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

[novelizes]

[ they're both prepared, it seems, to do whatever it takes to protect the people they care about. jughead thinks of his father, of jellybean, and wonders how she's doing. he thinks about his father sitting in jail, refusing to give names and wishing he could do something about it. but he also thinks about archie, and how easy it is for the redhead to get into trouble, especially after jughead's own smart mouth gets him into trouble. archie's nearly always been there, offering protection or a warm bed. jughead can't turn his back on that.

but he isn't prepared to be pushed up against the still drying poster. hell, he isn't even prepared to feel hands on his sides, an intimate embrace from archie. shock settles under his skin, making him tense, but he's aware of the other person looking on and exactly why archie's doing what he's doing. it's clever and a good ruse, so he doesn't push his best friend away. not when they have a cover to keep. still, he can feel the cold of the wall through his coat and it makes him shiver ( it's totally the cold, and definitely not where archie's hands are, or so he tells himself ).

in order to keep up the ruse, he has to play along. so he wraps his arms around archie's neck as he tilts back his own. as if to offer it to archie.

what he's really doing is checking to see if the stranger is still there. he isn't sure how much more of this they can play up with the cold still seeping into his bones. the faster they can get away, the better, and that means getting the other person to leave. except now they're questioning why the two boys are out in an alley, in the cold, of all places to spice up their sexlife. jughead has to suppress a snarling remark. instead, he locks eyes with archie, giving him an apologetic look before responding. ]

Don't worry, he keeps me warm enough.

[ and if archie doesn't pull back, jughead will pull him in for a kiss. not a nice one by any means. it's practically biting because he's shivering still and afraid he'll bite archie's lip. plus, he's thinking of this as just a cover. there's nothing passionate about it because he's only ever shared that with betty. ]

[overarches]

[ the alternative is running and while they can outrun one person, he’s not so sure they can outrun more than that. what if it spirals out of control? what if they get caught and thrown into the arena? this is not how he planned their evening’s events. he thought the sneaking around would be a piece of cake. he’s experienced enough with getting in and out of the pembrooke and with tagging up walls for the red circle ( god that had been dumb ) but this isn’t riverdale. he doesn’t know every back alley like the back of his hand. no map can teach them that.

he feels bad about holding onto jughead like this. he’s not a person that likes the touchy-feely stuff to begin with, unless it’s on his terms, and right now it obviously isn’t. this isn’t an embrace after a rough day. it’s a lot. he knows it is. if they had the time and the guarantee that their voices wouldn't carry, he’d apologize. the shiver makes him keep his hands moving, slow, but with enough motion to try and generate heat. having arms around his neck kind of dampens much movement though, so trying to keep him warm is out. he doesn’t know where to put his hands.

it’s- weird.

he shuts his eyes for a moment, suppressing a grimace. it’s not jug’s fault. there are a dozen ways to reply, and he’d be on it, if jughead hadn’t beaten him to the punch. there’s no other way to navigate it, he supposes. the words go in one ear and take an immeasurable amount of time to process, like he can’t quite grab onto what jughead’s looking at him like that for. he narrows his eyes, working it out, and sees it happening before he’s completely grasped it.

it’s fine, you know. he’s. kissed plenty of girl. it’s not any different than that. ...except that jughead’s a guy and his best friend, and his pretendy time husband. okay, so it’s nothing like kissing a girl. there’s some resistance out of reflex. just a strain in his neck when he’s being pulled in and it only takes a second or two for him to buckle in and accept that this is happening. yup. okay. alright, doing this. there's nothing soft about it, which is great because he doesn't want to be thinking about this fondly. he's already kissed enough people that aren't his girlfriend, thank you very much. jughead's kissing him like a cornered animal and that's probably a spot on description of what it feels like. good. that can.. appear passionate, even if it's not, since on the receiving end with lips as chapped as archie's are, it kind of hurts.

archie gives it his best try. he sets his palms on either side of jughead, flat on the wall, because he still doesn’t know what to do with them and at least he’s blocking some of the air this way. right, um. be normal. be cool. he presses in closer ( if that's even possible ) and tilts his head to the side in an attempt to obscure the view, as if he can make it look more heated than it really is. their kiss is a press of lips and teeth, and archie's not sure how much longer he can keep kissing jughead without saying ow, ow, ow. ]