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

It takes him a minute to emerge from the water, his tentacles rising into the air to drag Sans and Eruka out from where he was dragged within. He took most of the damage, trying not to flail the both of them in the process of recovering, his body pressing against the water like he's climbing out of muck. He grimaces on his hands and knees on the water as if it was solid, his Beta clothes torn down one side and his hand moves upwards to check for his visor on reflex, ignoring the way his air refuses to enter his lungs or the blood dragging from his face. Oh, that hurt but his power is holding him upright, his arm grasping at Eruka to drag her back against him with his other hand reaching out to pull Sans closer.

His fingers dig into his now wet thigh pack to ease out his healing draught, taking a dose of it and glancing down at Sans with his dazed expression. His fingers lightly tap at his cheek, trying to get him alert and active enough to see the draught if necessary, "If you need this take it."

This has all been far less than ideal. Gongenzaka isn't ejected from the body or anything- not even when Peridot enters that electric form, though that in itself leaves his spirit shuddering and sputtering, seeming oddly faint for a few moments when she returns to solid state. But everything is a blur- the spinning of the Mother, the debris flying through the air.

What he does notice is that they aren't moving. "Peridot-!" he calls, ghostly voice echoing. "Peridot! Rouse yourself!"

It feels so cold somehow... ...He shouldn't be surprised, and yet he can't help but be stunned himself.

Carly for her part...is not doing great. "H-HIIIH..." She shoots, and shoots- still using hellflame in the arrows- but as best she can see in the flurry of arms, that's really not doing great. "Gh-! We can't stay here!" she finally shouts, and of course it's as she says as much that the skyway starts crumbling around her.

Maybe if she hadn't dived for someone- Papyrus, actually- she'd have fared better. But with the crumbling debris, her tail and legs alike are clipped, at least one of the limbs no doubt broken in the process. Rather than calling for the skeleton as intended, she ends up yelping in pain-

And, also, she's sort of still falling toward Papyrus.

h e l p,

Syrlya's grip on Zangetsu tightens as they fumble backwards a bit. His whole arm feels full of pins and needles, and he has a hard time forcing his fingers-- but he manages to tilt the blade from Zangetsu to slide it awkwardly into his belt so he doesn't risk losing it again.

"Are you all right?" He tries to see around Zangetsu's shoulder. "Where is Peridot?"

Sans shakes his head like a dog shaking off water as they emerge, clearly stunned by the whole thing but definitely more alert. He's barely cognizant of what just happened, mostly that it involved Tyki grabbing him in a tentacle and then everyone falling into the water. Unfortunately, Papyrus wasn't part of that.

"Hhk - Papyrus!" he wheezes. He would have teleported right that second, but he can't when Tyki is holding him. His eyes center on the healing draught, pupils worried pinpricks. He doesn't know how hurt he is, but he can't waste time debating it. He grabs the potion and quaffs it. The rush of healing energy is appreciated, what with his meager stamina, but then he immediately squirms to get away.

"Lemme go, I gotta-" He doesn't know what exactly, but he needs to get up there. He flutters his wings, trying to go upwards.

Edited 2018-11-11 20:12 (UTC)

Rita grabs Yuya's arm and then clutches his waist in the sort of death grip one might expect from a drowning person. The two of them sink in the air as her weight starts to pull him downward. At some point, however, her flailing wings manage to lift them slightly, and it seems to alleviate her panic.

She takes a few breaths, and their descent stops. "I... I'm fine," she breathes, possibly trying harder to convince herself than to reassure Yuya. Still, she manages to conjure the levitation spell again, and their position in the air becomes steady.

It's only now that Rita's able to take note of what's happening with the others, and her attention is drawn to the shivering bat on the ground.

"Crap. Peridot...!" she hisses. As far as Rita's concerned, Peridot's a vital part of this fight. She'll shift so that she's holding Yuya by the arm again. Then, yanking him along with her, she dives down to the ground. She'll grab Peridot with her free arm, and then try to get back into the air to move back, away from the Mother. Hopefully Yuya can keep them from taking any fire while they're at it.

"Hey! Snap out of it!" she barks at Peridot as they move.

Yuya makes a little choking sound as his waist is squeezed, holding still while clinging to Rita until she calms down and starts to levitate on her own again. He's very aware, suddenly, he can't go very far in any direction on his own.

So he obliges Rita pulling him around, making some movement like he's trying to futilely swim through the air (it doesn't speed things up). He pops the shield again whenever they stop, looking up in anticipation for anything coming for them--either debris or robot arms.

"Is she okay?"

"I tried to grab him," he confesses, admitting his failure. His tentacle yanks and he lets go of Sans immediately, his voice urgent, "Go, go!

If anyone could reach Papyrus in a hurry it would be Sans. Family was more important than anything else here and he drags himself to his feet while helping Eruka up if she needs it, his eyes taking a moment to scan the surroundings and take what he missed in the moments he was momentarily knocked out of it from his injuries. His body feels knocked around but the healing draught at least stabilizes him. He'll worry about self healing later when they can take a moment to rest. First thing he needs to do is get off of this water.

Ignatius didn't really see where Rita went, after that, mostly due to the fact that the Mother has been spinning in fucking circles this whole time. One minute he was yelling at her to get back, then she was yelling that she wouldn't a brief moment before getting punted into space. Typical.

He doesn't see where she and Yuya go after that, but he can still sense her fire burning. He doesn't know where Strange is at all, he hasn't seen him since he was healed. It increases his resolve to finish this before anything final happens to either of them.

As the Mother's spinning slows, due to the combined factor of Papyrus shoving her off balance, Steven's rapidly growing vine snare, and other distractions - he raises his spear and strikes against her chest with as much force as he can muster. White light flares, and burning gasses erupt into obscuring fog around the two fae. Ignatius's spear pierces the chassis in its center even as Mother's coldfire tries to reject him. Guess what isn't his elemental weakness anymore?

It's only one small hole in a massive overall target, but it's something. Ignatius clings tight to his spear, trying to force through more energy to shock her from the inside - but its then that she grabs him with her massive, humanoid hands and rips him free from his spear. He really wishes she would stop grappling him, it's kind of making him lose his cool a bit.

"There's an opening!" Ignatius yells, trying to push free of her hands.

"Your elemental weaknesses appear to be gone," the Mother comments, looking him over as she attempts to crush him between her hands. She's no longer spinning, as Stevens vines grow up her legs. "Why not take the opportunity to stress test this theory?"

The Mother summons up what looks to be pure dark element in her hands, ostensibly trying to force it into Ignatius's body. He growls in immediate discomfort but keeps pushing against her hold, even as the effect of it starts gnawing against his will.

Edited 2018-11-11 20:37 (UTC)

Bracing Peridot in one arm, Rita lets go of Yuya to reach into a pocket and retrieve one of the vials of phoenix juice Lambert handed to her earlier. Ignatius didn't need them, in the end, but maybe Peridot could use the boost.

She pops the stopper out and holds it to the bat's mouth.

"Come on! It's now or never," she urges her as she tries to pour the adrenaline-boosting potion down her throat.

Papyrus holds his ground until there's no ground to be held, when the repeated arms pummeling the skybridge shatter it beneath them. He pulls his blue magic off of the Mother and back to himself, reflexively controlling his fall away with the plan of slowing close to the ground. It's not flying, but it's practiced enough to be comfortable.

Of course, that doesn't help with all the debris, or reassure Carly or anyone else watching that he's falling in a mostly-controlled way. Especially not when he sees her panicked expression, assumes she's struggling to fly, and reaches out an arm to grab at her as they approach the ground.

Gon's urging gets Peridot to at least open her eyes, although when she tries to move she just staggers weakly, her thoughts and reaction time more sluggish than they probably have ever been.

She's still shivering when Rita grabs her, and probably feels quite cold to the touch. Groaning like a zombie, she cracks her eyes open to look at the bottle at Rita's insistence, blepping out her blue tongue in confusion. She wants her to drink something...? Ugh. Under normal circumstances, she'd object to this just on principle, but, ONCE AGAIN, she's not really in a position to argue or be choosy.

The bat drinks the potion. She shudders and scrunches up her face as she does, like she's taking some particularly bitter medicine. When the effect hits, her eyes shoot open again, ears lifting back up as she snorts out a few sparks in surprise. Her soul is still reeling from the contact with the Mother's aura, but her body is pepped up enough to compensate for now.

"Gongenzaka, where should I be aiming?" she says aloud, twisting in Rita's grasp to try and get a look at the enemy.

Up to this point, Eruka's been mostly yanked around at Tyki's whim, and she clings onto him, fingers clutching into his clothes. He's bleeding again, and while he's brushing it off like it's nothing, there's a twinge of shame in her seeing the state he's gotten in, ostensibly, by protecting her.

Ignatius is looking like he's having a rough time, though, and those vines growing up under her legs don't really seem to be slowing her down. When Ignatius shouts about an opening, though, that gets her attention, and she turns to Tyki.

"I ... I could teleport to that gap, if we could get a little closer." She's not thrilled about this, it's obvious, and she's frightened just at the idea of going anywhere near the Mother of Invention.

"If I could get inside her, maybe..." Well, she doesn't know what she'd do. Set up a lot of bombs inside and get the hell out of dodge, ideally. It'd just be more of the same thing she did with the Farm, only without the benefit of Sans feeding her blueprints this time.

"Holy shit, she's wrecking her own base?!" Beau exclaims when the Mother first begins swinging at the skybridge, because there's no question that the giant enemy is connected to the Mother of Invention - or is her, herself.

"Maybe that's a back-up plan," she says aloud to Herbert, Yuusei, and anyone else taking shelter in the area. "We can use that, lure her to like... central command, wherever these machines give their orders... right...?"

Even from across the decorative pools and up in the shop doorway, it's easy to see when the farmside skybridge cracks and shatters in all directions, or the several people falling from it. And that's it, her whole rationale for hiding out up here was to go haul ass to get people to safety if they got too injured. She heads down to run by the pools, checking on all of them as she goes.

Dimly, Gongenzaka overhears Rita and Yuuya- and then Ignatius- through Peridot's ears- he weakly continues to urge the gem on, uncertain if he can manage to communicate to the others and stay with Peridot at the same time.

Best not to risk it. But, she refocuses, and so he immediately begins to guide again. "I, the man Gongenzaka, believe Ignatius has made an opening! We must go through it, and move from there- make certain Syrlya's iron is in your range to pull with you! I cannot see that opening it until you do however, so keep this in mind!"

Fortunately when she does, he'll catch it even if the sight doesn't register with her. Backseat videogamer effect; the one not focused on moving and surviving catches more of what's seen.

(Hopefully she explains what's going on later, though, because he bets that Yuuya and Rita are baffled.)

Once Peridot's eyes move over the Mother's front- that will be when he hones in on the hole and shouts to move.

“Hnnrgh…” he groans, looking down at the inky blue blood soaking through the front of his shihakushou around a shard of glass sticking out of his belly. He takes a moment to pull it out, resulting in a spray of blood followed by a rush of white ooze, quickly closing the wound.

“I’ll be alright,” he says, then casting his senses out. It’s hard to pick up on someone like Peridot through all the raw, primal energies being thrown around… but Gon is with her, and he knows that particular soul very well. “She’s on the ground! Shit…”

It’s all happening very fast. Ignatius shouts, and he’s made a hole. And the Mother seems to be focused intently on her new little toy.

“Never mind all that… now might be our chance. Syrlya, are you ready?”

Syrlya squints, but when Ignatius shouts his attention is drawn from finding Peridot to him--then up at the less mobile Mother of Invention. It's not a big hole, but being clear from this distance... but hopefully big enough.

They'll have to hope Peridot is fine. "Go. Try and drop me onto her without her seeing it." He tries to flex his wounded arm again. It's bad, but they don't have a lot of time to scramble for repairs.

Carly will certainly notice the pain of a broken leg soon, but for now she runs on fumes. Hand stretched out, she grabs for Papyrus and tries to lift. To pull the other up if only for them to get out of the way of all this.

It might be harder than it should be if Papyrus doesn't use any magic- metal skeleton and all, it's a bit to carry.

It turns out it's not hard to spot Carly and Papyrus, as Sans gets into the air again. Papyrus is a gleaming spot of copper, and Carly is Carly. Her wings are brighter than his, and he's a friggin angel.

He teleports into the air above them, but is immediately met with the serious problem of falling and collapsing debris. He can see that Papyrus is floating with blue magic, and Carly is shakily flying, but if they don't move faster there's a chance they'll get crushed. Naturally, he follows Papyrus's lead.

Summoning up his blue magic, he grabs hold of the various pieces of debris, lifting them away from the falling pair and aiming them at a new trajectory.

Ping! Swoosh...!

Each piece of debris sails towards the Mother herself, cracking against her chassis.

"If you want to try and bully a technician int--" Herbert begins, trying to be loud enough to be heard without actively reminding the Mother that he's there, but Beau's already run off. Alright. Fine.

He crawls a little further back, wearing the blanket hooked onto his wings like a coward cape and opens the storage space facing away from the exit. Time to pull out a few supplies just in case, he guesses. People are getting thrown around everywhere outside.

"If you can, please try and make sure that I don't get swatted out of the air," Peridot groans to Rita and Yuya, since Zan appears to be distracted elsewhere. She wriggles out of Rita's arms and takes off, zooming through the air towards the Mother once more.

The power that Rita passed on to her... She focuses on that now, willing it to help her make sure her strikes really count. The bat lands on one of those mechanical arms where it joins back into the chassis, and then turns back into the gem, who pulls the vorpal sword out of her gauntlet. The blade hovers in front of her for a moment; with two fingers to her temple, Peridot growls and sends it flying towards one of the arms currently threatening Ignatius with that dark energy. If she can, she'll sink it into the metal and pull it downwards in a devastating slice, before calling it back to her hand once more.

There's a lot happening and without being within ear shot he cannot assess what the others are doing. She's grappled with various areas and he continues to look over Eruka out of the corner of his eye. This is rough and he knows it and she looks absolutely terrified.

He puts on a bright smile, a false one if he needs to, and he curls his arm around Eruka a little tighter, "Be careful and try not to blow anyone else up." Of course, she can always call for him later if she gets into trouble. Forget how ominous it seems as he lifts them up into the air and uses his speed to run forward across it towards the Mother. He'd wink at her but the visor is in the way.

Once they are close enough he'll let her go or throw her, depending on what she wants with his arms and tentacles retreating from her. He then joins Sans in working debris away from the 'falling' pair. It's best if he stays back away from the frontlines.

Tyki's effort to contact the witcher isn't entirely in vain. Tyki's and Yuya's texting rings, if they're paying attention, light up with a short but none too descriptive message.

On my way.

In the destruction that the Mother of Invention's wrought, there's no shortage of shadows, and while everyone else is in the middle of preparing for their assault, the witcher shows up and off to behind her side, coughing in the smoke pouring in from the Farm. It's hard to even make out where any of his allies are, from here, but if nothing else, the Mother of Invention makes herself a ready target.

Childermass is gone as quick as he dropped him off, hopefully back somewhere safe, and Lambert honestly hasn't got the slightest idea if this the best place for him to be right now. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? He grips the iron knife between his teeth and starts running at the Mother of Invention, ignoring the pain racing up his side and changes mid-leap.

So yeah, now there's a dragon trying to leap onto the Mother of Invention from the flank, his aim to find purchase on the joint of her shoulder and use the force of his landing and weight to tear that arm off . Lambert doesn't know if the spell from Wismuth that's supposed to keep him from being grabbed and held will hold any water against a True Fae, but he sure as hell hopes it does, or at least keeps him from being immediately slapped away by one of those nasty-looking mechanical arms.

Getting through the Mother's chassis seems to be about as hard as getting through that void enforced wall - the vorpal blade cuts, but not as effortlessly as usual. Instead, it cuts more along the lines that a normal blade would to a normal target. It catches in the middle, as if stuck in a bone, but the boost of energy from the Mark will carry it the rest of the way. It takes the Mother off guard, and as that arm falls limp, the dark magic stops pouring through it.

Ignatius takes the opportunity to turn into a small eruption of ghostly white flame, breaking free of the other arm and pulling away as he tries to shake off the effects of the dark magic on his soul. He looks like he's being gradually worn down by the battle, but he's still going.

"Right there!" he shouts, summoning up a bow of flames, and launching a shining white arrow at the hole he left in the Mother's chest. For the first time, she makes an irritated sound of discontent as it strikes her torso, and as her arm falls to the ground. She swipes her other arms at Ignatius and Peridot, tugging against the crystal vines trying to hold her legs. Debris clatters off of her head and body.

Then Lambert hits from behind, trying to tear off her other humanoid arm. It doesn't work, not without something more compelling than sheer physical force. Yet, she can feel that iron near to her. Another of her arms will attempt to knock Lambert away, while also dealing with both Ignatius and Peridot.

Papyrus is using blue magic, but between the fluctuating power coming from Ignatius, and the at-least doubled weight from all the metal, it's more of a struggle to use than before. Once he and Carly have latched hands, he pushes his personal gravity upwards, above the arcs of most of the still falling debris.

"Are you flying okay?!" he hollers over the noise, now that they both know the other's not falling. "If you're not flying okay, let me down! I can fall safely, and..!"

At which point he'd be on the ground, faced with a lot of things to keep dodging, which isn't ideal. He's not as used to dodging as he should be, for the kinds of danger they get in now. After a near-year of recurring dangers, occasional training with people like Lambert, noticing the differences in how his brother fights, he's practiced enough to be capable of it, but it's never his first instinct.

...Or maybe, he could try summoning a blaster, and hold on it to reduce the weight Carly's helping with and attack from a place of reduced risk. Holding it active would be a strain, but it's worth trying. He does his best to balance the two active effects, reaches up with his spare hand to grab the forming blaster, and instructs it to fire at the Mother of Invention's face.

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