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 [ 7 45 ] 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 [ 10 00 ] 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 [ 14 00 ] 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 [ xx xx ] 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. ] |
Phase 2 because I'm sorry Hiro's a jerk
Well, it definitely gets people to look at you so I guess there's that? [That is to say he doesn't know either man, but really now.]
it wouldn't be hiro otherwise~
As great as it is that people can actually see and hear me, I wish I couldn't be right now.
[He could use his invisibility Seraphic Arte, but it's only a temporary thing. It's not worth it unless he's on his way to a clothes store at this point.]
no subject
If it makes you feel better it looks like you're not the only one. [There's a pause though because well that sure is weird phrasing.] Wait, were you expecting people not to see or hear you? Because hate to break it to you but you're way, way too visible.
no subject
It doesn't. [His tone is so flat. And now Hiro's getting one of Mikleo's patented death glares!] No, really? Thanks for noticing.
[He runs a hand through his hair, trying not to fidget or do something rash.]
In my world, humans very rarely have the ability to perceive the seraphim.
[Ugh, he can't do this with the armor he has on.] Look, help me find something to cover myself, and I'll answer any questions you have about seraphim. Deal?
[Mikleo seriously hopes that Hiro will take him up on this offer because it's way...way too drafty.]
omfg his face in that link. jfc mikleo.
Seraphim, huh. [That offer is something though and he ponders for a moment, glancing up at Baymax.] I think we've got a few minutes, huh, buddy?
We have one-thousand, four hundred and forty minutes. [...thank you, literal-bot. Hiro shakes his head and he's already moving to check out the other stock for something maybe a little less humiliating.] It shouldn't be too hard to find something. Got a preference?
he will OUTLAST YOU ALL IN THE SAUNA. I love Mikleo.
--Only now does Mikleo realize that Baymax is there. This is how badly self-conscious he's been about his state of dress, or lack thereof. Hiro can probably tell by the look on Mikleo's face that he has no idea what the hell Baymax even is.
He sets it aside by virtue of the fact that Baymax is neither a dog nor a ghost and hasn't attacked him yet. Therefore, he can focus on Hiro's question.]
If you can't find a shirt and pants, then I'll take a cloak that at least goes down to my knees.
[He's 5'5", Hiro, you can do it. He has faith.]
{OOC: I have the overflow thread here!}