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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yuya's brow furrows. It isn't that he wants Ignatius to stay and suffer with them, and if he had a way out--even if it was the Summer Court coming to pick him up and deciding to leave the rest of them, Yuya wouldn't blame him. There's just something that doesn't quite line up with strictly kindness, that he can't quite put his finger on.

But he disregards it, mostly because a has a more definite counter to that. "He's not the only one who can travel through realms."

Yuya puts a hand to his chest. "Remember? There's someone out there who reached in... and they haven't left." That much, he trusts. "If Ignatius is even worse after what he did, he might not even be able to get himself out. He needs us as much as we need him right now, and we should work together to get out."

Given how unresponsive he's been since giving them power, Yuya has a feeling Ignatius needs them more than he needs them right now.

Unsurprisingly, Yuya has more faith in his mystery people than Strange does.

"Do have any proof that person is here to begin with? I'm not trying to accuse you or kill your hopes or anything like that, but traveling through realms is damn powerful magic. Even someone like me can only travel if the realms are closely linked—you'd have to have immense levels of power to get someone into the Mother's realm from the outside without her noticing."

There were roads between England and Faerie in Strange's world. If the roads weren't there, Strange is fairly certain he wouldn't be able to travel to Faerie in the first place. He finishes picking up the fruit and bites down another lecture on the powers of the threshold or magical properties or things like that.

"In comparison, there's plenty of people who can do magic along the lines of mental manipulation, hallucinations, or dreamwalking. All I'm saying is that there's a possibility whoever this is might have enough power to say they're here, but not have enough power to actually show up."

"The rabbit. Remember?" The truth is that rabbit feels fuzzy and hard to place, but Yuya's not going to admit that when he's trying to defend his fragile faith. It's the best he has in an otherwise hopeless situation.

He scrunches his face in concentration, trying to pull up more proof. "Besides, they asked us to find Ignatius, and they'd save us too."

He hadn't really put this together until he really stopped to explain it, but... "He's who they're really looking for, so it has to be someone he knows."

Like another fae who were powerful. And possibly in numbers. Ignatius was the goal anyway. Him being here is why anyone even noticed or cared enough to get them out, too. But they could all leave this way.

His expression deflates a little. He wishes he'd been able to tell Ignatius someone out there was looking for him before they lost contact.

To his credit, Strange doesn't say 'right, that rabbit that only you saw and I honestly don't know how it could have gotten in Polaris in the first place. That mythical rabbit.' But a part of his brain sure is thinking it.

Still, someone who knows Ignatius and is powerful enough to send Yuya a message from a different realm entirely. He can work with this. Signs point to fae. The problem is, Strange has no idea what fae it might even be and what their intentions to the carnival would be either.

"Ignatius never told me about his personal life," Strange admits, with a little shrug. He gets up as he talks: he's got to at least look like he's continuing to work. "It's possible that one of the Summer Court could have notice when his Heart was returned, but that was a brief window of time. And even so, they might view abandoning him as more useful than rescuing him."

"... He told me a little." Because Yuya asked. Granted, he asked the angtsy and overly open half of Ignatius, but he might have been willing to talk about them, any. "He has... family. Friends, it's not just like that."

Makers was probably some sort of family relationship. He felt too passionate about Gild, about Torch... Yuya's sure that doesn't match. He looks at Strange firmly. "Someone who cares about Ignatius found him. He's not alone either."

Strange can't help it: he's obviously a little shocked that Yuya knows this sort of thing. He can't help but give a little bitter scowl at the fact that Yuya knows this and he doesn't...before the tiny little rational part of his brain points out that Strange never asked in the first place. After all, it seemed cruel to talk about all the people someone was missing while they were being kept prisoner.

"Then we'll just have to hope it's someone who cares about Ignatius personally and not someone who wants him back solely for the Court or only cares about what an asset he'd be."

Strange isn't ruling out the Summer Court just yet. Yuya's the sort of person who believes the best in everyone: on the one hand, that's really good but on the other hand, it wouldn't surprise Strange if this was someone trying to take advantage of Yuya seeing the best in people.

Yuya honestly figures it probably is someone in the Summer Court, until he learns her true identity, but he's also choosing to have faith in their word. Just like he's had faith in Ignatius.

Even if Strange agrees, though, it's not very satisfying. Normally they would feed into each othe until their optimism kept their heads up, but right now it feels more like an acquiesce. Even Yuya doesn't find himself able to believe as much, in this situation.

He looks down as he puts the last fruit in the box, and then grips the hedge. There's a long pause before he sucks in a deep breath and looks up at him.

"I promise you're going to get out of here." And he says it with as much conviction as he can, because they both need to believe it right now. "I won't give up until that happens."

As Yuya gives his pep talk, Strange looks down at him with a little confused frown. Duh? He kind of knew that already.

"Of course I'm getting out of here," Strange says, as if it's obvious. Whether everybody else gets out of here...that's a different story. But he's filled with spite, anger, and determination at this whole thing. He's getting out of here no matter what (he just doesn't know if Yuya's mystery dream person would be any help in the getting out of here scenario).

"I have to return home to Arabella. I don't care what I have to do in order to do it, but I am leaving this place."

Yuya stares blankly at him. Was he misheard?

"I said, I'm not giving up until that happens." And all the implication in Yuya taking responsibility for it that Strange doesn't have to act alone. They can do this together and get out together.

He leans over the basket a little, mustering up the strongest expression he can. "You're not alone, Mr. Strange. You're my friend, and you'll always have me."

Part of Strange just wants to tell Yuya to focus on Gongenzaka or on Lambert, focus on someone else weaker than he is with a lower chance of getting out. But he knows that would end up with a very intense conversation and Strange honestly doesn't want to air out all his issues right now, while he's in Theta, and while they're probably being magically monitored.

"Thank you," Strange simply says. There's honest sincerity in his voice because this is nice. Having someone who cares about you like this is nice. Strange can probably count the number of actual, true friends he has on one hand (maybe two), so hearing this verbal confirmation is just plain nice.

He doesn't want to let the moment get too sappy though, so he starts to tease Yuya a little. "I'd still rather you worry more about others than me, though. I've survived worse than this. And I don't think the Technicians have realized exactly how I managed to escape from the farm."

Does Yuya know that Strange actually succeeded in his vent plans? Well surprise, he does now.

Yuya smiles a little. "I have enough worrying to go around for everyone, trust me."

He's in an almost constant state of stress because of it. But Strange is a close friend, and so of course to Yuya he's among those he always worried the most about. Like Gongenzaka, Lambert... Rita actually doesn't usually cause him a lot of worrying, but when she does her too. "And surviving doesn't change that it hurts."

He's hurt, isn't he? That's why he's closing in on himself, so that's why Yuya's going to push a little harder.

"Is that why you're in Theta now?"

"It is," Strange admits. "It was a good idea." Strange will be further validated that it was a good idea when/if he learns that other people did exploring via the ventilation shafts as well. "The problem is simply that I got caught."

Strange is still trying to keep up his strategy of lightening the mood. Theta's awful, there's no doubt about it, and his arms still hurt from the experiment. But when Yuya says that he's got enough worrying to go around, Strange makes the quick and solid decision that from now on, he's going to try and make it so he isn't one of the people Yuya worries about in the first place.

"Though the main problem was how many damn fire extinguishers this place has." His tone is lightening a bit: Strange is obviously bitching for the sake of bitching. He picks up the box and starts to move towards a different area of the farm, wincing slightly as he does so. "And some of them are mobile! The Mother of Invention has magic, use that to put out a fire instead of some stupid mobile robot thing!"

Because seriously: fuck roombas.

It's way too late for Yuya to not worry about Strange.

When Strange winces, Yuya scrambles to help steady the box as he listens to him. It takes a moment, but when he clicks Strange's fire to an extinguisher...

He bites his lip as he tries to strangle a laugh, eyes widening. The mental picture of that is funny, and it catches him off guard and makes him giggle before he can totally stop himself.

As soon as Strange hears that giggle, he makes the quick, executive decision to continue to shittalk robots. Lord knows he hasn't heard someone laugh in...what, a week or so? This is good, keep this up. There's a mischievous grin on Strange's face as he continues to talk.

"The worst part is that the robot's adorable. It's small, around the size of a pie tin, and makes this precious little whirring noise. As soon as it spotted my flames, it tried to spray me with this odd foam sort of material then proceeded to chase me for ten or so minutes."

Yuya doesn't know what the exact robot was, but the description brings to mind similar vacuums from home.

He covers his mouth with the back of his hand as he sucks in a sharp breath against, honestly, how hilarious is it to imagine usual flaming Strange running around trying to escape a tiny roomba. Normally he'd probably find someone laughing at his efforts offensive, which is the biggest reason Yuya is trying not to be obvious.

But he's still kind of obvious. "Is--is that how you got caught?"

Strange shakes his head. He doesn't mind saying this part out loud, just because it's where the technicians found him. There's no need to be cagey about his final location like he is about his smoke form.

"I got caught because some odd teleport pad thing recognized me as a security threat. It shut down, the room that I was in started to fill up with some smoke, I passed out."

As he talks, the box jostles against his arm a little bit: Strange can't help but wince when the impact happens. Still, he tries to steel his expression back into a little smile as they carry the box over towards some others.

"A teleport pad?" Having not gotten the dream map yet, Yuya's mostly just curious. It sounds fittingly science fiction, like the rest of the station. Except with more magic.

He catches that wince, though, and it makes him pause. He glances between the boxes ahead and Strange. "You're putting it over there, right? We're almost there."

He looks ready to take it if Strange can't make it, though.

Strange looks like he can make it. However, every moment of the box brushing up against his arms or even something else touching his arms, causes him to wince a little in pain. He's trying to underplay it because again, doesn't want Yuya to worry, but Strange can only hide something for so long.

"I am putting it over there. As for the teleport pad, I think that's the correct term? It's an odd device that you can step on and take you from one place to another."

Fun fact: Strange knows fuckall about science-fiction.

Honestly, it's a good enough term for Yuya. He picks up the pace a little, pressing his hand under the box a little more firmly up to try and balance the weight for Strange's sake.

"Yeah, I guess they'd have something like that here..." Space station, after all, even if it's a fae space station. "how many more boxes do you have to move?"

Because he'll keep helping, obviously.

There's an awkward pause before Strange answers, "Enough until they have enough data."

And as much as he really doesn't want to talk about this and he wants to keep Yuya from worrying about him...Strange is slowly coming to terms with the fact that he can't do that. His situation is just fucked enough that it's really no use trying to pretend that he has everything under control (just most of it.)

"They want to see if my body can adapt to growing more samples of the Silver Mirror. So, they started with my arms." Awkward pause before Strange clarifies. "The, erm, inside of my arms."

Oh.

Yuya comes to a stop, staring with wide eyes until Strange's movement reminds him he's supposed to be helping move the box, still, and he jerks back to action. "So they're making the mirror parts inside you worse? Can... can your arms handle this?"

That sounds like it's making him so fragile. And unlike the Ringmaster, will these changes really wipe away when they make it home? Or will they be stuck with these alterations, having to cope with them and the damage and the questions?

"We'll find out, won't we?" Which isn't an answer, but how else can Strange answer this? He's got no idea if his arms are more fragile now. He doesn't know how it works. All he knows is that at the moment, it hurts when almost anything suddenly touches him.

Yuya's cursing himself a little at never learning any healing magic, but it's too late now. He doesn't know how to soothe magical mirror wounds. And he's sure he can't talk to any of the Technicians, who clearly won't do anything about the pain any of them are in.

"... Is it okay if you take a break?" Will they let him?

Strange shakes his head. "This morning they said something about...constant low-level stress, I think. I suspect they want me to keep working until they discover the point that my arms can't take it."

Strange will happily make some jokes about this later in the 'ha ha, I literally can't do heavy lifting any more' sort of vein. But right now, everything just kind of sucks. He doesn't really have it in him to make fun of scenarios like this, where his arms constantly hurt.

Yuya's gaze drifts down and he bites his lip. So even if he helps, it means Strange has to do this even longer until he can't anyway.

"I'm sorry." That he can't do anything right now. How much are they going to be changed and tortured this way, before...

He shakes his head. He can't think like that. "I'll talk to them again. And we'll get out of here."

⇨ POLARIS 2.0

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