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. ] |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
I think you're right. I feel like... it may be why Mosley betrayed them. I don't know if it means he's on our side; even though he wasn't the nicest person when he talked to us, I didn't feel like he was really a bad person.
[the truth is that stahn knows what it's like to be betrayed. he knows what it's like for someone he cares about to turn the other way for their own beliefs, to cross swords with someone precious and have to fight against someone that was supposed to be at his side.
but even when that happened, he didn't think poorly of things. because a good person doesn't suddenly become a bad person. there were reasons for that betrayal that stretched deeper than his understanding at the time. it's for that reason though that he isn't sure mosley is a bad person. it for this reason that dymlos makes a sound that sounds like a sigh—because he knows what stahn is thinking of right now.]
Him being against CERES could hurt us, and we may have to go against him too... but I don't want to assume that until we know for sure.
[but one thing is for sure, he thinks.]
CERES... is definitely a problem for us, though. Not just because nothing is stable, but because—I really don't think anything they want for us is good.
no subject
she doesn't know betrayal. confusion over people wearing more than one face, yes, but not betrayal of a kind she couldn't see coming. her parents giving in to greed? not so unexpected, though she'd been wary and trying to warn them from the start. it's nowhere near the same sort of thing, even if it's nothing they're talking about. how would she feel about being betrayed? it's something she wouldn't know.
but if it were a conversation they were having, she'd hope that she, too, wouldn't think of the one(s) involved as a bad person. she's already seen that life isn't so cut and dry. people, human or spirit or otherwise, aren't so simple that you can understand them and know all about them in a glance. what motivates them, what they care about, what they need to do under their own directives or those of another, these things can come into conflict with themselves or amoung friends.
mosley is no one she knows. CERES is no one she knows, either, but she's experienced them, and what stahn says makes sense. people don't need to be nice to be better people than one first expected. so she nods; she likewise will try not to assume what mosley is or isn't, or even what bellona is or isn't. what she does say, though, is a little less... optimistic? ]
Or that they even want us for good.
[ she adds, hands moving in front of her, holding each other to keep themselves still. ]
Stahn-san? I asked Athena-san about this, but she didn't think it was possible. Do you know if some of the contracts CERES has with the Flamines could be the ones that destroyed our original homes? All those places they claim to have backed up and saved, the ones we're supposed to have been found and made from?
no subject
[it's something stahn hesitates on answering, because he'd like nothing more than to be able to give chihiro some kind of definitive answer. but the truth is that he can't—he's thought about it a lot, and he hasn't been able to come to any sort of solid conclusion on it.
dymlos hasn't either, which is why he sighs again; he knows he doesn't have to step in for stahn during this conversation, but it bothers him just as much that they're a bit in the dark about the situation.
quietly, stahn draws in a breath, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them again, allowing his gaze to fall on chihiro. he's a bit more serious, unsure, and yet still resolved. he doesn't really want to let his own lack of answers fall on her; taking anyone's hope away.
all the same? he can't do anything but be honest about what he thinks and feels, too.]
I want to believe that isn't true. I want to believe that even though CERES isn't very good, that even though I think they really do lie a lot about what their goals are—I want to believe that they're not that terrible.
[but there's a distinct different in what he wants to believe and what he thinks is possible.]
But... It might be possible.
[he admits, quietly—and it's surprising enough that dymlos reacts as well. there was a time when stahn would have never said something like that, when he was younger and had experienced less hardship, when he hadn't been privy to betrayal or corporations that had corrupt goals.]
Stahn, you—
[stahn cuts him off, because he's not done yet.]
Not everything CERES has done is bad. But I don't think we know enough about CERES or the people who run it... and I don't think we really know enough about the Flamines yet, either. So I don't want to say it's impossible... but if that ends up being the truth...
Then it's unforgivable.
no subject
it isn't the same as being isolated, or thinking she can't be assisted. self-reliance is not shutting ones self down and away. working together achieves more than what one individual achieves on their own. to her, that's fact. by extension, CERES is a company, a group of people who work together to some end or means. it doesn't mean they all believe the same thing about what's happening. they don't all even need to know. the same could be said for the flamines. were they a unified society, everyone sharing in the same destructive values, or were they not? they took contracts. they followed their own rules. CERES did the same. good and bad had little to do with the whole, and much to do with the specifics and the point of view.
so she listens, and she absorbs what stahn says, and she nods, because she doesn't have to like it or to entirely agree to see the sense in what he communicates. it might be possible. the concept of crossing a line in such a way as to be unforgivable. she even considers that they could be collateral damage along the path to some achievement none of them saw; no mean spirited harm done, simply incomprehensible harm, a harm that those who suffered it were left in ignorance to its occurring. ]
If it's out of greed... then yeah. That is unforgiveable.
[ she tucks her chin in to her chest, eyes falling to the ground. the ache that she feels in her chest, the way she feels both constricted and empty, is hard to swallow. there's too much grief for a world missing and gone and the sheer scale of it, and so many others, being unable to register in her mind. too immense. too many trillions of lives, probably. ]
All the people in CERES aren't necessarily bad people. All the people with the Flamines aren't either. Neither are the element spirit-gods. [ she forces her hands to let go, stretching her fingers out as she looks up, wishing the world were simpler and accepting that it isn't. ] Understanding why... I don't know when we will, but we need to know more before judging people for what we don't understand. If it's true, it won't make it forgivable, but... it may be something we need to accept. Then work on changing the reality, however we can. Right?
[ even if it's all tied up in greed and greedy, destructive intent, there's bound to be a way through the aftermath. right? ]
no subject
after all, he's been in cerealia for months and there's still plenty he can't piece together himself. but hearing someone else's opinion, hearing a perspective that he doesn't necessarily disagree with, but one he hadn't even fully considered at all... it's a bit enriching. it opens his mind a bit more and helps him understand things better. it also helps him figure out how to better convey the things he may not have worded well enough—which for stahn, happens often enough when he's in tough situations that require a bit of critical thought.]
You're right... I don't think there's any way all the people who work for CERES are bad. A lot of them are just people who have a job to do. But the people at the top—people like Bellona... they may not be good. And they might to things selfishly, things that can hurt a lot of people without even caring about it as long as they get what they want.
[the same can go for the flamines or the deities, and he knows that too.] CERES has a lot of power, so that just... makes it really dangerous if something like that happens.
I've seen it happen before, so... I'm a little worried the same thing might be happening here. [in his own world, the leader of the oberon corporation had set into motion events that would wipe out all of humanity for his own machinations—people he loved dearly lost their lives because of it, and it leaves stahn maybe more concerned than he should be of a repeat situation, but it's hard to ignore.]
If our worlds, our friends and our families—not only the people here in Cerealia, but where they belong—if anything happens to them because of those people...
[he's not sure what he'll do. it would be repetitive to say he won't forgive them, so instead, he shakes his head and tries to focus on what's probably more important.]
We'll definitely work together—all of us. I don't know what we'll do or how we'll change things, but we'll have to find a way. Even if it's not that kind of ending, even if it's just to fix things so everyone can go back if they want to... we'll all work together.
no subject
she certainly gets it both right and wrong often enough as it is. all part of the learning curve, but one she was climbing, not willfully ignoring. there's just one thing he's talking about that trips her up, making her visibly hesitate. ]
Do you believe our worlds are okay right now?
[ it's the particular kind of hope that she hasn't allowed herself to have. getting their worlds back — she believes that's possible. but that they're there, that they've just been pulled away and created in a manner that means they did not leave, really, but they're also not quite in two places at once... ugh, straight into headache territory again.
it's a comfort to hear more and more people talk about working together. especially someone who already worked with a partner; both he and dymlos counted in that way. ]
no subject
That's the kind of hope I'm holding on to.
[but it's probably clear enough—he's not sure. he doesn't have a real answer; he doesn't know much of what he believes in cerealia anymore. stahn isn't sure where truths end and lies begin.
but being a pessimist isn't the way he wants to live, so he's keeping that hope alive even if he knows it's very well likely to be wrong.]
no subject
So she's entirely earnest when she says: ]
I feel that's a nice hope to hold on to, Stahn-san. I hope it's the truest one.
[ But hope is a whimsical, stubborn creature, and her hopes aren't all along the same lines, or even in agreeance with each other. She'd still love for him to be right.
What a wonderful truth that would be. ]
Were you and Dymlos-san locked out of your apartment earlier today?
[ Are you both going to be okay? Wherever they live gives her something concrete to hold on to as a question; much more so than asking if they'll be okay should their magic start malfunctioning once again. ]
no subject
[he's not that much of a fool though, so he's more than aware that the things he hopes for most may not be things that pan out in the end.
but there's no use in dwelling on it. they've both shared their thoughts on the matter, and there's little more either of them can right now anyway but try to seek out the truth one step at a time.
so instead, he'll focus on the shift in topic.]
We weren't locked out, but we were locked in for a while. My roommate too, we couldn't get the door to budge at all for a while after we got up.
[which was a problem, but at least they could handle it and still had somewhere to sleep comfortably.] Is that what happened to you?
no subject
Mm, yes and no. The door wouldn't stay open or closed this morning. It caught by hair when I was turning around to get my notebook — I almost forgot it. I got out eventually, but then the doors closed and refused to slide open again.
[ Leaving her with her backpack for school aaaaand that was all. ]
School's got the robot teachers acting out of sorts once you get in, and neither place where I'm supposed to work sometimes is really working right now. Plus the trains are running weird.
no subject
[it's really weird, and while it's obviously some kind of problem with what's been going on, stahn really doesn't have any idea of what they can do about it.]
I wonder if it'll be okay...
no subject
[ She brings her hands up in front of her, clapping them together lightly and offering a small smile. ]
We'll need to keep helping each other out. If things are going to get worse before they get better, then we'll deal with that, too. You don't work anywhere super important, do you?
no subject
[he absolutely agrees with her on this point, but maybe that's also because stahn does his best to be unfailingly optimistic and help others whenever he can.
(to varying degrees of success.)]
I don't think it's really that important... It's not like I work somewhere like a hospital or anything like that. [he pretends to be a superhero mascot character for public events, it's really not that serious.]
no subject
[ Sure, perhaps she should have considered this before. She hadn't, so right now it's a STRIKING REALISATION that's not at all comfortable. On the upside, she doesn't need the hospital or know anyone who does. On the downside...
... she's definitely seen people who do. ]