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.
|
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. ] |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
[ Shigeru’s apartment sure is out for his blood as seen by the sudden gaping hole in his door as he stumbles out with his gate activated behind him. He’ll reseal the door shut as he mends it back together as a loud thud occurs on the other side of the door back inside the apartment itself. He looks a bit pale but otherwise okay. He was really looking forward to cooking a nice breakfast today?! Ceres why this. Either way he looks pretty dejected cause he just got thrown out of his apartment by his appliances so, you know, cheer up a sad cinnamon roll if you please? ]
Phase II a
[ With all the nuttiness going on it’s bound to have an effect on the cerevice themselves. So whatever you’re doing today Shigeru might offer his own hellos via his device, the only way he really can tbh, but the words he types don’t quite get conveyed in the normal conventional method. Instead his own device will glitch out and you’ll just get a bunch of emotes instead. ]
（*´▽｀*）! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Phase II b
[ Given that all of ceres’ technology is going haywire that means the cybuddies are not immune. And someone’s cybuddy fox just happens to be glitching out pretty hard as he runs through the streets stealing whatever it can grab from people. A cute little fox hoard will be accumulating in Shigeru’s home as the week draws on. He really doesn’t like foreign objects in his personal space?! Fox why.
So perhaps you have something shiny or something sweet you’re eating only it gets snatched away in an instant, before you even have time to savor it, by a ball of orange fur. Shigeru isn’t far behind as he comes up to anyone who might look like a victim. This has happened before so he’s sorta used to it… ]
He keeps taking things! I’m so sorry, I’m trying to make him stop but he’s not listening.
[ And eventually once the days of stealing are done Shigeru will send out a text to everyone in the city. ]
I’m so sorry! Was something taken from you during the week? I’m trying to figure out who all of these things belong to. If you had something stolen from a…fox cybuddy recently could you please stop by the apartment? I think I might have whatever it is that’s yours. I’m really sorry for all of this!
Phase III
[ So Shigeru’s powers are on the fritz which can be deadly and dangerous as one might encounter as a scared sort of cry erupts from him one day. He was just sitting in the park minding his own business when his gate will activate randomly and he’ll start disintegrating the entire bench he’s currently sitting on?! Like oh my god how can this week possibly get any worse.
He’ll jump up from where he’s sitting and hold out his hands trying to stop the fast disintegration of that park bench, but he really can’t control himself. He looks so upset right now that he might just look like he’s about to cry. Why won’t it stop? He really doesn’t like this at all. Out of all the powers to be wonky, why his. If you try to get close to him he’ll just back away with a look of fear on his face. Don’t come near him, he’s not sure what might happen. ]
Phase III
The park has been marginally more sane than the colony streets elsewhere. Maybe that's what this man had been thinking too, but right now, he looks as scared as she feels. Was what happened to the bench himself or someone else? ]
Sir? Are you okay?
no subject
This was bad. This was so bad. He doesn't know what to do. He needs to get out of here before he hurts someone though. He'll shake his head and look back at her, mouthing 'I'm so sorry!' to her. ]
no subject
It's equally clear that this man is distressed and not trying to harm her, or the ground, or the poor bench (may it long rest in pieces). But he wasn't speaking, just mouthing things, and he couldn't gesture, or was afraid to. ]
It's — it's okay. Sir, are you unable to speak right now? You can nod for yes, or shake your head for no.
[ Keeping her distance and not attempting to come any closer, but also trying to figure out a means of communicating. He might need help finding a way away from others. Getting out of this place if it was making things worse, or just... away to somewhere else if this was part of the problem people were having with their abilities. ]
no subject
He nods 'yes' as he looks around again. He really wish he could talk, this was frustrating for both parties involved. ]
no subject
Asking yes or no questions? Also good. It's like the world's unplanned version of twenty questions. ]
Okay. Do you want to leave the gardens right now?
no subject
He gives Chihiro a nod, wringing his hands into the hem of his shirt as he tries to not focus on one thing for too long.
He would really like to go now. ]
no subject
I can scout a way out ahead of you. Then call back when it's clear, and you can focus on... walking, or whatever it is you need to do to be okay.
[ And to not send anything else away like things have been going. It makes her heart beat fast, but he's not aggressive or intentionally harming anyone. Getting him away if that's what he needs should help, shouldn't it? ]
Will you agree to that?
(no subject)
(no subject)
Phase III
Hey. What happened?
[And the man is... backing away, looking terrified. Sebastian stops and looks down - his clothes had become painfully brightly colored a while back, but nothing else seems to be wrong.]
...It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you.
no subject
He just doesn't want to disintegrate anyone. He'll continue to back away a little as he looks still pretty severely shaken. ]
no subject
...I'll stay here. And you can stay there.
[It's really hard to communicate with someone who can't talk, especially when they won't let you close enough to type. On the other hand, maybe the Cerevices will cooperate for a while? Even though nothing else seems to be working right.]
Can you, uh, text me?
[He doesn't know Shigeru well, but when Shigeru's acting like this he can't help but worry.]
no subject
I'm sorry. My powers are acting weird. It's better if you just leave.
[ Because who knows what'll happen if they really get out of control. It was bad enough that he disintegrated that park bench... ]
phase ii-a
... Um. I don't think typing is going to work. Do you know sign language?
no subject
You know sign language?!
no subject
I had to learn a bit to see if I could possibly counteract some stuff from CERES. Although I'm not that good, haha...
no subject
I'm really happy to see that someone else here knows it! It's a bit hard...typing all the time. But you can learn and practice! I...I could help you if you want!
no subject
[ Her eyes brighten slightly, hands clasped together. ]
It was one of the things I was studying -- along with braille, too.
no subject
[ Shigeru is easily excited about things like this. But the less people he has to text...the easier it is on him. ]
no subject
(no subject)
iia
That's not words or a face....he's disappointed.]
...I suppose text is no longer a valid form of communication?
no subject
「(°ヘ°)?! (╯ ･ ᗜ ･ )╯︵ ┻━┻?
[ Guess not...he is just so done with this right now. ]
no subject
Perhaps we should try something else...we could find pen and paper somewhere! Or, ah...hand signals?
ლ(´～`ლ)
no subject
He might actually try signing something in sign language just then. ]
Do you know sign language? [ Is what Shigeru asks, but it probably just looks like a bunch of weird hand gestures tbh. ]
no subject
????]
no subject
Either way they needed a method of communicating so Shigeru will start with charades. Making hand signals that means 'they need two pads to write on so they should go to the store' though it's probably hard to understand but he hopes Naki gets it?! ]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)