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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(aah!!) ii
And his look of irritation changes to one of surprised delight because... ]
You're a Kumou!
[ It's not every day you get to meet another one of your descendants, right? ]
KAGEMITSUUUUU
[......??? She doesn't automatically assume that the other man is a Kumou herself, mostly because she's not 100% used to the idea that there ARE other Kumous besides her and Baren (even if she met Sousei, but Sousei's supposed to be a delusional stalker, you know???)]
...Who are you? [her own reaction is pretty muted, only because she's not sure... and she's not as naturally cheery as some other Kumous!!]
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He can tell that he's confused but so was he, when he first met Tenka and they started to figure things out. ]
I'm Kumou Kagemitsu! The first head of the Kumou family! [ He knows that some of them (like Tenka and Sousei) keep track but others (like Chuutarou and Soramaru) had not. So he might as well add that part, right? ] You must be one of my descendants!
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Kumou Kagemitsu? Really... [still, she gets up from her seat on her trash heap and starts to make her way down, stopping some distance from him.] Do you really expect me to believe you without any evidence?
[She does see the Kumou mark on his clothes but... descenDANTS??]
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Well... [ He glances down, and gestures to the swords he has at his waist at the moment. ] If you can't trust my word, the only thing that could work as proof are these.
[ He has seen how Soramaru's versions of them looks but he doesn't know when or how that happened.. ]
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[.....] I want to take a closer look. Can I?
[will you deny your super cute descendant her request kagemitsu]
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He considers it for only a few moments. Then he nods. He has no reason to say no, right? ] Sure.
[ This is him trusting you, Okuni, don't take advantage of the situation.
please child, don't run away with your ancestors sword(s)]no subject
Aren't you a little too trusting? [Whatever conclusion she reaches isn't readily visible in her voice. Instead, she looks at him with raised eyebrow.] I could have just run and taken these with me, you know.
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He smiles warmly at her. ]
You're family, [ he explains. ] And I trust my family.
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[Osuni stares back at him. That's a... simple explanation, huh? But she can tell that it's not a lie and honestly... that reminds her too much of a certain someone. Not that she could imagine Sakichi ever saying something like that, but the way he bluntly expressed it...]
Still. [She finally says, holding out the swords.] You're so certain that we're family even though we just met. That's adorable.
[She says the word 'adorable' as if it's an insult. and if he reaches out to take those swords, she'll take a step. back. out of his range. still holding those swords... and smiling. uh oh]
Words are meaningless. [it's a Kumou twin policy after all. say one thing, mean another.] Instead of that, why don't you prove it through your actions? The first head of the Kumou family should have no trouble taking these back from me.
[another step back, and another.] Right?
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SHE MIGHT BE TALLER THAN HIM WHILE SHE WEARS HER GETA BUT HE'S STILL A FEW CM TALLER THAN HER WHEN SHE'S NOT WEARING THEM----
And he's also agile and light, so he could actually take the swords from her.
Right now though, he crosses his arms over his chest, brows furrowed in concern and confusion. ]
Why are they meaningless?
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They're meaningless because they're coming from someone I don't trust. [Well. maybe she does??? trust him??? he did show her proof after all, but she's already thinking that might be fun to run around in a garbage heap with Kagemitsu running after her.] That's not hard to understand, is it?
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Why don't you?
[ He wants to know. IF SOMEONE HURT HIS FAMILY!!! ]
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Standing around and just talking is boring!
[she tosses one of the Kumou swords up and catches it with her hand. Then, she splits the scene, calling back over her shoulder as she FLEES]
I'll tell you if you can get these back from me!
[and she's running pretty fast... except there's only one way to go in trash heap land, and that's up the trash pile she made earlier!]
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Wait--
[ He might be small but he's fast at least, and he manages to catch up and..
tackle her into a hug. ]
Don't do that!
[ Run away with other people's possessions, that is. He's scolding her, but he's also hugging her. ]
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What do you think you're doing -- ?!
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Hugging my family.
[ Which he goes back to properly doing. ]
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Let go.
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With the push, he holds on tighter, at least with one hand. He pats her on the head with his other hand. Somehow it feels as if she needs it even if she's acting like she doesn't. ]
No.
[ Where do you think she got her stubbornness from? ]
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Fine.
[she's going to wrap her hands around him too, only to try and flip him off her and into the trash beyond!!! GET OFF GRANDPA]
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Oof...!
[ He tumbles a little over the trash but rolls back to his feet. ]
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You're lucky that you're my ancestor, you know? Or I'd call you a pervert.
[RUDE]
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[ Even if... he's sort of Kagemitsu's brother in law. Or would have been if he had not disappeared from the wedding. ]
What's your name? When are you from?
[ Because he doesn't know that yet. ]
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Kumou Okuni. [pauses] It's the fifth year of Tenshō right now.
[so basically 1577.... she should have tacked on a 'for me' at that]
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