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! |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ohno poor guy!
but heine also knows fear too, and the many faces of it. when he throws the maniacal doctor, his action to follow close behind is instinctual, canine tension as he stalks forward and the only thing that deters him is the voice to his side.
his glare is near reluctant with fingers still itching to tear at the doctor's throat (see how he likes being cut into for a change), and it's lucky perhaps (to others) that he isn't exactly at his best right now, still reeling from this entire place, and still a touch too tired to deal with anything fullhearted
instead, he's looking from the man crumpled on the floor to the one that admirably dodged that flying projectile and back again.
the fear registers a moment later, and the expression has him straightening with an averse look cast makoto's way. hysteria is the last thing he'd want to deal with if he decides to tear into someone's throat. ) Yeah. ( said as if it was the most obvious thing to do what do you mean you don't throw people. his hand goes to pass against the exposed metal of his semicollar at his neck. ) He deserved it.
rip ......
Deserved it.
[ right. okay, that probably made sense. maybe. it's hard to believe makoto's life has come to point where he has to capitulate to irrational claims made on the pop-fly by guys who meshed better as protagonists b-rated cinema flicks, just that side of portentously feral that he's distinctly avoiding his companion's gaze, instead staring at the man gone slantslide down the hall. he grimaces, equal parts mortified and anxious, as he scrabbles to drag the physician up by the length of his gangly arms, watching the scalpel plummet from one fisted hand with a ringing clink. ]
What did he do to you?
[ he cautiously glances up, only to get his eyes drawn in by the disconcerting collar affixed to his neck with a concern he doesn't bother vocalizing. eventually, makoto heaves him up in one blundering maneuver, glancing about to scope the area for any other possible onlookers. ]
... Well, he's passed out cold now. We can't exactly leave him lying out in the hall like this.
no subject
he watches the other move to help the unconscious man, clearly displeased by the misguided concern. he's catching the eyes drawn to his collar, and drops his hand away with a dismissive wave. ) This wasn't him, but -
- He was running experiments. ( what he said was i want to run some tests but the implication was heavy. or maybe heine's actions were dictated by the sort of reflex unwittingly bred into a disobedient dog. besides, the office was filled with diagrams and drawings of tests and extra limbs sewn on.) Tried to drag me along. ( his smirk is serrated and mean as makoto lifts the man up and he's reaching over to pull against the doctor's clothes, more a rough action than an attempt at alleviating the weight from makoto's hold. ) Let's strap him to his own gurney. Won't be trying any bullshit on anyone else.
( beyond that, he couldn't care less if he left him out in the middle of the hallway. let people trip over him. )
no subject
Let's leave him out in the open. If the nurses find him, they'll probably guess what happened and take care of the rest. That way, they won't bring either of us in for questioning.
[ read: jail isn't fun.
abated, he cursorily brushes off his lab coat, straightening to address his companion without immediately inciting some kind of negative reaction warranting being jettisoned out the window. he doesn't know the whole story, but judging from the screams emanating down the hall earlier, makoto could probably take his companion's personal account at face-value. ]
We should go before they catch us, but I wanted to ask, um — ... you're new here, right? I don't think I've seen you around Tellus before.
no subject
of course, of all the people to nearly hit, it would be one with a polar outlook on things like this. but maybe it wasn't a bad thing that he didn't understand the instinctual reasoning behind heine's actions. not everyone was bred into carnage. a hard notion to grasp, having only spent so little time around others here, but not a strictly bad one. he wasn't dwelling on that now. )
You think they'll actually care enough to try and ask us things? No one tried to help his other patients. ( the implication behind his tone is heavy and obvious - this hospital isn't that sort of place.
only then does the lab coat actually register to heine, and he gives it a sour look before starting down the hall with an agreeing nod thrown for the accidental companion to follow him because despite the callous nature of the personnel here, he'd rather not stick to one spot for long anyway. what if one of those hellishly creepy nurses shows up and tries to stab him with a needle. again. ) Yeah, that's right. Got the whole of that ridiculous introduction before waking up in here. ( a beat, as though reluctant to carry a conversation. ) How long have you been here, then?
no subject
once finished, he glances up at heine, eyes sloe-dark under the disparate lack of refulgence, condensation warping the glass windows just aside of them. thunder, overwrought in a display of elemental histrionics, shoots down and makoto flinches, just once. ]
We shouldn't jump to conclusions. For all we know, he might not even be a part of this hospital, just someone who snuck in. I have it on good authority that I'm not a doctor here, but I can't really explain away the lab coat they gave me.
[ his companion's heretical denouncement of medical institutions doesn't fall on deaf ears, though.
that said, makoto's more than placated to trail alongside him down the hall, if just to make sure that his acquaintance doesn't automatically resort to as his go-to method for dealing with issues. some people might not be so lucky dodging a body hurtling through the air at the drop of a pin. ]
Three months, more or less. I know some people have been here much longer than me.
[ he's all too implausibly honest for a reason he's unwilling to examine at length. ]
I don't think I introduced myself earlier. I'm Makoto.
[ a pause stagnates between them, and then, tentatively: ]
Anyways, the sooner we can finish the quest, the sooner we can leave ViViD. Is this the only part of the hospital you checked?
no subject
( animosity is engraved deep in his marrow and instinct is weaponized, part of that purpose he doesn't know, doesn't care to know. for something borne of violence it is easier to recognize the very same thing; it is a lot harder, however, to ease away to some semblance of normalcy.
walking away does more good than it should; it puts literal distance between flesh and bone that the hound still wants to tear into. the companion sidling beside him is a distraction, a pull towards something else and conversation acts as equilibrium.
a roll to his shoulders, even as the shock of thunder sends cold shivers down his Spine and his glance towards the other is a sidelong sliver of red. idly, he wonders why the guy is even following him, but he doesn't ask.
badou would probably have a thing or two to say about first impressions but the truth is, heine has always been terrible at them. )
Oh - ( 3 months and longer? well, why should it matter, if they're told their worlds all went to hell, anyway?
heine halts his steps as they reach an intersection of hallways, a small pivot to face makoto instead. ) - Heine.
( he shakes his head, and an exhale is pushed slow and level. ) Been to the basement too. I don't think it's a good idea to go back. ( seeing his younger, bloodstained self was more annoying than terrible, but some child shot him jfc ) You have any idea about this quest?
no subject
[ there's no rationale to it — just the nascent, expectant fear that he might be left behind in the disconsolation of the halls without another passing glance. fear echoing like some kind of feverish delirium sluicing all the way down to his hands, mapped along his aorta, the pulse-point of his trepidation more telling than his gaze spilling out of the darkness. inexorable. ]
It's a little too late for me, anyways. I've already seen what's down there.
[ his head's still ringing strangely from the encounter in the basement, peril cast in the semantics of a shining, upturned face, the incomprehensible accusation rising from the throat of his younger facsimile, and the blood — sanguine, lurid under the white-hot glare, fingers spanning with every intention to latch onto him until makoto clumsily stumbled out of the hallway with leaden feet, bent double and one misstep from dry-retching on the steps.
instead makoto swallows the crowding doubts whole, pivoting past heine and down the leftmost corridor, the windows and the thunderstorm upending itself outside already melting from sight. it's a while longer until he breaks the brittle silence while idling in the landing, scrutinizing his trainers with some kind of perturbed focus before reluctantly meeting the other man's line of sight. ]
I've already checked most of the floors before that. I think the only place I haven't looked yet is the top floor. If we take the elevator, it should lead us right to the top.
[ it's eerie how much heine resembles rin, in a sense; ferocity generously ringing his eyes, sharper with his neck craned, molten even when bathed in the warping gloom. self-conscious, makoto attempts to dispel the cold membrane of fear shivering its way to him by preemptively gesticulating to the half-opened entryway situated just adjacent to the elevators. ]
Unless you think the stairs might be better?