
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 [ 8 00 ] 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 [ 9 00 ] 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 [ 12 00 ] 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 [ xx xx ] 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. ] |
more overflows here
kirk
Yeah, it was just a smoothie or something. It didn't really do anything, but I've seen some weird stuff happen in here.
[Not that he doesn't see weird stuff on a regular basis or anything...]
dazai
H-Hey! I wasn't being serious!
[And he'll try to take the drink from him -- but he'll be a little too late on doing that...since he already took a sip.
What a situation.]
okuni
[He scratches at his bandages for a minute, raising an eyebrow at her when she asks her question.]
No. It's my Minimum.
[He thinks about it for a minute, though.]
But it'd be pretty cool to be a ninja, though. They have pretty cool weapons, even though I wouldn't use them.
[So what's the point]
no subject
What's a Minimum? [????] Are you sure you're not a ninja? Maybe you get paid by people to do all sorts of terrible things! That would make you a ninja, even if you don't use their weapons.
no subject
It's like a special power or something.
[He considers...WELL he did get paid by people, but--]
I don't do terrible things. [That's important.] People came to me at home when they had problems with other people with powers, mostly.
[Even if his clients didn't know the people who were after them were Minimum Holders, they typically ended up being like that.]
no subject
And what do you to those people with powers? Do you fight them? [OR SOMETHING WORSE....]
no subject
Fight them, sometimes. Most of the time I just solve my cases and then turn them over to the police. It's easier when they deal with them.
[He's too lazy, personally...]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
hikari
Piemon? [He has to think about it because...well...] That just makes me think of pies. Do you want a pie? I want one now.
[Nice why]
no subject
[She knew what a pie was, of course; the connection simply hadn't formed in her mind, since she first met Piemon before hearing his name...and he had been too terrifying to make a joke out of his name.]
I'm not hungry, but...thank you?
no subject
So you don't like pies? What do you like, then?
[Nice, stop.]
You can walk and talk, right?
no subject
Umm...omelets? [The first meal that came to mind. Taichi had made some for her when he first got back from the Digital World; it was a recipe he said he learned from Yamato.] And I can walk and talk. Why?
no subject
Omelets are okay.
[Not as good as pies though!! But whatever.]
Because we need to keep moving. I don't want to fish anyone out of the mud today.
[Even though he would if he came across someone like that...]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
kagemitsu
They think they know how to make a welcome, but they really don't. They're just pretty troublesome all around, but that's CERES in general.
[Just saying.]
no subject
no subject
[He still hasn't really figured out the point here, but.]
As long as we're alive, they don't care.
no subject
[ He has an actual valid reason not to believe that, since day one. ]
no subject
[Why they're brought here, what happens to his friends back home, etc...]
caroline
Yeah, well, everyone's been there before.
[Just so she knows.
But then he looks around, pointing in the direction they're at.]
They're that way. You can pretty much just walk into an empty one.
anakin
[He's still just going to watch, but he's kind of wondering why the monster is just staring at them too.]
I'm not going near that thing. I've had enough run-ins with big and nasty monsters to deal with this one.
shigeru
[Nice doesn't judge!! ...Often...
But then he considers it, and then he crosses his arms and sighs.]
I'll lend you some clothes, I guess. You're new, right? You wouldn't just happen to randomly have a change of clothes?
[It's kind of hopeful, but...he's guessing he wouldn't.]
As for the apartments, you can just kind of go into whatever's empty.
no subject
Thank you. I don't have anything yet, no. I just arrived in that weird virtual reality game...
[ So thank you for helping him, he really does appreciate it. ]
That's a little strange, but I guess this place is weird. [ What an understatement that is. ]
no subject
Figured as much.
[He'll probably hit you up for free shit later in repayment though, so beware.]
A little weird's pretty much an understatement. It's like saying that grass is only kind of green or something.
[But he'll be motioning for him to follow before walking off, himself...]
no subject
Have you been here long?
[ He can already guess the answer but he's never certain with these things... ]
This has happened to me once before...but the other place I was in was a haunted school building.
(no subject)
nico
[He shrugs. Well...]
It's probably entertaining. It's kind of entertaining for me too, sometimes.
[Just as long as it's not too bad...]
But not pulling these things would assume they care.