⇨ 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

[whattaprick]

Now it's Lambert's turn to look confused, because he'd sort of taken it as a given that when the Gilded Mark came to find them, it was with the knowledge that Ignatius had been seriously bullied by the Carnival beforehand.

But apparently, her knowledge isn't all that up to date.

"No," he says, awkwardly. "By us. He's been a prisoner of the Carnival since the Summer Court attacked us in the Athenaeum."

[npcarnival]

She looks at him and laughs.

"Oh, yeah. I mean, he had that coming, didn't he? When I heard what happened, I started tracking his mark to try to keep you guys from killing his dumb ass. It'd be really awkward to have a distant ally kill my brother, you know?"

She's grinning slightly as she speaks.

"I knew he was in trouble with the Ringmaster, and originally I just wanted to ask you to go easy on him. But... when I tracked him to Shabon, it was pretty obvious things had taken a turn. Now... I'm here, I guess. Surprise, surprise, he doesn't want to see me..."

[kingsroads]

It's amazing how the more Gild talks, the more Strange just finds her intensely obnoxious. She's such an asshole! Who the hell responds to their brother being tortured with 'he had it coming?' He just gapes at Lambert and Gild with an expression of pure disbelief before rolling his eyes.

"You must be an incredibly distant ally. The Ringmaster's never spoken of you before."

[whattaprick]

Lambert's in completely the opposite boat, flushing slightly as she laughs -- what did he say that was so funny? -- then flushing deeper for slightly different reasons and glancing away. Being reminded of the Ringmaster sobers him up quick, though, and he looks back at her.

"How much do you know about what happened in Shabon?" he asks, to steer the conversation somewhat back on topic. He doesn't know how much was left of the town after they left, but last he checked, it was in pretty bad shape. "The Huntsman took the Ringmaster, and he it sounded like he was working with Winter."

[npcarnival]

Gild frowns, crossing her arms as she considers that. She shakes her head.

"I asked some of the locals, and found out about the generalities of what happened. The carnival came into town and the Hunt followed. When the Hunt started going after the carnival, they left a huge mess in their wake..."

She exhales uneasily.

"One of the locals spotted someone matching Ignatius's description and talked about him losing a fight with the Wyld Hunt. They said the Hunt cleared out, and a bunch of servants following some kind of mechanical device took him and the rest away. Someone mentioned a dragon was there, but they didn't see what came of her..."

"...If the Huntsman is working with Winter, that's a bad thing for everybody. He's been gaining power fast... Faster than anyone was expecting."

[anti_nonsense]

Rita gives Strange a glare. "Would you stop!?" she huffs at him. What's his problem, anyway!?

Some of that irritation fades as the conversation turns to Shabon, and her expression turns pensive. "We sure didn't see it coming," she mutters bitterly. "I don't know how much you've figured out, but... the Ringmaster was killed back there. The Huntsman took what was left of her, and that's the last we saw."

[whattaprick]

"Took her egg," Lambert supplies, crossing his arms. "Based on previous experience, though, that means she'll hatch eventually."

What that means while she's stuck with the Huntsman, he doesn't know, and he's reluctant to speculate.

"Winter should be pretty happy about that, shouldn't it? Having a stronger ally taking care of its unfinished business."