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

[drapes]

[ the arena masters must have realized, some days into era and thor finding each other, that it was a mistake to put them so close together. likely two of the most powerful beings in chains, and both aggressively committed to the concept of peace. whatever fantasy someone had of the destruction that would come from matching them against one another, it would seem they'd be sorely disappoint with the two's apparent refusal to fight for anything but their own fun.

it would seem, anyway. the game makers aren't so ready to give up on the good show, and exciting offering of high emotion to feed to the machine to keep their city safe. when thor had ventured out to find more supplies for a shelter, or a fire, or something to cook on said fire and eat, passing through a cluster of bushes covered the rising of a deep fog - a poisonous gas that was invading his lungs and attacking his senses all too quickly.

when he comes stalking back towards his friend, it's with his head muddled in hallucinations, aggression and angry boiling over. he doesn't see era at all - only hela, his heinous sister, standing over the bodies of his father, his friends, his brother, on the crumbling hilltops of his homeland. laughter and gloating in her voice, bloodthirst and venom. thor lets out a below, a raging war cry, before charging for era, Mjolnir swung towards her head with intent to kill, electricity sparking over his arms and across his eyes. ]

[astralera]

[ Era is a moment too slow with her Displacement to dodge Mjolnir entirely, still fast enough to turn a killing blow into a lesser one. Her head rings and her sight swims, electricity burning along her skin yet she does not cry out in pain. She can feel blood running down the side of her face and doesn't know the source until she sees her horn in pieces on the ground between them. It had been all but ripped from her skull, leaving behind only one sharp chip that she touches with a tentative hand. With the damage it would be better to remove that as well, though that will have to wait.

Her instincts scream at her to run - she does not want to fight her friend who is so clearly not of sound mind, nor does she wish to sustain more damage. Unfortunately it is difficult for her to run effectively, her balance thrown and hearing unreliable. After what feels like an eternity of running Era stops, too dizzy to continue even with the aid of a few hasty Vercure spells. She risks resting for a few bells, using her aether to try and heal her head wound before she loses much more blood.

Her reprieve is broken by an arrow through her abdomen that she could not hear. It isn't a fatal wound (the Echo would have warned her), but it's quickly followed by a few more injuries - short blades thrown at her that she cannot dodge, only block with her arms and let her scales absorb much of the damage.

The one blessing the blades give her is an idea of where her attacker is hiding. This allows for Era to cast a swift Verthunder, followed by a Verfire that eats away at the surrounding foliage.

But there are no sounds of pain or rage - no sound at all that she can hear over the crackling of her magic.

Unsteady on her feet, Era resigns herself to acquiring a few more injuries. ]