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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no subject
Jojo!
[Yusuke had't entirely grasped the idea of Hamon that Jonathan had tried to explain to him earlier on, but anyone with energy that felt as kind and protective as his could at least be able to ease the victim's suffering to some degree. He nods over to where the survivors were resting, face grim.]
They're over here. I dunno how many more are out there, but these guys were the closest.
Can your Hamon stuff do anything to help with the injuries? I'm no doctor, but some of this looks serious as hell.
cw for various serious injuries probably
...comparatively calmer. Because who even knows what the fuck is going on anymore.]
I've been in enough scrapes of my own to know it can be life-saving. Still, I can only do so much in a short amount of time. I'll try to be as efficient as I can, but try to keep the others as alert as you can until I reach them. I trust you!
[He glances quickly over the injured before kneeling over a man whose legs are bent in directions that can't possibly be natural and laying his hands over his body. Hamon starts concentrating in Jonathan's hands almost immediately, spreading over the injured man like a warm veil, and the broken limbs slowly start to heal and correct themselves like nothing had ever happened.]
It will be alright.
[In spite of everything, his voice is remarkably steady.]
no subject
... which seemed to be Jonathan, apparently, with how swiftly he was taking care of things. There was a sharp nod at the other man's request, and he moves to the closest survivor, doing his best to prop them up and keep them conscious.]
Got it. But don't max yourself out, alright? We don't need one more injured person on top of everything else!
[Like Yusuke can really talk-- his hands are already scraped and bloody from tearing through the wreckage, and his energy levels are already dropping from carrying so many people. His body would be able to fix them up in time, but the constant aggravation to the wounds weren't quite helping.
Yusuke glances over towards Jonathan, looking to see what he was planning to do with his energy... and his jaw nearly dropped. He hadn't seen healing abilities like that since he last saw Yukina, and even that wasn't entirely 100%. Just what was this man truly capable of?]
... jeez. Maybe I spoke too soon.
no subject
That's the process he runs through while he patches up the victims. Bones are the easiest - he's able to treat them with startling efficiency and equal care. Scrapes and cuts are about the same, but any larger gashes and the healing process becomes more difficult. He isn't Dio - he can't mend burns or deep puncture wounds in seconds, and if anyone has lost a limb, there's nothing he can do but try to stop the bleeding and ease their pain.
Sometimes, that's enough. And sooner or later, as he makes his way from patient to patient, he's going to come close enough to Yusuke where he feels the need to check in on him.]
How have you been doing?
[He says with his hands looking like small suns.]
no subject
The warm, soothing energy nearby was like a beacon in all of the despair, and he lifts his head up at Jonathan's question. Ah, right, this wasn't a completely lost cause. It was amazing how much better some of these people looked after Jonathan's help.]
Crappy. Pretty sure there's a ton injured people stuck in that train or underneath it, and this is the furthest thing from easy. How the hell do firefighters do it?
[His eyes flicker over to the intense glow of the other man's hands, the exact nature of his powers still a mystery.]
But... the ones that made it out have a chance, at least, so I'm glad for that. You're not worn out from that yet, though?
no subject
[Jonathan focuses on the child almost as soon as he lays eyes on them, the creases between his eyebrows deepening with concern and concentration. It always pain him when tragedy strikes, when people are hurt, but seeing someone so young in such pain is fills him with anguish - and in this case, anger. There was no point in to any tragedy, but here, knowing that one entity was ultimately responsible for so much suffering makes his blood boil under the surface.
So far, he's been level-headed, but some of that ire starts to spill out in the form of determination as he stands up and gazes at the train, clenching a fist to his chest.]
...I'm going in there.
no subject
Nah, I should be thanking you. You're the one making sure these people can actually walk out of here again. All I'm doing is acting like a one-man ambulance at this point.
[And as he watches Jonathan breathe new life into the broken child's body, it only solidifies his opinion. Yusuke wasn't a healer, and he probably never would be-- but it was times like this, when there were no tangible culprits to fight back against and so many people injured, that he felt largely useless. There's no use having all of this strength if you can't fight and protect others, after all.
So as Jonathan stands up and states his intent, he scrambles to his feet, his fatigue forgotten for the moment.]
What? Are you nuts? That thing might be leaking gas or something! We don't know if messing with it is gonna make it explode!