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 -b
This doesn't seem like you.
Re: phase iii -b
That's because it's not.
[He grumbles back and then spends a moment putting a frustrating amount of effort into pulling himself away, stepping back and crossing his arms when he does. It's only then that he gets a good look at Jinga's current form.]
That's a new look for you.
no subject
This is what my armored form looks like. It's not new, but usually I cannot hold it for longer then 99.9 seconds.
[Fallen or not, his armor still acted with the rules of all Knight armor - after 99.9 seconds it starts to eat at the body. He wouldn't risk Soul Destruction since he was technically already corrupted, but it still hurt like nothing else in the world.]
I haven't been able to turn back to normal yet, though I admit it's far better then the swimsuit glitch in ViViD.
no subject
no subject
[Because seriously they were so annoying tryi9ng to stop him for carrying a concealed weapon. It wasn't like his sword was that hidden considering that it hung from his hip as plain as day.]
Though... Did you get burned at all touching me? [Corrupted and twisted as it was, it was still made out of Soul Metal. That stuff burned normal flesh after all.]
no subject
No. [There wasn't anything unusual about the armor. It was just hard.] Should I have?
no subject
[Not that Jinga does any more, but he still wore materials that combat the feeling for his Knight armor. But then again Ankh wasn't actually human so perhaps he wouldn't have any adverse effect with touching the stuff. That might prove useful.]
Most creatures get burned by it so I have to ask. [And this was when the glitch decided to free him from the armor. There is a freak as the pieces flew away, the pixels assuming a red haze and then... A woman dressed in shorts and a frilly shirt was standing there, Jinga's sword hanging on her belt next to a gun holster.]
Not this again. [His voice even sounded like a young woman's though the disgusted TCH was clearly all Jinga.] How irritating.
no subject
Ankh just raises an eyebrow as Jinga's form shifts again in front of him, and this time it's very definitely a new look, though maybe not for Jinga. "Again," he said. Ankh can't help being amused. Mostly because if it's anything like him...]
Whose body is that supposed to be?
no subject
[He never said he was a nice guy, especially when it came to Ankh. Who knew, maybe the Greeed had a better understanding of those kind of circumstances then most people. As it was, Jinga didn't feel too uncomfortable as this though his center of gravity was definitely a little off from normal.]
As well as someone he had been secretly crushing on for who knows how long.
no subject
I can imagine how he must have felt about that.
[A bit too easily, considering the reactions he got to taking over the form he now fully considers his.]
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[That had also included killing an older Knight who decided to go after him and Amily as if he was any where near their strength. Ryuuga had been angry though he was already tired and barely able to fight him, and Jinga could have ended it there so easily. The Watchdog wasn't too heavily involved and the other Makai in the room were still fighting their repulsion over the Horror he and Amily ate. But. Well, Jinga didn't want it to end there. Not like that.
He gave his head a toss, letting the side curls falling over his shoulder and rested his hand on his hip, posing a little. There was an answering smirk on his face, and he almost wished he could have seen what it looked like though he knew it wasn't pleasant, not the way Ryuuga had acted.]
Do you know the most funniest part about those hours? As she much she didn't like me, she really enjoyed being able to handle a Makaiken.
no subject
[Revealing that he did, in fact, have his own experiences with that sort of thing. He didn't mind Jinga knowing it. He wouldn't be the only one here to learn that particular fact, anyway.]
no subject
[More and more it seemed there were some similarities between them, though he was certain that there were things that were very different still. For one, he thinks that Ankh had a lingering affection towards Eiji that wasn't like his own feelings of annoyance at Ryuuga's existence.]
She did manage to force me out in the end, but still, it was quite interesting.
no subject
It would have been more entertaining if he was.
no subject
[At least he had a little fun as in forcing the Priest and Knight to actually admit that they have human feelings for each other. Even if it forced him out of the driver's seat, it was still entertaining.]
Did you have to deal with family or friends of that human?
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You saw that fight I had with Eiji, didn't you? [Back with the memories and the stupid invisible animals.] Take a guess what he was mad at me about.