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!
|
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. ] |
![[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}
Obi-Wan Kenobi | Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice
[If asked for the truth later, Obi-Wan can't say that his heartrate doesn't spike a bit when the... pile of trash or whatever it is speaks. At first, he has a moment of panic because he thinks the thing said Telos, not Tellus, and to see the planet in such a mess after trying to save it...
But no, after a moment or two of attempting to calm himself down, he tells himself firmly this can't be Telos. Where Tellus is, he doesn't know, but it doesn't look the same as Telos, even if all the garbage everywhere is removed. He doesn't remember hearing about anyone called CERES or Cerealians either, or some kind of game (at least he assumes) called Vivid and his and Qui-Gon's visit to the planet hadn't been that long ago.
Speaking of Qui-Gon, that's half of what Obi-Wan is focused on at the moment - trying to find his master. The other half is focused on staying calm and observing his surroundings, seeing if he can figure anything more out about what situation he's found himself in by taking note of what and who is around him.]
no subject
He paused when he caught a glance of the other young fellow with him here and decided to hail him.]
So how long have you been scouring through this heap?
no subject
I haven't been here for long. [He's not sure if 'this heap' means the nearest trash heap or the heap of the planet they're on but his answer goes for both.] What about you?
no subject
[This guy looks vaguely like one of them warrior types, despite his youth. Which is always handy in this situation.]
Were you subjected to a powerpoint presentation before you found yourself here?
no subject
A... powerpoint? I don't know what that is.
no subject
I only ask, because then it is less to explain so that we can deal with this matter ahead of us.
[Less small talk that way, more getting out of this living, breathing psa.]
no subject
no subject
[How unpleasant.]
Well the short, short summary of it is that supposedly, our worlds have been destroyed. They reconstructed us from data they had on hand and have brought us to live in this world of theirs. And one of the features of the world is this game we are in, ViViD. The current goal is to get through it. That make sense?
no subject
How do you leave the game?
no subject
[Yeah the rules were really stupid unfortunately.]
no subject
They don't ever tell you what you need to do to win? [He's assuming beating the game is how you get out. Unless their captors don't indeed to let them out and the point is to watch them scramble around in the game until they decide to end it.]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
oh my god
Hey, [ She lifts her hand in a gesture she hopes is friendly, hoping to catch his attention before she encroaches on him any further. He's alone. He must be as frightened as she is. ]
How's it look from here?
no subject
He stops his searching when a girl speaks to him. At her question, he raises an eyebrow and looks at the dump around them.] You really want me to answer that? [But there's a light smile tugging at his mouth to show he doesn't mean anything negative towards her.]
no subject
Nothing new in that direction, huh? [ She's now sure why she needs the confirmation; if there was he wouldn't be here. ] Maybe the whole planet's some kind of repository.
no subject
Are you here with anyone else...?
no subject
I think my brother's here. [ Because any other explanation (that she'll let herself consider) doesn't make sense. ]
They wouldn't have taken just one of us. [ She hears the certainty in her own voice and cringes, inwardly. ]
What about you?
no subject
I was last with my master, but I haven't been able to contact him. [Via commlink or the Force.
He gives a suggestion, feeling he can trust this person and that two heads are better than one.] We could look for them both together.
no subject
[ Master. It could mean a lot of things, she knows. She glances at him sideways. ]
Can you describe him?
no subject
no subject
But it can't be. And then she feels silly for thinking it, even for a second. It's an odd coincidence, or a deliberate homage. Her own brother is named for Anakin Skywalker. Honoring the good man in Darth Vader.
That she's never heard the name Qui-Gon is almost stranger. But Uncle Luke's trained dozens of Jedi, since a time before Jaina can remember. It's possible that there's a few she wouldn't know on sight. One with an apprentice (Padawan?) of his own. The tension in her posture relaxes. ]
Sounds pretty hard to miss. [ And the bright grin she flashes him is less guarded. ]
Thought you might be a Jedi. I wonder how we've never met? [ She offers him her hand. ] My name's Jaina. Jaina Solo.
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
For now, it's just kind of fun to explore, isn't it? He glances up when he sees someone in familiar garb out of the corner of his eye, though. That's...the hair, too, isn't that traditional for a Jedi apprentice? ]
Hey! Wait up. Are you looking for someone in particular?
no subject
He notices someone messing around with some vehicle and stops when the person calls out to him. There's no one else around that Obi-Wan can see except for them, so he approaches because who else could the young man be talking to?]
Yes, I am. I'm looking for my master. Do you know where we are or what's going on here?
no subject
[ It's Cerealia. That simply can't be helped. ]
I take it you haven't sat through that presentation yet? This is Cerealia - though this particular location is a level of ViViD, an immersive gaming system. ...I honestly have to question the life choices of whomever programmed in all these smells. Do you think they did research - wait, that isn't remotely important. I'm Anakin Solo, pleased to meet you. If your master is here, he or she had to have just gotten here - my mother and I have been the only Jedi around for ages.
no subject
Immersive gaming system - so that's what the thing was referring to when it mentioned levels.
He's a bit thrown by the last thing Anakin says. 'My mother and I have been the only Jedi'...? He and his mother are both Jedi and Anakin's aware of that? He supposes it's not impossible for biological family to end up in the Jedi Order. It just seems a bit... unheard of, but he brushes it aside for now.]
I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padawan to Qui-Gon Jinn. Pleased to meet you too. Is there a way we can get out of the gaming system? I'm still not sure how I got into it in the first place...