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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the bright blue portal is new. ]
You weren't here-- [ He swallows, taking in the newcomer's appearance. ] Who are you?
[ Sorry he's too distracted to be drinking partners just yet?!?! ]
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[The portal winks out as quickly as it came, leaving Chibi standing there trying to figure out how to introduce himself. He could explain what he is, except that's not quite what the guy asked-- The prophet thing is the second thing that comes to mind, but it's not relevant here-- Nobody in this colony knows about the 'king of weird space elves' thing, and he'd really rather keep it that way--] My name is Chibi. I hope my presence isn't too intrusive; I forget not everyone is used to strange men popping in through portals.
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People are usually leaving rather than popping out of no where. [ He takes a deep breath, claps his hands together and tries to shake off how this really doesn't feel right.
That can come later though. ] So. Bottles.
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[With a smile:] What, are they trying to get away from you? You don't seem like such an awful man, but then, we have just met.
Bottles. [He plants a hand on his hip and looks at the line-up: green, purple, orange... They all look plant-based, but who knows what else is lurking in there.] As I said before, it's like roulette; there is no reliable way of telling what is what. And seeing as we have no other way out...
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[ How doesn't anyone get this... ]
This is so frustrating. [ He's just going to have a crisis then and there, sorry Chibi. Merlin's hands go into his hair and he tries to not get wound up about this but he can't help it. It's like everything about this place is tempting him to give in and just use his powers when he's too afraid of what might happen after. ]
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[When it does, he looks terribly sad - not necessarily because of the fellow having the crisis there, but because a world without magic (which, to him, means 'wakfu') is such a lonely thought.] That's rather sad, actually. See, to my people, what you call 'magic' is born from the divine. It's a way of becoming closer to our Goddess, and so it is not...
[What are the words for it?] To kill someone for using magic? That's insane. There's nothing like that I've seen, here or in my home-world.
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[ It is a sad thought. A lot of people who have magic want to live peacefully in forests. Druids are well known for that. He, himself, is born of the Old Religion. Born with the power of magic to the point that there are some spells he doesn't even need words for.
Yet he'd be killed for that. ] The King has taken the lives of even children in his mission to wipe out sorcery. [ The smile he gives him is simple, but also rather pained--bittersweet. ]
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So it is a leader keeping you from magic... [Well, why don't you rid yourself of him? the naive part of him asks. The part that was a king, though, understands. Some people are placed into power, and cannot be unseated until they are done with it. (Unless they commit ritual suicide and literally turn their soul into a flower, but nobody asked about Chibi's personal history, did they?)] I see.
What does he aim to accomplish, even, by this? -To put himself as a false god, perhaps? Reminds me of CERES, honestly...
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It's... not like that, I don't think. [ The sad thing is that Merlin's folly is trying to see the good in people. Even someone like Uther, who would repress him, would kill him if he knew the truth, is someone Merlin wouldn't wish to see die.
For one thing, it'd break Arthur. ]
It's complicated.
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[He remembers a few things he's heard, that inheritance is simpler on other worlds, and is comforted by that at least.]
[Chibi continues to rock the drink back and forth in his hand, fidgeting with it as he talks.] This place is no less complicated, but in different ways. Leadership is bought here, for one, which I found particularly distasteful.
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But that doesn't make any sense. [ Because it was all about heritage. About being born a leader. That's why some Kings mess up so much because they don't have the heart for it. CERES' way seems to only breed more evil. More thirst for power. ] You need training and aid to become a good leader.
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But yes, imagine my surprise when an old lady appeared to us and said 'hello, I have bought the rights to your eternal code-souls'! It is a perverse way of thought.
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[ Though he has no idea what a code-soul is Chibi... what does that even mean. ]
She bought what?
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[At least, assuming the world didn't end... Ahem. But on to the other question:]
Essentially... It is hard to describe, but essentially our existence on this plane. Our 'souls,' one might say.
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...this is crazy. ]
That seems complicated. [ It's all he can say that isn't rude, because he can't fathom doing it. Then again, he's an only child but still. This seems more than he can imagine. That's all of what he's being told, anyway. He reaches up to rub his temples. ]
How is that even possible?