⇨ 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]

"Ahh, so you're likely to turn me into somethin' else if you get spooked, huh?" This is definitely making getting stoned with Strange so very appealing.

[kingsroads]

"Only if it's situationally appropriate," Strange sasses in return. "9S was being hesitant about trying the faerie weed with me. I called him a chicken. Ergo..."

And Strange trails off, gesturing to the side. Ergo, high magic and bad decisions turned him into a chicken. He honestly should be a bit more repentant about this...but nah. He wants to see Shura's reaction and doesn't mind being a bit of a shit.

[exaomori]

9S--he was one of the other kids, wasn't he? Shura had never spoken to him, but she had heard the name before. She clicks her tongue, shaking her head.

"Now it's a threat, huh~?" Another adult, it wouldn't be quite an issue. Then again, Shura wasn't above throwing beer cans at kids when they annoyed her, so she wasn't much above him in this regard.

[kingsroads]

"The only threat is that you should go along with my bad decisions when I'm high." He is blatantly teasing her and blatantly giving Shura shit just for the sake of giving Shura shit. "After all, I am one of the strongest magicians in the carnival and, occasionally, a little mad. Who knows what I might do in return?"

Strange's goofy-ass smile, outright teasing tone, and brief hand waggle of spooky fingers do a marvelous job at removing anything slightly menacing from his statement.

[exaomori]

Fortunately, Shura's not one to be intimidated by crazy men, only annoyed. She tilts her head back and lets out a laugh.

"Nyahaha, I'll be sure to prepare plenty of wards before we have fun! I'm sure a few of them will protect me from your madness." She's used to nutty guys. Working with the guys she knew required a degree of tolerance, after all.

[kingsroads]

Her mentioning wards piques Strange's interest. That's something that admittedly, he knows next to nothing about and he's downright interested to learn more about it.

"What sort of wards would you prepare?" he asks, not even bothering to hide the tone of curiosity in his voice.

[exaomori]

"Mm, something to protect against curses in general, I guess. 'Course, no idea if it would work against your magic, but may as well be prepared, I guess." There's something about the way she says your magic that might imply that she isn't really all that impressed, but only maybe.

"I prolly ought to get some supplies ahead of time, good wards are a pain to make."

[kingsroads]

"What supplies do you need?"

This has become the Bother Shura About Her Magic Power Hour. Strange can happily chat about magic until the cows come home and, based on the interested look he's giving Shura, he really obviously wants to chat about magic until the cows come home.

[exaomori]

Ugh, she shouldn't have said anything. but maybe she could get him to do some work for her an stock up some of her supplies... Well, he'd bother her no matter what, so it might be worth investing a few minutes in entertaining Strange if she got something out of it later.

"Mm, could use a few things. Some agrimony, agarwood, and salt. Ah, and some paint for the seal. That sort of stuff."

[kingsroads]

Strange nods. He's got an idea of what agrimony looks like (and of course he knows salt and paint), but agarwood? He'll leave that one to Shura to find on her own, he's got no clue what the heck that is.

"Any particular colors of paint?"

[exaomori]

"For this? Nah, just somethin' to draw the seal out. Since it's just for me, I could prolly just do somethin' on paper."

She should probably teach Yukio a few of the quick seals, thinking about it. Maybe even show Rin some of the easy stuff. If she used herbs that could be found in the kitchen, maybe even he would pick up a thing or two. Shura goes quiet for a moment, trying to remember the easiest combinations she can remember, then shrugs out of it.

"Ah, well, doesn't matter if we're out here. I hardly know left from right with the plants here."

[kingsroads]

"There's a few of the plants that I think I recognize? But then it's the wrong color or it smells differently or things like that." Strange shrugs a little. Fae plants are weird and he doesn't really know how to describe or explain them.

"It's always odd how something so familiar can be so different."

[exaomori]

"It'd make using 'em risky, even if we're mostly sure it's the same. 'Course, it might make the ward stronger, but it's more likely to fail." If it looked like basil but tasted like cinnamon, it wasn't basil.

But that didn't mean she couldn't draw up a few seals to use in the meanwhile. She raws one leg up under her, looking up as she weighs the advantages of going through all of the work and energy it'd require to make some talismans. There honestly wasn't any reason not to do it.

[kingsroads]

"What's magic without a little risk?" Strange asks, with a shrug. It's obvious he's got a more cavalier approach to the whole thing than certain other carnival members. Something's risky? Hell, might as well give it a shot.

"We won't know if it fails or not unless we try."

[exaomori]

It's risky and stupid, but to be honest, Shura doesn't know how well her seals and circles would work with faerie magic. With everything that might be coming up, it was better to find out in a neutral situation than it would be to find out in the middle of a fight. She sighs.

"Fine, just get me the stuff and we'll have a go at it."

[kingsroads]

And thus Shura learns that a good way to deal with Strange is just to shove him off and distract him with something.

"I'll bother you later," he says, as he turns into smoke and floats off the tree (climbing is for chumps). Strange's voice weirdly eminates out of the smoke as he starts to drift away. "Fingers crossed I find something remotely useful!"

[exaomori]

This is a trick she is going to remember. Give him a job, and he'll go do it. She just had to think of things to keep him occupied... She could send him out foraging at least another two times before she would have to find something else for him to do.

"Uh huh, good luck," she says, clearly enthused by the prospect of being bothered by a man who won't climb a tree the usual way. But she'll happily take the tree branch back, only half-watching Strange's true form of hot air float away.