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}
no subject
he's never really been admitted to any hospital before so as far as first impressions go, it is a horrible one. the mechanical ambient sound of machines, the glaring lights and the whiteness of the walls all remind him of that place and his nerves fray at the edge of anxiety that had the Dog sneering at the back of his mind.
people deal with stress differently; with fear and bad circumstance and maybe the panicked motions of the one he bumps into serves as counterweight to his own and he manages to catch a flailing arm before it connects and opens his mouth to snap something out when -
- when rin's forehead is deftly colliding with his nose and though heine takes a step back his grip on the arm holds fast and pinching. his other hand comes up to his nose, where pain blossoms copper hot and he's wiping at blood. his regeneration is nearly instantaneous, with the rise of greywhite smoke coiling from the flesh of his nose, mending whatever small damage this idiot's forehead had caused.
his glare is hotheavy. ) The hell is your problem?
( words fall in a snarl. he won't be getting a one-up on him again, should he try it. )
no subject
Rin has never dealt with negative emotions well. He knots them into something amorphous and infinitely worse than their initial form, exacerbating the problem until he's managed to dig himself to deep. Now, a stranger's blood on his forehead, dripping down the bridge of his nose -- (the blood reminding him of his own dark eyes looking up at him, quiet, too quiet) -- and Rin drags in a sharp breath, stepping back and then back again. The wall is cold at his back. Grounding.
That's what has him pulling the mess of his thoughts to shreds, taking moment after moment to think his way through his. If this was an enemy - like the assholes with the tentacles or the doctors or whatever else this hellhole has to throw at him - he wouldn't be wearing the same paper-thin gown, wouldn't be standing there glaring. Rin squares his shoulders, sets his expression, visibly regains his equilibrium. ]
Sorry. [ An apology reluctantly given, though it's not insincere. ] This place is kind of -- well. Things pop out. I thought you were one of them.
no subject
instead he shifts his weight from foot to foot, uncertain discomfort against otherwise callousness. the stranger has his blood dripping from his forehead and well that was kind of his own fault. but heine displays a praiseworthy show of patience in waiting for the guy to find his footing. to level himself off and actually take a breath.
heine wasn't averse to using violence; it was so deeply sewn into his sinews, that no circumstance in the world could erase it (literally bred into him, just an attack dog turned disobedient).
he offers a shrug, briskly dismissive now that he sees that the reaction was nothing more than a nip of frightened nerves. ) Well, I'm not. But can't really blame you, either. Even if it was stupid (shutup you would've done worse. )
( a beat. it's not like he's the one that's going to be with a bruise. his eyes narrow, look to rin's. ) Looks like you've seen more of this place than me, though. All bad?
no subject
Isn't this a picture-perfect horrorshow. Creepy hospital, potential ally who looks like he just stepped out of Left 4 Dead. Rin rubs the back of his neck, a nervous gesture that he's never quite managed to kick. ]
Yeah. Monsters, tentacles, lots of assholes with needles.
[ He doesn't mention the jaunt with his younger self, mostly because he's still not quite sure if that wasn't a hallucination. He stands a little straighter; brushes the blood off his face, succeeding only in smearing it into his hairline. ]
Did they get you? [ With the needles, he means. He rushes into the question, the words crowded in his mouth. He's smart enough to know that his curiosity might not be welcome, but not polite enough to keep from asking. ] Or did the healing thing come with you?
no subject
( a scowl, and he's turning to scrape a glance along the others around them, wary and alert as though judging if they will need to move somewhere else quickly, before something actually decides to come at them with needles. some tentacled patient moves out of a room not too far from them, passes with a disgruntled gurgling that makes heine's skin crawl in a visible shiver, gooseflesh down his Spine and his stance momentarily bristles aggression. )
What? ( oh, there was a question. ) No. ( really, he expected as much, even if his answers are curt and a little sharp, cushioned only by how pointedly dismissive he sounds as he gives a vague wave towards the metal collar at the back of his neck. the hospital gown made hiding the thing impossible, anyway. ) The 'healing thing' came with me.
( he sniffs though, a brief pinch to his nose from the subtle action. ) Lucky it did. You got a hard head on you. ( does he sound a little impressed? )
...Know where I can get some clothes around this place? ( he hasn't exactly had the time to look. )
no subject
An albino, maybe. Rin has seen albino rabbits, tin white ears run through with visible capillaries. There's nothing so vulnerable about the angular set of this man's jaw, no matter how slender or understated, nothing that makes Rin think that another blow might end as fortuitously as the first.
Not that he's like to try. He laughs, a huff of sound that catches in his throat. It's sheepish more than amused. He's already moved to edge of the hallway, a step and another from his previous location; their are shelves on rollers lining the walls, covered by a drab gray canvas. He'd found his own set of scrubs under similar circumstances.
The first one he checks has a neat array of metal trays, covered with plastic fittings. The second shelf has neatly folded scrubs, but Rin's attention is caught by the array of scalpels he can see laid out in the tray. ]
Yeah. [ he murmurs, distracted. ] You could use me as a battering ram if you ever need to storm a castle, my sister always said.
[ He glances back before tossing a set of scrubs in Heine's direction. ]
Matsuoka Rin, by the way.
no subject
but this situation wasn't one that called for anything brash, not yet, and it seemed like observation was the better option.
his attention follows the shock of maroon (the contrast of hair stark against the rest of the whitegreys around them) before he takes a small step after him, curious enough to see where he's headed. really, he doesn't know what to make of the guy, though the conclusion drawn was that he was just scared, caught off-guard, and reacted. like he said, he won't be holding a grudge for that. it's a miracle heine hasn't bitten anyone yet.
the trays catch the glint of fluorescent lights and it's metal on plastic on metal, and he can tell how sharp the scalpels are from the distance he stands. these were probably similar to the ones good old crazy mom used to carve up her failures. it's an unpleasant reminder, but rin's answer drags him back.
the snort is a mark of genuine amusement, a brief pull at the corner of his mouth before he's catching the scrubs with a nod. ) Noted. ( what was it like to have normal siblings?? )
Ah, Heine Rammsteiner - ( a wave with the gripped clothes - fabric thin, and rough, but so much better than an airy sheet. ) - and thanks. ( it isn't a word he says often, and the sound twists quiet against his tongue, disused.
thanks for the pants)no subject
Violence for Rin has always been a necessity of the moment; an intimacy that comes hand-in-hand with anger or sadness or desperation. A fist tangled in a colland, knuckles bruised by a cheekbones. The scalpels represent a choice that he's not certain that he's ready to make --
--a span of a few hours, impossibility after impossibility, and Rin already feels something unraveling. He lifts his gaze from the array of edges, hand splayed over the plastic casing. He's blind, in the dark, but he'd had the fortune of running head-first into someone who had taken his violence and folded it into the span of a second, a second that didn't bear repeating. Heine could heal. Did that mean Heine had cause to heal?
Rin's expression lifts with his gaze, though the restless curling and uncurling of his fingers belies his mood. ]
Uh -- well, there's a whole tray of knives -- scalpels, I guess -- over here, if you know how to use them. Might come in handy.
[ Rin makes snap-judgments as a rule. And he's decided - for some reason - to trust a sliver of red eyes. Something about like meeting like, right?
Except Rin's pretty damn sure that - if anyone's the rabbit amongst the two of them - it's not Heine. ]
no subject
most often, the two were not the same thing; a pacifist or romantic could still swing a hook in virtue of passion being kept so close to the tips of their fingers, but that would be all. but to heine, impulse was weaponized, written into a purpose he was not privy to and it was ingrained into the sinews of his disobedient existence. the irony was how this near immortality made him broken beyond repair; a fact he's accepted, a fact that feeds his convoluted convictions. )
You're - not used to things like this, are you? ( he isn't sure why he's asking; maybe it's because the kid's restlessness is palpable, radiating in waves of rhythm curluncurl of his fists and it's impossible to disregard. heine sidles forward until he stand side by side and lifts at one of the blades with long fingers.
it doesn't feel as a good weapon should - too light, too thing, a type of cold that is foreign against his skin and yet it rings as anything lethal should, finds home in the groove of his palm. ) Better than nothing, I guess.
( offered dryly, as he folds the thing into the fabric bunched in his hands. nearby, a nurse stops her swagger and with a flinch he doesn't hide he's realizing she's looking (??) at them. his elbow bumps rin's, an immediate grab for attention. ) Grab one, or don't, but it's a bad idea to stay in one place. Unless you want that shot. ( take one for the team you like the whole teamwork thing right )
no subject
--heine must think him a child.
rin squares his shoulders; tilts his head up. he can feel the dried blood flaking across his forehead, flecks of it caught in his eyelashes. he blinks it away.
there's no use answering the question when heine already knows the answer, so rin just grabs a scalpel and shoves the box to the back of the shelf, angry at himself for his own indecision. this is the time to be thinking about quid pro quo and morality plays. whatever's out there strikes first and never bothers asking any questions. if rin's japan is buried under a thousand thousand marauding aliens, he may as well be the sole hope in returning it to life. ]
Pointy end goes in, right? Piece of cake.
[ it sounds hollow even saturated with confidence. bravado masked as confidence.
conversely, instead of putting him on edge, heine's dry manner makes rin relax. this guy isn't going to take any bullshit, which means rin doesn't have to steep himself in it. what is, is. he's already been seen right through. ]
Let's get the hell out of here.
no subject
the state of the worlds they left behind didn't concern heine as much as the lack of closure. he was breath close to fighting that woman, to seeking an end long time in the making but instead he woke here, a world of pixels and nonsense and speeches of aliens. knowing that the fate of his ruined world was not decided by the twisted hands of that person in the below had sent a wave of something smug to sit almost too comfortably in the hollow of his throat. to know it wasn't her that devoured the world may be misguided relief, but relief all the same. and not one he thought he would ever care to feel.
of course, aliens weren't exactly something he even had the most remote knowledge of. but he could guess they weren't much better, either. still, the state of his world was a hard thing to care for. ( but what of badou, nill, naoto? bishop? where they all - )
he veers away from the trays, and the stand and with a forlorn glare to the nurse (an embodiment of phrase if looks could kill) he's starting down the hall with no clear idea of where to really go. air bristles as it hits his back from his simple motions. ) Mm. Right with you.