//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

[arbitrative]

[ "mature" is a matter of necessity when left alone in a room with the likes of Kazama and Shiranui. It's stop the fight or die by association. Even so, Kyuuji is staring rather pensively at Kazutake's need to bare skin and thinking of a few others of his acquaintance. At least Nagakura had a knack for lightening the mood; a thing Kyuuji appreciated, even if the timing was often too poor to indulge in.

With some small abruptness, Kyuuji's attention is brought back to the matter at hand when the woman spoke up and he thoughtfully added his own two cents. ]

The priestess seems to be missing. Perhaps we failed in saving her?

[ because wasn't she just like them, alive ]

[kazutake]

[ If he's aware or minds the fact that he's obviously being oogled here, he sure doesn't seem to mind. If anything, he looks rather relaxed, calm - things turned out well, after all. ]

She must have belonged with her people. [ Those townspeople did seem rather enthusiastic to have their priestess back, after all -- it would feel cruel to take her away from them, especially since it all seemed like her natural surroundings.

Kazutake shifts, looking more directly between the other two now, and without breaking any of his serious calm he starts to smile. ]

We did well. [ Or, well, so he thinks.. no one died, for one. That's a pretty great accomplishment.. ] I would like to thank the two of you for giving it your all. I firmly believe that it would not have been possible to accomplish all of this without that.

[ Is while sitting in weird dragon onesies really the moment to give a speech, Kazutake.. ]

Although perhaps I should have expected as much. [ Even if Yukina is a woman and shouldn't have to be doing these sort of things, she's never been anything but strong-willed and diligent. And the other demon.. well, he can't help but take a slightly more personal pride in him, considering what they apparently are to each other. ]

[valkyrier]

Ah, yes. Her people were overjoyed to see her safe.

[ and it has a mix of good and bad for yukina to see. It was close to her heart with yase-hime still unable to come to and them unable to find a cure—that joy is very personal and understandable but to acknowledge and empathize with it when one has no such outcome in their own situation hurts.

But... she's trying hard not to dwell on it, mostly able to have pushed it from her expression and mind with their arrival in this new room.

that was an amazingly well done speech, she thinks, and she actually can't help but smile a little. Okay, sure the two of them kind of went out of their way to make sure she didn't fight anything unless it was absolutely necessary ("...I need to level, I can't level if I don't fight." Stops taking away her ultimate dreams of equal strength compared to you both, Amagiris) but they managed to make her feel still genuinely included rather than an accessory to the two of them. ]

Thank you for your hard work.

[ she extends the appreciation as well. yukina sounds happy, not in a giddy way, but with that content tone of one feeling quite glad at the outcome of a situation.

And even better? She's learned how to do this wardrobe thing. Or, somewhat, because she's able to open the weapon inventory. Perfect, and she's reaching to select a knife from it's digital appearance, it fading away to place in her hand.

How... Fascinating... this 'technology' is even more mysterious than much of their species power origins. ]

It's strange, still... but it's also truly amazing in here. [ said in observation more than in any form of awe.

Anyway, she'll take the knife now and turn it in hand to use it on herself—or rather the costume she's wearing because she doesn't need to locate the magical buttons (actually she still can't find them. Is it because hers is so much more oversized on her than on the men?). Stab and ripping straight down to be able to get it off is just as workable. After all, it can't have much of a second time use, can it? The small benefits of not fighting hand-to-hand... ]

[arbitrative]

[ And there goes the +25 magical defense she would have had if she had just kept that onesie intact...

Ah well, she's a white mage anyway. The amagiri clan will protect her with their very lives if they must! Until she gets aggro'd and then it's just a lost cause, oops. Better hope Chitose is somewhere nearby to save her just in the nick of time!

But that likewise doesn't stop Kyuuji from starting in surprise at the knife appearing from out of nowhere and with swift action, he's by her side and (trying) to pull the knife from Yukina's grip after she puts a nice big rip in the costume. ]

This knife, where did it come from?

[ because, yeah. He totally thought this was just a dressing room and not still part of the game. Someone should really sit him down and teach him about modern technology. He's just too old school for even old school you know. ]

[kazutake]

[ The Amagiri always are the last to catch onto these things, huh.. and although it does surprise Kazutake to suddenly see the knife appearing out of nowhere, he's not particularly alarmed by it either. As much as he might feel the urge to protect Yukina, he knows she is a capable warrior, even if she's less experienced than the rest of them. He trusts her enough to leave her alone around pointy objects, anyway.

It's only really at his descendant's panic that he bothers to move, getting up and moving to Yukina's side in a more calm fashion. (Sorry, Yukina, it's probably for the best to face your fate of being surrounded by Amagiri like this..) ]

It is alright. [ To the other man, that is. Kazutake doesn't understand the specifics of this.. place, game, whatever it is at all, but he does understand enough to know the knife must have come from the mechanics it carries within itself. It's not that much he's concerned with (although he is briefly concerned with calming the redhead's panic, he's supposed to be the grandpa here after all) but more with the act Yukina was carrying out.

Kazutake ends up grabbing both sides of the opening in her onesie, drawing them (with a surprisingly gentle kind of strength, considering just how capable of he is of breaking weaker bones with it when he feels like it as well) together once more. ]

Yukina. It would be wise to not forget you are a woman. [ Even if you're going to go on the whole THROWN AWAY MY WOMANHOOD speech, you can't deny you still have boobs and all under there, okay.. look what kind of fuss you're throwing his poor grandchild into. ] Perhaps it would be more fitting to wait until later to take it off.