Finding Space | AvA/AvM one shots

Trap

Designing a trap for a stick figure is no easy task.

First of all, stick figures are anomalies in the digital realm. Though they are programs and have some programmed behaviors, they exhibit an unpredictability and a will that does not exist in their non-aware counterparts.

Moreover, since stick figures are anomalies, they distort the world around them. Their mere presence confuses and even breaks the ordered flow of their universe, and oftentimes that confusion and breakage result in more anomalies. These could be anything from edible clip art fruit to scroll bars that shatter like glass to semi-sentient app icons to even true self-awareness.

The universe is not always kind to the nonconforming. As a result, most stick figures who survive their awakening have some innate combination of resilience and creativity. And, if a stick figure is clever enough, and most surviving stick figures are, they can intentionally create or use anomalies to their advantage.

Secondly, stick figures work well together. Of course, two resourceful and agreeable beings bent on the same goal are more likely to achieve said goal. However, if stick figures create strong bonds with each other, usually through ties of friendship and loyalty, their cumulative abilities improve far beyond what each can do individually. It is said that stick figures who have perfected this can communicate with little more than a look and move in almost perfect synchronisation.

For these reasons, a group of super-friendship-bonded stick figures is a significant threat.

However, stick figures are not infallible.

Such a group of super-friendship-bonded stick figures must have learned to rely on each other's strengths and compensate for each other's weaknesses. As a result, if one were suddenly separated from the rest, that one would be a little less confident. A little less capable. A little more vulnerable.

And a little more susceptible to a trap.

This could turn the king's quite formidable problem into a merely difficult one.

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Despite the challenge, the king thought the final trap design was quite elegant.

One, the dual-part bait. Purple, a stick figure the targets knew and (at least somewhat) trusted - but loyal to him. And a game of parkour. Complex enough to keep the targets invested, long enough to calm any suspicions, and exciting enough that none of them (especially the yellow one) would excessively question the setup.

Two, the every-stick-for-themselves nature of the competition. The allure of bragging rights over the others would coax the competitive side out of even the most reluctant of the targets. As a result, each target would willingly separate from the others and parkour their way into their personal confinement zone.

Three, the game itself would become the confinement zones. Once each target had spent enough time alone in their confinement zone to become suspicious, they would find very little to help them. Five seemingly endless voids, each with little more than a platform and a teleporter. If they tried to reenter the game, they would enter an infinite loop of parkour challenges with no escape routes.

Four, every block and teleporter would be set (and therefore "anomalised") by Purple or himself. If they used their own stick figure abilities to generate anomalies from these blocks, they could learn and predict how their targets could use them. In addition, this would prevent the targets themselves from anomalising the blocks in unexpected ways.

Five, keeping the targets in immediate danger. Once each target became suspicious, their attention needed to be deflected away from thoughts of friends and escape. What better method than to make them fear for their lives? He had the piglin captain pick five of his best fighters and had Purple train them. Each fighter would be stationed in a personal confinement zone. They would attempt to stall their target, and if necessary, keep their target running through their parkour loop.

He explicitly ordered all involved to keep the targets alive, although he doubted that even his specially trained piglins could kill a stick figure. Besides, it was always good to have a pool of backups - or hostages - if Purple failed.

Of course, the targets would eventually escape. Anomalies were unpredictable, and no trap was perfect. But he was confident that the design was good enough to stall the targets until Purple finished his second mission.

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Fun fact: my drafts-and-ideas file for this contained ~5k words.  *sighs*