The thing about Cerealia is, there really isn't any nature to be found here. Sure, you can go outside the walls of the city and explore the land beyond but who wants to risk a terrible, horrible death just to sniff the flowers? Not you, that's who! CERES understands that, CERES sympathizes, and sometimes CERES decides to take action when such problems arise. As part of the company's current "Healthier and Happier YOU" initiative, they've decided to let everyone get back in touch with nature a little.
Via ViViD.
Of course, this being CERES, the nature they've sent everyone to is more of a swamp. The place is disgusting, a real marvel of ViViD ingenuity and it smells like the dead. There's strange rustling among the leaves from creatures that may or may not want to eat you, and random pits that open up right under your feet with the goal of sending you straight into the marsh. It's not really that fun. There's no welcome sign either, no nothing except for swamplands as far as the eye can see.
Welcome to ViViD!  This is Mosley. One of our programmers forgot to include a welcome greeting for the level this time. How incompetent can you get? He's been fired now, it's fine. Instead, I will greet you today. Lucky you! You've been invited today to participate in CERES's "Healthier and Happier YOU" level where we've combined both physical exercise and relaxing meditation into the ultimate ViViD experience. Isn't that fun? You can... go camping and stuff. Or whatever. I don't... know...
Honestly, I don't even care. Have fun.
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PHASE I [ 6 00 ] Welcome to your new healthy living training ground! What does a swamp have to do with healthy living, you may ask? Absolutely nothing! To make up for it, CERES has outfitted all players with the proper equipment for their new healthy living lifestyle. They also may or may not have let you keep your shoes based on how benevolent the ViViD gods were being at the time. (Not very.)
Oh, and all newcomers will have something additional on their fancy new yoga shirt. It will be displayed loudly and proudly all over the front and back of it. And if you're one of the few not wearing a shirt, it will be on the back of your pants. As in, your butt. It will be on your butt.
What’s ViViD trying to say, anyway?
Regardless, it probably doesn’t matter as much as finding your way through the swamp. Some sort of dry land would be really nice right now, wouldn't it? You'll have to watch out for the mud that will suck you right down under the marsh, and the creatures with lots of teeth that will never surface from the mud but won't hesitate to snap up an unwary foot or two.
CERES is sure you'll be fine. Totally and completely fine.
PHASE II [ 800 ] Eventually, if you try really, really hard, you’ll make it to a house. Actually, it’s more of a shack, really. If you clamber your way out of the mud and the gunk and the marsh into said shack, you will find it to be empty aside from a table. A table hosting a huge pile of... well, health drinks. See, there's totally a health theme in this level. CERES would never make a ViViD level that wasn't thematically appropriate. Never! Health drinks of all sorts and types and sizes can be found here and there’s even a sign too; it simply says:
Take one.
Well, that seems safe.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to leave said shack until you do take one. And drink it. The door will lock shut and cover itself in more swamp until you do. Yay. Depending on your luck, the drink may do the following to you: ➟ Cause your ViViD experience to glitch. This may involve phasing through walls, seeing everything in 8-bit, or hearing really annoying old video game music everywhere you go.
➟ Cause status effects. This can include suddenly moving incredibly slowly, being turned to stone for a period of time, suddenly being on fire, suddenly being poisoned, etc etc.
➟ Be healthier. Mmm, kale and hummus smoothie. Taste those veggies. If you try to take more than one, that’s fine too, nobody will stop you, but you probably won’t get lucky more than once.
PHASE III [ 900 ] And back you go, out into the swampy wilderness. Don’t give up! Keep going! Eventually, you’ll find the end of this level. Probably.
Eventually, though, you may stumble across something in the mud and the muck. It’s... a little doll?
In fact, it’s a little doll of one of your most important people (or, alternatively, of someone you absolutely hate). It might be someone in Cerealia currently, or someone who isn’t, but either way, the doll is there and it’s clearly them (covered in mud and all). Be careful, though. If you toss it aside, you’ll suddenly see that important person being tossed aside. If you cut the doll, you'll suddenly see that person bleeding. Even if they aren’t present in Cerealia, whatever happens to that doll, you'll see it happening to them. Is it a hallucination or are they actually there? That's a little more up in the air.
And if they are present in Cerealia, well... doing things to that doll might very well hurt them too -- for real, this time, though.
Be careful! Or don't. You do you, as CERES would say.
PHASE IV [ 1200 ] And then, eventually you reach a quiet, swampy area. Not that the rest of the swamp isn't swampy, this area is just extra swampy.
There’s very little happening here in this swampy place; even the birds are no longer squawking. And for a long moment, everything will remain quiet and peaceful, a place of reprieve... until the swamp begins to bubble. Then suddenly, a new friend will burst out of the swamp, showering mud and gunk everywhere.
Without warning, that creature is going to try to grab for the nearest person (it might be you!) and let out a mighty roar when they have them. Then, they'll hold them up to... read the nutrition facts on their shirt? What?
Of course, it will try to gobble you or whoever else it grabs if it finds, say, the salt content to be acceptable (the monster is watching their carbs). If it's not, then they'll just fling you away and move onto the next snack. For those without a handy nutrition facts label on your shirt, well, it might just take a gamble and try to eat you anyway.
Great. A health-conscious monster. That's just what this level needed.
BONUS [ xxxx ] Finally, you’re free of the game. Without warning, you’re dumped into Cerealia properly and you’re able to scrub the mud and gunk from your clothing (wait why did that come back with you and where are your normal clothes?). You're able to then make your way to your new place of residence (or old) and...
There is a tiny tree there waiting for you. Isn’t it cute? And if you take care of this tiny tree, it will eventually bear fruit! Tiny fruit. Itty bitty fruit.
Depending on which tiny tree you get, it will be one of the following: a tiny dildo tree, a tiny bacon tree, a tiny kazoo tree, a tiny carolina reaper tree, or a (dumb) tiny hats tree.
Everything will, naturally, be tiny. Enjoy your new healthy CERES gift!
[ 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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viridi
It doesn't matter to me if it isn't real or any of the other specifics, as long as it resembles my master then that's all that I need to know.
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Also, again, they're cute.
Here, you want my doll? You can pretend it's a dog.
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I don't need to pretend that it is a dog, nor do I need a dog in the first place. I am fine as I am.
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[Viridi shrugs, looks at her doll for a moment, then tosses it back over her shoulder and blows it up in an explosion of light.]
Ahahaha! Ahhh... I always wanted to do that. I mean, I can't do it now because he's growing on me - kind of like a boil - but boy, did I want to smash his face in when we first met.
Have fun with your master.
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He's not exactly sure what to make of what just happened. Genos hasn't tried to throw away his doll yet so he doesn't know any of the sides effects of having it are however...well, as much as he wanted to know it wasn't in his business to ask, was it? ]
I will. You must live a very liberating life.
[ To put things simply. ]
no subject
[Viridi dusts her hands off.]
Skin care, bubble baths, and restoring nature to the grandeur it once w --
Huh?
[For some reason, she finally stops talking as her eyes are drawn upwards to a sight it seems only she can see. From the expression on her face, it's not very pretty.]
Oh, gross. Exploding angel guts. That's ruined my appetite.
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Exploding angel guts?
[ He's going to look around to see what she's talking about and see nothing of the sort. ] I don't see anything that may qualify as that.
[ But what does Genos know about what might qualify as "angel guts". Maybe they at least look like real guts. ]
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[Viridi pulls an expression of disgust.]
I don't even know what the point is. Shock value?
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I see. [ Nothing was going to happen to this now. Absolutely nothing. Though there is a question he needs to know: ]
Did the doll you disposed of hold any value to you?
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[Viridi scoffs, though there is a vague sideways flicker of her eyes as she responds.]
Just another god's intern. Nobody I would care about.
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[ There's always something interesting about what she ends up saying. Mainly he's starting to wonder if he should be following her the entire time when he clearly isn't. ]
However, what do you mean by "god's intern"?
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Angels work for Palutena, the Goddess of Light. The rest of us make our own servants. I'm the Goddess of Nature - I get plants.
Adorable plants, of course. Nothing wrong with plants.
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You are the Goddess of Nature?
[ Sorry if he....sounds....unsure about that. ]
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[no she can't, but it's fine to threaten.]
Viridi. Goddess of Nature, Ruler of the Earth. That's why you really should take my advice about the puppy thing.
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[ And really that's the main problem here. ]
Perhaps you are the ruler of a different Earth than the one I am from.
[ And what happens during those times anyway? Was she still a defacto ruler? Hmm...then again, having a single ruler of an entire planet seemed a bit unfair. ]
no subject
Obviously, I'm from a different Earth, but it's not like I stop being a god just because I'm here.
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[ Not that he's going to go back and humor her now though because he knows that'd be even worse. ]
But if that's the case, does that mean you've retained your god-like powers even here?
[ And why would she still be stuck here?? Aren't gods all-powerful or something?? ]
no subject
Well, you've ruined it now.
[Viridi sighs.]
And of course it does. As if something like CERES could take away the powers of a goddess.
[She scoffs for a moment or two before clearing her throat.]
I mean. All the powers. They might have restricted... a little. But only because I allowed it!
no subject
[ Don't mind him as he has a bit of a flashback to a certain someone who is also a bit full of herself and pretty small in stature as well. Maybe it was a power thing? Or a size thing?? Shorter people have to make up for their height or something like that, right?
Flashback over, he'll be interested in hearing what they restricted. ]
Right, and what did CERES restrict of your power? I seem to be in full control of mine.
[ But he also isn't a god in any sense and he's more than aware of that. ]
no subject
[Viridi ponders for a moment.]
The first thing I tried to do was blow up the colony and replace it with a tropical rainforest. I got a potato instead. It's a very nice potato and it made very nice french fries.
But it looks like anything I try to do in regards to changing the city to my whims is out of the question.
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That quiet seems to be the limitation from intending to make a forest and only making a potato in its place.
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...I mean, not that I show off. All of my works are divine miracles and need to be properly respected as such.
[A slight pause.]
And I said it was a nice potato, alright? It was perfectly spherical. You don't see that every day.
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[ He's not going to point out how she points out how she's not really putting up a good argument about not wanting to be a show off even though she's pretty much boasting at this point... Politeness. He guesses. ]
The things that you terraform—do they stay that way from there on out or do they revert back? Curiously.
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Is the earth still inhabitable or is it a hissing ball of molten rock? There's your answer.
The things I change here aren't permanent, though, unless I keep them there on purpose.
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Interesting. So this place has the power to undo what a god can do if your intent is not there.
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