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.
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phase iii;
things yuri lowell is currently doing: going into a combat-oriented ViViD level with a fractured rib.
but hey, it's no big deal. it's better than it was a couple of days ago, and he'd be bored as hell if he just sat around waiting for it to heal. and what luck, he manages to, after not much time, stumble right into a combat situation with a lone guy who doesn't look like he should be pulling the solo card. besides, with repede at his side, they're close to a full party anyway, right? right. so in the interest in making a flash entrance—and maybe not physically pushing himself too hard, he'll start simple.]
Azure Edge! [he shoots the arte off at one of the elephants while repede gets started on a demon dog meant for a werewolf.]
Look like you could use a hand. [he'll call out to mikleo from a short distance, taking a bit of a spread formation—not that it'll last long, since melee is definitely more his thing, even if his reflexes are a little less than stellar with that injury.]
no subject
Okay no focus on the battle. Ignore the dog until it gets hurt. He'll glance over at Yuri.]
I could, but do me a favor? Don't land the killing blow. These monsters are people, but I can purify them.
[At least, Mikleo's pretty sure they're like the hellions back home. Regardless, he doesn't want to take any chances.
He also doesn't fail to notice that Yuri's not moving like a practiced swordsman should. Good thing he's got some talent for single person healing. A glowing, magic circle forms at his feet. A couple seconds later--]
Purity Heal!
[A large blue wisp appears on Yuri, along with little white ones surrounding him. Even though he's not poisoned or paralyzed, it's a more powerful healing spell than Resilient Aid.]
no subject
Save the healing for when we really need it—focus on offense before these guys call in more friends. [he says this without much thought; he just thinks it's energy better saved for an injury that can be taken care of. this means that yuri's just going to try and run on his adrenaline as much as possible and do his best to mask the fact that he probably shouldn't even be fighting right now.
(there's a 500% chance that when flynn finds out later, he'll be chaining yuri to a hospital bed, so he's making the most of this time, okay.)
but amidst a lunge towards one of the hellions, he realizes he should probably clarify something. he's never seen mikleo before, so that combined with the fact that he seems to think whatever they're fighting is the same as what he's used to makes it a pretty clear indication that he's dealing with someone new.]
Dunno what it's like where you're from, but they're probably not the same. [yuri calls it over his shoulder, surprisingly casual for someone chaining a shining fang drop into a dragon swarm.] This whole setup's a game—nothing we're fighting is even real.
[things yuri actually does understand about cerealia's technology is that. for the most part, nothing that happens here matters outside of ViViD.] "Killing" them is the only way it goes around here.
no subject
Fair enough!
[Mikleo's teeth clench. They're real enough to cause harm, but that they're not actually hellions does make it easier. It reminds him of Symonne's illusions, and he prays that she's not actually here to toy with them.]
It's a pretty bad time for us where I'm from.
[That's an understatement, but explanations should be saved until after this battle. Mikleo spies an elephant coming up on Repede's flank. There's no time for him to cast a Seraphic Arte, so he just charges in to launch into a flurry of Martial Artes. The distraction works, at least, as the elephant turns to face the annoying seraph with the staff.]
no subject
[explanations can come later, that's fine. but a little banter is healthy in yuri's eyes. besides, it's a good distraction from the whole "fighting with a fractured rib" thing.
repede is quick to give an appreciative bark in mikleo's direction for the cover. he returns the favor by executing a hell hound, and yuri's doing much the same, chaining one arte to the next. he's trying his best to keep it to things that don't require as much movement, or modifying his normal execution style to fit his injury.
one of those artes includes beast—likely a familiar arte for mikleo to have seen before, and the execution is much the same. not that yuri thinks much of it, since it's not anything special or exclusive where he comes from at all.]
no subject
Really? That's breaking news. I never would've guessed.
[It's a familiar looking Arte, that's for sure, but the name's wrong. Perhaps there are just some worlds with similar styles.
There aren't as many hellions, now. Between Repede and Yuri, Mikleo's confident that they can handle keeping the rest on themselves. In the meantime, he's going to cast a Seraphic Arte.
He goes for one of his 'bigger' ones. It takes a few crucial seconds, but he's putting his trust in Yuri and Repede's skills as fighters. A glyph appears in front of Mikleo with an orb of water sitting serenely in its center.]
Aqua Serpent!
[The water is no longer serene. It takes the shape of a snake's head and shoots out in a powerful stream, cutting a straight line through the hellions.]
no subject
[that much is true. some people are amazingly clueless when they arrive; even yuri himself had a bit to process about the existence of other worlds when he learned of it. though he wasn't so idealistic as to believe they'd be any better off than his own.
but that's neither here nor there.
what does matter is that mikleo is doing just what needs to be done. when yuri realizes that he casting magic of some sort, he keeps things simple. he motions for repede to spread out so they can carry out artes with a decent area of effect—enough time for mikleo to cast and also enough time to avoid getting hit by any collateral damage.
it's probably obvious enough that yuri's skill stretches beyond knowing how to fight in itself—clearly, he knows how to worked with ranged arte users too.]
no subject
[Because, seriously, all those people getting their hopes crushed that there's an ideal world out there...it's depressing.
He notes how the pair of them seem familiar with this set up. That's good, especially since it gives him an idea.]
Hey! Try to corral as many as you can one spot!
[The best thing about Seraphic Artes? It's the fact that Mikleo can hold the Arte back indefinitely once he's done with almost all of the incantation. He does this right now, starting the incantation for Violet Storm, but stopping before the words that execute the Arte.]
no subject
[times like this, yuri misses having estelle around to cast angel ring—it speeds up the process in trying to corral the enemies. it's not terribly important though, because yuri and repede are competent enough to do the job manually.
it just takes a little more work.
okay, and maybe he's just intentionally agitating them by way of taunting—which repede follows suit on. it gets the job done, even if it means the two are more or less surrounded at this point. but hey, you do what you gotta in order to get the job done.]
no subject
Violet Storm!
[Let the bodies hit the floor. Or rise up and then hit the floor, really. The Arte practically decimates the hellions in the combined might of fire and water.]
no subject
yuri and repede have no qualms with doing the last cleanup of whatever remains—but that takes so little time it's barely even worth noting, as far as he's concerned. once that's through, repede sheathes his dagger... while yuri shifts with discomfort from his bad life decisions. he isn't as quick to pick up the sheath he tossed to the side before he jumped into the fight for this very reason.]
I'm gonna take a guess that you've done this a few times before. [actual amazing conversationalist yuri lowell.]
no subject
I've had my share of battles to gain some experience with those types of tactics. You and your dog obviously have similar experience.
[He crosses his arms.]
I'm Mikleo, and what you just fought were things from my world called hellions. They're people or animals, sometimes even plants, that get warped by corruption into those monsters. [Mikleo pauses for a beat.] Usually, humans can't perceive them as they truly are. They look like something else to them. Other humans, sick animals, natural disasters, anything. The only hellion a human could perceive is a dragon.
Also, typically, those who made a pact with the Lady of the Lake are the only ones who can save them from the malevolence--the corruption.
{OOC: I have the overflow thread here!}