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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He rubs the back of his head.]
It's called ViViD -- it's like a video game...that you're in yourself. I still haven't decided whether that's cool or not.
[But then he shakes his head as he remembers what he saw after first coming here.]
Leaning towards no, though.
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It was annoying, whatever it is.
*and Mika hasn't relearned yet how to have fun anyway*
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[BUT ANYWAY...he remembers that they're both kind of dirty at this point, and both of them probably need a change of clothes.]
I have an apartment here, too, so you don't have to worry about finding a place of your own. [Are you not going to give him a choice here or--] I'll lend you some clothes too, if you want.
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I don't know if I should trust anything you picked out.
*totally questioning your fashion sense, yep!*
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What's that supposed to mean?? My clothes are fine, thank you!
[Good job Mika, you got him huffy -- even though that's not really hard to do.]
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Knowing you, you probably just picked out the first thing you found that fit you without thinking about it at all.
*he's totally teasing, look at that smug grin*
Anyway, where is this apartment of yours?
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Maybe you can just sit in your blood-stained and muddy clothes then!
[He knows he's teasing, but that doesn't mean he can't be extremely huffy about it.]
This way. [Even though he should just let him sit in the streets!!
...No, Yuu would never be able to joke about that. He nods his head in the direction he's about to go in, before starting to walk off.] Unless you're going to be picky about that too.
[There, he did say something about it.]
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Does that mean your place is a mess, Yu-chan?
*he follows along though, it's just TOO EASY to keep teasing*
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No!! [Yes...yes it is.] My place is just fine!
[It's totally messy, Mika, so watch out for that.]
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Hmmmm...
*yeah that's totally a skeptical sound. though really, all joking aside, he is looking forward to spending time with Yu, and that miiight just be showing through a tiny bit despite himself*
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They better still be okay at home when we get back.
[Just saying.]
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You were right there when I ended up here, but you said you've been here a while already, so maybe nothing will happen.
*...he's managing to only be a little grudging about that reassurance, be proud of him!*
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I hope so. [He's going to ignore Mika's tone about it, at least. But then he seems to brighten up again...] But maybe more of them will show up here, since you're here now!
[That's an exciting idea.]
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......though to be honest he'd rather have Yu to himself so he's just not going to comment on that last bit right now >_>*
Say, Yu-chan, just how far is your apartment anyway?
*being a little impatient is totally understandable right?*
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It's right here.
[And he'll be pointing in the direction of the building they're walking up on...]
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*yeah, definitely glancing around at everything while he follows you in*
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So...here's everything.
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Hmmm, it definitely looks like someplace Yu-chan lives...
*don't mind him while he looks around and pokes his head into the bedroom, bathroom, etc, before turning back to Yu*
Though if you think you have anything big enough to fit me, I should probably get this cleaned up.
*because mud aside, he's kind of covered in bloodstains and stuff too. and also was that just a jab at Yu being shorter? it totally was a jab at Yu*
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Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
[HE'S CONFLICTED ON THE MEANING THERE.]
You're not that much taller than me! [At least he gets the intention behind that one...and he'll go disappear into his room for a few minutes before coming back out with a pair of pants and a shirt.] If it's such a big deal, you can stay in dirty clothes.
[He doesn't really mean it all the way, though.]
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Ah, I wonder~
*yeah, he's totally messing with you, though he'll take the clothes with a slight pout*
But I'm not a messy idiot like Yu-chan!
*aaand turn to head to the bathroom before Yu can get any bright ideas about trying to steal the clean clothes to teach him a lesson :Db*
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He'll definitely try to snatch the clothes back, but Mika's too fast. He really doesn't look happy about it, though...]
I'm not messy or an idiot!! Next time you're just going to have to stay with muddy clothes!!
[And bloody clothes, but y'know. Ignoring that for now.]
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*a deliberate pause as he reaches the bathroom door and steps inside, then--*
Ah, does that mean, Yu-chan, you'd rather I didn't have any clothes at all? How mean! And perverted!
*totally putting on a fake-shocked tone before very, very quickly shutting the door behind him after*
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I'm not perverted!! You're just putting words into my mouth!!
[UGH. He's just going to cross his arms and march away to...who knows, get a soda or something while Mika changes.]
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...then, after a moment's thought, the sound of the shower running as it occurs to him that there's not much point in clean clothes if HE'S still covered in blood and mud*
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It wasn't even that funny...!
He'll just be rummaging around in the kitchen in the meantime, though.]
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