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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bonus, bless...
at least, until he notices the strange faceless nurses in the really very short uniforms around the stranger. he doesn't really think much of it until the needle comes out-- his lips part to warn him, but it's over too quickly, and the nurses begin to disperse again. that.. was strange?
when the other (human?) man glances his way, he offers a gentle, slightly concerned smile. ]
Are you feeling all right? [ you know, after whatever those nurses gave you...... ]
OH BOY
[Look, he's a red-blooded ass man, okay.]
[But there's a voice from not too far away, and Chibi turns - maybe, mostly human, save a few thousand years and whatever is under the rumpled hat on his head.]
Yes, I'm... I'm fine. Just a little disoriented, is all, there may have been something weird in that whole... [He's more than fine, actually - he cannot stop himself from giving the other man a... Weird look up and down. From afar, he had thought he was a woman, but now he can see better: a man, but with the elegance of both man and woman about him, he thinks. And his gaze travels to Souza's lips, soft and inviting; he could step in right now to kiss him, just a little touch--]
[And before he can control himself - as in, he literally cannot control himself - he is stepping closer, to kiss Souza on the lips. (Unless, of course, he dodges the touch. Chibi is not the swiftest of Eliatropes.) What is even happening???]
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whatever it was, it's gone now, and the stranger's stepping closer. it doesn't even occur to souza to dodge it-- the action doesn't register as a threat, and it's not as if anyone's made a regular habit of kissing him. (mostly, he's the one that gives the kisses: on sayo's brow, on kousetsu's cheek, on their master's crown..)
but then chibi's very close, and suddenly there are lips against his, and souza's frozen to the spot for several confused moments before he gently returns it. it's weird, certainly, but there's no need to be impolite. ]
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[Wait, what is he doing?? It hits him at once, that he's smooching some man he barely knows, and that generally that's frowned upon in this society. He shuffles back as though he's been touched by a live-wire, flushing a bright red.]
Shiiiit. [He backs away to a cool distance, sighing through his teeth.] Whatever they stuck in me must have been pretty potent.
I'm sorry. That was, ah... Well, it usually takes a few more dates, doesn't it? [He laughs awkwardly and scratches the back of his head, under his hat. Shit. Now he looks like even more of a weirdo.]
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still, this poor man looks a bit horrified, so maybe he should reassure him. to that end, he shakes his head slightly. ]
I didn't mind it at all. It was a bit surprising, though. [ a bright laugh. ] I didn't realize that ViViD could make people do that sort of thing. [ he hesitates, then indicates himself with a hand. ] How about we start with introductions, then? Please call me Souza.
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no, chibi, stop hitting on swords.) At the mention of what's just happened, that ViViD itself may have caused it, he pauses for a moment and twirls his own bangs around his finger.]I'd not, either, but it makes perfect sense. Logically, they have our code, which determines our actions and impulses; they can thus make alterations to it, temporary or permanent. There is a term for what may have happened, in this world's literature - 'code injection.' Quite literal, isn't it, given those nurses?
But perhaps that is too heavy conversation for now. So, yes, let's start with introductions. [He steps back and takes a sweeping bow, moving his hands in traditional Eliatrope greeting.] I am Chibi. It's a pleasure, Souza.
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his smile takes on an apologetic note, hands curling together loosely. ] I'm afraid that I'll simply have to take your word for it. I fear a few months in this place still hasn't been long enough for me to understand how it all works. I'm glad that you don't seem too alarmed by it, though.
[ goodness, how polite. souza shifts, returning the bow-- japanese-style, of course, polite and, for those that know better, feminine. (what is gender to a sword, anyway? souza's essentially belonged to both men and women over his centuries, and he's picked up habits from both sexes.)
when he rises again, his smile is delighted. ] Begging your pardon, but.. what a cute name. [ a bit inaccurate, considering his height, but.. ] It's very nice to meet you, too, Chibi-san.
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[So he only chuckles at Souza's bright smile, tugging at the end of his own hat. At least someone's happy about it!]
You're not the first person to tell me it's strange or... Cute, apparently. It's like everyone's in on the joke except me. [A long-suffering sigh.
the joke is that he appears as a reincarnated baby in the main series so... chibi. god i hate this canon.In Draconic, it's just a name, with -bi being a male ending... Why does intercultural communication have to be so complicated??][But he's just kissed the guy. There are other communication problems to be wary of.]
So, Souza-san [is that how it works???], while we are stuck here--
[And so comes the feminine, shrill voice down the corridor:]
[YOU
HAVEN'T
HAD
YOUR
SHOTSSSSSS
]Shit! [Excuse his language, but there's a nurse calling one of them a "naughty boy" just a few meters away.]
[So he does the sensible thing: springs up a portal to the far end of the hallway and hops through, reaching a hand back through to beckon Souza through (unless he wants to run Really Fast). Time to run like hell??]