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!
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Credits, yes. [changing the subject] Has it been like this for very long?
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[Chibi straightens again, falling easily into the more serious topic. It's how he's been distracting himself from loneliness, after all, as more and more of the people he knows simply fade away: he works, theorizes, churns. The dates don't come as easily to him, but the events are clear as a bell in his brain, and he has a million theories about each.]
The sixteenth of August, as I recall, was when things began to go haywire. That means... Shit, tomorrow is October already. A month and a half.
[A breeze kicks up, and Chibi motions to the air with a lazy hand.] The weather, though - that's just started today.
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PhiladelphiaCerealia. he frowns a bit, looking around] What have you been doing as far as food goes?[if the technology is done... what does that mean for the places they live? are the CereVices still working?]
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[It does make him think, though. (The 'why is it only AI-powered robots?' question keeps coming up, and he still has no answer.)]
Though, during the week that everything was going crazy... Remember those bitey fish from the ponds in the garden? [Oh, no.] It turns out they pan-sear quite well, if you can catch them.
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...Good to know. I wonder if the other monsters taste all right.
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--Oh, I do not think I mentioned - did you see the energy readings when you were in ViViD last? We finally found out why they pushed ViViD so forcefully.
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I actually wasn't paying attention. I just wanted to get out of there.
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In any case, recall that CERES was selling energy off-world? It seems ViViD was an energy farm - us, of course, being the ones from whom it was drawn.
[He's irritated by it, honestly - irritated that they weren't told, irritated that they were being used and he played into it.]
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It's like everything that they did to us... It was a game to them. We were just their playthings.
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[His time came to die almost a year ago, and yet...]
I laugh to think that Mosley was the one to finally deliver the blow - the beast eating its own tail, if you will.
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[A streetlamp flickers on, then its twin next to it, like two markers of the faded boundary between the entertainment and pleasure district. Chibi can see the research tower's husk if his gaze wander to the left, but it barely does, preferring instead to linger around his companion's eyes. The chill of night is starting to settle; it is a familiar feeling, but after ten months in a Cerealia so removed from it, it is almost foreign.]
[Twilight threatening to envelop, set at bay by neon lights and warm breath - that's a thought for a poem.]
But as we have all seen, CERES is not very good at covering their tracks, so Mosley decided he would take it on himself to fix his mistake. As for when... Who knows?
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Mm... Has anyone tried getting into the research tower?
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[He huddles the cloak around himself as a breeze comes through again; part of him considers offering it to England instead, but he figures he'll wait for the other man to actually get cold first.]
--You just got back, didn't you? Where are you staying, if I may ask?
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ah, but. shifting gears here]
I figured I'd stay in my old place. Although... I have not gone back to look at it. I don't know if it suffered any damages during the... Ah. When the appliances went haywire.
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[He squints as the harsh neon of the ViViD center starts to hit his eyes. He wonders if it is his imagination, or if it is really less crowded than usual for this time of evening. Maybe it's his imagination, too, that fewer people linger around the walls - as though the population is huddling closer and closer to the colony's center. None of it bears mentioning for now, though; he will save it for a late-night ramble.]
If it has, call me; I will lend you shelter. [In a low, teasing voice:] Besides, my bed has missed the company.
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Or I could just stay with you from now on.
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[Chibi lets that sink in - England is asking to move in with him. He wonders how long that has been an idea, or how long it's even been a possibility. For all the things he felt waking up next to him, for all the comfort in those lingering moments spent over tea or breakfast, he wonders why it didn't come to him sooner.]
[He's not stupid; he knows it's all coming to a head. People coming and going in a flash, CERES gone, elements acting up, and that message from that robot - things are building to their inevitable climax. If they don't have much longer he doesn't want to think about it, though, he wants to spend as much time with these connections as he can. Even if the mind does not remember regrets after death, Chibi believes that the soul does, and he does not want to carry any regrets from this ridiculous time in this ridiculous colony.]
[He turns to England, taking his other hand so they are joined. The bitterness from talking about CERES has dissipated; now, he is all glow and warmth, alight with a nervous sort of excitement.]
I would be honored.
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oh! suddenly he remembers something]
Mister Edgeworth, though... Is he still here?
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[Chibi drops England's other hand from his to scratch at the back of his neck.] He is still here; we have been talking and training together sometimes.
[Part of him wants to say 'I get the feeling he'll be here until the end,' but not only does that bring up the end... It may not even be true. After Athena Cykes even disappeared, Chibi doesn't know anymore.]
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though England still thinks it might be fun staying with Chibi]
Ah, excellent. [that makes him happy. he was fond of Chibi and Edgeworth both, and knowing that they are friends warms his heart] I'd like to visit him later, just to let him know I am back.
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[An idle musing as the towers of the residential district come into closer view:] I would say to call ahead before you show up, so as not to startle the guy, but is that necessary when you've lived with someone, I wonder?
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[Well, he'll send some food over when England does go, in any case.]
Hm, and who else... Merlin left about a month back. Grell left again, too. My friend with the implants is still here, and he actually managed to remove them without incident this time - and from others' heads, too.
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Really? How did he manage that?
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