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?
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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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OTA!
[ No weapons, no armor, no nothing but half a gown and an incomprehensible sheet of paper- but despite all that, Styx sure as hell isn't sticking around to see what this place has in store for him. Problem is, there aren't a whole lot of places to hide, even for a stealthy little goblin bastard like himself- ]
[ Which is why he's currently hiding behind a potted plant in the hallway, waiting for the crowd to disperse a little. And anyone who spots him- or just passes by his hiding spot- is gonna get a throwing dagger to the head! ]
[ ... except he doesn't actually have any weapons on him right now, so they'll just get hit with a balled-up medical chart. Goddamn reflexes. ]
Phase III
Holy shit, don't you ever give up?
[ Styx doesn't seem too put out over being cornered and chased up a cabinet- for one, it clearly puts him out of easy reach of the mad doctor. Not for lack of trying, since the guy's attempting all sorts of ways to extend his reach or make himself a stepladder. ]
I mean, there're bound to be easier marks out there, right? Like people who won't climb up furniture, or stab you in the eye the second he gets his hands on any sharp object- not that I'm saying that I would, of course. But I totally fucking would.
- hey! You over there! Do me a favor and throw me that scalpel, would you?
[ ... aaand the goblin's just going to point straight at you, which has the unfortunate side effect of making the mad doctor whirl around and start moving toward you. ]
phase i;
H-hey!!
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Yeah, I know, right? What kind of asshole runs around throwing paper at people? I'll, uh, keep you posted when I find the perp, so you just go... do whatever it is kids do.
[ Aaand he's just gonna start making shooing motions with his hands. ]
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[ What... even is he? He looks like some of the monsters she's encountered here, but none of them had ever talked to her. ]
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Uh-huh. You're trying to escape, even though you're dressed up like one of those quacks that put us here in the first place. What, you beat one of them up and stole their jacket?
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[ ... after a moment, he quietly closes it again. No fucking way, no human can be this guileless. ]
What, and you just went along with that, dressing up like those assholes? If I had my daggers back there, you'd be breathing through the new hole in your skull!
[ a tacit admission of guilt re: throwing paper balls, but shhh. ]
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[ TAKING FIVE STEPS BACK, YEP. ]
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[ Why's she gotta be so worried? It's not like there's anything inherently scary about offhand murder, right?? ]
... oh, calm down, I don't have any daggers on me right now.
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phase i!
[ that's the shout hawke lets out as she's suddenly hit in the face with a piece of paper. she glares off in the direction it came from before looking genuinely startled!
is that... no way, that's a darkspawn. here? hawke takes a nervous step back, swallowing because she doesn't have her sword and even if it's vivid, she doesn't want to risk blight and just --
shit! in a loud and angry voice: ]
I'm going to kill you!
[ once she finds a weapon. one sec, looking around her for something. ]
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[ Jeez, and all he did- as far as he knows, at least- was throw a ball of paper at her head. Talk about touchy! Styx stands up fully and holds his hands up in the universal gesture of "I'm unarmed so don't kill me please." ]
Look, I'm sorry about the paper ball, alright? I thought you were someone else!
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yeah. ]
What in Maker's name are you doing talking?!
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[ Styx didn't live to be a hundred by taking hits like that. The same reflexes that made him throw paper balls at passerby let him dodge away from the flowerpot, which shatters against the wall. Rest in pieces, innocent little fern, you were too good for this world. ]
Okay, yeah, you got me- I'm a fucking ventriloquist, you're futilely attacking an extremely lifelike puppet, and I'm ACTUALLY throwing my voice from... right behind you!
[ He points over Hawke's shoulder. It's worth a shot, because any port in a storm, right? ]
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and to hawke's credit, she doesn't look behind her! instead she looks madder and finally spots a janitorial cart nearby. she'll reach over and pull the mop right out of it before... snapping it in half and taking a step towards him with the pointy end in her hand. err. ]
Oh, if you're a puppet then I suppose there's no harm in me shoving this through your throat?
[ this is not going to end well. ]
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Now hold on a sec, let's not be hasty, alright? I dunno what you've got against goblins, but I ain't like the others!
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Are you going to tell me it's because you talk? That's really just even more reason to put you down here and now.
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Are you kidding me? That oughta make me less of an abomination! In anyone's eyes! C'mon, let's be honest here- one of us is displaying some homicidal tendencies right now, and it sure as hell ain't me, toots.
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i.
And she blinks.
Ruby leans down and picks up the paper, blinking some more, and slowly turns her attention to where it came from. Ah. The plant.
Yes, the plant threw the paper-- no ruby.]
Um... Is someone there?
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No. No one's here. Now go away and don't look behind the talking potted plant, you hear?
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[She draws out the last syllable as she wanders slooowly around the plant and--]
Gotcha!
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[ Styx shuffles so he's got the plant between him and Ruby. ]
You had one job! One job! And you blew it by not following directions!
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Why are you hiding though?
[Clearly this is more important.]
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What, do you think I'm playing hide-and-seek with the damn nurses!? I'm hiding because I don't want to get strapped to a fucking dissection table and turned into a lab rat!
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[She's still following!!! But now she considers that thoughtfully.]
Well, when you put it that way, I guess that makes sense.
But do you really think that'll happen?
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... do you really think I can afford to stick around and find out if I'm right? It's my hide we're talking about here, Red.
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