The doctor's office is hardly the funnest place in the world to be. Children crying, adults bickering in hushed, stressed tones, the receptionist looking incredibly bored...
Wait. How did you get here? Weren't you watching a powerpoint a second ago (or enjoying your time in your cozy apartment in Cerealia)? Well, now you're in ViViD, and in an attempt to concentrate on healthy living, CERES has released a new level: Health and You: A New Way to be Healthy. Sure, you could log out at any time if you're a ViViD pro and used to this whole experience, but now that you're here, why not sit back and enjoy it? Indulge in some easy level grinding or something. Besides, it'll take a little while for the game to let you log out without calling you a spineless quitter, and who wants that added to their ViViD rep?
So instead, take a look around the tiled hospital. Visit the receptionist and say hello (she ignores you, go back to your seat). Pick up a snack at the vending machine (except every single one only has these gross things in stock). Maybe you should just test the truth of that old idiom, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away", especially with that weird doctor over there. Is he staring at you? He might be staring at you.
Seriously, go find an apple before he comes over here.
 Well,
well,
well...
isn't it time for your c h e c k - u p?
|
PHASE I [ 08 00 ] If you're a new arrival to this fine city, you will find yourself waking up in a bed after suffering through that unfortunate powerpoint. The sun streams through the window, the bed is uncomfortable but not terrible, and everything is quiet and idyllic... wait. Where are your clothes? You'll suddenly find yourself dressed only in a medical gown (yes, complete with back open) and you seem to be... in a hospital? That's new.
If you take a look at the medical chart attached to the bed, you’ll even find your chart, name on it and everything. That can’t be right, can it? You're the picture of health! You're welcome to wait around for the doctor to dispute these claims but no one's showing up anytime soon (aside from the possible roommate you might have, in the same situation as you). There’s nothing stopping you from leaving the room or looking around at least (except for the lack of clothes), but it’s all hospital as far as the eye can see. Try and be careful what rooms you poke your head into; there are some strange aliens getting their check-ups in there. They don't seem like they want to be bothered.
If you’re not a newcomer, and go into ViViD searching for riches and grand prizes (or just stumble in there by happenstance), the receptionist will stop you and hand you a stethoscope, lab coat, and name tag. Congratulations, you’re a doctor now, and you have free reign over the hospital. Go nuts. Or don’t, because there are still those aliens waiting for their check-ups. Now it’s your turn to get dragged away by a frazzled nurse to administrate a tentacle massage to a patient, as she's now on break! Have fun and don't get the hospital sued.
PHASE II [ 1000 ] Just don’t end up in the basement.
If you end up in the basement by some weird twist of fate (or via trapdoor, which could happen because let's be honest, this is ViViD), you’ll find yourself in a long, empty, blindingly white hallway. The floors are white, the walls are white, the ceiling and the flickering lights are white, and you have the odd feeling you're being followed.
If you turn to see who it is, you’ll find that it’s your younger self. They’re not solid. They’re not real. You can stick a hand through them, and it will go right through. But they are you, whether age 4 or age 14 or anywhere in between, and they’re covered in blood and holding an equally bloody knife. Quietly, as they follow you, they'll mumble, over and over and over again, “It was you, you did it, you killed them, you’re the murderer.”
And they will follow you until you get out of that blindingly white hallway, and away from those blindingly white lights, and if you tried to touch them, there will be blood on your hands. The younger you won't respond to anything you say, just following behind you like the frightening apparition they are. At least nothing else is stopping you from returning to the main hospital, no matter how surreal this experience might be. Just find the stairs.
PHASE III [ 1200 ] As soon as you’ve managed to escape the clutches of that frazzled nurse who still refuses to come back from break, you’ll find that the atmosphere has turned very dark indeed. There’s rain pounding against the windows, and as lightning flashes and thunder booms (it’s all ambiance, you see), there’s the tell-tale Mwahahahaha of an evil, mad doctor at work. What a sinister guy.
Turning a corner will lead you right to his very, very evil doctor's office. He's repurposed one for his sinister deeds and some nurses are looking very put out about it. There's someone attached to the medical table who might need some help and of course, it could be one of your friends that he’s snagged. You might want to help them before that very evil mad doctor tries to add an extra limb or two to your poor friend. Honestly, who needs three elbows?
Or maybe it’s you who’s been grabbed by him and attached to the medical table by strong, metal restraints. Hopefully someone follows the “Mad Scientist: This Way” signs all over the hospital and saves you because really, three elbows?
PHASE IV [ 1400 ] Of course, while the ambiance is still dark, grim and creepy, and the rain still beats upon the glass of the windows, there is a murder...because why wouldn't there be?
The director of the hospital has been found murdered, slumped in a seat in his office, hand in hand with his secretary. Oh no! You’re welcome to investigate the crime scene if you want, but it’s not a very good one; there aren’t any clues, and the director and his secretary actually seem to be alive if you prod them hard enough. They're a bit put out by your interruptions and might ask you to "go solve this somewhere else" the more you bother them. How rude of you to muck up their death scene.
But there’s a new quest for you, and it says this: Pursue Justice or Pursue the Truth?
If you choose to pursue Justice, you will find yourself dropped into a new ViViD level, this one a straight hospital hallway with no doors and alternate routes. Some posters line the hallway but most of the detail is lost in the dim light. Not far ahead of you, The Suspect can be seen running away. (Naturally, you can tell that they are The Suspect by their poorly scribbled out face and black silhouette.) If you should follow them all the way to the end of the hallway (and it is a long, long, long hallway), you can grab The Suspect. Of course, that's if you make it there without falling through any of the trapdoors, tripping over medical supplies or stumbling into less fortunate player characters. If you're successful, you’ll hear a jaunty tune and you’ll receive a bonus of 50,000 ViViD points. Congratulations! You may now log out and continue with your daily life.
If you choose to pursue the Truth, you will find yourself dropped into another ViViD level. This level is a maze; there are filing cabinets stuffed full of papers making up the walls (though the papers are all blank) and they seem oddly impossible to move. You will need to find your way through the maze while avoiding more trapdoors, more scattered medical supplies, the occasional angry cthulhu patient and the occasional player character who has been grabbed by the occasional angry cthulhu patient. Eventually you will be able to find the end of the maze and there you will find a scrap of paper with a clue on it, signed Bellona Recreare. You may now log out and continue with your daily life.
Strangely enough, you can’t seem to access that quest again once you’ve completed it once. Oh well.
BONUS [ xxxx ] There are plenty of sexy nurses wandering the hospital (yes, everywhere) and they know your shots aren’t up to date. Should they manage to catch you and jab you with one of their needles, you’ll have some of the following side effects:
➟ Unstoppable urge to hug the nearest person
➟ Unstoppable urge to kiss the nearest person
➟ Unstoppable urge to dance with the nearest person
➟ Hiccups that last for 20 minutes
➟ Uncontrollable laughter that lasts for 20 minutes
➟ Hallucinations that everyone around you is dead, which also lasts for 20 minutes
You may pick and choose which effects happen at which times or if there is a combination of them. Have fun!
[ 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.
Regarding phase IV, should your characters tackle the alternate ViViD levels and make it all the way through, please PM the mod account to let us know if they picked Justice or the Truth, as that will have an overall impact on the game! You will also receive your plot clue at that time, should your character have gone down the Truth path. Please PM the mod account by July 29th with the decision your character has made; the thread does not have to be completed, that just will allow us to tally up the choices for August's event.
Thank you! |
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Phase One
I'd ask if you can even see or move like that, but I think I already have the answer to that one.
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The alternative is walking around in something that barely covers myself. We weren't given many options.
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I knotted mine up in the back so it would stay closed. [Korra sighs.] Tried looking into some of the nearby rooms for clothes, but no luck so far.
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This is what he looks like underneath, with scars and metal rods planted in him in places; his face is also a mess, but he seems to think less of it this time around, as he goes to hand Korra the fabric. ]
Then use this to cover yourself up.
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What happened? Are any of these fresh?
[They don't look like it, but that doesn't make the flash of worry lessen either. You don't just happen to have metal rods in your skin like that.]
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...Don't worry about it. None of them are fresh.
[ A little standoffishly... but, he offers: ] If looking at them bothers you, take the blanket and go. I can find another one to cover myself with.
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They don't really bother me. It's just... [She offers him an awkward smile, shifting on her feet.] I'm a healer. If any of them are bothering you, I can take a look at them.
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But he takes Korra's smile and again, offers her the blanket. He won't push, though. ]
They're old wounds. I doubt you could do anything about them. [ does that sound mean... give him a second. ] ...But. Thanks.
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Thanks, but... [There's a hint of a smirk now.] I think you were looking pretty comfortable in this one. I can just grab the blanket they had on my bed real quick.
[She props a hand on her hip, looking a bit more relaxed now.] You planning to check out the rest of the hospital?
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Yeah. That seems to be the only way out of this place.
[ A Cthulu doctor is watching them from the corner, looking out for any funny business... ]
I wouldn't think you'd want to stay here for longer than necessary.
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Yeah, I'll grab my blanket and we can get outta here. I'm not sticking around to find out if they were joking about the gills or not.
[Korra brushes past him and nabs her blanket, wrapping it around herself as she returns.]
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After thinking about it, though, he has to ask: ]
Gills?
[ He has a feeling he knows what this is about, though. ] So you were given one of those ridiculous medical files too.
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[She keeps up with him without trouble, eyes scanning the hallway for any threats as they walk.]
Do you remember anything before waking up here?
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Yeah. A presentation. Something about our worlds being destroyed.
Did they give you the same speech?
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Do you believe them, about restoring everything if we help?
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It's a convenient excuse for them to use us. There's nothing to believe.
[ Wow, what an optimist, huh. ]
But regardless, it's the only thing we've been given.
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If there's any kind of doubt, I guess the first step would be to figure out what's really going on.
[Her gaze lands on one of the doctors inspecting a chart in the hall. Is that blood on him? Yes... it is. Korra keeps a wary eye on him as they walk by him.]
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...Judging by all of this, nothing good.
[ He swerves the both of them down a different hall, to avoid a particularly persistent-looking doctor. ]
Are you afraid?
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No, not...exactly. I've been in bad situations before, but this whole place has me on edge. I just don't like not knowing what I'm dealing with.
[It means people might get hurt, for one.]
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That's not a useless emotion. If you're afraid, it means you have a healthy amount of caution. It'll be useful, if and when something happens.
[ Not that he wants anything to happen. ]
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My teacher said once that I shouldn't feel bad about feeling scared. That keeping it bottled up instead of acknowledging it just throws you out of balance.
[Korra sighs.] I don't think he expected anything like this to happen, though.
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[ Her smile is a little disarming— he didn't expect it— but he accepts it, quietly.
A nurse hobbles towards them, again, so Adolf's also just going to steer the both of them away... the hospital is getting darker and darker, or is that just his imagination?! ]
...Though, yeah. I doubt he could have come up with a scenario like this. As if people didn't dislike hospitals enough already.
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Looks to me like they just picked out the creepiest doctors and nurses they could find and put them all in here. I hope the rest of the colony isn't like this.
[When she spies the next nurse that crosses their path, Korra actually does stop in her tracks this time.]
That nurse doesn't have a face. It's not just me, right?
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...yeah, her featureless face is pointed straight at the both of them. She also seems to be making chattering noises, despite her not. Having a mouth.
Creepy. ]
Not just you. [ She's hissing now, oh man. ] It's plenty expressive, though.
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