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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[Speaking of blood, he wipes his bloodied hand against the doctor's coat irritably. If the apparition is just that, how could this happen? ViViD isn't a true imitation of reality, after all. But of all the visions, it had to give him one of himself when he'd been ignorant and life had been simple.]
Good grief, what's with this level?
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I know. I don't like it, either.
Hospitals aren't supposed to be like this.
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[It isn't a jab so much as a clipped agreement that hospitals shouldn't be like this. He stops wiping, blood now smeared along the side of the coat and faded on his hand.]
Let's just clear this level and get out of here.
[If he has to be honest, he prefers upstairs to the basement.]
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Everything is quieter, and the lights are less blinding (though some still flicker). She stops once it finally hits her, half-turning.]
They're gone!
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They are . . .
[There's something he'd very much like to do.]
1/2
Yes.]
Good riddance.
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......Actually, his expression is pretty hard to read. It's almost like she's never seen it on him before.]
What?
lol what's sleep
[It isn't a conscious need but an intense, primitive urge, and there's no fighting it. In fact, the following sensation is as though he were a puppet bound by strings: IV closes the gap between them, reaches down to cup Leia's cheeks (thoughtless - there's still blood on the one hand), and then presses his lips against hers in a clumsy, chaste kiss.]
1/2 - idk but 3 hrs is totally enough
more like impossible.
Leia waits for him to finish his sentence, knowing and yet not knowing at the same time that he never would. As he closes in, she has to resist the urge to back away. She only manages one step before he catches her. His hands are cold.
Her heart pounds.]
IV...?
[A brief whisper is all she can manage. Her eyes are wide as their lips meet, and any breath she had is gone.]
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......
[It looks like she wants to say something. She opens her mouth, but closes it again, because for once she's been left speechless.
There's only uneven breathing as she thinks. Maybe she's due to wake up in a minute?]
Hic.
[Leia jumps. Embarrassed, she covers her mouth. Was that--?]
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That's what it was, wasn't it? In disbelief, his words tumble out in a wary tone.]
What was that?
[No, he doesn't mean the hiccup.]
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Leia lowers her hand, after being distracted by this. Similarly, her gaze lowers at his question, because she wishes she knew herself.
What just happened?]
A... kiss, I think.
[......Not what he meant, either? Hm.]
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[It's a controlled shout, quiet but forced, and he isn't doing it to yell at Leia. He turns so that his shoulder is pointed in her direction, looking away in thought.]
But why . . .
[Why is Leia suddenly hiccuping so much, anyway?]
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Hic.
Goddamnit.]
Y- You seriously don't know? Because I was going to ask you.
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[And him being himself, he didn't stop to think. Admitting the failure warms his cheeks, but wording it like that suddenly reminds him of the dancing boy. IV snaps his head up in epiphany.]
It must have been the shot.
1/2
The blood, though...
She runs her hand along the affected side, as if noticing it for the first time.]
You surprised me.
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Are you talking about those-- [hic!] ...creepy nurses?
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Earlier, a kid couldn't stop dancing. I thought he wasn't making any sense, but now . . .
[He dares to glance at Leia, finding himself staring when he notices the smeared blood on her cheek from his earlier stunt.]
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Her thoughts drift as she considers his words.]
Dancing... kissing, and... [hic!]
[Under her breath, she groans. She's starting to get a little irritated at being interrupted. She sucks in a breath, quietly holding it; and meanwhile her hands are balled into fists. Determined as ever.
...She can't stop thinking about it. She wonders if this is how Jude felt, when she kissed him (similarly without knowing why).
What is an actual kiss supposed to feel like?]
I guess that has to be it. [She breathes out, the hiccups subsiding for a time as she remembers that she has more important things to ponder. Not that it really helps.] One of them got me too when I had to fight off two of them, but I didn't think much of it.
[She doesn't sound entirely convinced, but it's a good theory. Idly, her hands ease and she rubs at the spot on her shoulder where it happened.
......hic.]
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The crease remains in his brow, albeit much less severe than earlier. He looks ahead and his breathing evens out insofar that he could be just holding his breath. It's not silent, though; Leia's hiccups soundly prevent that.]
. . . Let's go before we get another ridiculous urge.
[He has nothing against Leia, but he'd really rather not kiss her again like that. The circumstance is all wrong. It's disrespectful to her, too.]
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Kissing her is... pretty ridiculous. So is her kissing.
As they take their first steps onto the first floor again, Leia tries to get her bearings.]
I feel-- [She speaks too soon.] ...better already.
[SIGH. In her case, it's much less an urge and much more a punishment.]
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I'd tell you to drink some water, but I don't trust the fountains here.
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[She pouts and continues to pace herself behind him. All this excitement does leave her a bit... thirsty, hiccups aside.]
I saw one and went to see what was up, but that's how I fell.
[She's 99% sure it was just a fake or a prop now.]
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[That makes much more sense as to why someone would be down here than what he did in trying to escape an alien. With any luck, that particular alien is no longer prowling the hallway.]
They get a kick out of tricking us, don't they? Watch out for whatever looks tempting from now on.
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She nods, though. She can definitely appreciate the fact that he's looking out for her, but that isn't anything new to their ViViD adventures.]
Luckily, that doesn't -- [hic.] leave a whole lot.
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1/2
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