Prison World #3: Panultima (tw violence, torture, coercion)

[spoofer]

Characters: Ensemble Cast, maybe even you!
Summary: The third prison world in Xistentia is a terrifying subdimension where sentient people exploit each other in order to run technology that will fend off D.E.S.T.I.N.Y. The 'ruling' class, Primus, are bound to a system of coupling (see: fake dating!), legacy and nepotism, whereas the Servus are put through an elaborate media circus (see: Hunger Games). You're here to study this world. And perhaps even to free those captured.
Date(s): February 8-20
Warnings/Notes: Violence, torture, coercion

Panultima

You cursed your gods and died

The Primus Life

If you thought Earth was a tough neighborhood, welcome to Panultima. Here, life is sweet. At least, as long as you're one of the Primus class.

It's a sprawling city of wicked spires and elaborate canals, covered in a luminous, translucent shield. Rather than a circular planet resting in orbit, instead, it's a flat plane of matter suspended in space, the foundations of the buildings rooted in only a hundred feet of stone and unknown technology. But the vast majority of citizens care little for that. After all, the city has every amenity and experience one might desire.

Restaurants line the streets. Theater is at an apex in development, with a particular focus on integration of moral philosophical themes. Gondolas run the canals, whereas a railway races over the winding laser-track in the air. Fashion is diverse, colorful, characterized by wild shapes, patterns, and accessories. Food imported from worlds both thriving and dying across the multiverse. At the numerous colleges and institutes, premier technology and opera are under constant invention and reinvention.

COUPLE STUFF

Primus culture emphasizes couples. Trios. Larger groups of lovers than that, even. After all, with romantic love and loyalty to care for, and survival hanging on it... who has the time or energy to care about justice for all?

Not these guys!

In this world, the mission and pleasure roll together well. The implant picks up information, so your main job is to explore. Perhaps you and your partner might enjoy yourself a glow-in-the-dark cocktail in a smoky bar where a two-headed singer is providing the music, a tour of the massive shield generators in the sparkling complex. Or pick fruit from one of the hundreds of bonding trees in the city's central park— so named, because it requires successful completion of questions to "the newlywed game" for each before one of the luscious, sweet fruits is released from a vine.

THE SERVUS LIFE

But for the little guy, life is considerably shittier. Welcome to the arena, the fully manipulable bubble reality set up to torture the slave class. The emotions of pain, fear, anguish, and wild, adrenal victory.

Most days, it looks like a forest— incidentally, very much like Xistentia. There are dozens of hybrid creatures in it, most of which are edible, others toxic, several very dangerous. However, the ground below can change at any moment, turning into mud or belching acid baths. Or you might find yourself abruptly attacked by a bear with biological armor growing from its huge shoulders. The control room, operated by Primus, is concealed from view. Its role is to keep the environment challenging for those competing, shifting the settings of the place to advantage some and cripple others.

But the arena's programming isn't the only threat.

Instead, you have a motley host of macabre killers, other Servus locked up in here just like you. Some have survived in here for years, earning favor from audiences thanks to the amount of pure horror they squeezed out of their victims. Some of the better-known brands are the Bantam Butcher, a fallen angel whose first kills were those who took his wings, and now thrives on torture. The trapmaster seems to have control over environmental factors that rivals the control room. And the baker trio will eat the flesh from your bones if they catch you.

For infiltrators, the challenge is worse. Not only might you need to kill, survive, and explore the arena with your implant— but if you want to save the very same people who are out to murder you, how are you going to do that?

Breakout!

Several days into the mission, and that's when it happens-- the control room shuts down, under attack. And suddenly, there's pandemonium. Within the arena, some of the servus know immediately what this means— and they're willing to make a break for it, cutting each other down, crippling each other if it means that the Primus might have slower-moving people to contend with and allow them to escape. Others seem to have long since given up, failing to respond as the trees suddenly go dark and motionless, the birdsong dying into silence. After all, where is there to go? It's either D.E.S.T.I.N.Y., or to join the system that hates them, isn't it?

Are you inside the arena, or out? Are you there to help the fleeing Servus, or are you merely ready to scramble on home yourself and save your own skin?

Footnotes

1. Please ensure that threads are marked with appropriate content warnings!
2. The plotting post for this event can be found here, and the original announcement with some other details is here.

Comments

[perfectible]

[ betty didn't really think she'd be married at sixteen either, let alone to her best friend. not that v wouldn't make a stellar wife but this whole situation was stranger than strange. and we haven't even really covered the whole twisted hunger games-esque world they'd been thrown into. to say betty was disgusted would be a vast understatement.

when she spots jughead, despite his scowl and wry words, she can't help but smile at him, glad to see him, wishing she were married to him instead despite v being a great 'wifey'.

she almost moves to sit next to jughead, hesitating before she does because of what may be expected. but hey, couples sit across from each other, right? ]

Okay.

[ronnied]

[ it's hard, it is. veronica's pretty comfortable "faking it", but then archie's there, so close, and she's not used to not greeting him with, at minimum, a kiss. they just got back together and now they're here. it's fine. they're going to be making a difference here, hopefully. doing something good for the world. hopefully. so she stops herself from doing anything that'll get them in trouble ( for now ), instead just following betty to sit down next to her at the table. which still puts her across from archie, so at least there's that.

then again, people seem to be grouped up in more than just couplings. maybe foursome was a perfectly good word to use just there to describe them, where all can hear it. god, this place is weird. ]

Already writing, I see. I'm sensing a research assignment in the near future. Or at the very least, some light sneaking around. [ she's being quiet, at least. maybe nerves get her a little chatty, maybe she's just feeling bold. she's good at hiding whatever the real reason is. ]

[overarches]

[ with the girls seated, archie doesn't have to face the crossroads of which spot to snag. not that he's facing the same level of dilemma; he's been next to and across from all of them before at pop's. why should it be any different? ( because of the band on his ring finger? ) he doesn't turn beet reed while he's sliding in, arm over the back of the booth behind jughead, but he does glance around to see if anyone else is watching ( and if they caught foursome. ) uncomfortable isn't the right word for what he's feeling because when he's in a booth with the three of them, there isn't anywhere else he wants to be. they're together and admittedly, it could be a lot worse.

it's just that he doesn't know what to do with this new development, or not to do. particularly with veronica right in front of him. he slides his foot forward casually, not full-on footsie under the table, though he is trying to get her attention. of course he wants to be with her, next to her, but this isn't forever. his eyes drift to betty, too, to smile at her. nothing weird or heavy, just a typical checking in kind of look.

he's also pretty sure that with jughead already hard at work, there's going to be plenty to do to keep each of them from thinking about anything too much. ] Yeah, what's the deal, Jug?

[ when they're in the heat of it, archie's ready to jump in hands-on and take over, if necessary. his plans are solid when it comes to protecting people he cares about in the moment. when it comes to game plans that take actual fleshing out, he relies on betty and jughead. ]

[novelizes]

[ jughead doesn't look up when archie slides an arm around him. it's all part of the game, he tells himself and doesn't focus on how awkward things might be with this new arrangement. but what he does do is tap a few more notes into his laptop and finishes the thought he had before chancing a glance at betty. is she okay with this, he wonders. she seems content enough, but he figures that's because betty is so much more adaptable than him. that said, he can't help but wonder how much of the part she's playing and how much he should play too. something to ask veronica, no doubt. after all, she's familiar with this level of opulence while he most certainly is not.

finally turning to archie, he presses his lips together and raises a brow. where to begin? he's already made inroads to crashing the system, but he feels like it isn't enough. maybe with his friends here, he'll get further along, but it almost seems like an insurmountable task.

closing hs laptop, he leans forward. keeping his voice low is important because there's no knowing who might be listening. ]

As you may have noticed, I've already been at work. The problem is breaking into the system that keeps the servus in the arena. I've discretely asked around and there are plans in the works, but I still feel like we need to do something. Then there's the issue of keeping up the charade. I don't know about you guys, but being married so young is a bit weird.

[perfectible]

[ betty isn't content with anything that's going on. she doesn't want to be married, let alone married to someone who isn't jug. she loves veronica but not like that. but she can play the part she needs to and play it well, she's played parts all her life, done what is expected of her.

she wants to do what she can to fix this so she plays the game, just like v has taught her to. even if it means resisting the urge to reach across the table and hold jughead's hand, instead she reaches for v's hand, keeping it on the table, giving her wordless support and taking some for her own.

jughead is talking about dangerous things and it's better to make the farce look even more real. ] Everything about this place is wrong, [ she ads gently, looking at her boyfriend. including being married young. somehow it doesn't surprise her that this place would support such a notion. ] What can we do? [ she glances at all three of her companions, not just jughead because it's not fair for him to take the burden of making all the plans. and any ideas at this point are going to be good ideas.]

[ronnied]

[ she squeezes betty's hand out of instinct more than anything else, the need to comfort her friend. there's no acting involved there. but she's chewing her lip, too, trying not to give archie more attention than the other two, even if she wants to. it's all too easy to get caught up in the negatives here, the mess they've been dropped into. but she's trying not to do that either. that's her part in this foursome, isn't it? when the three of them get too emotionally invested, whether it's the bedrock of Riverdale being shaken just a bit too much, or something as small as school gossip, she finds a way to help them refocus. see the bigger picture. she's not detached or anything, she's just- used to things being not.. great. she's seen the worst in people long before moving to Riverdale. she's been at galas with a dozen families like the blossoms, all power-hungry and corrupt. this place is just more violent than nyc, that's all.

she's not sure she's proud of her perspective on all of this, but it's better than feeling hopeless. ]

We'll keep up the charade because we have to. [ she doesn't think any of them are going to forget that, but yeah, she's stressing it. then she's sitting up a little taller, free hand moving to flick her hair back behind her shoulder ] There's nothing weird about knowing what you want, who you want, and keeping it close, right? Especially in a place like this. [ double meaning there, of course, because people probably are listening, yeah. ] As for the arena- Personally, I would love the opportunity to see where the magic happens. Or at the very least meet the people behind it. I've heard it's just a small group of people running the whole thing. Wouldn't you love the chance to pick their brains? [ love. sure. that. and it's a long shot, she knows, but Jughead wants to do something bigger than what he's already done, and so that's where her mind goes - something bigger. which means more dangerous too, but. well. that's kind of their thing, isn't it? ] I bet they know all about the inner-workings of the arena itself.

[overarches]

I’ve always tried to keep you and Betty as close as I can. Veronica's a part of that now, too. There’s nothing weird about that. [ as bizarre and as heavy as marriage is, keeping up the charade doesn’t seem that complicated to archie. yes, he’d rather be with veronica, yet he can’t help feeling somewhat grateful that he isn’t split off with betty. maybe what he’s saying isn’t something people say to their best friends with their actual girlfriend present, but hey, he’s only agreeing with veronica in a sense and trying to get jughead and betty to be casual about it. if they can all push through the unfamiliar waters, they just might come out of this okay. he lowers his voice and scoots in, removing his arm from the back of the booth in the process. ] Guys, it's just a ring.

[ one eyebrow shoots up at veronica’s suggestion and his leg jumps restlessly, too quick to be unsettled by the thought of any one of them in the arena, or being anywhere close to it. jughead’s trying to tear it down from the outside but maybe veronica’s onto something. what if what they really need is someone on the inside?

he recognizes that as reckless thinking and flicks his eyes over to betty, despite the fact that she hasn’t lived through their last risky adventure, he wonders if the wheels are also turning in her head in that regard. ] What do you think it would take to get a meeting with them? A job interview scheduled for someone with more ideas than they know what to do with? [ he looks at jughead pointedly. ] A puff piece? [ here's looking at you, betty. ] A costume consultant? [ duh, veronica. ]

Or fresh meat for the arena itself?

[novelizes]

[ when archie scoots closer, jughead is quick to adjust, sliding as far from him as the booth will allow. it's only a measure to keep them all comfortable as he looks over at betty. he tries to keep the longing from his eyes and hopes no one is looking as he sets his hand on the table.

so far, archie is making some pretty good points. his ideas sound good, at least until he comes to the last bit and jughead is sure he won't be the only one to object. ]

Hell no, Arch. The other ideas are great but there's no way we're letting you get in that arena as a contender. The people here are crazy powerful. People with actual powers and such. Going into that arena would be suicide.

[ he glances at betty and veronica for support. ]

[perfectible]

[ she takes in everything they say and a sinking feeling starts to set in as she looks at the other three people at the table. she shakes her head at archie's suggestion, or well, his implication of a suggestion, backing up jughead.]

No way, Arch. You're not putting yourself in danger just because you're the most athletic of us all. Besides, you're a terrible liar. [ she gives him a tiny smile before she glances at veronica, feeling the truth in her bones.] I think this is something we have to cover. [ because she and veronica are the best liars amongst them. both jughead and archie are not liars, in different ways. archie is very earnest and jughead's emotions play out on his face too often.

veronica would probably agree that betty's ability to lie is good, to play a part is better than good.]

[ronnied]

Not an option. [ it's the most subdued answer she can come up with, even if her brain is going no no no no NO. it's probably there in her eyes, that spike of fear, in the look she's giving Archie, but she's trying to keep up the same front.

she sits up a little straighter then, clearing her throat. she needs to focus. ] I like the idea of writing an article. Betty and I can get in, no doubt. [ with charm and grace and a few well-placed lies, yes ] Who better to interview than the [ monsters ] brilliant men and women pulling all the strings? Maybe they'll even give us a tour.

[overarches]

And sending in Betty and Veronica alone isn't? [ that's also suicide. if something goes down, how are they going to get out? the four of them going in together is too large a number, it'll draw attention and raise questions. he has a general idea of what went down with chuck, that betty and jughead are better investigators than he'll ever be. they're used to going incognito. ]

Veronica, I trust you. And Betty, I've always had faith in you. But how do we know they're going to be honorable? They design murder scenarios. [ he can't just sit on his hands. he tries not to scowl. ] If they're on the inside, where does that leave us?

[novelizes]

We don't even know if they'll allow Primus people into the arena.

[ said with emphasis as he glances at his friends. they're so eager to jump in that he can't help but worry. in this world of people with crazy powers, stepping into the arena seems like suicide for any of them. while they've faced situations that made them feel powerless before, nothing has been quite like this. jughead scowls at his closed laptop for a few seconds, thinking to himself as his mind whirls with ideas. ]

If you're so anxious to get involved, I think Archie should try for a trainer position. Betty, you'd be good on whatever they have for a newspaper, doing interviews and such. Veronica, I can see you giving the makeovers. Maybe we can infiltrate that way and get close to the contenders. None of us are made for the arena, so I think helping the people going in might be our best bet.

[perfectible]

[ betty drags her teeth over her bottom lip as she listens to them argue over what is to be done, she glances at them all before she looks squarely at Jughead.]

What are you going to be doing while the rest of us do what you said? [ she's not questioning him because she thinks he isn't going to be pulling his weight or that he's taking a coward's route. on the contrary, she's afraid he's going to use their tasks as a distraction to do something reckless or even more dangerous. ]

And who are we going to be helping in?

[ronnied]

[ her voice is a little quieter, but it's only because the idea of being that close to the people who are headed into the arena makes her stomach turn ]

The only way I want to help them is helping them get out. Making them look pretty for their death sentence isn't- No.

[ Veronica doesn't mean to sort of study Jughead, but she's sure that's kind of what she's doing as she watches him. Betty's got the same amount of time missing as he does, but Veronica doesn't feel the same sort of.. disconnect between her as she does with Jug. like she has to relearn him, maybe. a little bit. she wonders if he's acting more guarded because he doesn't know he can trust her yet. it shouldn't bug her, but it does. especially with something like this on the line.

but she's not worried. she knows she'll be able to prove herself again. she's just taking time to read between the lines a bit, in a way she can effortlessly with Archie and Betty. they'll get there. ]

I want to get to the people in charge. I think that's- literally the safest place to be. They're untouchable, right? So if we get in with them, we're untouchable. [ her Lodge is showing, she knows. the plans in her head are mainly just manipulation, deception. she plays the long con, the back end. she wants to jump in, but under the radar. there has to be a way to do that, she's sure of it ]

[overarches]

[ the air isn't tense exactly, but there's something in it that makes archie hang on veronica's every word, glancing between her and jughead, then to betty, wondering if she's going to say something about their future that none of them really needs to hear right now. if jughead will say something to her. is it sad that he's relieved that her attention is on his best friend instead of on him? the guilt that comes to the surface with that thought has him cutting in, if only because he can't leave a friend hanging out to dry. ]

He meant you'd be a shoe-in. You care about more than designer bags and make-up, but you're good at styling. It's an idea to get your foot in the door. [ ...and it had been archie's idea, anyway. the apprehension of what jug will be doing doesn't set in until after betty's brought it to light. he's seen firsthand the kind of risks that jughead is willing to take. granted, he isn't knee-deep in the serpents yet, but some day he will be. that guy's still in there. ] I've seen Veronica in action. She can pull off a reporter. And as much as I want to be nearby, I'm just as likely to do something I'd regret if I thought they were in trouble. So whatever you're doing, Jug, I'm with you.

As long as you know that if something does go down, I'm going after them, no matter who stands in my way. Or how over-powered they are.

[novelizes]

[ it's not the first time what he's said has been taken the wrong way. archie is right, though. what he'd meant was that if anyone could successfully infiltrate this new life, it would be veronica. and jughead has confidence in her skill, despite not knowing her well as archie or betty. they have a better sense for the veronica under the designer clothes and pearls, whereas he has a hard time seeing past it being from the southside. not that he thinks she discriminates. if anything, he's seen her reach out to him, welcome him, especially as betty's boyfriend, and in jug's estimation, that means a lot.

so he grimaces a little, adjusting his beanie before responding. ]

Archie's got it. I think if you want to get to the top, working your way up might be the best solution. And if anyone can do it, it's you.

[ there's no doubt in his voice when he speaks, confident in veronica. then, glancing at betty and wishing he could reach across the table to take her hand, he releases a slow breath. ]

Continuing as we are isn't an option. If you, Betty, can write up some articles, I can make sure they get published anonymously. As for me and you, Arch, if we send anyone in, it might as well be us. Maybe together we can figure out a way to beat the system from the inside.

[perfectible]

[ frankly, betty doesn't like any of this at all. she doesn't like veronica taking all the risk while she hides behind anonymity. she doesn't like that archie and jughead are going off on their own adventures, the two of them aren't exactly known for being completely level-headed or being good at avoiding recklessness.

she undoubtedly looks unhappy about the whole thing. but it's the only thing that makes sense, she thinks, without exposing her ability to morph into someone else like she had that night with chuck. she lets out a breath.]

Okay. But for the record, I don't like that you're all taking the risks...