//TESTDRIVE2.0.EXE

[reparator]

//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!

Comments

Bonus.

[impulsion]

[ Kazuya's equally perplexed by the sudden appearance of this outfit and trying to figure out the mechanics of this game so he can properly take it off. Does he remove it as normal? But where are the rest of his clothes? Won't it leave him naked and ill-equipped?

He frowns at the thought of being dragged into another level without his swords and clothing and stops fussing with the dragon outfit long enough to reconsider his actions. ]

There will be other opportunities to gain answers, but I'm not sure if there is any benefit to wearing these. It won't be good armor if we're dragged into battle again.

[ But more importantly- ]

Are you all right? I didn't mean to drag you into this. I was hoping to destroy the dragon quickly and leave without problem.

[ He had spent more time worried about her tagging along than focusing on the objective itself, which had been something he was hoping to avoid. Now, she's trapped in this strange space after their 'victory', suffering an equal amount of embarrassment, though to her credit, she looks a lot nicer in that outfit than himself. ]

[valkyrier]

Perhaps it's pointless. Like a nonsensical reward to a child.

[ although they certainly aren't children. yukina glances up from her tugging at her own dragon onesie at his question and following commentary. ]

I'm fine. You didn't, I wanted to accompany you, so I did. [ he's always just up and leaving, it would have been a wasted opportunity to not stay with him when he couldn't really do much but let her come, considering without another individual, the dragon was technically unbeatable.

for the record, she's probably less embarrassed than he is and while he may think it looks nicer on her ( considering how...stupid it is, she wouldn't be sure if that meant much, anyway ), but Kazuya is easily the cutest of their little group in that outfit. Chitose would complain too much for anyone to appreciate his cuteness. Kazutake and Shin are not... cute. And Senkimaru would more than likely join Chitose in expressing his discontent.

Kazuya is quiet, though, and his expression is rather well-suited to be endearing in something so generally unfitting. ]

Uhm... are we perhaps simply supposed to wait here, then? [ in... these outfits? that makes no sense, either, though. so she really has no idea; it's not exactly the ideal place to have a conversation, is it? ]

[impulsion]

That appears to be their intention. I am not sure how else we are to leave, though we accomplished the mission.

[ His fingers tug at the fabric, still wondering what the purpose of this is. It doesn't even look remotely practical for battle. He'd just end up tripping inside of it while running. Not to mention he still hasn't figured out how he would cram his dual swords by his sides under the suit, so he can't even draw them at the moment. If they were to be sticking up through the fabric, the resulting image would be disastrously perverted, too...

Fortunately, he's adept at keeping a straight face and maintaining his composure in spite of the mortifying picture he must make. There has to be some kind of way to get out of here.

The more his gaze circles the area, the more he realizes they really are in some sort of transitional space with no instructions as to how to "log off" as it were. He has no way of getting his physical body to wake up and respond either since the level of immersive technology in this world really is as baffling as it is alarming. ]

Do you think there is some objective we failed to fulfill? Should we return to battle the dragon a second time? It should be faster now that I know what its weakness is.

[ He's sure he can easily take it down without Yukina even having to get involved this time around. In spite of its size, its actual strength and power had been rather low. It seems to only exist for show instead of posing an actual threat. ]