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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II
[Well then. Okay she could roll with this.]
Hey! You've got a little mud on your...uhm...
[She starts out pointing at her own nose, but it kind of turns into just waving at her face in explanation.]
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Luckily her cheeks are slathered in mud. ]
I hadn't noticed. [ beat ] Is... your hair pink?
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[So it takes her a second to respond.]
Technically it's rose colored. But I guess pink is okay.
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It's lovely. You're lovely. [ WEIRDO ]
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Okay, so...what's with the mud? Iiiiit kinda looks like you put it on there on purpose.
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[ a shrug ] If you cover yourself in mud it makes you less appealing to predators. Plus, you blend in easier.
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Well I hate to tell you... [She started moving as she spoke, walking along the perimeter of the broken shack's roof. Lumina was almost never still.] But everything here is covered in mud. I'm pretty sure that whatever gross things live here, they're probably okay with dirty food.
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Great. [ Is this a pout? It's her first since arriving so maybe she'll get credit for that?? ] Now instead of being safe I'm being – unhygienic. Any suggestions? And - ugh. No. It... my mother didn't tell me to cover myself in mud. My mother told me to be careful. A friend of mine taught me the camouflage thing.
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[Lumina was basically completely clean, except for her bare feet. She'd been cheating outrageously.]
But you're probably not going to find much in the way of clean water. You could...maybe use your hair?
[Suddenly her path shifted, carrying her behind the other girl.]
How much of this is there, anyway...
[That's a lot of hair...]
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It's twenty-two metres but please don't touch it. I... kind of - have a thing about people touching my hair. [ PLEADING SMILE ]
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Oh fine. But...you could use some of it to wipe the mud off your face." She'll bounce back a step and start her circling walk away.
"Why do you have all that much hair though? It looks like a huge hassle."
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[ The comment tears her in two a bit. On the one hand, yes, it's incredibly exhausting carrying several pounds of additional weight around with you - even if your range of movement is rather limited by the size of your tower. On the other hand, Rapunzel's hair is, as far as she's concerned, the most valuable thing about her. It's the only thing that makes her special.
Best to laugh it off!! ] Heh. Why do you have hair the colour of roses?
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Lightning and Serah both have this hair color too.
[Also technically true.]
But you are trying to change the subject. Kinda badly too.
[Still walking in a circle, arms swinging.]
HAHA LUMINA TOO SMART
Isn't it a hassle not being able to stay in one place for more than ten seconds?
[ There it goes: yet another ball kicked clumsily into Lumina's court. ]
She's had a lot more practice, to be fair.
Sometimes. It would to sit still, I guess. mmmm...nah, no it wouldn't, that sounds pretty boring.
Hair isn't usually complicated though. Although I guess that much of it...maybe you mean tangled?
excellent title trop
[ And a very large part of her wants to believe this. ]
That's the tangled part, I suppose. It's not a hassle and yet... sometimes I feel a little tied down by it? [ Oh my god why is she saying this to a stranger what mystical powers does this girl have?? Her mouth closes tight. ] Mm. Well! That's why I'm up here, anyway. No need to be tied down if I don't have to be.
It was an accident! Then once I noticed I couldn't bring myself to change it.
Well, right. Aaaaaanyway. Does that mean you're just staying up here on the rooftop forever?
[She stops walking, hands tucked behind her back now, swaying a bit as she stands in front of the older girl.]
That's probably not the best long term plan, huh?
kflan haha really? it seemed clever and on purpose!
...Dangerous in other words. If they ever become friends... ]
Uh. Heh. No, staying up here forever is - probably not the best plan. I just wanted to be prepared in case I... had to go in there. [ pointing to the shack below ]
Oh right it was totally on purpose. Completely intentional. Oh yeah, *whew*
Ooh, yeah. Big scary cabin in the middle of the dark and spooooooky swamp. Totally pays to be prepared...
[She giggles as she starts moving again, this time in a smaller circle, just kind of spinning in place but not quite.]
I poked my head in earlier...it's full of energy drinks? Dunno what they're for...figured I probably shouldn't drink one.
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I mean, I don't know if these are. They just say 'Energy Drink.'
They could be anything, really!
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[And then a shrug as she stops spinning and lets her legs take her over to the edge of the roof, peering down near where the door was.]
Would you drink random things you found in the middle of a swamp?
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But, feeling merciful, Rapunzel sighs and leans back. ] I don't know. I've heard the idea of this... game is to conquer it so that we'll be able to leave and return to the reality. Er - the colony.
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[Such blatantly mockingly bad acting.]
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