PHASE I [ 6 30 ] You really have arrived, finally.
Too bad the welcome isn’t so great.
Upon arrival, you will literally be dropped out of the sky.
You may land in the lake (watch out for the fish). You may land on the roofs of the buildings in the town (watch out for the spires). Or you may be unlucky, and fall all the way from the sky to the ground, at which point you die and lose a life already.
Don’t worry, you’ll respawn in the air and you can try again.
Good luck this time!
If you do manage to finally land in a way that doesn’t break your spine and/or drown you, you’ll find that if you’re a newcomer, you’ll have some strange words hovering over your head. They seem to be a set of your name, a level, a class and a quest, something like --
Ima Adventurerer Lv. 9000
Class: Dragon Slayer
Current Quest: Slay every dragon
-- but aside from existing, they don't seem to have any actual impact on your abilities or requirements. But you can do the quests if you really want to. Everyone will clap politely for you if you do. There might be confetti, even.
They would appear to coincide with a scroll or two posted up in the middle of town for everyone to see.
At least it’s easy to tell who’s new this round.
PHASE II [ 745 ] Once you’re safely on the ground (hopefully no broken bones!), it’s time to get a feel for the game. As free range as it seems to be, you have all sorts of choices in where to go and what to do. You could take on some quests! You could go hunt down monsters! You could...pick up that fancy looking armor over there!
Except you may not actually want to do so. As soon as you touch that armor, it will equip itself, no ifs, ands or buts. Of course, it isn’t so bad, at least, not for the ladies. For the men who equip the armor, they may find it to be a little breezy. In many different variations.
To make matters worse, be careful what you touch in your inventory, unless you want to equip a fish instead of your sword, or whatever the hell this is instead of your cool, awesome, special weapon. Good luck.
And the only way to unequip it is to find something else to equip. There’s motivation for some questing, at least.
PHASE III [ 1000 ] Eventually, you have to venture out of the town, however. There are NPCs ushering you to quest onwards, and there’s nothing in the town worth poking your nose into; none of the doors open, and all of the NPCs say the same, looping lines in a creepy monotone.
There are quests to be done outside of the town, they say, over and over.
So, off you go. However, the moment you step out of the town, you’re…somewhere else entirely. Look behind you, and the town is gone. Look around you, and there’s nothing but flowers, fields and the other people who have stepped out of the town themselves, looking equally confused. The bizarre armor is now gone, and you're back in your proper clothing; the strange floating titles and levels and the like are also gone. Otherwise, it is silent; there isn’t a single other soul. No bird song, no buzzing of bees -- just silence.
Of course, it won’t last. Soon, the monsters show up...but strangely, they seem to be monsters from your world, if your world had monsters. If your world had animals, they are those, or robots, or any number of combinations. But they seem...different. They’re meaner, larger, nastier, and all dark colors and bloody, dripping claws and fangs.
It seems everything’s been a little corrupted here -- even things from your own worlds.
PHASE IV [ 1400 ] If you persevere through the monster-infested fields, trampling your way through flowers which did nothing at all to you, you’ll eventually find yourself at a still, still lake. It’s a beautiful place, quiet and hushed and untouched, and totally monster-free; it might be a good place to take a breather.
But if you look into the lake, even for a brief moment, you’ll see whatever it is you want most in the world. Whether it’s a person (dead or alive), a thing, a title… it doesn’t matter; the lake will show it, tantalizing and right there, so close to being in your grasp.
If you don’t pull away immediately, you might find that it’s hypnotizing, in fact; you’ll feel the need to go closer and closer, even if it means wading into the lake to get closer to that goal. Just...don’t go too far. Something is waiting for you.
If you touch someone to try to help them, you’ll see what they are also seeing in the lake, for better or for worse. It might be a good chance to get to know them, if you weren’t, you know, in danger of being eaten.
Thankfully, with some perseverance and good friends, the hypnotism can be broken. You do have friends, right?
If you survive all of that, you can finally log out and join Cerealia proper -- hooray!
BONUS [ xxxx ] There sure are a lot of flowers in this field of flowers. There are flowers everywhere. Which isn’t a bad thing, unless you’re allergic to flowers (if you are allergic to flowers, CERES apologizes and suggests you take their special, patented ClariCERESclear to clear that right up). Except...the longer you’re in said field of flowers, the more you may notice that things are a little...strange.
Some of the pollen of the flowers has some strange effects on your bodies, it would seem. You could stumble across any of these (or none at all), and they could last anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour or two, depending on how much of that pollen you breathe in.
The effects are as follows:
➟ The urge to princess-carry the nearest person
➟ The urge to serenade the nearest person, regardless of your singing ability
➟ An awakened urge to be really aggressive towards the nearest person, even to the point of fighting (it's time to pvp)
➟ Uncontrollable crying
➟ An uncontrollable urge to make flower crowns and place them on peoples' heads (which thus further spreads the other effects).
Don’t trust the flowers.
[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ] |
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iii
Because he spot a monster creeping closer to a young man. He call;s out to Leon. Sayo's hand is on his sword, ready to pull it out in case of a battle.]
There's a monster behind you.
no subject
Wow, you're so calm, Sayo. Leon glances over his shoulder, and...yep, that sure is a monster!! Good thing monster's gonna monster.
Still, he's pretty calm too, drawing his sword neatly and breathing out an exasperated noise.]
Hmph...
[A glance back to Sayo, unimpressed.]
Don't get in my way.
[What about "Thank you", Leon...]
no subject
He blinks and raise a brow.]
I won't. But are you going to fight it by yourself?
[Sayo's not going to discredit him, but well... he's here. And willing to fight.
... And also, where is his "thank you"!?]
no subject
He takes a few steps forward, huffing under his breath at Sayo's words.]
Yes. So stay out of my way.
[Quite frankly!!
A moment later, he's lunging right into the fray, neatly avoiding the monster's jaws and instead slashing out in a neat, crescent moon motion. Leon's fast, if nothing else, and he hits hard--he just really can't take a hit, so he'd better be careful to not get hit here and now, since he's being a lone wolf about it.]
no subject
... Leon's fast. Sayo's gaze went from just curiosity to something akin to... admiration? He can see how well the young man is working with his sword. It seems like there's no wasted movements, either.
Unfortunately, the monster doesn't appreciate swordsmanship. It tries to lash out, attempting to strike at Leon between his sword slashes.]
no subject
Though that will become obvious soon enough, especially when the monster lashes out at him and there's a panicked voice that is definitely not Leon's, exclaiming--
"Young master, look out!"
The warning is enough for Leon, who can avoid the blow easily enough, and then Leon's hit the end of his patience. The blast caliber arte is perhaps a little overkill here, but who cares, not him, and Leon lowers his sword when the monster is properly dead, brushing himself off with a huff.]
no subject
Sayo walks over towards Leon, looking at him carefully and all over him. He didn't see anyone near him, just Leon's clothes, gear, sword...]
Who is that other voice?
[What is subtlety, what is proper build up, when you can straight out ask the question? Not even a comment about the battle, too!]
no subject
Voice...?]
You can't mean--
[And the sword speaks up again, also confused, also a little wary, but in a much nicer tone-- "Me?"]
no subject
Yes, you. I take it the voice comes from you, sir?
[If so, hello, fellow sword.]
no subject
"Ah... it's strange to be called 'sir', you don't have to go that far. My name is Chaltier."
Leon quirks an eyebrow at his sword anyway, because he thinks Chal sounds pretty pleased to have been called "sir" after all!!! Chal, pls.]
no subject
[Loophole?! Because yay, honorifics and Sayo is still a polite sword. Most of the time anyway.]
I'm Sayo Samonji, the spirit of a tantou. It's nice to meet you.
[It's clear that Sayo thinks there's nothing wrong with talking to another man's sword. The main difference is that the wielder can hear them.]
no subject
Ah well. For now, it's not important, and Chaltier is quick to pipe up with "It's nice to meet you too!" before Leon cuts in with a sigh:]
Chal, enough. [Stop being so friendly.]
You said you are a spirit. [... of a tantou.........] Is that why you're able to communicate with Chal?
no subject
Sayo looks up at Leon, and nods.]
Yes. Spirits of swords can communicate with each other if we're aware of each other. [And you know, after they gain their sentience.] Humans normally wouldn't notice.
["Normally"...]
no subject
Swords in human form... for a moment, he considers Chal in a human form, before he shakes that thought away. No, Chal is Chal, and he's his sword, and that's fine.]
I see... [Well... swords being able to talk to swords makes sense. He doesn't have to be that touchy about it. It's not like it's some special thing...]
... Regardless. Do you need something from me?