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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She would probably accept it all either way when there are so few animals she's ever truly seen in person (what does she know? maybe all cats talk!), but their adventure makes acclimating to new and unusual things a bit simpler. ]
Uh. Well. In that case it is officially nice to meet you. Tailmon and... [ errrrr, small human?? ]
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I'm Yagami Hikari. [Despite her current predicament, she managed to stand and brush at her shirt as much as possible before offering a polite bow in greeting.] I'm sorry. I would have introduced myself earlier, but I was worried.
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Hey– wait, is... is your name Japanese by any chance? [ She's getting the hang of these names!! ]
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It is.
Why do you ask?
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Who else is from Japan? [Could it be....?]
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[Big brother, and big brother's childhood friend. And the first two names she would think to ask for.]
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God does she hate being the bearer of bad news. ]
Ah... N-No, Hikari, I'm sorry. I haven't met anyone with those names. Do you have any others maybe? I can think back!
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[But...no, it wasn't the nice lady's fault, and Hikari wouldn't blame her. The pout faded into a more neutral expression as she inhaled once and put on her brave face and recited all the names of her fellow Chosen:]
Takeru-kun was with me too. [She was back to using honorifics, now that she was talking about the people, not just naming names.] And his brother, Yamato-san...then there was Jou-san...and Mimi-san...and Koushiro-san.
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No that's a silly way to look at it. Self-blame isn't going to solve anything. Rapunzel shakes her head no, but instead of getting discouraged, smiles. ] If... you're not too afraid of me to pair up, we could try looking for them around here if you like. I actually have a friend I'm looking for too.
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[In fact, when the older girl mentioned she was looking for a friend of hers as well...she did her best to offer a reassuring smile.]
We can look together, then.
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Just wait until she sees Takeru. He's even smaller than she is.]Mmm...no, I don't think so. Still, it's very nice to meet you, Rapunzel-san.
[Though something she said soon caught up to Hikari's thought process, and her lips twisted into a small 'o' of confusion.]
You've never met another kid before? ...is that why you thought I'd be afraid of you?
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Whip smart... Rapunzel, ignorance be blessed, wouldn't be the type to automatically assume children are any more ignorant than the rest of the population, either. Hikari is sharper than quite a few of the adults she's run into today. And those trash drones hadn't been terribly clever either.
Or maybe she's just paying extra close attention? Either way, Rapunzel is going to stare with a similar expression for a beat or two. ]
I... No. No, I've never met [ careful not to say "seen"!! ] another kid before.
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How come?
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[ Her mother was right about one thing: Rapunzel's oddness sticks out like a sore thumb.
Laughing uncomfortably. ] W-Well, it's... It's - kind of a long story? And it's really not interesting, I swear.
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...it's okay. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I don't mind.
[Though she would be wiling to put that interest aside if it made Rapunzel upset or embarrassed.]
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Hm. What if we make a deal? I'll tell you why I've never met another kid before and you tell me about your cat friend here.
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Deal.
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All right then. You first. What's... the story behind Tailmon?
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[If there was any concern on Tailmon's part that Hikari would start all the way from the beginning, it was gone the moment she uttered those three words. Because that's exactly what Tailmon was to her. Not the little digimon who had once worked for their enemy, to the point where she tried to hurt her. Partners. As they were destined to be.]
We found each other after a very long time, and have been together ever since. She protects me from all the bad digimon that've tried to destroy both our worlds.
[It sounded like something out of a fairy tale.]
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How long is that?
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[However, it was Tailmon who stepped forward and answered the question:]
I've been searching for Hikari since the day I was born.
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And you've been traveling together like this? Protecting one another. Protecting... your world?
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