lostcarnival | ⇨ POLARIS 2.0

Entry tags:

⇨ 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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Below are prompts with specific investigation-based hooks. Some prompts may go up as hooks for specific characters, who may reply as they see fit, but if you find something you'd like to investigate, please make a post here explaining what your character is doing to find out info. All investigation threads will be done in summary form as opposed to going tag by tag.

DON'T BE VAGUE. If you are having your character investigate something, you must explain what your character is specifically doing to find out information. Don't just say "I investigate the Twelve." You have to be more specific, by saying what your character is doing, such as "My character is going to ask the Honorables that brought everyone in who the Twelve are." The more specific you are, the better info you will get in return.

You can also confront NPCs by this method, and you'll get summary posts in return explaining how the situation will unfold based on your actions. Investigation is important for this plot! Various boons and advantages will be given out for characters who make a difference.

Please restrict all investigation actions to one or two actions at a time. Please don't give me a laundry list of the five different things your character is doing, because it makes everything too time-consuming to get through. Stick to one main thing your character is looking into per tag.

Both mandatory and volunteer scientific trials will be posted here. For ones that you can volunteer for, please reply to the comment expressing your interest. For mandatory trials, please reply with the character requested so that I can give you the low down over what is happening behind closed doors. Trials will be posted with what date they take place on.

For those that have requested Magitek modifications, those threads will be started beneath this header as well. Reply to the prompt, and I will explain to you what happens.

A top level for visions, dreams, and weird sensations characters may end up having.

SO Syr's got an arm and a Blue Rose connection. After a couple days of struggling to fight against it (and basically having a dud arm), he's going to take a bit of time as deep in the farm as possible for some privacy to try and focus on that connection. Just how close is he to it? Can he reach any power? At least get it to cooperate a little?

The Rose parts seem to want to take over so that they can return to the rest of the flower, essentially - which is lost in another dimension somewhere, so it isn't having much luck. At a base level, there aren't many powers to be had, besides a plant hand that can grow and change its shape, not often not in the ways your want it to.

Herbert will suggest a follow-up death test now that he's full of reagent to an available tech. As a side thought he'll suggest a basic reflex and reaction test for his new arms.

An hour or so before noonish on day 110, Strange and Eruka are going to explore some pipes! Strange is hopefully shifting into smoke form and Eruka is hopefully shifting into liquid form: they're going to explore the ventilation system as best they can while trying to remain as stealthy as purple smoke and teal goop can be. They'll be leaving from a ventilation grate in the Farm. Both their smoke form & goop form are rare changes so they should kind of work, but they're both going to be focusing on Ignatius and trying to get a pull from his power so that they can definitely work (this is despite the fact that Ignatius is kind of MIA at the moment. Ain't no shame in hoping even though he's not answering the metaphorical phone!)

The goal of their ventilation system expedition is to at least get visual on Ignatius. Strange is leading the way but both Strange & Eruka are focusing on the connection with Ignatius in the hope that it'll somehow tell them which way to go. Again, this is despite the fact that Iggy's gone mysteriously silent.

(Eruka is mostly here b/c of back-up and also Strange spent a good chunk of time harassing her until she caved and agreed to join in on the plan.)

Edited (SO IGGY DID A THING, EVEN MORE EDITS) 2018-10-18 02:06 (UTC)

Syrlya would rather not be totally absorbed, thanks. Can he focus on that desire to work it alongside his own to make the arm more cooperative? Or is there always some other force that he can't quite overcome limiting it?

Shortly after the explosion shakes all the cells, Rita and Strange will both feel a burst of Ignatius's presence, desperately grabbing at their minds like he's trying to express something quickly.

The sentiment amounts to 'Shit, shit, shit, shit...!' even if there are no words associated with it. They get the visceral impression that the explosion definitely was his doing, and he's now dealing with the aftermath of it.

The Mother of Invention is here and she's not happy. He tried, but he doesn't think it was enough.

Shortly after the explosion wakes her, Rita's already trying to focus, to reach out to Ignatius's mind... but before she can try to 'say' anything, the fae's feelings seem to crash into her first.

Those tremors. He did it. There's a brief feeling of hope, but there's nothing really triumphant in these feelings she's getting from him, and she quickly grows wary, concerned.

She'll try to reach back, seeking, questioning. What's happening? Can she help?

Alphys wants to try out her new ~~horrific brain implant~~ magical girl tiara. She can sense a magical force with it- is there a way for her to figure out what kind of force she's receiving? I.E. is it from a specific person, is it Creation, is it something else entirely, etc?

There's a feeling of freedom, at least relative to where he was before, but also the dread of lingering helplessness and time being short. A feeling like his mobility is impaired, and even managing initial freedom has him left stranded, unable to follow up on his attempt. He needs help, he feels, he's practically pleading for it, but it's in a general direction instead of at her in particular. He doesn't know what he could expect anyone do for him.

Everything is burning, and his heart is aching, but there's still nowhere to go. She's going to take him again.

[First Attempts]

Yuya notices how late they are to collect them, not by time necessarily but by the lingering sense that the light's been on longer, that there's a break in the cycle. And, of course, there was whatever shook the station last night and woke him up. But he doesn't know why, so at first he simply pushes it out of his mind.

He looks at the productivity board first thing, to confirm his slipping state and see the names of those who have gone up. Some, he's glad for, but he's also a little worried he won't have the chance to speak to them, now. It's all going to be in trusting them. He's getting used to that.

The hunger gnaws at him more poignantly, but despite it after the first couple hours of the morning Yuya makes an attempt to actually, well, farm. It's sluggish, still ever weary and taking longer to collect fruits or dig holes, but somehow he finds himself now able to push past the exhaustion better. Like he's just able to cope with it in a way he couldn't before.

But it's only so much, and he still finds his knees buckling under him and having to stop frequently, trying to recover his energy.

[Closed to Strange]

Once he sees Rita's made it to Delta, he realizes there's someone else he needs to talk to about what he figured out. Strange was looking for something similar, and he also cared about Ignatius a little more personally... given he's so good at magic, maybe he could make a similar connection?

So Yuya looks for him, practically rushing to his side once he spots him. They've only been out here not even thirty minutes, so he assumes he's not interrupting so much. "Mr. Strange! Wait, I have something to--"

And then he whips around in front of him and stops, staring. "... What happened to your eye?"

[Roommates]

Yuya's torn every time he returns to his cell. He's eager to sleep, to keep in touch with their mysterious helper, but he's not eager for the almost constant nightmares that have kept him from getting any real rest this whole time. It's left his expression dreary at the end of every day.

At first, he wanders over to sit on the small table on the corner. It's probably supposed to be an end table, or some kind of built in desk, but he's using it like a chair.

Glowing spots on his face and just above the collar on the front of his neck are a lot easier to see when the lights go out, but even in the daytime there's a very soft glow that can almost be made out against his skin, if you squint and look close.

While he sits in his thoughts for a minute, at first, he ends up looking over to watch whoever's been sent to room with him out the side of his eye, almost blatantly staring.

what were we doing again?

The morning of Day 110 finds Childermass being returned to the farm hours later than the rest, having never joined them on the later than usual ushering out to their daily work. When the technicians finally do release him back to the farm, something is... definitely not right. He isn't a man prone to standing around, looking hopelessly lost, and yet that's what he spends an awful lot of time these next few days doing.

He'll often stare at people for minutes, brow furrowed in thought, or, very often, go about tasks uncertainly and there's a fairly good reason for that. Inevitably, he'll stop to ask someone, "I'm not sure what we're meant to be doing here. Are you?"

Which will be asked multiple times, unfortunately, as it will turn out that his memory has taken a turn for the worse. Polaris is a mystery to him, even some of their time in Shabon is hazy, and faces are recognized, but the why and who of them keep slipping away.

roommates

While rooming with him in a cell will find him a bit more responsive than just gloom and more gloom than before, though it comes in the form of muttering to himself, even if his cellmate is trying to sleep. He keeps going over facts, names, things he ought to know, trying to make them stick after he's been told them over and over.

It isn't malicious, but it'll undoubtedly get old.

[ ooc: no one's planned on rooming with him these days, so feel free to just grab a night and mark it accordingly. ]

wildcard

[ or if you have something else you want to/need to throw at Childermass, go for it. ]

Strange isn't the best at waking up. However, Ignatius's feelings crashing into him is enough to make Strange jolt up out of bed and focus entirely on those feelings.

He also attempts to reach back, but he's radiating concern. Strange knows just how powerful the Mother of Invention is, he wants to know if Ignatius is alright (or, more rationally, just what level of fucked he is)

Syrlya pauses when Childermass asks that question, straightening up from trying to dig while favoring one arm (it's not easy) to look at him in bewilderment. The changes from the blue Rose are still obvious in his coloration and the blooms at the back of his head, but who knows if Childermass remembers seeing that.

"... Do you mean the farming?" Surely not.

Rita feels her heart sink. He's stranded? How? What's stopping him from fighting, from escaping?

Panic and frustration well up inside her. She doesn't know where he is, how to reach him, or what she can do... If only she wasn't trapped in this stupid cell...!

Edited 2018-10-17 23:52 (UTC)

[Well, whatever arguments were or weren't resolved through the night, Reira has decided she's going to do something about...something, somehow. She's in a nice high rank! She can probably afford to...well. Not so much help but advise, maybe? (Not much she can CONTRIBUTE on the production margin after all.)

There are a lot of people here who just don't seem to know How to work, see. She's taken aback however, by Childermass' question.

He's not the sort to forget things she's pretty sure.] ...Mr. Childermass...? [she starts bewhilderedly.]

...We're supposed to do farming things. ...because that's what the faerie who got us wants.

...for now, I guess.

Having gone through a few mental sessions with Ignatius, Strange has a half-assed attempt at a plan. Granted, most of his plan involves hoping that Ignatius can share whatever little power he has with Strange so that Strange can actually bypass whatever mental whammy is on his magic and enact the part of the plan that means he can do the dumb idea in the first place...but he's done more last-ditch, half-assed plans than this before. He needs to find Ignatius. He doesn't know how much longer the other fae can hold out.

He's trying to look for Eruka, to bully that poor witch even further, when he hears Yuya's words. And as Yuya asks about his eye, Strange tries to keep calm and tries to hide his emotions. "They took samples from my mirrors," Strange simply explains. And then, cautiously he asks, "Have you signed up for any trials yet?"

He told Gongenzaka that really, if Yuya doesn't sign up for trials himself, it might be a good idea to drop a few words to the Technicians and see if they can design something tailor-made for Yuya. And Strange can't help it: he's equal parts curious to see if Gongenzaka took his advice and worried that he didn't.

Yuya's brow knits with worry, but before he asks further he wants to tell Strange about Ignatius, in hopes they can put something together.

But when Strange asks him about trials himself, his mind blanks as he's pulled back to the awful experience from yesterday. He gapes, losing his words, and then takes a shuddering breath as he tries to pull himself back to focus.

"Yeah," he drops his gaze down to the ground. In the daylight, it's hard to see the glowing spots on his face, white light against pale skin. And Yuya doesn't want to bring attention to them.

"Yesterday, but... it didn't any good." He still got below expectations and dropped down to Eta. He's trying not to panic about it again.

He tries to get across an image of what's happening to him, but mostly it comes across as raw feelings of disgust and humiliation, completely repulsed by the thought of what's been done to his body. He's being ruined, corrupted, and the feeling of cold metal and locked joints makes it so he can't even stand to face his captor. He hates it so desperately.

He wants to be free so badly.

He tried to escape. He failed. He's trapped. Everything is burning and there will be hell to pay. She's coming. He can't even stand.

There is a feeling of helplessness and immobility, like the absence of hands, like legs that won't walk.

Strange has to go on without him.

Tanyuu is going to experiment with that spinal implant! First order of business: can she manifest the hood on her own, and can she tell what the implant is using from her to create it?

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⇨ POLARIS 2.0

⇨ INVESTIGATION THREADS

⇨ TRIALS BY ICE

⇨ VISIONS AND SHIT

Day 111

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Day 110

Midday on 110

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RITA & STRANGE (DAY 110, JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT)

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Day 110

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Yuya

Day 110-113

Childermass

D110-113

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110

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110

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Evening Day 110