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-A: Bottle Episode?

[ You and Jaune are trapped inside a large hardware/appliances/WHATEVER store. Things inside are relatively quiet compared to the madness outside, but the civilians who are trapped along with the characters seem on edge nonetheless. There's no easy way out with all the steel rollers covering all the windows. ]

We gotta find a way out of here - they need help outside!

Phase II-B: Come With Me If You Want To Live

[ It's mayhem in the city, machines of all sorts are attacking just about anyone. Amidst all the chaos, you may find yourself approached by a daunting construction bot. It appears to be headed straight for you, and whether you noticed or were prepared for fight or flight, a car suddenly crashes into the robot's foot and causes it collapse.

Before the robot can readjust itself upright again, the car instantly backs up to your position.

The door is kicked open.

Jaune Arc is the driver. ]

Get in!! Now!!!

[ There's a tiny splatter of blood across Jaune's face, but he seems to be fine. The bit of vomit on his lap is probably more of a concern. As for the car, it seems to be under Jaune's control for now. ]

Phase III: Gesundheit

[ And then things just got weirder. Now, Jaune is being carried off by another construction bot, it seems to be headed towards a burning building.

That's not unusual in the life of Jaune Arc, though.

What's baffling here is that Jaune's code appears to be messed up, and he's strangely speaking German for some reason. He doesn't even know the language, but for some reason he speaks it fluently... and it's not being translated into Cerealian! ]

Hiiilf mir!! Bitte!!! [ Wait, what. ]

Closed; Pyrrha

[ It's pandemonium by now, not unlike at the Battle of Beacon. Having evacuated all the civilians they could, Jaune and Pyrrha join them inside a monorail, making sure the journey to a safe destination isn't interrupted by any more bloodthirsty machines.

Looking down from the moving monorail, the streets are still filled with more people they could have saved. Thankfully, it's not all just victims and tragedy beneath them, there also many heroes doing the same thing one half of team JNPR is trying to do. ]

I wonder if Ruby and the others are okay...

✮ ✮ ✮ WILDCARD ✮ ✮ ✮

( I'll roll with anything, go crazy! )

[ With all the seats taken by anxious civilians and alien residents, Pyrrha's standing near the monorail car doors, peering out the window at the streets below. Although the communicators aren't strictly working right now, Pyrrha keeps one hand in her pocket, half-expecting it to vibrate with an update from - someone. Anyone.

She hadn't even been able to help him against the robots in their aggrieved rampage. Bitterly self-conscious of her own failure, Pyrrha has to force herself not to ignore him. ]

I'm sure they're fine. [ It's not as forced as it could sound, considering. Her voice never loses that comforting, even note. ] Ruby and Naoki are more then capable against whatever this place would throw at them.

Yeah... you're right.

[ He can always count on Pyrrha to tell him things he should already know by now. Yet, still, there are Weiss and Yang to worry about. ]

What about you? Are you... [ Is she okay? He stops himself from finishing the question, knowing how much he dislikes it whenever it's directed at him. ]

[ She rouses herself as best she can and gives him a clear, honest look. ]

I had you looking out for me.

I know it's not easy... feeling helpless, like you're weighing your friends down... but I feel a lot better with you here.

[ She's looking out for him, too, he knows that. Though, now that they have a breather, it may be worth asking if this experience has sparked Pyrrha's soul yet. ]

Do you feel any, I dunno... difference in your Aura yet?

[ The question doesn't come from a place of impatience, but rather for tactical purposes. Her answer will affect his decision making later. ]

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