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!
[ 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}
edna | tales of zestiria
["Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." That's her excuse for what she's going to do, and she's sticking to it.
(It's totally not her excuse. When even her most vicious of umbrella jabs seems to elicit no reaction from the man, desperate times call for desperate measures. Cooking doesn't seem to have worked that well either...a sore point, considering her own evaluation of her culinary abilities, and the less said about fishing, the better. She's an earth seraph, not a certain Meebo.
The question of how the man could see her at all is another story, one she can think about later, when she gets this annoying task over with.)
Edna, after peering into the river, is unable to see the bottom and thus decides that it's good enough for her to exercise her
rightability as an earth seraph and create some footing. Not just for herself, but for other people as well.With a stomp of her foot, the ground from below the river rises up in the form of several pillars, their surfaces a few feet in diameter, standing only a few inches away from each other and above the river surface, just barely. In theory, this would create an easily traversable method of getting over the river.
However, it seems to have resulted in the opposite: resting on top of the pillars she's created is the giant, gaping maw of that huge riverdweller, as well as a couple of other floundering fish, if anyone else is brave enough to venture near that thing to grab them.
As for Edna? Status: not so impressed.]
Not exactly a looker, that one. ...This is totally going to be a pain.
bonus;
[For reasons nobody has to know, there is an umbrella with cute stuffed mascot dangling from a string skittering around, pushing...itself forward? Well, no. It's just a fluffy yellow bunny pushing the edges of the umbrella forward, trying to get it...somewhere. Anywhere, really.
Help it out? Pick both bunny and umbrella up? Laugh at it? Your call.]
bonus; ngl it was hard to choose....
A rabbit?
[The color is suspiciously close to Edna's hair color, and he's pretty sure rabbits don't come in yellow anyway. Mikleo will go out on a limb for this one:]
Uh...Edna?
no subject
She turns around, bristling a bit as her fur and ears stand up on end in irritation, and shoots him what can only be called the bunny version of a murderous glare. Why did he have to be so perceptive and competent, especially now, of all times? This isn't exactly her proudest moment.
Bingo, Mikleo.]
no subject
He kneels down and makes a point of scanning the area for any predatory animals. He's not so sure she'll be able to defend herself in rabbit form.]
You know I'm going to ask when you get better about what happened. Can you use any of your magic?
[Best to just ask her yes or no questions at this point.]
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
Phase III
He's pretty quiet as he watches the girl summon a few pillars in the river. Was that a martial arts technique or magic? Either way, it's enough to catch his interest. Approaching her, he's got to throw out some commentary of his own.]
... There's no question that this whole quest has been rigged. If lower level characters try taking the big fish on, then they'll be eaten alive.
no subject
[Excuse you, she's near endgame level! ...Kinda. But to be fair, a level ~60 is nothing compared to...Disgaea in general.
Either way, she's smart enough to recognize that what he's saying has a grain of truth, and lets out a sigh. Where are the others when she needs them...? She's pretty sure they could waste this fish (not even a hellion fish, just a regular giant fish...if a giant fish could even be called regular) in no time.]
But fine. ...What about a team?
no subject
[Killia wasn't exactly keen on the whole teamwork front for personal reasons. But sometimes, you had to do what it took to survive. And after forming a few attachments of his own, he's learned that it wasn't all that bad...
But seeing that big fish makes him interested in taking it on for a challenge. So if there was anything else that Edna was going to say to him, it's cut off as he casually sits down, takes out what appears to be a bowl of soup and starts eating.]
no subject
[-go...is what she was going to say. Because ants could crawl up an elephant's trunk and take it down from the inside but so much for that explanation. A pun and something that sounds vaguely wise, all bunched up into one, but no! Killia ruined it! Curses!]
...Mealtime already? The least you can do is share, considering that you ruined my attempt at clever wordplay.
[Disdain somehow drips into her voice.
Is the soup any good, though? That's the real question here.](no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
boooonus
Instead, Sorey is first going to notice the very familiar umbrella the bunny is pushing. It's mostly the normin that gives it away. ]
... Huh? Is that Edna's ... [ Looking around for a second — nope, no Edna in sight. Since when is she even in Cerealia. Weird. Maybe it's some weird trick ViViD is playing on him.
Buuut then he turns his attention towards the bunny, and — ] Hey, a rabbit! I haven't seen any of those around here. I wonder if the ones in ViViD taste as good as the ones in the real world ...
[ Yes, he's considering eating you. ]
no subject
Someone is totally going to get an umbrella-thwack later.
As she is right now, though, she can't do much except make...hissy rabbit noises at him. She might be a rabbit, but she isn't just going to turn tail (heh) so easily. (Especially because it's Sorey.
Not that she'd admit that so easily.)]no subject
... Did you understand that? [ He laughs a little. He probably shouldn't pick it up when it's hissing at him like that. So, instead, he'll focus on his friend's umbrella, reaching over to pick it up. ]
I wonder if Edna really is here ... Hey, rabbit. Have you seen a girl about [ holding his hand up to about Edna's height ] this tall holding this umbrella before? And her hair is ... hey, your fur is the same color as her hair!
[ That started off as him talking to the rabbit, because it acted like it understood him before, but ... now ... The gears are turning and he's starting to question this a little. Cerealia is weird after all ... ] Wait a minute ... [ Could it be ...? ]
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
phase iii
That fish is too big to cook!
[ Kind of ignoring the fact that there's a monster creature inside this river... ]
See what else you can boot outta the water!
no subject
Is it really, Rose? Maybe you just need to think bigger. Broaden your horizons a little.
[(Look who's talking.) They'd need Lailah to successfully cook a fish that big...although she's admittedly a little curious as to how that would taste.
Nevertheless, she prods the ground with her umbrella, unceremoniously forming another pillar near the river bank. No fish, but a turtle is pelted out of the water, slightly tangled in algae, and it lands on the small pillar, shell-down, as it wiggles helplessly. A pitiful sight.]
no subject
Are you sure you know what you're doing?
no subject
[She's tried out her share of unconventional recipes for all kinds of meat, okay? Seraphim have long lives, about as long as her culinary career.
It's totally not her fault that the fish keep quickly dodging these ground pillars that suddenly shoot up! (It is.)]
That guy doesn't know what he's missing out on, just asking for fish. [mutter mutter, grumble grumble] ...There's only so much I can do here as an earth seraph.
[Translation: go ask Meebo. He'd be the most competent in this sort of thing. The only thing Edna's really good at fishing for is reactions. ...One has to wonder how someone like Lailah would do in this.]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
bonus; sorry or all the bonuses
Ah, it's so cute...! A yellow rabbit is rare to see, but the color makes it cuter all the same!
[ ... On second thought, that umbrella looked an awfully like Lady Edna's, didn't it...? ]
if only dezel was here...
She totally wasn't a bit uncharacteristically impatient because she was worried about finding the others shut up.Plus, Alisha's so very easy to tease, which means it's easy enough for Edna to keep her in line if she thinks of blabbing about this bun-fortunate incident to anyone like Zaveid.
Edna hops on over, a little bit, nose twitching as she tilts her rabbit head slightly, looking more like a curious bunny than one that's scared.
...Wait. How can Alisha see her in the first place? She's not a Squire at the moment. Maybe it's because she's a rabbit? So what happens after she transforms back? Does it just look like she disappears into thin air? Only time will tell.]
he'd protect edna from sorey's apetite
It's so fluffy, too! Don't worry, I will not hurt you.
we need more wind seraphim here ;;
She knows full well Alisha won't hurt her, but bun or not, she can't help but mess with her anyway...]
yes :'c
well, speak of the dezel
Bonus
You know, trying to move that around is only going to hold you back. And render you a particularly vulnerable target.
no subject
[The pause before that is a weighty one, signaling that it's something more than what she makes it out to be.
But Jade's right...she can't let her memories of her brother weigh her down anymore, literally or metaphorically.]
...Not that I can use my seraphic artes in this form anyway.
[So she's essentially admitting that he's right about her being a vulnerable target as a rabbit, but still isn't exactly dropping it and running off right now...]
no subject
"Seraphic arts". Now that's a new one. He continues to talk bunny to her.]
A catalyst, you say? How curious.
Yes, it seems that it's useless to us in your current state. [He knows, having tried time and again to tap into his fonic artes.] But if it is so valuable towards your artes, we should at the very least figure out a way to safeguard it.
no subject
the truth is debatable, but because of her natural cynicism and suspicion, heightened especially so by Jade's use of "we". There's no need for this blue bunny to get involved in this. That, and rabbits really are a vulnerable species, compared to what she really is. Or even humans, for that matter.]Losing it would be bunfortunate indeed.
[She puns with a completely straight face. It's terrible.
...
Rabbits are good burrowers, right? She paws at the dirt below for a bit, as a test.]
...The earth already guards many things. [Caves. Secrets. Bodies. Treasures. Ruins.] What's one more?
[She'd have to cover up the hole really well and make it look not out of place, but she knows how to do that.]
(no subject)