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.
|
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. ] |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ii
panacea bottles? color flynn surprised that she knows of those.]
Unfortunately, I'm afraid that I neither have those on my person nor are they available here.
[he pauses. if a panacea can heal this then maybe...]
However, please remain by me. It may not work on this ailment [what even is it???], but I might be able to speed up the recovery process.
[because a dead person can stand next to flynn and end up coming back to life thanks to the skills on his blastia. luckily for rose, too, cure area heals status effects after standing by the guy for a couple seconds.]
no subject
[ A general wave of her hand to gesture at the red yoga outfit, though at least it allows for easy moving.. it's not exactly useful if she can't even carry anything on her. At least her regular clothes had a few gels and bottles set aside in her small satchels.
Woah there dude, asking her to stay with you? This is moving extremely quickly!! ]
Huh? Speed it up.. [ Wait, back up. What's that suppose to mean? ] Do you have some kinda curing arte?
[ That's apparently a passive or something? Well, what she's got to lose from just standing near the guy? Even if the process is jerky, she manages to. It actually isn't all that long until the status aliment disappears and she's able to move without a halt in step. ] Woah! It actually worked?!
no subject
relief washes over flynn at the normal movement. success! no one should have to deal with that... whatever that was for longer than necessary. a smile crosses his face while he gives a relieved sigh. so this skill works on other, unknown status ailments, good to know.]
Thank goodness.
[no more rose slow-mo comedy hour today! ah, back to her earlier question. hmm, so she knows what artes are but that doesn't necessarily mean being from his world. the reaction to his answer ought to determine whether or not she is.]
No, it isn't an arte; it's a skill that I possess thanks to something called a blastia.
[so no random guy being creepy here! just a knight with some awesome skills.]
no subject
Nope, never heard it before. Then again wasn't too long ago that I didn't know Seraph-- [ oh, right. she got distracted and almost made herself look crazy. gonna try and ninja right into that earlier topic instead. ]
Er anyways, so what's a blastia? Does it only cure aliments like paralyze? [ whatever it is, it sounds super useful. especially if all you have to do is just be in the guy's company? no more buying bottles! ..which is actually bad for business. better rethink this-- ]
no subject
It's this.
[he pulls out a small charm-looking thing with an odd stone in the center that's on a chain around his neck. it used to be apart of his armor, but not wearing that everyday meant having to find a way to keep the blastia on his person somehow. a nice and simple chain works best.]
Wearing it grants the user various skills and makes them capable of performing artes.
[granted, that's a bit of layman definition, but it suffices enough.]
no subject
That's pretty handy to have! Is yours the only kind? [ cause, y'know.... if there's more.... rose wouldn't say no to getting stronger or having something as convenient as that with her! girl can't have too many kickass accessories. ]
no subject
It isn't the only kind, but they only exist back in my own world and, even there, their numbers a very limited.
[and they won't be making any more any time soon for reasons. so unless rose snags it from either flynn, his idiot friend or their dog, no kickass accessory for her.]
no subject
Aww, that's too bad. Should have expected as much. [ look, rose isn't about to steal from the poor guy, or his friend or even their dog. there's a reason she goes lecturing kids about stealing.
maybe she can figure out a way to get that made back in her own world. imagine that! there's the whole figuring out how it works though. ] We have weapon fusion back in my own world which was interesting to learn but that's a real handy idea too. [ nevermind the fact she fell asleep a lot during learning about fusion. ]
no subject
What does weapon fusion entail?
[please teach him, professor rose! they have synthesis back in his world so he's curious if it's anything similar to that.]
no subject
It's got a lot to do with skills some equipment have. Fusing the same kinda weapons can transfer some skills over, depending on what and where it can replace over.. or even make a new skill completely. Things like that.
She'd be able to show you, I have no fusing skills whatsoever. [ Arms cross behind behind his head with a pondering look. ]
no subject
[flynn makes a note to ask this lailah should he ever happen to come across her.]
Is fusion a difficult skill to learn?