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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[ You know, because she was bad at that initially. But she'll follow Byakko, resting a hand on the tiger's side. ]
Besides, I'm having Kazfiel sweep the area. He'll let me know if he finds anyone.
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[There's a grunt as Byakko gently puts Hiro down and he relaxes against the wall of a building. All of this was just reminded him of the past trials.]
Man... [Taking a few breaths as he focuses.] This hurts like hell. If my body was still human, I might've died from the shock. Really, this just feels like a crazy hot sting right now.
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Your body might not be human, anymore, but you can still feel pain.
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[Glancing over to his slump that was his arm, there will be tendrils starting to pop out the wound as they start to string themselves together and form arm muscles.]
... Ugh, this is so gross to look at. I'm starting to creep myself out.
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[ Because it looks like it might. ]
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[It felt like he was performing surgery on himself... The tendrils form into a proper arm and the skin was starting to form around it now.]
Um, does it always look strange to peep into a person's organs and what not?
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[But given his track record, he can't see that NOT happening.]
Sooo... Small talk time! I had a little date with Ai. It was a lot of fun!
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... Just fun?
[ Yes, go on. ]
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[Wait for it.]
Super exciting!
[He sure is doing that thing where he tells you everything and nothing.]
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[ With the Mom Tone. Really? Really? ]
Do I need to ask Ai-chan for the actual details?
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[ Because it doesn't sound like it. ]
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Well... It wasn't all fun. There were some things about Ai that I didn't understand at all and it frustrated me a lot.
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[ And she knows Hiro knows that... so why had he been frustrated? ]
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It's complicated to explain. When I talk to someone, I always try to get a feel of their personality and learn a bit about them. That's why talking to people is a fun thing. It's like opening up a present and seeing all the fun stuff you can get inside.
[However...]
But Ai was a little different... I saw the pretty wrapping, but got nothing inside. Everyone has a story about what makes them tick or drives them to who they are today... But she didn't have anything like that.
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[ She clearly has a personality, and she doesn't think Ai's distress over Hiro had been a lie... but Otome doesn't speak like she doubts Hiro either, as unbelievable as that sounds. There's definitely some sort of story here too. ]
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[Hiro hesitates as he wonders on how to word this... It was no wonder why she came off as artificial to him at times.]
She's a clone, Otome. Ai's never had anything like a family or anyone to influence her throughout her life. She's like a blank slate that doesn't know anything else. But she's definitely still a human being.
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[ Otome Yanagiya, only blinking for about a second after hearing that a friend is a clone. Then again, after Alcor and Miyako... ]
Being a clone doesn't mean you're incapable of forming your own memories and having your own experiences and feelings any more than someone like Saiduq is.
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[There were plenty of signs that she didn't have much confidence in herself, but he completely ignored it. If he caught on a little earlier than that whole birthday incident could've been avoided.]
Deep down, I thought I knew her well. But in the end, Ai is actually more negative than she gives the impression of sometimes. The complete opposite of someone like me.
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[ That Hiro had been more disappointed in himself than in Ai? ]
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[He failed his own expectations as the hero who could make people smile through a crisis.]
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[ So none of that, Hiro. ]
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