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. ] |
![[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}
no subject
Then he smiles down at her. ‘Why don't you come stay with us? I'm sure the others won't mind and it can't be that hard to accomodate one more person. It'll be safer too to be in a group.’
Then he blinks at the oddly specific rainfall and he reaches over to extend his cape over Chihiro to shield her from the rain, not caring about getting wet himself. ‘What's going on, Chihiro-chan?’
no subject
And he's being too kind, holding out his cape over her head. It makes her feel briefly guilty, because the rain cloud's only here due to her affiliation. One she hadn't known about before the weird element things had started happening.
"I'm raining. There are four elemental gods here, you know? It turns out the one I'm claimed by is Maris-sama. He's water." Her smile is small and self-aware; she finds her admission a little bit funny. What other element would she be? "Not that long ago people like us started finding weird things happening around us. Water people had it rain, fire people are lighting things on fire, earth people are making things bloom... stuff like that. So um, I'm sorry. I'm why the rain's just happening right here. You'll get wet if you stay too close."
He is, in fact, already getting wet, but it's a refreshing enough reaction (most often people have just gotten the heck out of the way) that she doesn't do the polite thing and move away again.
no subject
no subject
She drummed up a smile over that memory. At least the bathroom was a place that couldn't be too injured by overabundant water. (That was a lie.) "Ichigo-san, you're getting really soaked. You'll catch a cold if you don't get away from me." She didn't move away either, which was more of a problem on Chihiro's end about enjoying positive attention and bonding, but she was aware of her own low-key health hazard effect for the time being.
no subject
Ichigo glanced up at the rain, raising his hand to shield his eyes as he tries to see if the rain is really falling from the sky. ‘Really? That's interesting and a little strange... So it's just random?’
Ichigo looked down at his wet clothes and shook his head. ‘It's fine. Swords don't catch colds.’ At least he thinks so.
no subject
The rain doesn't appear to exist more than a meter or two over Chihiro's head. "I haven't seen a pattern," she admits. She's unconvinced of his argument, pointing out, "Maybe not, but you can rust, and we don't know if we're all working like we should."
Which is a point, more or less, and she's concerned he may catch a cold precisely because things like water and fire are manifesting around the code-born.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
"Yeah, you're right. Rain helps put out fires. Do you not like fire?" It struck her as a little odd, but that was from limited knowledge and thinking about fires and forges.
no subject
‘No, I don't like it at all. Fire is a terrible beast that robs you of everything you loved and knew. My memories were taken away by the fire at Osaka Castle.’
no subject
Osaka Castle was once the site of the Tokugawa coming into power. Its destruction was the final lament of the same clan leaving power, in so many ways. She couldn't imagine what it would feel like to someone like Ichigo, when he had no way of escaping a building that was burnt and razed. Chihiro only remembered a portion of that history; she knew, in a vague way, that Osaka Castle was burned down when the new government of the time came into power.
History feels a lot different when talking to people (human or otherwise) who've lived through it.
"I'm sorry they left you behind. I'm sorry that the people who came after also hurt you. You didn't deserve that." No one deserved to be left behind and incinerated. Even if they were a sword; but she can't vouch for the concerns of people hundreds of years before her time. They may well have had less of an appreciation for history and historic significance and respect for the very art of swordmaking that did, indeed, fall out of favour once the samurai was out of the graces of the nation. Yet that hadn't been true back then, had it? She had no way to know.
no subject
“Master was already dead, so I suppose they had forgotten me. I can remember only very little about Master. I remember that he loved me the most and that he had me adjusted so that I could always remain by his side. I remember that he was the one who gave me these clothes. I remember watching him die of sickness... I remember the fire and how I was unable to save Namazuo and Honebami who were in the flames like me. They are two of my younger brothers. I should have been there to protect them... but I failed them.
I remember being reforged... then I think I was probably asleep for a long time after that. When I woke up again, I was in a palace and there was one of younger brothers, Hirano. He told me we were now Imperial Treasures. Then other swords joined us - Tsurumaru-dono, Uguisumaru-dono and Shishiou-dono. After that, we were summoned by our current master. That's all I can remember.”
no subject
Her own trouble with recollection had been to save the life of another, someone important to her. It had been life and death in a less immediately dramatic way, and her memories were locked away due to the gap in years. Children don't always remember their earliest years, and her drowning had been lost to the wash of time. But for her mother's words on the incident, reminding her of what had once happened, she may well never have remembered more than the flash of a pink shoe against turbulent, blue waters.
She moved closer to lean against him, a gentle sort of pressure when she wasn't sure what else to do. Chihiro could understand feeling helpless. She'd felt it here before, had felt it when grasping for answers and ways to help the people she cared about. Tsuru's name registered as familiar, and she nodded, making another small sound to show she was listening as he spoke.
"I'm sorry. We all want to be able to protect our important people." Friends or family. Zeniba's words echoed through her memory, Chihiro breathing in and out before offering a quieter word. "Mm... there was a sorcerer I knew who told me we never really forget someone once we've met them. We just haven't remembered yet. I don't know... it may not be the same. Memories are things that we all have, but... we're making them, too. Because we exist, we make memories every day." She wasn't sure how to say what she wanted to say; she wasn't even sure what she wanted to say. Provide comfort? No, it wasn't something she knew how to do for something like this. Looking at a way forward? That was easier, but harder at the same time.
She paused, then squeezed his hand once more. "I'm sorry for all the terrible things that you and your brothers." It wasn't his fault. It couldn't have been. Not when bound to simply his vessel. He was dependent on the graces of those who had chosen to forget him in the wake of his Master's passing; him and his brothers alike. That's how Chihiro saw it; not a failing for a lack of heart or effort or desire, but circumstances working against his possibilities. "And um... I'm glad you were reforged."
It wasn't regaining what was lost. Chihiro, young as she was, didn't believe that things could necessarily be reclaimed. Some things changed, and that was what they now were. They didn't return to being what they were before. Yet it was in having a sense of existence and life that anything else could be done; new memories, not to replace old ones, but to pave the path of a life continued on beyond a traumatic event.
People, whatever their origins, needed to be able to move forward.
no subject
“...we never really forget someone once we've met them... I suppose that is true. Though I can't remember Mikazuki-dono, I do still feel a closeness to him... He told me our masters were together for a long time.”
But then he looked away for a bit when she said she was glad he was reforged. His reforging was a sore subject for him. Ichigo felt that his current reforged self as far inferior to what he once was and that it made him weak and brittle. That wasn't really true though.
The metal of his blade was so masterfully forged by his original swordsmith that though he was reforged by a far inferior smith who straightened the beautiful wavy pattern on the edge of his blade, the metal of his blade was still as strong and true as ever. In fact, unless one was told he was reforged, one could not see the difference. However, Ichigo did not see that. All he saw was a blade that was a Yoshimitsu Awataguchi masterpiece only by name... But this was something he tried his best to keep to himself.
“Thank you, Chihiro-chan, but I don't know if that's a good or bad thing... Sometimes I think it might be better if I wasn't reforged...”
no subject
She further leaned into him as the rain pattered down overhead.
"Mm, Ichigo-san... it's selfish of me to say, but if you hadn't been reforged, I wouldn't have gotten to meet you. You wouldn't get to meet people like Mikazuki-dono again, or have the chance to make new memories with him. So... I think it's a better thing. Not good, or bad, or anything like that. Just... better." Better than the alternative of not existing at all.
no subject
Finding his brothers again did give his life meaning and direction, but he kept the mental torment he felt to himself. His brothers were young and he did not wish to burden them with the knowledge that the oldest brother they worship was falling apart inside. The news that his world was destroyed and his brothers probably all dead was a further blow to his already fragile mental state. What else did he have to live for? However, he did not feel this was something he could or should share with Chihiro. So he just smiled.
"I am truly honoured that you feel that way, Chihiro-chan." As for making new memories with Mikazuki. Did he really have a chance? Tsurumaru had told that Mikazuki was getting married... And though he couldn't recall anything of their past relationship. The news had broken his heart. All he could do was smile to mask the pain as he glanced up at the sky again. "Ah, the rain seems to be stopping."
no subject
... suffice to say, he's correct. Empathy can bridge distances, alongside knowledge, but to truly know any of a life lived so long and so broken takes an understanding that Chihiro, at least, does not presently have.
Hearts break because they can heal again. That much, Chihiro knew. (That she was a forcible optimist with a willful disregard for the possibility of giving up had equal parts to do with personality and age.) "It is?" She glanced up, blinking as she noticed the sunlight striking the mist left falling overhead. Soon enough, the mist had turned into nothing more than air. He was right.
The rain had been stopping.
"Mm, this way." She moved, keeping hold of his hand for just long enough to tug him forward with a small, short lived smile. Ichigo wasn't okay. She knew that, just as she knew that the pain that lived in him wasn't one she could personally understand. Not without help, and not without his permission. It was new territory, if at least feeling, and emotion, were parts of her life since infancy. "I'll take you home."
It was the least she could do, even when "home" lay in places beyond their reach. Home had to also reside in their hearts and memories. If it didn't, it would be too cold and lonely to bear this place and its cruel eccentricities.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject