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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iii
[ There's a great deal to try and avoid when moving through any part of the city lately. Ever since the technology went from being glitchy to outright malfunctioning, she's been extra careful. That she'd had an unexpected upwelling of strength and ongoing endurance has been odd (and Occidi's small blessing, though she doesn't know that for sure) keeps Chihiro going even while everything's going into chaotic hell.
She moves further down the alley she'd slipped down to avoid the police robots, clambouring down from the dumpster she'd been running across to come closer and squat down by his side. She reaches out to touch his shoulder, offering a negligible sense of assistance in keeping him sitting up while she looks for some obvious sign of damage. Blood! ... Usually blood is obvious though... ]
Are you hurt? You don't look well.
no subject
His pain clouds his surprise when she touches him, as he looks towards her, albeit with some effort.
... He didn't want Chihiro to see him like this—for that matter, he wouldn't want anyone to see him like this (Seria and co. included, and they've already seen this once; though it doesn't matter here, where they're not present).]
... I'm fine. Don't worry about me...
[It's an effort to speak, too, but he manages a smile, at least.]
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[ She states simply, seeing how difficult it his for him to look at her, or even to talk. Chihiro knows she doesn't have any knowledge in this field for what might help; doesn't know what's wrong, if it could be internal bleeding or anything of the sort. There are all kinds of possibilities. What if the problems she was seeing people have around the colony has been happening for him too? (Magic, what if magic does something when it's not working right?) ]
And you're not fine. Is there someone I can get to help with what's happening?
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[Moments like these make him wish he could just crawl into a corner and hide somewhere—oh, wait, that was what he'd been trying to do.]
... No. It's... fine. I can handle this myself.
[While it hurts to move (or do anything, frankly, including existing), he attempts to sit up straighter, as if to prove his point.]
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[ She doesn't like that answer, if the way her lips thin indicate anything. But she accepts that he's saying what he's saying, as if that's some kind of resolution, and glances around. He's not okay, that's really obvious, but he's also not saying anything can fix this. That may be because nothing exactly can. (Again, maybe it's the magic.) ]
Until it's handled, I'll stay with you. We don't want any of the robots to see you. I don't think you'll be up for fighting them like you normally would.
[ She rises to her feet, setting her backpack down next to Karl. ]
There's water in there.
[ She offers, before she's looking at what's in this alley and starts selecting things to move and better screen Karl from being seen from the street, or the other end of the alley. She doesn't even have her CEREvice to call anyone, but this? This much she can manage. ]
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No... probably not...
[It'd be easier than fighting against Seria and the others, at least, but he knows that even so, it wouldn't be a wise choice in his state. Even if he thought he could handle it, he's not confident that he wouldn't lose control of his powers.]
I'm fine, thanks... Make sure you don't get seen, either.
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I won't.
[ Get seen, that is, which is one part bravado, two parts applying herself to being cautious. It doesn't take so long to essentially build them a trash shelter, as casual an arrangement as still makes travel possible through the area. Surveying her work from closer to the open street end, an unseen Chihiro nods. Good. She can't make Karl out from here, or even here, as she walks forward. There are other ways to find people, she knows that. The police robots simply seem to have relied on easy visuals.
She carefully slips through until she can see Karl again, pulling a piece of cardboard this way to once more obscure the way she came. She takes a seat by his side, pulling her backpack around to rest at her back. ]
So. [ She sets her hands in her lap, leaning against her backpack. ] What's causing you so much pain?
[ Internal bleeding has stayed dismissed because of what Karl said. Everything else? Way more open. ]
no subject
[By which he means that it's easy to, but he just doesn't want to.
Glancing at her makeshift shelter, he smiles, even if it doesn't quite reach his eyes.]
Nice set-up... Do you do this often?
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But... ]
Not really. I don't build forts or anything these days.
[ But still... ]
I've seen... people having trouble with their magic, I think. It hasn't looked comfortable.
[ She's not sure what to call some of the things she's run away from, but problems in magic? Sure. That works. It's also her soft way of suggesting one possible cause without demanding he confirm or deny. ]
Mm, Karl-san... if I ask you something, will you give me an honest answer? Even if it's not a reassuring one. ... It won't be a question about what's complicated.
[ Karl has used that phrase before. She mostly takes it now as "I don't want to explain." ]
no subject
... Sure.
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Do you know this will pass, or do you hope it will?
[ Not asking about what's complicated (as in, she's not going to ask what it is). But asking, in seriousness, if this is a matter of belief or a fact that this will pass as he says it will. ]
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If it doesn't pass... it has less to do with the problem itself and more this place persisting in... whatever it's doing, I think.
[He hopes that it's this place that's caused the instability, at least. He did manage to stabilize his blood to a relatively safe degree back home, after all, and he wasn't exactly thinking about anything demon-related when this struck; this shouldn't have happened, and even if it is natural, he got better once. He could do it again, surely.]
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Thank you. For answering.
[ It's really all she can say. If it's this place, and the problems people have been having, it may or may not pass. She likes to believe it will. She doesn't want Karl to suffer; nor any of the others she's met. Not even strangers, though they're disconnected from her, beyond where she can presently see. ]
You'll pull through. Even if I have to track down that Granny to figure out a way to make it better for you again.
[ For all of them. She settles her arms over her knees, resting her chin on them, and falls into a simple, watchful silence. ]
no subject
[He pulls himself into a similar position, waiting for this to end—well, hopefully. If he has one reassurance, it's that this time, he doesn't have to hurry so as to prevent Liomerg from likely killing his friends; then again, with the chaos going on in the city, time still isn't on his side here.
Eventually, though, the glitch comes to an end. Karl wouldn't be able to tell precisely when, only that in time, slowly, over the course of minutes, the pain disappears. Accompanying its fading is the onset of exhaustion, now that the stirring in his blood isn't forcing him awake.
He'll be embarrassed about this later on, especially when he knows that he should get up and leave once he's able, but... between the instability and everything that's happened in the past while, he's tired enough that he ends up falling asleep, head buried in his arms. Sorry, Chihiro—you'll have to wake him up.]
no subject
It's a matter of minutes, really, and over that course she's shifted and counted imprints on the wall opposite to them. Has listened intently to the somewhat dampened sounds of the chaos of the colony out on the nearest street, along with further away. She hears the tread she's come to pick out with a sense of stillness settling over her. One of the police robots. Malfunctioning? She doesn't know, but she can't chance that it is, and has no means of knowing that Karl has drifted into an uncomplicated sleep instead of one brought on in the midst of what he's been enduring.
She's a resolute young thing. She carefully unzips her backpack, one or two teeth at a time, muffling the sound with her hands. She pulls out the thin fleece blanket tucked in there, an expanse of fabric with a dragon coiled around, holding the two moons as pearls in its claws. It was a great deal unlike Haku, but enough of a reference that it'd seemed warm and soft and familiar, instead of warm and soft and strange. She moves onto her knees, shaking it out and tucking the blanket over Karl with care, listening still. Whatever's out there isn't just leaving. She can hear it calling out, starting to investigate off-street looking for those participating in "unlawful loitering."
She rezips her backpack, leaving the water bottle sitting where she'd been, at Karl's side. Glancing down at him, her expression firms. She's not a fighter, not in the sense that even Wrathion seemed to mean.
But she would do anything she could to protect a friend — short of sacrificing herself, which would be, in her opinion, pretty dumb. ]
Stay safe, Karl-san. Please.
[ She turns away, tapping the toes of her sneaker against the ground. Good. It's a tight fit; her laces haven't relaxed. She's ready to run, even as her hands tighten around her backpack straps and she resolutely buckles the one that lies over her upper chest. She has to duck down and wind through the short distraction of a maze she's built for them, breaking into a jog to hit the mouth of the alley. A scan of the street shows there are two police robots, one on this end, so close, too close, to where Karl's hidden.
Chihiro bolts forward into the street, whipping her head around to ensure no cars were careening down the road right then. She shouts as she goes, using her arms to wave down the officers like she might direct a plane on where to go on the tarmac, if she knew. ]
Hey! Officers! Look at me! I'm J-Walking!
[ It's very dangerous and also actually probably illegal, okay. Her shouts draw their attention, and her claim, so easily verified, draws their focus. The two officers start after her as she bolts, leading them away from here without a backward glance.
She'll be fast enough, even if she's not as fast as a spirit, because this, something like this, is what she can do. And it even works. Sorry, Karl, she didn't mean to leave you to wake on your own, and she really will try to circle back around, but for now she's racing away, doing what she can to keep out of custody of the law. ]
no subject
It's an odd feeling, realizing that his body no longer hurts all over, that his blood has calmed. The pulsing of his power is a permanent reminder of his anomaly (or is his human aside the abnormality here?), but he's gotten used enough to that, relatively speaking. It's been there for as long as he can remember; he's simply learned, since Graham's defeat, to stop ignoring it.]
Chihiro?
[After pulling the blanket off of him, he rises to his feet. No sign of her anywhere—no hint of her presence.]
Damn it!
[He can make a few guesses as to how the situation might've ended up this way, and he's desperately hoping for one of the better cases, but he didn't make it this far as a soldier by not expecting the worst. He takes out his CereVice, only to find that it's not cooperating (figures). He half-wishes it'd zapped him in his sleep, or some such.
Ah, well. He's used to doing things the old-fashioned away, at any rate.
Swiftly folding the blanket into a makeshift package (it's a sweet gesture from Chihiro, but even though she couldn't have possibly known, seeing the dragon is almost a mockery of the legacy he fails to live up to), he gets ready to move out.
This is wrong. People aren't supposed to take care of him. It's supposed to be the other way around.]
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Unfortunately, she went and got herself lost in escaping the police robots, turning corners and ducking and dodging and getting into parts of the city she didn't know yet even when they weren't in chaos. With her CereVice locked up in the apartment she'd been staying in, she was thoroughly out of contact even if his CereVice did decide to cooperate.
Holed up on a terrace she consoles herself with the belief that for all the burning in her lungs from all the running, and the likewise registered burning in her muscles, she's helped one of her friends here. It's important.
And she knows that Karl being safe means that others will be safe, too, because he's that kind of person. She'll just keep up with her dodge and duck and crawl along lifestyle, as a ten year old extremely out of her depth does in a foreign environment surrounded by happenings that are way outside of her pay grade. ]