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« 009 ⇢ event009.exe »

Who: CERES & you
When: ooc: 01/15-01/22; ic: 11/03-11/06
Where: Cerealia's Research & Technology District and Beyond!!!
What: Intro and Event log
Rating/Warning: PG-13 | possibly nsfw (please let us know if you need this rating changed, or you are welcome to continue any naughty shenanigans in a private log)

//event009.EXE

Always Believe in the Heart of the Cards Except When They Tell You to Kill People

Welcome to CERES Research Tower’s latest event! For all you new folk queuing outside of the conference room where you were just made to sit through a lovely power point presentation, you will be asked to stay a bit longer and test out some games in their Game Testing Center. It’s a giant space located in the basement level filled to the brim with cubicles for everyone to sit in and enjoy their newest array of pop-up games. The games themselves will be in holo(gm) form and will feature suggestions from CEO’s post, including a simplified, 8-bit version of Tetris, Baseball, Soda Smash, etc. Characters can control the game through moving their fingers and tapping them against the holo(gm) screens.

Surrounding the cubicles will be tables of food and more food for characters to partake in. It’s all safe this time. No mind-altering candy corn or gut-exploding Knight Burgers. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the party. For those who have been in Cerealia for a while, they should have received an invitation to the event and an offer of 1,000 credits just for participating. So come on down and bring a friend or ten! Meanwhile, CEO has a small welcome for everyone-

“Good Morning and thank you all for coming!

We have been expecting you. We hope you will enjoy what we’ve put together today. Ever since we got your feedback on << RAINBOW NARWHAL MELEE >>, we’ve been developing new games for all of you to enjoy. We’ve also tried to draw in some things from your worlds. We hope to hear more feedback from you in the future.

In the meantime, feel free to sample our food, generously provided to us by TGICERES, a moderately-priced family restaurant located in the Shopping District."

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I

[ xxxx ] Music lightly wafts from the speakers as the showroom opens. Julius Vincere, CERES’ CEO, delivers the opening announcement before leaving the room. He’ll be watching through all the video cameras placed around the room, so be on your best behavior! You will be guided to one of the many cubicles where you will sit and wait for a screen to pop up with a game. Once that game is defeated, another will pop up and another and another until your character gets hungry/has to pee/is so done with this shit.

PHASE II

[ xxxx ] Among the game rotations is a simple 8-bit fortune telling game starring Aria, the fortune teller. Come be enchanted by her mysterious wiles as she reads your future. She will do some 8-bit arm motions before summoning a ring of cards that will float around her. Characters will be encouraged to pick a card -any card. Once one has been selected, it will turn around slowly and unveil a card from the major arcana. Aria will then give your character their fortune, and that will be that. End of game. Onto the next!

PHASE III

[ xxxx ] You’ve left the testing center, and the evening has passed. As you wake up to perform your normal daily tasks, a niggling urge emerges at the back of your mind. It’s faint at first, just a whisper of a suggestion that pokes at your brain like a mosquito bite. However, that bite starts to grow bigger and become infectious. As the day wears on, you find that one little suggestion escalating. The next day is even worse. It starts to dominate your every thought, making you carry out actions you never thought yourself capable of. Who is this person in the mirror? Who have you become?

PHASE IV

[ xxxx ] By day three, the impulse is now a full-blown addiction. It’s set into your psyche completely. You’ve become something else entirely –the embodiment of the card. You will be acting out everything without anymore resistance, and it won’t stop until the clock strikes midnight. That’s when you’ll reel back to your senses, and when it’ll all have felt like the worst dream ever. Or a nightmare really.

BONUS

[ whyo'clock ] Among all the games present, there is also an 8-bit version of CERESLearn. Yes, you remember the magical game that won your hearts over not too long ago. It will come complete with the same rules. You choose a subject, you choose an 8-bit teacher among the three (Astor), (Hilda), or (UN-Zippy), and you watch them as they try to erotically teach you what you want to learn. Is that an 8-bit boob or her arm? Who knows? But beware… as you may remember, these teachers house a very terrible secret.

They will transform into an 8-bit giant bug that will chase around your protag as you guide them to run away with your finger, but you can also flick the bug on the holo(gm) screen to send them away for good. Those who figure out that little cheat code will immediately receive a special real-time shoulder rub as a reward from a robot that looks eerily like a carbon copy of their teacher of choice.

[ 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 latest event and intro post. For your convenience, we have compiled a post detailing what's going on right here and feel free to consult the FAQ if needed. Please leave any lingering questions in the OOC post, and we'll answer them as soon as we can. If this post goes into overflow, we will make a new one to deal with the ever-hated captcha! Worry not!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Komaeda's been worried, to say the least. For all that Hinata may have been sinking further and further into a rather worryingly familiar apathy that unsettles him more than he's trying to let on.

But when he wakes up to find Hinata already gone and up and about, well, he's immediately jerked into alertness. All right. Where is he? The couch staring at nothing at all again? With a case of bedhead to rival all bedhead in the history of existence. He's pulling a robe about himself.

He comes up behind Hinata -- motionless and staring and eerily unreactive.] Hinata-kun?

[If Hinata were able to snap out of it, here's where he would. He'd twitch and turn around, smiling uneasily at himself... however, he's not able to snap out of it. Not anymore. And there's something spreading through his mind even so.]

...

[Hinata does turn to look back at him, though, but it's more like he looks entirely through him, like Komaeda doesn't register to him. His eyes are as empty as they've ever looked, even emptier than his times when he's found himself slipping into Kamukura, that mindset, that pseudo-personality.]

[That there's not even a flash of Hinata, not a sliver of emotion in him, it makes something in Komaeda feel cold. Ice cold. And for a moment he just stares. And then, softer, quieter.] Hajime...

[He reaches out for him, taking a hold of his hand. He's noticed the strangeness in him, but now...]

Look at me, Hajime. [A sharper tone to his voice, almost like he's scolding him.]

[He seems to react slightly to the tone; glassy eyes slide over to Komaeda's, staring at them. But, again, it's just like he's looking through him, seeing somewhere else. He just doesn't care. Apathy's settled over him like a thick blanket, smothering out anything else.]

... [Useless, something comments in Hinata's mind, dryly. As though Komaeda could hear, but he can't. That's not going to work.]

[Well, that's close. But that's not it at all.]

I said at me. Not through me.

[It's terrifying in its own way, to see Hinata looking so empty, so unlike himself. He knows something is going on here, knows that once again some strange occurrence is happening. But somehow that doesn't make it any easier to have Hinata look at him this way, look at him like he's not even there.]

Something isn't right. You can tell that, can't you? [Answer him! Okay? Use your words, Hinata. Komaeda is... well. He's over this. He's going to find the dude running CERES and kick them in the shins.]

[Some part of Hinata struggles at the words, hearing them, it breaking through something... but in the end, the effect that the game from before has is more powerful, smothering any of his attempts to stir or react properly, say something to Komaeda. No, he's completely gone, those few days bringing him to this point.

Those red eyes of his blink slowly-- and it's hard to say they get less empty, but they seem to get sharper, the feel around Hinata changing. Komaeda might recognise it, from the times he's experienced Kamukura before.]

Of course something isn't right. [The tone, the way of speaking, all entirely different. And:] Hajime is of no use right now.

[Komaeda's eyes widen for just a brief moment as recognition hits him hard. No, there's no mistaking it at all, is it? It's not his Hajime that he's looking at anymore. Shock fades away, an entirely unimpressed expression on his face now. Not who he wants to see at all.]

Kamukura then.

[He ducks his head.] You aren't any use either. Give Hajime back, please. [He asks politely in words, though his tone is markedly less polite.]

[Kamukura's just as unimpressed right here, staring back at Komaeda with flat eyes and a flat expression and it's Kamukura so anything is bound to be pretty damn flat.]

You won't get anything from him even if I do. You can't bring him back.

[He turns on a heel, wandering out in the living room. He's not going far, he just doesn't see the point in malingering just in front of the bedroom door. Glancing back at Komaeda, he adds:] Unlike the other times, he isn't like this because he's letting it happen.

[Komaeda is considering trying to slap him back to himself anyway because well, it'd make him feel better. ...maybe he'll wait and surprise him with it.

When Hinata, Kamukura, whoever currently running the ship, turns around, Komaeda frowns at the back of his head.]

It's CERES again. Some glitch. But don't consider that an invitation. [Do you hear him? YOU WERE NOT INVITED GO AWAY.] It's rude just showing up.

[Ooh, go ahead, give slapping a try. Kamukura may or may not slap back. He may give no shits at all, honestly. He's still looking narrowly back at Komaeda over one shoulder before he turns properly.]

It has to do with one of the games that he played. [But tbh that's the most he'll say on that. He's figured it all out, of course, but why bother throwing out all that information...]

It was boring hearing you attempt to talk him out of it. He's not going to be any use, so why leave him as he was?

Those are the newest thing they've given us. It was that or the food at that new place.

[Which he did not eat, and he's noticed no effect, so really he was banking on that. But he also knows if Kamukura says it's one of the games, it almost certainly is. He's already considering which one.

But more importantly.]

Because you aren't welcome. You're not any less bored with this are you? Go back to just hearing. [While he tries to break through Hinata's apathy enough to get him to eat something.] It's time for breakfast.

[He'll cook! And puzzle over which stupid game did this. If he's not affected, could it be one he didn't play? Or is his effect just delayed or... hrm.]

Haven't you figured it out yet? [Kamukura drawls it, not unimpressed per say but... well, it's hard to say what he is. He certainly doesn't care at how unwelcome Komaeda is saying he is, however.

His chin just lifts slightly, his head cocking to one side.]

It's still boring, but watching you wasting your time on useless endeavours is even more boring than being out here. [But oh breakfast go ahead, make away, Komaeda. Of course, Kamukura will be joining him.

How lovely.]

This whole conversation is wasting air worthwhile people could be breathing, you know.

[HE counts himself on that one as well actually. He's a waste of breath too. But he's also running through the strange games he played and then.

Then it hits him. Realization. He's not unaffected at all, is he? Wheel of Fortune, that had been the card. So that...]

Damn it.

[He's figured it out.

Ugh he hates this place sometimes. It's so much nicer than Haven in terms of not being in pain and starving constantly, BUT well. This glitchy shit is getting old he needs to have a long hard talk with someone about changing things.

For now he's going to go take his frustration out on some poor eggs that didn't ask to be cracked. Hope Kamukura feels like scrambles.]

Then stop talking.

[Kamukura's so fuckin rude tbh. But he also watches Komaeda with those empty (but still less empty than Hinata) eyes, sees the moment where realisation hits. If he were the type he'd smirk but, as it is, he's not so he just kind of keeps looking at Komaeda.]

Finally noticed it, did you? You've slowed down.

[And then he'll be following after Komaeda as a very unwelcome tagalong into the kitchen. Yayyy breakfast.

At least he'll eat. He fully intends on keeping Hinata alive, despite how ruthlessly uninteresting Hinata is to him right now.]

Edited 2015-01-17 20:28 (UTC)

I can't exactly take your advice when you aren't even following it.

[ALSO SO RUDE. But the truth is Komaeda is trying very hard not to panic. Kamukura. Kamukura and not Hinata, though his Hinata is broken right now. This isn't his choice. He knows that, and he knows there's a solution. There has to be. So far these things have all passed once CERES gets their act together, but even so.

There's that anxiety that curls cold and heavy in the pit of his stomach. He wants Hinata here. He wants the man he knows and loves and not this substitute with his face -- but not his expressions.]

You can't expect trash like me to have the answers quickly. You should know that. [He's trying not to panic, but he is so sick of CERES messing up their lives. So instead of breaking down, he's embracing that annoyance and frustration and muttering to himself,] I should have known in this case though.

[Kamukura's walking into the kitchen after him, his gaze fixed on Komaeda, as though he's looking at him to figure him out. You're panicking, he notes mentally. A defense mechanism? Perhaps.

...It shouldn't be interesting. He had figured him out on the boat before. Had seen through Hinata's eyes all through the time in Haven. However... there are unexpected factors about him, parts that aren't something he'd initially anticipated. That's what makes a spark of interest settle in him.]

Downplaying your own intelligence while you already know things, [he comments,] but have you asked why or how yet, Komaeda Nagito?

How is it that those games are affecting you and Hajime?

[Komaeda is gathering up breakfast supplies now. Pans and spatula, eggs, a few veggies, cheese. He glances back over his shoulder at Kamukura now though, frowning at him. This guy.

Still thinking about slapping him, even if he thinks it might be different this time.]

That's been the question since the moment we arrived, hasn't it? [Komaeda turns to face him fully.] When I first met that woman who was looking in ViViD for a cure to a sickness in the real world. [Or well.] If this world is real.

[Kamukura gazes back at him, his red eyes focused but still empty as usual... Almost empty.]

If this world is also a virtual reality, then it wouldn't be strange for them to be able to manipulate the people in it as much as they wanted, from injecting their bodies with drugs or otherwise.

However, if this world is not a virtual reality, why is it affecting Hajime the way it is? It's in his brain. The brain may react to subliminal stimuli, but he played only once. Their level of technology can only do so much that the regular brain, the regular eye, can take in. If it had been suggestions over days, weeks, months... it would be different.

[But it wasn't. However, he doesn't seem like he's trying to figure out the truth with Komaeda. Instead, he seems to just be telling him things. Giving him hints, like Komaeda might've done before when he and Hinata were in trials.]

[Yeah this is familiar, but he's usually on the other side of this. Komaeda looks at him thoughtfully now, his snark from earlier forgotten in favor of listening closely. Kamukura may be an apathetic dangerous bastard with his sweet boyfriend's face, but he's pretty brilliant, there's no denying that.]

That game... it was short. But if their technology is as advanced as they say, would they need more than a moment to pass that sort of message? It didn't take effect immediately. SO maybe it was like planting a seed...

[Though hold on a minute back that up and repeat that testimony, okay? He's got something to shoot at in there, okay?] What do you mean, 'regular brain' and 'regular eye'? [Why make the distinction.] Do you think they've done something to us? [When they arrived here? Messed with their heads?]

... It means just what it sounds like. Whatever message that they were transmitting to people shouldn't be so strong to be able to do what it is doing in such a specific way... were it an ordinary subliminal message being perceived ordinarily.

[Kamukura just watches him for a long moment after he says that, at the question. And then his gaze shifts to the ingredients and such that Komaeda had been getting out.] Are you going to make breakfast? [He's hungry.

Also this is him completely avoiding answering the question.

Charming.]

Edited 2015-01-18 04:27 (UTC)

Are you going to answer the question?

[Komaeda looks right back at him flatly before sighing, waving a hand.]

I'll make breakfast because Hajime needs to eat. [He turns around to pick up a spatula before turning and pointing it at Kamukura in a very obvious "you got that wrong!!!" pose.] For Hajime and not for you. It's his breakfast.

[So don't taste it or enjoy it! Not that he's a great cook so "enjoyment" is not assured anyway. So yes, off he goes to get to scrambling them both some eggs.]

No.

[At least he's not lying... Good point or not?? Hard to tell. Kamukura looks back at that brandished spatula before lifting his gaze to Komaeda's face.] Don't burn it.

[He's hovering, too. He's standing a few steps away, watching Komaeda cooking. It doesn't seem like he's building up to anything, so when he speaks again, it's abrupt in the sudden quiet:] It's boring if I tell you what I think, one like me who can predict what will happen. You and Hajime should draw your own conclusions.

[Implying that perhaps that isn't... as boring??]

Edited 2015-01-18 05:38 (UTC)

...of course.

[No he says. Komaeda glances back at his hovering company now, lifting an eyebrow at him. What?]

It's not burning yet. [But that's not likely to last, so he'll pay attention.] One like you. [Komaeda echoes with a frown, brow furrowing now.] But you're right. Hajime and I should draw our own conclusions, with our own thoughts and observations.

[They'll investigate like they always have! And... and without Kamukura! He pokes the eggs, scrambling up now. Oh right, veggies! Scramble scramble.]

[What. He's making sure Hajime's not going to get fed charcoal. He moves away, though, drifting to the cupboards, fetching down some... spices. Without a care, he returns and proceeds to add some.]

Turn down the temperature. [...bossy... No doubt Komaeda likes this help very much.] And wait before you add vegetables.

[He'll add some oil. Now is good. Yes.] ...Hajime's gone against what I've predicted before.

[HEY. Hinata has eaten his food on more than one occasion and while maybe he's overly forgiving because he's a good boyfriend, he hasn't died from it yet! So look here Mr. SHSL BEST AT EVERYTHING.

Komaeda blinks as his eggs are spiced. And then he's bossed around.] ...would you like to finish?

[Hand on his hip spatula held out, face as flat as it can manage to be. Until Kamukura says that last thing, and his entire expression falters. The exasperation leaves and for a moment there's that panic right in front, that concern and worry over Hinata, a fondness at even thinking of him surprising Kamukura like that. His gaze drops and a smile finds his face, subdued, especially for his usual blithe expressions.]

Hajime-kun has surprised me before too.

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