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.
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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.
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no subject
But she just sort of... hums in reply instead, a distracted mhm as she watches his continued attempt to cover himself (neither of her teammates were exactly difficult on the eyes but it's mostly curiosity at the fact he's going out of his way to hide that's keeping her attention).]
Since when are you such a blushing maiden, I've seen you in less.
[Humor was a fantastic way to deal with what she assumes is actually his attempt to cover the scars from the shish kabobing she'd last seen him go through. And maybe that's for the best, Tenten doubted she'd be able to stop herself from staring, to stop an outward reaction at the sight.
But it's way more distracting watching him try to disappear in front of her.]
no subject
I'm not blushing.
[Well that sure was automatic, and Neji takes a moment after it's rolled off his tongue to pull a face akin to having tasted something foul- only much more subtle and dignified and all that jazz. He could also argue he's not a maiden
what the hell was he thinking anymore
but that'd just be playing into the trap. Not that he'd already set one foot in but damn it all, he wouldn't fall for it. He's not blushing. He is suddenly aware again of the atrocity he was-- wearing-- that he had latched onto him.
He's also not looking at Tenten anymore, because he is stronger than this.]
no subject
It's an expression.
[Really struck a nerve with that one, apparently, and now she's fairly sure that whatever bathing suit he'd been stuck with was far worse than the bitty bikini she had. Morbid curiosity almost makes her heckle him a little bit more about it, but it would probably succeed less in information and more in him simply leaving her here.
Sigh.]
You could have at least found another towel for me.
[Still teasing, but she let the subject of hideous clothing and prude like tendencies go- she was supposed to be his friend and she guessed it was the nice thing to do, to stop drawing attention to how weird they both felt.]
no subject
but it looks like he's turned to face her again because of her whining. Neji feels something weigh him down now that he's realized they're both avoiding talking of each other and are instead channeling energy into asinine things.
He's sporting that same old, smug smirk anyhow.] Or you could find one for yourself, like the rest of us.
[Besides-] If anyone would need the extra cover, it'd be Lee.
no subject
[Of course she hasn't been subjected to his seashell bikini just yet but there was very little of Lee's body she hadn't seen already, considering.
A part of her is proud of him for not being the blushing maiden though- and herself, really, because while their team had shared far too much of their personal space with each other over the years, standing around with her modesty mostly protected by knotted string wasn't something Tenten was entirely comfortable with.
She's not really comfortable with the whole we're both kind of long dead and home is gone and we're here but we're not thing either so until she's capable of processing it she finds it's easier to just fall back onto bullshit small talk and pretending she isn't dangerously close to losing what little cool she has.
They never really were the type to sit down and talk about their feelings together anyway and while she could admit they probably should at some point it sure as hell wasn't going to be here, half naked on a digital beach, so she busies herself with staring at the sign again, at the familiar but not names listed there, instead of addressing the absurdity of bantering with her dead best friend again.]
I feel like some of these names should be familiar... but I don't know who Boruto or Sarada are.
[Surprise Uchihas had never been a good thing, in her opinion, and it makes her more uneasy than relieved to know other people from home were here.]