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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[Ah, the famous last words of so many protags... He's not wearing lavender either, so he doesn't get that extra boost of fashion and fortune. A TRAGEDY.
But he'll wait until the lumbering beast goes spiraling down thanks to Rapunzel's crafty hair trap there, and immediately darts forward, looking... well. Not super heroic honestly, because this yoga outfit is doofy as hell, BUT THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT. The important part is the fact that he's clearly aiming to kill, which is probably also why he's ushering her out of the scene. She doesn't seem like the sort of person who could stab a thing to death...]
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She is also not the type to leave people behind. So as soon as she registers the funny, distant pull that signals a large mass tripping into her hair, she turns right around, leaping from root to giant root until she's returned to the scene of the crime.
Just in time to watch a dorky but still somehow incredible-looking monstrous creature take-down. ]
Wow.
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It's similar to the way his blade just sort of knows how to carve out all the right paths; it's all he (and thus, it) have ever known. So even a giantass goopy mud-covered tentacle beast with a gigantic mouth is really an easy(ish) target. Size and care for personal dieting aside, it doesn't have much going for it... He cleaves a cut straight through the meat between two tentacles, racing to the side of the fallen creature and leaving a bloody trail behind him. It's like Hollywood Horror, but with real alien blood!
Which Kashuu gets splattered by, ah. He sure doesn't look happy about that as he comes trouncing back around the opposite side of their dead friend.]
Gross. Ugh, I hate these things!
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[ the thanks will come!! ]
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It's the first time I've had to take something like that down, but ViViD's full of all kinds of nasty stuff like it. [He'd say "you get used to it", but a lot of people don't...
That said!]
I guess Dessert should be getting a thanks for lending a hand though, huh? That was a pretty bold move back there! And thanks for slowing that guy down, too; it'd have been waaay harder to take out if I was by myself.
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Thanks? Wow. Despite only knowing him for a short time, the praise almost seems more meaningful than it might coming from say... her mother. Rapunzel is up and over at his side in an instant, brimming with pride and bursting, almost literally - her shirt has a snag, at the seams, caught up as she is in the second wind of her excitement. ]
Well. From dessert to dinner and back again, you have my thanks, so– [ nodding ] Thank you. I'd... probably be dead if you hadn't been as great as you were.
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She gets a bright smile in return for the gratitude, either way.]
No problem! It's my job to protect people. [Quite literally, but--] And it's always good to keep an eye out for others in these places. CERES likes to give us a reeeal hard time with a lot of the levels in these games, but it's not so bad if you have someone you can get through 'em with, yeah? Knowing what to expect can help too, but that's a little less reliable, so... [He trails off with a shrug, and then:]
My real name's Kashuu, by the way. Kashuu Kiyomitsu! [Give him a second to notice that torn seam and his name will change to Kashuu "fusses over the dumbest shit in life-or-death situations" Kiyomitsu.]
1/2
That said. [ Sloughing off the muck now, since her camouflage is totally pointless at this point... ] These CERES people have a lot to answer for. Are you–
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Are... you here for the same reason I am? Because of– What they said? About the end of the world back at home.
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Good to meet you, though! [Rapunzel; that's a name he files away. But before he can get much further, her reaction reminds him of just how much he dislikes CERES on a whole and how much deeper that disdain runs than "they make us deal with annoying stuff sometimes." His answer comes immediately.]
I'm here because they said that, yeah, but I'm preeetty sure that story they cooked up is a total lie. They lie about a lot of things. It's like they heard about shady corporations and took it to the extreme, y'know? Whenever they say something, it's best not to trust 'em right away even if they could be telling the truth. Like, guilty until proven innocent, basically.
[He could just keep going on about this, honestly... But he'll cut himself off with a little huff.]
—Anyway, be careful around those guys, too. You seem like the kinda person to just like, barrel into danger, so. Just watch yourself if you deal with 'em.
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That's funny. The whole reason I'm here is because - I'm not that kind of person at all. Not usually. I mean...
[ facing him ] Isn't it wise to be careful around everybody? Not just the bad guys?
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Eh - really? You could've totally fooled me. [What with her charging and barging and swinging around a stick and all. He still doesn't seem entirely convinced...
But his expression shifts to one of minute confusion after that question, instead.]
Why would you need to do that? You can't trust enemies, but you can always trust allies! [His implicit trust is gonna get his ass murdered one day BUT STILL.]
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Why do you say that? [ kicking away some vines in their path ] Do you have many allies?
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Mmhm! All of the other swords in my army are my allies, and I'd trust any of 'em with my life.
[Which he says with so much honesty that it's almost like he's just asking for some malevolent god to strike his dumb trusting ass down, but. Fortunately, it's just the two of them in this gross boggy area for now.]
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W-Woah. Um. So, you talk to inanimate objects too? That's okay! I had a feeling most people did. Mother must be, like, a weird exception or something. Well. She talks to my hair, but...
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[LORD. Luck only stretches so far!! But he doesn't have to reach out very far since she mostly catches herself. That said:]
Of course I do! I am one. [Ah. HERE WE GO. But rather than delve into explanations immediately, he first says:] It's good that you keep your things company, though. Without a body like this, it can get a little lonely, y'know?
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AND THAT DOESN'T EVEN COVER WHAT HE JUST SAID. ]
Ah. With...out a... body.
...What do you mean.
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I mean, without a body! I didn't have this one until about a year ago. [Like that makes sense and explains everything... But he's been through this so many times before that the rest of his explanation follows pretty swiftly, at least!]
I'm a tsukumogami. I dunno if you have anything like that where you're from, but we're basically object-spirits! Like... if something's around long enough and has enough memories and care and attention put into it, it can kinda... sprout a soul on its own. [His free hand makes a little POOF motion, like a daisy popping out of the ground, or a burst of firework.]
Looong story short, I'm helping out with a war back home, so my master summoned me and made this body for me! Normally we just manifest as regular spirits, so not many humans can see us.
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[ Aside from a curious twist of the lips and narrowing of eyes, she doesn't convey much surprise at this turn of events. Call it the result of ignorance or having an exceptionally open-minded perspective. ] But... wow, that's so– What does it feel like? Being a sword? Could I do that with anything? Could I make my spear into an, um. A... tsuku - tsukmogumi? Er. What you said, aha.
[ wait where IS her spear ]
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Mmhm, tsukumogami! Or just "sword spirit", that works too. [More specific and all, considering they could be talking about anything from a smothering futon to a pencil holder just by saying tsukumogami.]
Eh, it feels like... ...Well, which part are you talking about? Like, being a sword sword or just- [wiggles fingers] -existing as a sword spirit in general? And I'm not sure if you could make a tsukumogami. Usually it's like, people with a lot of spiritual power who do that, y'know? But anything has the potential to become one! It just takes at least a hundred years and it helps if the thing was used a lot or was reeeally important to someone.
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But oops. His wiggling fingers bring her attention to his hand, which she's been mindlessly examining and now drops. Rapunzel compensates for the loss by watching his every move with more scrutiny than usual. I mean he's a sword this is amazing how can she not study him. ]
What I meant, by the way, was how does it feel to have a body now if you didn't before. I can't even imagine what that would be like. Just - coming into existence like that? Were you... aware of your master before you got a body?
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Yeah, a lot of people say I'm one of the most human in the army. It kinda differs from one of us to the other, y'know? [A little, sloping shrug! When she lets go of his hand, he watches her with a little scrutiny in turn. That question is one he's used to, at least...]
Mmm, let's see... I mean, it was weird! I had awareness, but it was all different. Like, back when I was first "born", I guess I was like a ghost. I could see and hear everything, and I could talk to other spirits, but talking to humans was totally out of the question unless they were priests or whatever. [A lonely time, so he summarizes that quickly.] And then right before Haruji summoned me, it was all kinda hazy, but I definitely remember hearing his voice! And feeling something warm, and then, bam! I could open my eyes - like, real eyes, and look around the room and talk to people and touch things. I could sleep in a bed and pick up books, or go walk around outside and feel the sun. Ooh, and eating was so great! I'll really never forget the first meal I had. Sooo, it was like that, I guess.
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There are people here. People who love eating as much as she does.
So she listens politely and when he's finished her smile is bright. ] That's... exactly how I felt this morning. When I– Ah, when I... got to see this world for the first time - really see it, I mean. Not just watch but... live. And touch things. And touch people! [ Grinning sheepishly, she glances at his hand. How many others has she smacked in the face or accidentally punched in the face since her arrival? ]
Uh. Anyway. I'm glad you're here now. Even if I'm - not glad you're here exactly. I'm glad because now you get to experience this world too. Which you deserve.
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But Kashuu looks a little curious at that, head canting from one side to the other, brow furrowing just so.]
Could you not do that before? You don't feel like a spirit... [Granted, there are certainly spirits who can hide that from others of their own kind... But if that were the case, he can't imagine she'd mention something that would give her away so easily.]
—But thanks! I'm glad you're here, too. There's some bad stuff like these gross ViViD levels, and CERES makes life reeeal hard for us sometimes... People go home without warning so that's like, a thing that happens too. [But!!] But outside of that stuff, it's not bad, living here. There's a lot of things to do and people to meet. It doesn't ever really get boring.
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Hm... Yeah, see. Considering I didn't expect to even meet people as nice as you? I'm all right with the bad stuff and the hard life. [ But since she's never lost anyone before (Gothel is a first and that hasn't quite sunk in yet), his talk of people going home doesn't trouble her too much and Rapunzel glides right over it. ]
And - no. I couldn't really do any of this before.
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