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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Mikleo's expression is smug. It's probably not how they're supposed to do it, but ask if he cares.]
The result is the same, though. He never said that we were required to use the fishing pole to get the fish. Just that we had to cook them.
[He sighs softly.]
Even though that's the easy part for me, I'd be stuck here all day if I had to cook them by myself, anyway.
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[ Hurray for teamwork and finding alternative methods! And while Sorey was fairly useless with that first half of this, at least he can help out with the second! So it's his turn to take over.
Puffing his chest out a little and placing a hand on his hip. ]
Then it's a good thing you've got me here, huh!
[ He may not be the most amazing cook in the world, but at least he can control heat. ]
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No need to rub it in.
[He's say that it's usually a good thing Sorey is there for him, but it doesn't really need to be said. It's just something they both know.]
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I know, I know.
[ He couldn't help it, okay. He's been without Mikleo for so long, he has to get his teasing out. But serious time now! They have to finish this task!!
Hmhmmm, looking around. ]
I don't see anything out here, so I wonder if we're supposed to go in that house to cook the fish?
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That's the most logical conclusion. If it's not, then we'll find out.
[Mikleo kneels down to take his previously discarded fishing pole.]
Hand me your pole. The least we can do is put these inside the house while we're there.
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[ Then he'll do the same and hand his fishing pole off to Mikleo.
Aaand, then he'll turn towards the house, opening the bag to peer in at the fish while he starts walking to it. ]
I wonder why he wants cooked fish so badly, anyway.
[ Man, this game is weird. ]
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No idea, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's asked other people for the same thing. Either he's hungry or....
[He frowns, taking a quick glance back at the river behind them.]
Maybe it's not actually for him.
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[ Good idea!! And he'll go ahead and enter the house, scoping out the kitchen section and preparing to take the fish out. ]
But before that, it's time to cook these fish!
[ HUFF PUFF he's got this. Absolutely nothing could go wrong, obviously. ]
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[It's not like the villagers were actually all that useful. He doubts the fisherman will be any better.
Mikleo crosses his arms, amused.]
Just don't burn the place down.
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I'm not you. [ He can control heat. Decently.
Well, he thought he could, at least. Because his first attempt at cooking it falls flat and it ... somehow turns immediately into ashes the moment it's even slightly overcooked. UH. THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. ]
Wh-What just happened?
[ Mikleo you may need to find more fish. ]
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Other than something impossible? Looks like they felt that cooking fish was too easy.
[It's a good thing he doesn't need to eat. He's not sure what these fish will do to a person's digestive system if they can instantly turn to ash.]
Try again with that second one. I'll go grab more fish.
[That said, Mikleo grabs a bucket from the house and leaves. It'll give him a chance to inspect the river a little more closely, too.
In this time, he manages to find out two things about the river. One, for each fish he takes, another somehow materializes to take its place. Unnatural and weird, but convenient...? The second is the best excuse to not try crossing the river without the bridge. He senses something huge swimming fairly close by to him.
You know how they say that curiosity killed the cat? Well, luckily, it doesn't kill Mikleo when he tries to manipulate the water around the monstrosity to get a look at it. It causes some strain, but he gets it after a moment. Oh, boy does he get it.
That's a huge
bitchfish. With lots of teeth.Sorey might hear a faint, startled yelp from his water seraph friend and a huge splash. Then stunned (or ominous?) silence. Mikleo is absolutely fine, thankfully, but that was very unexpected. He thought it might have been anything other than what he got.]
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Mikleo! What is it?!
[ WHAT HAPPENED ARE YOU OKAY?? ]
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I found out why we should definitely use the bridge to get a cross. There's a fish in there big enough to make sharks its lunch, and it's got teeth for good measure.
[He crosses his arms, and decides to head off the next question.]
I wasn't injured, just startled. I sensed it relatively close, so I thought I'd see what a huge thing was doing in a river instead of an ocean. It was too big and heavy for me to lift the whole fish, but I was able to take a look at its head.
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A ... sigh of relief. ] I'm just glad it didn't make a meal out of you. [ A water seraph being eaten by a fish is kind of weird in the first place. ] We probably shouldn't get too close to the water then, but as long as we stay on land, I think we'll be fine, at least. [ HE HOPES. This is Cerealia ...... ]
Were you able to get any more fish?
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[He can only imagine what Edna and Rose would have to say about him getting eaten by a fish of all things.]
We'll be fine. [Mikleo might not have been in Cerealia for long enough to have any knowledge of what it's capable of doing to people, but he's confident that the two of them will be able to handle it together.] The worst that can happen is we get attacked by another person.
[The water seraph points to his bucket, where there are roughly eight fish in it.]
Yep. Did your second attempt come out okay?
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BUT. UM. ] Ahaha, about that ... [ It's partially your fault anyway, Mikleo. Ok. ] It didn't come out too well. [ Awkward laughter.
AT LEAST THERE'S LOTS OF FISH NOW, RIGHT. ]
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Mikleo shakes his head as he picks up the bucket. He'll take the partial blame, all things considered.]
Good thing I got a lot of fish. And I can always get more. It seems like the fish...spontaneously materialize out of nothing to replenish themselves. Somehow.
[He starts walking back to the house.]
C'mon, let's get going. We're not getting any younger standing around out here.
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I guess that's not all that weird, considering where we are ... [ If this were the real world, then he'd be concerned.
But he'll walk with him! ]
Yeah. And out of all those fish you caught, I've got to get at least two of them right!
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[Or because he's just sensitive about people messing around with the element he's aligned to, even if it's fake.
Mikleo turns his head to shoot Sorey a small smile.]
Try not to mess up more than four times. I'd hate to keep coming back out here to supply you with more all day long.
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[ And kind of afraid, man. He arrived here in some weird hospital in ViViD full of aliens and dangerous nurses who put needles in you. And he was probably almost killed by that doctor ... Mikleo has it easy with this. ]
Don't worry! I'll get it perfect this time! [ HUFF PUFF. ]
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[Sorey.... He's going to ask so many questions after all of this.]
I don't know about perfect, but I'll take 'decent' over 'pile of ashes.' [Have you missed his teasing, Sorey?] Just, ah, don't be offended if I don't do a taste test. As edible as it no doubt will look, I don't know what those fish will actually do to a person's digestive system, considering they turn to instant ash.
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He both did and did not miss his teasing, though. But this teasing is kind of justified. So he'll let it off the hook. ]
I don't blame you ... I don't think I'll taste test it, either. [ When you cook food, you're normally supposed to taste it. But he'll just hope it tastes good enough for Mr. Bridge Man ... ] And I don't want you getting sick all because I fed you weird fish.
[ He'd feel bad, and he's sure he'd never hear the end of it ... ]
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Eh, I could do worse than Nurse Sorey if I did get sick from it.
[Once the pair get inside the house, the water seraph will set the bucket down near the oven.]
Take your time. I'm not going anywhere. [He says as he sits down at the table, as if to prove the point.]
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Slightly teasingly: ] Well then if you want to try it, I promise I'll take care of you afterwards!
[ Despite the teasing tone, he actually does mean that —
But he smiles back at him before he starts preparing the first fish of the batch ... ]
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While I have no doubts about your nursing capabilities, I'd rather try something you made that was in the colony.
[That has less of a chance of killing him. He hopes. CERES might make that food deadly, who knows?]
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