ioculus | //TESTDRIVE2.0.EXE

//TESTDRIVE2.0.EXE

Welcome to the Castle-town of Valoria

The prototype of ViViD's newest level has been complete. However, right now, only a single castle-town is open and available to be accessed with a mini-mission for all registered players. This castle-town is currently undergoing a terrible plague that causes those who drink the water to become strongly infected by the venom laced within.

The venom creates a form of volatile madness known as The Maenas, and it is said to originate by a single flower growing in the center of the castle-town's lake.

In order to purify it, everyone will have to work together to rescue the Priestess who is being held hostage in one of the castle-town's main towers, which is currently being guarded by a large dragon. Who that dragon is working for is currently unknown, but right now, it's preventing the priestess from helping the villagers.

At the log in screen, players will be greeted by Vidia, giving them a friendly announcement and providing them with the mission details:

"You're here at last! There's no time to delay, Player. The priestess mourns the more you hesitate. Come on, get equipped, and follow me! Are you ready? You simply have to follow my instructions.

✩ Get to the tower and defeat the dragon.
✩ Do not kill the townsfolk. They don't know any better! Knock them out, but do not let them die, or the imps will eat their corpses!
✩ Kill the imps, they're aggravating the madness! Each imp will release a soul orb on death. Grab it! It'll protect you from the madness, too. Each soul orb is worth ten credits!
✩ You have six hours. Please rescue the Priestess in that time, and she will be able to let you out.
✩ If you encounter people already from Tellus, you'll get a bonus orb for each soul orb you collect for all players.
✩ If you don't fight, you'll end up affected by the flower's curse... please, band together with someone and travel with them to slow the effects.
✩ The dragon will continue to re-spawn if it's fought alone. Please fight as a pair or group to bring it down if you can!
✩ Remember, you only have six hours... hurry, please!"

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I

[ xxxx ] You're standing right in the center of the entertainment district inside the main ViViD hub. The machines sit before you, beckoning to being worn so you can test out the newest level in ViViD. There are others around you, in similar positions. Researchers are on stand-by to document your every move and make sure there are no glitches at all. As you settle into your chair, you slowly put on the helmet and find yourself being immersed in a world that's so real, you can hardly tell whether or not you're in the game or still in reality. (Please don't attack the researchers, they're only doing their job and they won't hurt anyone!)

PHASE II

[ xxxx ] You're fully immersed in the game now, wandering around with the list of objectives Vidia gave you. It's your choice where you want to start first. You can talk to the NPCs, engage in a grueling battle, level up, or head straight to fight the boss in a daring suicide run. However, as you walk through the castle-town, you catch glimpses of shifting faces. The NPCs look familiar for a moment, maybe reminiscent of someone back home. The effect lasts too short for it to be noteworthy until it continues to occur. Feel free to explore, but remember, you have six hours, a holographic timer to the side of your screen will appear when you wish for it.

PHASE III

[ xxxx ] Another glitch appears. This one is more debilitating than the rest, leaving you hanging mid-attack. The game seems to freeze completely for a solid two minutes. In that time-span, the world shifts to your own. You're standing right in the middle of the one you remember, staring up into a sky painted red with fire while a blood-curling scream erupts from the back of your mind. You glance down around, and one by one, the people start to fall to the ground, shattering like glass. In the distance, the dragon looms, staring straight at you and roaring, though its voice seems equally agonized. Then the game resumes normally as though nothing happened. Your complete your attack and continue as normal.

Then something else appears within the darkness for a moment, lost in a single blink. That one second passes so swiftly it's barely noticeable. It might throw you off, it might leave you facing a pair of imps or crazed hordes. Whoever is with you had better started fighting... And you'd better run if you're alone!

PHASE IV

[ xxxx ] You've reached the end. Victory is yours. The townspeople are cheering, and the Priestess is rewarding you with a kind smile and several credits to your name. The dragon lies on the ground defeated, though its eyes are open still, hollow and black. In the reflection, you can still see the traces of a world left behind. In that moment, you can also swear you see it blinking when it should be dead, but there's no time to dwell. You're being logged out and the researchers are shoving surveys in your face or asking you questions about your experience.

BONUS

[ whyo'clock ] Welcome to the Dressing Room. This is where you can dress up your character in ViViD in all kinds of costumes. Completing missions will open up new outfits that will be delivered in the real world to character's flats. As a prize for completing the above mission, characters will be rewarded with some special outfits (both are unisex). Characters will immediately be launched into the Dressing Room upon completion so they can see themselves modeling their brand new outfits to one another.

[ You can choose to set your threads in the game or before/after if you'd like. Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with trigger-y or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to CEREALIA's second Test Drive Meme. Please forgive our appearance as we are still going through the final stages of game completion… mostly fighting with table codes. While most pages are under development and/or hidden from the public eye, please don't feel discouraged, since knowing everything doesn't always make the experience. Your characters will know as little as you. For your convenience, we have compiled a post detailing everyone's arrival experience and a FAQ that should explain everything in more detail. Please read them thoroughly before playing. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Phase II
[Rescue a priestess, huh. Chizuru finds it a little... ironic, perhaps, that the first thing she's really getting involved with after Zelien - a place where they'd all longed for rescue - is to rescue someone else. They'd spent so long unable to save themselves, and now they're expected to save another person? But they have to try. That priestess is depending on them, these people are depending on them--

...it's all fake. It's not really a priestess in mortal danger (even though this all seems so real), but that doesn't change the fact that she would like to help her, to save this town. Maybe it's because immersing herself in this strange world is a lot easier than facing the fact that there are some people she's lost that she may never, ever get back. She wasn't able to do a thing to save her friends or her world, but she can at least content herself with not being entirely useless here.

That's what she tells herself as she starts to explore the castle-town, anyway; she has to find out as much about this as she can in the short amount of time she has to complete this "mission," and that means talking. So she's seeking out anyone who might have information - "NPCs," as they're called - and that means she's paying attention to their faces -

So she sees the barest flicker of familiarity, and it stops her in her tracks. She blinks, and the moment is gone, and she goes on her way - until it happens again.

And again.

And again.

It's too much. She abandons her investigation to lean against one of the walls of a building, looking every bit as frightened and lost and overwhelmed as she feels.]

Phase IV
[That entire experience was far too unsettling, and even disengaged from the game as she is now, she doesn't feel prepared to answer any of the researchers' questions or fill out any of the surveys or even be around people at all. She stammers out some excuse or another, saying she'll be back to tell them what they need to hear but for now she just needs to breathe -

And she's gone, running, out of the main ViViD hub and to the quietest place she can find that's nearby. Maybe someone will spot her as she's making her quick escape; maybe she'll turn a corner and nearly smack right into them.

Or maybe she'll have the opportunity to collect herself, and once she's able to think more clearly, she'll realize that she's lost track of where she is and how she got there. When that happens, she will look for someone to approach and will clear her throat to get their attention.]

Um - excuse me? I'm a little lost...

[Kaoru isn't really interested in this entire set-up, all things considered. The game on a whole is a little too much, the immersion technology far beyond what could be considered easy to comprehend. Even when it's explained thoroughly, Kaoru still doesn't see a point in it at all. Why live through a simulation of something like battle? Why go on these pointless quests and tasks? Really, when it comes to disassociating from problems, humans won't spare any expenses to go above and beyond. It might be impressive to some, but then there's this nerd.

That said, Kaoru's also experienced the strange glitch. Being so keenly perceptive, it had only taken a few instances before the pattern emerged. These characters - "characters", NPCs? Something like that - were not supposed to be real people. The resemblance to those who are not present, even in passing, is quite disturbing accordingly. While escape isn't the first thing on Kaoru's mind when quietly leaving the building of an eerily familiar inn-keeper, it does end right in front of where Chizuru's come to rest.

...Well, this could either be very good news, very bad news, or a glitch even worse than the ones experienced up to now. Only one way to find out.]

Chizuru...?

[Sano hasn't been in the city for too long, but he knows that it is vital to learn the layout of the place, so when he can, he's been doing patrols of his own. But never would he have expected to see a familiar shape so soon. Surely it's not a glitch in the landscape like he's glimpsed a few times - and only glimpsed - because as he watches he still sees her running.

Short stature, long dark hair, quick steps.

...But she's dead, or so he had thought.

Still, he has to make sure he isn't seeing things, so he rushes after her.]

Chizuru!

[And soon enough, he's bound to catch up to her, thanks to his longer legs and clearer head.]

[Yuki had been spared that introduction to the game the way Chizuru had been exposed to it, luckily. She's been here at least a little while now so she knows her way around enough to get from point A to point B. When she sees someone else looking every bit of lost as she had before, Yuki jumps at the chance to help.]

Maybe I can help? Where are you looking to go?

//TESTDRIVE2.0.EXE

Chizuru Yukimura | Hakuouki

ii!

IV

iv!!