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}
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
You ... wouldn't happen to be Edna, would you?
[ Oh no, if this rabbit really is Edna, she might not be so happy about that eating it comment ... OH NO, the rabbit was already visibly upset about that comment! Man, is he in trouble ... ]
no subject
Edna nods vigorously, giving him a hop...and then lunges for his ankle, sinking her buck rabbit teeth into it.
It's okay; she knows it won't break the skin since he has pants covering his ankle anyway. Still, her feistiness ensures it'll sting at least a little, and it'll hopefully serve as a reminder not to eat his friends. (It's not like Sorey even knew she was Edna in rabbit form but it's the principle of the matter).]
no subject
E-Edna! I get it, I get it! [ He half starts to yank his foot away, prepared to shake it to get her off, when he remembers that she's just a tiny rabbit right now and he doesn't want to end up hurting her or something. So he'll just try to keep his foot still, even if that does sting a bit ... It's not so bad after the initial shock of the situation. ]
I-I'm sorry, okay? [ Hahah ... ]
no subject
The first thing out of her mouth?]
Your first thought upon seeing a yellow rabbit is to eat it? ...Maybe I've been giving you too much credit all this time.
[sorey..............there's blond rabbits, and then there's...Edna-hair-yellow rabbits...]
no subject
H-Hey, sometimes things can get kind of weird around here, so I just thought ... [ That it was normal? A sigh. There's no winning this, honestly. ] Sorry, Edna ...
[ He was really going to eat his friend. HE CAN'T DENY THAT ... ]
no subject
Then things must be really weird here. Weird times infinity. ...Wherever here is.
[She knows she's in ViViD, but as to what ViViD is is...unparalleled technology, honestly. It's like Symonne's illusions, but on a level way beyond her. It's so advanced and yet so broken at the same time.]
no subject
[ So of course she wouldn't know about this place being weird. ]
We're inside of this thing called ViViD, which is inside of another place called Cerealia. We're not in our own world anymore, and I don't know how to get us home yet. [ S-Sorry ... ] But at least we're not alone here, right?
[ BRIGHT SIDE! ]
no subject
A gilded cage is still a cage, even with companions.
[Your daily dose of Edna-brand cynicism. Even she, the seraph who willingly cooped herself up at Rayfalke Spiritcrest, longed to see the outside world, which is yet another reason she stuck with Sorey anyway. But she's definitely not blaming Sorey for the whole matter here.]
But this ViViD thing is on a whole other level compared to Awful Girl's illusions.
[On one hand, some things are...really obviously malfunctioning/broken. On the other...things here feel really real at the same time, and maintaining an illusion this big, for this long, trapping this many people (with so many varying personalities and backgrounds)...isn't something even Symonne could probably do.]
no subject
Yeah, it's pretty different. They use the technology here to make ViViD do weird things. It's kind of like they can make it anything they want, and then trap us here. [ A pause. ] ... Like right now.
[ Unfortunately, it can do a lot more than Symonne can. He doesn't think it really works the same way her illusions do, seeing as ViViD has to do with the technology here, but ... comparing it to a larger scale, more powerful version of her illusions might work. ]
no subject
[She's not a fetch-quest person, if anyone couldn't tell. And, without pulling any punches, she gets straight to the point:]
So for how long have you been here?
[It was a nagging suspicion before, but Sorey's familiarity with a place and technology like this confirmed it, not to mention his first comments upon seeing her as a rabbit. She doubts it's been only a week or two.]
no subject
But that question gets him thinking for a moment, and he comes up with the answer soon enough! ] Huh ... I think it's been almost two months now. But with everything that's happened, it feels a lot longer.