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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phase I
-- 500 chickens, Lord Mikleo? [ That's a challenging task, but she wonders why that's one that would be chosen for him... Either way, she's happy to see a friend again! ] They've given you a challenging task, I see.
More importantly, are you alright? That was quite the fall! [ He seems alright! But, it doesn't hurt to check. ]
no subject
I can't even wrap my head around why 500 chickens.
[All things considered, Mikleo is tempted to just ignore the quest. He doubts he's going to get anything out of its completion, anyway.]
I'm fine. It's not the first time I've fallen from that height. The ruins we met you in? Sorey and I fell through the floor outside of the ruins. It's how we got in. I used a similar trick then as I did just now.
no subject
I see. I was aware that the two of you were well-versed in exploring ruins, but it's admirable that you can handle yourself so well through things like this!
no subject
It's flattering, though.]
Honestly, I had to learn. Sorey being human couldn't do a lot of what I can, so I had to teach myself how to be creative and remain calm during those times.
no subject
[ But, she can return the favor here, she feels like. ]
Besides that, have you been alright? The changes here have been rather peculiar lately, on top of how foreign CeRes is in comparison to Glenwood...
no subject
[Some may call it 'reckless,' but he knows Alisha. She would've tried to prepare herself for the ruins, even though she knew nothing about what was in there.]
I've been alright. It's possible that I'd be in a little bit more trouble without my pact with Lailah. So far, though, it's nothing I haven't been able to handle before. How about you? Have you been alright?
no subject
[ It was a bit blindingly because she should have been more prepared for the dangers. She hadn't wanted to drag anyone else to go with her... Even if she knew the area a little, it was still too reckless. ]
I have had time to adapt. Many others here have also been rather helpful.
no subject
[Mikleo nods, seemingly satisfied.]
I'm glad that people have been around to help you. Now it's just a matter of getting acclimated myself.
[Though, he doesn't necessarily sound keen on the idea. He doesn't want to get comfortable with this place, as that might bring about the kind of danger over-confidence breeds.]
no subject
[ After all, the appearance of a new Shepherd gave the citizens of Ladylake a lot of hope. Not to mention that Sorey seems to be fulfilling his own dreams because of everything. ]
Are you hesitant to adapt, Lord Mikleo?
no subject
[She's the reason why Sorey even has a chance to see the human world, not to mention Mikleo.]
Adapt not so much, but I don't want to fall into complacency. Getting overconfident about how things operate in this place sounds to me like a dangerous trap to fall into, and a fairly easy one at that.
[Maybe he's overcautious and suspicious, but he can't help it.]
no subject
[ Though, that might be a further cause of worry for him. Shouldn't Mikleo know, though? ]
Oh, but Sorey seems to have been faring well here.
no subject
[Fighting a war on two fronts is never a good thing, but knowing that it won't make them complacent does ease his worries some.
Mentioning Sorey is something Mikleo immediately latches onto, of course.]
...A girl named Ruby told me that he's been here for a while. Have you been here just as long? [He hesitates.] Sorey hasn't gotten into too much trouble, has he?
no subject
[ She doesn't need to be a Squire this time to do what she can with everyone. If they'll have her, that is. ]
We arrived at the same time, though Sorey and I have been separated from time to time. [ And considering how he is... It's difficult to tell if he's gotten into too much trouble or not. ] I was able to aid him somewhere that was dangerous not too long ago.
no subject
[No matter what, Alisha is a friend, and he'll be glad to have her help.]
What happened?
[He's concerned, though he knows that the Princess of Hyland is more than capable of helping Sorey out if things got too hairy for a lone Shepherd. At the same time, he's hoping that she'll be more willing to tell him than Sorey.]
no subject
[ It hasn't been more than a month, so it's still a little surreal to think back on what happened... ]
Sorey had been attacked by monsters. I was able to aid him, however. It seems as though he didn't face any grave injuries while we were able to stay side-by-side.
no subject