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.
|
PHASE I [ 4 00 ] 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. ] |
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! |
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i!
I'm not sure this was a great introduction to the hobby. How long have you been in there...?
no subject
As he starts to pull himself out the bag and stand up straight, he shrugs. ]
You know? I'm noooot entirely sure. Not that long. A half hour, maybe?
no subject
[Okay, maybe it isn't that long in the grand scheme of things, but as far as he's concerned, any time spent in a body bag when you aren't dead is too much time.
At least he can stand without any difficulty. That's at least two things marked off Jonathan's concern checklist.]
Well, in any case, I'm glad you seem alright. [He sighs, though it's clear there is a great deal on his mind.] Still, we should get you out of here. I cannot say I am well acquainted with this place, but it certainly doesn't look safe.
no subject
I've been inside VIVID plenty, but this level's definitely a new one. [ A heavy sigh. ] Usually, you just have to keep stumbling your way through their dumb traps until you get to the end.
[ He pauses. ]
Uh, thanks for letting me out of there, by the way.
no subject
Oh, it wasn't any trouble! I'm glad you're safe, is all.
[He doesn't know what he would have done if the kid hadn't been alright.]
My name is Jonathan Joestar, but you can call me JoJo if you'd like. I'm...new, I suppose you could say, so I am little out of my depth when it comes to where we are.
no subject
[ A light shrug. ] Anyway, I kind of know what's going on. Usually new arrivals are dumped into this big simulation and we have to find our way out to get back to the city.
[ That's what it boils down to, anyway. ]
no subject
You disappeared?
[That's...probably a little concerning, but there's a lot more to focus on.]
I see. I gleaned a little of what was going on from the presentation, but even that was a lot to take in at once. I suppose I should be glad they're only simulating putting people in body bags, but...well, this feels a little too real for me to give them that courtesy.
no subject
[ Disappeared back into the Nexus Code to be specific - at least in theory - but baby steps. He could get to explaining that later. It is a lot to take in at first. Heck, it's a lot to take in after being in and out of this place a few times. ]
This actually isn't to bad compared with the time they dropped us in the middle of a battle royale dating sim... [ He'll take creepy body bags, apparently. ] But - yeah, it's...we should probably just focus on finding a way out of here.
no subject
[That last word takes him a while, since he isn't used to the abbreviation, but it isn't long before the whole picture clicks in his mind.]
I can only imagine what that entails, but it doesn't sound like a picnic, that is for certain. I'm sorry you had to go through such a thing.
[That being said, they can't stand around talking surrounded by body bags forever.]
Yes, you're right. That should be our first priority. Do you mind if I lead the way?
no subject
[ You don't actually die in VIVID. Out there...
Well, he's a cheery companion, isn't he?
A wary glance. ] Are you sure about that? I mean, I'm the one who's been in this kind of situation before.
no subject