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
And Genos is more than fine listening to her babble about all of this if she so chooses given how he isn't always the one who wants to do all of the talking all of the time. Look, just because he can tl;dr doesn't mean that's what he does. ]
A combat school. [ That was...interesting. If they had a hero school back where he was, how would that change the dynamics, he wonders. ] In those schools do they also teach you your basics as well or do you learn those on the side? Is there an age requirement? You do not look very old.
[ It's a compliment?? ]
no subject
Um. Well... yeah, I'm a little younger than usual, but... I can still do it, don't worry! Things just kind of happened, and I tried to stop a villain who was doing villain-y things but it's not like I caught him and then the headmaster said I could go to Beacon! So I did! But... I'm kind of younger than everyone else which is a little awkward sometimes.
[He definitely didn't ask for your life story, Ruby.]
no subject
I see, I apologize for my question. It seemed to give you some discomfort.
[ A bit late but...it's worth saying even if she waves it off, right? Here he's going to try to add some more. ] However, if what you say is true that must mean you're extremely talented. Exceptions like you are not typical, I'd assume.
no subject
[She definitely doesn't want him to feel bad for a simple question, and she's already bouncing back; instead, she grins a little sheepishly, but much less weakly.]
I guess a little bit, but in Beacon, there are lots of people who are waaaay stronger than me! My sister Yang is way tougher, for instance. So I've got a long way to go before I'll be strong enough, but that's okay! I'll keep working and training and fighting until I get stronger, you know?
no subject
Yes, I understand. I feel the same about myself; there is still much I need to learn and improve upon. [ Though given what his end goal is compared to her's...it might be a little different for him. Murder and revenge aren't quite the same things to work towards compared to being an official Huntress but that's a monologue that can happen another time. ]
Does your sister use a weapon much like your own?
no subject
Besides, you know, being cool and a hero and all.
Someday she'll get that monologue, though.]
But nope! Yang uses gauntlets. She likes to punch things.
[... Yeah. That's basically is but she's so strong.]
It's kind of ridiculous really but she's the strongest person I know for sure.
no subject
Is that so? My master also punches things and is the strongest person that I know.
[ He'll gesture to the doll fondly. Granted he'll still think that his master is much stronger than her sister but it's common ground for them to talk about at the very least. Much better than thinking about this swamp before them. ]
However his gloves are just gloves.
[ Not quite sure if they're entirely "normal" though. ]
no subject
[Ruby's more than willing to consider this possibility as they trudge through swamp. It's more fun than thinking about how some of the swamp has gotten into her boots and squelches unpleasantly as she walks.]
Like... punch-y people are just really really strong!
[Seems legit.]
no subject
There could be some logic with that. Someone else who is also rather strong is a martial artist.
[ This gets him thinking... Genos had already focused a lot on maximizing his destruction power and the strength of his arms but has always wondered how else to improve himself. Should he focus on making his punches stronger? Hmm... Then again, the second strongest hero in his world was a telekinetic. ]
However, there are plenty of other powerful people who do not use their fists too, are there not?
no subject
So maybe it's just...strong people are strong no matter what sort of weapons they use.
[This is clearly a Very Deep Thought.]
But there are weapons that are better suited to some people than others, too.
no subject
[ Having deep talks about weapons and strength. Who knew something this was going to happen between the two of them? ]
I do not think that I have a particular weapon that I am well suited for. Perhaps I am like my master and do not require any.
[ Or maybe that's because your entire body has been transformed into a weapon, Genos... ]
no subject
[She can't really imagine Genos with a gun, it'd be like a massive downgrade.]
Which is fine too, you're really cool looking.
no subject
[ Genos doesn't really care what he looks like and he's heard how cool he looks before from his fan club but it doesn't mean he'll devalue Ruby's assessment of him. Besides, she's not like his fan club.
But there has been one thing that has been bothering him a bit... ]
Given your outfit, do you not worry about what may happen should you be forced upside down? Or do you take extra precautions for that?
[ Genos........ ]
no subject
[Duh.
As if that should explain everything, even though it clearly doesn't. A moment later she realizes that it really doesn't explain anything, so instead--]
Oh, so the material's made to cover me up even if I'm held upside down by a Grimm or something. It works really well!
[So she can continue to wear a pointless skirt when fighting.]
no subject
Okay, well, Genos still really doesn't understand or how something like that works but he'll accept it. ]
That's convenient. I didn't realize there was clothing like that.
[ From monsters to fashion, what a trip of a conversation. ]
no subject
[In RWBY land of course. They're just worldly people, having a good chat like this.]
How do other people do it? Do their skirts just fall down? Do you see their underwear?
no subject
Most heroes that I know of are males, however the females that I do know wear long dresses and do not have to worry about being compromised.
no subject
[She has to think about that for a moment, before she very seriously asks Genos:]
Don't you think you could get tangled up in one of those and fall? I'm pretty sure I'd fall. What about you?
[He doesn't wear dresses, Ruby.]
no subject
I don't think I would fall. Perhaps once you are accustomed to the length it becomes easy to avoid things like that.
no subject
Huh... Maybe you're just better balanced in long dresses than I am. That's okay, you can keep 'em! I'm happy like this.
[Something here has gone terribly wrong.]
no subject
I would agree, your appearance suits you and your personality very well. [ Pretty sure someone might disagree with how black and red usually don't equate to someone who is bubbly and friendly like this but semantics. ]
Does your sister also fight in a battle skirt?