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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And are you satisfied with your appearance? [this is def an innocent question]
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But why is she coming closer. Kashuu can't back up any further either?! There's a bigass pile of soggy trash behind him and he is not touching that, nope, no sir.]
—Of course! [Is that a trick question??] I'm super cute.
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Hmm... I guess. [a long... judging pause for the sword who just called himself cute.... have you NO SHAME, KASHUU?? going to try and poke Kashuu with the tip of her metal fan.] You're alright, but you don't look very intimidating.
[why make tsukumogami that look like cute guys... maybe kashuu's master has Weird Taste]
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You guess. [FLATLY. He doesn't have any shame, so of course he's going to call that out!! He also reaches up to bat the fan away, you stop that Okuni.]
I'm definitely cute! And it's fine if I don't look intimidating. [Swords like that aren't cute, you know?!] The important part is being able to get the job done, yeah?
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Like cutting down your enemies? [a pause, then a decisive nod!!] I suppose appearances don't really matter when killing's involved.
[He did say he was in an army, and he's a sword!! She can't imagine a bunch of sword tsukumogami being summoned to have tea parties...]
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That said, his general swordishness does tend to become the most blatantly clear when killing is the topic of the day... He's Utterly Unperturbed about it.]
Ex-act-ly! What good's a blade that can't even do that? [Killing is an important part of the job?!] But I mean, you can still look cute at the same time.
[Kashuu "blatantly fishes for compliments" Kiyomitsu.]
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If that sort of thing's important to you, then -- I guess. [busting out the 'I GUESS' again.] But is it really easy to look cute when you kill? You get blood and guts splattered all over you when you fight.
[WHY ARE THEY EVEN TALKING ABOUT THIS]
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Just I guess is no good. [He'll just discard her half-assed compliment like garbage, too!! Whatever, he doesn't need compliments from such a PUNK.
Also there's a brief pause here where Kashuu is probably thinking about all of the times various Soujis have said that he's beautiful when he's covered in blood but that would just take this conversation to an awkward place... Even he knows that...]
I dunno how you fight, lady, but any sword worth their salt can kill cleanly.
phenomenons... spellcheck betrayed me 1/2
It's hard to call someone cute in a place like this. [she says, as innocently as possible... totally not implying that Kashuu doesn't look cute atm, of course not. She pauses, considering Kashuu's words.]
You're not wrong. [Her own sword's hard to spot when it's been stuffed into the folds of her kimono, but it's there, albeit way shorter than the average katana.] But the battlefield's a pretty unpredictable place. You can have a good sword and a clean stroke, but... you'll get dirty one way or the other.
[Okuni's Seen Some Things, okay... It's a byproduct of being from a turbulent era.]
2/2
Is that your original form? [time to INVADE THE PERSONAL BUBBLE]
LMAO it's ok i still got u... even tho spellcheck got u first
No one else has a problem with it. [Implying people have called him cute even when surrounded by garbage?! Okay Kashuu. He's quiet for a second after that though, since what she says is actually pretty poignant and not exactly untrue. He should know better than most just what sort of surprises a battle can store...
But alas, before he can say anything poignant in turn, she's all UP IN HIS SPACE!! He reflexively puts his hand on the hilt of his vessel, giving her A Look.]
Yeah, that's me. [A beat, and then he helpfully adds:] Don't touch it.
[NO TRUST FOR OKUNI.]
covers my face in shame
But I can't see you properly when you're sheathed. [She doesn't have to see him at all... Does she have enough points with Kashuu that he'd show it to her???? Okuni looks expectantly up at him.... PROBABLY NOT]
ugh no my turn for shameface... when u forget the subject head
Anyway, no! No she doesn't!! Which is actually pretty impressive, considering Kashuu is one of the least guarded swords in the army when it comes to showing his real form off or even letting other people hold it. Okuni just got on the shitlist at the speed of sound somehow... The One Person.]
Why do you even need to see me unsheathed, huh? You're just gonna say something really weird, I bet.
now we're both shameful....
I've never seen a tsukumogami before. It's like one of those once-in-a-lifetime encounters that would never happen back home! [like landing in a giant trash heap in an alternate universe] Anyway, it's not like you're the same as the sword of an average samurai, right? You're special, right?
[right right right right right]
ugh our shame pile
Yeah, well. There're a bunch of us here. Like, at least half of the army I'm part of, so it's not like you won't get the chance to see another one. [But what if she thinks he's trying to scoot out of this because he's not an impressive blade?? WHAT THEN. UGH... No, his reputation might be at risk?! She might spread a rumor or something! "Kashuu Kiyomitsu, a sword who talks big but can't put his money where his mouth is." He can't have that.
So after a second of hesitation, he'll reach down to his side and unsheathe the blade there. BUT NOT HOLD IT CLOSE TO HER.
Anyway, he's a pretty blade?! Well-maintained, sharp, with a deep red sheathe and a tsuba carved to look like a flower, but there's nothing particularly exciting or supernatural or incredible about him. Nothing that screams "I WAS SELECTED TO BE A TIME-TRAVELING TSUKUMOGAMI" anyway.]
the shame pile and the sin pit....
Oh. [no demented sword faces today apparently, but. she wilts in disappointment...] I see. You're not cute at all.
[HOW MEAN BUT before kashuu can stab her] More like... pretty. I guess your appearance does make more sense now.
WHERE DID THE SIN PIT COME FROM
But as long as she doesn't try to make a grab for his sword, he doesn't seem too fussed with having it out in the open. How tragic that it's not shining with sacred light or basically that Marley & Marley door knocker from A Muppet's Christmas Carol.
ANYWAY he's totally gearing up to be insulted about that--!! His expression twists up into indignant anger and everything, but then she saves herself from being shanked, and Kashuu sputters a little.]
Well— Yeah, that too. [Pretty is a nice descriptor...] ...Most of us kinda reflect what our original bodies look like, anyway, or our history. Like, Mikazuki's super elegant and beautiful, Tsurumaru looks just like a pretty crane - that kinda stuff. [Just droppin famous sword names left and right nbd...]
SDLFJLMF IT JUST REMINDED ME OF OUR KONDOU THIRST OKAY
Mikazuki? Mikazuki Munechika? [but then she actually looks surprised at those names because what the?? THOSE SWORDS ARE TSUKUMOGAMI??? She might not be a samurai or a sword maniac, but she's of course heard of those names. Oda Nobunaga owns Tsurumaru Kuninaga, right? Does he know that he has a tsukumogami... but more importantly]
Who are you then? [now she's fully expecting him to be someone equally famous...]
UGH OUR SIN PIT THIRST.... thirsting after a married man
That said, he nods once to confirm that he is indeed talking about The Mikazuki Munechika™. Ah, their famous grandpa... He totally does belong to someone famous, too! Though he doesn't say his name like he expects her to recognize it - not because he assumes she's from an earlier time period, as is the case, but because he doesn't usually like it when people recognize it. Because people who know "Kashuu Kiyomitsu, Okita Souji's sword" also know "Kashuu Kiyomitsu, the sword that broke at Ikedaya".
So!! He just defaults to his usual greeting, albeit with a little more wariness.]
I'm the child beneath the river, Kashuu Kiyomitsu.
now it's immortalized in our headers....
I've never heard of you. [she doesn't even say it to be mean in this case. just being honest!!] But I've never traveled outside of Oumi either.
[so... maybe he is famous!! maybe he's a sword talked about only among samurai tea clubs. actually, this works out pretty well! Okuni might have been appropriately awed if Kashuu had been another Great Sword, but not knowing is fun too.]
Is that where you were made? Near a river? [IN A RIVER???]
FUCK NOW WE CANT HIDE
Oumi? That's not far from Kyoto. [Shouldn't she have at least heard of the Shinsengumi?? GOSH... He'll catch on to the fact that she's Old soon enough, but for now, his nose just wrinkles a little in confusion.
As for that:] I was forged by the dry riverbed, so I'm a child of the river, see?
[Which she might recognize as a euphemism for being part of the burakumin class... He doesn't try to hide it, despite its stigma.]
how do u have time to tag me and drag me into swordhell aT THE SAME TIME
Ah. [she does. She's never met anyone of that class, but considering the reputation the Kumou twins have themselves... Things like taboo and social order and being on the dregs of society are just words that don't mean anything, just excuses to chain people down due to their circumstances. And if it's one thing Okuni hates, that's being judged for your circumstances.]
The river must be really proud then, for giving birth to a pretty sword. [matter-of-factly!! because this is a fact and it's not like Okuni is being nice right now or ANYTHING!!!] The sword smiths of Oumi don't even come close.
[which is another fact... even tho it sounds like she's trashing her hometown WHICH SHE IS but]
IM MULTITALENTED watch as i destroy u in 2 places at once
That said, he was kind of ready to FIGHT HER because she seems like the sort of punkass who'd have a lot to say about basically everything and being from that pariah of a class is definitely a huge target, so... it's actually a little surprising, hearing something so nice. Maybe Okuni's being a tsuntsun, but it is a nice thing to hear. He still remembers, you know? He still remembers when merchants would visit, how they would hold cloths over their mouths because they thought even breathing the air of their hinin village would taint them. He remembers the look on the faces of those who were interested in buying him up until they heard the name of his smith. Ah, Beggar Kiyomitsu, a talented swordsman but a man of the slums. He'd get famous for his fine craftsmanship someday, but Kashuu wouldn't be able to reap any benefits there.
He's quiet a little longer than he'd like, but ends up sheathing his blade again as he clears his throat. Being taken off-guard like that is a little embarrassing...]
My smith wasn't really known for making beautiful blades, but he said I was one of his best. [It's something that he should be crowing about, but he says it with a strange air of near-detachment instead.] So... thanks. That guy was a real weirdo, but he'd probably have been happy to hear it, too.
[Here she can smacktalk her hometown while he smacktalks his smith...]
IM REGRETTING
Praise should be given when it's deserved. [this coming from the person who likes doling out backhanded compliments more than real compliments. But she gets it... It's odd, but Kashuu seems more human to her now than he had before, even when he was screeching over imaginary rats.]
[she takes a couple of steps back, FINALLY GIVING KASHUU SOME SPACE, and looks up. it's like she's remembering they're in trash land.]
Hey, do you have any special abilities as a tsukumogami? Like... flying? Or jumping really high? [iS KASHUU SUPERMAN]
POINTS AT EYES POINTS AT U
But gosh!! This is all very kind of her, all things considered. She's being so thoughtful in the way that she's handling this that Kashuu can almost forgive her for being so pushy and unpleasant earlier! (Okay, not "almost" - he's a very forgiving sword.)
It seems like she understands him pretty well, too. One of his least favorite things is discussing those difficult aspects of being human. Emotions, thoughts, how the two tie together; he doesn't like any of that. It's often too painful, and he doesn't like inflicting pain on himself. So! If she's gonna back up and shift the topic, he'll follow along seamlessly, like they hadn't just toed into vaguely personal waters.]
Well... I mean, this body isn't real, so I can do a lot of stuff that humans can't. Not flying or jumping high enough to get to the top of the chute, though. If someone could throw my vessel super hard up to the top, I could re-manifest up there, but I still wouldn't be able to help anyone else back up unless I went to find some rope or something.
SHIELDS YOUR EYES
WHY MINE
BECAUSE THEY'RE EYES OF SIN
why are u so cruel to me
WHO'S CRUEL TO WHO
YOU'RE CRUEL TO ME, INNOCENT AKI, A PURE FLOWER
a pure flower whose roots reach ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE HELL OF TRAGIC CANONS
i cant believe u made me read these lies with my own two eyes
it's like the reverse emperor's clothes... only impure people can read them
what does that say about u who typed them then!!
DAMMIT
ugh shoves u into the impure pit GOOD BYe
I'M WAITING FOR THE DAY YOU GET PUSHED IN TOO
WOW how rude.....
SHAKES FIST AT
RUNS AWAY LIKE A SUPERVILLAIN
a purehearted supervillain...
oh what a glamorous title..
AKI UR TAG CRACKED ME UP
GOOD points at eyes points at u
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