estoria | //EVENT033.EXE

//EVENT033.EXE

//event033.EXE

What new and wonderful and exciting ViViD level awaits you today? What fun time will you have in ViViD this time? Surely it will be a work of art that CERES has been working on for months and months --

Actually, wait, CERES isn't even around, are they?

Uh oh.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt.

Error: Files Not Found

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I

[ ???? ] This time, ViViD is a deathtrap.

There is random magma everywhere, monsters will spawn at random, and at some points, the game is entirely unplayable. It’s like the dev team totally disappeared mid-constructing the level.

Oh wait, that’s exactly what happened.

Monsters may spawn on top of you, you may suddenly be standing in a poisonous bog, you may suddenly lose your powers, or your senses, or so many different things --

It’s time to get out of here, ASAP.

Thankfully, the exit is obvious. Like. Blindingly obvious. It’s got a big sign over it that says EXIT

And just like that, you’ll be out of ViViD and --

PHASE II

[ 0830 ] When you wake up (and it’s strange, because you were sure that you were logging out just a second ago), it’s in a pile of bodies.

They’re cold, but not in the same sense that a dead body would be cold. While they are lifeless and look incredibly real, they don’t feel real. They feel like dolls, mannequins, empty models and nothing more. Their code doesn’t seem to be functioning right.

And what some characters may realize upon looking at this pile of bodies is that they are all of the characters who were sacrifices before. Any character that was dropped who had a high magical or spiritual affinity is there in that pile of bodies, lifeless and eyes blank and vacant. Even you might be there, staring at your own dead body -- but it isn’t real It can be touched, but it’s really nothing more than a lifeless body.

You’ll have to crawl out of that pile of bodies to get anywhere, and then you’ll realize -- you’re in the Sanctuary, a building built by the characters as a safe place from CERES. And it’s looking pretty run-down at this point. The technology in it no longer functions, there is no security on it whatsoever…

Oh, and now there’s a pile of bodies. Great.

PHASE III

[ 1000 ] There’s also a robot.

It’s wandering from place to place, though it’s impossible to follow. One second it’s there, the next it’s just gone.

Also, it’s wearing this. Weird.

But even with that on its face, the robot seems focused on one thing in particular. In fact, it has a sign, and it says:

Down with CERES. Up with Robots.

That’s a happy, cheerful message. If you try to go up to it to talk to it, it will look at you before...bonking you on the head with the sign and running off. That’s incredibly rude.

Alternatively, you may be safe and sound in your home, but then the doorbell rings, and there’s the robot again. The duck mask is gone, but now instead it has a pin on his fake lapel, and then he’s shoving a pamphlet at you.

He tips his hat, and then he’s gone. Weird.

(Also, if you hold onto the pamphlet, it will lead you directly to the person whose picture is on it, and you’ll feel like you’ve known them and have loved them for years.)

PHASE IV

[ 1245 ] But not all is fun and games and shenanigans. There is something...well, strange happening, and the first real realization of that will be when it starts to rain. More than just the localized rain that a few unfortunates have dealt with -- no, it’s raining completely and totally, and that’s when it might hit you.

For the first time in Cerealia, there’s weather.

It’ll rain for a few hours, and then it’ll stop and become hot and sunny. It may get humid, considering it’s a jungle planet. At night, it’ll get rather cold.

Seems like whatever was keeping Cerealia’s atmosphere stable is now gone -- which also means that characters may start to occasionally experience headaches, nausea and dizziness if they go too close to the walls. It seems safer in the center of the city, and the Residential District is still okay, but… there’s no doubt that the planet’s atmosphere is starting to encroach on the city.

BONUS

[ why o'clock ] But who cares about all of that? More importantly, you are here in this… totally not shoddy city to have fun, and it’s still being advertised as a pleasure colony. Or, well, it would be if, you know, CERES was still around.

But close enough.

And as a pleasure colony, it would figure that the first robots to really get fixed are...well, the Pleasure District robots. Unfortunately, the Pleasure District is still a nice big mess, so now they’re wandering the entire colony, looking for people they can hug, massage or...try to drag into more explicit activities.

Welcome to Cerealia!

[ 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. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to Cerealia's September intro log! For your convenience, we have compiled the characters' arrival experience here, and should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here! You can also check the FAQ for more general inquiries. Should this event log hit Captcha, there is an all-purpose overflow here. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

PHASE II : WHAT THE FUCK EDITION

[ Atsushi knows this place.

He knows this place, he knows Cerealia. He knows CERES, and he recognizes ViViD, and he knows that things tend to get a Bit Weird, but—

—the bodies are. A bit much.

He flinches visibly, hand clapped over his mouth to keep himself from saying something unseemly or screaming, that too. These things are so cold and so disturbingly lifelike that he can hardly believe they're fake... but they are, aren't they? They're too smooth, too hollow.

Scrambling, Atsushi tries to dislodge himself from a particularly stubborn tangle of limbs, all the while whispering: ]

Pretend they're radishes, pretend they're radishes, pretend they're radishes...

[ ???? ok atsushi ]

PHASE III : VOTE FOR PEDRO

[ So. Okay. Now Atsushi has a pamphlet.

What is he supposed to... do with this??? He's utterly lost here, he has no idea what the hell happened to CERES or the entire structure of this place, but whatever— this person might have some sort of clue, right? If they're running for some sort of position, they must be able to explain something to him...!

So hes wandering around in search of this dude, and he'll turn to whoever is closest, brandish this pamphlet, and ask with an obvious degree of timidity: ]

Ah, um... sorry, do you happen to know who this is...?

WILDCARD.

[ wildcard option! hit me up with weather things, feel free to save atsushi from a scary pleasure district robot— he needs all the help he can get, lbr. ]

Edited 2016-09-15 01:39 (UTC)

[ She finds it somewhat easier to handle the dead this time when they're less corpse-like when being touched. She still remembers her second level... the one that was supposed to be introductory.

Then again, the level she just thought she logged out of was even more crazy and senseless than the one before it. How is anything running if CERES is, well, AWOL? Thoughts she doesn't examine too hard when she spies someone moving and has to stomp down on the disgust and discomfort that turns her stomach.

Radishes, on the other hand, are a saving focus. (Of large radish-spirits and their strange looking faces.) ]

Um...!

[ She almost asks if he needs help. It's just a skin crawling sensation to stop and think "oh, maybe I won't" when she knows she'll move forward and try to help disentangle this stranger from the limbs holding him down. While he's muttering about radishes, Chihiro's silent, expression set into a grimly determined line. Inwardly... she keeps apologising. ]

[ Radishes are always a welcome distraction from the very harsh reality of their situation, as are girls who've fallen (quite literally) into similar predicaments. Atsushi always thrives when he's not the only person he has to focus his attention on, so he's glad for another face, glad for another person that he can try, as clumsy as he is, to communicate with. ]

Hey...! D, don't worry— I'll be right out.

[ After he battles these errant limbs and— jesus, yes, that's a hand slipping right up his now-loose shirt. Clamping down on a yelp, he struggles gainfully towards Chihiro, toppling rather ungracefully onto his stomach and out of the mountain of would-be corpses. ]

[ She breathes out in a sigh of relief and hovers over her newest companion once he's struggled free, barely blinking at the elegance of his bellyflop onto the ground. She moves to shove one of the not-quite corpses back off him when it slides down the mountain of bodies. ]

Are you okay? I mean, you're not injured, are you?

[ She's not sure if there's more of a gimmick happening right now than she's already seeing in these people who are, probably, meant to be familiar. She simply isn't seeing anyone she knows yet. Chihiro can hope that trend stays true for the time being. ]

atsushi nakajima | open

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