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

About twenty minutes after the breakout, the Rescue Team returns to B7's Delta zone, rushing through the transporter with a weak and somewhat purple-looking Ignatius in tow. Once the fae's gotten settled in this relatively safe shop area, Rita starts wandering around, checking on the others in the vicinity. She's still wearing her Delta uniform and visor, but with her red-black wings and the red glow coming from her chest, she still looks plenty distinct from any Technicians.

[a - observation]

After getting herself oriented here, Rita might be seen just standing around, seemingly looking at something through her visor. If she's especially occupied, she might not notice someone approaching. It may not even be the visor distracting her; she may also be found standing alone, staring at a group of bound and visorless Technicians from a distance with a ponderous frown. Or, she may be watching Ignatius as he rests from a distance, with a similar-looking ponderous frown.

[b - acquisition]

At some point, one might notice Rita interact with a device in the shop they're holed up in, causing a slot to open and a plain-looking box of chocolates to slide out. Rita takes the box and finds a spot against the wall to lean, where she loiters for a while, occasionally popping chocolates into her mouth. If she's stuck waiting around until the next phase of their plan, then she might as well make the most of it.

Strange is also still wearing his uniform, though it now has the telltale smell of singed wiring and burned out electronics (what do you mean it's a bad idea to put the electronics directly in the fire). There's something tired in Strange's expression, but his attention is focused mostly on Ignatius as he ponders what to do next.

Though, as Rita's watching him, he can at least press her for details about this whole thing. He walks up to Rita, gives her a nod, then turns his attention back to Ignatius. "I should have been with you all" he simply says. "Let me guess. Syrlya was the one leading the charge?"

That selfish stubborn asshole. Strange is so pissed at various carnival members right now and is barely hiding that anger under a neutral expression. Pressing for details shall happen after he vocalizes his displeasure at this whole situation.

Rita doesn't show much of a reaction to that first comment, her visor still concealing her eyes. Would things have gone all that differently had Strange come along? Possibly not. It's hard to say.

His question, at least, is easy enough to answer. "Yeah. What about it?"

She's not actually aware of any bad blood between Strange and Syrlya.

Rita is about to become aware of the bad blood as, in a very matter of fact tone, Strange simply states: "He's a stubborn ass who's willing to let his hatred of me get in the way of what's best for the carnival."

But that explains that answer. As long as Syrlya was the one who was leading the charge, he never would have learned about this rescue mission. Strange's attention is still focused on Ignatius as he continues to talk.

"How bad is Ignatius?"

"...Right." The good news is that Strange can't see Rita rolling her eyes, though her tone doesn't do much to conceal her doubt.

But the topic changes to Ignatius's condition, and Rita turns her head to look over the fae once again. "Bad," is her initial reply, but she elaborates. "We managed to stabilize him and help get his regenerative powers working again, but... the machines they hooked him up to were constantly pumping some kind of poison in his body, while siphoning power from his Heart. Even doing everything we can, it might not be enough to get him back into fighting condition."

Strange still focuses on Ignatius, not meeting Rita's eyes as they talk. It's obvious that he's thinking things over and really weighing his options here. He's going to give Ignatius a once-over anyway and try to see if there's something that he can do (after all, Herbert's not exactly good at dealing with magical ailments), but he can't dispel poisons.

"He gifted me his power," Strange admits. "I was planning to return it to him. But if that might not be enough...perhaps I should use this to protect him instead."

Without really thinking, Strange mutters a few words and his entire fucking hand sets itself on fire. Thankfully, Strange has pieced out that he's fireproof, even if he hasn't exactly told Rita or anybody else that information just yet.

Seeing Strange's hand just erupt into flames causes Rita to jerk away with a start.

"Wh, what the hell!?" she cries. It takes a few moments to realize the fire isn't actually burning him, and she slowly manages to find her earlier train of thought again.

"...He gave some to me, too. I already gave it back. Maybe if we all did, then he'd..." She frowns as she considers the variables. "But if it isn't enough, we'd all be helpless..." It seems like a risk either way. Rita's already wondering if she made the right choice. She feels useless without her magic.

Strange can't really help it. Even in this tense situation, he gives Rita a small smirk at the fact that he managed to scare her a little. He's still keeping the fire burning because it's not that much magic to do and because lord only knows that something might go terribly wrong at a moment's notice.

"We're helpless no matter what," Strange points out, not knowing a damn thing about Gild or how useful (or not) Team Loot might be. "Our contracts are under the Mother of Invention. We'll need to kill her or get her to transfer them to someone else for us to be truly free."

And Strange...honestly isn't sure if that's even going to happen. His smirk goes back to a frown as he looks at Ignatius.

"I think I'll wait for now. It would be stupid to give up my magic before I've exhausted all my options."

Edited 2018-11-05 22:53 (UTC)

"Hm... well, do what you want." Rita's surprised, somewhat. Part of her thought he'd be rushing to help Ignatius without thinking about the consequences. She's not sure which she'd prefer he chose, but if he's actually going to use his head, maybe that's a good thing.

She cups a hand over her chin, thinking their options over herself. "Maybe we can. Kill her, that is."

"We do have a few options," Strange admits. "She probably has iron, though I don't know where it would be stored. Alternatively, perhaps the combined power of Syrlya, Steven, and myself would be enough to match an actual Miracle."

If the Blue Rose blew up the Prince, maybe two Rose touched and one Mirror touched could blow up the Mother? Strange doesn't know. But based on his nonchalant tone of voice, he is 100% down for murder.

"I doubt it," Rita says flatly. "What good has that Mirror exposure even done for you? Seemed to me like it just made you more fragile." If he doesn't think he can take a punch from Rita, what makes him think he can take on a fae?

"We'd be better off working with our allies, and giving them whatever support they need." That apparently includes Ignatius, now. Of course, Rita doesn't yet realize that Strange doesn't know of any others.

Fae don't punch people, duh Rita.

At her comment about the allies, Strange nods. That definitely includes Ignatius. And, in Strange's mind, his allies are solely Ignatius and that weird rabbit that Yuya may or may not have hallucinated (sorry Yuya.) Strange still looks in the general direction of Ignatius before sighing a little dramatically.

"Well, whatever support they need, I'll give it after Childermass and the rest get back." That is an absolute certainty. He knows he's one of the more powerful members of the carnival and knows he can dispel magic. It's no use giving away his power if everybody comes back enthralled to high heaven...and while the Mother of Invention is an unorthodox fae, she's still a faerie. Enthralling is always on the table.

"Where the devil are they to begin with?"

"They're supposed to be finding where our confiscated items are and retrieving them. We crossed paths with them earlier, and I know they've made contact with our plant, but..." Rita's gaze wanders to a far end of the large room, where the transporter is. She's sort of hoping to see them pop out of there any moment now.

"They better have made it," she grumbles, trying to conceal her nervousness with a disdainful tone. "If they don't come back soon, maybe some of us should go after them."

"I'll give them five minutes before I start scrying," Strange points out, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "Delta does have water I can use."

As he talks, he gesture in the vague direction of the water feature. He trusts Childermass to get people back to where they're going. But at the same time, there's so many unknowns in this situation that Strange doesn't know what sort of trouble Childermass might face getting back here.

Rita | OTA | Team Fortress, 20+ minutes after breakout

observation!

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BEAUTIFUL ACQUISITION,

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