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

Yuya looks between the pills and Rita, pausing before he takes a deep breath to steel himself and nods.

"I can do that," he says as he takes the pill. "It won't work while I'm moving, but I can do it in the air and do it quickly!"

She'll just have to hold position if they can't dodge. He takes one of the pills, breaking open thw package and swallowing... and then looks a little surprised as he lifts on his toes and doesn't quite come down, hair bouncing. "Oh."

Syrlya looks to Gongenzaka, focusing on the bleeding arm... but he's standing, so it must not be severe enough to inhibit him.

"Help direct Peridot, then. Peridot, Zangetsu, we'll move to the top of the bridge first. I and Zangetsu will attempt to keep focus off of Peridot so that she can cut through."

He flexes his arm. "The iron is short, so the hole nea to be big enough for my arm. I should be able to get onto the Mother of Invention, but... Zangetsu, if I wave will you carry me over?"

"Through one of us?" Peridot repeats skeptically. SHE'S NOT SURE SHE LIKES THE SOUND OF THAT, GON.

"Whoo-!" Oh! Well, that certainly helps. Carly takes a moment to get herself re-oriented, before readying her bow again. "...If it's armor to defend against that, it's not going to be easy to split..." Hmm.

"I was going to use the bow's magic, but maybe I should stick to Hellfire, in that case..."

It takes a second to reorient himself after they move, and Papyrus shifts the bones to provide whatever loose cover they can while Sans and Carly discuss strategy... and he considers one of his hands, the metal now likely permanently covering it, and some of the comments that not-Sans had been making, before.

"That sounds about right... and, I distinctly remember swords, in the instructions. You were asleep for that," he tells Sans, "but I think they mean to attack her core, once we can reach it. So, maybe we fight blasts with blasts."

He doesn't bother with showmanship, just letting a fanged blaster form several feet above his head and fire off a beam of crackling white light at the Mother of Invention's torso.

Meanwhile, Yukio grabs Rin's hand and pulls himself up onto Kuro's back with a hiss of pain.

"The rifle doesn't work, so I need both arms free for the bow." He doesn't ask for Rin's help keeping him on the cat's back, just presses his knees against Kuro's back and tries to hold on as the demon runs off. Kuro's strong and fast and big, and able to dodge and jump to give Yukio chances to fire off energy blasts at the fae's joints and any open spots with pinpoint accuracy.

Zangetsu nods to Syrlya, "If Peridot can make a hole, I can make sure you get to it." Then, he hoists Peridot up by the back of her uniform with a grin.

"Hold on tight, stringbean."

He throws the gem over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and bursts into Sonído; movement so fast it looks like teleportation. He uses a few bursts in a zig-zag pattern to avoid lasers and makes it to the bridge in split-seconds. It's probably fairly disorienting. He sets Peridot down, but doesn't take his hand off her shoulder.

"It's slick and kind of rounded -- don't slip."

Sans doesn't wait. As soon as Papyrus starts firing, he does at well - he summons up his proto-blasters, ordering them to fire on the same spot. A stream of blue and gold light bursts forth, utilizing both his angelic and monster based magic.

Part of him worries, though. He knows he's still bearing her implant, and there's always the change that she'll use it. Maybe it's inevitable, but he makes the determination then and there, that he's going to keep fighting until she stops him. One way or another.

“Come on!”

Rita grabs Yuya’s arm, opens her wings, and takes to the air, pulling him along as she moves to flank the Mother of Invention.

Once she’s found a good position in the air, Rita lets go of Yuya and levitates in place as she starts conjuring a spell.

“Eat this, you freak!” she cries, letting loose a stream of white-ish flames at the base of some of those arms.

Hell fire it is.

Carly isn't as fast as a bunch of blasters, but she'll shoot arrows as fast as she can- taking aim for the face of the robot as best she can manage.

Good thing that face actually has lines. And stuff.

However the boon has taken effect, Gon isn't going to say much. He'll simply nod, and rather aburptly his body will just...

Fall over. Zangetsu should see his spirit fine- as it is, Peridot will feel a gentle nudge against her consciousness asking permission to hitch that ride. Until she agrees, he's just kinda...awkwardly floating there.

But once she does agree, he seems to vanish. And Peridot won't actually feel anything, until-

"Auh...I, the man Gongenzaka...Think this may be working? ...I believe I am seeing through your eyes...?"

Welp, there he is, and there he'll stay for the ride.

Before getting tangled up in all this kidnapping and imprisonment bullshit, Beauregard would have felt a little hype for this fight. Probably made at least one stupid dash out towards the giant armored foe. From up here by the Tuck Shop, she can even see how she'd do it - go vaulting up the opened edge of the wall, balance on one of the peeled out metal areas, and leap from there onto what is, apparently, the Mother of Invention.

But here, now? No promise of reliable healing magic to mean she won't be left for dead, and the only plan she's caught wind of involves stabbing ghosts.

Instead, she's taking cover in the shop. After a couple minutes of digging around for some sort of supplies she could use, she came to the conclusion that there's plenty that would help with dealing with like, technician-level threats, but not much for the giant 8-limbed big boss. Instead, she makes her way back to the doorway, and keeps watch for people who've fallen. Fuck it, two people can play field medic to haul people back to the doctor. Especially if one of the bigger people falls.

'Fairly' disorienting turns out to be 'really' disorienting, because Peridot has practically gone wall-eyed by the time Zan puts her down. It's enough that she even forgets to be mad about being called 'string bean'.

She still has her reservations about the whole hitchhiking ghost situation, but she's not in a position to be picky right now. She agrees to Gon's request, shuddering and makes a discomforted noise when his voice echoes in her head. Can't linger on that. Got to get to work. She works out the heebie-jeebies (and the dizziness) by shaking her head rapidly, and then steels herself before turning into a bat and taking off from the skyway, zig-zagging through the air to avoid the laser blasts. The smaller she is, the less likely she is to be hit, right?

Tsch, there's a lot of crowding on the skywalk and he's glad he's not on it now. He shifts Eruka more against his back and against his side, his tentacles emerging from his back into the air to help stable her so she doesn't have to cling to him. If that unnerves her, he'll just remove them or let her deal with it after. A quick scan confirms his suspicion and he realizes something is missing.

He brings his hand to his mouth for a moment, "Text to Mister Ram. Where the hell are you?!"

The skeleton brothers are firing and he glances down at Sans adding to the barrage. Well, if his partner is fighting he may as well do so as well. There's no point staying on the side lines any longer given how her range is. His hand outstretches with Dark Matter lacing around his hand. It fires rapidly in her direction, aiming for the exact spot as the others, hoping to add to the fire power.

Edited 2018-11-11 04:16 (UTC)

[CURRENT BATTLE MAP HERE!]

It seems she has quite the gallery of attackers, now. Most random attacks being shot at her will sear the surface of the metal, but not do much to penetrate it. Even Ignatius seems to be having a hard time landing a solid blow - but that's mostly because her focus is largely on him, and keeping him from doing so. Whenever he dives in for an attack, she smacks him away with her arms, and raises fields of icy vapor to keep him back. These vapor fields are responsible for dispersing other people's attacks as well.

Yet, once the rows of people on top of the skyway start attacking in sequence, it seems to be enough to gain her notice. She stops firing her blasters, and instead moves forward - she start doing some kind of terrible pirouette, creating a tornado of metal limbs that will swoop through the group on the skyway and bash the shit out of the structure itself, as well as strike at the little bugs attempting to flank her.

She'll try to keep this up until the skyway is destroyed, or until something else distracts her. Ignatius, on the other hand, is doing his best to get in close - he lands on the patch of her chest that most people were targetting, and takes the opportunity to ride along with her spinning body, plunging his spear in as deep as he can get it. It's shocking difficult, even for a fae weapon like his.

"Rita, get back!" he yells.

Edited 2018-11-11 04:22 (UTC)

Sans sees the first swipe of an arm coming for the skyway, and knows that not everyone is going to be as quick to get out of the way as he could be. So, instead of teleporting away, he teleports into the direct path of that first arm.

He sticks out the hand with the scarab bracelet attached, and hopes for the best. It's meant to stop all momentum that touches the hand that bears it - he's tested it in less ridiculous circumstances. Will it work now? He hopes so, or he might end up being toast.

If it can throw off her balance at all...

The arm strikes Sans's hand, and amazingly, it does stop it in its path for a moment. Yet, as anything with enough momentum hitting an obstacle, it doesn't stop it for good. Instead, it slips upwards and off of Sans's hand, trying to regain momentum, and ultimate swooping him down onto the surface of the skyway.

Still, at least that arm gets redirected upwards and away from the pack. But there are more coming.

Edited 2018-11-11 04:35 (UTC)

Woah! Not ideal. So much for leaving Syrlya behind while he tries to cover Peridot. The Mother comes out swinging, and Sans' bracer buys them some time. Enough time for Zangetsu to crouch down, sword in hand, and yell loudly at the plant-man to hold on tight. At the same time, he shapeshifts his long reptilian tail out, giving Syr something to sit on, more or less, while clinging to his back.

Then, they're airborne again, Zangetsu climbing quickly to get above the spinning arms of death.

Sans smacks into the surface of the skyway, obviously dazed. His wings flutter uselessly, trying to regain balance, but it's clear that the stunt has stunned him... which mostly means he's too busy recovering from the force of the knockback to teleport away from the other incoming threats.

Edited 2018-11-11 04:45 (UTC)

They don't get a lot of time to survey. Syrlya sees her attention change, but before he can say anything the extra limbs are moving, fast, right for all of them.

"Move!" He jerks sideways and ducks, away from the center as one of the arms comes down. It narrowly misses his head, but he still feels it clip hard on his shoulder with a force that goes down to the bone--and the force drags him backwards, sliding off of the skyway as the arm smashes through it. His fingers tremble against his sword as he struggles not to lose hold of it while his arm numbs and falls limper.

Luckily Zangetsu is there. Before he teeters back too far he grapples with his good hand to his clothes and hauls himself closer while they take to the air. "Get--get my blade."

Tyki and Eruka are thankfully away from the skywalk instead of on it but the flying debis of it being utterly decimated doesn't stop the destruction from reaching them. Tyki's shield is up and he's hugging Eruka to his back to take the brunt of the damage. The Tease can't hold it for long, cracking down the middle, sending him skidding back within the air with a grunt.

But it's Sans that catches his attention, choosing against his better judgement to dive back into the fray, reaching for him to snag and grasp him with a tentacle even if it means he has to jerk him. His hand is up, another shield in place but the brunt of her massive arm smacks into it, shattering it into pieces and knocking him and whoever in his grasp towards the water.

The thin wall of bones does nothing against the massive arms she brings their way, and Sans' bracelet is probably the only reason they don't get crushed. Instead the spinning arms crash into the skyway nearby, throwing shrapnel in all directions.

One piece crashes against Papyrus' side, knocking him down and cringing around sore, injured-feeling ribs. It's not as bad as it could have been, between the protection of metal and the complete lack of intent from the shrapnel... But it's a moment's effort to get back to his feet.

During that minute, he reaches out with magic and tries to check something in the Mother. She'd said, before when talking through Sans, that monsters were like very miniature fae. And he's heard before, from others of the carnival, that his magic works more like fae magic than any of theirs. So... that should mean she has a Soul to act on, right? One that might be affected by his magic, in ways he's used to?

As he finishes getting back to his feet, he does his best to ping her soul blue, and push her away.

Zangetsu does manage to save Syrlya's sword from crashing to the ground, making sure his passenger gets it back.

Unfortunately, that distraction keeps him from moving out of the way of a large piece of weaponized skybridge debri. It hits him square in the chest and gut and sends him reeling back, losing precious distance and his bead on Peridot.

Edited 2018-11-11 05:07 (UTC)

Okay, maybe being small is great for avoiding getting hit, but when you're airborne? It causes problems. Those arms are basically slicing through the air like giant fanblades, and the bat squeaks in distress as she's buffeted about helplessly in their current.

Desperate for something to anchor to, Peridot acts on sheer instinct. Her elemental form is a relatively new power that she's still getting the hang of, but something she knows for sure about it is that she'll be almost automatically drawn through the nearest metallic object and, hopefully, out of harm's way. If she gets into one of those arms, maybe she can even do some damage. Or, that's what she thinks for about two seconds anyway, before discovering why zapping into one of the Mother's metal arms is actually a terrible idea.

As a general rule, Gems aren't really bothered by the cold; they don't exactly have an internal body temperature that needs to be maintained, or true flesh that can be damaged by frigid conditions. But what Peridot feels when she makes contact with the construct isn't a natural cold; it's like horrible icy despair made tangible, a force that seems to try and crystalize within her very soul, threatening to spread and shatter it. What's worse, with all her exposure to the Ringmaster over such a long time, Peridot's soul has taken on an inclination towards fire and heat. What she's rubbing up against here is essentially the antithesis of that, and coming into contact with it is painful and terrifying to feel.

She's panicking almost immediately. The spell still technically does the trick, as, in a form of pure electrical energy, she's able to travel down the length of the arm and eject out the base of it to become solid again, successfully avoiding getting physically battered about.... But she's far from unscathed. Peridot practically wrenches herself out of the metal at the base, desperate to get away from that oppressive force. The lightning shoots out of the robot's back and turns back into a bat again... But the little creature tumbles helplessly to the ground, momentarily senseless and shivering violently.

Given that she's twirling around, her stance isn't exactly firm. This means that when Papyrus pings her soul, it will give enough leverage to push her a bit further from the skyway - at least enough to put a little space between them and the core of her body. She barely notices the shift, but Papyrus will feel it working, though with great effort.

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