PHASE I [ 6 30 ] You really have arrived, finally.
Too bad the welcome isn’t so great.
Upon arrival, you will literally be dropped out of the sky.
You may land in the lake (watch out for the fish). You may land on the roofs of the buildings in the town (watch out for the spires). Or you may be unlucky, and fall all the way from the sky to the ground, at which point you die and lose a life already.
Don’t worry, you’ll respawn in the air and you can try again.
Good luck this time!
If you do manage to finally land in a way that doesn’t break your spine and/or drown you, you’ll find that if you’re a newcomer, you’ll have some strange words hovering over your head. They seem to be a set of your name, a level, a class and a quest, something like --
Ima Adventurerer Lv. 9000
Class: Dragon Slayer
Current Quest: Slay every dragon
-- but aside from existing, they don't seem to have any actual impact on your abilities or requirements. But you can do the quests if you really want to. Everyone will clap politely for you if you do. There might be confetti, even.
They would appear to coincide with a scroll or two posted up in the middle of town for everyone to see.
At least it’s easy to tell who’s new this round.
PHASE II [ 745 ] Once you’re safely on the ground (hopefully no broken bones!), it’s time to get a feel for the game. As free range as it seems to be, you have all sorts of choices in where to go and what to do. You could take on some quests! You could go hunt down monsters! You could...pick up that fancy looking armor over there!
Except you may not actually want to do so. As soon as you touch that armor, it will equip itself, no ifs, ands or buts. Of course, it isn’t so bad, at least, not for the ladies. For the men who equip the armor, they may find it to be a little breezy. In many different variations.
To make matters worse, be careful what you touch in your inventory, unless you want to equip a fish instead of your sword, or whatever the hell this is instead of your cool, awesome, special weapon. Good luck.
And the only way to unequip it is to find something else to equip. There’s motivation for some questing, at least.
PHASE III [ 1000 ] Eventually, you have to venture out of the town, however. There are NPCs ushering you to quest onwards, and there’s nothing in the town worth poking your nose into; none of the doors open, and all of the NPCs say the same, looping lines in a creepy monotone.
There are quests to be done outside of the town, they say, over and over.
So, off you go. However, the moment you step out of the town, you’re…somewhere else entirely. Look behind you, and the town is gone. Look around you, and there’s nothing but flowers, fields and the other people who have stepped out of the town themselves, looking equally confused. The bizarre armor is now gone, and you're back in your proper clothing; the strange floating titles and levels and the like are also gone. Otherwise, it is silent; there isn’t a single other soul. No bird song, no buzzing of bees -- just silence.
Of course, it won’t last. Soon, the monsters show up...but strangely, they seem to be monsters from your world, if your world had monsters. If your world had animals, they are those, or robots, or any number of combinations. But they seem...different. They’re meaner, larger, nastier, and all dark colors and bloody, dripping claws and fangs.
It seems everything’s been a little corrupted here -- even things from your own worlds.
PHASE IV [ 1400 ] If you persevere through the monster-infested fields, trampling your way through flowers which did nothing at all to you, you’ll eventually find yourself at a still, still lake. It’s a beautiful place, quiet and hushed and untouched, and totally monster-free; it might be a good place to take a breather.
But if you look into the lake, even for a brief moment, you’ll see whatever it is you want most in the world. Whether it’s a person (dead or alive), a thing, a title… it doesn’t matter; the lake will show it, tantalizing and right there, so close to being in your grasp.
If you don’t pull away immediately, you might find that it’s hypnotizing, in fact; you’ll feel the need to go closer and closer, even if it means wading into the lake to get closer to that goal. Just...don’t go too far. Something is waiting for you.
If you touch someone to try to help them, you’ll see what they are also seeing in the lake, for better or for worse. It might be a good chance to get to know them, if you weren’t, you know, in danger of being eaten.
Thankfully, with some perseverance and good friends, the hypnotism can be broken. You do have friends, right?
If you survive all of that, you can finally log out and join Cerealia proper -- hooray!
BONUS [ xxxx ] There sure are a lot of flowers in this field of flowers. There are flowers everywhere. Which isn’t a bad thing, unless you’re allergic to flowers (if you are allergic to flowers, CERES apologizes and suggests you take their special, patented ClariCERESclear to clear that right up). Except...the longer you’re in said field of flowers, the more you may notice that things are a little...strange.
Some of the pollen of the flowers has some strange effects on your bodies, it would seem. You could stumble across any of these (or none at all), and they could last anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour or two, depending on how much of that pollen you breathe in.
The effects are as follows:
➟ The urge to princess-carry the nearest person
➟ The urge to serenade the nearest person, regardless of your singing ability
➟ An awakened urge to be really aggressive towards the nearest person, even to the point of fighting (it's time to pvp)
➟ Uncontrollable crying
➟ An uncontrollable urge to make flower crowns and place them on peoples' heads (which thus further spreads the other effects).
Don’t trust the flowers.
[ 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. ] |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
Leon! [like leon, for example. there's no time to sit and question how any of this is possible. it doesn't matter, because despite his shock and complete inability to process what's going on, there's something far more important here.
leon isn't okay.
stahn's keenly aware why he isn't okay, of course. he'd nearly been taken away and forced to repeat history—something that stahn has thought about too much since it happened. how many nights had he remained awake longer than necessary thinking about how horrible leon must have suffered that day? how many times had he dozed off while traversing to their next location, exhausted because he lacked that sleep? how many times had he been roused from his sleep with the force of a shisha no mezame because of nightmares of repeating that day again? they were all moments kept to himself, all but the maybe the swordians being aware of his restless nights?
if he'd felt that way just having known what transpired, stahn can only vaguely imagine the suffocating feeling of terror that leon must be experiencing right now. it's written in his body language, given how he doesn't get up, given the way his body is trembling with fear, and how he's not immediately scolding stahn for allowing this to happen at all.
—still, there's no time. dymlos' power can only hold the water back briefly, and that's why stahn is quick enough to (in a panic), lift leon up and support nearly the whole of his weight as the water crashes back and fills the gap that had been parted just seconds earlier.]
Leon... Leon, are you okay!? [well, at least it takes away from his stunned silences, though now he's completely frantic with worry. he'd be reaching for a life bottle or an apple gel right now if he had a free hand to do so.]
no subject
As soon as he catches his breath--
But his breath keeps catching in the back of his throat, and he can only vaguely register Chal's voice through the ringing in his ears...and then Stahn's voice, which is a little more clear, but not enough that he can respond...
And then Stahn practically picks him up, and Leon reacts to the touch, almost violently so. He flinches away, or tries to--but Stahn has a good grip on him, and when he feels the water lapping against his legs again, he immediately freezes, dragging in a slow breath. No, he doesn't want to fall back into the water, so if Stahn wants to support his weight and hold onto him so he doesn't, Leon is not going to complain about that.
He's still finding it a bit too hard to breathe to respond, but at least the touch seems to be returning him to his senses a little; he's able to drag in a breath, and then another one, slowly trying to return his breathing back to normal. It's fine. He can...breathe, here. He isn't going to drown again.]
no subject
his grip remains tight to keep leon steady on his feet. he stops more than once in an attempt to give leon the time he needs. trying to walk in this state can't be easy, especially with the way his breath has hitched more than once. it sets so much worry in stahn; this isn't the leon he remembers at all. the leon he remembers would scoff at help, bark insults, and even through his deepest fears continue to press forward without a single complaint. it had been like that for their whole journey—every boat ride, where he excused himself and bore the discomfort of motion sickness until he was found out had been just that.
so it's alarming, no doubt, to see such a fragile side of leon. but it doesn't make him doubt that this is leon—the real leon, his leon. it doesn't make him doubt that in the slightest, but it does bring to mind the agonizing truth of how badly he must have suffered just to let everyone else flee to safety.
it's the worst.
it makes his chest hurt. almost like everything is constricting in his chest.
how much pain did leon feel? how much of it does he remember right now?
there are so many other things stahn absolutely should be more focused on right now, but all of it falls to the wayside because leon's well-being is that much more important to him. even his own apologies get pushed aside for this as they make they're way back to the shore. and even then? stahn keeps going until they're about ten feet away from the water before trying to guide him to sit down.]
Come on... sit down. Let's take a break. [they both need it, but sheer depth of stahn's worry oozes from his tone; he practically sounds like he's going to cry from how deeply concerned he is for leon right now.]
no subject
Stahn helps him sit down, and speaks like that, and Leon bristles. It's weaker than usual, admittedly, but even so it's prickly, and sharp, and harsh. All of the feelings of inadequacy, all of his uncertainty... it all goes into his words.]
Don't coddle me!
[That's one thing he cannot stand. Stahn's care, in this filter, turns to pity. Stahn's worry becomes condescension. And Leon can't take it, because to him, that's the one thing he's been shown to be throughout that entire nightmare. Weak, weak, weak.
He brushes wet hair from his face in a frustrated, jerky movement and finally meets Stahn's eyes, glare fierce--
But there's only pure worry there, and it's Stahn, and he has to look away a moment later, because he knows Stahn would never be condescending towards him. He's projecting. And he's already messed this up, because he still never wanted this meeting to happen, and yet...what can he do now about it? How is he supposed to face Stahn, when his own treachery had caused them so much heartache and suffering?
He can't. And he's still shaking slightly despite himself, and he's so incredibly weak after all, isn't he?]
no subject
[before stahn himself has had a chance to do much else, leon is yelling at him with a certain type of ferocity that he didn't expect to hear.
this whole situation is so overwhelming; being yelled at that way is only the smallest fraction of a factor in the way stahn's legs finally give out from under him. he manages to catch himself as to not fall too clumsily, but getting leon to safety took a look out of him with how quickly he was put into panic mode. add in everything else, and stahn is just without a leg to stand on.
but still, despite the very, very slight hurt that comes with being told he's coddling leon—it's nothing of the sort, he just wants to be sure he was safe and could calm down—it's still worry that takes up the majority of his expression. there's not even room for relief yet, despite the bubbling feeling of happiness that he gets to see leon again somehow. that can come later. what comes first are words of his own that are shaky and unsure.
where does he even start?]
I just didn't want you to go through that again, Leon. [the thought terrifies him, honestly.] For me, for everyone else... you had to go through that once already. I couldn't let it happen again.
[that's scary as all hell to him—forcing leon to suffer so much like that. his life had already been so hard, and while he still doesn't understand or even know how to ask how leon can even be here right now, he couldn't just sit by and let things be even harder for him. because despite all the things that seem so different in his reactions, he knows with no doubt who it is he's dealing with.
which is why he won't give up. even if he feels overwhelmed. even if he feels the intensity of his emotions washing over him. even if the look in his slightly teary eyes is a mix of hope and despair, of sorrow and apologies. leon can lash out; even if it hurts, he'll take it. he'll bear it all. it's the least he can do after everything leon's done for him.]
no subject
He didn't deserve any sort of kudos for that.
Really, the very thought makes him feel sick.
Either way, it's just like Stahn to see it that way. Stahn, who was so truly pure and warm and untainted. The one person who Leon could truly believe would stumble through the world without an ulterior motive in his thick head--Stahn is that sort of person, so of course he doesn't see that Leon has done so much bad that even a shred of good couldn't amend it. And even so... he wouldn't change a thing he did. It makes him feel like a monster, but perhaps that's what he is. For Marian, he would have done it all over again.
Even as hopeless and helpless as it was.
Leon's voice is still somewhat raspy from the coughing, but he just focuses on wringing out one of his sleeves so he doesn't have to look Stahn in the face. There's too much emotion there. There's too much, and Leon doesn't know how to deal with it.]
... It didn't happen again. [He's still alive, and breathing--somehow. Even though he should be dead. He doesn't understand it any more than Stahn does.] So just leave it at that.
[Enough. He'll...stand and go. He should go. But Leon knows if he tries to stand, his legs won't support him right now.]
no subject
he feels that if he looks away and then back, it'll be gone. that it'll be another trick of the mind, or a hallucination.
and stahn doesn't want that.
regardless of what leon says, what he thinks now or how he views himself after what happened that day, there is no question is his mind about what worth he has. to stahn, leon is his best friend; he's a treasured comrade who made the ultimate sacrifice to save them—even if it was partially in order to atone for his own mistakes. stahn has never been blind to that. everything that happened then, it was wrong.
it was the wrong choice to act on his own. it was the wrong choice to not lean on his friends. it was the wrong choice to never tell them what happened to marian, even though they'd have helped. it was worse to reveal his lineage and relation to rutee in those last moments, and it was wrong that they were forced to grieve the loss of someone so important.
but even if those things were wrong, his feelings have never faltered. and the things he blames leon for pale in comparison to the things he blames everyone else for. it wasn't leon's fault that things ended up that way; if marian had never been abducted to begin with, stahn is sure that he'd never have attempted to betray them. these are things he knows, these are things that have crossed his mind over and over again, daily. and after speaking to marian himself, he's confident of it more so than ever. so there's not a chance he can be convinced otherwise.]
You're... [he starts to say after a bout of silence. but stahn himself is a bit choked up. all of the realizations of this nonsensical situation are starting to slam into him. leon is here. he's alive. he's alive, but everyone else may not be. there's a chance that the world he'd been fighting so hard to protect was gone, along with his friends, his family, the other swordians, and all of the places he treasured.
but leon is here. and while leon can't replace everything that's lost... there's nothing that had even been able to replace leon, either.
he's overwhelmed. he's so, so overwhelmed in a way he probably wouldn't be if he were anyone else. he's a simple country boy who lacks so much, but all he's been doing lately is burying his grief under his duty; he's been keeping his morale up because the others needed him to—rutee, especially. he did so because dymlos was right about there being more important things than getting revenge for leon's death, and because he had a role as a swordian master to ensure there was a place for everyone to live happily. he did so because it was the only way to protect his dream.
...and with the potential for all of that to be gone, with the only thing remaining being the one thing he thought he'd never see again—it's hard for even someone with as much light and sunshine as stahn to hold back. he'd kept strong, never shedding a tear when anyone could see—not since ilene's death had he shown that weakness, but here and now at the worst possible time, the walls are starting to crumble.]
You're really here, right? This... this real.
no subject
He was never like this.
... It must be because they've been told their world is destroyed. That's the only logical explanation (though it doesn't quite match Stahn's words, but Leon can't accept any other explanation), and his expression tightens a little in turn. He doesn't know how to deal with a Stahn who is like this, and the feeling, the sense that it might somehow be a little bit his fault is...hard to shake.
Though he's still certain Stahn has no reasons to shed any tears over him, the fact remains--right now, Stahn is that distressed, and Leon is startled enough to respond without prevarication.]
Yes.
[He's really there. Somehow, this is really happening. And Leon doesn't know if Stahn is happy about it or not with that distressed tone or expression (Leon is certainly not happy about it), but he can't lie about it now.
He's alive, for better or for worse. He couldn't avoid Stahn. He's dripping wet and just avoided drowning for a second time. Today is not a good day for Leon Magnus.
He looks away again, expression pinched, shoulders slightly hunched. He's not sure how to deal with this, and he's still waiting for Stahn to condemn him. He clearly remembers his death. He must remember the betrayal then. Sure, there was some great words in there about friendship, and standing together, and leaning on each other, and sure, Leon wanted to accept them then... but he figures Stahn must have come to his senses by now.
There's no reason to extend a hand to a traitor like him. So his voice is soft, almost uncertain, despite how hard he tries to keep it level.]
...I am here. [For...some reason. He doesn't get it at all--there are so many more deserving people (Rutee, or Philia, or Woodrow, maybe), and yet... it's him who's here.]
no subject
no life was really worth being taken so unfairly. no life was really worth being taken at all. even the people he was most angry at, even the people he couldn't convince to change their minds with regards to ideals weren't worth that sort of end. people like baruk and ilene, didn't they just want to be able to live happily too? didn't they deserve that much?
so of course, there's no way stahn would ever agree with leon's view on this. nor would he ever change his mind about leon. not in any way.]
You're here. You're really alive, Leon...
[there's a lot of emotion in his voice when he says those words; his voice breaks a little from how overcome he is by this reality. this is something he never thought he'd see again, and he's so, so happy that he can sit next to leon this way, that he can look up and see his friend, hear his voice, and just simultaneously exist.
it doesn't change how worried he is about everything else, of course. their world and friends and still so important, and the idea of all of them being gone for good is something that honestly makes stahn feel so sick and helpless about. it also doesn't change his hurt feelings about the way leon approached everything prior to his sacrifice. but stahn is simple; he's too simple sometimes, and now is when it shows.
he doesn't want to be weak in front of leon; he wants to show that he's grown and become capable of being a worthy swordian master. he wants to show that he found a way for his priorities in the right place, and that even though he has so much to mourn, he can bury it when he has to—even if it's something he hates doing. but stahn struggles with that now, being so open most of the time. but it's hard for his weaknesses to not spill over in the face of so much uncertainty; rutee has been his biggest voice of reason lately, and she's not here to talk him down.
the simplicity comes out in another way too, of course. he can't focus on all of the things in his head. he's not good for thinking that much, which is why despite how sickeningly worried he is about home and the situation there (dymlos trying to be the voice of reason only carried them so far, after all), there's only one train of thought that spills into his words.]
I'm so glad... I can see you again...! [for a moment, he covers his face with his arm in an effort to use his sleeve and soak up the tears that accompany it. this is the side of stahn that leon never got to see; he never saw the tears of grief, or the side of stahn that is so deeply emotional when it comes to the people he cares about. he didn't see the desperation and rage, or the side that sought vengeance. so all he can see now is the lowest rung—a stahn that is completely overcome from the shock of what's been happening.
he doesn't know how to ask the important questions, but dymlos does. but still, despite that, there's silence from the swordian, because he can't interrupt this scene yet, and he knows it. as tough as dymlos can be, he's never anything short of considerate in these situations, when stahn needs to just let it out before he can move on.]
no subject