⇨ POLARIS 3.0

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[kingsroads]

Well then! Strange is going to look over Ignatius, notice the magic nanites, try to calm his emotions, snuff out his third eye, and position himself so that he's close to Ignatius but not actively putting any weight on the guy.

"Hold still."

And then he mutters an incantation and tries to dispel as much of the ice-aligned magic as he can. He's trying to draw upon as much of his magic + the power that Ignatius gave him + maybe any residual Silver Mirror weirdness that might have been stirred up by the Technicians poking around in his brain to try and make his 30% as effective as possible. He's attempting the spellbreaking by using his dispel magic kiss magic. Spellbreaking via kisses does not explain the fact that Strange has decided to smooch Iggy on the lips & if possible, he's using tongue.

Any luck with spellbreaking?

[npcarnival]

Ignatius is not having a good day, but it's a better day than the several preceding it. Being disconnected from those fucking machines and mostly free has him just wanting to pass out more than anything, in between trying to forge new connections and see if anyone has any heart pieces to spare. He may be effectively down for the count, but that doesn't mean he doesn't need to give everything he can to the cause. Not if they are going to survive this, anyway - he cannot go back to what the Mother had in store for him.

His mind is fuzzy, though, and he's not fully focused when Strange goes from looking him over (Ignatius had offered him a relieved hello at the start, happy to see one of the most familiar members of the carnival, and to confirm he's still alive) to straight up kissing him on the mouth. He's so out of it at that point that it both does and doesn't make perfect sense. Of course, even at his best, Ignatius would not have a great idea of how to respond to this.

He's not so much a cold fish as he is completely unprepared, especially for the tongue part. The kiss is more of a thing that happens to him than anything he participates in. The fuck just happened here? Did he miss something? He pulls away after the moment of sheer bewilderment passes, giving Strange a flummoxed look.

"What?" he says. Nothing particularly magical happens - or rather, Strange's attempt to disenchantment bounces off the Mother's technology.

[kingsroads]

Strange activates his third eye again as his burn scars light up and he starts to explain. Just ignore the fact that he's blushing a little: oh my god he can't believe he just did that.

"I can dispel magic. It's unorthodox, but it works best via kissing. And before you say anything, I've dispelled plenty of faerie enchantments that way."

Two is plenty. Still, it didn't work, so Strange just frowns at the magic still swarming around Ignatius.

"Of course, it works best when I'm at full power. I'm sorry, I can't stop whatever the Mother's put inside of you."

[scientificist]

"That's because he was injected physically," Herbert finally speaks up, apparently actually paying attention while reinforcing the holes he's made in a set of Gamma clothing with an overcast stitch. He's sitting on a box a few feet away, still wearing Carly's Cloak of Shadows. "I'm not surprised your, artsy improvisational magic didn't work."

[npcarnival]

"Kissing, though?" Ignatius repeats, and then lays back onto the floor, looking at Strange bemusedly before putting his hand over his face. He doesn't know what to make of that at all, so he's just gunna... not do anything about it, what so ever.

"It feels like... raw element. Against my alignment. Like a human, having fire in their veins..." He peeks out from beneath his hand at Strange, then covers it again. "...Not you, a normal human."

[kingsroads]

Considering that in Strange's opinion Herbert doesn't know shit about magic, he proceeds to ignore the contributions from the peanut gallery and pretend that Herbert isn't even there.

And he's about to but in something like uh, about that fire in his veins thing, before Ignatius continues. "Point taken," Strange responds, with a little smile. "And yes, kissing. I didn't choose the trigger. But it works best that way, so I've refined the spell to take advantage of the natural potency."

The flames of his third eye are still going as Strange continues to examine Ignatius, as if this will somehow give him a better idea of how best to help. There's a little pause before, Strange continues, not really sure about how to say this. "By the way, I think I'm fireproof now. One of the tests they ran on me involved your power with some...unexpected results."

[npcarnival]

"Whatever you say, wizard," Ignatius says dubiously, but it's in at least partly a teasing thing. Though, he momentarily falls silent at the other part.

"...Yes, I got that impression," he says, hesitantly. "You're... thoroughly touched by my magical essence at this point. More so than should be possible, in such a short time..."

[kingsroads]

Strange rolls his eyes at Ignatius's teasing, but he gives the other fae a little smile. He can't really do much at the moment, but he can at least keep Ignatius company while he recovers.

"And I've picked up a new trick." Strange then poofs into his fire elemental form: his intensely beat up and super fireburned suit falls to the ground as he does so. Due to the power nerf, his fire form is really friggen adorable and about the size of a baseball.

"You should get some rest," his voice emanates weirdly from the fire form, "but tell me if you need any part of you warmed up."

Fun fact: Strange has no fucking clue how fire fae work. Would warming Ignatius up help him heal faster? Maybe? He doesn't know.

[npcarnival]

Ignatius fucking sits right up at that because he was not expecting a full elemental transformation from Strange, nor was he expecting it to be so... tiny.

"...This happened as a result of my magic?" he asks, staring at this tiny fireball elemental in a vague sense of wonderment. It's really... endearing. In a way that is possibly hard to explain to someone who isn't a fire elemental, besides the general concept of 'small versions of your species are adorable.'

"...How are you going to put your clothes back on?" They look pretty done. Also Ignatius is exhausted enough that this seems like a reasonable thing to focus on.

[kingsroads]

Strange doesn't understand the specifics of why Ignatius is staring at him like that. What he does understand is that he's got a feeling Ignatius likes this form that Strange is in so hot damn, he is going to stay tiny and fire for as long as his magic lets him (or until Childermass and the rest return.)

The clothing question doesn't bother Strange as he awkwardly floats over so that his tiny little fire form is resting on Ignatius's leg. It's like somebody put a golf ball on a human's leg, there's plenty of space here for him to hang out and not make it super weird.

"I'll reform inside the clothes," Strange points out. "I've done it before with smoke, I know it'll work."

[scientificist]

Herbert really wants to fuck off because this is truly some awful flirtatious bullshit but he absolutely doesn't trust Strange to appropriately fetch him if something goes wrong with Ignatius so he just sits there, hunchback under the cloak growing as his wings raise up slightly in irritation.