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.
|
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. ] |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
Non, non! It's fine. Just swipe your keycard by the doorknob— [ wait, he probably doesn't know what's talking about. ]
Come follow me.
[ and with that, she leads him inside her own apartment complex. the lobby's typical of an apartment complex's. it's got couches and various decor all over, mirrors, etc. and in the middle of it is the reception area where there's a robot lady on a desk. she doesn't seem to say anything to athena or merlin as they enter, though. and behind her area are various silver doors. ]
no subject
We can just walk in? [ He's used to guards everywhere... tbh. ]
no subject
Yeah. That's... not weird too, is it?
no subject
no subject
unless he misses saving arthur 284819403 of the time. ]
The CERES tower has some security guards, but probably not the king of guards you're imagining. [ not knights, that's for sure. ] Anyway, this is an elevator. [ the doors close and they go up! merlin is definitely going to feel gravity pulling him down since it's his first try riding an elevator, but he'll get used to it sooner or later. ] We still have stairs and everything, but this is the easiest way to go up twenty five storeys up or something.
[ sadly, there is no elevator music to welcome merlin. ]
no subject
Probably not. [ None of them would compare to his homie, Lancelot, anyway... ]
It's. [ He stops suddenly when it starts going up though, automatically reaching for the bar to steady himself. It's like being on the train all over again only weirder. ]
no subject
[ it's a joke, really, she swears.
the elevator bell rings softly and the doors slide open again, and they'll find themselves in a rather straightforward hallway. the are doors on each side of the wall, and some even have holographic things flashing in front of them. ]
You don't have to get an apartment here, but this is my floor! I mean, if you ever want to visit, my apartment's juuust over there.
[ she points to where there's a small santa claus statue by the door. it's christmas decor that she never got rid of because it's amusing. and because it sings every time there's noise. ]
Now, these— [ she gestures to a particular hologram by a specific door. ] are empty apartments. These holograms show you what the interior looks like! There's even a balcony in this one, and three rooms.
[ whoever's gonna live there has got to be rich, that's for sure. ]
no subject
Are they expensive? [ Not like he'd really know, but he knows he doesn't need three rooms?? He and Gaius live out of two rooms and they share a place back home. He doesn't even have much stuff. ]
no subject
[ and she laughs again. this guy can't take jokes much, can he!! or his sense of humour is just as archaic as he is. probably. ]
This one costs 200 credits a month... You can check out the other ones to see if there's one that's cheaper.
no subject
He has no idea if 200 is all that expensive or not though. ] And the work...? [ He can do the maths if he knows how much he could actually earn but he looks sheepish as he asks it. ] I lived with the court physician back home so I didn't really have to deal with any of this.
no subject
Honestly, if you took all your jobs, you should probably have no issues with rent. You can even go shopping as much as you like!
no subject
I don't even know what I'd want to buy though. Maybe one day once I know what everything is.
[ Though he probably needs new clothes stat, let's be real here. ]
no subject
[ then she grins. ]
As for what you should buy, maybe try asking the network on what's trending in fashion. I'm sure they'll dress you up nicely.
[ she's only passing him to the network because all she has are bad ideas for him, tbh. ]
no subject
That's helpful. Though sorry, what's a "network"? [ He can have a heart attack over fashion later. ]
no subject
But digital.
no subject
I'll try sometime. Though for now. Um. [ He indicates to her door that she pointed out before and gives her a slight bow as awkward as it might be. ] Thank you for your help.
[ He gives her an even more awkward smile. ] I should be alright from here.
[ Probably not but w/e... he'll give it a good go. ]
no subject
BUT SHE'LL EXPECT HIM TO HAVE A BETTER FASHION SENSE THE NEXT TIME THEY MEET. ]
Don't worry about it! Thanks for... um, the fire in the swamp.
[ that deserves gratitude, right??? ]
no subject
but here's hoping!!! ]
That's-- [ He shakes his head. ] Nothing, that's nothing. Have a good. Evening?
[ He'll take a step backwards now, only to ... walk smack into the elevator. Yeah he's got this!!! Or, not. ]
no subject
Oh- Oh my... hahahaha! You have got to be more careful next time!
Take care, alright? [ and she waves goodbye. ]
no subject
he's so offended right now. even if he does leave and goes down a few floors so he can potentially stay in the same building but not be too close to the crazy girl who was actually a lot of help (nottalking) ]