⇨ POLARIS AFTERMATH

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[exaomori]

"Ah, you're right~" Of course a dumb magician wouldn't want to climb up a tree like a sane person. Of course, Shura hadn't exactly climbed up the usual way, but she could just jump, which was easier than climbing.

With him settled, Shura follows his gaze. "It ain't bad. Rather be somewhere nicer, but it's better than bein' stuck in Polaris the whole time."

Air, fresh, real air. Even if it was the Wyldlands, it was refreshing.

[kingsroads]

He knows what she means: Strange gives Shura a little nod. "Nothing shows you all the little things you took for granted like being stuck inside for a few weeks."

There were already a few things that Strange didn't take for granted: light being one of the most important ones. But the actual sky, real grass, a constant breeze, things like that he didn't realize he missed until they were gone.

"It doesn't help that Polaris is just so...clinical. Our stay might have been easier to bear had the Mother of Invention believed in using color." If you joke about things, that means they don't affect you, right? Right!

[exaomori]

Nothing shows that you're completely unaffected by a traumatic experience like making terrible jokes about it! "Mm, a little color, or maybe even somethin' to eat every once in a while! No wonder we had to revolt, it was just so boring!"

Boring and absolutely awful. Shura stretches her legs out long in front of her, the metal catching the light for a brief second before she pulls them back. "You'd think she'd be tryin' just a litte since she got such an unruly lot."

[kingsroads]

Like a bird or a small child, Strange's eyes are briefly drawn to the shine of Shura's new metal legs, before he focuses back on the conversation. Well. That explains just what the hell happened to her in Polaris. He won't talk about it if she doesn't want to.

"Unruly is putting it nicely," Strange teases, with a little smile. "We had...what, three or four of us in Theta by the end. And only after a few weeks! I suspect that's a new record."

[exaomori]

"Oh, I'm sure there have been others who just gave up early. But that's borin', don't you think?" Admittedly, so was doing all of that manual labor, but at least they could try to avoid being hungry that way. "Even if we were screwed, might as well make as uch trouble as we can on the way out."

[kingsroads]

"Have I ever told you that I love the way you think?" Strange responds, with a cocky sort of grin on his face. Make as much trouble on the way out? That's his line of thinking. "Because I feel the same. It's useless going down without a fight."

[exaomori]

Shura leers back at him. "You just like it so much 'cause I'm not scoldin' ya! 'Course, considerin' what we're going to try after this, I think you'll have plenty of opportunities to make people mad."

[kingsroads]

Strange shrugs. True, true: Shura does have a point. "I seem to have a talent for finding ways to make people mad no matter what the scenario. It's a pity we can't weaponize it for all of...this."

Accompanied with a vague hand gesture.

[exaomori]

“Maybe if you’re nice enough to one of those Summer Fae they’ll whip something up for you ♥” Too has they just murdered the Mother of Invention, though the torture and experimentation wouldn’t be worth it.

“Really, it’s just nice not to be the one kowtowing for once~”

[kingsroads]

"Agreed," said with a nod. "I'm better at this sort of formality stuff than most people in the carnival, but it's a wonderful feeling to be on relatively equal footing."

Sure, there are higher-ups, but it's not like a Polaris or Eden situation where surprise, you all have to be the runts of the litter.

[exaomori]

"It isn't hard to be better at that kind of thing than a lot of the people here," Shura replies with a snort. Admittedly, a good chunk of the carnival was made of kids, but the rest of them-- "Honestly, I'm almost surprised this place hasn't gotten into more trouble than it has."

[kingsroads]

"It helps that with a lot of places, we've either fallen completely under the radar of something powerful or are dealing directly with something powerful. There's no in-between." There's no 'only a few carnival members deal with the murderous fae' or 'everybody deals with a mid-powered fae'. It's either zero or a hundred, with no in-betweens.

[exaomori]

"So someone else got the blame for your antics half the time, huh?" It wasn't just Strange who caused problems, but she'll let him interpret that as he wanted.

[kingsroads]

"Or my antics were easily overlooked because the Void or Court Fae swooped in to distract everyone. I'm honestly surprised I didn't get more grief for turning someone into a chicken, for example."

Sorry 9S and thank you Void/Creation for getting everybody off of his case for that one.

[exaomori]

"A chicken?" Wait, what? "They make you mad or somethin'?"

She assumes that if Strange can turn someone into a chicken, he could turn around and reverse the spell. Unless not knowing how to reverse the spell was the problem...

[kingsroads]

"Honest to God, it was an accident." There's a pause though because Strange probably should explain why it was an accident.

"Hallucinogens might have been involved."

[exaomori]

"Hallucinogens." Shura repeats with that calm teacher tone. This sounds like the start of one of Rin's stupid excuses.

[kingsroads]

"I was high as hell," Strange happily clarifies, with zero shame whatsoever. Drugs are amazing.

"Did you ever try faerie weed?"

[exaomori]

Shura doesn't know whether or not this is worse than one of Rin's excuses. Strange might be more shameless than Shura, which is quite the achievement.

"Haven't heard of it." But if it's a magical version of the weed she's familiar with...

[kingsroads]

"Pity. I've used up all my stash and I doubt we'll run into the caravan again anytime soon. Otherwise, I'd offer to share."

Though hmm. They are in a wild and wildernessy forest area. Maybe they could find naturally occurring hallucinogenic plants here? But then again, he doesn't know what it would look like. Strange idly starts turning his attention to the neighboring trees and plants, as if by staring that will somehow magically produce some drugs.

[exaomori]

Shura knows that look. That’s the look of a man looking for trouble. “Don’t get any ideas about licking toads or you’ll be the one turning into a chicken.”

But it’s really no loss for Shura, who just shrugs. “Yukio wouldn’t let it go if he caught me smokin’ something like that, so it’s just as well.”

[kingsroads]

"Then let me point out the obvious: Yukio never needs to know."

Watch as Strange just shoulder-devils it up in this hypothetical situation.

[exaomori]

"Nyaha, you're not wrong!" Still not going to eat strange mushroom just because Strange is bored, though. "He'd be happier not knowin', anyway. Just gotta find the right time."

[kingsroads]

"In that case, let's hope that wherever we end up next, we end up somewhere perfectly willing to cater to our needs."

It's a very diplomatic and slightly flowy way of saying 'fingers crossed we're able to get high soon', but Strange is the sort of person who doesn't really say things in a terribly concise manner.

[exaomori]

“Only if you learned how to reverse that spell of yours~”. This is a terrible plan.