You know what everyone needs after rampant robotic attacks and another iteration of clone wars? A vacation! That’s right everyone, you deserve this. CERES understands what you need. CERES is here for you all the time, so never doubt that this is a pleasure colony, and they are here to look after all of your needs. Kick your feet up, relax, and let CERES Recreation and Activity Necessity Keepers (Team RANK, that is) set you up with your ideal getaway.
It’s as if you can sense the incoming relaxation and luxury before you even completely finish loading. There’s the warmth encompassing your entire body as your code gets transferred into this particular ViViD Level. A cool, refreshing breeze hits you. The sounds of waves gently lapping against the coast fill you with relaxation. The sun, the sand, the surfs, it’s all there – welcome to the beach, baby!
An echoing greeting message from the ocean comes next, if you can translate it.
 OOOOOOOOOOOOHMAHH GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHD.
YOOOOOOOOOOOORRRALL SOOOOOOOOOOOOO KYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT.
KYOOOOOOOOOOOT EEEENAAAAUUUUUUUF TOOOOOOOOOOOOO EEEEEEEEEEEEEEET.
|
PHASE I [ 08 00 ] That said, isn’t that breeze a little… too strong? It feels like it’s brushing up against all of you, if you know what I mean. When you open your eyes and look down, it becomes rather clear why. It seems that you’ve found yourself in some pretty interesting attire. Everyone. No exceptions. You appear to have two options – be overcome and scream like the Victorian maiden your heart says you are, or strut like a model in this stuff. Turn some heads! Work that up do!
But don’t worry, we’re also conscious about safety here at CERES! Therefore everyone’s also been provided a pair of super high-tech safety-tested appendage protection floatation devices (STAPFD for short.)
At least everyone around you is caught in the same sort of attire – and everyone around you also appears to be stuck inside a giant sand castle. It’s entirely malleable to what you want it to be! Want to see a fancy sand bidet? Feel like adding a sand statue in your honor? Think that wall should now be a door? Well, with enough perseverance, you can make it happen!
Just uh, be careful about getting sand in your… everywhere.
PHASE II [ 1000 ] Someone broke it. Not pointing any fingers, even though you sure do seem like a prime suspect, but someone broke it.
It almost starts like an earthquake with how the castle starts to rumble, the sand shaking right beneath your feet. And then the walls right next to you start to cave in followed promptly by the ceiling right… above your head. Oh dear. The sand starts to run and fall, losing its structure and shape. The hallway behind you starts to cave in, ceiling first and then the walls follow suit. Now the sand really is getting everywhere – but not just uncomfortable places. It’s in your hair, your eyes, your nose…. this sure doesn’t seem like a pleasant way to go!
Best to start running – there’s a trusty drawbridge to get over the moat (because what’s a sandcastle without a moat?) but who knows how long until that, too, is going to give way? Best to cross over it before it starts to shake and disappear too. Or if you don’t make it, hopefully you can land some pretty impressive airtime to make it to the other side!
If not, well...there'll be the sensation of sand crushing down upon you, filling your mouth and eyes, and you won't be able to breathe at all – and then you're alive again on the beach (but possibly in yet another new, uncomfortable, skimpy swimsuit). Honestly, be more careful, would you?
PHASE III [ 1200 ] However, once you do make it to the other side, it’s all smooth sailing from there! Or is it? Hah, as they say, life sure can be a beach.
Which is what this is.
Welcome to your Beach Episode, folks. Now that you’ve made it out of the collapsing sand castle, you’ve made it to the luxurious, picturesque golden coastline. Sure, you’re coughing up fine, luxurious, sand dust right now and you’ve definitely gotten sand in all of your crevices thanks to your swimsuit, but that’s okay! Go take a soak in the ocean or something or cool off with a smoothie. There’s a smoothie shack off into the distance, complete with a long chalkboard with… well, probably a few familiar names? And some unfamiliar ingredients. Sounds appetizing right?
That said, once you do ingest some of the smoothie with the name of a newcomer, you might suddenly find yourself feeling a bit… different. You’ll be taking on some of their traits, one of the most intense parts of their personality – or you might need to take a second to sit down because you’re suddenly seeing one of their memories. Whoa. What do they actually put in this stuff?
PHASE IV [ 1500 ] For the brave souls that venture out into the water, you have even more adventures waiting for you. Anyone who’s swimming around, wading in the water—hell, even looking at the water is getting scooped up and deposited in one of these giant orbs. But don’t take up too much room, because someone else is getting shoved right in there with you. Time to get cozy with your new friend, because it's only going to get worse as the waves begin to carry you out into this big, blue, virtual ocean. Hopefully the choppy waves don’t bounce you around too much or – well, you could always get really friendly with a stranger! Why not?
At least until it’s made very clear that fresh air does not make it back into these balls. That seems like a bit of a design flaw. Now what? Fight the other person who’s inhaling all your air? Suffer through it for swimsuit-clad fun? Or if you break it…. well, you sure are stranded out in the ocean. Or are you?
After enough flailing, you’ll be met by a giant, dumb-looking creature who will then eat you whole.
Everything goes dark. This is surely the end --
And then you're in Cerealia proper; it seems that was the exit to the level (but why there?) and you'll find yourself either in one of the fountains or the pond in the park. Either way, you'll be very, very well. And this time, that's not virtual. But hey, at least you'll have all of your stuff with you.
BONUS [ xxxx ] Do you hear that?
Anyone idle on the beach will hear a distant melody coming from further out into the ocean. It’s a beautiful, elegant song that automatically makes the listener stop what they’re doing and immediately wander toward the noise. It takes you a moment to recall – it takes a moment to think about anything now, really – but you remember hearing the smoothie shack owner say something about mermaids populating the beach. Could this be their song calling out to you? Whether you would normally abide by this kind of call or not, you find your feet walking further and further out into the water, the shallows lapping up to your ankles and up and up as you are drawn in by the song.
A rather classic song, though the usual instances of French are also replaced with the very enticing, enchanting nonsense promise of omelette du fromage........and then they try to drown you.
[ 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}
ii
[Because that's the kind of oops it sounded like.
Naoki's watching granules beginning to sift faster and faster, watching with a faint hint of exasperation as some of the wall begins to collapse, and then the ceiling and that's sand down his back gah.]
Anyway, if you already broke it, you might as well blast the rest of the way out of here! [brute force it]
no subject
[Caught in the act, apparently. Shit.]
There was a bee.
[It wasn't like he made a habit of randomly shooting up walls, after all. But he wasn't sure that shooting more holes was going to help a lot. Maybe Tusk could muscle through? It was weak, but the walls were only sand.]
Yeah, about that.
[This wasn't the time for a lengthy conversation, to be sure. Another few seconds and another chunk of ceiling was liable to fall. He made it as brief as possible.]
You'll have to give me a hand. I can't walk, but I can shoot up anything in our way.
no subject
That diverts Naoki's attention from collapsing sandcastles and ridiculous excuses of bees and he gives him a curious look but okay, he comes closer and leans over so his shoulder is well within grasping range.]
'Kay. We'll do that.
[And if it's looking like they'll be crushed under sand well there're a few tricks up his sleeves-- lack of sleeves. Everyone's pretty scantily clad around here.]
no subject
Johnny follows his gaze up to the crumbling ceiling and aims his pointer-finger toward it, firing off a few Nail bullets that, though small, at least seem to persuade the sand to disperse and fall more heavily a few feet to their right instead of directly on them.]
Shit. We gotta move.
no subject
[Naoki locks his arm around his back and midsection and lifts him up with alarming ease. For a lithe-looking guy, it would seem he's pretty strong, since he can easily take all of Johnny's weight.
It'd be a little tricky to use his abilities in such close range like this, but nevertheless his other hand flicks, and wind that is definitely not natural helps keep sand from falling on them. Onwards! Naoki heads right toward one of the crumbling walls to the castle.]
no subject
He raised his hand and fired off several nail bullets in quick succession from his right hand. They might not shoot a large hole through the wall, but they definitely weakened it in several places. The holes were already growing just like the first had, stretching long and crumbling away into the next room.]
What the hell is this?!
no subject
When they're close enough to the wall, he kicks those bits that're in the way and that wind follows, blowing the sand outward.]
Gonna go a little faster. [That's the only warning before Naoki picks up the pace, affirming he's still got a good hold on this guy, bringing them through the now-open hole and toward the next sand wall in their way.]
no subject
Yeah, got it.
[He pulls himself up a little higher on the kid's shoulder and aims with the hand he's been holding himself up with. It's a little harder to aim, but he sends the bullets out and they hit the wall in rapid succession as it begins to crumble away like the others.]
Seriously, how many rooms does this thing have?
no subject
[Naoki huffs out the words with a little humour to them, and he sends wind after those bullets, blowing the sand out in a huge burst, him following afterward. However, he thinks that just one more and they'll finally reach the outside.] Just a little more!
[Encouragement. Just about there (guess, he's guessing, but he's not sayin that)!!]
no subject
Alright.
[Johnny sighs and braces himself, starting again with the other hand. The nails start spinning with a soft hum before he fires them at the next wall. Okay and maybe he felt a liiittle guilty about crumbling the wall in the first place, but it wasn't like he could have known something so tiny would cause the entire structure to collapse!]
Here's hopin'.
no subject
Naoki breathes in a deep breath, and his eyes spark a pale blue. Wind gusts forward this time, slamming against the wall as Naoki surges through the gap, stumbling onto sand. He glances back and grimaces slightly.
He has to go back in.]
Can you wait here for a few minutes?
no subject
I- Wait, why're you- are you seriously going back in? It's gonna collapse any minute!
no subject
[With that, and without further delay, he's going to head right back into the castle. HE'LL be back. Eventually.]