ioculus | //TESTDRIVE12.EXE

Entry tags:

!test drive

//TESTDRIVE12.EXE

//testdrive12.EXE

Out with the old, in with the new as they say, and this ViViD level is no different. Ever progressive and ever mindful, CERES has decided in their war against the evil carbon footprint to give citizens both new and old a lesson in healthy living. To show this, they've created a level all about... recycling, or as close to recycling as a company like CERES can get. (Which isn't very close at all, honestly.)

This, of course, means that when you're dumped in to today's ViViD level, the first thing that will hit you is the stench. It's vile and rancid and the type of stench that makes a person want to give up smelling altogether, and when you finally open your eyes, you'll see why. There's trash everywhere. The buildings are decrepit and crumbling, the cars are broken down and rusted, and overall, it looks like the apocalypse rolled right on through. Which is weird because this is definitely not a post-apocalyptic game. Yet wandering around this pathetic excuse for a ViViD level will just reveal more of the same -- it's a total wasteland.

And if you look up, you will see a billboard.

RECYCLING AND YOU: HOW NOT TO BE A DIRTY WASTE OF SPACE

You'll only have a moment to be offended by the sign before, amongst the piles of trash and rubble, there's another, smaller pile of trash and rubble. The only difference is this one can talk.

Welcome to The Dumpster Dive, my cool cats and sweet kittens. A brand new ViViD level, created and innovated to you by CERES's very creative and innovative technicians. We're all here to help you learn to Reuse, Reduce and Recycle, givin' you kids some tools to help you lessen your impact on the planet. After all, we're all here together on this great planet of Tellus. Wouldn't want to ruin it, right? Ha ha!

Happy Trash Day to Cerealians one and all!

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I

[ 600 ] So, you're here.

You're probably sitting in a pile of trash because, well, everywhere is a pile of trash. You're in a landscape of trashiness and there's no escape. Your only option is to give in to the sweet, sweet pull of the garbage. The buildings are crumbling, the sidewalks are a mess of bottles (but no bottle caps), rubble, and empty chip bags, and you're stuck in this... trash. This garbage. This hellhole.

Wasn't recycling supposed to be clean?

It probably takes a rat skittering over your foot to get you going but like any good game, the protagonist needs to move. If you're going to find out anything in this trash heap, you'll need to explore a bit. See if you can find someone else! Or something else. Maybe someone more experienced with ViViD can help you figure out how to log out. Even if logging out doesn't seem to be working right now. You should be careful too because one wrong step might cause the pile of trash you're standing on give way and send you into the sewers below.

Which means there are rats, there are bugs, the ground is unsteady and... yep. It's starting to rain.

Good luck.

PHASE II

[ 800 ] And then come the... trash drones.

They zero in on any living thing in this ViViD level -- if you’re moving, if you’re breathing, if you have some sort of a pulse, they’ll be there. And they’ll grab you and take you away. No matter how many you shoot down, more and more and more will come, never stopping until you're swarmed completely by them. They have to get you! You're garbage, you're garbage, you're garbage! You're garbage!

And so, you're snatched up.

Don’t worry, though. After a short flight (wave hello to your fellow drone-napped neighbor!), you'll arrive at three huge trash chutes with three equally huge signs above them. GARBAGE, RECYCLING, and COMPOST hang above the chutes and the drones pause just momentarily before announcing one of these options in a robotic voice. You've been sorted and without any preamble, the drone will dump you in whichever one it decides.

Hopefully you don’t end up in the compost. Gross.

Of course, once you down there, there's plenty to poke around in (or not much if you're still not into the whole trash thing). It's piles and piles and piles of trash as far as the eye can see! Again! If you're especially clever, you may be able to use the trash to build a way out of the chute. The very, very long chute. Maybe there's someone around that can help you? And better do so quick, who knows what CERES has deemed to be "recycling" this time.

PHASE III

[ 1125 ] CERES's standards continue to shine on again, because after some time, those chutes will finally start working. So if you've been separated from a friend through any of this ordeal, don't worry about it. You're all gonna end up in the same place anyway.

Which is the incinerator, of course! (Wait, that’s not how recycling works.)

The ground beneath you shifts, enough to knock over whatever flimsy excuse for an escape plan you have, and suddenly all of the trash, compost or recycling will be dumped down into an underground furnace -- along with everyone stuck there, of course. Bit by bit, everything moves ever closer towards that red hot furnace and it’s clear that everything's going to be dumped straight into the fire and burned. Say your farewells. Make nice with your neighbor. Finalize your will because --

Oh. It stopped.

Looks like it jammed.

It doesn't remain jammed for long because CERES is, if anything, highly efficient. So it starts up again. But then stops again. And then starts again. And then stops again. This may be a glitch in the level, actually.

So, you're still getting ever closer to fiery death, but... slowly. Very slowly. In fact, you could probably walk away from said fiery death faster than you're going towards it. It's like they can't even program a near death experience right!

PHASE IV

[ 1125 ] Maybe you avoided the incinerator. Maybe you ended up in a different part of the level altogether. Maybe you just got lost. Either way, now you’re stuck with the age-old hobby of enthusiasts and the exceptionally desperate alike.

Dumpster diving.

And CERES wouldn't send you down there without an incentive, you know. If you look, it seems like there might be something valuable, something incredibly important and just for you. A shiny item that you’ve always wanted right from home and it’s right there in your grasp, something precious that you could never get in Cerealia. How it came to be there, nestled between an empty carton of eggs and a half-eaten cheeseburger, no one knows, but you'll be filled with the inescapable, all-consuming urge to go get it. Just jump right into that dumpster and get it.

The more you resist the urge, the more it'll hurt. (As in, physically hurt actually. The feeling will be comparable to your fingernails slowly being plucked out.)

This is ViViD though and the moment you hit the trash, the spell breaks. You'll see that your most precious thing, whatever it was, was never actually there. Instead, you seem to have actually grabbed something else and whatever it is, you can't let go of it. Be it an empty bottle of bacon soda or a bicycle tire with a giant hole in it, it's attached to your hand now and no matter what you do, you can't get it off.

Hopefully whatever you grabbed wasn't too big because it looks like you're not getting rid of it. Not till you beat the level.

BONUS

[ why o'clock ] The odd thing about being stuck in a trash wasteland is that you can go for ages without seeing another person. Ages. Of course, CERES doesn't like that very much since ViViD games should be co-operative! Player with player! Player against player! Players who shouldn't be playing at all. That's the type of play CERES supports.

Which means the longer you go without seeing another person, the more you might feel an itch. It gets under your skin, making you feel dizzier and dizzier, and shorter and shorter of breath until -- you pass out. Vision going dark, breathing cutting out, and down you go into the trash and whatever this ViViD level has planned next.

It won't take long. You'll wake up feeling slightly confined and there will be a moving body next to you. It seems as if you've finally, finally found someone -- and they're really, really close. In fact, maybe a little too close? When you open your eyes, you'll see that the two of you may be bound together in a way that might be familiar to some.

But instead of a shirt, it's just a garbage bag. A really, really strong garbage bag that can't be broken out of no matter how strong you happen to be. No laser eyes, no super powers, nothing will separate you from this person other than, well, getting along.

There really is only one question you have to ask yourself now. Just one.

What the hell does this have to do with recycling?

[ 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. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to CEREALIA's twelfth Test Drive Meme. For your convenience, we have compiled a post detailing everyone's arrival experience and a FAQ that should explain everything in more detail. Please read them thoroughly before playing. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ PHASE I : the thirst is real. ]

[It burns.

The thing is that she's not really talking about the smell of the trash, that doesn't really register just yet. Lili's waking up and she's confused and she's discombobulated, absolutely, but the very first thing that's on her mind is that her throat burns. It hurts to breathe.

But a few, miraculous seconds later, she feels something cool fall on her face and that snaps her back into reality. One drop. Two. She looks up and it's raining and she's immediately scrambling to her feet as if that'll do anything to bring her closer to the source of the rain.

Here's this girl, standing in the middle of the trash, cupping her hands together and raising them to the sky and then bringing whatever collected whatever there is to her lips as if it's her only hopes for survival.

Probably because it is. Help a girl out if you've got your hands on a cup or something?

Alternatively later, when she regains enough strength to move around again without nearly falling over, she's rushing over to the nearest person with tears stinging at her eyes. There's water but at the same time it's tauntingly not enough. When she speaks, her voice is scratchy and weak, barely above a whisper.]

Please... something clean to....

[And she tries to explain what she? Wants? She points up at the sky to where the rain is falling? Her eyes get a little wide with her concern for her own state of being. HELP. SHE'S LITERALLY SO THIRSTY, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.]

[ PHASE III : embarrassment level over 9000. ]

[When she's feeling more like herself -- she's less and less willing to be passive about all this nonsense. She's screaming as the chute falls beneath her feet and she's emptied into a furnace. Alone. By herself. For a second, she's paralyzed with fear--

And then she's grabbing onto the nearest person.]

You! Are you interested in just dying here?! If not, help me--

[And then the incinerator stalls. The firey glow disappears.

Lili lets go. She turns away.

.... She's just going to pretend like she never even acknowledged this other person now. Don't mind her face being red as she's working on digging herself out of trash. She'll just walk away from this entire thing on her own if you'll let her. WE NEARLY DIED TOGETHER BUT IT'S OK NOW, BYE.]

[ BONUS : we're not friends. ]

[On the list of things that Lili wanted: NOT THIS.

She's stiffening immediately when she wakes up and there is someone unbearably close to her and listen, she doesn't get touched much. Ever. So this is something entirely knew and her first response is to use both of her hands to SHOVE VIOLENTLY AND BLINDLY.

She's a little on edge.]

Get away from me, brute! Cretin!

[Okay, but were the insults really necessary?]

[Yona's first feeling upon waking up is intense relief. Finally, another person! She had been wandering for so long on her own ...

Her second feeling was hands on her breasts. The fact that they were pushing her away didn't immediately register.]

AAAAAAAAAH!

[She flailed, trying to get the hands off of her, back away, get some space, but that just ended up choking her. Why is she inside a bag?!?!?]

[What. The voice is so familiar that Lili doesn't even register where exactly she's pushing and instead just pulls her hand away, blinking. Huh?!]

Yona....?! What do you think you're doing?

[Was this your idea?! ]

What am I doing? You're the one groping me!

[Yona is so flustered by this that she doesn't notice that this stranger seems to know her...]

What? Who's groping you?! I'll end them myself! Show yourself, curr!

[SHE'LL FIGHT THEM FOR YOU, YONA. Nevermind the fact that between the two of them, she's actually the one lacking any fighting skills at all. The dehydration has taken a toll on what strength she had too....

But listen this is unacceptable.]

ota!

BONUS!

no subject

no subject

no subject

I!!!

no subject

no subject

no subject

points at eyes points at u BONUS

augh round 2 of runts

they sure do climb the mountain fast...

no subject

iii

no subject

no subject

iii

no subject

no subject