//EVENT031.EXE

[reparator]

//event031.EXE

Lightning flashes. Thunder booms and rain patters on the roof. It’s all about ambience here in ViViD, of course. You gotta set the mood! Welcome to the Pleasurable Super Youthful Caring Hospital Stage, PSYCHward for short. It works, shut up. It’s a stage created for your well-being, health and happiness. Be careful, though. The first step you take in the dilapidated asylum carries you right into a puddle. Look down, and the puddle is red. Ah. Of course it’s blood. It’s only going to get even more fun from here. Good Day. I Am The New Introducer For ViViD Levels. Mosley? Who's That? Anyway, Please Have Fun And Remember To Be Safe. Safety Is Our First Priority At CERES. Thank you. Enjoy.

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I [ 400 ] The first room any people familiar with the ViViD song and dance routine will find is one that is...wonderfully full of body bags. Body bags everywhere -- on the floor, on the shelves, uncomfortably tossed over the back of a chair...and each body bag has a helpful tag. Handy. Of course, within each bag is a newcomer; they won’t be able to escape the body bags until someone else unzips them. They’re dressed in little more than hospital gowns, toe tags still attached to bare feet. Welcome to ViViD! Enjoy your stay. Of course, there has to be an element of surprise to it. Some body bags contain living, breathing newcomers, yes. But the others? These contain corpses. The toe tag on them indicates a loved one or someone important to you -- or someone you hate beyond all else. You open the bag, and there is their face, achingly familiar and frozen in death...but blink and suddenly they’re the corpse of a nondescript stranger. PHASE II [ 600 ] Step out of that room and now it’s the asylum proper. Lights flicker. It’s dark, but it’s still more than clear to anyone with ears -- something’s stalking everyone in this place. The shadow flickers on the wall, the lights go out -- you turn a corner and there it is, jumping out at you with an unearthly cackle -- A puppet. It hangs there limply, utterly harmless. All around the facility, these harmless puppets lurk. In lockers, behind doors, in dark halls… But they’re all literally inanimate and harmless. Whose dumb idea was that? PHASE III [ 1000 ] But slowly, the atmosphere changes. Go in deeper, and the sounds around deaden until there’s nothing left but the dark all around and the sound of your own breathing. And yet, irrevocably you know, whether as an aspect of the level or something else entirely -- Something is actually hunting you now. It makes no noise. It can’t be seen. But it’s stalking, and it’s on the hunt. To make matters worse, now the asylum seems to have become a proper maze, with dead ends everywhere, and practically no light to see them by. And the only other souls you’ll see are the other people stuck in the maze -- but there’s something not quite right about them either. You can see...bits of their code, lurking under the surface of their skin, and as you watch, it’s being corrupted, bit by bit, the longer they’re in the dark. If you look down, it’s happening to you too. Better hurry. There’s only one way out. PHASE IV [ 1400 ] And then you step through a doorway into light. You escaped the maze, but this is an asylum, and you’re about to see why. There are rows upon rows of cages of aliens. They cry out and reach out through the bars with webbed or clawed hands or tentacles, begging for release. Let them out, or don’t -- the exit to Cerealia proper is right there at the end of this room, inviting and safe. But if you do elect to let them out, the entire room suddenly goes silent. And there, in that cage you opened, there is no longer an alien, but instead a doll. And it’s watching you. Stay any longer, and the doll with start to move, reaching -- and if it touched you, suddenly you’re the one locked away behind bars. On the plus side, when you take the exit to Cerealia, it’ll deposit you in the Pleasure District, where massagebots will reach for you to try to drag you in for a sensual massage. Welcome! PENALTY [ ???? ] You were caught in the maze. It’s hard to say even now what it was that caught you, but now you’re strapped down to an operating table, and there’s a flat-faced doctor standing above you. The restraints can’t be broken. There’s a prick of a needle, and you fall unconscious -- and that’s probably a mercy. When you wake up, you’ll be back in the asylum somewhere, but missing a sense -- the one from your character’s application will be gone. A character who is sight will have been blinded, for instance, and a character who is touch will feel nothing. This will last until they log out of ViViD and get into Cerealia. [ 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. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to Cerealia's July intro log! For your convenience, we have compiled the characters' arrival experience here, and should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here! You can also check the FAQ for more general inquiries. Should this event log hit Captcha, there is an all-purpose overflow here. Thank you!

Comments

Jack the Doppelganger // OTA

[decoyhero]

Phase I

[Nobody ever expects to wake up in a body bag. Jack sure hadn't. And yet here he is. A bit of tentative, exploratory wiggling yields exactly squat. So does a bit of adamant, purposeful wiggling.

So this is what happens when the New-U Station breaks. He'd always kind of wondered, but never very hard or for very long, because the implications had always disturbed him. He had plenty of disturbing things going on in his day to day life without adding more to the pile.]

Hey, uh, is anyone there? Like, I dunno, a coroner, or a mortician, or something? Helloooo? I'm not dead?

[Take pity on the wiggly contents of the body bag, y/n?]

Phase II

Of course - of course - the first thing he has to step in is a nasty puddle of cold, slimy blood. And of course he had to do it barefoot. Naturally. It wouldn't be The Story Of His Life, otherwise. Where the hell are his boots?

Also, where are his pants.

And, perhaps most important of all, where are his guns?

He becomes aware of being stalked fairly early on. The sensation makes him miss his boots even more, as he gradually begins to move faster and faster in an effort to stay ahead of whoever or whatever it is. Normally he's just fine with violent confrontations, but this isn't normally. He's barefoot, wearing a hospital gown, and has no weapons. Whoever is following him will have a pretty distinct advantage.

He's not the greatest at navigating, though, especially in unfamiliar areas. As carefully as he tries to continue going forward, at some point he must have got himself turned around. He's amped up enough from being stalked that when he turns a corner and something smallish and softish is flung at his face, he screams.

It's pretty girly-sounding. How embarrassing.]

Son of a bastard!

[Investigate the distressed nerdlord cry, y/n?]

Penalty

[His eyes are open, but all he can see is nothing.

That means one of two things:

Either the corridors he is slowly stumbling through are pitch black, or he's blind.

He really, really hopes it's the former, but somehow, based on the surreal and frankly terrifying operating table he recently experienced, he suspects it's the latter.]

Stupid effing...mother of...when I get my grenades back…

[Sorry if he runs into anybody, he can't see. :')]

II

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[Darin was very nervously, very cautiously wandering around in the dark when a very close by girly shriek caught his attention.]

[And by 'got his attention' I mean 'he started shrieking as well.']

[An equally high pitched shriek.]

[This is really manly, guys.]

[In a panic, Darin spins and takes a wild swing at whatever was so close by and daring to shriek at him.]

[decoyhero]

[The manliest]

[And now someone else is screaming and punching him in the shoulder and knocking him back - hard.]

Shi--

[He flails a bit trying to regain his balance. The floppy thing that landed on his face and caused him to scream in the first place falls down to the ground, where Jack promptly steps on it, and that's it, it's over. His feet go right out from under him and he lands flat on his back with a quiet oof, as the wind is knocked out of him.

So he's just going to lay there for the time being, try to get his breath back, and wish for the sweet sweet embrace of death. Maybe whatever hit him will do him that particular favor.]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Oh man...oh man!

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to--

[Darin rushes over and kneels next to the stranger. He helps him up...and then gets a look at his face.]

... ... ...

[Let's go and drops his sorry ass.]

Nope, not dealing with this again.

[decoyhero]

[He grunts as he hits the ground - again, and then groans softly as he continues to lay there.]

Owww....jeez...did someone piss in your Cheerios this morning, or something?

[forgeabettertomorrow]

I don't know what half of that means but I know better than to start a conversation where you have to explain something to me, Jack.

Not this time.

[decoyhero]

[Oh, good. Someone who knows him. His favorite.

Not.]

Oh. Great. I pissed in your Cheerios. I gotta stop doing that...

[Can he roll onto his side? Y-yeeees, yes, he can. He'll just be doing that now. And then onto his stomach...and he'll pause there to catch his breath.

Aren't hospital gowns great, Darin? Enjoy that view. :B]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

A-AUGH! Come on, man! Shut the back door, will you?!

And don't play stupid, Jack! I'm not going to help you if you're gonna pretend you don't know me.

[decoyhero]

[He's confused for a brief moment, before he remembers how breezy this hospital gown is...]

That's kind of hard, since someone's made off with my pants.

[Hup hup, one two...man, he's gonna have some bruises later, but at least he can push himself up okay...onto his hands and knees, and angling his butt away from this jerk's line of sight.

...Though he squints up at him suspiciously at the mention of "help."]

Why the heck would you want to help me, regardless?

penalty

[onethousen]

[ She's trying to remember her way through this section of the hall-hospital-labyrinth when she sees someone nearby; going still at first to watch what they're doing before stepping out into the hall again. What frightens her here has more to do with what doesn't have a form than what does. Those with a form are generally people in the same position as she is, at least so far.

She's about to call out to Jack when she hears him mumbling, connecting the voice and his appearance as familiar in the same moment. ]

Jack-san! Is that you?

[ She waves... at his back, double fat lot of good that does (not that she knows he can't see, much like she doesn't realise right now that she cannot feel). ]

[decoyhero]

[Chihiro, no, shield your young eyes, he's still wearing nothing but a hospital gown--

He jerks upright at the sound of someone calling his name, and turns partially in the direction of the voice - somewhere behind him?]

Uh, yeah?

[Wait, that voice sounded vaguely familiar...like a little kid, and...oh, no, she's stuck in this shithole, too?]

Chihiro?

[onethousen]

[ Hey, so's she, but she has one of those nice cloth ones that have buttons instead of ties. Yay!

It's the guy who was scared in the last place they were stranded in, trying to find a way out! It's a bizarrely comforting thought, and Chihiro is so overcome by finding yet another person she recognised (especially after that table, the pain, the doctors, the light, those people who were dolls who left the cages, and the fright) that she almost barrels into him, giving him a brief hug. Which is fine, and well, and...

Uh. Probably a little too tight, even as she draws her head back and wonders why this feels entirely wrong. He's here, isn't he? She's hugging him, so why can't she feel any of this? Not warmth, not the material of his gown against her arms, only the substance of a body that her arms doesn't push through, making him solid if nothing else. ]

Are you really here?

[ Has she encountered a new weird twist to this level, because she's starting to think she has, and it sends a shiver shooting up her spine as she lets go and takes a half step back. She can touch him, but why can't she feel... ]

[decoyhero]

[It's good to know the Powers That Be aren't totally depraved.

[Oh, wow, he's being hugged. Like. Super-hugged. He tenses up for an instant before he realizes - duh - it's just Chihiro. The kid's kind of squeezing the breath out of him, but he gets that she's probably scared (why does this shit keep happening to her?), so he can totally forgive her.]

Uh. Yes. Unfortunately. I'm really here.

[Oh no, shit, she's pulling back -- he puts out a hand to stop her going too far, and it lands (thankfully) on her shoulder, right where he had hoped it would be.]

I can't see, though. Like. At all.

[onethousen]

[ Only mostly. Blessed be!

She doesn't feel his hand despite it being firmly enough on her shoulder that her shoulder cants because of it. Only having seen him place it there gave her forewarning that it was happening at all, and that sends another jolt through her. Shouldn't she feel the warmth from his hand?

He's here, and... doesn't that just make sense? ]

You can't see?

[ He's blind? It's not that dark (compared to some of the other halls), so if he's saying so, he's got to be telling the truth. And if he lost his eyesight, then maybe — ]

That's okay! I can still see. I... I don't think I feel things right, right now, but I don't need to feel to see where we're going!

[ She pats the hand on her shoulder with her own hand, though had Jack been able to see her face, he might have seen how her brow furrowed as she concentrated on gently offering this form of reassurance. She still can't feel his heat, or the texture of his skin, and that's... weird, and makes her skin crawl (metaphorically speaking), but she'll deal. After all, she figures that being blind is worse with that feeling of being hunted. Not that she'd seen anything the whole last time she was moving through this maze. Lacking even the option had to make it more frightening all around. ]

[decoyhero]

[Aaaaand confirmed. He's blind.

Fantastic.

Just.

Just fantastic.

But--

He frowns.]

You can't feel things?

[Probably not the really important thing to pick up from this exchange, but...look, he's worried about her, okay?]

[onethousen]

I guess? I don't know. It's just...

[ She carefully presses her hand more firmly over his, opening her mouth to speak, searching for the right words. She doesn't find them. She only finds ones that approximate what she wants to say. ]

I can't tell if your hand is warm or cool right now. Or if your skin is dry, or sweaty, or if you have hair on the back of your hand like my Dad does.

[ Now running her hand back and forth to both provide herself a distraction, and provide him with a ... visual? Is it visual if she describes it, and pairs it with an action? ]

... It's really creepy. It's not numb, either? I don't feel anything.

[ A pause. She's barefoot; maybe he'll understand when she asks him: ]

Is the floor cold?

[decoyhero]

[It's...a visual of a sort. One he really appreciates right now, too.]

That sounds...really messed up.

[Messed up, like...wrong. People go blind all the time. Or so he assumes. At least, blindness is something that can happen naturally to a person, so it's...kind of normal? Eyes get old, they get sick, they get poked out. Not like...How does someone lose their sense of touch?]

Uh. Yeah. It is.

phase i

[gaian]

[Sooner or later, Karl's probably going to regret helping all these people out of body bags, but until then, he's a bleeding heart who's going to be here for a while.

So he will, in fact, take pity on the wriggling bag as he steps over to it, though before opening it:]

Well, I'm not a coroner or mortician, but I'm gonna assume you're not being picky right now.

[decoyhero]

[Oh thank god, someone is busting him out of this thing. He barely waits for the zipper to clear completely before sitting up and beginning to struggle the rest of the way out.]

Absolutely not picky, nope. I just kinda assumed, since, y'know, body bag, and all.

[And then he gets a good look around.]

H-heeey, wow, that's...that's a lot of body bags.

[gaian]

Haha, it's understandable. [...] And yup, it looks like we're all waking up in these things. Hopefully, no one's actually dead here...

[He glances around, looking tense for a moment, before he returns his attention to Jack.]

You okay, though? No air deprivation or anything?

[decoyhero]

Uh. No, I'm good. I feel fine. Just, kinda confused, you know, and -- [he wiggles the rest of the way out of the bag as he talks, which brings to his attention just how little he's wearing.]

-- and...I'm naked. Under this hospital gown. Great.

[gaian]

[Karl will at least glance away, if only to make the guy feel less self-conscious.]

Haha, I think we're all a little confused here. [...] And... that, too. Sorry, you'll just have to put up with it 'til we get out of this simulation.

[decoyhero]

[His annoyance at being naked has less to do with being self-conscious and more to do with the fact he's in an unknown situation and his shield, guns, and wristwatch all seem to be missing.]

It's...like a game, right? Survive the...horror hospital, be rewarded with freedom?

[There's a little paper tag tied to his toe, so he bends down to untie it.]

...Pigeons? Seriously?

[gaian]

They're pretty morbid for games... but yeah, I think that's the gist of it!

[He lets out a light laugh.]

They're all kinda weird, aren't I? Apparently, I cried a river and drowned to death.

[decoyhero]

Iiiiii'm guessing you haven't played many video games, then.

[Jack had been pretty fond of them, before taking the stupid doppelganger gig and ruining his post-graduate life.

His rescuer's description of his own death gets a bit of a laugh from him.]

Pff, really? Is that something you'd actually...do? If. Y'know. Actually drowning in your own tears was possible.