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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[All it took was the quickest flash of bare skin for Kagari to avert his eyes and make a vow to permanently never look down again. He didn't need that kind of view when this nightmare hospital was strange enough.
He shrugs, gesturing with the scalpel in one hand.]
Maybe, maybe not. Could be an in-game reward or weird powerup or whatever for all I know. Guess you won't know 'til this level is beaten.
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[ So ironic that Walter comes from a video game, himself. ]
By the by... Where exactly do you hail from? You're not native to this Cerealia place, are you?
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[Of all the questions he might be asked right now, that wasn't one he was expecting. Was this kid actually making smalltalk? He frowns, then shakes his head, loose hair falling in his face and making him frown distractedly for a moment.]
Not that it matters anymore, but no, I'm not from here. Before... this, I lived in Tokyo.
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But he isn't able to complain aloud. Not after he hears Kagari's answer. ]
Hold a moment. [ He grabs for his arm. ] Did you just say Tokyo?
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Yeah? What, you've heard of it?
[He'd never cared to look into politics and what the outside world might know about Japan despite its isolationist policies; none of that had mattered to him as an Enforcer. It's possible that other worlds might have had Japan's and even Tokyo's too, though.]
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[ He releases Kagari's arm without protest. He did it impulsively, wanting to stop him just so he could hear him clearly. ]
I hail from the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, the land above Tokyo. I came to Cerealia with the impression that I was the only one from my world brought here. Perhaps I was wrong.
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Say what? There was nothing like that anywhere near Tokyo. Nothing lived above it, anyway. You must be from some totally different world, there, so I think you're on your own.
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The Tokyo I speak of was overrun by demons. [ He gives a sigh. ] But I've digressed.
Let's continue.
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He can't help but to snort at the thought; demons, being real. How ridiculous.]
Yeah, we didn't have any magic creatures running around. So that's two Tokyo's that struck out on the whole "not getting blown up anyway" deal, maybe there's more. If you care that much, look it up once we're done in here.
[It's not like he has any plans to do so. There was no point in going around digging up information on places that didn't exist anymore, even if it was an entire planet.]
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Also lol Kagari. Walter's been to a Tokyo that has been blown up before, too. But he won't bring it up if it doesn't amount to anything -- Kagari isn't from the same Tokyo apparently. ]
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What? Look it up, like on the 'net or I don't know, maybe they have libraries here or something. Don't tell me you've never searched anything before.
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I can't read. [ So frank about it too. He has no shame, since it's not like he had the chance to learn. Only rich people can afford that type of education. And you don't need to know how to read to fight! Or fish, for that matter. ] And nets are for fishing.
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You're serious, aren't you? Like, you aren't even joking a little bit.
[Even latent criminals, if they were mentally competent, got an education. He'd gotten something like a standard education in the isolation facility, and had even passed certifications equivalent to whatever normal children got in real schools.]
Man, you really are from the dark ages or something.
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Why, is that surprising to you that I can't read? You're giving me the strangest look.
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[His knowledge of anything remotely related to history comes from video games now, but he's fairly certain that at least some of those things really happened.]
Surprising? Of course it's surprising-- even little kids can read. Though I guess if you're from ye olde Mikado or whatever, maybe that's normal.
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Just meeting Kagari, his overall impression of him is that he comes from a background of privilege. He sees that he hasn't worked a hard day out in the sun in his life by his pale skin. Walter doesn't like to judge a person by their appearance or background, but he likes to be cautious. Especially when they're as abrasive as Kagari. His patience is running thin, now. ]
Alright, enough prattling on from you. Now that we've got that sorted, it's about time we move on then.
[ He gives him a small shove... Get moving, kiddo. ]
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More than anything though, Kagari doesn't like being talked down to like he's getting reprimanded by an Inspector. That life is over, and he doesn't have to take that from someone that's in the same position he's in down here.]
Don't. [Don't talk to him like that, don't touch him, take your pick. Either way, he's stalking off ahead of Walter, unwilling to just follow him around because he said so.]
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He does't suspect he's touched a nerve so much as he has wounded a bit of his pride. It doesn't matter much to him. More than that, with the older man walking ahead of him, he can see a glimpse of a bright colour folded into his clothes.
Reaching out, Walter plucks a green bobby pin right off of his shirt. ]
What's this?
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He feels a slight tug at his gown and whirls around, eyes catching his hair pin in Walter's fingers. He smirks, and gestures at his hair where he normally keeps it pinned back, though it's not very impressive with it hanging freely in his face at the moment.]
It's usually for keeping my hair out of my face. What, you don't have those where you come from, either?
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This is typically a woman's accessory.
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[He holds a hand out expectantly.]
I'll take it back now, though.
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You can spare this one, can't you? [ He noticed that Kagari has a lot of bobby pins on the back of his gown. ] If you're not using it to keep the hair out of your face, then you can let me borrow it for the rest of the trial.
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[He is still. Holding his hand out.] I mean, you didn't care before, why start caring now?
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Don't complain if you end up getting an eyeful. [ He rolls his shoulder, limbering up some. He had chucked his body against his enemy prior to this, so he's feeling sore. ]
You've any fight left in you?
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Please, like I'd want that to end up being something we talk about.
[That makes him raise an eyebrow and smile. The stakes might not be nearly as high as in the real world, but he wasn't going to just lay down and lose to a game, either.]
Seriously? I'm not the one crashing into walls and wrecking up the place. I've got plenty left in me.
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