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
he does put in an apology, though, even if it's quick. ]
Sorry, sorry! I'll owe you one, okay? Help me out here.
[ for both trying to throw him under the bus and for... trying to currently enlist his help in defeating these robots, because from what tsurumaru's seen during their subway adventure, naoki's abilities are something that he has absolute faith in. ]
no subject
[By his lopsided smile coupled with the silly request, it doesn't seem like it's bothering him at all... There's been worse things, for sure. He eyes the police bots coming closer, and he works one of his hands back and forth, flexing his wrist with a grimmer expression.
Then... Just like he destroyed walls... he slams his fist into a nearby bot and sends it flying in a crumpled, damaged heap.]
no subject
[ whether naoki wants him to go through with that request or not, tsurumaru returns that smile with a bright grin of his own, before quickly stepping to the side to give him more room to take on these bots... and promptly starts clapping once the first bot is down, in an awed sort of way. ]
That was cool — so cool.
[ especially so, because it's a different style of fighting! but maybe the robots are angry about their fallen bot comrade, because now they seem a bit angrier than before, and they're all rushing forward at once — ]
no subject
As the bots rush him, he takes one step back--but that's only to shift his weight, so he can bring one of his feet slamming down. A crack spreads out from that spot and then, thrusting his hands in front of him, he lifts them up slowly as though he's pulling something up from the earth.
...That something is blasts of white energy, coming straight out of the cracks in the ground. Just going to kind of... blast these bots into nothing...
Making a mess. But. Listen. He can't fight without some kind of collateral damage. Gaea rage is a messy move (like most of his abilities tbh what a mess maker).]
no subject
so with a nod, he takes several more steps back until he's at a safe distance away, continuing to watch. and while tsurumaru doesn't entirely understand what's going on, or how naoki's managing to make cracks in the ground just by stepping, or where the strange, white energy comes from all at once —
the robots don't seem to take a liking to it, either. as for the mess left behind, it'll be fine — if they flee from the scene, no one will know they caused it... maybe.
after everything seems a bit... quieter, he cups his hands around his mouth from where he is, but he doesn't yell. ] Is that all of them?
no subject
[In a regular voice, Naoki casually picks his way around uhhh some of the debris he's ca...used. If he could prevent it, he could! He could've used big old pillars of fire but honestly the chances of lighting up buildings around here is pretty high.
Hence... attack from below. Or something.] Either way, let's get out of here. Juuuust in case.
no subject
so they're off! but for someone who's just nearly escaped police capture, he's pretty unconcerned. if anything, he's more peeved by the fact that they came after him for something so strange... and a little embarrassed, too, as he turns back towards naoki. ]
You didn't have any police robots after you?
[ because, well, he looks like an outstanding citizen... nothing like tsurumaru. ]
no subject
[Naoki frowns, looking off to one side as though he's going over what they could make up and nab him for in his head.] It's probably just a matter of time 'til they come up with something, honestly.
[He shrugs.
So no need to be embarrassed, Tsurumaru...]
no subject
You don't look like the sort of person who'd break the law in the first place, too —
[ ah, wait. wait... ]
What if they come after you for all of the holes you punched into the subway tunnel?
no subject
Going by what he just did, one can see why he doesn't mind...]
I figured they already woulda come after me for that one, if they were gonna. [...] Do you think they know about all that?
no subject
They might.
[ he's more concerned about what they're aware of, and when they plan on using it, if they are. ]
What if they're tallying up all of your crimes, and plan on striking when the time is right? Like, when you're out with a friend? Or with someone that you want to make a good impression on? [ or maybe this is just a concern that tsuru has on his own... who knows? ] Imagine if you were out with that person, and then all of these police bots come rushing up to you, claiming that you, uh.. looked through some poor girl's window, in addition to smashing all of those subway walls.
no subject
But, he summons back his smile, cocking his head at him.]
I think that, in that case, the person'd probably give you the benefit of the doubt and help you get away. Especially with what this place and CERES is like. [Pause.] Unless you're the type who goes peeking in windows? [HE'S MAKING FUN... don't actually say u do that, tsurumaru]
no subject
What? No! Do I look like the sort of person that would peek through windows?
[ he doesn't peek through windows, or any dirty things like that... but when it comes to things like leaving sneaky banana peels everywhere, swapping out someone's shampoo for hair dye, or leaving buckets of water above closed doors — ]
But, if the robots claimed some other crime — lighter ones, I don't think my comrades would put it past me to be guilty of it, whether I really was or not.
[ and yet, he doesn't stop pranking... ]
no subject
So... you've done some things.
[This is what he's getting from this.]
no subject
Just things like surprises, you know? Pranks, too. Overall, they're meant to be harmless.
[ he hasn't committed any heinous crimes! gosh, naoki... ]
no subject
[Naoki laughs, not even bothering to cover it up. Rude.] Okay, that makes sense. If I did stuff like pranks and surprises, I don't think people would believe me over robots either.