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

[bangitybang]

I'm doing all right, [janus says. they move fast and sure-footed, picking their way across the unstable floor of the craft until they find themself with the healed man. they tuck their arms under him and lift easily-- and when the craft gives another rattle, it's not difficult at all for their feet and weight distribution to compensate. they can lift a ton or two easily enough; this is no mean feat.

setting down the man outside the wobbling doorway is a slightly more complicated task, but they manage all right. roll him gently over, so that his face is angled down, but at an angle. less risk of drowning, should he vomit or the like in his sleep, or one of the canals overflow on him.]

Your head.

[their attention is on her the next instant. they grab a ceiling bar for balance, making their way over to her. it's-- presumptuous, they realize an instant later, but they can't help it, reaching automatically to touch her head, very gently, past where she lost her horn.] We should return you to Xistentia.

[astralera]

[ Era watches closely as Janus deposits the man outside. It hurts her just a little to leave an injured person alone, but she is also accustomed to healing during war and knows that it's a necessary evil at times. She puts him out of her mind and focuses instead on her friend.

Their words startle her, causing Era to reflexively tug at her hood only to realize she discarded it a while back. It isn't that she doesn't trust Janus - far from it, in fact - but losing her horn is a shame that weighs on her heavily, and not just because it annihilated her hearing, balance, and spacial awareness. What Janus says next draws a scowl from her. Aymeric had thought the same, if only for a moment. Though her dear friend realized very quickly that trying to keep her away from a place she could offer help (and she is still of help regardless of her injury) was a futile effort. ]

No.

[ She makes no effort to force their hand away from her. Janus has already seen the damage - to touch it makes no difference, for all that it still sends a shiver down her spine to feel touch where there should be none. It's naught but a thick layer of scaly bone where one might find an ear, smoothed with finely-grit paper by Era herself so that there would be no jagged edges. Already some protective scales have begun to grow over it, ones that will harden later on (or so Era assumes. she has no Auri family who would have taught her about her biology and how regrowth might work, and no Auri friends until very recently). ]

[bangitybang]

It's time to evacuate, [they say. their tone doesn't imply an argument. they're looking back at the console, then out the open entryway to the craft.] Today isn't the day we topple this disgusting empire, or get caught trying. Today is just one mission.

And it's over.

[they don't say that as a method of manipulation. they believe it to be true. they need to get out of here, get back to xistentia— and then they themself, janus, has to go back home. it's a little selfish, maybe, that they don't want to leave, to close this chapter of their lives, without knowing that one of their favorite characters is okay. their hand is very gentle on their head.

but they let her go in time to tell her,] Please. [energy weapons crackle overhead.]

[astralera]

I do not intend to topple anything. [ She thinks of Aymeric, and his reluctant agreement to allow her to separate from him so long as she met up with him again just before daybreak. It had been heartbreaking, for it was clear he could only think of the last time he allowed her to fight a separate fight and how he almost lost her.

Janus' plea is not easily brushed off, but Aymeric... ]

I promised to regroup with Aymeric that we might evacuate together, and if I cannot send a message to my dear husband of the change in plan then I must fulfill that promise.

[bangitybang]

Husband? [janus' voice rises precipitously, but in a good way.] You're wed. [the next instant, their thoughts snap back to the present moment. they look up at the dashboard, just in time for the ship to give another little rattle.]

Where was your rendezvous point? [they ask. they start to move toward the front of the ship. their hand is gentle on her arm-- they'd have her come up to the front and sit beside them if they can convince her to, but if she'd rather stay by the doors, perhaps that would be just as well.] We can try to get him and leave together.

[a few swift presses of the controls, and the door begins to slide shut.]

[astralera]

[ Era pauses, realizing she had indeed said 'husband' instead of 'friend'. It's still very new to the both of them, but now that it's happened it feels to Era like something had slotted into place. It just... fits. ]

Yes. A necessity, but not an unwanted one.

[ They'll have a proper wedding someday, when their loved ones are able to celebrate with them. After all, Era is not fond of being the center of attention but her friends all know this. And all of their friends would be there.

Almost all of them, at least.

She flexes her fingers, sorely tempted to pull out her aetheroconductive gun and shoot at their pursuers. But Lily's presence is keeping her calm and focused and Era would hate to lose that. Instead she'll have to settle for a rapidfire advanced Ruin spell should they need the cover.

Given that she has refused Janus' last suggestion Era relents to their silent request that she move to the front. This is likely the final time they'll see each other and so she's willing to give up a few battles in that regard, especially considering how stubborn she's being about her one demand.

Era tells Janus where her prearranged meeting point is to be. It's still earlier than the agreed upon time, so if Aymeric is not there she can leave a message for him instead (despite how loathe she is to leave the world without him, even if Estinien is with him now). ]

tw mention of violence; fading this one out

[bangitybang]

[a necessity, but not an unwanted one. such romance. a smile flashes over janus' face, a moment before a body thumps down on the windshield of the shuttle. right, right. time to pay attention.] Forged in fire, then, [they say, sparing a look down out the window to check if there's any point in trying to rescue the falling stranger. nope. he's already in two pieces.

grisly, how that happens.] The strongest things are. I am happy for you. And eager to deliver us into a better setting for felicitations.

[they smile at her over their shoulder, just briefly. and then with a swift pull and jerk of the controls, they peel the craft away from the docking area, and up into the air. cutting swiftly toward the destination she'd named, and the hope of meeting era's husband at least once before they're done for this strange chapter of their lives.]