estoria | //EVENT032.EXE

Entry tags:

//EVENT032.EXE

Who: CERES and associated intellectual property
When: OOC: 8/01 - 8/08, IC: 8/16 - 8/19
Where: Cerealia™
What: PR really was important. Who'd have thought?
Rating/Warning: Currently none! Please let us know if the log heads into R-related territory so we can lock it!

//event032.EXE

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.

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I

[ 600 ] 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. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to Cerealia's August event! Please visit the OOC information here, and should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here! You can also check the FAQ for more general inquiries. This event will last from 8/01 to 8/08, or IC 8/16 to 8/19. Should this event log hit Captcha, there is an all-purpose overflow here. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

PHASE II;

[opting to not take the train? a good idea, probably.

until the robots catch up with him. and then he's being cornered, trying his best to unsheath his sword in order to hold it up in self-defense.]

Come on, stop! That's not—I don't even know that that means! [he's protesting, rather panicked at that. it's not the first time he's been taken into custody, but other times at least had reasons that make sense. but these robots seem to be laying claim to the crime of too bright a mullet...

so naturally, he's confused.

and he needs help, so much help. he'd really rather not light anymore robots on fire, thanks.]

PHASE III-A;

[stahn's having some problems. the first is that none of his fire artes seem to work when he needs them—it's a strange mish-mash of elements, but that's not the weirdest part.

the first thing that's weird is the fact that when dymlos speaks to him, others on the street seem to notice the deep voice that comes from his sword.

the second? well, the second is the fact that stahn and dymlos alike keep breaking into tune in the shape of a duet. which is unsettling, both because it's weird and because those who remember the day stahn arrived would know that the boy cannot usually sing worth a damn. that's a lot of improvement for just a couple of months. and when the bouts of song end, stahn constantly finds himself slumped against whatever's nearest—a wall, a bench, just straight up in the middle of the sidewalk, and following that heavy sigh and a tired yawn...]

Can't you think of a way to stop it?

PHASE III-B;

[those who are fortunate enough to miss the stahn and dymlos serenade hour can get a different kind of show. though... it's a little dangerous. while stahn's apparel seems to flicker between his standard armor and a school uniform, that's not the issue.

the issue is the fact that massive lightning-and-flame infused fireworks seem to be bursting from the tip of his sword.]

Dymlos! You have to try to stop, someone's really going to get hurt!

[and with that, a deep, angry voice will be booming back:]

I'm well aware of that, Stahn! Find somewhere secluded, this situation has left me unable to control it!

[which is all well and good, but in a populated city, that's more difficult than he's prepared to deal with.

help. someone, help.]

[Stahn may be trying not to hurt the poor robots, but Leon has no such compulsions--which is why the tip of Chaltier will soon be poking straight through one of the bot's chests, before slicing off its arm.

It crumples, and Leon scoffs.]

Step away. You have no right to arrest this person.

[Leon's the only one who gets to arrest Stahn!!!]

[that's a weird thing to get jealous about, leon.

either way? stahn wasn't really expecting the assist, so when he sees chaltier swinging down and hears that voice...]

Leon! [of course, he's impressed and amazed. how does leon always have such good timing and swift swordplay?]

[It's what he does, though.

Leon just shoves his sword into the next bot, scowling, and then turns his attention to Stahn.]

What do you think you are doing, Stahn? Pay attention!

[So fierce.]

( continued here! )

[LOOK, HE KNOWS... he knows he shouldn't be laughing. He knows. He knows that all of these things are the sign of something much larger and way more troublesome at work!! Stahn looks so tired and they're both probably so done but oh god

he can't handle this with a straight face.

He really can't.]

I didn't know you guys were into musical theater.

[Just let him have his one moment of being a punk HE'LL TRY TO HELP IN A SECOND.]

["I don't believe anyone asked for your opinion, Kashuu."

it's fine, because dymlos is there to be the scolding dad sword; he's already completely not amused with this situation, and not because it's exhausting the hell out of stahn. it's weird and embarrassing, he's a sword and a former military commander, not a musician of any sort.

stahn's barely noticed that kashuu is even there, considering he's still muttering at dymlos over even noticing that dymlos has begun scolding already.]

I wonder if this is how Johnny feels every time he plays a song... how does he do it all the time? [why is the spoony bard never this tired when he sings?]

Sorry, sorry!

[He does not sound sorry in the least...

But he'll come trotting over to where Stahn rests against the wall, looking all worn out like the poor guy forced into surprise performances he is. He reaches out, gently patting his shoulder in a THERE THERE sort of gesture.]

You okay? Might wanna sit down if you're really that tired.

[he doesn't sound sorry, which is why dymlos is the one who seems displeased with it—of course, being a swordian, he's not tired out by the situation like stahn is. he's just aggravated that it affects him.

stahn, on the other hand, is clearly exhausted and appreciates any sort of support right now, even if kashuu is also laughing at him a lot.]

Yeah... I don't know why, but every time something like that happens, I just want to take a nap.