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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phase iii-a
Oi. Are you alright?
no subject
[ He startles like a frightened doe when Inaba speaks to him, whipping around to face her and backing away. His bright gold eyes practically gleam as he stares at her with a mix of anger and legitimate fear. ]
Will you stay if I tell you I'm fine? You'll stay, right? Don't leave. Just don't leave. I'm fine, I promise. Inaba-san... what can I do? Can I help you? That's all I want. I've never really known how.
[ wow where did all those words come from ]
no subject
It's okay. If you're fine and even if you aren't -- I'm here for you, okay?
[ Because he doesn't look fine, even if he says he is. Not with that expression on his face, those words that flow out of his lips. ]
I don't really need any help right now, but... I think what you should do is do whatever you want to do without asking me what I want. There isn't anything that I want that you can give me, after all.
no subject
[ His expression changes in a flash, twisting into an ugly smile. ]
Isn't that pathetic? That I can't help you. I can't help anyone. What point is there to me if I can't help?
[ Yu rubs a hand over his face, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. ]
It's so funny. How did anyone fall for the idea that I'm capable of anything? How does anyone not realize what a joke that is?But I couldn't handle it if anyone abandoned me.
[ His expression changes again, pulling down into something sad, something awfully heartbroken. ]
I don't want to be alone again.
no subject
[ Hands rest on her hips as her features scrunch up, lips forming a rather indignant pout as she sighs. ]
Something like that isn't pathetic. It's just the dream I have -- the wish I want? Something like that can't be granted by just anyone, you know. But... I don't think people would abandon you.
[ She smiles right then and there, a bitter, painful one. ]
You have your friends, right?
no subject
[ Yu spreads his hands wide, still staring at her intensely, unsmiling. ]
What's worse? Driving people away through my failures, or getting them killed?
no subject
[ Honestly? Inaba can't help but scoff at that; it's hilarious, really that this is the kind of thing they're talking about. Inaba understands it very well. Too well, in fact.
If I show how weak I am, they won't need me anymore. Those were words that she's said before, and hearing lines like this cause her to curl her fingers into a tight fist. ]
How the hell can you say that people would abandon you without even thinking about it? You know what the word "assuming" is, right? That's what you're doing right now. Making an assumption that people would abandon you because you're weak. [ Her eyes narrow and she doesn't look at him directly. ] Then I guess my question really should be this: why do you think you have to be strong for them?
And as for you own question... my personal answer would be the latter. But that's only because I'm given two vague options. I'm not told the bigger picture.
no subject
[ His voice is flat and dead. ] Why else would Minato-san leave me behind the way he did, without letting me have any say in it at all? If I'd just been enough, he wouldn't have had to do that.
Rely...on you? How could I do that when so many people already need you, Yu-san?
You and I...we're not equals. ]
I'm the leader. It's my job to be strong for everyone. [ It's as simple as that. And he just wasn't good enough. Now he smiles, bizarrely self-satisfied. ] But here I am, falling apart. To be honest, Inaba-san... it doesn't really matter. I've gotten my friends killed and I've let them down. If I ended up alone after everything I've done, I'd deserve it.
no subject
You really are an idiot, aren't you? [ It's a rhetorical question, although she fully expects for him to answer it. Nevertheless, she sighs. ] It's true that a leader's supposed to be strong for everyone. But reality doesn't meet those expectations, you know. I know that, more than anyone.
[ She smiles, but it's a forced one. If she's going to be more serious, she's going to say it in Japanese. ]
It's fine to fall apart. It's fine to be upset, know that you've done something wrong. Let people down. Make mistakes. But you have to get right back up. That's what it means to be human, after all.
Anyway, you sound like you regret what happened... and it's not like you enjoy the fact that they were killed or that you've let them down. The important thing is that you learn from what you did in the past. Now, like I said before, I don't know the specifics of what you did.
If you say it doesn't matter, then I won't pry. If you truly want to be alone, the rational part of me would leave you to it. But I can't do that. I can't leave a friend alone like this.
no subject
I can't be better! [ Now his voice bursts out of him, wretched. ] After what happened in the jungle I swore I'd be better and I broke that promise over and over! I just keep getting worse, no matter what I do or how hard I try.
[ Yu shakes his head roughly, visibly angry now. Why can't she understand? Why can't she see? How fake... how incompetent he is?
Why is she still here?
A full body shudder shakes him as he buries his face in his hands. ]
I don't know why anyone stays. I'm worthless if I can't perform.
no subject
[ She narrows her eyes at him, but she doesn't seem to be scrutinizing him or judging in the slightest bit, though. ]
Do you honestly believe that's all there is to you as a person? Being a leader? Being successful? Humans make mistakes, idiot! All the goddamn time! You can't put on these expectations and then think that everything's going to be pitch perfect with whatever plan you end up scheming? Of course not. That's not how life works, and that sure as hell isn't how people work. People stay because they care.