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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iv
[That authoritative voice is very familiar... could it be? Togami? From back on the island? Forgive him for mistaking you, real!Togami.]
Togami?
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Yes, that's correct. Where are you? How long have you been here? [ He means the maze right now, but if Hinata feels like answering in general, well, that's helpful too. ]
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[That's a good question. Hinata looks around him, but backtracking in his mind tells him quickly enough where he is.] I think I could find where you are if you give me a few minutes.
[And,] I haven't been in here too long. Twenty minutes...?
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I can wait, if you're confident. [ If he's not, and if he ends up stumbling around lost for 10 minutes, then Togami will be less impressed. ]
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[If anyone has this, it's Hinata Hajime!! That's not always the case, but today, oh, today's good.] It'll help if you keep talking, though.
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[ But what sort of conversation should they have... well. Togami had already been clued in by Kirigiri and Naegi that Hinata was here, and from what he was told, Hinata would seem to be pretty aware of everything that happened on Jabberwock Island—as much as Togami is. But there's no harm in confirming the specifics with the person himself. Kirigiri and Naegi don't personally remember the situation enough to relay information about it most effectively.
Rather than explain any of that train of thought out loud, he jumps right to: ] What do you remember happening right before coming here?
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[—was in Haven isn't something that Togami would know anything about. So he puts a stop on it for now. That explanation can come later.
All right. Then... Something gives him pause, just because he wonders if Togami wouldn't ask something else. A "why am I alive" sort of affair that he's heard not just once before.]
That's kind of hard to explain without going into everything else, but I was just...waking up. [From the program...]
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Let me be more precise about what I'm looking for. Before coming here to Cerealia, I last recall leaving the island on the boat after shutting down the Neo World Program. I want to know how much more advanced you are from there, if at all.
[ If Hinata doesn't know about any of that... well, that's not Togami's problem. He should probably find out about it anyway. ]
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You're the real Togami?!
[Well, by his spluttering, it appears he remembers.]
I... the last thing I remember is waking up from the program, after it shut down. It'd just gone all white, and I think I saw the inside of a room, or a pod... You really remember?
[Like, listen. He's never met any Kirigiri, Togami or Naegi who remembers that time, all right? It's a shock.]
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[ That's kind of a stupid question—clearly people here tell each other things all the time, and even though Kirigiri and Naegi don't remember the Neo World Program or the Future Foundation, they'd at least heard about it. So it would be reasonable to assume that Togami could have heard about it from somewhere and lied, for whatever reason.
He is telling the truth, though... ]
If you want to test my knowledge, you can feel free to ask whatever you like.
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No... I thought, for a second, you were Togami...er, our Togami.
[That is, the Super High School Level Impostor. But to them, he was Togami.]
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[ He speaks bluntly, with some disdain. This Togami isn't even going to recognize the other Togami as a "Togami" at all. ]
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[Ah, well... Hinata grimaces slightly at the disdainful tone, but he doesn't deny it, precisely.] But you're not that Togami... Sorry. It's hard for me to tell the difference between your voices yet.
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[ But he stops himself right there. He himself has met Leon already, after all. He knows that things aren't as cut and dry as they are in the "real world".
Also maybe it's like, a really dick move to rub in the tragedy of people's friends basically dying??? Okay he doesn't actually care as much about that part. ]
...Whatever. I'll forgive you just this once. [ It's not like there are going to be repercussions if it happens a second time either, but he's not going to admit that. ]
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...Thanks. [His smile is probably twitching.]
I'm almost there. [He's pretty sure it's just another two turns, around this corner and the next.]
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Hinata does sound close, but in a maze, that doesn't necessarily mean he'll arrive soon, depending on how many twists and turns are put into the path between the two points. He'll remain optimistic that Hinata knows what he's doing though. ]
Good. Do you think you have a decent idea of a path out to anywhere relevant?
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[Luckily, this is Hinata... and sure enough, Togami will see Hinata's hair the moment before Hinata himself sidles out from around a corner. He glances around, stops when his gaze settles on Togami.]
...Though, honestly, it's just the ways I haven't tried yet. I'm sure one of them will lead us out of here, but we'll still need to try to figure out which one.
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It's more insight than I have. [ He walks up carefully to meet Hinata, stopping near him and crossing his arms. ] So, lead us towards one of them, then.
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Yeah-- this way, Togami. [OFF THEY GO.]
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It's not like it's so thought-intensive that they can't have a conversation at the same time, though, and Hinata's someone he'd like to talk to anyway. Clearly a lot of time has passed for Hinata since they parted ways on Jabberwock Island, even if that time was spent in different worlds, and Togami is curious about how things have progressed for him. ]
Are you the one who told the others about what happened to you?
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sobs]
Yeah. I think I'm usually the one who winds up giving that explanation.
[He just gets to it first. And he's in the best place to explain.]
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[ He puts a little weight on his words—not quite a threat, but maybe the portent of one if Hinata shows signs of having strayed from the straight and narrow. ]
So I suppose nothing unfortunate has happened since the conclusion of the program? [ ...Well, their current situation is pretty unfortunate too, in a different sense, so he quickly and bluntly clarifies what he actually meant: ] In terms of regression.
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Regression? [...] No. I haven't fallen back into despair or anything.
[That said, there have been moments. But even those are few and far in-between and he's never gone after innocents.]
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[ His sentiment is genuine, but he still sounds firmly like he expects Hinata to keep it up. From Togami's perspective, Hinata does need to claw his way up into earning respect, after everything that happened. He doesn't have a lot of sympathy for how difficult it must be—for Hinata in particular, given how his brain was literally altered...
But if nothing's gone wrong, then there's nothing to worry about anyway, is there? They're on the same page. ] I hadn't heard any evidence of such, but it would be foolish of me to assume.
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Yeah, I understand. There's been nothing like a relapse for me or the others... but most of them aren't in their real bodies, except for me and Komaeda.
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