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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IV
[It's rare around here. He says it out of habit, to any new arrival. And then he takes a second look at the girl. Oddly, being covered in mud helps identify her.]
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[ The tentacle lashes across her path again and she knows better than to lower her guard. She dodges instead, trying to close a little of the distance between them. Really it's fine, if he wants to take this one. ]
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I'll explain when nothing's chasing us.
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Thought there had to be an easier way. [ So maybe she's a little smug for someone who's just spent ten minutes not gaining any ground on her own. ]
Can we lure it out, Dad?
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[Speaking of shots, he's aiming a couple to try to get that thing moving. THe position's just not right at the moment.]
Sooner we get through this, sooner we can go home and explain it.
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But a Jedi is never without a weapon, as her Uncle Luke would tell her.
She tries to collect her scattered nerves, focusing hard on the mud, the river stones, feeling them slip frustratingly out of her grasp before finally her senses catch on a rough rock. She pushes with the Force, feeling it lift free of the water. Jaina stretches her hand out, straining. The stone wobbles, then drops with an impressive splash a few meters away. The monster loses interest in her for a moment, rearing up to follow the sound. ]
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[And it was an impressive little maneuver.]
Now let's get going before he remembers he can't eat rocks.
[You're five in his mind. He's a bit protective.]
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That could be a while. [ It's big and dumb and she's already over it. She falls in beside him, face questioning. ] Dad? [ He has to know the way out. ]
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[The time thing can wait]
I think this is close to the end of this scenario.
[He hopes so, he just wants to get her home safe.]
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But you brought us back to the academy. [ She hadn't been good company on that trip, her thoughts lost on Zekk and his disappearance. Now she feels dizzy. ] That was last week.
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There's something seriously wrong with how time works here. Sometimes they'll take people from decades apart.
When I saw you at home, you were five.
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But however weird this moment has to be on his side it doesn't show, and Jaina takes the cue from him, swallowing the feeling in a hard lump. ]
Well, that- [ Her voice chokes, but she manages to salvage it into a rough laugh in time. ] I guess that explains why I can't sense Jacen here. [ Or Anakin. Or Mom. Or Uncle Luke.
And suddenly the fear she's been carrying from the moment she'd opened her eyes is too big to shoulder a minute longer. She takes an extra step so she can look at his face, unable to hide the tension in her expression. ]
...It does, doesn't it Dad?
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It is. They don't have everyone around at once.
[which reminds him]
Also we're pretty sure that presentation they had you sit through is full of lies. Everyone else is probably safe at home.
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That's really good to hear you say. [ And she lets it roll off her quickly, focus returning like the slip was never there. ]
Not that they had me halfway convinced, or anything.
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[Which isn't the real reason he was skeptical from the start, but it's contributed.]
Plus I just wasn't going to accept that that had happened to you and your brothers.