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. ] |
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[they both just got here, it's not like there's some other agenda. aren't they going to work together like they always did anyway?]
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[.. .... .... He's obviously not going to be forthcoming with a reason because he...has none...
Aside from the fact that he just isn't sure he's able to stay with Stahn like this.
aka Leon's just being a big baby, what else is new.]
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[like what? even stahn's kind of skeptical at this possibility right now.]
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[#brilliant argument]
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[he really doesn't want leon to go, okay.]
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Are you really going to insist on this?
[Because if so, he may as well just save them both some time and stay.
(even if he won't admit that maybe that's partially what he wants anyway).]
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[...leon betraying them aside, of course. but stahn isn't counting that; whenever they ventured into new territory, they did so together. they're comrades; they're friends. of course he's going to insist on it.]
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But... things are different here. They're not on a journey, are they? (But maybe, in a way, they are.) And it's true that so much is different here... Leon can easily see Stahn getting distracted by something or other in his wide-eyed way and getting himself hit by the train or something.
That'd be bad.
At least this way he could keep an eye on him............
Leon has to ponder it for another long moment, before he finally caves (but really, isn't this just what he wanted all along, deep down?)]
... Fine. If it is to keep your attention span-deprived self out of trouble, I suppose I may as well stay.
[that's the only reason though!!!]
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(stahn knows better.)]
Ahh.. what a relief! [he's yokatta-ing the hell out of this right now, leon. see how relieved he is! maybe he was trying really hard to keep himself together and also not look too desperate to not be alone. it's not that he isn't forthcoming about it—he's not secretive about wanting leon around, after all.
but any more conflict today... he's too tired for it. honestly, he's so tired that even standing after coming to that conclusion seems like a terrible idea. so stahn is gentle in placing dymlos down before he flops backwards onto that very comfortable-looking sofa.]
It's comfortable...
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As for Leon, he has full intentions of going and making use of one of those beds. Why would he bother with the couch when there is a bed? Especially when you consider that Stahn is sprawled over said couch like...some sort of idiot. Leon is tired too, after all. Between the events leading up to his death and then everything that followed, it feels like he hasn't slept for years.
(Wasn't death supposed to be restful?)
Either way, he's not going to fight it anymore; he just scoffs faintly at Stahn and then drags himself towards one of those bedrooms. Really, this is fine. He can make it.
That is the last thought he has before he stumbles in his weariness, trips over one of the ottoman (why do those exist) and also ends up sprawled on the couch. This is good progress.]
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he only pops an eye open because of the sound of leon's scoff... and even that ends up being short-lived because of the tired, clumsy way leon trips and lands on the couch.]
Leon, are you okay!? [naturally, stahn comes to the closest possible thing to full attention for the moment, because...well, because he's worried about leon getting hurt, obviously.]
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Which is why he's not immediately getting up, allowing his face to remain buried in the pillows of the couch.
Ughhhhhhhh.
And, muffled--]
I'm fine.
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[he relaxed a bit hearing that. how is he supposed to know if leon didn't get hurt if he doesn't ask! he could have twisted his ankle or landed strangely... or any number of things, soft surface or not.
he knows leon isn't really the most delicate flower (even if he is truly a glass cannon), but he can't help himself after all that's happened. but it's fine as long as he's not hurt. stahn's not going to press the issue, or make him move. wounding leon's pride any further isn't something he's interested in doing at all.]
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He should probably get up and go to bed now, but...after everything, he really is so tired. It's been nonstop, and suddenly he's not sure if his legs would support him if he tried to stand now after having sat down.
(It feels like it's been ages since he was off his feet in a way that wasn't someone knocking him off them.)
In...a bit, he'll get up. For now, he's going to try to recover a bit, slumping slightly against the couch.]
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he's expended all of the physical and emotional energy he had left... so good luck with him being anything resembling conscious for at least twelve hours.]
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It would be doable. It's what he should do.
It's what Leon knows he won't do, as he looks at Stahn sleeping. If only to make sure that Stahn doesn't get his fool self killed or harmed before Leon can get him back home... then he'll stay here to keep an eye on him. Or, at least, that's why he's going it, that's what he's going to tell himself.
Now... now he just has to get up and go to bed. He can figure the rest out in the morning, right? That's all there is to it.
He'll just rest for a few more moments with that settled, and then he'll get up.
... Naturally, that never actually happens; Leon is exhausted, and a few moments turns into a doze which turns into a proper sleep, even if he's slumped against the couch and curled away from Stahn. Even so, here they are, passed out on the couch together.
It's a start.]