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

[drehnifusbahi]

You can't know that for sure, though. [He points out, oddly gentle even as his brow furrows and his mouth draws into an unhappy line.] This might not happen again - or it might be a different sort of trap entirely next time. Or they might find some other way to stack the fight against you, all in the name of making the fight 'more exciting'-

[He realizes, dimly, that his words are coming in a nervous rush and snaps his mouth shut against the tide of them.]

I don't know that I'd do without you anymore, [he admits, softer, even as he starts up the Healing Hands spell again.] When you disappeared back to your own world, after the drift... I went a little mad. I was ready to start tearing holes in the multiverse itself to try and find you.

He's been saying all this to his hands, more or less, but now finally raises his head to look her in the eyes again.] If I have to watch you get hurt like this again, or gods forbid worse-- [And that's where his voice breaks.]

[hasitsthorns]

I won't, [ she answers before he can continue to work himself up. It's a bit strange, really, since usually this is the other way around.

It causes a pang of guilt, honestly, to know that he had been so upset about her disappearance. Especially considering that she had spent four years back home without any memory of him. She hadn't told him yet that it was because she almost died on the battlefield against D.E.S.T.I.N.Y. that she was sent home in the first place. She hasn't told him yet that the plan for saving her world(s) involves her dying either.

Here, however, there was no fail-safe to send her home. If she died in that arena, she would just be gone. When she made the plan back home to stop the war, she was prepared for it to mean her life. So was Misto, even if he was unhappy about it. But now? Now she thinks she might not be able to go through with it. When she hears his voice crack the way it does, she knows she can't.

Rose was never supposed to mean so much to anyone. Nothing good ever came of it. Even now, she knows she's hurt him. Is hurting him. She hates it, but- She'd hurt him worse, she realizes, if she threw herself back into danger just because she didn't want to get married on this world's terms of all things. ]

You really love me that much? [ It's a genuine question. She hadn't imagined anyone could love her this much. That anyone would. ]

[drehnifusbahi]

[This is a bit of a role reversal, that much is true. But Vanyel's never been good at sitting by and letting others walk into danger, especially not people he loves. And after the drift, and her disappearance shortly afterward, that goes double for Rosie.

Having her (and Vex) there in Xist was all that had kept him mostly sane, after not being able to get most of his family through the portal and losing the two he had managed to pull through once they were inside. When she'd vanished, he'd been ready to take out the Elder Scroll and tear through the multiverse to find her again - that wasn't the planning of a sane man and he knew it.

And in Panultima, even knowing her background, it'd been all he could to do to not go bursting into the arena after her, to try and help her more directly. Seeing her hurt so badly tonight... well, it was lucky he'd had enough pull to essentially just walk in; he absolutely would have Shouted down anything or anyone in his way otherwise.

If she were to die... at this point, even he can't be sure he wouldn't simply lose his mind.]

Yes, I do. [He answers, taking one of her hands and pressing his lips to the back of it.]

[hasitsthorns]

[ This time she allows the kiss. There isn't any resistance to the way he pulls her hand despite her still being a little... unsure, maybe, about all that's happening right now. They're getting married. It's awful. Rose had never imagined she wouldn't be happy to wed him, honestly, but Panultima is a place too reminiscent of her homeworld in all the wrong ways that it's tainted just about everything good she has.

'I'm sorry,' she almost says to that. Loving her was... difficult, to say the least. She knows this. In fact, Rose is almost painfully aware of just how much her love can cut deeper than any knife. She never thought it was a good thing, to love her. This isn't helping her think otherwise. And while she has said she's going to respect that it's his choice to love her or think she's what he deserves, it's hard in moments like these not to try and tell him how wrong he is. ]

I love you, too. So let's do this, I guess, and just- Once we get home, we can maybe just forget about it all. [ It sounds harsh, but- ] Instead, we can maybe... do things on our own time. [ Their own terms. She doesn't want him to think how unhappy she is about this means she doesn't want to marry him. She just doesn't want to here or now when it feels like they're forced to rather than it being something they've decided upon. A gesture born of love, not necessity. ]

[drehnifusbahi]

[That she allows him even that much is a relief. Things obviously aren't alright; they're still here, still essentially being forced to get married, and he's no happier about that than she is.]

Yes. Once we get home, we'll do all this on our own terms. [Maybe not right away, even, he wouldn't blame her in the least for wanting to wait, to let the memories of this wretched place fade a little.] On our own time.

[He makes one final sweep over her form with the Healing Hands spell, then, as if it could soothe away her unhappiness like it did her physical hurts. If only.] In the meantime... let's at least get you out of this hospital, shall we?

[hasitsthorns]

[ She can tell. Rose hasn't seen Vanyel so sullen since... Well, since they first got to Xistentia. She remembers how difficult it had been for him at first to be away from his family. His loved ones. It hurts her to think that this is making him just as unhappy as he was then. That maybe she's making him as unhappy as he was then. ]

On our own time, [ she echoes. Rose isn't sure how soon or far away that might be. Personally, she'd be content not to think about it for a while... She doubts it will be so easy though. Marriage had been on both their minds before this. It'll only make sense that it'll stay on their minds even after Panultima. ]

I guess. They'll probably be glad to be rid of me, honestly. I'm a difficult patient. As you know.

[ A little bit of self-deprication to help lighten the mood, maybe. ]

[drehnifusbahi]

[This situation may not be so bad, objectively speaking - certainly the stakes aren't quite so high. There is still at least one life potentially on the line, though, if they don't play along - hers.

So, much as he might not like it, it really doesn't feel like they have any choice. He'd wanted to propose to her on their anniversary, but now... well, he wouldn't blame her if this experience soured her on the whole idea. They'll see when they get home.]

Mm, maybe a bit. But I, at least, have the advantage of knowing how to motivate you to behave a little better.

[He teases back, and if his tone's not quite as light as it usually would be... well, he's trying, at least.]

[hasitsthorns]

[ Right now, she can't see much of anything beyond her own unhappiness. It can be a bit of a problem. He knows this, of course, from their time in Eudio. When she'd convinced herself that she was terrible for all of them, that they'd be better off without her, that disappearing was the best course of action rather than just, y'know, talking to them.

But there's a little sunshine to combat these grey skies. ]

Oh? [ she asks. ] And how exactly is that?

[ Like she doesn't know. ]

[drehnifusbahi]

[He remembers that little episode very well - at first, he'd feared her disappearance from Xistentia was due to another similar... episode. Even if she has gotten a lot better since that time, the drift had shaken them both badly, if for different reasons.

And, well, it's not as if he's any happier right now.]

Well... [He trails off, as if he actually has to think about that.] I'd certainly hope you wouldn't accept kisses from any of them as a reward for good behavior.

[hasitsthorns]

[ Thankfully not. Or, well- Maybe not anything to be thankful for, considering it had almost cost her her life. ]

Not on your life, [ she's quick to say to that. ] It probably wouldn't be pretty if anyone here tried to kiss me.

[ A beat. ]

Well, with the obvious exception being right in front of me.

[drehnifusbahi]

[At the very least, it's something of a mixed blessing.]

I have to admit, I'm glad to hear that.

[He dips his head down to kiss her cheek.] Generally, I don't consider it my place to try and tell you who you can see and who you can't. But if it were any of them...

[He grimaces, and it's not entirely playful.]

&wrapped also!! we can pick up more stuff when I'm back from hiatus ig

[hasitsthorns]

[ She doesn't fault him for that in the slightest either. Even Rose crinkles her nose at the idea of really persuing anything with anyone here, really. ]

Not to worry. In this world, at least, I've only got eyes for you.

[ She smiles as she says it; it's the first genuine one since he first arrived at the infirmary. It's quick to leave her face just as soon as it appeared though, really. ]

Alright, well- I guess we better get this sham of a marriage started. The sooner we do, the sooner it'll be over with.

[ It might be harsh but she knows he likely feels the same. They'll put a show to appease the people here but neither of them are really happy about it, so- The sooner they can wash their hands of it all the better. ]