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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omg sorey is too precious..........
Saiduq lets out a light chuckle upon witnessing Sorey's nigh-tangible excitement.]
The pleasure is mine. Nothing would make me happier than to facilitate deepening the bonds you have with your companions.
[And that's the truth. Friendship is a wonderful thing, and he's only learned that just recently. It's a feeling he wouldn't want to deny anyone.]
I only ask that I be given the opportunity to meet with your friend when the time comes.
[Said in good humor, of course. Then again, would Mikleo really want to meet this guy...........]
he is the most natural cinnamon roll. saiduq is precious too tho i want him to have all the friends
I'll make sure to introduce you two right away then! [ Smiling wide. ] He's my best friend. I bet you'd like him a lot. And he's not a human, like you.
[ Well maybe not exactly like him, since Mikleo is a Seraph and Saiduq is something else. But maybe they can bond over that??
But this is just making him miss Mikleo even more.
So naturally he will take more pictures of random things for him. Like that tree! Or that leaf! And maybe another one of Saiduq! ]
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sheepinvisible boyfriend...]A Seraph, I presume.
[And to try to gently steer away from the topic of Mikleo specifically...although he's not sure if it'll just make him miss his friend(s) more or get him rambling about a topic Sorey knows well and Saiduq wants to know more about. (Nobody ever claimed Saiduq was good at this socializing and picking up the mood thing.)]
What are the Seraphs you are familiar with like?
[Because the only experience he's had with Seraphs is...the SMT kind, which does not always bode well for humanity, especially if YHVH's angry.]
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Yeah.
[ The question does make him think for a moment about his friends as a whole — how great all of them are and how weird it is being without most of them (even if he is okay with the lack of fighting going on in his head). And he ... does miss them, as a result. It's hard not to — he'd traveled with them for so long, and in Mikleo's case been with him his whole life. And of course, Rose is just as much his friend, too. But he comes up with an answer! ]
They're all amazing! And they're really different from each other, too. Just as different as all the people you can meet here. Edna likes to tease a lot, while Lailah can be pretty silly sometimes. Meanwhile, Gramps is really wise and powerful, and I can always trust Mikleo to be there for me ... [ Ah, he's not sure if he's rambling too much about his friends. He knows a lot more than just that, though — an entire village worth plus some, actually. ]
But I know a lot of them, since I grew up with them. I wish I could introduce you to them all.
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...As do I. They sound hardly different from humans themselves.
[Fascinating, honestly. Although Sorey's...home life is also a point of interest, since he's a human, but knows an entire village of them...? And didn't he mention before that not just anyone could see the Seraphs?]
But I would presume it is even rarer for a human such as yourself to grow up alongside them, if what you have told me before regarding perceiving Seraphs is true.
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Scratching the back of his neck. ]
It's really rare. I've never met another human like me, actually. [ Some can perceive them on their own, but none have grown up solely around them like he has, to his knowledge. ]
I may have never gotten to know another human like myself until recently [ thanks, Alisha, you're the first ], but I wouldn't trade how I grew up for anything.
[ He really loves everyone he grew up with, okay. This talk is reminding him of the final memory he viewed before he was brought to Cerealia, but he'll push that out of his head for now. It brings up too many serious thoughts, none of which he can do anything about for the time being. ]
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[He must've grown up with a lot of love, Saiduq thinks, if he wouldn't trade how he grew up for any other childhood. What a wonderful thing. ...It's no wonder Sorey's as compassionate as he is right now.]
The human you consider similar to yourself...are they a friend of yours?
[Saiduq has to ask this, okay. They could be enemies, or frenemies, or...people with a complicated relationship or something.]
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Yeah! I've made a lot of friends who're humans since I left Izuchi. [ (Casually can't remember localized name oops) He's met a lot of bad people, too, but shhh. Friends. ] Alisha's here in this world with us right now, actually.
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