The thing about Cerealia is, there really isn't any nature to be found here. Sure, you can go outside the walls of the city and explore the land beyond but who wants to risk a terrible, horrible death just to sniff the flowers? Not you, that's who! CERES understands that, CERES sympathizes, and sometimes CERES decides to take action when such problems arise. As part of the company's current "Healthier and Happier YOU" initiative, they've decided to let everyone get back in touch with nature a little.
Via ViViD.
Of course, this being CERES, the nature they've sent everyone to is more of a swamp. The place is disgusting, a real marvel of ViViD ingenuity and it smells like the dead. There's strange rustling among the leaves from creatures that may or may not want to eat you, and random pits that open up right under your feet with the goal of sending you straight into the marsh. It's not really that fun. There's no welcome sign either, no nothing except for swamplands as far as the eye can see.
Welcome to ViViD!  This is Mosley. One of our programmers forgot to include a welcome greeting for the level this time. How incompetent can you get? He's been fired now, it's fine. Instead, I will greet you today. Lucky you! You've been invited today to participate in CERES's "Healthier and Happier YOU" level where we've combined both physical exercise and relaxing meditation into the ultimate ViViD experience. Isn't that fun? You can... go camping and stuff. Or whatever. I don't... know...
Honestly, I don't even care. Have fun.
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PHASE I [ 6 00 ] Welcome to your new healthy living training ground! What does a swamp have to do with healthy living, you may ask? Absolutely nothing! To make up for it, CERES has outfitted all players with the proper equipment for their new healthy living lifestyle. They also may or may not have let you keep your shoes based on how benevolent the ViViD gods were being at the time. (Not very.)
Oh, and all newcomers will have something additional on their fancy new yoga shirt. It will be displayed loudly and proudly all over the front and back of it. And if you're one of the few not wearing a shirt, it will be on the back of your pants. As in, your butt. It will be on your butt.
What’s ViViD trying to say, anyway?
Regardless, it probably doesn’t matter as much as finding your way through the swamp. Some sort of dry land would be really nice right now, wouldn't it? You'll have to watch out for the mud that will suck you right down under the marsh, and the creatures with lots of teeth that will never surface from the mud but won't hesitate to snap up an unwary foot or two.
CERES is sure you'll be fine. Totally and completely fine.
PHASE II [ 800 ] Eventually, if you try really, really hard, you’ll make it to a house. Actually, it’s more of a shack, really. If you clamber your way out of the mud and the gunk and the marsh into said shack, you will find it to be empty aside from a table. A table hosting a huge pile of... well, health drinks. See, there's totally a health theme in this level. CERES would never make a ViViD level that wasn't thematically appropriate. Never! Health drinks of all sorts and types and sizes can be found here and there’s even a sign too; it simply says:
Take one.
Well, that seems safe.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to leave said shack until you do take one. And drink it. The door will lock shut and cover itself in more swamp until you do. Yay. Depending on your luck, the drink may do the following to you: ➟ Cause your ViViD experience to glitch. This may involve phasing through walls, seeing everything in 8-bit, or hearing really annoying old video game music everywhere you go.
➟ Cause status effects. This can include suddenly moving incredibly slowly, being turned to stone for a period of time, suddenly being on fire, suddenly being poisoned, etc etc.
➟ Be healthier. Mmm, kale and hummus smoothie. Taste those veggies. If you try to take more than one, that’s fine too, nobody will stop you, but you probably won’t get lucky more than once.
PHASE III [ 900 ] And back you go, out into the swampy wilderness. Don’t give up! Keep going! Eventually, you’ll find the end of this level. Probably.
Eventually, though, you may stumble across something in the mud and the muck. It’s... a little doll?
In fact, it’s a little doll of one of your most important people (or, alternatively, of someone you absolutely hate). It might be someone in Cerealia currently, or someone who isn’t, but either way, the doll is there and it’s clearly them (covered in mud and all). Be careful, though. If you toss it aside, you’ll suddenly see that important person being tossed aside. If you cut the doll, you'll suddenly see that person bleeding. Even if they aren’t present in Cerealia, whatever happens to that doll, you'll see it happening to them. Is it a hallucination or are they actually there? That's a little more up in the air.
And if they are present in Cerealia, well... doing things to that doll might very well hurt them too -- for real, this time, though.
Be careful! Or don't. You do you, as CERES would say.
PHASE IV [ 1200 ] And then, eventually you reach a quiet, swampy area. Not that the rest of the swamp isn't swampy, this area is just extra swampy.
There’s very little happening here in this swampy place; even the birds are no longer squawking. And for a long moment, everything will remain quiet and peaceful, a place of reprieve... until the swamp begins to bubble. Then suddenly, a new friend will burst out of the swamp, showering mud and gunk everywhere.
Without warning, that creature is going to try to grab for the nearest person (it might be you!) and let out a mighty roar when they have them. Then, they'll hold them up to... read the nutrition facts on their shirt? What?
Of course, it will try to gobble you or whoever else it grabs if it finds, say, the salt content to be acceptable (the monster is watching their carbs). If it's not, then they'll just fling you away and move onto the next snack. For those without a handy nutrition facts label on your shirt, well, it might just take a gamble and try to eat you anyway.
Great. A health-conscious monster. That's just what this level needed.
BONUS [ xxxx ] Finally, you’re free of the game. Without warning, you’re dumped into Cerealia properly and you’re able to scrub the mud and gunk from your clothing (wait why did that come back with you and where are your normal clothes?). You're able to then make your way to your new place of residence (or old) and...
There is a tiny tree there waiting for you. Isn’t it cute? And if you take care of this tiny tree, it will eventually bear fruit! Tiny fruit. Itty bitty fruit.
Depending on which tiny tree you get, it will be one of the following: a tiny dildo tree, a tiny bacon tree, a tiny kazoo tree, a tiny carolina reaper tree, or a (dumb) tiny hats tree.
Everything will, naturally, be tiny. Enjoy your new healthy CERES gift!
[ 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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FRIENDS iv
It threw you away! [LAUGHS] I wonder why! Is it because you look gross?
[LAUGHS!!!! okuni is no fresh spring daisy herself tho tbh]
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I can't imagine anything as gross as your personality!!
[-- READY TO FUCKING THROW DOWN APPARENTLY.
Even as she is just trying to wipe off the mud now.... god.....]
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That's because you haven't seen yourself! [YOUR IMAGINATION'S LIMITED LILI!!! jk...] It's either you look super unappetizing, or maybe you made it mad?
[Okuni looks Lili over... she doesn't seem like the fighter type... she sure seems spunky enough to offend health conscious swamp monsters tho]
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I don't recall asking for your opinion on the matter! Why don't you bother somebody else?!
[..... and maybe point her to civilization??]
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Like who? You're the only one around.
[did they forget about the monster already??? the monster that seems to be making a BEELINE TOWARDS THEM AT THIS VERY MOMENT???]
Besides the monster, that is.
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which is when Lili is getting up immediately (and she slips a little but WHATEVER) and then she's just going TURN TO MOVE IMMEDIATELY
and then pause when she realizes that okuni's not following
wait]
Wh-What're you waiting for?!
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[but then the MONSTER'S UPON THEM and shoots out one of its weird tentacle arm things to grab at either... so Okuni, in an act of true bravery, will try to shove Lili out of the way of the monster's weird tentacle, whoops.]
Just run away for now, alright? [and before she can properly hear an answer, she spins away and runs off, the monster hellbent on snacking on Okuni's nutritional content...]
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But the thing is that she doesn't like this feeling -- this feeling of being powerless. It's a monster, she knows that, and she's scared - her arms are shaking and she's not even sure if she can find her footing if she tried to get up. Someone's telling her to run away though and doesn't that sound familiar?
No.... she doesn't know this girl aside from the fact that she's rude but maybe she has something to live for.]
N-No, I won't...!!
[AND SHE'S GETTING UP, SCRAMBLING TO FIND SOMETHING THAT SHE CAN THROW AT THE MONSTER MAYBE???]
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Huh -- are you stupid or something? [she's getting Sakichi vibes...] If you won't run away, then just sit still! It doesn't look like it wants to eat you --
[DUCKS then pauses. actually...]
-- Throw me a stick!!
[LET'S KILL THIS THING]
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Who would think about being stupid at a time like this?! [Lili would. She doesn't want to think about how she had asked Yona the same thing before.] I can't let you get hurt -- what kind of person do you take me for?!
[When did she have such a heroic streak?
Now, apparently. That said she's going to scramble around, looking for a stick even as tears start to sting at her eyes a little bit-]
J-Just wait, okay?! Don't get eaten!
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Honestly... Isn't that just your pride talking? [ducking and dodging... how does Okuni still have time to talk.] If you had just abandoned me, then you wouldn't be in this mess.
[okuni plz..........]
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Then I wouldn't be able to live with myself...!!
["Live." Haha.
But regardless she eventually manages to procure a stick and now she's going to chuck it over at Okuni. Does she even have good aim? Probably not.]
Take this!
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This is why idealists are so annoying! [no this is why people with POOR AIM ARE ANNOYING!! but Okuni scampers over and picks up the stick just in time. It's not a metal bat, but she'll take what she can get! Which means that she times it, waiting until the monster is upon her!! to slam it in its face!!]
[and it snaps in half because it's just a stick and not a metal bat. aite. okuni doesn't have her fan or her swords with her. she's gonna... start scampering in Lili's direction and will GRAB HER HAND to yank her along]
Ugh -- hurry up and run! [ESCAPE ESCAPE]
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What....... What were you thinking?!
[RUNNING IS A GOOD IDEA, LET'S GO WITH THAT NOW.]
Who's an idiot now...?!
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Running was my plan from the beginning, but then you had to stay and make things complicated! This is all your fault, you know!
[but then Okuni had to CARE UGH and now they're both running... the monster is just like 'i want to eat something why do i have to do so much chasing... is this really worth it']
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I meant the stick! That was your whole plan with the stick?!
[STOP TALKING ABOUT THE STICK, LILI.]
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I don't want to hear that from you! [miss HERO!! but the monster finally seems like it's slowing down.] You couldn't even throw that stick properly!
[THESE TWO ARE TRULY MATURE]
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W-Well clearly it doesn't matter because it didn't do anything anyway! You just wasted both of our time...!
[but it's good that the monster is slowing down
because the whole forced into slave labor and then not being given food or water thing can really wear on a girl - which is why Lili's slowing down too....]
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Did all that heroism tire you out? [OR WAS IT JUST THE RUNNING THEY BOTH DID JUST NOW]
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Sh.... Shut up....
[oh.
that's strong.]
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Honestly... What was it you said back there? [Okuni pitches the tone of her voice precisely to copy Lii's.] 'Then I wouldn't be able to live with myself!'
[tilting her head to the side] Do you say embarrassing things like that for every stranger you think needs saving?
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No..... Now I'm even questioning why I said it to you--!!
[when you apparently RUDE AF]
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So... If you could do that again, then you wouldn't try and save me?
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.... I couldn't say!
[is that.... a safe answer....]
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[no that's bc okuni's rUDE AND NOT WORTH SAVING]
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