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
[Maybe he should be spending a little more time paying attention to the robocops?! But no, apparently the grievous fashion offenses that are happening here are More Important. At least his color scheme isn't magenta and peeling school paint yellow though, okay. Small blessings...
The robocops, on the other hand, appear to be entirely out of blessings today. Kashuu just straight-up lops one of their robo-heads off... That's probably more of a warrant for arrest than wearing 90s jackets. As it clatters to the ground, he takes a hopping step back.]
Don't give me a hard time today, got it? [POINTING AT THE NEAREST BOT.]
no subject
[... oh, that is indeed a robo-head bouncing in front of his vision right now. Before he could properly process what was going on, however, the weight of the metallic cops shift off of him, their focus now on a more immediate threat in front of them.]
'YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR ASSAULT ON AN OFFICER--'
'YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR ILLEGAL WEAPON POSSESSION--'
'YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR HIGH LEVELS OF ARROGANCE--'
[Jeez, what did this jerk do? He got an inkling of an idea, if the headless robot and their threats were any indication, but he didn't exactly want to owe this guy any favors. As the robo-cops begin to lunge towards Kashuu, tasers at the ready, Yusuke begins to wiggle free from the grip of the lone cop keeping an eye on him. Positioning himself just right, he rockets a kick at the bot, foot charged with energy, the strike leaving a sparking dent in the metallic body.]
HEY!! Are you crazy?! These things are gonna maul you!
no subject
[That's apparently the only qualm he has about these accusations, though?!
In any case, he's making that "assault on an officer" an "assault on several officers". After taking a second out to be impressed by Yusuke's turbo shonen kick, he refocuses his attention on the bots sweeping in, armed with cuffs and ready to tase a hooligan. Fortunately for him, he's quite nimble on his feet - like ridiculously so, especially for someone in high heeled boots. He dodges one taser jab without much fuss, sidestepping the bot and whacking it with his blade's sheath.]
It'll take more than these guys to get the better of me—!
no subject
[But the robocop is cut short by Kashuu's counterattack, tumbling like a sack of metal to the ground. The other officers continue to push forward, the flat drone of 'ASSAULT' and VIOLATION ringing through the air like some sort of bizarre chant. However, it's not just tasers and cuffs they're bringing out now-- guns and buzzsaws and various other weapons (plus a hose nozzle) pop out of hidden compartments in their bodies, ready to arrest the upstart by any means necessary. Thanks for the quality police force, CERES!!!
Yusuke, in the meanwhile, finds his way to his feet again, delivering another spirit-charged hit to the closest robot. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was a bit grateful that Kashuu managed to draw the cops' attention to him instead. It was easier to slam down these suckers when there weren't so many to focus on. The other boy seemed pretty adept at what he was doing, but... there was something familiar about him that Yusuke couldn't quite place yet. Like he was similar to someone he met...
... he's not going to figure it out if Kashuu gets turned into cashew butter, though.]
Yeah? Well, you better back those claims up, and quick! This is beginning to get ten levels of seriously ugly.
no subject
[Arrestable levels of arrogance aside, Kashuu is also entirely used to falling back into the kinda-sorta-backup role. Taking directions is easier than giving them, okay!
And fighting is easier than both, considering it comes to him about as naturally as breathing. The buzzsaws are easy enough to handle - he's used to dodging fast-moving blades - and even if the bullets aren't quite the same as musketeers, it's a similar enough principle that he doesn't get his dumb ass sniped.
But oh, that hose nozzle. Oh boy. He's in the process of severing the arms of a different copbot and when he turns around, he just gets a nice, refreshing faceful of hydrant water.]
—Oh my god, are you kidding me?! I literally just finished drying off from that stupid flood!
[INDIGNANT SPLUTTERING ASIDE he just sort of... leaps at this bot like it just spat on his shoes and called his mother awful names, tackling it into the street after cutting through the hose. What a useful guy.]
no subject
Of course, Yusuke wasn't about to sit back on any of the action, either. Dodging and weaving through the bullets and the fast blades, he buries his fist into one of the bots, lashing out a kick at a few advancing nearby to drive them back. He waits until there's enough cops behind the impaled robot to make his move, the robo-cop suddenly glowing an ominous blue.]
SHOTGUN!
[A barrage of blasts fly out of the copbot's back, hitting the others and sending them flying with a metallic screech. Kashuu's cry of outrage, however, quickly draws his attention, catching the tail-end of his fury on the unsuspecting robot. A surprised laugh bubbles out of him, the reaction unexpected but hilarious as hell.]
Aw, what's the matter? I heard the wet look is in this season!
[Yusuke, do you really think you should talk to him about fashion......]
no subject
[ANGRILY WIPING THE WATER OFF OF HIS FACE... And then standing up from the bot, which is most definitely no longer moving. Death for the grievous offense of making Kashuu look anything less than his best, honestly.
He'll glance over and survey the rather impressive damage done to the other robots after that, though... The spike of energy had been bizarre to feel, but at least he can focus on it a little more now that he's not busy avenging himself.]
That was a pretty neat trick.
[No compliments for his mom jacket, but Kashuu will always give applause where it's due when it comes to rough and tumble scrapping.]
no subject
Yeah, well, I tend to save my best material for not-robot-fighting occasions.
[That grin of his turns a little cocky, though, and he gestures towards the robot wreckage with his thumb.]
Same goes for my moves too. But I gotta hand it to you-- you're not that shabby with that sword of yours. Almost makes me wanna forgive you for knocking my style, but--
[Before he can finish, however, one of the robocops lunges forward, not nearly as injured as the others.]
'VIOLATION'!
no subject
A valiant attempt.
With its cords sparking and severed, Kashuu raises a foot and kicks it over. He then flicks his blade to the side, clearing it of oil.]
...Aaanyway! [Lord, he's tired. After making a little huffy sound, he glances down at his blade, tapping the edge.] Geez, I'm not made to go up against robots. [Metal versus metal never fares well?!] What a pain! Can you take over from here? I'm gonna need to get buffed at this rate.
[He says, even though basically all of the robocops are now officially out of commission...]
no subject
-- except, no, Kashuu's already got it covered, from the looks of it? It's definitely not going to get up again after being bled dry like that, anyway. Lowering his finger, Yusuke lets out a low whistle, clearly impressed. The other boy's choice of words does grab his attention, however, somewhat odd after the smack-down he delivered just earlier.]
Yeah, you are kinda on the scrawny side, aren't you?
[Yusuke, that's not the 'buff' he means and you know it-- but his eyes flick over to the robot remains, and then back to Kashuu's sword, pieces slowly clicking into his head. Now that he had more time to focus...]
Anyway, I'd LOVE to, but it looks like you hogged all the robot ass-kicking fun this time around. I definitely call dibs on them if their back-up winds up rolling by, though.
Besides, blades can be kinda delicate, y'know? Easy to break and stuff. You got some pretty crazy moves, but you may wanna be more careful with yourself while things are on the fritz.
no subject
Excuse you, I'm not scrawny. I'm slender.
[TOSSING HIS HAIR. This sword is also apparently a diva. Maybe he's just pretending to be a sword spirit and he's actually just the tsukumogami of Beyonce's microphone.
He'll worry about potential backup bots later, though! More important things first - like the fact that Yusuke is one of the first people he's met in a longass time to actually get what he is pretty much right off the bat. That makes his expression light up a little, and he bounces briefly to his toes.]
You don't have to be worried! I take good care of myself. Have you met one of my comrades before? [A beat as he recalls the blast that had been fired off earlier.] Or can you just, like... tell?
no subject
But Kashuu's reaction confirmed his hunch, and a wry grin sneaks across his face as he stuffs his hands into his coat pockets. It was always pretty nice to find other spirits and the like in this high-tech city-- it was something he was familiar with.]
Well, it's kinda a little of both? Supernatural stuff was sorta my gig for a bit back home. I'd be pretty lousy at it if I couldn't pick up on that stuff.
But I'm pretty sure I did, back when a ton of us all got uh... sent places. Imano? The squirt? Used to have a ton of hair, but chopped it off when we were stuck underground? That kid. I don't wanna assume, since I know not all spirits know one another, but he did feel an awful lot like you.
no subject
Ooh, really? Are you some kinda onmyoji, then? D'you summon us? [Now he's darting in closer, clearly curious and giving Yusuke Of The 80s Fashion a careful look-over.] You don't really look like one... But I guess our aruji doesn't, either.
[As for the mention of Imano, that gets a definite reaction of recognition.]
Mm, yeah - we're both sword tsukumogami. We come from the same army, too! He's a really precious comrade of mine, so if you helped to look out for him while you guys were down there, thanks a bunch. ...What's your name, anyway?
no subject
Uh... no, I'm just your average spirit powered bad-ass, that's all. I mean, I guess I beat up bad dudes and demons like they would? But remembering spells and junk to open portals is kinda past my skill level.
[And given Yusuke's a demon and all, it might not even work?? Although Itsuki managed a hole to the demon realm by himself, so who knew?
It was kind of nice to meet a friend of Imano's, though, if not bittersweet. Yusuke hadn't been able to talk much with him before he vanished, which was a shame, but he seemed to be a good kid from as far as he could tell. There is a brief, awkward look at the mention of watching after him, however.]
Heh... well, I dunno if I can take any credit for that. He had a better handle on things than most of us did on that trip, but I did keep an eye out on him to be on the safe side. [Absolutely not gonna mention that Yusuke tried to get a ghost off their asses by bargaining with it and got killed in the process.... w h o o p s....... (he did do it for Imano and co's sake, though)]
I'm Yusuke, though. Yusuke Urameshi. You?
no subject
Oh... Huh. I've never heard of anything like that before. So you're some kinda spirit fighter? Are you a spirit?
[He's assuming so, but one can never be too sure considering most onmyoji he knows (or knows of) are pretty much entirely human. Spirit-y things are just a grab bag of surprises!
He also doesn't know that Yusuke majorly caught the death while down there considering Imano had been a little loopy when he first came back, but he'd be even more grateful if he did know. For now, he... well. Still seems pretty grateful, honestly. Because Imano is a dang handful.]
That's good, too. That guy can be real trouble and he gets himself into hot water a lot, so it's nice that you were there to watch out for him. [A satisfied nod!]
Nice to meet you, though! I'm Kashuu Kiyomitsu.
no subject
Same. [Though his grin does turn a little wicked.] Although I still think you're way off about the fashion thing.
[He begins to edge towards one of the fallen robots, stepping over oil and sparking, severed arms.]
Anyway, you can kinda say that, I guess. Maybe you've just been on the good side of the law too much to really run-into my sorta types. Or... y'know, never stepped foot in a fighting tournament or anything like that.
As for the spirit thing... sorta? I mean, I'm not human, but I'm not a ghost anymore either. Demons count for that kinda thing, right?
[A sound interrupts his musings, however, and he gestures over to Kashuu.]
Crap. We gotta move our asses. These tin cans might be bringing back-up.
no subject
[AND HE'S A RUDE PUNK but he seems a little more good-humored this time rather than just openly critical...
He meanders over a little as Yusuke goes to check the robot, more curious in what he's saying than in their poor broken arms and the oil puddles now pooling around the sidewalk.]
Oooh. Yeah, totally! I didn't know any back home since oni don't really hang around where people are, but they still count. [DEMONS!! He likes them well enough.] And I guess you're right about that, too. I don't really have time to do stuff like that with my line of work back home. We basically are the law, sooo...
[Kind of... The actual time police are their enemies but they sure try their best anyway.
And then he's just gently stepping away OOPS, who wants to deal with another round of robot tango? Not him.]
You got anywhere good to go? I have a few places that these guys really tend to overlook, if you don't.