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!
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iii! lord
Ah, and then she's looking up and trying to defend herself and oops, Kashuu sure is laughing. He can't help it...]
It's fine, it's fine. People have done waaay weirder things in these games, y'know? [NOT UNTRUE but is that really any consolation??] But you probably wanna put that thing down and focus on, y'know, not being snapped up by those things in the mud.
UGH THE TOILET PHOTO
P-please don't laugh, I wasn't...! [ Doing anything bad but it's still embarrassing, so she trails off. Because, well, if Hijikata (or worse, Okita) had caught her doing that, well... ] ... Things in the mud? [ Incredibly, her red face pales instantly. ] Y-you don't mean dolls, do you...? [ But she can hope, right? Just more dolls, just more dolls... Maybe she shouldn't think about dolls actually. It's still embarrassing. ]
HIJIKATAS MEMORIAM
Sorry, sorry. [He says in a voice that is not sorry whatsoever. BUT, more importantly--] No, I mean the things with teeth. Have you seriously not seen any yet? You must be reeeally lucky. That luck's probably not gonna stick around forever though, so- [GESTURING HER OVER come on, come on.] -let's move before one of us loses a foot, 'kay?
may it never die........ may it forever live on in our hearts and memories
Her grip on the doll tightens, mostly out of stress, a little bit because she doesn't want to lose it. It's still cute, after all. ] If there's monsters here, I'm glad I haven't seen any yet... [ Let's keep it that way, hopefully. She nods vigorously as she hurries over to him. ] Yes, moving is a good plan, please lead the way! A-and if something shows up, I'll... Try to fight.
[ Alright, so she doesn't have a sword or Saitou to yell at her for getting it wrong, but a little knowledge is better than none! The fact she's never actually fought anyone nevermind a monster is irrelevant, okay. ] Um, may I ask your name, by the way...? [ Maybe he's another Okita or something... ]
let's gold-plate a toilet as a tribute statue to him
Also good lord, what kind of immediate answer is that. Kashuu laughs - of course he does - but it's good-natured, if nothing else.]
Hey, you don't have to try fighting anything, okay? ["Try" presumably being key...] Let's head over this way, and if anything shows up, I'll take care of it for you! [As any good sword would!!
Speaking of--] Oh— My name's Kashuu Kiyomitsu! What's yours?
that idea is so beautiful it brings a tear 2 my eye
But anyway-- good thing she doesn't know anything about swords in detail, because human swords is slightly weirder than multiple Okitas. ] Kashuu-san then... My name is Kotori! [ Smile and bow... except the doll is in view again, so she tucks it under her arm. Anyway. ] Kashuu-san does... This sort of thing happen often here? [ Like swamps. And chickens. We aren't in Kyoto anymore, small Hijikata-san. ]
time to bring tears to hijis eyes too...
But he's more interested by her mention of that name, so--]
Have you run into that guy already? [Since he assumes she's talking about the one running around in Cerealia...] But it's not a problem, anyway. Se-ri-ous! I can take care of most things here no sweat.
["Most things" because some things are gigantic and cause a little sweating... ANYWAY, ignoring the doll for the sake of her poor face and how quickly it flushes--]
Mmmhm. Annoying, right? But on the plus side, it's the same formula every time, so once you get used to it you can deal with it pretty well.
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