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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Don't mind him, Mei, he's just going to idly recite poetry while you rest, keeping his voice low and soothing so it doesn't carry outside. More than half of it is understandable, but the seven-stanza format he's so famous for is even more clear when he's speaking fully in Chinese. At least he's not breaking into song or anything, so be grateful for that. Poetry passes the time nicely.]
...Kongming? Are you still awake?
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It was a balance that was necessary, and one that had worked for a great number of years.
Though he had allowed himself to drift, Cao Pi's idle tones kept him grounded enough that, when the question came, he was aware enough to respond.]
I am. Your talents are greater than I had imagined.
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Instead, he shifted and pressed an open hand against the haphazard dressings Cao Pi had made of his clothes, a curious gleam in his eyes.]
...It's better. Not perfect, but not far from how it was when I arrived.
My apologies for alarming you. I imagine Kouha is the only one who was more alarmed when he realized what had happened.
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[he's ready for the tale, now, if you're ready to tell it, Koumei]
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I came from the battlefield of a civil war, Lord Zihuan. One of my brothers wanted the throne for himself, but didn't tell anyone when he was given the opportunity. Thus, his anger and resentment drove him to take over the capitol while the rest of us were away...and it was only when I was struck down that I realized he had outside assistance.
[It was the simplest explanation he could come up with, given the complicated politics within the royal family alone. Stating anything further might get confusing.]
no subject
Then, why did it show itself now, all of sudden? You haven't been home...
[unless he missed something in their mutual hermitage]
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[Koumei paused. He didn't know how to explain it easily because he wasn't certain that he fully understood himself. All he had were his own observations, and they would have to suffice.]
--The Company fixed the worst of the injury upon my arrival. It would have held me up for weeks in my homeland, even with the help of our healers. However, it seems that various pieces needed to be restored after I was replaced with my child-self earlier in the week.
It's strange. It might have something to do with the various pieces of 'data' that people speak of.
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[he gestures to himself, and then reaches over to scribble a character on the paper. It doesn't matter what it says this time, the point is, he clearly means his inability to make himself understood.
Something wrong with their very core. Not good. He'd rather focus on something less existentially painful.]
I'm sorry I missed you as a child. That might have been...amusing.
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That's right. Although, I don't think you missed out on much by not meeting the boy I was as a child. Many here may have found such an encounter...unnerving.
Suffice to say, children weren't allowed to stay children for long in the era I grew up in.
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Kongming, I have fought for and against a demon alongside the gods of creation. Do you really think I could still find anything about you unnerving?
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[These modern kids and their modern sensibilities. They found him completely unnerving.]
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It's getting late. Are you stable enough to head back?
[he doesn't relish the idea of spending the night in the tea shop. But he's still fully prepared to carry Koumei back, so long as he can somehow sneak into his apartment without any of the swords catching them in the stairwell.]
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...I think so, so long as I take it easy for the next several days. The wounds are healing like they did before.
[CERES took care of the worst of it, and left him to deal with the rest the old fashioned way.]
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There is enough room in my quarters for you to rest there as long as you like. But we should let someone know where you are.
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Though he didn't understand the reasons yet, he knew that he would when the time came. For now, he needed to focus on the present.]
I know, and I thank you for it, [he said, feeling stable enough on his feet to walk with Cao Pi's support. There was no need for such physical exertions any longer.] But I think it will be fine. You'll be the first to know if it's not, of course.
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[he keeps a stable arm there for Mei to lean on, and leads the way out, taking a moment at the door to look both ways for crazy robot anything that could give them trouble. No, the coast is clear for now. Let's go home.]