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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no subject
Come with me, I'll make sure that no harm comes to you and the dog. I...can feel danger, and the best place to be is a place without much technology. The roof, for now.
[Moving again, she pushes open a fire-door, holding it for him.]
I'll take the rear.
no subject
Thank you...Sailor Mars, I presume?
no subject
That's right. This is my true self. Not how I'd have chosen to show you, but it is what it is.
no subject
[Edgeworth is quick enough that he reaches the rooftop in no time, although Pess beats him to it. The dog barks a few times before lying on the roof, panting.]
no subject
[Mars flies up the stairs quickly, accompanied by the din of...metal...battering at the door they just left.]
And it sounds like we're going to have a showdown.
no subject
As expected. We can't run from these machines forever.
[Not that he planned on always running.]
no subject
[Does she really want to know? No. Probably not. But may as well get ready. Holding up her hand, she conjures her bow, a great longbow made entirely of flame.]
Cover me?
no subject
[Edgeworth raises his saber, stepping beside Rei. Already his nerves are thrumming with the suspense of impending battle.
...he really doesn't want to get used to that feeling but he is, at this point.]
no subject
Well now shes's pulling back the bow, a burning arrow seething to life as indeed an industrial sized washing machine bursts through the doorway. It rattles and shakes, like there's something inside...]
Oh hell.
[It opens wide, and from it's mouth burst appliances. Toasters, egg beaters, electric razors, hairdryers...and even a furious looking hand-cream warmer swarm towards them.]
Stars above!
no subject
[Edgeworth can only groan in frustration and shock at all the appliances headed toward them. He can recognize his electric razor from among them...if only because it's the most expensive-looking, sharpest one in the bunch.
He draws a pistol from a holster at his back, glancing over his shoulder for a second just to check on Pess, who's still cowering in fear. Edgeworth fires three shots; unfortunately he gets less practice with a gun, so all he does is graze a hairdryer and send the other two bullets straight toward the washing machine. A determined fourth shot finally takes out a toaster speeding full tilt towards him.]
no subject
Fingers working she starts snapping off little darts of fire, peppering the horde as best she can.]
Gah! Look out!
[The hand-cream warmer takes a hit and explodes, sending warm moisturizer flying every which way.]
no subject
A toaster skitters into his view, prompting him to shoot it, and it falls onto its side, two slices of burned bread popping out. Edgeworth leaps back onto his feet, sweeping up his sword with a free hand as he goes.]
no subject
Look out! Roomba!
I HAD TO GOOGLE WHAT A ROOMBA WAS...
At one point it nicks his trouser leg and cuts through his skin, but he pulls away so it doesn't bleed.]
Ah - Ack!
[He keeps trying to hit it, but finally his saber makes contact...and Edgeworth continues swinging, cutting the Roomba into bits. The knife he picks up.]
I'M SO GLAD
Do you want to just...fly out of here? I can carry us away, and scour the rooftop after that.
[When in doubt, orbital bombardment.]
Thank you for enlightening me
Edgeworth stabs the knife through the toaster with all his might, but it hardly makes a dent. It takes a whack from the saber to smash it onto the rooftop. He wants to say that they have no choice, but Rei already knows that, and he believes she knows what she's doing, so one thing left to do. Or rather, one last concern.]
Can you fly both me and my dog? I'll carry him. [Already he's dodging projectile mixer blades and blasts of hot air from the hairdryers to get to his dog. Currently Pess is barking nervously at the appliances closest to him, trying to nip at a rogue egg beater but inching away when it whirls close to his doggy nose.]
no subject
I've got him. You'll have to hang onto my hand, but I can carry both of you.
[Hopefully Pess isn't a squirmer, because Mars is already sending calming psychic waves at the poor, distressed animal.]
no subject
Lead on, Sailor Mars.
[He's also careful to refer to her by her alias, just in case.]
no subject
It's only a moment in the air, and soon they drop lightly onto the pavement of the street just outside CERES Gardens. Immediately she puts Pess down and rubs his head if he's not too badly freaked out.]
Here. We're all okay now. At least, it looks that way.
no subject
Pess seems to recover quickly, responding with a yap and licking Rei's hand. Edgeworth likewise strokes his dog's head, partly for Pess' comfort and partly for his own.]
For now. Nevertheless, thank you for your assistance.
no subject
Of course. I'm happy to help.
[A finger reaches out to boop Pess on the nose.]
Who's this fine fellow?
no subject
Edgeworth smooths out his jacket and vest and visibly relaxes.]
His name is Pess, and he's my pet from home. [Although Rei probably guessed as much.]
no subject
[That's really the most important thing right now.]
And so brave. He only squirmed a little bit.
no subject
[Edgeworth ruffles Pess' head with a casual air he hardly exhibits around human beings. Or, y'know, sentient beings that aren't dogs.]
At least he can keep your secret as well as I can.
[Pess won't be telling anyone about Rei's secret identity any time soon. Unless CERES glitches him and he suddenly starts talking, of course.]
no subject
[Rei gives him a few more head-ruffles and then rises.]
And I should go see if anyone needs help. I'll check up on you soon.
(no subject)