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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no subject
She actually feels close to dying right now and HONESTLY SHE'S GONNA SQUEEZE THE SWORD TIGHTER AGAIN FOR A FRACTION OF A SECOND. That's what you get for startling her, Mutsu..... There's a little squeak too but she finds her voice rather quickly again after that-]
If I do, you're the one who will be doing the hoping - for mercy...!!
[oh there's the spitfire]
no subject
( He's laughing. He's actually laughing. )
Hey, hey, ya mind not holding onto me so tight? Feels like you're cutting off circulation somewhere...!
( But she's only holding his clothes and the sword and not any part of his actual body... )
no subject
You don't make any sense.
[At least she's direct?]
You can't expect to just pick me up like some ruffian - even after I said that I didn't trust you! - and expect me to not hold on...!
no subject
( And he'll start to slow down once they're an okay distance away from the monster. )
But ya didn't look too good back there so I figured this would be faster. Make sense?
no subject
To a degree.
[But she's still going to loosen up her grip on his shirt now that he's slowing down and.
Will smack him with it - she's not that strong, though. But she's peeved.]
That doesn't give you permission to just pick up any young lady as you please! Where are your manners?! Were you raised in a barn?!
no subject
Did...
Did she just slap him?
W-why...? He didn't do anything? Is she mad? What did he do wrong? He's never been slapped by a woman before. He's never been slapped before? )
N-no? I've got manners, really. ( Gosh, that sounded pathetic. ) Sorry...?
no subject
She's uncomfortable in his arms okay but more than that she's still annoyed. She doesn't look impressed with that at all, Mutsu.]
Are you?
Why does it sound like a question?
Do you even know what you did wrong? You can't charge into things like a barbarian and then pretend to be sorry like some swindler, you know!!
no subject
( Why are you doing this to him what is this feeling... this feeling like he's being over run. Its new. )
I dunno... I was just helping! Ya got thrown away by that monster and ya didn't look so good... and its hard to move around out here so I can't fight that thing alone... so I thought...
( It would be faster to carry her until she recovered. But he doesn't...feel like arguing. )
'm sorry...!
no subject
So you thought it acceptable to just pick up a young lady without even asking for permission to touch her? And you claim to have manners! It's one matter to perform a heroic task, but that doesn't mean that etiquette should fall to the wayside!
[so.
she still needs to thank him but like.
that'll happen.... later....]
no subject
I didn't know...
( There are rules? To saving people? Is this a modern people thing? Are these new modern rules he never learned? )
... Should I... should I put ya down?
( In the mud? )
no subject
Might just be a Lili thing.
But honestly she's just going to cross her arms and huff.]
Find a dryer spot.
[Oh.]
no subject
Are ya... are ya sure?
( It's... it's okay? She isn't going to smack him again? )
no subject
[SASS.
But then she's just going to huff and move to use one hand to try to flick some hair behind her shoulder - just out of habit.]
Yes. Put me down somewhere dryer if you've already chosen to lift me right off my feet.
no subject
( Eek. And he's looking around frantically but there's no where dry? Just swamp and swamp and more swamp? And he sways a little bit trying to find a good direction but now she's got him all discombobulated. She's thrown off his groove!!! But he finally settles on one direction which is straight ahead, all while scouting for some place to set her down. )
It might... be awhile?
no subject
She.... doesn't like being in someone else's arms but she can admit that she still feels like her weakness would leave her flopping around this swamp for a while longer if she was on her own feet. Momentarily, she curses her own weakness.....
And then she answers him with a question.]
What's your name?
no subject
And you're uh...
( He saw it on her shirt with the facts but now doesn't seem like a good time to mention that. )
no subject