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!
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PHASE I [ 6 00 ] 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. ] |
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frisk / undertale / ota!
... Or, something like that. Probably. Maybe. Actually, not really? It just kind of stinks a lot and makes their eyes water up because, wow. This is not like the garbage dump in the underground at all. This is a special kind of rancid. It's infinite layers of garbage and infinite layers of gross, and there is no escape from it. If this is supposed to be a lesson on recycling, shouldn't this place be less nasty?????
Taking a nap in the garbage pile doesn't seem to be a good idea, though, so they just kind of force themselves to move. Get on their feet. Explore a bit. Start poking through the garbage in case there's something useful hidden there. Start digging through it (literally) when they don't find anything on the topmost layers, covering themselves in all sorts of unidentified fluids and sending bits and pieces of trash flying everywhere. Probably right in the direction of your character's face, too. Oops.
Someone stop this child. This is unsanitary. Parental figures would be appalled.]
PHASE II:
Still. It could be worse. They weren't tossed in the compost, so that's... good. They think it's good? Yeah — it's probably good. What isn't good, though, is that they can't spot any obvious exits down here. Maybe if they treat this like a puzzle, they could perhaps find a way out of this chute...? Hm.
They consider this for a second, tilting their head as they try to see how long the chute is. A second later, and they turn to whoever is trapped here with them, reaching for their sleeve to try and get their attention. Come on, stranger. It's best to skedaddle before they become one with the trash on a mental and physical level.]
BONUS:
Regardless... Congratulations, stranger! You are now sharing a Garbage BagTM with a very small child. If you happen to be around their height, then good for you! But if you don't? Well, uh. Here's to hoping you don't mind lifting them up. Or leaning down to their level. Or, maybe you're kind of weird and think it's funny to have a kid dangling from their neck when you stand up, their arms flailing because wow no this is super rude.
But, whatever.]
WILDCARD:
Phase I
by which we mean Laxus has to bat away a stray piece of garbage before it smacks him in the face ]
Watch it, would ya?
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... Sorry. Did something hit you?
[They're totally up to their elbows in garbage. It's super nasty.]
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Laxus, in turn, looks down at the kid and frowns ]
What the heck are you even lookin' for in all that?
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But they think about that for a moment. Shrug. Think about how much of a non-answer that is. Shrug again.]
Treasure. [Okay.] ... And girls.
[Look, man. An adult once told them you can find girls at the dumpster. That seemed like a very legit fact at the time.]
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I... really don't think you're gonna be findin' much of either.
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Oh.
[HM. Oh, well. Time to pull away from the garbage. Brush their hands on their shorts. Hop up to their feet. Look around. Um.]
Where do we go from here?
[Apparently, they've decided this guy is tagging along.]
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Beats me, but finding a way out of this dump is probably a good place to start.
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Still. Where there's a will, there's a way. Or something smart sounding like that? Um. Yeah. They rock back and forth on their heels for a moment, frowning as they glance at their surroundings, before just picking a direction and walking.
Follow: Yes? / No?]
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I
Heyyy, did you lose som-
[Oh.
That's garbage right in her face.
Thanks Frisk.]
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Except, okay. Maybe they're not that shameless, and maybe smacking someone in the face with garbage was not part of the plan. They freeze for a second or two, realizing they've messed up somehow, before s l o w l y turning around
and cringing.
At least they're used to floating people.]
Sorry. [LOOK. At least she got them to pull away from the garbage pile, even if they're kind of covered up to their elbows in utter grossness.] Are you okay?
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don't murder a child
don't murder a child
For a moment, a very long moment, Ene is deathly silent as she pushes the offending garbage off of her face. How dare anyone treat her like this! What embarrassment! What horror! Vengeance must be taken.
She hardly needs to breathe, so taking deep breaths isn't something she thinks of, but Ene does take a moment to quell the righteous fury rising inside of her. Eventually, she speaks.]
Grooooooooss!!!
[Whining is much better right]
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When that doesn't seem to be the case, they just. Lean forward. Um. Think. If garbage is the problem, then...? Okay. They have an idea.
As long as Ene doesn't decide to float away, she'll soon find a half-consumed water bottled shoved at her... chest? Arms? Knees? Look, you have to be hella short for them to be able to reach your face, okay.
And don't ask where the bottle came from. It totally wasn't the garbage.
(It was totally the garbage.)]
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Ah, thanks...
[Waaait a second]
...Where'd you get this?
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their sinsthe grime crawling up their back...Which is to say, they're going to shrug their shoulders at her question. They're surrounded by endless garbage, friend. Is the answer to that question something she really wants to hear??]
S'clean. I checked.
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No. She has asked enough questions she doesn't actually want the answer to. Whatever. She will just clean the garbage off herself with the garbage water. This is just her life now.]
...Good. Good job. Thanks.
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You're welcome.
[They did the best they could, okay. Try to turn that frown upside down, lady.
Or, uh. Just try not to touch the ground, because it's kind of starting to give.]
BONUS
Is this what hating humanity gets them, in the end? Chara is only going to take a moment to stare at Frisk before turning away (or, well, as much as they can, because this isn't very conducive to actually. turning.) and trying to rip holes in it. IT'S A GARBAGE BAG, HOW TOUGH COULD IT BE???
(And hey at least they're. okay they're not the same height but it's probably not too bad right, like Chara's only fourteen and even then they're a bit short for their age...)
BUT OBVIOUSLY THAT ISN'T GOING TO HELP SO, LIKE, fine they'll. Pay attention to their unfortunate partner again. ]
Do you have a knife?
[ YEP THIS IS SURE GOING TO GO WELL ]
!!
But — wow. Wow, Chara. Frisk already wants out of this partnership (again), and nothing questionable has even happened yet. Don't ignore them and then start asking for knives????? This is definitely going to go well.]
No. [FROWNING!! At least they're not dangling here. Not that big a height difference between a short 14-year-old and an also short 10-year-old.] I have a stick.
[... Which is totally useless. Maybe they should just chew through the bag like chipmunks.]
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You didn't pick up anything better. [ This is delivered in the most deadpan tone they can muster. Of course they didn't pick up anything better. Why would they. Did they ever pick up anything useful?? No.
Maybe they can do something with this. Maybe a stupid stick can work out. Chara stares at them, pretending to be Very Deep In Thought, then jabs their side with the hand that's... inside the bag with them. Yeah. ] Fine. Stick it through this stupid bag and rip it open. I don't like cramped spaces.
[ And this... is definitely starting to be defined as one, yeah. More human contact than they've had in a while, hoo boy. ]
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Also, don't be such a bully??? Frisk is definitely yelping when they're suddenly jabbed on their side, nearly losing their balance on the gigantic pile of garbage beneath their feet. Might be a good idea to be careful about where they step on this thing, considering they're not the only one that's going down with this ship if they trip. Not that they'll feel too bad about that, considering how this is going.
Fine, though. They want to get out of this bag as much as Chara does, so they only huff a little bit before taking out the stick and jabbing the plastic with it once. Then twice. Then thrice. Then... yeah. Four, five, six times and this ain't working.
Fun times.]
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...actually what's more difficult is this garbage bag. Chara hasn't been alive in a while, like properly alive? Like, aside from this whole. Thing. But certainly, certainly bags like this couldn't have POSSIBLY gotten this hard to rip. They couldn't have. Humans aren't that cool. ]
You're obviously not poking it hard enough. Give me that thing. [ Come on, come on. They're waiting. They have experience stabbing things. This stupid bag isn't going to last ten seconds if Chara gets the stick. Surely. SURELY. Just... just ignore the super creepy look on their face right now. ] You don't want to be stuck together like this forever, do you?
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Frisk is shaking their head at them, though, keeping the stick to themselves. That creepy look isn't making them want to hand it over, okay. Get your own stick, Chara.]
But I am poking it hard enough. 'S not ripping. [Look, friend, don't insult their poking skills. They can give a pretty mean poke when they want to.] Don't think it's gonna rip if you do it, either.
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You don't know that! [ But... fine. They won't ask for it.
...they're just gonna try and take it THIS IS GOING TO BE A LOT OF MOVEMENT, THIS TRASH ISN'T GOING TO STAND IT IS IT.
fuck i need more icons six expressions isn't doing it for me]no subject
Yes, I do—! [And, yeah. Bad idea to try and take the stick by force, because the words aren't even fully out of Frisk's mouth before Mt. Trash Pile just
suddenly
crumbles.
And down they both go. Hope Chara likes the feeling of cold, smelly garbage juice all over their clothes
and i have 15 and im strugglin how you alive.](no subject)
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