lostcarnival | ⇨ POLARIS 3.0

Entry tags:

⇨ 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

Well, this isn't looking promising for some big energetic kerfuffle in which Sans-MoI is distracted by other people, but it does have him? them? turning and walking somewhere else. Obviously, Papyrus isn't willing to let that just happen like that. So he shifts the bones to one hand and raises the other like he's in class, following after his possessed brother.

"Uh, excuse me, scary person walking around in my brother? We've let you speak, and offer a deal... so, can you go away now? It can't be good for him for you to be in there. I know I'd be harmed by somebody walking around, in me, instead of me."

Mostly because, from the times anything like that happened before, they controlled him into getting in fights where he was at least a little injured. But the morale blow counts too.

His left ear flicks as he listens to Syrlya. He did choose not to listen to him earlier but that was because he felt what they were doing was pointless given hurting Sans wouldn't stop the Mother of Invention from using his body. Now that the air had been cleared and the goal was distraction more than just harming Sans, he was fine with that.

He looks down towards the ground like he can't find anything else to focus on other than his words right now. "Who would you suggest," he asks, his gaze turning way from him to look towards Papyrus asking for mild trouble.

Sans stops to look at Papyrus, and with his eyes covered it's hard to get a full read on his expression, but it comes across as 'amused'. Not Sans's brand of amused, someone else's.

"As long as I walk unmolested, I am considering the agreement active," he says, simply. "Would you prefer to stop me? I will only use physical force of pushed to it."

"Well, Sans teleports." So someone who can keep up with him, keep his vision obscured. Who might know what he does... hm.

"Papyrus is his brother, isn't he?" And already making an attempt at approaching.

He nods but doesn't confirm it verbally. He's not sure if getting Papyrus in the way of Sans is a good idea. If anything were to happen to him while she had his body, it would cause an already ton of other problems to occur ontop of what Sans had to go through already earlier this week. Not that he'll openly admit that to anyone else.

"He's already moving in that direction," he speaks again, his gaze turning back towards Sans like he wants to follow him and yet keep his distance from the Mother of Invention all together.

"Unless you have a better idea how to restrain his movement..." Syrlya, unfortunately, doesn't know the full limits of Sans teleportation. It's like a Mesmer, tricky to deal with from the outside.

He glances sideways. "And something should be done bout your chip, too."

It looks like a strangely haughty kind of amusement, one that doesn't suit Sans any more than weird decorative swords do.

Papyrus frowns, and the indecision likely shows on his face as he really weighs his options. Obviously he doesn't want to hurt his brother, or watch him get hurt. And who knows what else the Mother can do from inside there, if she decides the agreement she made up is off.

"Well, I'd prefer you stop. Without... physical force. Saying, so long as you're in Sans you won't hurt him..." He shakes his head. "It's hard to want to make a deal with you, when you're, uh, keeping hostages. You're talking through our friends, instead of loudspeakers or strangers, to remind us you can hurt us, right? That's not very friendly. That's actually very scary and unwelcoming! I don't know if I can trust any deal you offer, when you're doing that."

Sans ignores Tyki and Syrlya's whispering, instead focuses on Papyrus. He walks towards him as he speaks, listening attentively - for all the difference it will make. He stops right in front of him, looking up to meet his troubled gaze.

"That's the secret," he says, softly. "Whether you accept this or not... it's still happening. This is your reality now. And so... what will you do?"

His gaze hardens even if unseen underneath the visor, turning to look away from the Mother of Invention and at Syrlya directly, "No, Sans is the more interesting data in this portion of our defenses right now given the reactions you are all giving her. She seems fixated enough at the moment."

He can barely hear Papyrus and 'Sans' talking right now given the distance he's allowed them to travel. As for his chip, he makes an irritated sound gently, "I'm aware. I wouldn't have walked over if I had realized the situation."

Syrlya shrugs a shoulder. Nothing they can do about it now, and there's no likely benefit in playing chip swap again. they just have to minimize the allies she can use against them.

Especially if her 'buying time' is to send a bigger force against them, if not march down herself (and even then, nothing stops her from turning these four against them anyway to put down the insurgence). "Try to avoid getting her attention personally. I need to see about something."

He steps back, and then phases out of sight as he pulls his magic together for an invisibility veil. Without any departing words he turns to go--he needs to find Shimmer without the Mother of Invention catching on and getting a look at her.

"Well... I'd like to root for someone bigger than you to eat you," he says slowly, as if he's just realizing how much he's come to depend on that as a problem solver with big problems. It's effectively the same as calling Undyne or Sans to come help with a problem would have been, except with a little more eating. And moral quandery vis a vis eaten people are usually dead. Ignatius is a bewildering exception.

And, as if it needs any elaboration, Papyrus adds, "you you, not Sans. But I don't think that's happening. I really hoped that convincing you would work a little bit! You're not just happening, you're a person. You're deciding to do things, too. And, you could always decide to do differently? With, uh, some effort, I guess fae don't change quickly."

"You're wrong," Sans says, as if debating with Papyrus is a totally effective and worthwhile use of the Mother's time. "The fae are as much a force of nature as the wind or the water. If you remain where it floods, you will drown." Sans steps closer, apparently excited by Papyrus's objection.

"We are the elements personified, the first beings, the building blocks of life. You will experience me like a beast experiences the winter." This is nothing close to a speech Sans would ever give, but it continues regardless. "I see myself in miniature, in you. Beings of pure magic... always fettered by our nature. You shy from cruelty like I shy from iron. Why must the essences of life be so... limited?"

Edited 2018-11-07 18:40 (UTC)

At least someone's excited. When he went pushing his brother to be a little more enthusiastic about science and a little less mired in guilt, he'd wanted his brother to be focusing and happier, not... this.

And it's nothing like a speech he's ever heard Sans give, but it sounds vaguely familiar, all the same. Pontification about how reality is, mixed with tangents of pushing at its walls to test whether it really, truly is. Somehow it reminds him of the barrier, of the core, of nights overhearing rambling that he didn't really understand about how to generate enough power to find some othersolution. This threat-promise of experiencing Invention like a sudden winter storm, your own fault for being in the way, it's different enough to startle him out of the odd nostalgia.

"You sound very sure, but... do you have to be? That big, that... stuck being one way?"

He remembers some time when the Ringmaster basically invited everyone to kill her, if they'd wanted to, when she'd given up her power in a bet. If she was some kind of force of nature - The Beast, some fae said, but what did bestiality have to do with a traveling carnival? - then had she been someone else that time, or herself?

"I wouldn't want to be like that. I'm very cool, and kind, and helpful, and all around very great," he says with a somewhat subdued imitation of his old braggery.

"...But, mostly because I try to be! And, and when I notice I'm not being all that great... I work to do better. It's not easy, or fast, and some of it might really be impossible... But if I told myself, I'm stuck being someone I don't like, then. I just would be?"

Papyrus squints at the visor, trying not to talk like he's talking to his brother, and fails a bit as he falls into a more scolding tone. "Are you sure you're not doing that, in some very powerful, living for eons and eons way? Telling yourself 'oh, I can't, so I won't even try,' and making yourself be a bigger storm than you could be?"

Sans listens to Papyrus's whole explanation, without impatience or interruption. In fact, his general posture seems enraptured, his tail even swishing with latent interest. Its probably the most eagerly someone has ever accepted one of Papyrus's scoldings.

Yet, when he's done, Sans only comes closer, looking right up at his brother. He removes his visor, holding it at his side, which only makes this exchange weirder, with all of Sans's eyes set on him.

"...So very brave," he says. "Mortals have so much to fear, yet they struggle on so nobly. I can't imagine being forced to live with such regret, even for such a short time."

Read: she doesn't regret anything about this, nor wish for something different. Not at all.

"Why... would I ever desire such frailty? Why, when I can watch it so closely?" Sans is going to try to touch Papyrus's face at this point, to cup the side of his face in his hand, but if Papyrus pulls away he won't pursue. It's an idle, almost dreamlike motion. Like touching a cloud. "Your weakness... your hope... is beautiful and terrible."

Edited 2018-11-07 23:10 (UTC)

In another time or place, the compliments and attentiveness to his lecture might be heartwarming. But this is just wave after wave of disappointment. His face falls as soon as the visor comes off, partly because he'd hoped Tyki was wrong about how important the visors were to this control, partly because he's not happy to hear she wants nothing to do with improving herself as a person... but mostly because, it was easier to have this conversation when he couldn't properly see his brother's face.

So Papyrus recoils from the reaching hand and the eyes staring at him in some unrecognizable affection, and takes a step back before catching himself.

"Because... You're not close. You're right here, but you don't understand. I want my brother back. Do you... Do you have any family? Any friends?"

Is she like the Prince, kidnapping people to have some company, but succeeding in changing them to be something more beautiful after watching their hopes and suffering? Or is removing that weakness... really all she cares about? It seems lonely.

She's a little disappointed when Papyrus pulls away, but not really. It's still fascinating to watch. There are a complicated series of factors that make this particular interaction so interesting - their relationship, maybe, and their species kindred relationship with the fae. A million other tiny things. It's not something she could replicate, even if she tried, and that's what's amazing about it.

"I do understand," Sans says, taking another step forward to match Papyrus's step back."Beings comprehend things they haven't personally experienced all the time. Like mortals witnessing black holes, so far out in space they could never touch them. Yet, they witness the pull all the same. They may even feel it, in ways incomprehensible. I have a maker, a Court, like we all do. But that's not what I want."

"I want you... to want. I want you to struggle. Sometimes... I may want you to succeed. I want to witness the need I have never felt myself, and to see the battle to have it satisfied. The proof is in the pull."

Something happens in the staff area, and Sans briefly turns his head, looking in that direction. Somewhere else, Ignatius frees Rita from her control. Somewhere else, Ignatius falls to the ground, bested by her trick.

"Even fae are not immune to it," he says. "But I am." He looks back to Papyrus. "I am your impartial witness. Tell me again... what do you want?"

Edited 2018-11-08 18:50 (UTC)

Wow this is super uncomfortable. On the one hand, Papyrus seems to have the Mother's rapt attention. On the other... Papyrus has the Mother's rapt attention. It's kind of like a horrible train wreck that you can't look away from, and you're not sure if you should call 911 or just stand there, gaping like a fish, watching the world burn.

It's really the sensation of Ignatius taking a hit elsewhere, a shuddering in that poor faerie's very soul, that spurs him to motion. It means that the Mother is better at multitasking than they thought. He locates Tyki from his hiding place and moves to stand behind him. He gestures vaguely to whatever the hell is happening over there with Papyrus and puppet Sans.

"Should we do something?"

Edited 2018-11-08 19:40 (UTC)

Papyrus holds steady as not-quite-Sans advances, recognizing a monologue of a villain's motivations when he hears one - having crafted a few in his time. (Even if they were meant more as menacing, ultimately heroic ones.)

"So you don't mind us trying to fight, trying to escape... trying to free our friends... as long as you can watch," Papyrus echoes after. "Because you want to watch."

It's a sass back that she does too want things, an answer that hints what he wants, and at least a little bit confirmation of the part he understood. The references to black holes and some of the scale of her wants are harder to grasp in this moment, and hopefully less essential. His bones rattle in a slight metallic clinking, as he decides to go for it.

"I... I don't want to fight my brother," he says, considering the bones clutched in his hands. "I want him free, and walking and talking, but... I don't want to use force to stop him."

And he drops the lot to the ground, in an show of surrendering. But one of them's made of dust, and goes ploomph on hitting the ground with force enough to send the dust flying up between them.

The dust rises around them, and Sans coughs. Oh, haha! What's this? Unexpected. It seem to catch him a bit by surprise, but not in a bad way. He looks around at the sparkling dust, then looks up at Papyrus, his step wobbling slightly as he bears down on the other skeleton regardless.

"Then it is granted," Sans says, leaning in close even as the dust seems to make his movements slower and sleepier. "Your brother... is yours. And you may perish in this storm together."

Sans will slump forward, his visor dropping from his hand onto his the ground. Still, he manage to keep his eyes upward, even as he stumbles.

"That... is my payment to you."

He collapses, then - either into Papyrus's arms, or onto the floor. The Mother's presence is gone.

Edited 2018-11-08 20:02 (UTC)

Carly didn't completely leave when Papyrus began to speak with the Mother. She couldn't stand to look at Sans in this state of course, and the Mother's continued actions certainly made it worse, but she couldn't leave the area completely. Instead she quietly took to the air, keeping the skeletons in sight.

At one point, the water in the distance seems to be moving- and she almost wants to go in that direction, to see what's happening, how to help.

"Papyrus-!" She doesn't however, and her eyes move from the distraction of the store front fountain in time to see Sans' collapse.

"Sans-!" she adds a millisecond after calling the name of the taller one, floating down with an awkward flap to try and keep from flying too close or crashing. ~~She may fail. But she's trying.~~

There is a pause...and she swallows, looking over the two.

"...She..." ... "...She's gone..?"

It's good fortune that they've gone a good several days without any magic; ordinarily, Papyrus would have tried to grab his brother with blue magic. But while it's working, it's not as strong, and it slows Sans' unconscious fall just enough for Papyrus to grab him.

Papyrus looks up at Carly's question with wide, uncertain eyesockets. "I... I don't know, I just put him to sleep. So, she might still..."

He glances around, to the distant explosions and water rising and so forth. "9S is missing, I don't know who else can tell... Rita? Is there anybody else?"

Yes, things do seem like they might be...worrying over there, maybe. But-

"I think I saw her over at the store, but..." She's not really sure what was going on over there?

~~In a few moments, probably a really intense light show actually.~~

The woman swallows, crouching down some to stare at Sans. "...I hope she's gone... ...Actually gone, and not just...taking someone else, at least."

Edited 2018-11-09 00:06 (UTC)

He's about to answer Zangetsu with a faint I don't know mostly because he was told not to interfere and yet there was a lot of action going on at once. The words barely leave his lips with even Tyki tearing his eyes away to look towards where the others are. Something has caught the Mother of Inventions attention and he is already scanning in that direction even if he can't see that far.

He looks towards Papyrus as he successfully knocks out Sans and Tyki rushes over out of slight concern, keeping his distance so that Papyrus can take care of his brother. Even his hand beckons Zangetsu over so he doesn't have to stand over there by himself.

"Unless she's lurking somewhere nearby she likely has left him. You saw it wasn't the visor that kept her within. He was likely unconscious before she let him go." Unless she was still watching them like a creep through the poor skeleton. Yet that is not what worries him the most as he scans Papyrus slowly for any updated information.

Good, he doesn't know either. That makes him feel more comfortable! Slightly.

He follows Tyki over, peeking around him to look at Sans and Papyrus.

"Hmm..." he says with a frown, turning his sixth sense on Sans, probing for the Mother of Invention's cold and overwhelming presence. "Whatever just happened, she ain't using him any more. She left -- but she's still over there somewhere," he says, pointing towards the store. "Maybe she jumped bodies? Hard ta say." Maybe she had been in two bodies at once? He couldn't really tell -- the souls of those damn true fae were infuriatingly hard to interpret.

"But... uh.. what was that she said? There at the end? A 'payment'?"

Edited (that icon was too aggressive ) 2018-11-09 02:14 (UTC)

Sans is snoozing peacefully, with an expression reading more like 'looking pretty pleased with himself for sneaking in this nap' rather than 'inner turmoil.' If it was a less fraught setting, it would seem like he was doing pretty well for himself.

There's no obvious signs of the Mother's presence, either physically or spiritually. Tyki won't feel anything rising up in him either.

⇨ POLARIS 3.0

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have an essay of papyrus' general opinion here because I gotta get workbound

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