lostcarnival | ⇨ POLARIS 3.0

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⇨ POLARIS 3.0

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 115
Where: Polaris
What: On the morning of day 115, a couple hours before the technicians would come to pick up the test subjects, the escape plan will officially come into effect. If your character has been left out of the loop up till this point, feel free that someone hastily explains the plan during the initial phase! The meat of everything else will be played out via megathreads and any private toplevels people want to make.
Warnings: Probably violence.

PEER REVIEW↴

The plan starts with getting everyone out of their cells. Childermass is going to be using his Gilded Mark to enhance his shadow movement abilities, unabling him to teleport himself and other people out of containment. If your character has other ways of escaping they are free to pursue that, but on a base level, it can be assumed that everyone gets out thanks to Childermass. (Thanks Childermass!) Once everyone has been removed from their cells by some means or another, they will be forced to split into teams as swiftly as possible, as the moment people start breaking out, negative attention from the staff will start building. The area is poorly guarded at first, but as people become aware of the breakout, more will arrive.

Gild, speaking on behalf of her inside plant, will say that those that 1) want to get their stuff back, 2) want to find Ignatius, should get the assistance of their allied Deltas to access sector A5. From there, they will have to access Polaris's storage in A3, a neighbouring sector, and find access to C2, the station where Ignatius is being held. They should expect to be met with armed resistance, but with any luck allies will be there to assist them.

In general, characters will be most effective if they back one of these major objectives:

► TEAM LOOT: This team is trying to get back the items and pets that were confiscated when the group was brought into Polaris. Their objective, according to their allies on the inside, is to get to A5, and then make their way to A3. The important thing is being able to locate their stuff among a sea of other items, and to make it through security in order to reclaim it. Gild's plant has said that they will assist with this. After getting these items, Team Loot may wish to merge with Team Rescue.

► TEAM RESCUE: This team's primary focus is to get to A5 and then make their way to C2. If desired, they may wait for or join with Team Loot, or they may strike out ahead in order to take advantage of the element of surprise. The key factors are obtaining a way to access C2, as well as being prepared for armed conflict with the technicians guarding it, as well as possibly the Mother of Invention herself. Though, the ideal is that Gild will be distracting here at that time.

► TEAM DISTRACTION: This team can do their thing wherever they please, as their main intent is to sew general discord and distract the staff from the teams doing more important things. They should be prepared for armed resistance, but what tactics they pursue beyond that point are highly variable.

► TEAM FORTRESS: This team is attempting to set up a protective base of operations in the original sector in order to survive the conflict and protect their noncombatant comrades. How they accomplish this is also highly variable.

Other objectives may exist, of course, and can be made with their own separate top levels. Chunks of these megathreads will have to be played out in summary form, so when characters are simply trying to get from place to place and specifics aren't necessary, feel free to stick to that format. Assume that everyone is already out of their cells for the purpose of the megathreads.

Here is a shitty map of how the sectors connect, from a side view of the central Polaris hub.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

While the more mobile of their group sort themselves out, Lambert’s unsurprisingly going to turn his attention to Childermass and see how the magician’s held up to the shock — though his reasons for doing so aren’t entirely out of loving concern either.

“When you get a chance to move,” he rasps, “I want to borrow that damn iron knife. Tyki—” his still wobbly gaze flicks over to the downed Noah and he frowns. “You gonna need a potion to heal up?”

"On it...!" Thanks to the fact that his muscles aren't the sort just for show, Yugo does his part to hurry out and grab the closest KO'd technician by beneath their arms to drag them inside.

"Right, right," he responds to Shimmer about that drink, his usual tone mild and careful again with his usual affirmation.

His ears crane towards the door as others file in then towards Lambert, snorting gently as he continues to strain his damned limbs to work, "I have a few healing draughts I stored. They should stabilize me enough. You know pain isn't anything to me. This is just cheating."

Childermass isn't up to moving around just yet but he can give Lambert a long-suffering look when he brings up the knife, around a bunch of people who don't know about the knife. It probably won't matter for long if he's going to use it for what he's thinking he will...

"Fine. Just... give me a minute."

He'll struggle back to his feet eventually, by around the time the non-shocked members of their little party have cleared the three technicians away.

Yuya also hurries out, stopping when he sees everyone cringing, and the present flattening of the Gammas.

His brow knits, and... then he moves around to offer Lambert or Yuusei a hand back up.

Living bodies, he hopes but doesn't say, as he heads out of the room. But it seems likely they are, with the way they were very literally taken down...

And it's not too much trouble, to grab feet as Yugo heads the trips into that side room. Papyrus, after all, doesn't have the muscles for it. But stubbornness and teamwork suffice, for getting the unconscious technicians hidden behind things so they're not immediately visible from the door.

If they have time, as the fighters recover, he checks the floor and surroundings of the fight area for signs of scuffs or blood, things to clean up and hide a little evidence of what's happened here.

Shimmer will help Tyki up before heading back towards the work area.

There's isn't too much of a mess - just some silver-blue liquid on the floor where Lambert smashed one of the Gamma's faces into the ground. Apparently, that's blood? Sign point to the technicians bleeding blue. So that's a thing.

All three are alive, however, and their vitals are fine.

Shimmer will gather everyone back into the room and put the two unconscious Gammas with the Beta from before, already passed out in a chair. Then, she asks them to haul the new Beta onto the chair so that she can begin removing their access chip. She boots up the machine, braces the Beta's head, and starts disassembling the implant. Finally, she pulls out a thin chip inside of it, dropping it in a petri dish. She puts the implant back together, and asks someone to move the Beta.

"Your turn, handsome," Shimmer says, gestures towards Tyki and then the chair.

Edited 2018-11-05 01:51 (UTC)

Lambert will manage to push himself up to his feet and follow after the rest. As for binding the technicians, he he hasn't got anything on hand to bind the technicians with, so Yuusei might have to make do with whatever cables and the like he can scrounge up around the room they've been popping the technicians in.

While Shimmer is occupied with the technicians and Tyki, he'll retrieve the iron knife Childermass and ask the magician to pop back into the egg dimension to retrieve one of the man's healing draughts. He could probably use one after this round of impromptu surgery.

And then he's going to test how well the iron cuts through the material of the suit, starting with a small patch near the tip of his tail. If it pierces the suit readily, he's going to just set about methodically cut himself out of it.

Edited 2018-11-05 02:11 (UTC)

He appreciates the help and won't complain when he rocks to his feet. It takes him a moment to steady himself but he'll use his visor to scan everyone around him for any new alerts or situational things he might have to worry about. Shimmer will get another nod of thanks without saying it.

Once back into the room he'll rest his hand against something while Childermass and Lambert handle things on their own. He watches the Beta being lifted into the chair and will wait patiently, knowing what comes next.

He lifts his brow at Shimmer with an amused look and doesn't complain this around nor seem uneasy as he sits down, "Mmm, with pleasure." He's not sure if he's being played but at this point he'll practically do whatever Shimmer says.

While the rest of the group heads back to the smaller side room to swap Tyki's visor chip, Yuusei finally shakes his body back into proper motion from the sudden tase, having moved enough for someone to take the Gamma under him prior.

Instead of following the others immediately, he's going to do a quick sweep of the reception room for any loose coils of anything for tying purposes. He won't stay long, though, and will continue his search in the other room if he can't find anything useful immediately.

"Try not to cut yourself with that," Childermass cautions. Needlessly, perhaps, but it is iron. It shouldn't be taken lightly. That said, he gets the dimensional portal open and rummages around for one of the healing potions stored in there. While it is open, he'll ask if anyone needs anything else from it. If not, he's closing it again and soon.

Yuya does what he can to help the Gammas into the room as well, but that honestly probably ends up with people who have real lifting muscle.

It's about two seconds of seeing the Beta about to have their chip removed before Yuya decides he doesn't really want to watch, and turns away to face the door like some sort of lookout.

The iron dagger will do pretty good work at cutting away the suit, though it is uncomfortable to bring it that close to his body. It will feel bad all the way, though it will get the job done.

Meanwhile, Shimmer gets going on Tyki, using the machine to remove his Delta chip and insert the new Beta one. His visor will sync to the new chip once the implant is finished being closed up, accepting his new identity as 'Beta=34'.

"The rest of you may want to try to get those suits off, though I'm not sure we can spare the time," Shimmer says. "The alternative isn't great, however."

As soon as Lambert figures out the iron parts the suit material, he makes quick work of it, expression stony as he bears the discomfort. If anyone's actually watching him throughout it, they'll get a pretty clear view of the extent to which he's been experimented on, though most of it is under the surface except for fresh scars, hints of metal occasionally jutting out from under skin, and the studs whose sole purpose seems to be to keep his flesh bolted onto his bones. His tail is the worst of it, stripped of flesh and now of the same dark metal and soul color-etched circuitry construction as his horns. It's all incongruous with the patches of solid golden scale that still sweep up along his inner thighs and belly, nobody apparently having taken it into their heads to de-scale the witcher.

Not that anybody's going to get a chance to ogle for long, as Lambert's going to slip his ring back onto his finger and quite suddenly Ignatius is standing in that corner of the room, bright and tall and dressed in the armor he was wearing when Lambert and the rest captured him in the Athenaeum. 'Ignatius' turns his hand over to examine his fingers, iron knife now seemingly dwarfed in his hands, and snorts in a very un-Ignatius-like way.

"Nice." It may sound like Ignatius, but all likelihood, there has never been any time in his life Ignatius's voice has said 'nice' in that particular tone. A moment later and the illusion shifts into ... the Gamma he just slammed into the floor, magically bloody face-free and visor intact once more.

"I say get the suit off at least two people," Lambert says, gesturing with the knife. "Childermass because we can't afford going without his magic, and Papyrus because he has less to take off."

Edited 2018-11-05 04:13 (UTC)

It's not as uncomfortable as the first time mostly cause the drilling doesn't occur as much and he waits like a good boy for her to finish, his fingers slightly curling into his pants out of mild discomfort. He knows more than he did before so he's not as unsettled. Plus he somewhat trusts Shimmer given her past experience and how much Strange has told him.

When he's allowed to get up he'll lift his hand upwards towards the back of his head but he won't touch it. It's just odd watching everything flicker on his screen and when it synchronizes he'll remember the number.

He looks down at the unconscious former Beta on the floor then back to Shimmer, "I question whether I should try to fit into the clothes but I'm sure I also don't look the part either." Given the way they drastically change their bodies.

As soon as Childermass realizes just how much they cut up Lambert, he's turning to look elsewhere. It won't be until he's covered up in the illusion of Ignatius that he'll turn back again and even then it's only to protest.

"Unless someone has an extra pair of pants, I think not."

He's stoic about a lot of things. Like, a ton. However, he is also still from the 1900s and used to wearing like five hundred layers of unimaginatively black and white clothing. Anyway, whoever asked for healing potions is getting them. After that, he's shutting the dimension back down.

It's hard to make out anything in the Gamma's expression or tone of voice, but somehow, even under the illusion, Lambert still sounds extraordinarily Lambert-like when he points the knife at the knocked out technicians.

"I see four pants."

"So you do," Childermass says, glancing over at the unconscious techs. Well, he is the Acquisitioner. Looks like he's acquiring someone else's pants. Safe to say that's where he's heading now, back into the room they've dragged them. A quick glance has him judging which is the tallest Gamma and then he's kneeling down — stiffly, thanks to that asshole Beta electrocuting them — and working on stripping them.

Shimmer frowns at Tyki and then nods in agreement.

"It's true. All Gammas and Betas would have been uploaded into a new body long ago," she says, and then looks over at Lambert as he works with the knife.

"I see you already have iron, somehow. Maybe reaching the stash isn't so critical after all."

Edited 2018-11-05 04:40 (UTC)

Yuya turns around at that. "Body upload?" She can't mean--no.

That horrific thought is briefly disturbed as he sees Childermass dragging one of the unconscious gammas aside, while Lambert shape shifts after cutting himself free with iron.

He looks straight at Shimmer and then over her body slowly. It's what he feared for a short while and he had hoped he was rescued before he climbed that high. Then again, Tyki was willing to do whatever it took as long as he didn't lose his Noah. Letting that thing out into the world would've been disastrous.

"I had a suspicion that was the case," he speaks with a sympathetic tone, turning back towards the Beta and squatting down to start stripping it of the clothes. He's pulling them off piece by piece, watching how each piece is folded. Hopefully he is around the same size or it is going to be a tight fit.

As for Yuya, while Tyki himself starts dragging his own clothes off and getting dressed in the Beta's, "Yes, I started to notice how every technician looked the same and the higher tier while in my time of Delta seemed to loose more and more of their uniqueness." Of course he rarely saw an Alpha so he's never sure about the final outcomes.

...Welp, that's extra reason to be relieved none of them got promoted higher than Delta. A changed body is still closer to one's own body than being uploaded to some other species and looking the same as all your neighbors.

Though Shimmer's other comment adds a bit of... worry.

"We're, uh, maybe we should find that stash, so we have an... alibi for having the iron?" Please don't tell any other fae that they're war criminals on top of all the other things the courts are mad at them about.

Their surroundings are as clean as they're likely to get with the resources on hand, anyway, so Papyrus beelines to where Lambert's finishing up with that knife and explains what he's looking for. A foot-long opening, just above his tail, and Papyrus can handle the rest from there - leaving more time to help Childermass, and maybe start on freeing someone else. Lambert makes the cut quickly enough, likely from some reflexive skill at skinning that doesn't bear dwelling on in this time and place.

Once there's enough opening, Papyrus shoos him off and heads to the reception desk, then sets his skull on it to watch his work from behind. It's a bit of a process, pulling bones out and rearranging them on the counter, but he knows his own skeleton and can tell when they don't feel right together. It shouldn't take that long.

"Yes..." Shimmer agrees, lightly. "It's part of the 'uniform' as she puts it. Once a Delta is upgraded to Gamma, they undergo a complete body upgrade to match. It is loosely based on their original one, to ease the dysphoria, but not much..."

She shrugs her shoulders.

"On the bright side, we never grow old? Though I can't say it would have suited any of you. Especially the skeleton."

"That iron is for emergencies only," Childermass tells Shimmer flatly as he finishes stripping the Gamma of their clothes. It won't fit perfectly but it's better than nothing. It's only after he has that all on hand that he'll stand up and tolerate Lambert cutting him out of his suit same as he did for himself and Papyrus. He's quick about getting the leggings on once he's out of it, too, even if... these could really be better but he can't really be picky right now.

The rest of the clothes, he'll take his time with. He isn't terribly offended by showing off all of his feathers along his arms and back, although the bolts and alterations to his spine to stand out amongst them before he manages to pull a shirt on. As far as the Mother's little upgrades go, he hasn't fared as bad as others, but they did do something. Something he can't recall just yet and he isn't looking forward to when he finally does.

Edited 2018-11-05 05:21 (UTC)

"I was actually under the impression this was an emergency, Mr Childermass," she says, just as flatly.

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