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?
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bonus......look i can't even
Getting bound together is one thing, but with a guy who's clearly got some fetish?
Yeah....no. Letting out a growl, eye twitching quite rapidly (is this her life now? From prison to a labryinthine landfill?), Minatsuki rears her head back as much as she can as he's mumbling---aw, how cute, he's probably having the beginnings of some shitty lewd fantasy, who'd a thunk it---and charges it back forward, in an attempt at a headbutt, which may or may not succeed.]
this is going to end well laughs
The headbutt still hits, of course, but instead of his forehead, she is now buried in his ponytail. Uh, yeah ... ]
Oooow!!
[ But he's awake at least? ]
good end material right here tbh
Which causes her to have to take several gasps of air, and, honestly, absolutely no one would blame him if he got the impression that she's practically huffing his hair. It's probably a step worse than having possibly lewd dreams.
Finally, after wriggling some more (and that in itself might be deeply uncomfortable for him), Minatsuki lifts her head back up properly, looking suspiciously bushed as she gives her newfound garbage buddy a flat look, still huffing a little.]
Oh, boo fucking hoo. [She rolls her eyes.] Next time, don't get so heavy into your weird dreams, alright? I don't need goddamn trash filling my brain, too.
a happy ending for all
[ There are too many things happening at once for Saburo to really give a proper response. This girl and he are apparently wrapped up in a trash bag for some reason. And the girl was taking some questionably big whiffs of his hair. And what was up with all the suggestive flailing?
Well, he's gotta tackle one of the following things. Might as well pick ... ]
Speaking of head [ He raises an eyebrow. ] You were smelling my hair just now. Are you into ponytails or something?
[ If you are, he won't judge. :|b ]
it'll win awards
Minatsuki's eye twitches at a rate of six spasms per minute. It probably doesn't look normal.]
Leave me out of your fetshistic fucking fantasies. Hell no. [She'd hit him, but...considering that failed headbutt? Considering their close proximity to one another at the present time? Not a good idea, even for her, but she's cracking the knuckles of her free hand regardless as she sneers at him.] Oh, and FYI? you were the one sniffing at me while you were still in Slumberland. So who's the perv now, huh?
the touching story about people who sniff other people
Wait, I was sniffing you? I don't have that kind of fetish. [ He won't deny he has fetishes, but they're really vanilla in his opinion, thank you very much. The problem is why would she think he goes around sniffing girls in his sleep? He was just dreaming that he was lazing around on Kichou's lap and then a sudden stench ... ]
Ooh. Yeah, yeah. That must be what you're talking about. It's nothing titillating like that. The trash around us just smelled disgusting, y'know? [ waves a hand underneath the bag. ] I am sorry about sniffing you though.
[ It doesn't explain why she was sniffing HIM, but maybe it's an eye for an eye type of situation? ]
Putting the sniffing thing aside, you wouldn't happen to know why we're stuck in a trash bag together?
[ Are they stuck in a horrible Internet meme? ]
and how it unites them as an invincible team
Fine, you got me there. This place really does fucking reek, but...fine. I'll let you slide, Ponytail. [Since he did have the decency to apologize, even if that's not something she's entirely used to seeing. Her hand drops off into a lazy wave before falling back to her side as she sucks her teeth, before adding with a frown:] The fact that you called me 'Kichiou' in your sleep is still pretty damn suspect, but whatever. And just to clear up the air, your hair got in my face---I'm not into that sort of shit, especially when you're a guy, and your hair's longer than mine. Kinda hurts my pride. [Even though her own hair has been chopped short.....]
[Which brings her to the more important question he brings up. She stares down disdainfully at their current predicament: the Garbage Bag of Friendship is Magic, with a snort.]
Fuck if I know what the hell the point of this is, other than making shit pretty goddamn awkward. [She shifts, trying to poke her other hand through the plastic---to no avail; it merely stretches more against the strain, and not by much.] Nevermind that this plastic's pretty strong. I mean, seriously. We're gonna have to get outta this piece of crap somehow, right?
no wonder it won 10 oscars
I don't know why it should. I'm just growing it out for my job. They don't take me seriously if I cut it short. [ The job of being a warlord in Sengoku period, but yeah. ] Besides, you look plenty cute with short hair.
[ You would think he's trying to flirt with a line that cheesy, but it really lacks the seductive undertone. And with that dumb relaxed expression of his, you know he's simply blurting out what he thinks.
He listen and watches as Minatsuki tries to tear the bag open. Saburo seems to think for a minute before he pushes his exposed arm back into the bag, searching for something in his clothes. It gets noticeably tighter in the bag for the two of them. Ugh. Getting trapped together like this is getting old pretty fast, huh? ]
Wait, wait! I got something good. It might help us out. Ah, here it is! [ Before her tempers flare up again, Saburo finds the ~mysterious item~ and pulls it out through the trash bag sleeve. In his hand, the handle of a fancy sheathed short sword glistens. ]