It is a quiet day in mostly reconstructed Cerealia. The robots are busily running into walls that were not there before, the Cybuddy bees are buzzing...and CERES has still not said a word. Attempting to contact them still gets the User Offline error. Strange...
But who cares if CERES is offline? After all, they are the cruel and tyrannical captors. A Cerealia without them must be better than a Cerealia with them. So there's nothing to worry about on this fine, peaceful day. Or, at least, that's what it seems like, when suddenly there's a voice in everyone's head. A chosen few may recognize the voice, for they will have heard it before, but to the vast majority, it is brand new.
Looks like someone has been saved, and a reward granted... and no, you don't have a single choice in the matter.
 Your heroism will be remembered, lost and stolen souls.
You have saved me, and so now, I shall save you.
All of you.
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PHASE I [ day one ] It happens so quickly. One moment you’re in the colony, going about your daily life, and the next, you’re… floating. A moment later, every player character from the colony is transported with a wisp of fresh air to...somewhere very very different. The distance is far, but it is covered in what must have only been a scant moment, and it’s clear somehow, especially to air characters, that it was Caeli’s doing that brought everyone there.
There, naturally, being right in the middle of the jungle.
Everyone is then unceremoniously dropped. You may land on a tree, or in a patch of poison mushrooms (no really, look out for the colorful plant life, it’s probably poisonous) or in the river. There are some strange insects of all sorts and types, some of which have some uncomfortable side effects if you’re bitten, such as swelling or the uncomfortable urge to go hug the nearest person, and there are strange flowers everywhere, some of which glow only in the dark of night or the shade of trees. It is dreadfully humid, however, and a little hard to breathe--unless you’re of the air disposition.
Either way, you’ve certainly landed somewhere fantastical, so take some time to get used to your surroundings. It shouldn’t take too long to find everyone else, hopefully.
PHASE II [ day two ] Of course, this far into the jungle, and making this much noise, it was only inevitable before some company was attracted.
Some are clearly dangerous, some are peaceful as can be and some are somewhere in between; approach at your own risk.
Either way, these monsters are all drawn to larger groups of people and a lot of noise, so it may be best to keep quiet...though the ones that keep their distance may be even more concerning.
Everyone is certainly being stalked at one point or another in the jungle -- and at night, there are eyes watching from the darker parts of the trees.
PHASE III [ day three ] But perhaps if you follow some of those monsters deeper into the woods, you will stumble across an old, run down village of sorts. It looks as though time and the jungle has overtaken it. Exploring it will reveal plenty of homes that were clearly lived in however, by families and by people of all sorts.
There are empty rooms, covered in dust, and a central village fire, long gone out.
Small knick-knacks and various objects can be found… if you want to steal from the dead, you know. It’s a little rude. It appears they led a simple, peaceful life, however; most notably, there is no technology to be found.
And if The Bridge catches you doing it, she will look incredibly sad and ask you to put everything back in its proper place before she goes back to looking very irritated at Caeli. You may overhear words about how this “isn’t the right place” and Caeli’s unrepentant, “It is only a few hundred miles”. Looks like something went a little wrong in the transportation process.
Time to camp out for the night, perhaps. And your CereVices don’t get any reception out here, so no surfing the internet for you. If you try to connect to the internet, for some reason the device starts playing a song. Was that programmed…?
PHASE IV [ day four ] By the fourth day, it’s pretty clear that you’re going to be stuck here for a bit. Pestering Caeli or Maris gets nothing, while the Bridge still can’t be approached for pretty good reasons. So… you’ll just have to make the best of it while they figure out their next approach.
Time to figure out how to camp with few supplies and even fewer nice places to sleep. Maybe try to make a fire (though it’s incredibly difficult, considering how muggy it is here) or try to find some bugs to eat (ew gross).
Of course, you can try hunting, but the prey doesn’t look too friendly, so be careful not to become the prey yourself. The same goes for fishing, it seems.
Some of the trees are poisonous, some of the grasses will cause unfortunate rashes, and some vines will lash out to grab at people (especially colorful ones); basically, this is an entirely untamed alien jungle, so it may not be the fun camping trip you'd like.
Time to work together to survive out here, at least for a little longer.
It’s your time to shine. This is Person Versus Wild.
PHASE V [ day six ] On day six, the jungle goes utterly silent.
The monsters and animals disappear. The extra friends poof away hastily and suddenly. Maris and the Bridge fall silent (though Caeli admittedly continues floating there as ever). If anyone approaches them to ask, they'll just say that "she is coming".
And soon, she does appear. She moves slowly, lacking in feet; they are roots, as though that of a tree. Nonetheless, she has no troubles with moving forward, slow bit by bit. She does not speak, not at first, and behind her, trotting lightly through the woods, there is another. Both feel strongly of spiritual energy, just like Maris and Caeli. And eventually, after observing the people gathered, they can be spoken to.
BONUS [ day ??? ] After spending some time in the jungle, emotions might be running a bit amuck. And those emotions might bring some unexpected...friends. Yes, let's go with friends.
Because if a character is typically grumpy, gloomy, stoic, lineface, or anything along those lines, they may find themselves followed by a bright, happy bird. That bird feeds off of those emotions, and will just cheerfully follow around any lineface character for as long as possible. Or until they smile. The birds are otherwise harmless, chirping happily every now and then and following them around like a friendly shadow.
Happy, cheerful, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, energetic characters, on the other hand, will soon find themselves followed by... a different friend. Or maybe a handful of them. It depends on how cheerful they are. Either way, these creatures feed off of happiness and fun, but they will also chew on hair or an ear if they're allowed to get that close, making horrifying, chittering noises as they follow anyone who is in a good mood.
[ 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. ] |
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Sorry... [He seems quite sheepish as he relaxes his grip on the branch and holds onto Hyoubu, trying not to look down while he grabs onto the other's arms. Now, Minato's intention was to just hold on lightly in a way that's definitely not like a hug.
Except gravity exists even high above the jungle and he's forgotten to account for the weight of his sword, and that gentle grab is definitely turning into something more like a cling when he inevitably slips while trying to hold on to his sword.
Whoops.]
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Eh?
[ And that's when it dawns on him that he's hugging Minato. ]
Ehhh?
[ Sorry, kid, you're getting dropped. Hopefully it's not too far from the jungle floor, at this point. ]
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Ahhhhhh! [It's a good thing the that the jungle floor is pretty close by now and he has just enough time to instinctively protect his head by turning to his side and attempting to spread out the impact as much as possible, but when all is said and done his body is still aching all over, and he's definitely a little annoyed.]
What was that for, Major? [It's all he's saying though before forcing himself to get up and look for the Evoker from before, wincing while he does so. It should be somewhere around here...I need to find it before something finds us.]
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[ He shoves his hands in his pockets and glares at Minato beadily, casting about for some way to change the subject away from hugging.... and the aftermath of hugging, sheesh.
...
Aha, saved! He's momentarily happy about what he's reading off of Minato's surface thoughts..... and then he's really not happy at all. ]
What were you doing just now? You put a gun to your own head, did you know that?
[ He wonders again about some form of hypno. ]
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Yeah, I'm aware of it. That's not a real gun though...it's more like a summoning device, and I was going to use my power to get down from the tree. [And deep inside Minato's hoping he won't ask why it has to be shaped like a gun, because boy that bit always got awkward.]
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[ Of course he's going to ask. Not only that, but he's sufficiently concerned that he's going to do a bit of deeper mental probing to see if anything is controlling him. ]
Tell me about it.
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Thankfully for the both of them, a Genius academic score is more than enough for him to at least go through the basics though Minato will still rub his chin in deep thought before answering.]
My ability is called a 'Persona'. You normally need a lot of concentration and stress to summon it, which is why the Evoker's shaped like a gun, I suppose. It's a quick way to summon the Persona, since we couldn't count on our instincts alone...as for why no one's asked any questions it wasn't a problem in my world, since we only act during the Dark Hour- that's a period of time between midnight and one, and only some people are aware of it. [He briefly considers the ill-advised idea of offering to demonstrate, only to reason that it's a Very Dumb Idea.]
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That said, any way you look at it, it's just wrong. It feels sick, and it feels... symbolic, somehow. Did someone shoot this kid with a real gun? Did he shoot himself? ]
"We." So other people had these Personas, then? Are their ... "Evokers" all the same?
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Most of us had the same design, but one of my friends had a built-in Evoker since she's an android and the other had a collar instead since he's a dog...those weren't shaped like guns though, since they wouldn't have been able to use them otherwise. [And yes, Minato's perfectly aware that this must all sound insane to most people. It's kind of why he keeps his mouth shut most of the time- people just got worried or made excuses to leave, and Hyoubu's one of the rare few who actually seems worried about him.
It's not something Minato honestly understands since he's far too used to his Evoker and he knows it's harmless, but there's something in the way the question is posed to him that suggests something a lot deeper than mere concern.] ...Are you alright, Major? You seem really worried. [And he notably has his head lowered, as if he's not expecting a good answer- Persona user or not Minato's simply far too used to people finding him disturbing on some level- again something he's just learned to accept.]
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