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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no subject
Skarmory is completely organic. They're born with their steel armour, and it hardens and sharpens with age and experience.
[ and with the experience of being under a champion trainer, it's safe to say that this skarmory's wings are very sharp. he calls the bird over, and it stands over them curiously (and a little imposingly). ]
We need you to cut these bonds for us. Carefully.
no subject
Where I come from, birds aren't born with any kind of metal on them. None of the animals are. What did you say it was called again?
no subject
[ it's then that skarmory readies a wing, and he straightens his back. ] Stay completely still. A cut from any of his feathers won't be easy to heal.
[ with careful precision, the bird steadies his wing and swipes at the bag. it appears to leave a sharp mark, but... no cut. needless to say, that surprises steven (and skarmory, who like almost offended) but this is CERES' doing. obviously it wouldn't be that easy. sigh. ]
How about that weapon you mentioned?
no subject
...and it didn't work. maybe its feathers weren't that sharp? they certainly looked sharp from where Pearl was seated, like blades]
Right. [with a bit of squirming, Pearl slowly raises her arm. it takes her about a half a minute of struggling before she's gotten her arm free from the bag] Ungh, there! [she wiggles her fingers and then moves her hand up to her head. then she closes her eyes.
the large gem on her forehead begins to glow, and then something seems to appear there, bathed in light, a rod of sorts. Pearl starts pulling it out of her forehead. yep]
no subject
On your forehead... [ there's no mistaking it - he knows the shine of a pearl's nacred surface when he sees it. ] That's the most magnificent pearl specimen I've ever seen!
[ oh, and that staff is nice too. ]
steven pls
Uh... Th-thank you! I'm quite proud of it myself!
he craves every mineral
[ he'd kill to have a pearl like that in his collection! but it seems to be pretty important for her (seeing as a spear came from it and all), so he'll hold himself back that much. he'll get ahold of himself, clearing his throat.
skarmory just looks exasperated. ]
Ah- well, do pardon my enthusiasm. By all means, continue on.
[ getting out of this bind should be his top priority, not fanboying over rocks. ]
no subject
UH. ANYWAY. yes, they were trying to get out of here! Pearl shortens her staff so that it's the length of a dagger, and then she starts attempting to cut away at the plastic. it doesn't do very much good] S-s-so, you like gems?
no subject
he doesn't mean to fluster her, but her personal reaction confirms his theory that that pearl isn't decorative - it's a part of her. that makes it (and by extension, her) all the more interesting to him. he's watching her curiously, eyes moving from her gem to how she's attempting to cut the bag. ]
You could certainly say that, yes. Though it's not limited to gems - I'm an enthusiast of any and all minerals, but it's the rarer ones that I really have an eye for.
no subject
and why isn't this bag cutting? its material is so strong!] I see. Then it may interest you to know that I am a gem. A Pearl, actually.
no subject
wait. did she say she was a pearl? but she looks almost human... ]
...I'm afraid I don't follow. Could you explain a little further?
no subject
[she saws at the bag, and when she pulls pack, she has made the tiniest dent in it. ugh, hopeless] I come from, what you might consider, an alien race. My people are all gems, and I am a pearl. Which is, coincidentally, my name. [she smiles, putting a finger to the gem on her forehead] This gem here is actually my basic form, but the body you are seeing now is a projection generated by my gemstone.
no subject
[ it takes him a moment to process it all, but thankfully his own experience with strange creatures helps him wrap his brain around it all. pokemon like deoxys were technically "alien", so that part isn't surprising. what intrigues him is the fact that he's seeing a projection from that pearl... ]
...is positively fascinating.
[ he has so many questions that he doesn't really no where to start, so she'll simply get an awe-struck stare from him. this pearl... or rather, this "Pearl" has him captivated. ]
no subject
Thank you. I think so, too. [and now she is staring. Whoops. She goes back to trying to cut the bag again] I traveled to earth over five thousand years ago, so I know quite a bit about humans. But the earth I know doesn't have any metal animals like Skarmory.
*know not no THIS IS WHAT I GET FOR PHONE TAGGING
[ he does snap himself out of staring for too long, but his expression turns into one of slight exasperation. still, even though the bonds haven't broken, something about them feels... looser than before. ]
On a similar note, I also think we can assume that this bag isn't going to break any time soon.
it's all good!
I guess not. [and she was trying so hard! that nagging insecurity pokes at the back of her mind, and she feels like a failure for a moment. though that is easily masked. they will have to try something else] Maybe we're supposed to do something together for it to come off.
no subject
Maybe... [ he looks down for a moment, brow furrowed in thought. hacking at the bag didn't seem to do any good, but they've been talking... could that be the key? it's not like they've been doing anything besides that.
it's worth a shot. ]
I'm sure we'll figure it out. But in the meantime, I feel like I at least owe you an introduction of my own. [ he offers her a smile, small and polite. ] My name is Steven.
no subject
ah, wait. what did he say his name was?]
Steven? [Pearl would shake his hand if she could] What a coincidence! I have a very good friend with the same name!
no subject
while his hunches usually aren't wrong, they can at least brainstorm if it is. ]
Is that right? Well, I certainly hope I live up to the name.