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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Yes.
[And she's just going to shaking her head though, her cheeks coloring with embarrassment.]
You're such a strange girl.... [ . . . . ] I'm glad you're safe.
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[ That juxtaposition of not-quite-a-nice-thing-to-say and "I'm glad you're safe" is sadly a very common thing for her to hear and has the sick side effect of being reassuring. Though, in Lili's case... it does sound like a nice thing to say. ]
So! What... did you want me to do anyway? I bet I can be strange and helpful at the same time!
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So yeah.
She's strange.]
Don't worry about it. [And Lili looks back to the table with drinks with renewed determination.] ... It's something that I should be able to do myself before I ask someone else to.
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Maybe it's not. Maybe Lili is special. Rapunzel moves forward into the shack, heedless of the door creaking slowly towards shutting behind her. ] What are those? They look like tinctures.
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But then she manages to ask those questions first and then she's distracted.]
W-Wait! Don't get too close, I'm not sure what's in them. It could be harmful!
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Karmic retribution for the teasing? She lowers her head, roundly chastised by the universe. ] It says to... take one. Wait, you're not - actually planning to do it, are you? [ I mean. SHE'S getting pretty damn curious and she's only been here about two minutes. ]
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Though now she feels a little bit more embarrassed.]
W-Well, I haven't had anything to eat or drink in four days...!! [she's pretty much surviving through willpower and adrenaline alone] If I don't then what else can I find in this swamp to ingest?!
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Two young women apparently. ]
Humans will die without food and water! Why haven't you eaten? We need to get you out of here.
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She normally keeps things to herself, she really does but... Rapunzel's so concerned, she at least deserves an explanation for why Lili snapped at her, right?]
.... I was.... in a bad place before I came here.
[vague but.
her hands stall in her looking through battles, instead balling into fists as she tries to keep herself from trembling. she has to keep going, she can't stop and dwell now.]
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How bad? This looks... safe-ish.
[ Yeah this is how you FORCE casual. ]
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. . . . her answer is quiet.]
Slave labor.
If we didn't help those idiots build their fort, then.... [They'd be whipped. They'd be hurt. Yona was whipped because of her - but she doesn't say that out loud. Instead, she says something else.] No food or water. Only drugged liquor.
[sorry Disney princess.]
1/2
Her other hand is fisted somewhere in the mass of hair across her shoulder. Tightly. ]
Then it's good you're here. Where... you can be - looked after. Properly.
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She steps away from the table. ] Lili. Look, I'm... I don't know how to do this kind of thing either. Talking. Being with people who... who aren't trying to hurt you. You don't have to talk to me and - you definitely, definitely don't need to talk to me about this. But– [ and here she'll offer a smile ]
But I'm here. And so are you. You're alive. Still. That... makes you strong. So even if we're forced to do things like this against our will? We'll be better for it because we've been through worse. –You've been through worse. Right?
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Can she be looked after here? Despite her attempts to play it off, Rapunzel's words only manage to scare her more. There's no one to look after her here -- Yona doesn't know who she is and Ayura and Tetora aren't present. In the end, this is the first time in a long time that Lili is well and truly alone. So she ends up crossing her arms, her fingers digging into the sleeves of her shirt, just trying to hold herself together.]
I.... I don't know.
[And the emotion in her voice betrays her, tears pricking at her eyes as she keeps her gaze firmly on the floor. She's been trying to keep going blindly, whatever it took to keep her feet moving forward so that she wouldn't cry, but that... isn't working anymore.]
I don't know anything anymore....
[Everything went dark after those soldiers captured her and demanded that she be taken to the execution grounds - what is she going to do? What happened to her?]
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Then she's at Lili's side, just like that. Without regard for custom or what is and isn't appropriate. Lili's only slightly taller than she is, but she makes do, holding her arm at a crook as if to offer comfort, provided Lili's comfortable with it. And all the while she's telling herself not to think too hard about what these truths mean for her. Telling herself that Lili is wrong when she's very, very right to be afraid.
If she does, she'll fall apart too. ]
Hey. You escaped a trash heap! And a fiery death! We are here together, Lili. And we can't just let these - faceless monsters dictate how we feel.
...You can cry for now. But don't let them convince someone as pretty as you to cry forever.
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Lili was never particularly affectionate - she never learned how to be, given how her father always held her at a distance. Even now, when someone raises a hand to her, she automatically flinches. This is the same when Rapunzel lifts her arm - she flinches away - but as soon as the arm comes around her so carefully, so warmly, she relaxes despite herself. She eases and she leans against Rapunzel then, the tears escaping her freely then.
Having time to cry now is.... a new thought. But it's one that apparently her body demands she accept even if she doesn't want to.]
I....
[A hiccup as she shakes her head, still unable to find words even as her crying is mostly silent otherwise.]
I shouldn't.... be crying. I have things I need to do! I can't.... I can't just stay here...
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Do you want to cry now, though? We'll have time to poison ourselves later, promise.
...And I never break my promises.
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You barely even know me.... Why do you care so much?
[How do you care so much?
How do you manage to be so good even to someone as useless as herself?]
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[ If she were anyone else, the delivery could easily have travelled south past blunt and straight on to abrasive. Coming from her, though, it's an offering, proof that Lili isn't the only one feeling mixed up or troubled.
And it's true: she doesn't know what exactly it is that's compelling her to stick around or offer anything of comfort to this girl she hardly knows. Is it the traumatic potential inherent in the situation and the fact or the fact that she's incredibly lonely? Impulse? Hero complex? ]
But - I think I do care. And I don't know that you really need a reason all the time. You know?
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Really, who is this girl?
Lili tucks herself a little bit more into Rapunzel's side without even completely meaning to - but the comfort is there even as she wipes away the last of her tears.]
.... I don't....
But.... [ . . . ] It works... for you.
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But... thank you, Lili. Really. I feel like there's less to be afraid of as long as there are people like you in the world. [ holy sugar content 90000000% batman ]
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Rapunzel is far too much for Lili to handle. She's too good at being instantly comforting - offering the solace that Lili didn't even want to admit that she's looking for. She's too good at saying the right thing - being just genuine and reassuring enough that Lili doesn't find her hard to believe. She's too good..... she's just too good.
And so she does think that last bit is sweet. She does.
But she also can't help but fixate on the earlier bit--]
Wh-What...? Who would say that to you?!
[she's gonna kick their ass tho]
p-precious lili no...
Oh, um. My mother did. Well – Not in those words, that's not fair. She'd never say weirdo. I mean, it sounds a lot worse when I say it, trust me.
she'll fight people for rapunzel now okok
Even though Lili herself can't manage to tell her that.]
Your mother did....? But she told you that you don't know what you're talking about....?
[Lili's mother passed away when she was young but - it still confuses her quite a bit.]
*whispers into the wind* squad goals........
Rapunzel herself is rapidly becoming confused by this sudden line of questioning, but she'll go along with it because, hey, what a novelty! Pascal is mostly an advice guy. ]
I mean... she's not wrong.
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