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.
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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.]
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