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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managed to champion puberty, incredible. also sorry this is so late ;3;
None of it would have mattered, because it was Shinjiro dealing said insults, and the fact that he was alive to do so was amazing. In fact, whether or not Akihiko actually registers what Shinjiro says is debatable, because his reaction would have been the same regardless.
Despite Shinji's body language conveying anything but friendliness, Akihiko is overwhelmed enough to move closer (as if he's ever truly been put off by Shinji's prickliness, anyway) and draw him into a hug.
It's not a gentle hug, either. He's clinging to him as if he's been possessed by the spirit of some of those bears he's fought. ]
I'm so glad to see you. [ He says into the other boy's shoulder, very clearly on the verge of tears and fighting a losing battle.
Ah no, he's definitely lost. Those are definitely tears leaking into Shinji's clothes.
I'm sorry. ]
he did it, good job aki. also don't worry...
This is borderline torture. His back definitely cracked somewhere between being roped in and actually being forced up against Akihito's not-very-pillowy body. Shinjiro's exuding the same enthusiasm of a cat being forced into a festive sweater, minus the flailing. His soul's left his body for the second time, if not third.]
Aki--
[Somewhat strained, but subdue...only because Akihiko sounds...sad. Sad but happy. Sentimental. All things considered, Shinjiro can't rightly protest or complain. He can't quite piece their circumstances together or how this is even happening, assuming some time's passed between the incident with Takaya and now.
But it isn't until he realizes that Akihiko's crying that his defense lowers and he's filled with immediate guilt. Guilt for being absentee all this (theoretic, though it makes no damn sense, again) time, for making him suffer another loss...primarily. There's a lot he could apologize for, but for now he'll return a slow embrace, one that's much less fueled by the spirits of dead bears and instead, sustained by remorse.]
Don't cry about it, idiot.
[Murmured, but they're close enough. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay...]
no subject
I'm not-- [ Comes with weak protest, into Shinjiro's shoulder, but thankfully, his own iron grip has loosened somewhat, and he just sort of slumps against Shinjiro. He grips the sides of his jacket and gives his side a pathetic, weak punch. ] You're an idiot.
[ booyah, great comeback ]
no subject
Partly because it feels kind of like Akihiko's squeezed 78% of the oxygen from his lungs, partly because his response is totally weak and this circumstances are absurd.]
You're a bigger idiot.
[For blatantly lying. That punch was practically anticipated, though for all the M1T he's been taking...
Alright, he's not gonna heckle him for having a lousy punch right now. He doesn't need to contend with broken ribs (assuming that embrace hasn't, at least, fractured any) a second (or at least ten minutes) after initial revival.]
Who the hell walks around a swamp half naked?
[Just to embellish on his similarly weak comeback.]
no subject
[ Let's pretend like his initial comeback wasn't the lamest of lame. There's absolutely no combativeness to his tone, because he's just glad he can say stuff like that again in the first place. He's even smiling (which looks odd, considering his eyes are still puffy from the tears).
That smile doesn't last, however, because Shinji draws attention to something equally as important as reuniting with a long lost friend. Perhaps more important if he wants to keep long lost friend alive. ]
Isn't the better question: "Why the hell are we in a swamp"?
no subject
Yeah yeah.
[Just to move past the worst comebacks ever argument. It goes without saying that Aki's the champ.]
I've got plenty of 'better' questions, but that's part of the problem. Guess that means you don't really know how this happened either, anyway.
no subject
I know we’re supposed to be in some sort of “video game”, but that’s pretty much all I know. I ran into someone earlier who told me there’s a way to log out of here, too.
no subject
[That could have some scary results, on the other hand. He's thinking way too far out of the box.
This isn't the first he's heard of this place being part of some weird video game simulation thing. He's not a geek like that -- doesn't have the means to dabble in video games on a normal day, but:]
Doesn't that just mean we have to figure something out?
[Like a puzzle that unlocks the next level. He's pretending this is all incredibly normal in an extremely forced way to avoid how weird this is.]