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
I'd take that as a yes. But seriously, you came in at the right time! You totally saved Waddles and me from those evil robots! How can I ever repay you?
[Especially now that she was trying to wipe her tears away]
no subject
Nah, you don't hafta repay me. If anything, I owed you for that nice sweater, so now we're even.
[He pauses and looks around, giving Mabel a chance to wipe her tears away and collect herself, also on the lookout for more bots.]
How about we find somewhere to hunker down until it's safe?
[Raven's well aware he's not in the best of conditions right now so he shouldn't be pushing himself, but if he can at least keep Mabel safe, that's good enough.]
no subject
Hehe, I think he likes you! I think somebody wants to give him a hug!
[Because you know you want to hug the cute witty piggy, Raven! Can you resist the power of the cuteness? Can you??]
But yeah, we definitely should! Let's see though...if I were a crazy electronic running all around, where would be the last place I would hide in...?
[Think, think, think! Ponder, ponder, ponder!]
no subject
Uh... Hey there, buddy. [At least he's friendlier than Repede, too. To Mabel's question, he looks up and hums thoughtfully.]
Ah, I dunno. A swimming pool?
[It's... only a half-serious suggestion. Can they really predict what crazy machines would do if they're going haywire in the first place?]
no subject
[Guess who took his suggestion seriously? As she started tugging on Raven's hand, she narrowed her eyes before using one of her hand as a binocular!
Don't ever suggest ideas that was completely left field, Raven. You're talking to a girl who definitely thinks outside the box!]
no subject
[Wait, is she actually taking him seriously? He stops petting Waddles and straightens up.]
I dunno, isn't there one in the gym? But the machines could be a problem... [Hmmm. He's kind of reluctant to lead Mabel through that into what could be a dangerous situation, so he's not sure it's a smart suggestion after all.]
no subject
[She said before she pondered about it. Whatever it's going to be, it needed to be quick! And super fast too! It had to be so that those robots won't know what hit them!
But the problem was what could she think of? In the middle of her thought though, she suddenly had an idea!]
Oh, I know! What if we dressed up like those robots? We'll be so great at it, they won't know what hit them!
[Yes, she was serious about this. Just roll with it.]
no subject
[Sure, Maya might've asked if he was a cyborg once, but that's different, right? Probably? He's pretty sure he can't convince anyone he's a crazy police bot.
But anyway, now is no time to be indulging a kid's crazy schemes!]
If it comes to it, I'll fight 'em off. I think that's the safest option.
no subject
[With all the store running around, there has to be a costume store around here so why not?]
You sure though? I mean, if we gotta fight then we'll do it but I just don't want you to get hurt!
[Especially when the last time she saw him, it looked like he was ready to fall over. With how much he was coughing, she wondered if he was truly going to be okay from all that fighting.]
no subject
[It'll be fine... Probably! As long as his heart holds up.]
So if we're decided, are we ready ta get movin'? We shouldn't hang around in case backup rolls along.
no subject
[Wait for it...!]
Super Omega Love Patrol Alpha, stopper of evil crimes all around Cerealia! [Ta-dah! Why no, she's not scared right now. Not at all!
And totally not using this as a way to hide all of it! What are you talking about?]
no subject
[He grins, getting pumped up by that little announcement! Actually, the fact she's trying to hide how scared she is and her love of silly names kind of reminds him of Karol. Now he really does have to look out for her.]
Okay, how about you lead the way to the gym, and I'll look out for bad guys? [He's still holding his bow close, ready to spring back into combat at a second's notice.]
no subject
[She shouted before pointing to the location of the gym! With each step that she took, the more determined she looked! Although, that didn't erase the fear in her.
It was funny, even after all her troubles in Gravity Falls, that didn't change how different everything felt right now in Cerealia. Which was why she just looked back up at Raven with a nervous smile. ]
Hey, Raven, you really think we're going to make it over there?
no subject
[Yes, he's still determined to tease her about that. Though he does realise she's genuinely worried, so he offers a serious answer too.]
If we get sidetracked and things get dangerous, just run and hide until the coast is clear. Got it?
no subject
[Although, with the talk of Flynn, she couldn't help but be reminded that she needed to tell him of her puppy crush sooner or later. But until then...?]
But I don't worry Raven. If that ever does happen, I'm sure we'll figure something out! If I manage to survive the apocalypse, I'm sure I can do it again!
[...Hopefully!]
no subject
[He's about to troop on ahead, feeling encouraged by her words! ... Until it sinks in exactly what she just said, and he has to do a double take down at Mabel.]
Wait, what was that about survivin' an apocalypse? [Is she talking about the Flamines destroying her world, or...]
no subject
[That's when she kind of shifted her eyes a little. As she looked to the right and then to the left, that's when she started whispering as low as she possibly could. It was that serious!!]
If you ever meet a yellow talking triangle, whatever you do? Do not talk to him at all! Seriously, don't even look at his way either! Because if you do, you are going to regret for the rest of your life!