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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ota
[Shiho had been having fun playing (terrifying) doctor with her (equally terrified) patients, prescribing horrible cures and diagnoses with a cheerfulness that would have worried the doctor she knew back home (and gotten her a lecture that she wouldn't have listened to about professionalism). But she probably should have been having a little less fun and paying attention to the game, because maybe then she wouldn't have fallen down into the basement and gotten followed by what looked like a five year-old version of herself, dressed in a smock that she still remembered.
Only covered in blood and looking like she'd just crawled
out of a TVout of a horror movie. Shiho turns abruptly and begins to walk as fast as she can down the hallway. She didn't see anything. She can't hear anything. And she's getting out of here, oh god, is it still following her?!Hopefully you're watching where you're going, because she's either walking past you, or through you to get away from the thing (which she's still pretending that she can't see).]
No no no no no no no no no....
BONUS
[Shiho was sure that the first nurse had deserved that kick to the stomach that sent her to the floor. And the second one also deserved the tentacle-covered patient that Shiho had used to distract her (and possible crush her).
But eventually, she'd been overwhelmed and held down, still struggling while the nurses (with iron-like grips) had jabbed a needle into her arm. For one panicked moment, after they'd moved on and left her curled on the floor, she'd wondered what the hell they'd just injected her with. She couldn't read herself and risk a feedback loop so she'd stumbled to her shaky feet and looked around.
.......either she'd suddenly gone insane or something was telling her to hug that tentacle-covered patient that was still wiggling on the ground. So she kicks him and runs in the opposite direction, eventually finding a corner and hiding in it, her arms over her head.]
Phase II
It didn't take him long to catch up to her. He jogged slightly ahead of her and did his best to grab her attention with a friendly wave.]
Hey, don't worry about that fake ghost. It can't hurt you so there's really nothing to be scared of.
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[She says, looking back and then almost jumping out of reflex because now there were two?!
The younger Shiho looks up, eyes tired and accusing:
It was you...you did it. Murderer.]
And what the hell does that mean?! Is this some kind of Kinda*chi reference?!
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[Her lie might have been more convincing without the startled jumping and tense power walking.]
I doubt it. I think the programmers just wanted their ghost NPCs to have something vague and sinister to say in order to spook us.
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[She'd...continue running but then that would be proving that he's right. But she does give the two
ghoststhings a wary look in case they felt like jumping at her.]And that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If they wanted them to really spook us, they should have had them talk about how they're full of regrets and that we should join them or something!
[Shiho's shouting because she's certain that'll make her seem less scared.]
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Bonus
Is that wall really interesting or is your face just too pretty for the world, princess?
[What a classy guy. He will come over to crouch next to her! Or, ah... Try before loosing his balance and landing on his butt with a wince like a loser.]
Sheesh, my cool points are going down by the second I can feel it....
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[Shiho would be the first to (shamelessly) admit that her face was indeed too pretty for this world. And a guy who'd just tried to hit on her only to fall flat on his butt is cause for pointing and laughing.
Instead, she's moving forward and wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug. And then she freezes, a blush spreading its way over her face as she wonders whether or not anyone would miss him if she drugged him and locked him away in a closet so he could never tell anyone what she'd just done.]
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[Oh, that kind of hurts. And maybe, just maybe, throws him off. He's not in the habit of participating in hugs. It reminds him of-- He's not going to think about that person. Reaching up slowly he pats her head like a dog. This is surely the correct response.]
Looks like I need to tone down my animal magnetism. Do you want this macho older guy to show you a good time~?
[Punch once for yes and twice for no. The harder the more sincere!]
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She doesn't punch him because hands were delicate and she wasn't trained to punch things. She can't slap him because that means accidentally touching him and reading him with psychometry. So she settles for the next best thing, which is to pull back and glare at him, her face still red with embarrassment.]
Hah! A good time? You can't even stay on your feet, you pervert!
[She'd pull back further and let go of him completely instead of leaving her arms hanging loosely around his shoulders....but whatever they've injected her with is telling her that she should just keep hugging him and staying close.]
Bonus
Miss Shiho...? What wrong? Did someone hurt you?
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Shiho scrambles back into the wall, pressing her hands against the floor.]
No! I-I'm fine! I just-
[Need to hug...no, wait, need to escape!]
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Just...? You don't look so well...
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[She snaps this right back at him, her hands lifting from the ground of their own accord (because damn it, she really wants to hug him for some unfathomable reason) before she puts them right back on the ground where she can see them.
Somehow she ends up looking like she's kneeling in front of him.]
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bonus
Are you alright, miss? [asks the fox on his shoulder.]
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But not alright and funny enough that she should be wanting to hug them.]
No! Stay away from me!
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I-is something wrong? Nakigitsune isn't here to hurt you! [hic, hic!]
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...until she notices that she's taking one step, and then another in his direction.]
This-...This isn't about you hurting me, this is-
[She's trying to stop walking but she can't, ugh.]
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bonus
Okay. What's going on here. Changge follows after Shiho until she stops then tilts her head.]
What is the matter?
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But she's still turning around.]
Nothing!
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[What a strange hair colour.]
If something is bothering you, you can tell me, miss. If it is within my ability to render aid, I will be glad to do so. [Look at her pulling this charming Tang Dynasty gentleman charade.]
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Phase II
Enough so that he was more focused on keeping an eye on Baby Abel than where he was going, so with Shiho distracted, and himself distracted, well - collision was inevitable. Wham, bam, two teenagers ploughing into each other. Ouch.]
Aurgh! [Kazuya was more startled than hurt, but he still let out a rather unmanly shriek - guess he was more on edge than he thought - flailing his hands at Shiho in case he was being attacked (defend his beautiful face at all costs!)] Don't go for the eyes!!
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H-Hey! Stop!
[She was still going to make fun of him for the shrieking later.]
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Oh. You're just a person. [he dropped his arms, suddenly feeling very foolish. Hopefully she had been too distracted by his cool hand flailing to hear his very undignified screeching] What the hell! Don't sca- startle me like that! I could've hurt you, y'know!
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