⇨ 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]

Steven is fucking stunned. This makes even less sense than the absurdist nonsense that makes up the dreams he's most familiar with. He's glad to see that his legs aren't burnt to a crisp or anything. Just... made of metal? Okay then.

He comes over to the table, using his claws to cut off the gag first and foremost. Then, he starts working on his wrists.

"I just came here to talk to you but this is crazy," he says, sounding thoroughly shook.

[whattaprick]

It's a little hard for Lambert to wrap his mind around the idea that someone else could be in his head right now; there's no immediate sense of recognition that there would be when he's having a proper dream of his own, meaning as the boy spits and coughs out the gag, he's still looking confusedly at Steven as if he can't place him.

"You shouldn't be here." The voice is thin and definitely hasn't found the whiny gruffness so characteristic of him once he's past puberty, but that -- and the scars already slicing across his temple, golden eyes viper-bright -- is definitely Lambert's. He coughs again. Looking around, Steven will see discarded and shattered glass vials, hooked up to thin flexible tubing. It's vaguely reminiscent of a hospital, only a very creepy shitty one.

[starseedling]

"Lambert, you're dreaming!" he insists, deciding to get that out of the way. "This isn't real!"

Steven is incorrectly assuming this is mostly inspired by Polaris and not his childhood, because that would just be the worst. He frees one of his hands.

"I need to tell you something really important!"

[whattaprick]

"Dreams aren't supposed to hurt this much," he mutters, frowning down at his legs. That seems weird. At least when Steven frees him, he'll reach over to clumsily try to free his other wrist himself, his brain's jumbled, addled pieces trying to fit together in a way that makes sense.

"What's the ... what's the important thing?" he levers himself awkwardly up to sit on the edge of the metal frame, having to use his hands to heave first one leg than the other to dangle metallic toes over the floor. It seems this dream image of him will hold for a little bit, although he seems more alert-- and where he was totally naked before, a witcher medallion is now looped around his neck, the sharp shape of it nestled between his collarbones. His hand reaches up to grip it almost nervously.

[starseedling]

That's... so sad. Hearing him say that is so sad, and it's hard not to get caught up in it, because it's true. Dreams shouldn't be like this. Not that Steven hasn't had plenty of nightmares himself, over the last couple years.

"N-Normally you're a lot older," he says, smiling awkwardly, before correcting himself. "But that's not the important thing! The important thing is we have to escape Polaris, and I have something that can help you! Can you remember where we are?"

Steven would try to conjure imagery related to Polaris as a memory aid but he really doesn't want to.

[whattaprick]

"Older than you," Dream Lambert points out sniffily, to be a pedant and an asshole, though he's obviously feeling more like himself. The pain throbs through him continuously, coloring the whole experience of the dream.

Polaris. Polaris. That rings a bell, but ... dream Lambert doesn't want to remember that right now, even if it wavers at the edges of his perception, an impression of sterile walls and even the metal torture rack under him flickering to a sterile medical table.

"... somewhere worse than the Trials," Lambert says, thin-lipped. It's a terrible sign when your mind would rather retreat to the familiar horrors of your childhood rather than dwell on reality.

[starseedling]

Oof. Well, there it goes. Still, Steven isn't going to enforce dwelling on it. He just wants to get the point across.

"Haha, yeah," he says, nervously. "But! There is someone on the outside, trying to help us! She gave some people marks, like this..."

He lifts his hand, showing off Gild's mark.

"And if you have one, she can give you powers, I think! Or make you stronger! Amethyst had this before, but she gave it to me, and now I want to give it to you."

[whattaprick]

Powers. Lambert wrinkles his nose, and it's an even more childish expression on this face than it ever was before, as he tries to make sense of that ... but he will grab Steven's hand, examining the mark. For some reason, the sight of gold is reassuring.

"It's pretty," he says, dubiously, "But how does it work? It's not coming off you..." He lets go of his medallion to try to rub at the mark like you might at a smudge of dirt on a child's face. It's approximately as successful, which is to say, not at all.

[starseedling]

Steven wasn't really expecting Lambert to try rubbing it off his hand, but alright. Steven smiles sheepishly, pulling his hand away.

"I can't do it here - it has to be while you're awake, in person! But..." Steven considers for a moment, and then holds his hands down at his belly gem (which is actually here!) and uses it to summon a bow similar to Opal's. He pulls a golden arrow out of the mark, somehow. "I wanted to explain how to use it, somewhere secret! Watch this."

He slings the bow over his shoulder, and then conjures up a note, which he writes on with his claw. He reads it out loud before wrapping it around the arrow shaft.

"'This is Steven!
I'm giving the Mark to Lambert.
He's the Nightrider and he's really tough.
Please help him.'"

Then, he loads it into the bow and shoots it towards the cavern exit. It disappears.

[whattaprick]

A bow? Lambert's never been great at using those. He watches skeptically as Steven conjures the note -- something Lambert just chooses to accept, since this is pretty much more normal than dreaming of his legs set on fire -- and launches the arrow into space.

That tickles at a memory that isn't quite as easy to grasp for his half-asleep mind, though he clings onto it, frowning as the arrow disappears. Someone was telling him about arrows recently, he thinks. There's something important he's forgetting. Something...

"She can't answer if we're in here, can she?"

Will becomes world. The cavern falls away, and now Steven and Lambert are standing on a balcony overlooking a verdant valley, snow-capped peaks in the distance. A dilapidated courtyard stretches out below.

[starseedling]

"I mean, it's probably okay to-"

He stops talking as the setting changes. Well, that's was surprising. Steven looks around.

"Oh wow, this is way better," he says, faintly. Then he shakes it off, and looks back to Lambert. "Sometimes it takes her a little while to get back to us, but I know she will! I was talking to her earlier tonight."

[whattaprick]

Dream Lambert doesn’t know how magic arrows work yet, okay? He sits on the balcony ledge, apparently unbothered by the dizzying height, and hugs himself with his arms. His legs are still made of metal, and he winces when he shifts them, but they seem less of a harsh contrast against his skin right now, softened by the light.

“Do you always start dream conversations with strangers?” Lambert asks dubiously, not even knowing half of it. “Did she even tell you her name?”

[starseedling]

"Umm... Yeah, actually, I guess I kind of do," he admits after a moment. "One time I talked to this giant snake in a dream and then she got all little and then she bit me, but it turned out that it was actually a good thing she did that!"

He pauses, and then scratches the back of his neck.

"But, um, I guess you were sort of there for that. For this one, I don't know her name yet, but I told her mine! So she wouldn't be confused."

[whattaprick]

Lambert mostly looks astonishingly confused as any normie would be after hearing something like that, before he looks a little reluctantly accepting.

“Vesemir says sorcerers can walk in dreams sometimes, but I don’t think he meant like that.” Yet somehow he doesn’t doubt the other boy’s words. He turns to look at the horizon, holding a hand over his eyes as a makeshift visor.

[starseedling]

As Lambert squints at the horizon, a golden arrow will whiz towards the pair of them, hitting the balcony. Steven jumps, and then reaches for it eagerly. He unfurls the note, taking a look.

"'I'll do my best,'" he reads out loud. "'Remember to tell him what I can do.'" Then, he slaps his forehead. "Oh right!"

"She can give you different powers... fire, or light, or the ability to find things! Or, she can just make you stronger. I thought that you needed her help more than I do, right now."

[whattaprick]

Fire, light, the ability to find things... Lambert mouths the words back at Steven, then cocks his head.

“Couldn’t you use that too? Weren’t you missing something?”

He remembers something like that. He thinks.

“Can’t she find that for you?”

[starseedling]

He self consciously reaches down to touch at his gem, here in dream form, even as it's absent in his waking life.

"Um. I guess so. But... It's not as important as getting you guys out of Theta. And... you're the Nightrider! Right? That means you're really important, and you always help us get through this stuff."

He smiles sadly.

"Besides... I think... Ignatius gave me a bit of my power back, somehow. Just like Childermass said. I can use that." It doesn't have any finding powers, but he'll deal.

[whattaprick]

“I heard about that. Like ... something warm.”

As Steven speaks, reminding Lambert more of who he is, the closer to lucidity he gets — and the Lambert in front of him ages. The Lambert from the Carnival, with horns and tail, swords strapped on his back. Lambert himself doesn’t seem aware of the change until he blinks, suddenly, and puts a hand to his head with a wince.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to talking like this,” he tells Steven, sounding a good deal more alert and like himself.

[starseedling]

Steven blinks in confusion, and then brightens as he realizes what's happening. Oh, good, Lambert is remembering this is a dream!

"Even I'm still getting used to it," he says. "I've been using this power a lot more recently - way more than I ever thought I would. I guess it's pretty useful."

He beams at Lambert, apparently happy to see something more familiar.

[whattaprick]

“It’s not exactly the kind of thing that should be normal, you know,” Lambert answers wryly. He looks at the golden arrow, then frowns, unhitching a crossbow from his back.

“Do you actually feel like you’re getting sleep when you’re running around all night in other people’s heads?”