⇨ POLARIS AFTERMATH POLL

[npcarnival]

WHAT NOW: THE POLL↴ The carnival has emerged victorious after a heated and exhausting battle with the Mother of Invention. Her soul has been torn asunder, and her body destroyed. Gild and a team of allies have arrived via airship, and will reveal that they have been camping outside of the base for days, aiding in the planning and execution of an escape plan. In total, there is Gild, Samyaza, Alyss, Reyna, Shimmer, Scald, Moss, Kerubi the fox, and Brauni piloting the ship itself. How they all got here is a long story. They were intending on breaking in with it and grabbing everyone if it came down to it, but now it seems that they have the opportunity to do more good here than that. There are several issues that will arrive in the immediate aftermath of the struggle, and the characters will have to make some decisions on how to handle things going forward. Gild and Ignatius can provide some direction if needed, but ultimately neither of them want to force a decision in regards to any of this. (They most likely have some personal issues to work out between themselves, also.) ► WHERE TO STAY? At the very least the carnival will have to spend the next day and night resting, so that people can get back on their feet and so that Gild and Ignatius can recover their strength enough to go anywhere. This can either be done by staying inside the section of Polaris they've overtaken, or by going down to the Wyld Lands (which are apparently below where Polaris is floating) and camping out there. The Wyld Lands are potentially dangerous, but the two fae are confident they can defend an area long enough to camp. ► WHAT TO DO ABOUT POLARIS? In the aftermath of the Mother's death, the staff and prisoners of Polaris will be in a state of disruption and chaos. For staff, it will be really hard for them to accept that the Mother is actually gone and that this isn't some kind of test or trick, and for the prisoners, they are more or less still at the mercy of the staff overseeing them. The carnival has the choice to stick around for a few days and ease the process of liberating the station, by helping to overtake the Alphas and Betas clinging to power, and by basically spreading the news of the Mother defeat. They can also make sure the other test groups are actually released. Of course, they are not obligated to do this. They are free to just leave, as well, and hope that Polaris sorts itself out. If they do stay to deal with Polaris, most of this will be handwaved. Characters can simply declare what they are doing to help, and it will be done without challenge. ► WHAT DIRECTION TO TAKE? Gild's immediate impression is that people will want to help the Ringmaster (though this may not be true) and based on that her recommendations are that they could either write to the Summerlands and ask for help in doing so, or they can go there themselves and be a bit more forceful. The Summer Maiden is notoriously passive, so Gild believes that she will be reluctant to help her own girlfriend, which is annoying. If they head straight through the Wyld Lands they may gain the element of surprise, of course, and go in there stealthily... but going it on their own could be difficult. Gild is willing to help either way. Ignatius doesn't seem to want to go to the Summerlands for various awkward reasons, but ultimately he will bend to the public opinion. People need a break, he thinks, and they probably won't find it in the Wyld Lands. For those not interested in dealing with the Hunt at all, the fae will recommend going to the Summerlands, because at least they can have a break there until everyone figures out what to do. ► WANT A FAERIE CONTRACT? Once they are fully free of Polaris, Ignatius will consider the danger over and his contract with people will end. However, he will be open to offering protection for an extended period to anyone who wants it. The specifics are flexible - he really just wants the ability to look out for people in a patron sense. The Gilded Mark will also offer to be your patron, to take some of the burden off of Ignatius. Maybe this is a weird competition thing? Don't worry about it, it's there problem. Either way, both contracts will be flexible and mostly so that they can more easily lend you their power if necessary. Given that information, here are some poll questions. This is an IC poll, so please vote once for each character. If you don't reply, you'll be assumed to be 'undecided' or 'ambivalent'. Poll #20710 Where now? Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 28 View Respondents While doing other things, where do you want to stay for the next night or three? View Answers Stay in the secured section of Polaris. 19 (67.9%) Camp out in the Wyld Lands. 7 (25.0%) Either's fine. 2 (7.1%) How do you want to handle the Polaris situation? View Answers Stick around to dethrone the Alphas, spread the news, and make sure prisoners are released. 19 (70.4%) Leave these guys to their own devices for now and come back later. 2 (7.4%) Abandon ship and never come back/leave them all to die. 4 (14.8%) Undecided. 2 (7.4%) What direction do you want to take? View Answers Head straight for the Wyld Hunt and send a letter to the Summerlands asking for back up. 0 (0.0%) Go to the Summerlands and ask the Summer Maiden for help directly/hang out. 23 (82.1%) Something else? (Suggest in comments) 2 (7.1%) Undecided. 3 (10.7%) Do you want to take any fae protection? View Answers Sign on with Ignatius. 10 (35.7%) Sign on with Gilded Mark. 11 (39.3%) Undecided/Do not. 7 (25.0%)

Comments

⇨ QUESTIONS

[npcarnival]

Does something I wrote here not make sense? Ask for clarifications now!

[scientificist]

Fae patron just means the same sort of situation people had contracted with Ignatius previously, yeah?

[whattaprick]

Are there any obvious cons to remaining inside Polaris for the rest period? This is more a technical question than Lambert would want to know ICly, so he’d probably put this to Shimmer or one of the techs that look cooperative. He’s mostly concerned the loose Alphas/Betas will pull something or the station will crash and etc.

[spaghettimonster]

The Carnival is inaccessible as long as RM is out of commission, right?

[atouts]

Which faerie has the least inclination to hand people over if commanded to by the Summer Queen? Childermass trusts Ignatius as much as Childermass can trust a faerie who isn't RM but he needs to stay away from Winter Court AND the Rose Queen.

[atouts]

Question 2, would another true fae be able to take over a freshly abandoned realm? Convert Polaris from a creepy MoI space station to like some kind of floating Summer Station... thing....? Or does that take more power than either Ignatius or Gild have?

Question 3, failing that, is Polaris mobile?

[betheman]

More of a general question, related to the matter of where they're staying-

What is everyone doing about clothes? Do our allies perhaps have something for us, so that we can stop stealing from these technicians?

[periphrasing]

Re: fae contracts... Peridot would want to know where the MoI beefing it puts the ownership of the carnies before she goes makes any deals. Like, MoI only owned them because the Huntsman handed them over after defeating the Ringmaster. Does that mean they've technically defaulted back to the Huntsman's ownership? Or are they free because they murdered the shit out of their "current master"?

Re: ⇨ QUESTIONS

[whattaprick]

Pursuant to this plan, Lambert will ask Gild (if he can find her) whether she thinks it’s remotely feasible for Strange to attempt to summon Nightshade to Polaris and will she willing to set up an Elysium or guard against potential damage that might happen.

He’ll add that even if he’s shot down it’s incredibly likely Strange is going to try to do this on his own anyway. Short of knocking him unconscious until they’re done here or Ignatius telling him off he’s not really sure how to keep him from it.

Re: ⇨ QUESTIONS

[heltersmelter]

I'd like to have Anode take a contract with Gild and I know he gives more utility type powers but as a contract newbie what if a character's request was nonspecific, like "hey I don't care what you do as long as it'll het me closer to my goal" kind of thing, is there a kind of wildcard option or should I work on something more specific?

ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTIONS

[impatientdefense]

Beau doesn't really have an emotional connection to the Ringmaster or any promise of payoff if they do go save her. But Polaris is pretty big, and full of supplies, and has anybody considered... sticking here and ruling the joint for a bit?

Not forever, that'd get boring. Probably faster than Beau even thinks, she likely wouldn't last more than a few weeks. But rather than go camping in some monster-riddled wylds, they could try pushing the staff into making weapons aand armor and stuff for whatever they do do. Without MoI blocking the magic people from doing magic, this place doesn't seem so bad, right? Just look at all the redecorating they've done.

[whattaprick]

Lambert will mostly just point out the same worry he has re: Strange's plan, that they're apparently near the edge of the Winter Court's territory and sooner or later one of those guys might come knocking. He'd have more support for the idea if he thought they could conceal themselves and/or move the damn thing somewhere else, but he hasn't the slightest idea how that's done.

[textsfromhotland]

Use the awful science prison for good! Alphys would be down for that.

[kingsroads]

If they're going to be stuck here with the staff for a little bit anyway, then Strange is 500% up for press-ganging the staff into making weapons & armor. However, he does worry a bit that nobody here really knows how to make armor. Maybe some of the carnival knows schematics for weapons, but Strange has a feeling that the Technician's area of expertise is less "practical things like weapons" and more "torture science gobbledygook."

That being said, they can definitely push the staff into running a few more tests or helping to explain to people how any weird changes they got from the Mother of Invention actually WORK. Force the nerds to explain how to use your terrifying new insert-void-whatevers-here.

[fortuneglass]

Carly will point out (as others have) that she's...relatively certain none of the technicians here can forge exactly.

"But...that won't stop us from raiding their store rooms..~!"

Rather than force them though, what if they just helped things settled down and then 'politely' asked for some of those stored weapons and armor as 'reward'?

[spaghettimonster]

A point, with Samyaza revealing herself: could they go camping back at their last camping destination, rather than the Wyld Lands? Or are they keeping away so Winter doesn't follow them to the fairly noncombatative Eden survivors?

[npcarnival]

There's both the issue of not wanting to track shit into New Eden and also Ignatius and Gild won't have enough energy to dimension shift everyone to a new location for a day or two. It takes a lot of energy to dead lift this many people, so they can't really waste it on a quick camping trip.

The Ringmaster could travel much easier due to the realm and all the magic she had stored up. Her travelling accommodations are not actually typical.

ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTION: START A FUCKIN FIGHT

[kingsroads]

Even if they do manage to find and rez the Ringmaster, there's still at least three other fae who would like the carnival dead. Strange's suggestion is to kill two birds with one stone and try to start a Huntsman vs. Rose Queen fight. The idea is as follows:

- Get Gild or another fae to call an Elysium, just so people are magically bound to not start shit. If they're too weak right now, this can wait until more time has passed or they can chance it and not do an Elysium (though for reasons soon to be explained, Strange would really like Elysium).
- Strange attempts to summon Nightshade. If she shows up, some members of the carnival explain that because the Huntsman gave Steven to the Mother of Invention, Steven got tortured super badly. They lay the torture descriptions on REAL THICK and conveniently keep on going back to how the Huntsman made this happen, the Huntsman gave Steven to the Mother of Invention, the Huntsman knew this would happen, for an ally of the court the Huntsman sure didn't take Summer's wants into consideration, etc.
- Most notably, they don't ask for anything in return, just kindly ask if Nightshade could please tell this information to the Rose Queen.

The thought process is this: Rose Queen's bugnuts crazy and obsessed with Steven. If they emphasize how badly Steven got fucked up and how technically this is all the Huntsman's fault, it might piss off the Rose Queen enough that she'll get revenge against the Huntsman and start a fight. Likewise, Strange believes that Nightshade's bored and petty enough to tell Rose Queen the information in an attempt to start some shit.

There's a chance Nightshade won't show up to the summons and if she doesn't, no harm no foul. There's also a chance she won't act on the information but let's be real, people are going to learn the bit about the Huntsman and the Mother of Invention anyway, it's a small multiverse. Since this suggestion wouldn't take too long, it could be done in addition to whichever main idea wins out.

Re: ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTION: START A FUCKIN FIGHT

[spaghettimonster]

The Huntsman also gave Ignatius to the Mother, and look what's become of him for it - some bestial mix of Summer and Winter, now. The Huntsman's fucked Summer over in a couple ways.

[periphrasing]

[betheman]

Gongenzaka would like to vote this down due to the fact that

> Nightshade is a shithead and should not even be trusted with message delivery thanks (Not quite his words, but he is Very Serious about this fact in particular screw you Nightshade)
> RQ super hates a lot of them, and will probably just decide to kill two birds in one stone
> Who's going to stop her from taking Steven!! They had the Athenaeum last time.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya is pretty sure the Rose Queen already wants to trash the carnival themselves since they took Steven from her like, twice, and someone he's not naming names is cursed by her and will probably be a prime target for murder.

So how to they get the Rose Queen to actually fight the Huntsman and not just chase the Carnival down first with new vigor because she hates them and they physically have Steven? And then go after the Huntsman after when they're dead or enslaved and Steven is kidnapped. Again.

And if Strange summons Nightshade and she sees him his hiding charm won't work and Yuya's afraid she might try and take him and brainwash him again.

[whattaprick]

Lambert's a firm no on this, mostly because it relies on an awful lot of moving pieces they don't entirely understand. The Rose Queen attacking the Huntsman in his domain might look an awful lot like a war the Summer Court isn't willing to start, especially not over a faeblood. He's also pretty sure Nightshade will never do anything for free and while 'pettiness' may be a nice perk, it's not gonna replace 'actually gaining something for her trouble,' to say nothing of whether their acting skills actually convince her or not.

That being said, since apparently they're on the edge of the Wyld Lands closer to the Winter Court, Lambert really think s their bigger worry should be guarding against incursion by Winter. They're a lot closer, and from what the Huntsman was prattling about, they were actually working together.

ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTION: let's go to bath planet

[anti_nonsense]

ICly, Rita will suggest they go back to Shabon and maybe go get the poor android they left behind there.

OOCly, that's not really feasible so feel free to have characters ICly shoot that idea down / gloss over it to focus on things like the Ringmaster and whatever else.

that would be nice :(

[spaghettimonster]

Papyrus will regretfully point out that he remembers people literally pushing him at the Hunt to be caught/killed/pulled in, and he's worried that if they go back to Shabon... they'll just tell the Huntsman where the carnival is.

CLEANUP/A1 and A2 EXPLORATION

[whattaprick]

As per this thread, there is a loose plan to wrap together taking out Alphas trying to stir up rebellion and try to search for MoI’s iron stash at the same time.

Lambert is going to request Samyaza to help by knocking out techs with a sleep song to minimize violence, and Shimmer and Gild to help with logistics.

Sans is helping with info gathering by digging through computers for deets on iron experiments.

Anyone who’s relatively able-bodied is welcome to come, combat abilities or not, to generally help subdue techs or talk them down. Lambert will likely want to handle looking for iron himself.

[betheman]

Gongenzaka would be up for this! Soul-related injuries mean he won't be using any magic unless absolutely needed, but he's. Well. Big, very strong, and definitely pretty good at leaning 'non-violent' when he stops people.