estoria | //EVENT024.EXE

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//EVENT024.EXE

Who: Everyoneeeeee!
When: OOC: 1/15 ; IC: 5/7
Where: ViViD's new level: Your Health and You (And Giant Monsters)
What: Intro log, welcome to Cerealia!
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for violence, etc! Please let the mods know if the rating needs to be changed or if the log needs to be locked!

//event024.EXE

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.

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I

[ 600 ] 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. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to Cerealia's January intro log! For your convenience, we have compiled the characters' arrival experience here, and should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here! You can also check the FAQ for more general inquiries. Should this event log hit Captcha, there is an all-purpose overflow here. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ᴘʜᴀsᴇ ɪ.
Shit...

[That's all he has to say for himself. Dying shouldn't mean regenerating in a fucking swamp, but maybe that's what Hell is? Just an unending swamp where he's forced to wear comfy clothes and participate in healthy activities to counteract all the stupid shit he did as a living person while displaying his nutritional values--

Which are way Goddamn off, actually. The shirt's what's throwing him off the most here -- which is absurd so he's going to ignore it.

And spend some time hanging out on a moss-eaten log, checking himself for wounds, pinching his face for good measure.

He's not entirely sure what to make of this, but treading through the swamp isn't really appealing right now.]

ᴘʜᴀsᴇ ɪᴠ.
[So, he's trespassed on private property, probably, (and left those drinks untouched), waded through some muck (and past a doll that very vividly resembled Takaya Sakaki, weeeeeeeeeeird) and is moseying his way through the quietude, not any more or less suspicious than he has been all along. This entire obstacle course(???) has been a trip, though not amount of guarding can prepare him for the gigantic octopus-plant that shoots out of the ground, blinds him with dirt and means to make a meal out of him?!

Because he's apparently low in sodium -- he's low in everything which makes him highly edible, apparently.

There's a shout that accompanies the snatch up. He's a flailing damsel in distress at the moment. Mostly because he can't see a single thing?!]

ʙᴏɴᴜs.
[Rather than getting changed/washing up right away, Shinji moseys his way over to a seat at what's presumably the kitchen table. He's tired, still confused, harboring a mild headache and...

There's a tree waiting for him, one that appears to be sprouting pieces of bacon? He can't bring himself to fuss about it at all. He just kind of sets an elbow on the kitchen table, sets his chin into his palm and stares at it.

Zones out, even.]

[ Mitsuru has worn many questionable things for the sake of ~~dungeon crawling~~ being properly equipped for battle, but her current attire just feels a little troublesome. The pants are much too...flowy. How awkward.

Never the less, she is prepared to be surprised. Every other stint in ViViD has certainly raised the bar on expecting the unexpected. However, she feels that as long as no foliage attempts to "hook her up" with anyone else, she will be in better shape than before.

She hears the shout not too far away--a lack of shoes and the soft ground of the swamp making a fast assault more difficult--but Mitsuru rushes onto the scene without hesitation, Evoker at the ready. Of course it's a tentaclely plant creature. Of course. She is so done with those. ]

Arte--!

[ She's pressing her Evoker to her temple when the victim in question suddenly looks much to familiar. ]

...--Aragaki!?

[Yoga pants, they're comfy and easy to wear.

But definitely awkward. The concerning attire has become an afterthought in lieu of all the stupid shit he's bore witness to, none quite as threatening as this barely-discernable-thanks-to-the-muddy-eyes-but-maybe-plantlike-creature manhandling him.

But through all the ridiculousness, the wind whipping against his ears and blood rushing to his head, he's fairly sure he's hearing Mitsuru's voice coming from...the monster..??

He mops at his face roughly with the collar of his shirt.]

Mitsuru-?!

[With his gaze bounding around wildly. Surely she's somewhere here and not a figment of his imagination? It would help if he weren't currently dangling in the wrong direction. Like, facing the rows and rows of weird plant teeth that are all but poised to decapitate him.]

[ That is most certainly Shinjiro, although it's easy to assume otherwise at first. It was just the other day that she was lamenting his departure with Minato, something she feels partially responsible for. It's a little ridiculous give the nature of the place and that, apparently, people disappear all the time. But part of the reason of living together was to keep an eye on one another, something she clearly failed at. It felt a bit like letting him die again.

There's a moment of hesitation on her part, but guilt and a proper reintroduction will have to wait. Mitsuru shakes herself out of it and pulls the trigger. ]'

Artemisia!

[ Who, of course...casts Marin Karin.

...Does it work? ]

shinjiro aragaki / persona 3 / OTA

IV

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bonus

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I

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iv!

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I

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phase I

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