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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"Well then! It's been a while since I've had to bring out my ground forces training, but I suppose I could try keeping up! Lead the way... Hajime-chan?" Nanoha decides, and reads the name off the label on Hajime's shirt. Should she really be doing that? Oh well, name's been read, and it can hardly be unseen.
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"Ah, right, I'm Hajime! It's nice to meet you," she gives a smile as she looks around, picking a direction and heading off towards the nearest tree that didn't look like it was about to fall over with rot. "What's your name?"
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"I'm Nanoha, Takamachi Nanoha. It's nice to meet you, Hajime-chan!" She returned the greeting as she followed the girl, ready to climb a tree and hoping no branches would be broken.
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"Heheh, well, I'm glad I met someone friendly here," she said with a grin, pulling herself up onto the half-submerged roots. The tree was a little slimy but there were some low branches she could reach once she scrambled up out of the water and onto its roots. Jumping up, she grabbed one, hands almost slipping but managing to grab a hold and start pulling herself up. "Whoops, here we go!"
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Okay, so Raising Heart was normally just a gem hanging around her neck, but when it's in use it's a staff, so close enough.
"I think most people are basically friendly, but thanks. I'm happy to be of help!" Nanoha doesn't quite follow Hajime immediately, watching from ground level to make sure she doesn't fall back down into the swamp. It's only when she's sure that no more slips are going to happen that Nanoha makes the climb herself, pink gloves of mana covering her hands to keep herself from slipping and/or getting splinters in her palm.
Magic's pretty handy.
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"That doesn't mean I'm not happy to meet them though," she said, turning to give Nanoha a grin. "And it's better than being alone out here!"
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That's why it's the Magical Girl got dropped from the name of Force.Perhaps about six years ago I'd still count? Nanoha replied with a small chuckle. It's a little flattering that Hajime would even think of her as a magical girl, especially without having seen her transformation.She's right, though.
"Being alone anywhere is really troublesome. Having good friends around makes everything easier, don't you think?" She asks, keeping up with Hajime fairly steadily. It would be rather embarrassing if she couldn't keep pace with a normal girl while using her magic, after all! Her trainers would yell at her.
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"Of course! Not that we always have to be together, but it's nice to know that you can go meet them," said Hajime as she scrambled up higher, moving into the long, dangling leaves of the tree. Up higher, the branches were closer together, so it was easy going moving up towards the top of the tree.
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"I wouldn't object to having friends that are always together either!" she piped up after Hajime, swinging up onto a branch after her. Of course, Nanoha wasn't referring to Hajime here. Even though she seemed like a nice girl, Nanoha had someone else in mind altogether when thinking about friends she wanted beside her at all times.
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"Do you have a friend like that? Here, or at home?" Thought thinking of home, Hajime wondered what that even meant now in their situation.
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It was quite another to deal with the sickening fear that CERES was right, and she was dead. Vivio, too.
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"No point mulling over ifs though. We have work right in front of us!" Nanoha cheered herself up with a small laugh, reaching Hajime's level and looking around the swamp. "It looks like it stretches to the horizon. What a pain."
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"Let's see," she hummed as she joined in the search, "it's a lot of empty swamp and foliage, but I think I spot a hut or something over there?" It's a long shot, but it's better than nothing.
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"Thataway, right?" she said, pointing.