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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ota; happy to match if you'd prefer brackets!
It's like the Fallow Mire all over again; it smells just as awful and there aren't literal dead bodies crawling out of the swamp. It is just a very disgusting swamp. Barefoot and armourless, she wades through the grime, trusty sword in her hand. She must be quite the sight, but luckily she has never much cared for appearances.
Squelch. There is the noise of sticky footsteps behind her. She turns around to face it, but sees nothing. Her sword is held at the ready.
"Who is there? Show yourself." Her tone is one of derision, an intolerance of cowardice.
bonus
She is tired and muddy but not as worn as she could have been. It's as though she's been fighting (and she has) but has not struggled. No blood has been drawn. She supposes she ought to be grateful for that.
Cassandra does not bother to wipe the grime from her clothes. Why bother? When she finds some others, a proper outfit, she fully intends to burn her current attire.
When she arrives at the assigned lodgings, she frowns at the tiny tree outside the door. What is the meaning of this? When she takes a closer look she cannot hold back a laugh. She would not be the first person to accuse the Maker of having a sense of humour but sometimes it felt like that someone, somewhere, was laughing at her.
The tree is adorned with tiny hats. She plucks a little helmet from its branches and balances it on the tip of her fingers. She smiles a rueful smile.
"I never did look good in hats."
phase i!!!
she was slipping and sliding her way through the mud when she hears cassandra's shout and right, might as well not spook someone just because she can't find her balance. all she needs to do is go around this tree and...!
ah. there's a branch.
there's a branch, there's some mud, hawke is holding out her hands to show her innocence and --
and in rather spectacular fashion, she trips over the branch. because of the mud. and lands face first on the ground in front of cassandra with a yelp. after a moment of misery, she rolls over onto her back, cringing and pressing a hand to her poor face. ]
Sweet Maker, did anyone catch the name of that tree? I'd like to have a word with him once I recover. Ow.
no subject
I wouldn't bother. ( Her gaze flickers ever-so-briefly to the tree. ) You will not receive an apology.
( After a few more moments of observation, she makes a disgruntled sort of noise and holds out her spare hand to offer assistance. )
In any case, you certainly know how to make an entrance.
no subject
All of my dreams, dashed.
[ she opens an eye to see the offered hand and reaches up to grab it, pulling herself up to her feet and cringing at the mud that's really just become part of her now. she's 90% mud, 10% sarcasm at this point. she lifts a hand to wipe a line of it off her arm with a frown. ]
That's me, life of the party. Look at that girl, she's landed on her face again.
[ she looks up at cassandra then, a sheepish grin. ]
Entirely unintentional, I promise you. Enough about me though, are you new? Nice sword.
no subject
I suppose you could say that. ( It will suffice as an explanation for, well, everything that's happened this morning.
When the woman rights herself, that's when Cassandra is hit with a bolt of familiarity. Is this -- no, it couldn't be. Surely not. But, that face... she is not usually the type of woman who minces words but in this moment, she finds herself fumbling anyway, although she does her very best to disguise it. She clicks her tongue, and buries the question burning in her mind for another, still pertinent one. )
I take it you are not. ( A beat. ) Do you have any idea why we are dressed like this?
(no subject)
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I
When Cassandra looked up, she'd get a little wave in reward.
"You sound like you're havin' a bad day, huh?"
no subject
Her answer was preceded by a sharp exhale. "I've had worse." It was not a lie - bad days seemed to occur more frequently than the better ones of late. "May I ask what is you're doing up there?"
no subject
She made an 'ew' face along with that.
"Wouldn't you rather not be in that either?"
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bonus
[ Cassandra will be one of the few who recognizes Merrill as an elf, so small with sharp ears — and even for an elf, she was rather strange looking. she's still in her yoga clothes, the former aquamarine being slathered with a medley of mud, sludge, and blood. not her own blood, at least.
she has a smile on her face in spite of everything, holding her own tiny tree. it's a dildo one. this is the second time she's encountered dildos in Cerealia and she'd just gotten here. ]
Someone told me that these little things were just simple rubbish. I suppose I won't be keeping it.
no subject
They said that, did they? That's ( a pity ) probably for the best.
( It takes Cassandra a few monents but she then manages to look past the tree and at the elf carrying it. Her eyes scan the woman, taking in her appearance, the tattoos, and before she can quite help herself she remarks: )
You're a long way from home.
no subject
[ if cassandra happened to look down, she'd see a shoe nary in sight. unfortunately, she doesn't quite catch the inference that she's from thedas. ]
I suppose we're just as far from home as each other. We all are, aren't we?
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bonus!!!
A-ah, perhaps it is not the right hat?
no subject
The right hat? Surely no such item exists.
no subject
I am no expert on hats, but there seems to be a lot of interesting designs.
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i
And that's just part one of the list of problems she's currently having. Not mentioning the smell. Or the filthiness. Or the fact that she's stuck wearing these godawful clothes. She's hardly even paying attention to where she's going, as long as it's not here.
Of course, the sound of someone yelling at her and a sword being drawn snaps her to attention.
"H-hold on a second! I'm not trying to sneak up on you!" A somewhat strained voice comes from somewhere beyond the bushes. Here's the part where she'd appear, except her feet aren't complying. There's a sucking noise as the mud keeps her shoes firmly where they are. "--I'm just... stuck!"
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"Do you require any assistance?"
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Almost.
"No, I'm -- wah!" A yelp as she almost falls over into the mud. "--Yes!"
Better to be safe than sorry.
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phase i.
Did you need something?
[Otherwise, he intended to just keep on trekking his way through this level; he's here to help people who can't help themselves, but despite her silly appearance (they all look silly right now), she carries her sense of competence with her like a cloak, so he's not all too concerned.]
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Answers. But I have received them.
( Is there anything else she needs? She mulls it over, then adds, haltingly: )
Where are you headed?
no subject
Out of this swamp, honestly. I had intended to help those I can in here, but this situation is too widespread to be of much use, aside from those I happen to come across.
[And he's not really very fond of going by chance in things like this.]
i
[ In response comes... well a sound of something horrible, but it's not a monster or anything that belongs in a swamp, but a tiny pink haired girl stuck into the mud all the way up to her thighs. Which just makes her look like a tiny sprouting pink flower. Except that she's about a million times louder and more obnoxious than any plant has the right to be. ]
The least you could do is help me out of here!! [ Nonon can only see the woman through the foliage and things, but she's definitely not happy, and willing to accept help from anyone if she can. She really hates mud. ]
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The more you squirm, the faster you'll sink.
( All the same, she'll reach out towards her, in order to grab the girl underneath her shoulders. )
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It's disgusting!! I hate this stupid place! It's almost worse than that stupid garbage dump they threw us in last time!!
[ Also, shutting up and not complaining seems to be an impossibility for her too. ]
phase I
"Hey easy with that."
It looked like a very old style sword. Probably razor-sharp too. He didn't exactly want to find out.
He was covered in mud already.
no subject
"What are you doing here?" Hopefully the more she asks the question, the more everything will begin to actually make sense.