Everything is normal today during the early hours of the morning. There's really no hint, no way of knowing, no anything that could indicate that CERES -- and thus Cerealia -- is about to irrevocably change. There would be birds chirping, if there were birds, but since there aren't any, there's just the constant sounds of a city in motion, humming with technology even that early in the morning.
And then, regardless of where you are or what you're doing or how early it is, everyone's CereVices flicker on to show a perhaps-familiar, perhaps-unfamiliar face.
Bellona Recreare, the business owner of Cerealia and CEO of CERES, stares at everyone with a flat, cold look. She doesn't seem happy.
(When is she ever?)  It has come to my attention that there has been industrial espionage and corporate sabotage in CERES' personnel. Such a thing will not be tolerated.
Due to this, Mosley's employment with CERES has been terminated. Please now direct any public relations questions to 1-800-7322934844444.
Good day.
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PHASE I [ 6 00 ] Bright and early, not long after that sudden announcement by Bellona, you may decide to go back to sleep, or you may decide to get up and go about your day (or you may not have woken up at all).
Either way, it doesn't matter.
Because your apartment is broken.
The entire apartment. The door is locked shut (and that sucker is solid metal so it might be time to try a window), the HOLO(gm) is flickering wildly between settings, and the blender is out for your blood. Anything technological in any way (that is CERES-brand or has been tampered with by CERES) will be malfunctioning in a way that comes across as... oddly malicious.
Now's a bad time for the late sleepers to realize that the beds, too, have auto-control tech functionality. Hope you enjoy that electroshock wake up call, or the fact that the bed could fling you totally across the room.
PHASE II [ 1000 ] The rest of the city isn't faring so well either.
The trains are completely out of commission; even if the doors do open, it's probably not a good idea to get on. If you do, it looks like the doors will slam shut behind you, and the train will go hurtling forward at dangerous speeds with sudden stops. Many of the shops can't be accessed at all, automated doors refusing to open, and worst of all, every single last piece of tech in Cerealia now seems to have the sole goal of Making Your Life Hard.
The Pleasure District is flooded now that the spas are broken, but hey -- at least the perfume ensures that water smells good, and it's pretty warm. That's good, right? Maybe go for a nice swim.
The CERES police bots are out of control, chasing people down to arrest them for imagined crimes (What do you mean you aren't a closet voyeur?), and heaven forbid you're around any of the auto shops when everything goes totally wrong. The auto-drive feature in many of CERES's cars seem to be a little... finicky today. It doesn't seem like anywhere in the city is exempt from this. Good luck.
And towards the end of the second day of this insanity, the train, with whatever unfortunate passengers are on it, will derail. It crashes into part of the shopping district, leveling buildings and leaving the wrecked overturn husk of a train resting there uselessly.
Suddenly, things don't seem so harmless anymore.
PHASE III [ 1100 ] Of course... you're CERES-owned too.
Your code, rather, is made and owned by CERES, and it's inevitable with the craziness going on that it would soon affect everyone's code as well. So as the hour approaches noon, a few unlucky souls may start to notice that things are just Not Quite Right with them. Their powers may be on the fritz, functioning entirely wrong or not at all, or even stranger -- fire powers turning into water, ice into flame, electricity brings mud. Your clothing might suddenly change when your coding glitches, or it might be gone entirely. You may suddenly have an uncontrollable urge to start singing, or frolicking. You may suddenly be wildly in love with the first person (or robot or mirror) that you see, unable to stop it until the odd glitching wears off.
And then, just like that, you're back to normal, if a bit more tired than before. How troublesome.
There are also moments where what appears to be an ID number appears on the back of your neck in glowing light blue numbers. Each of these codes is a 7 digit number, with an E at the front of the number. It appears that the longer you've been in Cerealia, the lower the number is -- like a brand of some sort. You may not be able to see it yourself with it on the back of your neck like that, but everyone else sure can.
PHASE IV [ 1645 ] And, just like that, on the last day of this madness, the city goes dark. The lights cut out. The technology shuts off. Every last robot in Cerealia is completely and totally down, and can no longer be booted up. Even when the lights come back on in a few hours... the robots remain dead.
Cerealia's a lot harder to function in without those handy dandy robots running the place. It's also a lot more desolate, and rather quiet.
Slowly but surely, the rest of the technology will boot itself back up towards the end of the last day. But the robots remain broken, and cannot be fixed. In fact, opening them up will reveal that nothing's wrong with them at all... they just won't wake up.
As time ticks by, it doesn't look like Bellona will address anything on the network about the events and all people are left to do now is... learn how to function again. Without any help.
BONUS [ ???? ] If you were a stupid brave enough soul to log into ViViD during this time (or were unfortunately glitched there, which could happen), you will find that ViViD is in... safe mode. It's struggling to boot up, and even when you finally enter, you'll find yourself wandering through skeleton levels of half-completed scenery and incomplete quests. There are readings in the corner of each level that can be seen now, one about Energy Gain and one about Energy Loss, and just as the gain goes up the longer you are there, the loss, too, rises. At first, it's fascinating, and it isn't particularly dangerous... but then it becomes clear that you can't actually log out.
You can't exit Safe Mode at all.
Slowly, it feels as though you can breathe less and less, that the empty walls of the level are closing in on you... and there's nothing you can do. Unless you are or find a particularly genius hacker and they can access the source code and find the exit buried inside that code within the next few minutes... there's nothing to be done.
And then everything goes dark.
You'll wake up the next IC day, with those same energy readings marked on your wrist like some sort of bright blue digital tattoo. When you wake in the mornings, it will read at 100% and slowly go down during the course of the day until you sleep. It will fade after three IC days.
And from now on, ViViD always has those energy levels in the corner, even when it's fixed. They always seem to be recording you, every time you're in ViViD. Strange.
[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ] |
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Queen Elsa route
He feels the chill around his body when he approaches her. His voice is steady but certainly not soft.]
Felicia...?
Whoot!
Mister Edgeworth, you didn't happen to see another girl around, did you? She's my sister, and we look a lot alike except for our hair...
[Though Felicia herself was a strawberry blonde, her sister had hair that was the same brilliant blue as a glacial ice sheet. There was a glimmer of anxiety and hope in her eyes as she asked the question, as if she wasn't certain how she should be feeling with either possible answer to her question.]
no subject
He shakes his head.]
I'm afraid not. Did she arrive with the last batch of newcomers?
no subject
[She wasn't sure any more, but she knew that she would never have been able to make this big of an ice storm on her own. The most she could do was lower the temperature in the room, and maybe cover her blades in ice. If she concentrated enough, she was able to make small bits of ice in her hands so she could tease her friends, but this?
It was way over her level.]
...I don't know what to do, Mister Edgeworth, but maybe we should get you inside. Most people have trouble with this kind of cold if they stay in it too long.
no subject
[He shrugs. Well, he had run into Franziska by chance when she arrived but he was certain she would look for him, or the news would come to him. That was logical.]
Let's find someplace where the police robots won't find us.
no subject
[Which would mean that Felicia somehow was able to freeze the entire block on her own-- a feat that never would have happened under ordinary circumstances.
Feel free to lead her away, Edgeworth. She's a little distracted.]
no subject
Why did you think your sister was here?
no subject
That's normally a lot harder for me, [she explained, holding out the ice shard for Edgeworth to examine if he wanted.]
And all of this is normally impossible for me. My sister, though? Not only is she a better maid-- she's truly a daughter of the Ice Tribes too. I saw her freeze over an entire harbor once, and she made it look like it was easy!
no subject
Hmmm...this only happened today?
no subject
[She cast him a worried look.]
I know Flora and I were twins, but we're not the same. We're just like any other sisters besides having the same birthday. I'm better at fighting than she is, but she's better at everything else.
no subject
[He manages to relax when they're farther away from the ice, no longer feeling the chill. Edgeworth taps his temple with a finger.]
It's part of what's happening today. Your powers must be affected.
no subject
[The Flame Shuriken, a weapon native to Hoshido, was magically endowed with Fire Magic that effectively nullified Felicia's own talents with ice. In the sunny land, where few were comfortable with the cold, it had the odd benefit of helping the Hoshidans be more comfortable around her.]
no subject
[It's not much of an explanation, but it's the only one he's got. He has lowered his finger from his temple but now his hand is suddenly alive with a vibrant electric-blue glow. Edgeworth gasps as he feels something crack inside him - as though he were a glow stick - and notices his other hand lighting up as well.
Sure enough, he's now like an azure beacon lighting Felicia's way.
Looks like whatever hit her is hitting Edgeworth as well. His soul powers are beginning to act up.]
no subject
[The sudden glowing was more than a little surprising for Felicia to see, and she was reaching for her staff on impulse to try to help Edgeworth.]
Are you okay? [She asked very aware of that startled little sound Edgeworth made. Looking up at him with worried eyes, she shifted close enough to be in his personal bubble so she could figure out a way to help.]
You don't normally glow like a firefly, do you?
no subject
[Edgeworth gawps at his hands, opening and closing them. He's still a living glow stick and doesn't notice Felicia stepping into his personal space. Well, her concern was understandable, so he doesn't shoo her away.
He tries to calm down. There was nothing else going on with him now, and willing his power to fade away was not working. Stopping in his tracks, he shuts his eyes and concentrates, but when he opens them again, his hands are still blue.]
This is normally supposed to be an offensive power; the glow is part of it.
no subject
Offensive power? What's it supposed to do-- turn you into a dragon?
[The glow reminded her a little of Corrin's Dragonstone, the magical item her liege used to keep any unwanted transformations under control...
But, she wasn't Azura. She didn't have a magic stone like that on her despite her hobby of collecting pretty looking stones.]
no subject