PHASE I [ 9 00 ] You open your eyes, and there is a chicken pecking at your face. It's not a very happy chicken, either, but if you can manage to fend it off, then it will be clear that you are in a village. It is... medieval-esque, in that video game sort of way; the details don’t seem too clear, but if you look to your left, there’s a cow! And to your right, a well! Ignore the clear evidence of modern technology in the buildings such as lights, gas, and 21st century plumbing; CERES is dedicated to authenticity.
Looks like the new ViViD level has finally been released, and everyone is invited to play, whether they want to or not.
The game (because this time, that's surely what it is) will start simple. Everyone begins in the same place and every NPC villager will say the same thing: to get out of here, you have to go through the caves. They’ll shove a stick at you (“take this, it’s dangerous to go alone”) and off you go, into the caves… !
Which are full of tiny rats and more chickens. They will try to fight you, but it’s really not very effective when they’re perfectly small and average (especially when everyone still has their typical powers and abilities -- CERES didn't mess with those at all this time). The caves are winding and circular and maze-like, and to make matters even worse, the only ones around are the other poor saps stuck in this situation.
But if you kill enough of the rats, you’ll get to hear the satisfying level up jingle. Congratulations! You are now level 2. It's probably satisfying just for a minute or so until you finally find your way out of those maze like caves and -- You're back in the village again. Great.
PHASE II [ 930 ] You’re carrying a bag. No matter what you do, you can’t take it off, either; it’s stuck with you through thick and thin. But it is awfully heavy. Maybe you should actually open it and see what’s inside?
The problem is, it’s going to take a while.
The bag has clearly tapped into its true hammerspace nature; there are items for days in there, and they’re all very, very strange. You might end up covered in hats of all sorts, buried in logs as you pull out one after another, or look like you have an odd fetish for pickaxes.
Maybe there’s 1/3rd of an evil turnip, half a piece of pie and an egg.
Geez, what in the world are you supposed to do with all of that?
PHASE III [ 1200 ] Eventually, you make it out of the caves the right way despite the harassment of the rats and chickens and the fact you'll keep perpetually getting lost. Hooray! You come out into a large, peaceful, scenic meadow, with a small river bubbling off to one side, and a house.
You'll immediately notice that there’s a bridge to cross the river, but there’s someone standing in the way of that bridge. When you approach to go past him, no matter what you try to do, you won't be able to. Asking him why he won't move will only get one thing in response -- “Bring me a fish. Cooked.”
Then he’ll shove a fishing rod at you and expect you to get to it. You can’t attack him, you can’t get past him -- looks like the only thing to do is to catch and cook that fish. Time to sit back, relax, and get to work. Or maybe you’ll team up with someone else and be the person in the house making sure that the fish gets cooked properly. For some reason, if you leave it too long it turns right into a pile of ashes.
Weirdly though, no matter how good you are at cooking or fishing usually, it’s as if you’re right back at the metaphorical level one. Any sort of seasoning or effort to cook it faster falls flat and in the end you'll only be able to place the fish in the pan and set it on the stove, whole. This may take awhile.
And if you try to cross the river itself, well... no, really, don’t try to cross the river.
At least if you get eaten, you’ll just respawn back in the village, but do have fun traveling through the caves again!
PHASE IV [ 1430 ] You made it through the caves. You made it across the river (with a slightly burnt fish). You’ve made it to the wide open world, and you can finally adventure to your heart’s content. You take a step forward on the road and --
A message pops up, bright red and in your face.
[ Restricted Area: Members Only ]
No matter what you do, you can’t go past that point. In fact, if you’re not careful and you’re going too fast, you might run face-first into it like it’s an invisible wall (which it is).
Then, just like that, you're back in the village. Again. Only this time, there's a nice, blinking message -- Pay a small subscription fee to access member's content. Oh well. No big deal, you can just start again.
Except then you see a cool sword and when you try to pick it up, you'll get that same message, and end up transported back to the village yet again. And again, with some shiny new armor. And again, with that attention-grabbing NPC over there. Looks like you're caught in an infinite loop here but no matter how much you inspect the pop up, there's no... actual way to pay the subscription fee (and why would you want to?). But at least you have company, because you can't be the only person who thought that sword was cool.
(It was really, really cool.)
BONUS [ xxxx ] What’s that on the ground in front of you? It looks like… some bunny ears? Or maybe it’s a chicken head, or a pumpkin head. Either way, the moment you touch it, you have a strong need to put it on your head -- and once it’s on, it’s not coming off.
To make matters worse, each hat has an effect associated with it; the bunny ears will, in fact, randomly turn you into a cute fluffy bunny for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour before you pop right back to yourself, whereas the pumpkin hat will, in a complete reversal, turn you into Cinderella for a bit -- complete with beautiful ball gown and the ability to talk to all of those cute fluffy bunnies.
Also the rats will love you, so maybe you should go back to the caves again.
Meanwhile, the chicken hat won't transform you into any odd creature, but it will inspire in the people wearing them a very real, persistent desire to build a nest. This will involve picking up twigs, trash, shiny things and whatever else catches your eye to try to build a nest out of it. You'll also try to pick up whatever food you find on the ground to eat, have the weirdest desire to lay an egg, and basically have all sorts of odd chicken-like instincts inflicted upon you.
At least you look festive!
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I believe that's true. Whenever we can't save someone, we try to remind our friend, Sorey, of that fact. Out of all of us, he takes that failure the hardest.
[He knows perfectly well why his friend does. It's for those reasons that Mikleo makes sure Sorey is okay afterward.]
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[stop being awkward, ruby.]
But oh! Um--you're Sorey's friend?
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Yeah, well, it's not like this is a good game.
[Mikleo visibly perks up.]
Yeah. Sorey and I grew up together. Is he here? Do you know if he's okay?
[Wow, Mikleo. Worried, much?]
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Whoa, that was fast. You're all perky now...! You two must be super close.
[Because that just. Yeah. That happened.]
But yeah, he's fine last I saw him! He helped me out a bit, and he seemed cheerful and happy? That's how he usually is, right?
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Uh...sorry.
[He clears his throat a little.]
Yeah, but he's also one of those types who'll be stubborn about his cheer and happiness to hide that something's bothering him. And he'll avoid talking about how much it bothers him if you're not stubborn back at him.
[Mikleo is trying to sound annoyed, but it comes out more like exasperated affection.]
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Oooooh... Gotcha. He's one of those. Those...people. Sneaky emotions hidey people.
But I really think he was okay! I mean, he helped me move some desks around to clean up the school, and we had a race, and we totally both fell because the floors were tile and wet so I guess we didn't really think that through, but we had fun....? I think?
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Exactly.
[As Ruby describes that little misadventure, Mikleo does relax.]
You did. Or, it sounds like he truly did have fun. Even if he's bad at saying what's bothering him, he's never let that get in the way of helping others.
[Not that he can really know until he meets up with Sorey, but he's content enough with what he knows right now to wait for that.]
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[She smiles, nodding to herself in a satisfied manner. After all, this guy kind of comes across as--]
Since you must be his best friend slash mother hen, now I can rest easy knowing that you think he probably had fun too, because that means it's true.
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I am not his mother hen!
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[...]
It's just, you were fretting a lot. Like--a lot a lot.
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I'm not fretting. It's just...from the sounds of it, he's been here for a while. From my perspective, it's only been a few hours since I last saw him.
[That's not at all helping his case.]
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I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that! It just means you were worried about him and that's pretty fair, since this place can be really dangerous and sometimes people die, and there are monsters and robots and evil organizations and we were all dumped in this super dangerous jungle recently where a lot of people couldn't breathe and--
[Not helping, Ruby.]
Er, but really, he's fine.
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..................................................]
Please tell me that Sorey wasn't part of that jungle thing.
[Evil organizations and monsters, fine. They've dealt with that before. Possibility of death, also fine and something they deal with a lot.
A jungle that suffocates you, though.
Wait, Inaba was telling him about that once.]
Hang on. Someone told me that there was a jungle that could suffocate you, but if you were wind aligned, then it gave you more time to survive. Is what you're talking about the same jungle?
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[..... ..... Yeah she can't tell him that, she's pretty sure everyone ended up there.]
Yeah, well.... we all ended up back in the city, at least? [Eheh....] Yeah, that jungle. I'm wind or something like that, I guess, because I ended up being able to breathe okay, but I don't know about Sorey.
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I don't think he'd be wind aligned. Still, I'm glad that all of you were able to get back to the city relatively safely.
[Concerned as he can be for his friend, it doesn't blind him to the needs and safety of other people. Mikleo's at least got that going for him.
He gives her a wry smile.]
Just means I'll have to be on my toes for however long I'm here, right?
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[They're all okay, so don't worry, fussy friend.]
That...would probably be best though, yeah! Since you save people too, you have to understand that we have to be ready to save the people who can't save themselves at any time!
That's what being a hero's all about.
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Mikleo shakes his head.]
I don't think I'd go so far as to call myself a hero or anything like that. I just do my part however I can. I'll leave the hero business to you.
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[...]
With the whole purifying them and stuff--so that makes you a hero to them for sure!
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[Mikleo sounds reluctant, though.]
But it doesn't feel like that's what we are. 'Hero' kind of has that feeling that only one group of people can call on you for help. We try to be more neutral, accessible to all sides, and stay out of the affairs humans should settle among themselves.
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[She's suddenly incredibly glad all she has to worry about are soulless monsters!!!]
Well--you'll be able to be a hero here no matter what if you help people, you know? So let's just worry about that for now.
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[Hey, he'll at least admit that. It's not like keeping that up is the easiest thing in the world.]
Fair enough. I do know a couple healing spells, so...is there a way you can get in contact with me if you run into someone who needs that type of help?
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...Er. What's your name again?
[Nailed it.
share your name, rude punk]
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[Mikleo sighs. As long as she doesn't give him yet another nickname, then it'll be fine. Hopefully.]
Mikleo.
[he is not rude gosh]
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see what i did there]Mikleo! Got it! Nice to meetcha! And I'm Ruby!
[...]
Which I...said already. Eheh.
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see what i did there as a comeback]Oh, and...uh, if you run into Sorey, would you mind letting him know I'm here?
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