⇨ 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

[kingsroads]

Oh shit, Yuya's still injured! Strange quickly sits back upright as Yuya lands on his injured shoulder and almost instantly starts worrying and fretting a little.

"Are you alright? Do you need ice, I can conjure up some ice for you."

And that's how the entire fuckin farm got frozen.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya flails before trying to push himself up to get off his arm "I-it's fine I--ow!"

Okay it's not fine, and twitching around in panic doesn't actually make it feel better. "I just need to get off it, it didn't break again." He hopes.

[kingsroads]

Fun fact: when you say 'ow' immediately after saying 'I'm fine', nobody believes it.

"Let me help you up," Strange says, as he moves to help Yuya...somehow. He's not sure what he'll specifically do, just that he's got one working arm and one really stiff arm, but even that's enough to help get Yuya up. "I'm taking you back to West."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya's able to bring himself up when Strange pulls on his good arm, briefly unsteady. He cringes, not at all looking forward to getting scolded by Herbert over this.

"I just fell over too hard..."

[kingsroads]

"It's either West or Steven," Strange chides Yuya, "and I highly doubt you'll want drool all over your arm."

Healing spit is kind of gross. Sorry, Steven.

He's not moving until Yuya is fully upright and able to walk. And even then if Yuya does start walking out of the farm, Strange is just going to dog his footsteps for a while.

[hippocarnival]

"Steven won't lecture me." He will definitely take the other teenager in this instance. "And he doesn't have to lick me."

A kiss works. But Strange is on his heels, so with grumbling he walks in the direction of the exit of the farm and probably the tuck shop with forcibly steady feet. His shoulder aches but his legs are fine.

[kingsroads]

There's thirty seconds or so of silence as Strange mulls over what to say next.

"Thank you, by the way. Thank you for listening and helping me work through all that." There's still a lot to be done. He still needs to talk to Childermass and Ignatius about some things. And this still doesn't get rid of the fears and insecurities that stick around in Strange's brain. But...well, this is a start.

"Arabella and I will be the luckiest people in the world if we have a child that's even half as caring, empathetic, and smart as you are."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya stops, turning to look at Strange wide-eyed as a blush creeps up his face at the praise.

"I--It's really not..." he rubs the back of his neck, smiling despite himself. He's always a sucker for praise, as shy as he acts about it. "You're my friend, so... I want you to be happier. And not alone."

[kingsroads]

"Well, I'll try to remember that and come talk to you the next time this place inevitably tries to kill us." Because it will. Strange is pretty certain of that, he's got a good feeling that no matter where they end up next, it will definitely try to kill them. Even if they head back to Alola, it will try to kill them, that's how shitty Strange feels the carnival's luck is.

"Now come on. Let's get you patched up."

[hippocarnival]

"You can talk to me when it's not killing us, too." Maybe he'll be less emotionally wired if he lets out at times besides immediately post trauma.

But he's nudged along back to the tuck shop, if reluctantly. He honestly hopes they catch Steven there instead.

[kingsroads]

"I know," Strange responds, with a little nod. "But I—"

And then he cuts himself off. Because Yuya's bleeding. It's from his back, so he doesn't know if Yuya could even have seen it the first place, but that is definitely blood. And weird looking blood at that.

"Stand still for a moment," Strange bosses. Reaching over towards Yuya, he carefully swipes his finger on Yuya's shirt, getting some of the blood on his hand. "You're bleeding. But look at it."

Thankfully, Strange is taller than Yuya. It's easy enough for him to literally move his arm over Yuya's shoulder and hover his hand in range so that Yuya can see the weird, oily, shimmery nature of his new blood.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya stops when he's told, and initially being told he's bleeding doesn't fill him with a lot of concern. Like, it's bad, but it's probably because he re-opened the skin where he was hit--he thinks he recalls something about stitches, and being a tender scar even with Steven's help.

He reaches for his shoulder with his good hand. "From where I fell? It's probably--"

And then Strange brings his hand around, where Yuya can actually see it, and he stops. At first, he's sure he's seeing wrong. But it doesn't stop catching the light, and small specks swirl as gravity pulls down on what's on Strange's fingers. Yuya's eyes widen, his body freezes in place.

And then he shakes his head. Slowly, then rapidly as he takes a step back. "No, that's--it's not supposed to be there anymore."

And then he reaches suddenly, trying to feel for the wound himself and scrape his claws through anything wet so he can see it himself, on his own fingers, from his own swipe.

[kingsroads]

Having not really seen Horn's poison during the Hunt, Strange has absolutely no clue what Yuya's talking about. But Yuya's worried, so Strange is worried, and he backs up slightly so Yuya can try and reach the wound without hitting Strange.

"Yuya, I've no idea what you're talking about. What's not supposed to be there?"

Strange idly gestures towards Yuya's open wound before, without even thinking, he takes his bloody finger and puts it to his mouth. It still tastes vaguely like blood, but the consistency is off enough that Strange makes a slightly disgusted noise and tries to wipe his finger off on his trousers. Ergh, that was a terrible idea.

[hippocarnival]

"That--" Yuya doesn't provide a clear answer at first, drawing his fingers back around to stare in horror as it comes back the same. He trembles--what's it mean that it still looks like it's infected? She controlled him through his blood. Did they got actually get it out? Could she still use it to use him again?

"It's her--" He starts as he looks up at Strange, just in time to catch him, um. Licking Yuya's blood off his finger. That's absurd and unexpected enough to shake Yuya's panic, briefly, before it sets in even worse.

"What are you doing?! Stop, stop!" Yuya suddenly grabs for Strange's wrist to try and pull it away. "That's her poison, don't eat it!"

[kingsroads]

Fun fact: Strange spent a good chunk of his time in Venice deliberately trying to poison himself in an attempt to go mad (and that's even before he chugged a bottle of dead mouse juice). He also spent a good chunk of his time in Portland deliberately trying to poison himself and also willingly drinks Lambert's nastyass homebrewed witcher hooch. He's got more of a cavalier relationship with regards to 'things that people should actually put in their mouth' than most people.

That being said, he's still damn confused...mostly because Strange's first association for 'poisonous faerie' is Nightshade and he knows Yuya would have told him about Nightshade. Plus, Nightshade's purple. Needless to say, he's confused enough that Yuya easily grabs his wrist.

"Who's poison? Again, I have no idea who you're talking about."

[hippocarnival]

'Ate a mouse to go mad' doesn't mean Yuya's going to encourage this nonsense. He grips his wrist perhaps too tightly, his gaze flickering quickly over Strange's face as if he's--looking for signs. Pain, stiffness, faintness, collapsing--

"The one from the Hunt." He's barely above a whisper when he speaks. There's only one Fae whose poison he tangled with. That's how he'd called it when they talked before, though Yuya's in too much panic to remember previous conversations and what he has and hasn't told Strange. "They said they cured it. Even the second time, it was supposed to be gone."

So why is it still in his blood? Is he still sick? Dying?

[kingsroads]

There are absolutely no signs that Yuya's blood is messing Strange up. He blinks a little at Yuya, giving him a slightly quizzical frown. Choosing his words very carefully, Strange starts to talk.

"It's possible that your body changed because you were under her thrall. My body changed after I had my run-ins with Nightshade and Ignatius. Granted, one's body changing because of an enthrallment period that literally lasted an afternoon does sound like an oddly short time, but fae magic works in unexpected ways."

Now that he's said all that, Strange very gingerly tries to wriggle his wrist out from Yuya's grasp. He's got inside mirrors now, stop squeezing too hard!

[hippocarnival]

Yuya's grip loosens with Strange's pulling, allowing him to get free with little resistance. He stares blankly as he considers that.

"Like the Ringmaster's changes?" He shudders. "But that only happens if they claimed you like--like a changeling, right?"

She'd stolen Yuya to eat him, he hadn't considered whether that gives the same kind of ownership as a contract. Does she still own him?

[kingsroads]

"That's what I thought," Strange admits, as he frowns a little. "But I only know so much about how faerie magic works. It's possible that a fae just needs influence in order to exert their will and shape us to match them."

Basically, he don't know. Strange wriggles his arm free from Yuya's wrist, frowning still as he looks over at Yuya's blood.

[hippocarnival]

They have Fae here they can ask about ownership laws, but Yuya's a little afraid that the answer will be that she has real claim.

He buries his face in his hand, taking deep breaths to try and be calm. "She was just--just going to eat me anyway, why would she..."

He doesn't really know how far she was determined to claim him to keep other people away. He can't grasp her mindset like this, that whole interaction caked in fear. Will he see her again if they go after the Huntsman? Will she see him?

[kingsroads]

Yuya's panicking. Strange has very minimal experience with other people panicking but he knows that he's got to take a deep breath, keep a clean head, and offer suggestions that may or may not help...or at the least, pretend he knows what he's doing.

"It's possible that she didn't choose to do so and instead, it was accidental. My ability to see magic shifted when I was under contract with Ignatius: I doubt he knew I could do that before I signed on with him."

[hippocarnival]

"But did he still know it happened?" Accidental isn't very reassuring if it's still something she can use to own him again. This didn't used to be such an issue, but given how much the Fae's claim over them has shifted around these past few days...

He shudders again. "She can't come if the Hunt doesn't, right? She's probably, definitely..." already eaten their kills before.

[kingsroads]

He can do this, he's got it, he'll just try and talk Yuya down and reassure him and not have him worry.

"He knew it happened when I accidentally lit myself on fire," Strange explains. There's a few big differences between 'accidental fire' and 'weird new blood' and this is one of them. "And look. If she does come again, she didn't go after me when I was mad, hallucinating, and set the alleyway on fire. I'll just...you'll come to me, I'll set everything on fire again, and that'll scare her right off."

Maybe? Strange is coincidentally forgetting that fae didn't go after him because there was a much easier, less flame-broiled target in the form of Gongenzaka.

[hippocarnival]

There's a still, quiet pause, before Yuya slowly looks up from his hand with his expression torn between frightened and confused.

"Is that what happened?" It's hard for him to remember the details of that, due to having fallen in an angle he couldn't really see shit.

"I couldn't really--the only things I saw were when I was walking around, and then when Gongenzaka grabbed me." And then he passed out and woke up in Polaris, so there wasn't ever really a chance to ask how they outsmarted her.

[kingsroads]

"It's what happened to me," Strange answers in a nonchalant sort of way. He went crazy again. These things happen. At least he didn't hurt anyone.

"Sans and I met with Joker and Gongenzaka and we came up with a plan." Well, it was more of Strange coming up with a plan and the others going along. And it was a good plan. It would have worked more if Sans hadn't completely frozen up for some reason, but Strange isn't knocking the plan.

"Sans and I were to serve as a distraction while Gongenzaka took you and ran. She hit me with some sort of poison halfway through our fight and I went a little mad for a moment or so." Which again, in Strange's mind is no big deal.