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. ] |
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no subject
Well, yeah, but--this...I mean, this is still ridiculous! I get the killer robots and the bed that wants to eat me but why did it have to take my pants!?
[ Just...let him be dramatic, Soliel. This is painful for his ego... ]
...
[ Did she seriously hand him a handkerchief...HE DOESN'T LIKE THE IMPLICATIONS HERE. ]
...W-What are you trying to say about me?
no subject
--Huh? I don't know what you mean. Boys are so weird.
( She has half a mind to toss him over her shoulder and forcefully shove him somewhere safer than behind a bench. )
Oh, wait!
( This is her last resort as doing this will drastically reduce her level of coolness for any rescues after this, but a hero helps those in need even if they aren't cute. So, Soleil unbuckles her cape and walks right up to Yosuke to offer it. It isn't huge--about the size of a bath towel and thinner--but it is better than a handkerchief. )
no subject
It's--!
[ He's so ready to rant about it when she offers her cape. Oh, yes, that's infinitely better. ]
...Oh--uh...yeah, that's way better! Thanks.
[ He'll just suck up his pride and wear it like a towel, now. It is better...more coverage. ]
no subject
( She folds her arms and gives Yosuke a close look. )
You said you're bad with girls, right? You're not my type at all and kind of weird, but I'm a little surprised. You're kind of like a puppy that doesn't know any better. And gets nervous and isn't housebroken.
( That is technically a compliment, probably. )
Well! That's one problem solved. You think you'll be okay now?
( And poof goes Soleil's clothes. She doesn't seem to notice immediately. Whatever Yosuke did to himself, he obviously did to her. He is bad luck. )
SOLIEL PLZ
[ How is that even a compliment? Yosuke blinks. He went from mostly satisfied with being covered to kind of floored by that description. ]
I...I'm not sure how to take that...
[ And how did she know about his bladder issues? And that was ONE TIME okay! ]
Y-Yeah, I think I--
[ Oh.
Oh. ]
...Uh....
[ How does she not notice? And why can't he stop staring? Oh, no, he knows exactly why he can't stop staring. Much like Soliel, he can also appreciate a...nicely built woman. ]
You're...uh...I...er...
[ Is his face red? It's definitely red. ]
yosuke you are a man now
Wh-What just happened? N-No way!
( She is panicking! )
What did you do? My sword and ax are gone! What am I going to do when those robots come after me for public indecency again?!
( Even she couldn't wrestle a robot. Probably. Maybe. )
THIS ISN'T HOW HE IMAGINED IT WOULD GO
Her skin...ahaha....
Which he should actually realize is not there for his viewing pleasure. Luckily her accusations do just that as he snaps his gaze right back to her face, waving his hands back and forth. ]
Wh-wh--this wasn't me!! I swear! It's--it's gotta be CERES, right!?
enjoy it while it lasts
And, in general, being nude might be a little inconvenient. )
They did something to you...and whatever they did is obviously contagious.
( So, naturally, she caught the nudity from Yosuke. He does strike her as the type to make mistakes like that. The similarities between him and her father are still pretty obvious and this is the sort of bad luck her father would stumble into.
And she snatches the cape back from Yosuke so that she can tear it lengthwise, transforming it from one towel sized piece of cloth to two pieces of material big enough to give them each miniskirts. )
This'll have to do.
( She tosses half back to Yosuke and is already wrapping the other half around her waist. )
HE CAN'T ENJOY IT IF SHE'S MAD AT HIM
L-Look!
[ And then she pulls the cape away. ]
Gah!!!
[ He's QUICK TO COVER UP HIS MANBITS. Soliel, you were so kind and now...now you're tossing him back what's left of the cape. He looks at the strip of cloth sadly. But he tries to make it work. ]
...
[ And now he's nearly showing his ass again. Yosuke pulls the now...towel skirt thing...down as far as it can go...without showing crack. ]
I don't get it...what's the point...
she's only mad because his nude curse took her sword away!
See? All better. Now I need to find a way to get my sword back.
( A pause. )
No offense, but I think I wear it better.
he didn't think it was contagious...
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride... ]
...I'm really not gonna argue that one, heh heh...
[ Why does he feel the need to cover his chest, not hers? ]
What, do you think our clothes got teleported somewhere?
no subject
Sure! Maybe. Probably. I don't know how it works, okay? But I feel naked without a sword, especially with things going bad like this.
( Ignore the fact she doesn't feel naked when she is actually naked. Being unarmed, though? Eesh. )
no subject