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. ] |
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no subject
[ Well.
This is... awkward. Pyrrha looks a bit discombobulated, as if she has no real argument against any of these textbook crimes.
Carl the Crooked Cop swings its gaze back to her. ]
What do you have to say in your defense?
I...
[ E l o q u e n c e. ]
no subject
He's finding out that's actually a thing here. And that's not something she should be punished for. It definitely hits a little close to home with some other drama that's going on right now. ]
...Well, it sounds like you've got a lot going on, so--
[ Yeah, that sure is Yosuke walking right into the center of it. ]
--if she's being accused she needs a lawyer, so we're going to go get her a lawyer!
no subject
IS
HAPPENING —
She turns, and gapes at him. ]
We're - what?
no subject
In fact, he goes for her hand and tries to start leading her away. ]
Yep! Defense attorney. It'll probably take us a little while, but I know where to start looking! We should hurry before everything closes.
no subject
She knows a prosecutor, does that help? ]
Well, thank you, but - you don't really need to go to such trouble on my behalf.
no subject
Haha.
But to her protest, he shakes his head. ]
Don't mention it. This place has been going crazy! You're not the first person I've seen that's gotten pulled over by the brass for something stupid.
no subject
I thought their job was keeping the peace, not... haranguing us like criminals.
no subject
Yeah, but can we really trust them? This isn't the first thing that's started going haywire.
no subject
Also, yeah. Truth time. ]
-- well, to be honest, none of the charges against me were... incorrect.
[ Except for the fraud one, which - while it's technically true on paper, it's nothing she had a hand in. CERES put her back together from dissolution on their own. It's also not a subject she's particularly eager to talk about. ]
no subject
Wait...what? ]
Huh?
[ He slows down a little at that. So, that means that she-- ]
--Oh. Shit. Um...I'm sorry.
no subject
That doesn't mean she enjoys the reminder, the way she seems to wilt under untried sympathies. She can barely stand it from friends. Strangers is worse.
Her answer is a prim nod, voice clear and business-like. ]
Thank you.
[ She'd like to move on from that now. ]
... where are we going?
no subject
He just offers a nod, then coughs at her question. ]
Uh, well...just kind of down this street for a while. I...was totally lying. I don't know any lawyers.
[ Actually, he does, he just doesn't realize it. ]
no subject
I'm glad they bought it.
[ Pyrrha, you likewise bought it. Hook, line, and sinker.
Speaking of the robots, though: ] Citizen criminals! Halt.
[ Pyrrha doesn't quite halt, but something in her stance changes, the steady carriage of a fighter putting sharp lines and angles into her limbs, joints. Fortunately, she is unarmed and has enough restraint not to use Yosuke as a makeshift battering ram. ]
What should we do?
[ Born follower, meet born follower... ]
no subject
Yeah, me too.
[ Of course they can't get off that easily, though. Of course there are robots. Yosuke does slow down, frowning at their new adversaries.
Yeah, so maybe he's used to playing second banana, but...he can be a leader too, right?? If he tries? ]
Well...how fast can you run?
[ A+ plan. ]
no subject
Faster than them, I imagine.
[ And she does it in heels! ]
Let's go.
no subject