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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The creature falls quiet with a guttural groan. IV stares, first at the carcass and then Ruby as he lifts his head. A maneuver like that would be feasible for anyone in ViViD with the right optimization, but this – what Ruby does – is exotically natural, though par for the course on a planet like this one. He focuses on the monster again, wary.]
Is it dead?
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Ruby glances over her shoulder at that, though, cool moment utterly ruined by her general Ruby-ness. A beat.]
...Yep, looks like it! Totally dead, we're a-okay!
[Thumbs up!]
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IV crosses his arms, giving the carcass one last look before moving onto Ruby.]
But that was some noise we made. We'd better start moving now.
[No breaks for them, though Ruby doesn't even look like she's broken a sweat.]
So this is the kind of thing you do back home?
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[Though she's done some of this back home already... either way, she brushes herself off, compacts her scythe and nods. Onwaaaards.]
Monsters like this are small fry compared to some of the Grimm out there! And I wanna be able to take them all on to protect people!
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By yourself?
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Yep! Yang and me, and then there's Weiss and Blake too, though they're not here anymore.
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I've met Weiss. She has white hair, right?
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They were both here before, they just...disappeared and haven't come back yet.
[Which she's trying not to think too hard about in terms of bad things.]
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Do you think they went back to your world?
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[It's a sort of pure-hearted, simple faith, but Ruby's holding onto it with everything she has nonetheless.]
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[Ruby just nods, understanding. It's hard when you lose people--she knows that for sure. She wants to be sure that Weiss and Blake and Pyrrha are okay, and so... so she's going to assume that they are.]
Besides, I think it's fine to have faith in your friends, you know? I mean... they've never let me down before.
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You have good friends.
[And hearing those words is strangely comforting. Reassurance, is it? He looks ahead, catching a glimpse of Ruby. Seeing as there's nothing else to do while they walk . . . ]
I'm curious. Tell me more about your world.
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[She can do that, she can totally manage that one. There's the sense that maybe it's reassuring him too, so.... so she'll focus on this.]
My world's called Remnant! There are four kingdoms in it... Vacuo, Atlas, Mistral and Vale! Vale's where Yang and I are from, and that's where Beacon is, which is the school where we study how to be Huntresses!
[A firm nod.]
We have to study, because the Creatures of Grimm will hurt people if we don't. Huntsmen and Huntresses protect people.. no matter what!
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[Huntsmen and Huntresses, he knows. All of these play a similar role, seems like. At the end of the day, they're all protecting people.]
What exactly are the Creatures of Grimm, anyway?
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[THEY ARE HEROES WHO ARE ABOVE PETTY THINGS LIKE TREATIES ruby thinks it's cool.]
And those are... well, they're big soulless monsters that eat people.
[...]
That about covers it, I think.
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He takes a moment to consider all of this. Superheroes. That's interesting.]
Your world sounds like an interesting place. So, what made you want to become a Huntress?
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[She likes it.]
It's a good world, I think. I mean, I haven't really experienced any other worlds aside from this one, but still. It's a good one.
[Giant soulless monsters aside.]
But... I guess that's just what I always wanted to do. Ever since I was little, I knew I wanted to be a Huntress! I mean, they save people and fight evil and they're so cool while they do it... why not be a Huntress?
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When you put it that way, I don't see why not. You know, I wanted to be something of an hero when I was young. Who wouldn't take advantage of an opportunity like that?
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[She laughs quietly at that, because at least he gets it.]
Being a hero is the coolest thing ever. And mom and dad and Uncle Qrow... they're all Huntsmen and Huntresses too.