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 I A:

[Things begin as normal for Rei, basically. She wakes up and checks through her CEREVice like she's gotten in the habit of doing, noticing a message from one Bellona Recreare. That alone is enough to get her to sit up in bed and take notice, and the words make her blood run cold.

That cold feeling doesn't last long though, because her bed decides that it is going to do it's best impression of a trebuchet...and flings her across the room. Housemates and anyone that happens to be staying over, visiting, or just outside will hear a loud THUMP and an angry scream...

Ruh-Roh.]

Phase 1B

[There's only so much furious appliance Rei can take before she's just had enough. Anyone walking by will hear a resounding explosion and a gout of flame erupts from one of the windows, the whole of it melting in a rush just before a collection of hurled kitchen devices start tearing out the remnants of what was once a window. A blender cracks to pieces against the far wall, a toaster embeds itself where it impacts, and a furious looking food processor flies out and starts buzzing angrily at anyone passing by.

And then Sailor Mars appears from the crack, carrying a microwave that's spitting sparks out the front like it's some sort of venomous snake.]

You might want to move. The dishwasher and refrigerator aren't far behind me.

Phase II A (with a side order of Phase III as well)

Assistance Required. Subject is Resisting Arrest. Release this unit at once.

[There's a Police Bot that definitely just attempted to arrest Rei for the crime of Moonwalking While Drunk, despite the fact that she's not. And said police bot is now dangling by it's mechanical throat as a furious (Now Transformed) Sailor Mars holds it over the edge of a parking garage. Several more bots lay strewn at her feet, sparking and filled with burn-marks.

The angry girl looks over her shoulder at you, a stern look in her eyes and a determined set to her jaw.]

What do you think? Should I release it?

[It's just a robot...]

Phase II B

[Rei's one of those unlucky ones who happens to be on that derailed train. Sort of. In a moment's notice, she's gone...replaced with the commanding mini-skirted figure of Sailor Mars. Looking around, she reaches out to the nearest people, and with a jerk of her other hand she detonates a wall with a blast of fire, opening a way out.]

This way! Out the side! Take my hand, if you're afraid!

Phase III

[One minute Rei's out in her normal clothes doing damage control. Nothing special, just heavy slacks, a shirt and wearing gloves and boots. She's doing what she can for people who might have been trapped by the train, or doing cleanup, or really any sort of physical labor that needs doing...when suddenly her outfit changes into something much less work friendly and practical.

And that's when her composure breaks completely. She turns bright red and yells out:]

Why THIS?!

Phase IV

[And then it's all over. Things seem settled. Except for one thing, and it's got Rei more upset than it really should.

She's sitting on a bench outside her apartment holding a small robot, a little panda Cybuddy that she's had since she arrived, with both Phobos and Deimos perched on either side like little gargoyles. Her head, bowed low, trembles a little and her hands shake uncontrollably.]

Why...? [It's weird, maybe, to think that she's upset by this...but Lacus was a presence she had gotten used to. It had a name, it had been a friend...after a fashion, her first experiment with having technology for more than necessity.]

What is wrong with you, Lacus?

Wildcard

[Come at me! Rei's staying out of ViViD but any other prompt is good! Poke me via PM/Plurk if you wanna plot something special!]

[A girl? Allura had rounded the corner trying to escape a swarm of robots, something she was all too familiar with thanks to the Galra. But she doesn't have time to really answer the girl's question.]

I'd worry less about that one, and the ones that aren't far behind!

[well, not far behind her anyway.]

[Mars makes a decision in that split second. There are more coming? That means that she needs both hands. So, she drops the robot off the side of the garage, and it falls into the street to be hit by a bus.

Turning, she moves to Allura's side in a blur of motion.]

How many, and where are they following you from?

[Luckily, Kara dodges the toaster in time, and stares in awe at the sights before her. Impressive. Surely the person -- or thing -- behind that has a lot of power...and/or a lot of frustration. The combination isn't good, but if anyone understands, it's Kara, especially after her own poor experiences today.

But she doesn't expect a young woman in a strange yet oddly fashionable red-themed outfit to be behind the fiery littering when she emerges. Again, fair enough. She's been there some (many) days, just not as well-dressed.]

Don't have to tell me twice.

[So she does, but watches with hands on her hips -- just from a distance. She's impressed at Mars' power.]

I get it, I really do. Did your bed shock you too?

[Mars flits out towards the stranger, glaring behind her and moving with steady, purposeful strides. Her boots click on the floor tiles and she starts making her way towards a stairwell.]

It didn't shock me. It tossed me across the room. [There's an incredulous snort that follows.]

I'm not surprised at all that there's something electrical in them to shock though. Christ, I can't even begin to imagine what's in them.

no need to apologize! obv I am behind too, also work and life, RIP

badcoverband - 2016-08-03 20:03 (UTC) - Expand

OTA!

Phase IIa

Sorry I'm behind,. work was busy and my power is out. So, phone tags.

1B

Sorry I'm behind,. work was busy and my power is out. So, phone tags.

IV

Sorry I'm behind,. work was busy and my power is out. So, phone tags.

Phase IV

Sorry I'm behind,. work was busy and my power is out. So, phone tags.

Phase II-A

Sorry I'm behind,. work was busy and my power is out. So, phone tags.

IB

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