⇨ New Location: POLARIS

[ringleaders]

PREPARATION↴ With the Ringmaster defeated and claimed by the Huntsman, the ownership of everyone she has contracts with will have defaulted to the Huntsman himself - which means he is capable of forbidding everyone the use of their magic and powers. He does, of course, but it turns out he has little interest in keeping any of the Ringmaster's left over belongings. Soon after taking her egg, he passes off ownership of everyone else to an assembly of Winter fae that have been patiently lying in wait. The leader of the fae in question? The Mother of Invention, a notoriously unorthodox magical scientist and researcher. While the Ringmaster is carted off to places unknown, the rest of the carnival is being whisked away to a place called Polaris for the indefinite future. NOTE: If your character contracted with Ignatius, special rules will imply regarding their ability to use their powers. Right at the start, they will still mostly lose their ability to use powers, but as time goes on, their contract will conflict with the Mother's ownership of them, allowing minor uses of their abilities on a case by case basis. SETTING↴ Polaris is a magical laboratory complex in Arcadia, floating just above cloud level. It belongs to the Mother of Invention, and is used by her and her technicians to study and develop magical theory. While stealing away mortals to this complex is a common practice, those taken from the Ringmaster's care are here under special circumstances. All items, pets, and clothing will be confiscated on entry and locked away, followed by everyone having to go through a 'decontamination' process that mostly involves all the things you'd expect it to. You get scanned by various things and then sprayed with magical water vapor that feels very cold but apparently cleanses. Then, you are given new clothes - that are applied magically rather than being something you physically put on - and taken away to be individually interviewed. Please fill out this form as each of your characters, following the rules as explained. This interview will determine some things about how your character is treated during the event. The new 'clothes' are actually just weird bodysuits in a shade of charcoal grey, with a texture somewhere between leather and silicon. It's flush to the skin and flexible enough to stay that way, but thankfully the material is thick enough that it isn't unduly revealing. You will mysterious find yourself not needing to eat or produce waste while wearing it. It's also basically impossible to take off on your own. If you are weirdly shaped, or have a lot of fur, feathers, or foliage that would get in the way of this, then the suits are custom applied and can be modded to accommodate such things. The design will endeavor to cover as much as possible while not being completely impractical. They generally won't cover things like tails or wings. Characters will be locked up in compact cells during the night, either alone or in pairs. If your character is big they will be put in a somewhat bigger cell to accommodate their size, but there will still not be much leg room. The layouts are approximately like this, so if you have a roommate, things will be pretty intimate for your stay with them. Housing is functionally random and may change daily, irregularly, or not at all. Who you room with is your OOC choice, but in game characters are being assigned by the technicians. PATRONS↴ ► TECHNICIANS: There are large number of 'technicians' working in Polaris, who are essentially just the Mother's collection of changelings. Most of them look pretty similar, with common themes of white hair and visors or goggles that cover their eyes, obscuring unique facial features. There are men and women, but none of them act very different from each other. All of them use classification numbers to describe themselves and each other, and don't sound very upset about it. Most of the time, anyway. The general vibe from them is either neutral ambivalence or deep, deep repression. They are more intelligent than average, and some of them seem to be genuinely interested in the science of what the Mother does. They are not cruel, but they often come off as unfeeling and detached from the lives of test subjects. Internally, for some, there is more conflict - but nothing they will admit to at prompting. Technicians are the ones that will take care of day to day affairs, like escorting prisoners from place to place, or doing tests. Some of them are suited up to act as guards. DANGERS↴ ► THE MOTHER OF INVENTION: The threat is pretty straight forward. You're trapped here, you don't want to be here, and while you are here, by the laws of magic, you are technically the Mother's property. This means that she can theoretically control you in all the same ways that the Ringmaster could, but largely never did. This new role as a lab rat is not a flattering one, and everyone from the carnival will have to consider their priorities in the face of a potential lifetime of captivity. This time the Ringmaster isn't around to bail anyone out. REWARDS↴ It's possible to earn 'rewards' from the Mother of Invention for 'good behaviour', but do you really want to try? The choice is yours. CHANGES↴ This location presents the unique opportunity to end up with magitek implants, additions, or limb replacements. This isn't something that will happen to everyone, and receiving one will probably be unpleasant - however, you have the automatic option to wind up with the equivalent of a Common or Uncommon change in the form of robot parts. If you take one, though, you'll have to tell me what kind of change you'd like while I fill in the details. You can specify a general area, but the specifics will be mod chosen. Rare changes made of Polaris magitek may also occur, but only if it comes up for plot reasons. These magitek additions may also not be as cooperative or comfortable as regular magical changes. Rare magitek alterations may also come up later on, for various reasons, but at not an guaranteed assumption. These will only occur through gameplay cues. Beyond that, this is a PLOTTING POST, which means you can use it to make plans! The game chat is also a great place to discuss plots, so we welcome you to pop on in if you haven't already! The calendar should be up to date.

Comments

⇨ QUESTIONS

[ringleaders]

For all your burning questions.

[bananaspeedrider]

Would a certain pair of dice that Yugo nicked from the Count of Crows be recognized?

[kingsroads]

Will any items stored in magical storage be confiscated as well or will they simply remain inaccessible? For example, items stored in magical hammerspaces, pocket dimensions, or anything that Strange stores in his weird body mirrors.

[chronosynthesis]

Since the cells are marked for "during the night" does that mean they actually have pretty free reign of the facility otherwise, or will they be kept in more compact group arrangements day to day?

[impatientdefense]

will anyone be getting lit on fire

Now with less shitpost

[spaghettimonster]

To clarify: they're banned from using magic and powers, so obviously no gravity or bones. They do still have rare changes. Does that mean we have things like, characters with wings but unable to fly, people with fire only able to cast dim light, and skeletons whose skulls are staying firmly attached?

(I ask because I want to make sure Papyrus can't try spying with a detachable skull)

QUESTIONS & ANSWER FROM DISCORD - REPOSTED

[lmpatientdefense]

i meant to do this last night but i was sleepy and a cuddle cat drained the rest of my brain until i forgot, so!

PARAPHRASED ANSWERS:

Injuries are cleaned during the cleansing with the magic water spray, and the injuries are patched over enough to let proper healing happen at a more natural pace.

Do not worry about your pets, they're not going to die of neglect; the ones captured with us are in comfortable containment not unlike pokeballs, the ones back at the carnival are being cared for by [Handwaving that RM previously set up], like maybe the cindersprites or the Summer Maiden. Unspecified, irrelevant, they're good

All belongings (that weren't hidden in hammerspace before getting caught) have been confiscated, and the Technicians aren't commenting on the confiscated belongings to give clues as to what they find interesting. It's all just silently taken.

The technicians aren't conversational buddies at all. They stare, ask the questions on their scripts, and don't ask elaborations or share commentary.

The numbers aren't individual! The 7-- means test group, and individual numbers will be constantly changing so that characters can't even connect an identity to them.


With the general labor, characters are told to do labor to meet their productivity goals.

They're not given instructions about how best to do it, and can go about doing it however they want.

If characters work in a group, it's still not the group getting credit - they have to split up the credit at the end, one way or another.

Anyone caught stealing to improve their own numbers will be In Trouble, so maybe don't do that - or at least don't get caught.

Struggling for approval and success is good! They like that! That's what they want!

Also, they want to experiment on people. Like mentioned over here, there's a lot of work, but the scoring for it is set up so there aren't enough point sources for everyone to get enough points to stay comfortable afloat.

Even someone really skilled and effective working at full tilt might not make the Eta goals, so if you've slipped to that designation, agreeing to trials is about the only way to stay afloat, let alone get 'promotions'.

[chronosynthesis]

If the characters express concern about their non-pet belongings being destroyed, would the receive any assurance or confirmation or just ignored?

Re: ⇨ QUESTIONS

[spaghettimonster]

Is it safe to say that mushi-riddled characters are either provided with a treatment or that whole thing is on lockdown like biological processes are?

[kingsroads]

obviously this is all loosey goosey depending on how the log shakes out, but here's some tentative plotting for my two...

Hanamaru is so technologically inept, she never used the internet until about a year ago, despite the fact that Love Live Sunshine is set in the present day. In all likelihood, she'll be throwing herself headfirst into this technology stuff to try and distract herself from the fact that she got super murdered last event and doesn't know how to cope with that! As a note, I haven't decided what her murder change is going to be yet, but it'll probably be uncommon.

Strange is going to initially hate this due to the power nerf + poor Ignatius getting his ass kicked seven ways til Sunday. He knows some information on the Mother of Invention thanks to Shimmer (his drunkard changeling caravan buddy) and will gladly be Mr. Exposition for anybody who wants to catch up on who tf this lady is. I don't mind threading that out or if you just want to handwave an infodump, comment here and we can sort that shit out. finally, considering that strategy A (magic) isn't applicable, there's a good chance that Strange will fall back on strategy B (gossip) in an attempt to either get the hell out of here or learn how fire bae's doing.

[impatientdefense]

Sign Beau up for the exposition train because WTF happened there

Now featuring the right account

[exaomori]

Share the gossip with Shura , pls, she’ll promise him a drink later if they can get out ever

[spaghettimonster]

Papyrus will recombine within a couple nights (after a lot of late hours of talking to himself, sorry in advance to any neighboring sleepytime cells). After that point he's going to have some apologies to give and more people to check up on. And a little more freaking out to do, because RM is dead/an egg and they're all kidnapped without powers, but, but! They've managed to survive all sorts of things! They'll figure something out or get lucky somehow, probably!!!

Anyway, depending on how terrible the things they're instructed to do are, he'll be trying to ingratiate himself for advantages and knowledge to share around. Maybe if he's friendly enough he'll win over some of the technicians! It's worth a try!! And he'll be encouraging people to try doing things that he knows they're skilled or knowledgeable with, so catch him around for that.

i'm doing two posts for their appropriate icons

[impatientdefense]

Beauregard is kind of disappointed, kinda pissed, ngl. It's almost enough to make a monk stop getting in drinking contests, that this went SO WRONG. How'd she go from one creepy imprisoned testing facility to a carnival to another creepy imprisoned testing facility?? How many places like this are there?

So Beau will be complaining and moping, exercising even more than usual, and interrogating everybody who seems to know about these things what the deal is. And when the tests and challenges and whatever come up, she'll pour herself into them for the sake of something to do, some competitive spirit, and maybe - given the questions in that initial survey - the chance to hurt people while going "oh well, i just had to do it for the test"

eta: roomies are open! come for the night chatter, don't mind the snores

[sunflowerfields]

TIME TO THINK WITH PORTALS

Hinawa is really gonna be in a Mood. She is SO CLOSE to being done with her contract and NOW THIS? Also, technology is scary and thomas edison was a witch so this is the worst possible place to be trapped for what could possibly be the rest of her life. She's going to try her hardest to put on a brave face for others but cellmates and neighbors will definitely hear her crying at night. :')

Alphys meanwhile is... also terrified out of her mind but kind of curious at the same time? There's so much SCIENCE here and she wants to touch it!! But it's also horrific, unethical science and she's probably going to be on the receiving end of it! She's going to be on her best behavior to try and avoid the worst punishments, but I really really want to get Alphys some magitek changes so we'll see how it goes.

[alphudo]

Yuusei's here if you want Alphys to have a buddy to fearfully geek out about all this cool tech.

[atouts]

Sup, the normally unflappable Childermass will actually be scared out of his goddamn mind since it's only a matter of time before the Mother of Invention realizes what he is and trades him off to his dear old fae dad for a favor. Well, either that or figures out fun new uses for the faeblooded as test subjects. Overall, not having a good time in a Winter realm.

He'll become slightly less useless once he realizes signing on with Ignatius actually did help (some of) them, even if only in a small way, but until then, he gets to be the supervisor in a constant state of panic this time. Anyway, rip, y'all, feel free to try and shake him out of it. I'm also open to random room assignments, etc.

[starseedling]

Steven is freaked out also, but more in a 'dipping into complacency' kind of way, so I'd love to have them interact during all this.

Also RIP them when the faeblooded shit gets attention like they both know it will.

[periphrasing]

Peridot is going to be raring for escape pretty much from day 1.She's not going to be super obvious about it because she gets that they're going to be under a lot of scrutiny here, but this is bullshit, and she's not giving in to this. They can't make her stay here!

She did sign up with Ignatius, so there's the potential that she may be able to wrench control of some of her powers back eventually. It's possible she may theorize this being a possibility IC (if that isn't too info-moddy), since conflicting fae contracts have been mentioned before in the past. Primarily on the powers front, she's going to try really hard to regain the ability to summon her storage gauntlet back. It's soul-bound, so the fae weren't able to confiscate it from her... but she also can't summon it back onto her wrist without any magic. If she can get the gauntlet back though, it's full of all kinds of useful stuff, including her engineering tools, a video camera, the freaking VORPAL SWORD, and pokeballs containing Stumpy and Noodle.

If she can get access to Stumpy, that'll be great, because wimpods are excellent at both running the fuck away from things VERY FAST, and hiding in tiny holes. Wimpionage.

Primary goals:
1. Get gauntlet use back
2. Find Ignatius, get him in on the plan
3. Steal some iron. She knows the MoI is working with it somewhere. Maybe she can steal the research as well!

Anyway that's her angle, if you want her help with anything or if you want to help HER, or if you just wanna be roommates with her for a night or w/e, hit me up here! \o/

[alphudo]

Yuusei's gonna try to learn more about the technology of this place; if he finds anything that might help get Peridot's gauntlets back, he'll let her know! He's also available for rooming so there's that.

LAMBERT N ERUKA

[whattaprick]

ERUKA has plenty of experience being forced to work for someone she viscerally hates/is pants-wettingly terrified of, so if anyone wants HOT TIPS, hit her up! She signed up with Ignatius but since she’s less well versed in fae magic law she won’t immediately get the advantages of that. So mostly she’ll be spending her time cursing her bad luck and trying to ingratiate herself to their captors in the hope of avoiding pain, and encouraging others to do the same.

She’ll likely comply with whatever the technicians ask of her, though she won’t actively spoil any plans of escape if she can help it.

LAMBERT was pretty messed up at the end of the Hunt, but thanks to some good ol magitek he’s good as new! He was particularly uncooperative in his intake interview. He has little experience with technology but he has some experience with being a test subject, so he is extremely not thrilled to be here, especially since it somewhat confirms what he was already sure of, with the Winter Court being completely gung ho about using iron against them. While he’s eager for an opportunity to escape, staging a coup seems severely unlikely. His primary priority will be evaluating how they’re being monitored and either find a way to disable that, or find a way to be able to talk undetected.

He’ll likely avoid seeking out people close to him to not risk looking over-familiar, and he figures his aggression has already tanked any illusion he’s here to play nice. If there’s a physical component to the exercises he’ll likely throw himself into it. May as well spend indefinite prison staying in fighting shape!

Both of them are available as randomized roomies or for general shenanigans.

[atouts]

Yeah, sure, why not. Eruka, pls encourage Childermass to just sell out. He won't even be mad.

Carly, Gon, Reira

[soft_focus]

Carly has no intentions to sit quietly in this place, but she's also pretty firmly aware that they're in a Bad Zone; especially since her magic is out the door. She'll be leaning on older habits and skills from scouting days and even farther before it, and likely try to chat with some of the other supervisors while she's at it.

Which is going to suck when the ones pretending to be Someone Else become a thing, not to mention anyone shell shocked...

She hates not floating on top of that, by the way.

Dying when RM exploded gave her a fiery rare change that she'll be trying to deal with on top of all of that, so she's not having a great day suffice to say! As it is though, her info grabbing attempts will vary between StealthMode, and EagerToPleaseMode.

Clearly if she plays EXTRA nice, and only does bullshit behind their back (and hopefully off camera, but as she herself will admit, who knows where they're being watched)...Well, something should happen right?

Gongenzaka is likewise not in the mood to play nice, but he doesn't have many options on that. As he made a contract with Ignatius, he'll find his magic seeping in over time- though that's largely of the spirity tracky variety anyway. As it is, he'll try to at least quietly pass information on where he can, potentially with the roommate system to spread word of mouth...or hey, maybe he'll get his spirit chatter working at the right moment.

That's pretty unreliable though.

As it is, he'll be missing his vines (a lot of his plants had to be trimmed down, so it kinda looks like he's had the garden equivalent of a brush cut), missing his pets, but more importantly a bit hyper focused on Yuuya Not Being Dead. He's kinda torn about that actually because on the one hand they realistically cured him so that they had a blank testing slate, but on the other...well, they cured him...

His big focus will be seeking out Ignatius at any rate, since he's pretty damn sure the Ringmaster isn't in this place. But we'll have to see what kind of tests he goes through- maybe he'll get off easy???

Unlikely, look at what he's wearing-!

Reira, while far from entirely oblivious, will be rather oblivious to the dangers going on until the right events go down. She doesn't have information on the Mother of Invention, and from day one things seem clinical but not harmful. Considering what the Hunt was like, it feels more like 'oh, well maybe it was a matter of the ones getting us being too rough'. Obviously this will get shattered the minute anyone explains what's going on, but the point is she isn't really scared of the place.

If anything she's pretty curious; she's liable to ask these guys for something to write on if she can, keep log of what she's learning, etc etc. Too many days without her school books have passed!

She has a contract with Ignatius as well, so magic should be bleeding back occasionally for her too- but right off the bat there won't be Empathy or magic (not that it'll keep her from TRYING to practice), and when that sinks in she's going to be somewhat distrustful of most. The Technicians at least act in such a way that she'll feel able to trust their 'emotions', but she's gotten used to certain people lying about how they feel to make her 'feel better'. So this...will definitely affect who she listens to and how!

Tl;dr, she might try to Behave Well. Watch yourself on that kiddo.

Naturally how much or little she helps with escape attempts will depend on who talks to her about what, but suffice to say the big prediction is that she'll play along a bit too much short of Seriously Bad Shit happening in front of her.

On that note, those wing hands look pretty wild.

NOTABLY Carly and Reira never split in Shabon; who knows if that'll end up relevant, but it's being Noted at least.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita is going to start off her stay in a very bad mental state. Between the crushing despair of seeing their two most powerful allies utterly defeated, and the realization that 9S isn't with them, everything's going to feel very hopeless for her.

However, her initial interview places her in the high-ranking Epsilon group, and with some help and encouragement from others, she might be able to break out of her funk and work her way up to the higher levels, where she can hopefully find a way to do some good for the group.

She's also open for roommates! She's sharing with Yuya on the second night, but the rest are available.

[whattaprick]

As stated on Plurl, these guys are overdue for some hangout time! With Lambert at a shitty level and Rita at a higher one, I feel like it could make for interesting dynamics.

Yuya & Syrlya

[hippocarnival]

YUYA Is frankly gonna be pretty despondent when he comes back around. He'll be a day late after getting cured from the wyld fae poison and basically have all this realization dumped on him at once and with the two people who have any chance of standing against other fae gone... well, he's gonna start losing hope pretty quickly on top of the emotional trauma of the hunt. HE FEELS TERRIBLE.

He'll be going along with what they're forcibly tasked but it'll be pretty robotic and unenthusiastic, and try and stick close to his CR because that's the only comfort he has in a lifetime of being a test subject :')

He can probably be shaken into some sort of plan of escape if someone sets something solid up, but he's unlikely to have the emotional fortitude to lead any efforts right now.

His nightly roommates are taken up through day for (given day 1 he's just missing) but he'll be plenty interactable during the day.

SYRLYA Is on team 'this sucks and we're getting the hell out of here' because Syr's whole life is pushing pass the adversity of powerful beings, this isn't any different. He's not going to be so ornery as to risk himself getting contained or the wrong kind of attention, but he definitely won't be making any effort to appeal to the techs or rise in the system. Whatever keeps him from being notable.

He's definitely going to want to be in on helping any sort of escape plans where and how he can, and he's pretty flexible with that (esp when his magic finally starts seeping back in). Until then, though, he'll be in a pretty sour mood but he'll bite his tongue from expressing it too strongly after his terrible interview and when he's more aware what the ranking system means.

Also he's totally open for roommates for the first four days, I don't think I've set anything with him yet :|a

[fortuneglass]

leans in like 'so a firebird and a plantman walk into a room,'

She's not going to burn him I promise, I made the fire casually non-flammable since she has piles of fire magic Anyway,,,

[alphudo]

Yuusei is gonna be having a really bad time on the first day, a combination of being generally disgruntled about their circumstances (prison AGAIN) and realising that night that his sclera turned black upon being rezzed, a trait commonly associated with Dark Signers. He'll also be kind of confused by the fact that his body fluids are now semi-molten and very flammable thanks to death by fire, mostly because he knows something is different (things are glowing inside of him) but he doesn't know what or why.

After that though he'll mostly be giving his best to distract himself from these new changes and to earn favour with his captors, a practice he wouldn't normally even consider if it weren't for the fact that this place is abundant with incredible technology - half the reason why he even signed on to the carnival in the first place. Ultimately his goal will be to escape, but he might be more or less hesitant to as time goes on; that'll likely depend the most on how these "trials" play out.

[dontpokethat]

Boy ok so Ginko hates this a lot, in so many ways! He'll be doing more of that thing where he just throws himself into work/worrying at other people rather than acknowledging or handling his own distress, like you do.

Since he's hoping that seeming cooperative will give him an opportunity to look for a way out, he'll be working very actively (and probably participating in some trials), and will be glad to help others get organized and find work. He will also be very glad to get in on any plans to, you know, escape.