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 cants her head to the side, laughing. ]
I can't believe you. What kind of world do you come from, anyway?
[ keep up with her, though, merl. she's walking ahead now. ]
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Nothing like this. [ He's trying to look at everything at once while trying to keep up. Luckily he's had plenty of experience running away from things, it's actually nicer to be running to keep up with someone instead. ] There was the castle, fields and lakes. Where did all these buildings come from?
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a castle
castle
c a s t l e ]
Are you a prince from like, the medieval times?!
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No. No I'm not the... Arthur's the prince, I'm just his servant. Though I can't say I know what you mean by "medieval times" either so...
[ sweats ]
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[ you don't say. ]
I'm not good at history, but medieval times were when dragons were rampant, and there was no electricity? I don't really know! Oh! And people wrote with quills instead of ballpens, and swordfighting... jousts... horses...
[ she's just saying random words now. ]
Witch burning. . .
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Actually there's only one dragon left, and he's chained under the castle. [ Hopefully she doesn't go spreading that one around. ] What's elec-- [ But ah... she's still going on.
Until the final thing that makes his jaw tense and now he feels all the more uncomfortable. ]
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Did I say something wrong?
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It's just never pleasant to watch. [ Especially if ONE DAY THAT COULD BE YOU. ]
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[ she snaps her fingers. ]
Score!
[ wait. there are more serious matters at hand— ]
Sorry for bringing it up.
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[ He changes the question instead, because it's easier than sticking to a topic about witch burning. ]
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[ never count on athena to be historically accurate. but at least it's kind of close??? ]
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...Wow. [ It's all he can say for a long moment and this time he does stop to just process that information. ]
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Well. Okay. We're here at a train station [ she says it very slowly so even a toddler could understand. ]. This is where you go if you want to travel easily around the colony.
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Which do we need to take?
[ He asks it, but let's be real here... he won't know which train that is anyway. ]
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[ she swipes her money card on the scanner and enters through the gates. ]
Do the same thing I did. You should have a card on you too! It has all your money in it. e
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Thankfully, he pulls it out of his jacket pocket without any problem. ]
Like this? [ Even as he asks he copies the motion she did, looking rather pleased with himself when it opens up and he can walk straight through. Nailed it. ]
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[ to commemorate this special achievement, athena gives him a thumbs up. (that's it. that's all she does before she turns to get inside the train.)
the train has a bunch of passengers inside; some are seated, some are by the poles, some are chilling by the door and blocking everyone's way. rude. it's a train...! and since merlin hasn't ridden one in his entire life yet, athena decides to give him a piece of advice. ]
Hold onto those. [ she points up to the straphangers, and she claims one for herself. there's no seating room for them today! ]
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It gives him the time to just stand there and try and process things again. If he focuses on her it's easier to take it, but standing like this... there's a lot that's changed. There's a minute that passes with no problem but then his head is dropping forward to rest on the side of the train with a thump. ]
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but this isn't even weird. just a bit... dumbfounding. ]
Merlin...?!
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It's nothing, really. [ He's just having an early-life crisis. ]
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I've been here so long, I've forgotten how overwhelming the first day can be.
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Surely. ]
It'll get easier over time.
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It will, don't worry. [ a beat. ] I mean, you've got a lot of people here who can show you a thing or two if you ever feel lost.
[ the train stops and there's a robot-like lady's voice coming from the speakers which announces that they're in the residential district. ]
This is our stop, come on.
[ and once they get out of the station, merlin will find that they're in what looks like an upgraded village. the house are ten or so storeys high, everything's made of cement, no wood and other stuff here! it might seem familiar, but it's still all very foreign. ]
This is where everybody lives. The buildings are called apartments, and we have to pay rent every month. But don't worry, your first two months are free.
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It's. [ He looks up, uses a hand to shield his eyes and focus on the building itself. ] High.
[ No shit, Sherlock. ] Do you live here?
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I live a block down from here. [ she starts walking. better follow him, merl! ] I have some friends who live here, though. But—
[ eventually, they pass by a couple more apartment complexes, and then turn right. ]
This is the gym. [ and there's a blue building with a big sign by its roof that reads "gym", too. ] And I live right across.
[ which is another complex about twenty storeys high! ]
You can pretty much pick any building you want, though!
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