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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no subject
Okay, let's go.
But he's not going to . . . lunge at the thing, or anything. He doesn't even know how you're supposed to kill an animal to eat! He hadn't ever known how to kill at all. Back then, he'd been desperate, and he'd been lucky, and it had taken longer than he wants this to take; what had been a lucky enough shot for him hadn't been good enough to be a lucky shot for her. And of course in the end, that hadn't been lucky for him, either--
He's going to lose it if he thinks about this, so he decides to avoid doing that as much as possible. But he can't just go for it quite yet. First he looks at Togami's face, his own expression a little more open and imploring than he would be happy with if he realized.]
Do I just--?
no subject
I believe most poultry is beheaded or made to bleed out, but that won't be practical in this situation. [ He keeps the bird in his grip, but feels over its breast with one hand, searching for a heartbeat. ] ...Here?
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Smart, though, and he's got to admit it's probably the only solution. It's true that his blade isn't large enough to behead the bird. The butcher knife in his apartment back in the colony would be . . . but there's a reason he doesn't ever look at or touch that thing. Not that doing it with this one feels much better, though, now that it's here in front of him.
But he's hungry. And as weird as he feels doing this in front of any classmate, he'd feel even weirder backing out of it now. Half because he might look like a loser for pussying out, and half because he'd feel awkward about wasting Togami's efforts, which are more than Leon expected out of him.
His imploring expression goes nervous and defeated both--it's a complicated look on his face. Leon drops to his knees and crawls closer, adjusting his grip on the knife. He's probably only got one shot at this. He really hopes he only needs one shot at this.]
--Move your hand on three. One . . . two . . .
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He, too, hopes that this actually works out without too much trouble. ]
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To his relief, it doesn't feel anything at all like it did that other time, back home. But that still doesn't mean it feels good.]
I--I got it, right?
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He checks whatever signs of life he can think of—carefully, according to his sensibilities, but still thoroughly—and he can't really find any. He can't be 100% sure, with an alien lifeform, but... ]
If it isn't dead now, I'm sure it will be dead soon.
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[He still really doesn't feel good about it. On the other hand, he'll feel good about having some food. But seeing the bird dead like this just makes him realize exactly how many steps there are between this thing and KFC or something. How the hell many people does it take to do this to all those millions of chickens every single day? Leon lifts a hand to wipe at his forehead, but aborts the mission when he notices some blood on it, grabbing a leaf to wipe it off instead.]
Now what? You probably had servants to do all this for you, huh?
no subject
[ Although surely the Togami family had a Relationship with a high-quality organic farm of some kind.
Maybe he'd hoped that a commoner like Leon would know better what to do next, but in retrospect, that was a totally ridiculous idea. ]
...Do you think it's worth plucking?
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[He actually has no idea how true that is or isn't, but whatever; he sure wouldn't eat them. Unless he were starving, maybe. The level of starving required to stab the bird was still not feather-eating levels.
Leon stares at Togami and the bird, with a helpless kind of expression on his face.]
Do we just--start yanking 'em out?
no subject
[ Yeah, it's clear that he has absolutely no idea what he's doing. ]
But... probably. You could just remove them with the same amount of effort, yes.
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[Gross. This is going to be gross. Leon's always had a strong stomach for gore, and the longer the bird is here in their hands and dead, the less it begins to feel like it was once a living thing . . . but even so, this is going to be gross. But he can't think of a better way to do it than just cutting and seeing what happens. It's not like they have x-ray vision that'll let them see how the feathers stick in there, or anything.
Just think of it like bio class or something, sure.]
no subject
Just... go for what?
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[Well, he's not judging Togami for the ambiguous phrasing. He's more embarrassed that he misinterpreted it. Dammit, now he looks even more like an idiot who doesn't know what he's doing! He stares at the bird, as if hoping the corpse will suddenly crack open itself and reveal the secrets of how to butcher it inside.]
I-I dunno, man! How'm I supposed to know?! I meant just--like, start cutting and see what happens!
. . . You said they cut the head off and get the blood all out, right? Probably now that it's already dead, I could cut the head off it and we could get the blood all out that way, and it wouldn't be as--y'know?
[Completely terrible.]
no subject
[ This plan involves locating major arteries though. Good Luck. ]
no subject
[He rolls his eyes--mostly to play off that he still feels weird and nervous about this. But he's at least starting to come down from the really bad trip of having killed the thing. Now that it's dead, technically, nothing else they do to it can be "wrong" . . . unless they manage to mess up the carcass too much to eat, and then what was the point of all this?
He holds the blade at the bird's throat, but doesn't cut yet.]
Just--like this?
no subject
[ He's having the same thoughts about nothing being wrong until they mess up the carcass, but if they're only messing with the head... well, they weren't going to try preparing any of that anyway, now were they? ]
(Bird Doctor Togami. That's going to linger in his mind for a little longer than he'd like.) ]
You'll probably find them before you end up cutting the whole head off, anyway.
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[He's got this, Bird Doctor Togami. Time to get to work . . . semi-decapitating this bird. Great. What a bonding experience this has been.
It better taste good.]
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Togami just holds the body of the carcass still, watching, and hopefully making this as clean of an experience as possible. ]