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

Strange shakes his head. "When I first started as a magician, I certainly couldn't manipulate magic to the extent that I can now."

Sure, he was probably pretty powerful, even in those early days. But Strange knows that fresh off the boat, fledgling magician Strange could never open all the mirrors and bring back English magic the way that current Strange could.

"Besides, one's magical strength doesn't matter. What matters is how you use or grow your magic. Take Lambert, for example. He has power. He's good at the four or so spells he knows. But because he never explores outside of those spells and never pushes himself to do something more or something different, his strength doesn't mean a damn thing."

Harsh? A little bit! But true? Absolutely.

"Well... it hit my shield. But that wasn't strong enough and she broke through." He gestures, with both hands before twitching and settling down.

"If I'm fighting someone stronger, then it has to be strong enough to stand up to them." He pauses, considering. "Can you build magic strength like physical strength?"

"I don't see why not," Strange says, with a little shrug. "Personally, I find drills and repeated practice to be boring as hell, but if you're looking for simple strength building, that might be your best bet."

And then, like they didn't just get out of a traumatic situation, Strange asks, "When do you want to start?"

"I want to start now," he starts, because Yuya never slows down. The pull of his sling when he moves forces him to stop, though, and he slumps a little sheepishly.

"But my bones aren't completely healed, so I'm not supposed to push myself yet." Line getting hit by attacks he fails to defend with his shield. Or dodging. Yuya's going to look like the biggest idiot if he manages to just put himself back in the infirmary.

And this is why it's a good and bad thing that Strange is Yuya's mentor: he also never slows down. Strange outright scoffs at the idea of 'not supposed to push yourself' because that is dumb and that's for quitters.

"Then we'll start slowly. The Huntsman won't care if you have broken bones or not. You need to be able to use your magic to it's fullest potential no matter what circumstances you're in."

Yuya rubs the back of his neck. That's true... and if Strange says they should start now, well, nobody can yell at him for listening to his instructor.

"Okay. Where should we practice? The farm?" Yuya hasn't seen how little remains of the farm yet.

"There wouldn't be much to work with. In all likelihood, the farm's a pile of ashes!" Strange cheerfully responds. He's still intensely bitter towards everyone involved (but mostly Syrlya) for not telling him about any sort of plan to rescue Ignatius...but setting the entire fucking farm on fire in retaliation felt real good.

Oh, we'll make Strange the distraction, nothing wrong can happen there, suck it assholes, he is just too good at his job.

"Still, it would be open, quiet, and I doubt anyone would bother us there. The farm might work!"

... Yeah, Yuya can see that happening.

"So you'll test my shield with your magic, right?" With nothing else, throw big rocks with magic.

Yuya starts forward, then, turning to make sure Strange is coming with him.

Big rocks or tiny fireballs. Either/or.

Strange starts to follow Yuya as he gives the kid a nod. "Considering that I can't punch anything, magic is the answer. We can get someone like Zangetsu in order to test the physical capabilities of the shield."

Yuya cringes when Strange suggests Zangetsu.

"Maybe we can ask Lambert when we need to teat that? He's really strong, too." Maybe not super human strong, not like Zangetsu. "Or you can just throw bigger rocks."

Rocks are the same, right? Try not to crush him.

"Lambert was in Theta," Strange reminds Yuya, accidentally ignoring Yuya's cringe about the matter. "He's probably broken himself to hell and back by now. Zangetsu's more sturdy and, as far as I know, didn't get stuck in any trials that physically weakened you the way that half the carnival did."

There's a pause before he admits, "Though I could easily throw bigger rocks if that's how you want to do this."

"I'd really rather you throw bigger rocks." Zangetsu is, frankly, kind of terrifying. Yuya's not interested in facing down the guy who ate his boyfriend's arm.

He turns his attention back to the farm as the approach the hole... and stops. Oh, they really did graze it to the ground.

There's a sad looking water area where people filled up their watering cans as well as numerous robot corpses. But trees, grass, any sort of plant life is some matter of burned.

"It's a pity that all of this was contained to the farm," Strange idly remarks, as he walks towards the center of what used to be a grove of trees, expecting Yuya to follow him. "I'd have enjoyed it if some of the carnage managed to make it's way down to Theta."

Yuya does follow, looking over the destruction. It's kind of sad, even if it was full of terrible memories. He might just have personal issues with absolute decimation, though.

He glances over to Strange. This isn't what they came for, but... "Do you... want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Strange asks, trying hard to keep his voice steady. He's not making eye contact with Yuya as he walks. Any small little robot parts are being kicked out of the way as he continues talking.

"If it's about Polaris, then there's nothing to talk about. I made a poor decision and paid the price for it—something that I've gotten used to over the past few months."

Yuya looks down at Strange's arms, perhaps pointedly.

"It was still torture. And they hurt you before that, too." He furrows his brow, before looking sideways with a shrug. "It's just... if you want to. It helps to talk about it, and not keep anything inside."

There's a pause...before Strange decides fuck it! Fuck it, fuck this, fuck everything and he just lets it all out.

"I hate it here. I hate being powerless, I hate the fact that no matter what I do, some fae or faerie artifact or all powerful super being is going to fuck it up and not let me help anybody." He just keeps talking, obviously on a roll, and obviously vocalizing so many things that he's kept to himself for a while. Strange puts a hand to his head as he rants and starts frantically pacing, trying to work out the manic, nervous energy of admitting all the things he hates and so many tiny little insecurities. He knows it's not fair to dump this all on Yuya but he's had an amazingly shitty past month and Strange has honestly stopped caring.

"I hate that we can't do anything without the fae and that...that we couldn't save Ignatius by ourselves! We should have saved him by ourselves but we couldn't do anything without his stupid sister. I changed all of magic in my world, I should have saved him by myself! And I know that people are going to want to keep going and pretend like none of this ever happened and go and try to save the Ringmaster, but I don't even want to save her! This is all her fault! I want to go home and see my wife and pretend like none of this ever existed."

Yuya, through the rant, just watches. With wide eyes, not having actually expected Strange to go off like that. Usually it takes prying, and a back and forth about each other's worries. So he's a little thrown off, but wasn't this what he wanted? For Strange to be honest with him and trust him?

Finally, as he putters out, Yuya moves forward to gently grab Strange's arm in his uninjured hand, to make him stop as Yuya looks up at him.

"I know." He starts, his breath catching dangerously close to tears. And then he leans in, moving to put his arm around Strange and hug him, or hug himself agaisnt him.

"I... I hate it, too. I hate these things hurting us. I hate being scared of what's going to happen to my friends, I hate that--no matter how hard I try, I'll never be strong enough to protect them on my own."

Admitting that makes something inside Yuya break, and he chokes on a shallow sob. His shield is never going to be good enough for something like that.

"I couldn't even save Yuzu from Academia." He couldn't save anyone from himself.

"Nobody's going to forget any of this. We can't."

Strange looks like he's about to go off on something else entirely when Yuya grabs him and Strange stops, looking over Yuya instead. And he pauses for a moment when Yuya hugs him. Admittedly, that's unexpected. But Strange isn't so heartless as to ignore the moment. Awkwardly (and stiffly, thanks to his still healing arm), he hugs Yuya back.

"I should be strong enough," Strange repeats. He's never fully adapted to the fact that in his world, it's a big fish in a small pond sort of scenario. He should be the person to save everybody. He should be the strong person who can whip magic up out of nowhere and come in and save the day. That's what he was back home, he managed to save Arabella, bring magic back to England, summon a long forgotten figure of English magic, and help kill the fae who kidnapped her in the first place! Why the hell can't he do that here?

"I just want to go home," he whines, more to himself than to Yuya. "I don't care about the Courts or the Ringmaster or any of this...this fae bullshit. I just want to see Arabella." It's a little pathetic to admit that but hey, there it is. And now it's his turn to try and choke back his emotions and try and keep from crying.

"I want to go home, too." It's part of what's kept him going as things got worse and worse, that at the end the Ringmaster would have saved Yuzu and Reira and they'd all go home and this nightmare ever since his dimension was invaded--before even the carnival--would end.

His fingers curl into the back of Strange's shirt as he takes a deep breath. "But I do care about the Ringmaster. And I care about you. All of my friends here... I want to make sure everyone can be safe and happy and go to the world they want to live in."

He thoughts of leaving, even in the middle of his contract to come back later, were fleeting in the face of everyone in the carnival he loves. But he understands it, wishing for it.

He can't really wipe his own tears like this, but he tilts his head slightly so he isn't soaking Strange's shirt.

"Maybe we both have to accept that... that we can't be the strongest. We can't compete with the fae. But we're not alone, we have people who help us like we want to help them. And that's getting us through this, isn't it?"

But he wants to be the strongest! He hates relying on people like this, the fact that so many of their battles have ended with cross your fingers, hope that your giant snake friend or weird magic library or magical rabbits play along and help.

"Truth be told, the only thing getting us through this is plain luck. We almost died in Eden, we almost died in Polaris, we're definitely going to die if we go into the Wyldlands..." Strange trails off, with a frown.

"I can't afford to die again. But if I stay here, on this path, that's what's going to happen."

Yuya pauses, quieting as that sinks in. It's coming from pain, and he understands how that clouds your ability to see.

"Hey, that's not what you said before, right? When I said I wasn't doing enough for my friends..." Yuya hadn't been saying it was luck, exactly, but he didn't believe he'd done as much to make a difference as Strange did.

He looks up at him. "It's not just luck, it's--we're making friends. We're helping people, and when we help people they help us. Like Creation, and the Furies in Eden. Maybe we're not strong enough on our own, but we're not alone."

They're not alone. Yuya had felt like it, when they first arrived, but the truth is that more than just Gild came to their aid.

"That's why Shimmer's here. And Samyaza." And the manor girls Yuya doesn't actually know at all.

"No one died in Eden, right? And nobody died here."

Strange looks like he's halfway torn between sulking and yelling. Sure, it'd be nice to believe that others would always be there to help and that whatever powerful forces they've made along the way would always be on their side. But people are fickle and the fae are powerful: it's foolish to assume they'd always have help.

Thankfully, one thing catches his ear and Strange's expression goes from 'potentially ready to yell' to 'curious and interested.'

"Shimmer's here?" he says, with a little excitement in his voice. He straight up did not know that. Damn, now he's got to try and see if Polaris has any alcohol or anything like that.

(He doesn't really care about Samyaza, sorry weirdo rabbit thing.)

"Yeah," Yuya smiles briefly. "She helped us get through security." He doesn't actually know what Samyaza was doing, he's just caught her around when he got himself mobile again. But he's confident she's been helping.

He pulls back a little, a little more genuine strength in his expression. "They came back for us. Just like Gild came for Ignatius. The Ringmaster never left anyone behind, either, and we'er here for each other, too."

Even the carnival isn't just one person, it's many of them. Working together and moving forward. "And we've done this much because of that, right? It's not hopeless. Maybe... as much as we want to be, you and I aren't strong enough alone. But we are when we're together."

That's the Power of Friendship.

Shonen protag speeches are only partly effective on someone who's not from a shonen canon. This opens more questions than it answers (why the hell did they bring Yuya along, it's not like there were a lot of reflections on Polaris). He pulls back a little as well, but very pointedly looks a little annoyed when Yuya mentions the Ringmaster.

"The Ringmaster also conveniently refused to tell us that she was wanted by two Courts before any of us signed on. I know that you want to see the best in her, but I simply can't forgive her for that."

How many people would have signed on if they knew that there was a high possibility they'd get screwed over by the fae? Strange doesn't know for certain, but he's got a feeling the percentage would be a lot lower.

"Did she even apologize for holding that information from us? She had plenty of time to do so and, as far as I can tell, she never did."

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