closer and lowering his voice. "Access to our magic."

Actual, direct power they know how to use. Syrlya never realized how much he really needed his magic until it was taken.

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⇨ POLARIS 2.0

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