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

Noodle tilts her head slightly while listening, blinking those shiny black eyes of hers. When he's done, she trills quietly again and rubs her face against his. For Stumpy's part... she chitters nervously. She doesn't look particularly keen on the idea, but she also knows her trainer is counting on her to help protect him, so...

Both Pokemon move to either side of him. Seems like they understand, and they're ready to go.

"Thanks," Steven says, giving them both another pat (and Noodle a kiss on the nose) and the faintest of grateful empathic waves. He starts creeping forward down the hall, trying to figure out where he's even going.

He feels like he senses something, something familiar - it's like when he felt things from corrupted gems, but like maybe its his own? It feels really weird to sense himself from a distance, but the feeling lures him deeper into the laboratory areas, using his floating ability to avoid footsteps and just gently floating himself around. When he sees that the coast is clear, he signals for the Pokemon to follow.

It can't go on forever, though. He knows his luck is going to run out. So, when he feels like he's close to something familiar, he picks a door and tries to tug it open by digging in his claws to the edge, and quickly realizes he has no way to get inside. He looks to Noodle.

"Um... Noodle..." He flushes a little, obviously stressed. "Do you think you'd be able to break one of these doors? I know it's probably really tough, but... I don't think I'm strong enough right now." Or possibly ever, but... he doesn't have a ton of options.

"Nnnnaaaair," Noodle coos in confirmation. She'll wait for him to get out of the way before she acts, of course. Once the door is clear, those sparkly anime eyes of hers narrow, and then her whole body ripples like a whip as she winds up her tail and hits the door with the strongest Dragon Rush she can muster.

Stumpy just watches with big round eyes from behind the safety of Steven's ankle, wondering when the hell Noodle turned into such a badass.

The thunderous Dragon Rush puts a dent in the door, partially pushing it off its sliding rails. Steven had hoped they could take the door out with one hit, but it makes as much sense that it didn't. Everyone is weaker here.

"Here... let me try this..."

Steven puts his hands on the metal and heats it up, channeling what energy he can from his Blue Rose magic. He heats the metal, and then cools it, and then heats it, and cools it, back and forth a few times. He pushes on it, and the metal wiggles a little. Then, he nods and looks to Noodle.

"Try again now, okay?"

Noodle nods, slithering backwards a foot or so to wind up another attack. Her eyes narrow, the orb at her neck starts to glow brilliantly... and then she lashes out with another Dragon Rush, really putting her all into this one.

This time the door partly caves in. Steven leans forward, trying to squish through the gap that's been opened. Before he does, though, he reaches back to touch Noodle's nose.

"I'll take it from here, be right back!" he says quietly, but it turns out being quiet is obsolete when you just made a huge smashing sound that resonated through the whole sector.

It results in a team of two technicians coming out of a nearby door.

"There!" one of them says, pointing at Steven, who is still halfway through trying to enter the lab. Steven looks back with a gasp, but it's too late. A powerful jolt has already gone through his body, sending him sliding down the door and onto the ground.

One of the techs pulls out some kind of laser pistol, pointing at this fucking dragon thing that is apparently loose now. The computer has no information on it.

"Get back!" they shout, firing on the Pokemon with stunning pistol bolts.

Noodle cries out in pain, but those bolts are hardly going to be enough to put her down entirely. Not when Steven's in danger like this. She rears up to the ceiling, roaring as she slams her tail against the floor and sends a Thunder Wave of her own at the techs, followed by a Dragon Rage.

Stumpy, meanwhile, is utterly terrified, and promptly skitters out of the line of fire. If she were a braver Pokemon she'd try and charge these fools with an aqua jet or something, but. She's not. She goes for the gap in the door, hiding on the other side of it where she chitters urgently at Steven, trying to get him to come to.

Steven does try to get up despite the sudden and uncontrollable clenching in his muscles, but it just results in him getting shocked a second time, yelping in helpless pain and dropping to the floor completely. He's breathing raggedly and trying to struggle, but the combination of hurt and stun is too much.

Meanwhile, the techs get some stunning of their own as Noodles does her Thunder Wave. One of them balls back around a corner, taking pistol shots, while the other tries to disperse the effect with some kind of high tech riot shield.

"Get out here!" one of the techs shouts. A few more technicians will appear - apparently there is something they want out of Steven in particular, and they aren't willing to just let it go.

The battle will go on, but eventually, one of the techs will catch Noodles with a tranquilizer from the labs. It will slow her movements, making it harder and harder for her to fight (though her sheer size will keep it from putting her out entirely) and in those moments one of the techs will manage to yank Steven away from her.

This is around the time that, somewhere nearby, Lion, Yuya and Lambert return to B7. Lion smells Steven nearby immediately, and will start trying to nudge Yuya in this direction, growling urgently.

"Eh--" Yuya stumbles forward as Lion nudges him looking over his shoulder. "What is it? You smell something?"

He probably smells Steven, Yuya realizes. If he's safe with the others where they're reinforced, then they're going that way anyway, aren't they? He glances around, then points. "That way?"

Lion grunts affirmatively and starts trundling down the hall without him. He seems focused, and tense, in a way that suggests that his animal instincts are telling him there is danger.

Lambert's still in his guise as a technician, and he frowns at -- whatever Yuya and Lion are up to.

"That's the wrong way," he points out. "We need to head back to join the rest."

And oh, great, now Lion is wandering away. Annoyed, the witcher follows after, not sure if he's going to have any success grabbing him by the mane and trying to steer him around.

When Lion starts off Yuya follows. It's familiar body language from owning cats and dogs, if in a much bigger animal.

When Lambert grabs for his mane, Yuya reaches to stop him. "Wait--it's probably Steven."

And if Steven's the wrong way, he's probably in trouble.

Lion keeps going, gradually picking up the pace as he moves. After travelling down a couple halls, they'll find themselves stumbling into the middle of a scene - with Noodles the Dragonair low the ground and beaten up, but still trying to fight, and a set of three technicians. One is injured and leaning against the wall, the other two look tired but upright.

In one of their arms is Steven, with their arm warped under his armpit and clutching his suit, limp but clearly in pain. The technician is holding a fairly brutal looking scalpel in their free hand. Lion growls and stalks towards them immediately, not realizing the implicit danger.

Edited 2018-11-06 21:06 (UTC)

Yuya picks up the pace with Lion, following right beside him with equal urgency. Granted, Steven might be fine and Lion us just being especially protective, so he's trying to keep his wits about him.

But that's pretty soundly ended when they turn the corner and are faced to the scene in the halls. Yuya's attention locks onto Steven when he sees him. The Technician holding holding him and the scalpel. Maybe the Technician wasn't openly threatening Steven with it, but it's what Yuya sees immediately. His mind blanks briefly, and then the only thing on it is getting Steven free.

Immediately is how he acts too, all his body tensing before he hurls himself forward. He twists his staff to point it forward like some sort of blunt lance, aiming to jam it hard into the Technician holding Steven.

"Let go of him!"

That technician gets double whammied, because at the same time that Yuya jabs forward with his staff, Stumpy-- who has been cowering helplessly in the door gap and watching her friends get the shit beat out of them-- is emboldened by Yuya's arrival to make a break for it. Chittering madly, she scrambles out from her hiding place as fast as her little legs will carry her and aqua jets between the legs of the tech who is holding Steven, rushing to put the arriving backup between herself and the scary people with stun batons.

Well, the aqua jet makes the floor a bit slippery, which is inconvenient. The tech doesn't immediately fall over, but Stumpy successfully runs away regardless. Good job, Stumpy!

Yuya jabs the staff at the tech, but in such a defensive position, that mostly makes them double down and actually press the scalpel to Steven's neck. The other one shoots their stun pistol at Lion and activates the stun mechanism in Yuya's suit.

"Get back, or the child will be hurt!" the technician holding Steven says, obviously intimidated by the approaching Lion. Lion growls, coming up to Yuya's side, trying to push forward - but a pistol shot hits him in the side, causing him to tilt to the side, pulling back a little. He roars, which only makes the tech holding Steven more nervous.

Edited 2018-11-07 00:55 (UTC)

Did you know that it's actually pretty hard on your stamina when you've been running around a shitty nasty winter fae space station for an hour with a new skeleton, alternately getting your ass kicked, kicking ass, and then having to move around a whole lot of boxes with other people's crap? It is, and that means Lion and Yuya peel ahead of Lambert while he brings up the rear, huffing and puffing. Maybe he needs to actually start picking up some of this fucking teleportation magic himself; Childermass never seems to be out of breath, except when Lambert--

That fond train of thought is forcibly wrenched back to the present when Lambert hears the tech shout and Lion's roar of pain. The reaction is immediate, the ring responding to his will, and when he rounds the corner, it's suddenly Ignatius primed for a fight, sword in hand and eyes ablaze.

"RELEASE THE BOY OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!

What the fuck, is that his voice? Well, it's his voice now. He storms forward, to all appearances ready to cut them down with the sword that's really probably comically small in fake Ignatius's hand.

Yuya's expression drops as the Technician isn't forced away from Steven as he'd hoped. But the very next second he feels pain shoot through his whole body, his knees locking as he falls to them and lets out a strangled sound as he's tazed by his suit.

Thankfully, Lambert--Ignatius? No, Lambert, that's right--comes charging down the hall for much needed back up.

The wounded technician tucked against the wall literally screams and starts limping away as fast as they can - the one with the gun turns from Lion to point it at 'Ignatius,' only to go wide-eyed in fear and retreating as well. It's only the one directly holding Steven that's left behind.

...Who then immediately takes a step back and slips on the water puddle Stumpy left, landing on their back and bringing Steven down with them. The scalpel slashes upward, leaving a cut up and over Steven's jaw. Steven yelps, that feeling bringing him out of his stupor. He stares up at the approaching Ignatius with terrified eyes, as Lion slinks to the ground defensively.

The tech, themself, is totally done. They bring the scalpel back to Steven's neck, trying to make demands despite being on their back, by themselves, in a puddle of water.

"I... I'll kill him! I swear!" they shout, trying to stare Lambert down. They are obviously terrified, though. Steven squirms, but can't quite move.

There’s always got to be one last hang up, doesn’t there? Lambert’s eyes are drawn to the puddle and he frowns, every so faintly, and glances at Yuya to see how he’s holding up.

“Kill him and you lose the only reason I have to keep you alive,” He says, with a laziness he doesn’t at all feel. Unfortunately it’s too close to risk throwing a sword or something like that without possibly hurting Steven, but all he really needs to do is convince the tech to let him go... or distract them long enough for someone to else to make a move. They all look the same to him, but he still pauses to gauge their features and see if it’s one he might recognize.

“Do you think the Mother of Invention is the only fae who can bring back the dead? I can return his life, but I doubt she would think twice about yours.” He turns a hand, palm-up. Sorry, Steven, if this is scaring you shitless.

“Show mercy, and you will be spared my conflagration. My quarrel is with your mistress, not her tools.” Wow, he hates talking like this.

Edited 2018-11-08 06:41 (UTC)

Yuya twitches, trying to force his muscles to move against the stun when the Technician doing it turns tail to run instead. It's not super successful, the way he drops a little further on his knees.

"Don't--you--" He mentally curses these stupid suits. Honestly, he'll just leave the talking to Ignatibert right now, while he tries to get his wits about him. He sounds like he has a plan there.

The technician doesn't have to think about it for very long. With their wits mostly about them, they are capable of making a rational decision.

They shove Steven forward onto the ground, letting him fall into a pile with Yuya. Lion immediately gets up and moves to cover the two boys, growling. However, before Lion can do much else, the tech is already standing up and running. They'll zip around the corner without any hesitation, provided Lambert let's them go.

Steven whimpers and tries to get up, looking up at 'Ignatius' with an expression of utter intimidation. It's obvious how much Ignatius scares him, even when he's ostensibly there to help. His muscles still feel limp and useless from several shocks to his suit, however, so he doesn't get very far.

It's really hard to be Stumpy right now. First, she'd rushed to hide behind Yuya and Lion, thinking she'd be safe that way. Then, this huge scary fire guy showed up on the scene, and it turns out he is even more intimidating than the guys with the stun batons! It's just! Bad! She really super wants to run away from this whole scene and get the heck out of dodge, but she's also loyal enough that she doesn't want to abandon Steven and Noodle to a fiery death.

Her courage finally finds her after the final tech leaves. She snaps and makes the decision to run back over to Steven, zipping past Lambert to put herself between him and all her friends on the ground. She's trembling so much it looks like she might just vibrate out of this plane of existence, but she also has her bristly, weird... Isopod tail? Raised and spiked out, like she's ready to attack in order to defend her friends from "Ignatius".

Talking is the plan, Yuya. That's mostly it.

Luckily for Lambert, it works, and luckily for the technician, he won't give chase. It's more important to attend to Steven right now, and how obviously scared and injured he is. He'll wait for a few seconds listening to the technician run away, keeping a careful ear out for the sound of any returning footsteps that might indicate they've found their courage again, but only when he's gone will he turn back to Steven.

"Steven--" he begins to say, in a cadence that's far less Ignatius-like, only to pause when the -- well, he never actually fucking knew what Stumpy is, just that she's Peridot's -- comes between him and the boy. It's genuinely tempting to shove her out of the way, but he remembers that sudden spray of water from earlier and 1. the technician falling on his ass was sort of useful, 2. she was obviously trying to protect Steven ... and if she's here, it must mean Peridot sent her with Steven. He doubts she can do him any real damage, but all the same, he grunts and shapeshifts into his least threatening form right now.

Which is, for better or worse, Alolan Childermass, which mostly means a very dour looking Englishman in a shirt with purple flowers on it.

"Steven," Lambert repeats again, this time in Childermass's low rumbling tone. "It's Lambert. This is just an illusion." He crouches to put the sword down -- coincidentally a position that lets him reach out to offer a hand to Yuya, since the paralysis ought to be wearing off by now. Also, Yuya just generally seems like he's better at dealing with emotional things in general, so maybe if he can get him up on his feet he'll make the correct noises to calm Steven down so Lambert doesn't have to ask inane questions with stupidly obvious answers like 'Are you okay?' when he fucking isn't.

Edited 2018-11-09 06:02 (UTC)

Yuya rolls his attention to Steven as he's thrown close. It's a little hard to turn around to see everything going on, so he mostly just sees Steven shaking in terror and leans over to put his arms around Steven's shoulders stiffly, if he doesn't pull away.

"It's okay, Steven. We've got you." Lucky for Lambert, he's already making comforting noises in an attempt to soothe Steven, apparently moving on from his complete failure to actually help save him--he's really grateful for Lambert right now. "Lion's here! And Lambert, and me, it's gonna be okay."

Lambert who he isn't totally paying attention to until he offers Yuya a hand, and Yuya looks up at him. "Thanks, Lam--"

Hawaiian shirt? "--Bert?"

Childermass? Hawaiian shirt??

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