⇨ 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?

[ringleaders]

Absolutely everything is taken whether it is magical or not.

[bananaspeedrider]

What I meant was would it be known it was previously Winter Court property. But if nobody cares, that's cool.

[ringleaders]

If anybody cares, there is no way to know.

[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.

[ringleaders]

Those will just remain dormant and inaccessible for the moment because they are spells more than objects.

[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?

[ringleaders]

During the day there are activities that will be more exhaustively outlined in the event log, but essentially there is a big communal area they will be doing stuff in.

[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)

Re: Now with less shitpost

[ringleaders]

Physical traits that are not superpowers can still be used. IE, if there is a biological cause behind something it will still work. Rare changes, for instance, can still work, but only in the capacity they worked without any additional spell purchases. (IE Strange could turn into smoke but not attack people or zoom around.)

Papyrus could still take himself apart though it would be difficult with his suit not coming off.

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?

[ringleaders]

As I mention on plurk, they will say there are no plans to destroy belongings.

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?

Re: ⇨ QUESTIONS

[ringleaders]

For whatever reason, the mushi won't be bothering them much here, though it is unclear why.

Re: ⇨ QUESTIONS

[spaghettimonster]

Yayyyy