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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[Tailmon didn't mean to sound so stand-offish. Really. It was a reflective reaction to everything she'd seen and experienced. Before she and Hikari had met. After the defeat of Apocalymon. Now, while battle digimon who were once considered friends.]
[The Patmon she knew would have understood that much.]
It was such a surprise. [Focusing on such a seemingly little, yet wonderful thing...Hikari felt her shoulders relax. His reaction helped.] You showed up on the first day of school, and our teacher assigned your seat next to mine. Nobody told me beforehand. I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing.
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Well, of course! I know that I would protect Takeru no matter what!
[Although, his voice didn't seem so certain. After what happened a while back, Takeru did seem to be overprotective of Patamon. Not that he could blame him but it does make things just a bit more difficult.
At the same time, Takeru just kept on giggling]
Then that just means we'll have a lot more fun together! It'll be great just to know that there would be someone I know in a brand new school though! Not to mention I'll make a lot more friends too!
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...you certainly do.
[Despite everything, Hikari couldn't help a small giggle of amusement.]
Especially Daisuke-kun.
Watching you two sometimes is like watching oniichan and Yamato-san.
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He didn't say anything about it but the look on his face clearly wanted to say something else.
But just then, Takeru just gave her a curious look.]
Daisuke-kun? [Hey, wait a minute here!] If it's like Taichi-san and Oniichan, then that means we're not going to fight are we?
I wouldn't want to do that to a friend of mine!
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[Similarly, although on a more positive note, Hikari couldn't help grin at Takeru's response. It was so...him, no matter what age he was.]
A little. But it's more like a...friendly rivalry, than anything else. Like how onnichan and Yamato-san were after they finally stopped punching each other.
[Was she going to admit to him that they often fought over her? Absolutely not. Not when both she and Takeru spent way too much time trying to ignore that little 'quirk' of Daisuke's personality.]
You're exactly the same in the future. You don't want to fight unless you absolutely have to. It's one of the things that make you so wonderful.
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He started to mumble a little.
Meanwhile, Takeru had a concerned look written across his face. Despite her grin, he still wasn't too sure about that!]
So...does that mean we can still be friends? I don't know if rivals are suppose to be a good thing but if we're not fighting, then that's good right?
[Because he really doesn't want to have to punch Daisuke in the future okay? Especially when they were in the middle of a dangerous battle zone!]
Ah...you really think so? I don't know about that, I don't think I really did anything though! I mean, all the older kids did a lot of the others things anyway!
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Of course you can still be friends. Good friends.
You two even worked together to help me more than once.
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Hm? Is something wrong?
[But meanwhile, Takeru just kept listening to Hikari]
Really? Then what did we help you out with? Because I bet it must be really big if the both of us have to!
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[Don't you turn this back around on her, batpig.]
Oh, it wasn't anything major.
I just got stuck in the Digital World for a little bit after the nearest port we used to get back home blew up. You came to get me and bring me back home through another one.
[She said it so casually too.]
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[Don't be hating, Tailmon!
And here, Takeru just stared at her with a raised eyebrow!]
But that still sounds like it is!
It doesn't seem like it would be very safe to be in the Digital World by yourself with Tailmon! You didn't get hurt right? And that everyone was safe in the end? Because if you did...
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Why can't you evolve?
[Also...don't look at her like that, Takeru, you're three years too young to be so suspicious of what she says.]
Everybody's fine, Takeru-kun. We even found an old friend. Remember Andromon?
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That's the problem, I don't know? I know a couple of people said that I uh...I needed be 'nerfed' because my powers might be too strong?
[Sorry, Hikari, Takeru is still going to give you that look!]
Yeah, I remember him! Oh, I know! I bet you ran into him right? And that's how you managed to get out safely? But I wonder how he's doing, it seems so long since I last been to the Digital World!
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Who's the coward afraid to take us on at full power then, hmm?
[Getting defensive? Obviously. The thought of someone having the ability to take her power away...again...and risk her being unable to protect Hikari? Unacceptable.]
Something like that, yeah.
[No reason to mention the part where Andromon had been momentarily controlled, picked her up--to the horror of the boys--until her D3 allowed him to regain himself and break free of the Dark Ring's control.]
He seemed well enough.
And he remembered us. You and me and oniichan.
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Well, whoever is in charge of this place! I know we're not the only one, there's a lot of other people who got their powers taken away too! But I sure would like to talk to them and get my powers back to protect Takeru!
[Although, Takeru might probably argue against that but...]
Then that's good! I wouldn't want him to forget about us! But wait, that must mean you also must have met a lot of other Digimon we met before!
Do they remember us too? Because whenever I go back there, I want to give them a really big hug! That way, they'll be sure to remember us twice as much!
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I would like a chance to speak with them as well.
[Their respective Chose could complain all they wanted, but that's how things were. Hikari would understand.]
That...I would love to see that, actually.
[The Takeru of her time running around, giving all the digimon hugs. He was still bright and cheerful, but there was a noticeable maturity about him now. An illusion that would inevitably shatter the moment he tried to wrap his arms around an Ogremon.]
But, yes, most of them do remember us. Not all. There were so many more digimon we never met the last time, after all.
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Until we do though, I just hate sitting around and not doing anything or not being able to evolve. I just wish I knew how...
[He mumbled to himself. As he ears fell to the ground, this was just making him more frustrated by the minute!]
Or maybe better yet, maybe I can give everyone here a hug too! ...Or at least, try to.
[Because he's not too sure how he would be able to hug a giant chicken that was running around]
Then I hope we were able to make a good impression on them. I know it would be really bad if we didn't and I wouldn't want us to fight either!
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We'll figure this out. I promise.
[Hikari's giggles subsided, and she gave the little Takeru a look of...fondness? Or was it nostalgia? Maybe a bit of both.]
You never do want to fight, do you?
I wonder how much time we could have saved if you could have hugged all the evil out of every digimon we had to face before.
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Patamon believed that he should keep fighting no matter what. As for Takeru, he felt the same way but as of right now though...?]
...I really hope so. I'm running out of ideas on what to do.
[However, with her words, he just gave her a sad look]
Well...it would have made things a lot easier if it did? But I guess things aren't as easy as it looks. I know that living here in Cerealia by myself was pretty hard.
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I'm so sorry you had to be here, alone, for so long.
I couldn't imagine how hard that must have been for you.
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W-Well, that's okay though! The important thing is that I got some people I can stay with!
[Because Takeru is most definitely not talking about that!]
So I'm not alone anymore and we even got a chance to have dinner with each other! That was really fun! Maybe when we have the time, you can have dinner with them too!
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I would love to.
Who are your new friends?
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You know, the characters from Star Wars? They asked if I could live with them and I did! Who wouldn't want a chance to do that?
[Because seriously!!]
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[She recognized the names, alright. Which was the main source of her sudden confusion.]
You mean...they're real?
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And they can do a lot of cool things! Like they can control the cold, have super strength, and a bunch of other stuff! There's so just so many awesome things and I really want to show you all of them!
[Pause] But we should probably get out of the ViViD first before we can do that shouldn't we?
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Alright. How do we do that?
[It probably should have felt weird looking to a 7-year-old for answers. It didn't. Not this 7-year-old. If anything, she felt...nostalgic. Remembering how many times during their first adventures she'd looked to him as a source of experience.]
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Heck, how often did she still look to him for answers when Taichi wasn't around?](no subject)
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