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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no subject
......Huh?
[And in front of them, with the background still and faded, two choices appear.]
> Pursue Justice?
> Pursue Truth?|
no subject
"Justice" and "Truth" . . . A quest option?
no subject
They're both important.
[...]
Which one do you think? I call myself a truth catcher, so I know which one I want to pick.
no subject
Then let's go with truth.
no subject
Okay! Then... here goes nothing.
[Hesitating, her hand hovers over Truth. She turns to IV briefly, as if to ask if that's his final answer--but there's no sense in wasting time. They're in agreement, after all. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, making the selection for the both of them.
--and in the next moment, she hears the faint echoing laughter of the two NPCs, before she feels the floor drop from underneath her. She gasps, stomach catching in her throat as she opens her eyes wide, just in time for a new level to materialize to catch her.
She screams. (Not again?!)]
no subject
His heart still pounding from the sudden drop, IV glances around their new surroundings. They're far removed from the blinding white backdrop of the basement.]
Is, is this it?
no subject
...She takes a deep breath or two as the question comes.]
Yeah...
[Whatever "it" is.
There are filing cabinets as far as the eye can see, and she doesn't know what to make of them. She does notice one thing, though, with the wind being knocked out of her:]
My hiccups are gone, too.
[In fact, ever since they woke those two up... had she hiccuped at all? Her hands rub at her throat thankfully, and she glances down. Whatever punishment that was, it's over.]
no subject
Well, at least they did one good thing.
[The filing cabinets seem promising. IV pulls open the first drawer of the nearest cabinet and pulls out a file, frowning when he checks its contents. He flips through the papers, his expression unchanging the while.]
The pages are blank. There's nothing.
no subject
No way. Seriously?
[Yet sure enough, when she peeks over his shoulder, there's nothing there--nothing to be read.
She reaches for another file from the same cabinet. Maybe IV just had some bad luck. But...]
...So much for truth.
[It's blank, too.]
no subject
It's no good. We're not going to find anything here.
Let's move on.
no subject
[As enticing as blank paper is, to go through them looking for that one elusive piece that might contain a clue seems counterproductive... and frankly, she doesn't have the patience for it. Neither does IV, she knows; it's no surprise they're both eager to keep going.
...But where? The cabinets start to look the same. The same color, the same size, as if they made up the walls themselves.]
Jeez... [She shakes her head when she starts to feel a little dizzy, after realizing the level's maze-like structure.] They can't all be blank. You think they used some invisible ink or something?
no subject
Is that what you meant at the basement?
[They're fortunate that the filing cabinet maze is wide enough for them to step around the small trapdoor. IV does this while he continues to eye the hole.]
Keep an eye out. Who knows how many more of those there are.
no subject
Sigh--]
Probably a lot... but this is even worse. I can't tell these tiles apart.
[The floor is so repetitive--like everything else. How are they supposed to spot the traps?]
no subject
[Of course, that's much easier said than done. IV's not the type to back down from a challenge, though, and he feels his way around the tiles by occasionally pressing them with the tip of his boot. So far, he hasn't hit a single trapdoor since the first accident.
He looks over to the side, checking on Leia's status.]
no subject
She doesn't notice at first. All she does is smile sheepishly as if to say "Hey! ...Yep, we're still here." When she sees a handful of other tiles brighten to follow suit, that's when her expression falters.]
Hey... do you see that?
[There's no more than about five or so to start, but IV's tile that nearly got him before is one of them. Then, they appear to move and flicker, as other tiles across the board light up, and previous ones dim.
Why is this making her anxious?]
no subject
What happened? . . . Did they shuffle?
no subject