lostcarnival | ⇨ POLARIS AFTERMATH

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⇨ POLARIS AFTERMATH

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 115-118
Where: Polaris/Wyldlands
What: After killing the Mother of Invention, the majority of the carnival has decided to take some time and sort out the Polaris refugees before heading to the Summerlands. This log covers miscellaneous post-Mother Polaris drama, as well as some light camping in the Wyldlands down below.
Warnings: Idk, stuff, I guess.

ADAPTATION↴

After the battle, the majority of carnival members will opt to remain in the secured section to Polaris, hoping to spend some time making sure that the rest of Polaris is liberated. Many of the staff are not capable of coming to grips with the fact that the Mother is dead so quickly, and the remaining Alphas are doing their best to keep Polaris under their sway. It will be a busy few days of changing minds and exploring the remains of the station. Thankfully, with everyone's powers intact and allies at their side, they finally have the advantage.

► SHIFTING STATES: Right off the bat, about 10% of the staff will immediately change sides upon hearing whats become of the Mother. They are actively eager to get away from Polaris, and will do whatever they can assist the carnival. This is mostly Gammas and a few Betas, who were working primarily under duress. Over the next day or two, those numbers will grow to at least 30%, with some of the staff managing to convince their colleagues to join them. About two days after starting, one of the Alphas will surrender to the carnival, encouraging those beneath her to support their cause. That leaves four Alphas remaining, and staff cooperation at 50%.

► CAPTIVE ATTENTION: The loyalist staff's main tactics are trying to create defensive points within the various test group areas, using the prisoners as hostages. Luckily, the carnival (and the staff on their side) will be in a position where it's possible to push them out with a mixture of convincing and force. Once prisoners start being freed, there will be even more force backing the carnival's efforts, meaning that it will essentially become a matter of cleaning up the remaining staff rather than any uphill battles. Most of this is being left vague intentionally, as most of this action is being handwaved. However, you can play out parts of it if you want and NPC technicians and rescuees. Other test groups can be filled with basically whatever kind of residents you like, since they are grabbed from across the multiverse. Most of the test areas are similar to B7.

► THE JACKPOT: Alongside cleaning up the staff, some members of the carnival have expressed interest in convincing the staff to help them with armoury issues as well as hunting down some of the Mother's most private loot. This will be handled in investigations, mostly through summary, because I don't have it in me for another megathread right now. Post your plans, and I will respond! However, know that I also don't have time to generate five million special items, so loot drops will be limited to my availability. Also, the techs aren't really blacksmiths so they generally won't really be able creating weapons from scratch or anything.

Meanwhile, Ignatius is going to set up a camp ground outside of Polaris, mostly because he doesn't want to be there anymore. He'll keep a fire going and they can drag things from Polaris down there for camping purposes, and mostly Ignatius is just going to be chilling and making sure that the campground doesn't get assaulted by magical creatures. The Gilded Mark will create a portal between the campground and the station so that people can go back and forth as required. It also creates a handy escape route.

You can even see Polaris from here, floating up there in the sky. How picturesque.

► WYLDERKIN: Apparently not everything in the Wyld Lands is a full Wyld Fae - there are also a lot of less powerful creatures called 'wylderkin' - apparently lesser forms of the Wyld Fae, who are more akin to animal level intelligence. They can be a variety of expected fantasy type creatures, such as flower sprites, weird bugs, and general prey animals they probably spend most of their time getting eaten by bigger dudes. All of them are sort of weird and fantastical, and none of them are exactly like earth varieties, though they may resemble them. They are more of a pest than a major threat in this part of the Wyld Lands, and Ignatius will scare away any that cause too many problems.

► FLORA AND FLUID: There are some plants that you can eat down here, that Ignatius will tell you about. Mostly weird berries and roots. There is also some pools of clear water, thought hey are filled with weird fish. Try not to bitten by any weird leeches. You can safely make up some of the creatures you find as long as they fit the general theme of lesser faerie creatures. This is just a rest stop.

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Baker gets a cautious look, but once it's clear that he isn't going to make any sudden moves, Rita opts to sit down on the ground near the two of them, crossing her legs and manually pushing her injured wing into a position that's stable and comfortable.

"I heard your memory got screwed up," she begins, looking him over as if expecting to find some indication of lingering effects. "How are you doing now?"

Baker, oblivious to Rita's caution, just wags his tail gently. All company is great, at least when you're a dog. Childermass, on the other hand, may disagree, especially since it's apparently his memory problems that are on her mind.

"You heard right," he says with a quiet sigh. He's still not sure how to feel about parts of that, though those parts have nothing to do with Rita. "My memories returned when Ms. Peridot called upon Creation." And Ignatius exploded (in a good way... he guesses). "So I imagine I'm doing well enough now."

"They did?" Rita's eyes widen, then she seems to relax. "...Good."

Rita doesn't know how much Childermass lost, or how bad it was... but if he's better now, she's satisfied with that.

"I wanted to say, uh... thanks," she continues, looking unsure as she does. Is that a weird thing to say? Well, she's rolling with it. "I know you probably had your own reasons, and it didn't exactly work out great, but still... if you didn't lend Ignatius your strength, I would have done it myself." And then Rita would have been the one with 'soul damage', whatever that even entails.

"And then you would have never been promoted," Childermass can make an educated enough guess. "Or have been found out after the fact."

He ends up just shaking his head and looking up at the forest canopy looming overhead instead.

"Neither of which would be good options. I know I had already been planning to reach out to Ignatius but in the end, I did it out of spite, not strategy. I hear I at least got one good explosion out of it."

"Yeah..."

One good explosion that led to things getting much worse for Ignatius, but there's no point in bringing that up. Rita can understand why Childermass did what he did.

"...Though even my promotion had mixed results, I guess. It allowed me to get out and help rescue Ignatius, but it's also how the Mother of Invention used me to set a trap for him..." Rita's not sure how much Childermass saw or heard about the incident. If he was close enough to see what Peridot did, he might have even caught more of it than Rita did, considering she was unconscious for part of it.

"I didn't realize it until everything was over, but I guess, somehow... I'm a faeblood now. Like you and Steven."

Childermass had arrived with Lambert, early enough to see what had happened. Short of forcing Ignatius into the shadows, however, there wasn't a whole lot he could do to intervene.

"Artificial, just like the rest of us." Even if he and Steven were technically 'born' that way, on another world, in another life. "I heard her say as much," he admits, drawing his gaze back down from the trees above. "It seems Ignatius at least cares for your well-being. Luckier than the rest of us there."

Not that it should make it any better, he supposes.

"How do you feel about it?"

"I'm not sure," Rita admits, frowning. "I mean... you're right. I'm lucky, relatively speaking. My bond with Ignatius allowed him to free me from the Mother's control, and it might even be what's keeping my body stable, after that trial. So in some ways, I'm thankful."

If being a faeblood is what's keeping Rita alive right now, then she can't complain.

"But at the same time, I don't really know the full implications of... faebloodedness." She gestures vaguely. "... I was kind of hoping you'd know a few things." Childermass has had to deal with this for a lot longer than she has, after all.

"I didn't know much before, actually," Childermass admits. "It was never a conversation the Count and I had..."

The way his Portland life went, he hadn't been raised by his 'father', just snatched up again later in life and he hadn't cared to impart any wisdom then, either. Pointless to mention that much, though, so he doesn't and just sets that ball of misery aside. He hadn't known much before.

Now is different.

"But the Mother of Invention put more than a little effort into experimenting on the faeblooded. Sans pulled the records for me. I'm sure he can give you a copy if you want, though some of it isn't..." What's a good way of putting? "For the faint-hearted."

That said, he moves on to the important parts.

"What you need to know is you have a part of Ignatius's magical spirit in you. That means you're immortal, at least in the sense you won't die of old age any time soon. You can still get sick, though you'll survive illness and injury better than the average human. It also means he will always have a claim on you, though distance will weaken how much he can control you."

Rita nods at the mention of the records, her brow furrowing as she considers whether or not she'd want to look over those details, given that description. Generally speaking, she'd always prefer to view a primary source herself, rather than rely on the interpretations of others...

But as he goes on to give her the short version, her eyes widen, and her present train of thought is immediately derailed.

"Wait... immortal? But that's..." She cups a hand over her mouth, as if to conceal the expression of shock... and perhaps some other strong emotions. The implications are enormous, but Rita's been occupied with her own mortality a lot, recently. Putting this revelation into context, she gradually reaches a conclusion. "No... this is great. It could solve everything. I have to tell Nines..."

Well, consider Childermass a little confused. Rita reacts favorably to the news, which he hadn't expected. Though, then again, there are more than a few people who wouldn't mind being handed immortality like this. Regardless, he raises his eyebrows.

"Tell Nines...?"

"Uh..."

Rita stiffens, suddenly realizing what she just said. Her first reaction, of course, is to deflect. "I-it's nothing. Just... something me and 9S were talking about before." Almost instantaneously, her face has turned red.

But it's not like Childermass knowing is any worse than Strange or Lambert knowing, and after that knee-jerk response, she relents, mumbling, "I mean... whatever. It's not like we're keeping it a secret, anyway."

He can guess what she's getting at, right?

"Ah," Childermass does indeed see what she's getting at. That, at least, is a little more uplifting than discussing faebloods and the Mother of Invention, so he smiles a little. "So that's why you two were so friendly. I imagine androids don't die of old age, either, do they?"

Rita's gaze wanders; even if she's not ashamed of it, it's still awkward enough that she doesn't look him in the eye. But to his comment, she sighs and replies, "...Exactly."

She leans back, rocking slightly in her cross-legged position. "I mean... maybe we were being stupid, jumping into things knowing that even in the best case scenario, it would have to end with... you know." Rita, growing old and dying. 9S, left alone and unchanging. She shakes her head. "Maybe I'm still being stupid, thinking we'd be together that long, or even longer if we could. But now that it's a possibility, I'm just kind of... glad."

"I assumed I would have, at most, twenty years with Lambert," Childermass comes right out to say. He isn't someone who often talks about his own relationship, private to a fault, but in this, he shared a similar concern. There's no need for Rita to feel stupid alone.

"And that would be if I was lucky," he adds. In reality, he's sure he had even less time before this whole immortality thing was confirmed. "Only now it'll be me who has to watch him grow old, even if it does take a few hundred years for him to. Still, it wasn't going to stop me before and I doubt the same will stop him now."

Once he gets around to actually telling him...

"I'm glad to know you and 9S won't have that fear. You should ask the Gilded Mark if she can find him later, when we aren't deciding just which faerie we're going to be at war with soon."

Rita lifts her head, watching Childermass with a surprised look when he actually goes on to talk about his own relationship. It did occur to her that he and Lambert were in a similar situation, though she didn't expect him to be at all open about it.

Her expression softens. Stupid or not, it looks like Childermass understands her feelings. It's... kind of nice. There probably aren't a lot of other people who know what it's like.

"I was thinking of seeing if the Caravan could take a message to Shabon for me, actually," she goes on to explain, a slight smile tugging at her mouth. "He might do something stupid while I'm not around, so I want him to know I'm okay. If that doesn't work... well, it probably can't hurt to try Gild." She's surprisingly approachable, for a fae.

"Now there's a good idea," Childermass says after a tic of considering it. With the caravan swinging by the Summerlands to retrieve their own again, it makes the most sense. "If they do find him at Shabon, he can travel with them for a bit. It would certainly be safer with that group than any other, I think."

At that mental image, Rita's smile widens. "It would be nice... Those people sure have a knack for crossing paths with us again and again." Which would mean they'd surely meet again, and soon. Maybe he could learn some interesting things from them, too.

She lets that light, happy thought linger for a few seconds before moving on.

"Right... there was something else I was meaning to talk to you about." She's hesitant to move on to this topic, knowing Childermass probably won't like it, but... "I know that back in Polaris, they... put something in you during one of the trials. Lambert asked if I could attempt a magical examination... if you're up for it, that is."

Lambert asked. Of course, Lambert would. Childermass sighs and sits up properly, away from Baker. The dog gives him a curious sniff when he moves but doesn't bother getting up or anything.

"They did," he confirms. It's a tiring thought to dwell on all over again, not even being able to escape wondering down here, away from Polaris. "Better you than Strange, I suppose. He would want to try fixing it immediately."

Well... it makes sense that he doesn't want Strange poking at him. Rita didn't expect he'd agree to let her take a look either, but here they are. She scoots a little closer.

"All right. This might take a few minutes."

She holds up her hands and conjures a magic interface. As she tries to examine the various kinds of magic within Childermass, the display changes, showing some abstract-looking shapes and what looks like it could be text, but isn't from any recognizable language. Rita squints as she tries to decipher the information in front of her.

Childermass is a horrendous clash of different magics, that's what she's about to find.

His own magic, obviously, but everything is threaded through with what's been left behind by becoming a faeblood. There's some bit of magic lurking behind his own, English in origin, though the biggest issues right now happen to be an increased presence of the Void and a blatantly obvious piece of Summer Court magic; namely, a curse. Physically, if it reads that along with the rest, they did add something to his back. There are bolts and a reinforced spine and the like, along with connections that plunge towards and latch onto his heart.

How much Rita can pick that apart and look at all the pieces separately, Childermass just doesn't know. He can't read the interface, though he does look on with quite a bit of curiosity.

Edited 2018-12-03 16:58 (UTC)

Through the transparent display, Childermass will be able to see Rita's expression change as she analyzes the data, her look of deep concentration occasionally shifting to a mixture of fascination and concern.

Most of what's present here is within her expectations, except for the Summer magic, something vaguely malevolent. When did he get afflicted with that...?

But Childermass probably doesn't want to be kept waiting for too long, so Rita leaves that alone for now and focuses instead on the Void signatures she can recognize. "I'm getting some intense readings of Void magic," she reports. "I can tell where the energy's most dense, which would indicate the locations of implanted material... but I'm not sure exactly what effect this ought to have on the body..."

"Is it in my chest?" Childermass asks though he's pretty sure he already knows the answer. "They were experimenting with the Void. I think they may have injected more of it into me, only I couldn't really see what they were up to. I don't know what it'll do, either."

Probably not enough to relapse into villainy or, at least, one would hope. Although--

"Besides making me feel awful, I suppose.

Rita nods grimly, confirming Childermass's suspicions about his chest. "Hypothetically, it might be possible to surgically remove some of this... though it won't undo the effects entirely." You don't get to have a bunch of Void magic swimming around inside of you, and still hope to be completely rid of it. But Rita doubts Childermass was ever that optimistic to begin with.

"How awful are we talking, here?" she asks, her face partly scrunched as she glances back at the data. It's the Void, after all. That energy may as well be the very embodiment of negativity and emptiness.

Well, she wouldn't be wrong about that. Childermass has always been more realistic about his optimism but it does exist, somewhere, or at least it did, once. He imagines it's still hanging around somewhere, he just can't find it right now, which leaves him with the dilemma of describing just how he's feeling.

He sure as hell isn't saying anything weepy, that's for sure. So, he pauses, looking down at the forest floor for a moment, considering where to go with that answer.

"Empty," he settles on. "Tired. I can't even feel relieved that this is finally over. It's like it doesn't matter. That kind of awful."

Edited 2018-12-07 04:03 (UTC)

Not for the first time in this conversation, Rita looks on with surprise as Childermass actually talks about his feelings. He doesn't do it in a particularly emotional way, as can be expected, but still... Rita's not sure if she should take it as a sign of him trusting her, or if he just can't be bothered to conceal it.

Dropping her hand away from the display, she dismisses her spell. "I see... That does sound like it could be the Void's influence." It could also not be, but it fits the bill well enough that it certainly isn't a reach, especially if Childermass himself finds it unusual.

Awful really is the best word for it. It's bad enough to feel hopelessness when the situation calls for it, but to be robbed of that feeling of hope just when it should be in reach... He can't go on like that forever.

"There has to something we can do. You could try talking to Herbert or the Technicians here about a surgical option... or else, if we make it to the Summerlands, maybe there'll be someone there well-versed in magical healing techniques."

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