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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no subject
Of course, there were a few red marks here and there but it wasn't anything he wasn't use to. But it still didn't mean that it didn't hurt!]
I guess not...but I wish I could do it though. [The joys of being a 7 year old kid]
no subject
[If he had any ointment to offer, he'd do just that. The stinging sensation should fade eventually at least...]
At least you have an idea about how it works, huh. More than what most city kids know.
[The task is easily tiring though. His own hands are already starting to hurt, but he's not about to quit. They'll never make a spark at that rate.]
no subject
[For better or for worse really. Although, he can't complain when he got to spend all those months with his brother and his friends too!
However, with Shinjiro attempting to make a fire, he had to wonder...]
But if we can't make a fire, that's okay too! The important thing is that we got a place to stay and I think right here is good enough!
no subject
....
[And it doesn't seem like this kid needs cheering up at all all of a sudden, jeeze. There's a hum in response -- but it's gruff, so it sounds a bit questionable overall. Like a civilized grunt.]
It just takes a while, like I said. Your friends sound like pros, but giving up so fast ain't gonna pay off.
Guess it wouldn't hurt to build a shelter either.
[That's a necessity, but yeah.]
no subject
Well of course not. But I just don't want your hands to get hurt especially when it looks like it's going to take a while!
[Not to mention blisters! Those were the worst!]
But we can find some really big leaves! Or something to cover us for the night! We had to use that for blankets too! It felt like we were cavemen or something!
no subject
[He's endured worse, but he'd rather not get grim with a kid. Especially when he's older and ought to play the role of uh -- you know, camp counselor, since they're talking about camps and such.]
Shouldn't be too long now.
[He's keeping up the friction all the while, and it might be his mind playing tricks on him, but he's sure he's catching the first signs of smoke. Not a spark, but smoke. Good.]
...Leave's ain't...
[On the other hand, TK's all worked up about blanketleaves and there's something about bringing up monsters and predators that he'd rather not do, despite knowing better.]
Let's take our time and figure somethin' out. I haven't seen any huge leaves lying around.
[Unless his flying ha--Patamon wants to scan for some.]
no subject
All the more reason to be happy that there was something coming out of the wood!]
Quick, we need more leaves to make sure it burns!
[As he quickly got up and looked around the area for some stuff, he just started dumping whatever dry stuff he could find. Leaves, wood, and a few weird dry stuff and here there...!]
Should that be enough? I think we got to blow on it too to make it work right?
[/total camp expert]
no subject
Sure, if you wanna...
[Grab some. But he doesn't need instructions. Shinjiro's taken his eyes off his handiwork for only a moment to ascern as much. No sooner has he already compiled a bunch of stuff.]
Yeah, if you wanna try that, push some of the leaves closer too.
[/totally trying to be inclusive with this smartypants camper.]
no subject
I think I see a fire! There's some smoke coming out!
[But the more he kept blowing, the more he was starting to run out of breath. But that didn't stop him!
Must...keep...going...for....fire!!]
no subject
[Rather than telling him to keep it up or whatnot; he could just as easily help out..but...that would diminish the smoke entirely, with his luck. He just works on rubbing those sticks together, right up until the first glint of a spark.
It doesn't quite matter how tired his hands are from repeating the same motion over and over, or the condition of his palms. This is exciting and encouraging, it's not long at all before a spark becomes a tiny flame.
Success is marked with a slight smirk; TK ought to be able to provide enough excitement for the two of them.]
no subject
As he saw the spark, that's when he had to stop before giving a few pants]
I....I won't...but we made fire. I'm so happy! [He said before resisting the urge to just lay his head on the ground. Although, right now, as he tried to get one of the leaves nearby to fan the fire?
It was clear he was ready to go to bed]