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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She pulled out a beaten up water bottle, grimacing when she first saw the damage. It still held water, though, which was the important part. She offered it over to Eiji, expression settling into something contemplative. Not withdrawn. She refused to exist outside of this present moment, which meant living firmly within it, too.
"Thirsty?"
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"Thank you."
He was careful not to drink too much on her, but it was just enough to help with the fatigue a little.
"I guess it probably could have been a lot worse. I mean, it's bad, and I tried to stop it, but I couldn't. But now that I see how many people are making it out of there...it's a relief."
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"It wasn't your fault. I don't think anyone expected the train to do what it did. I'm glad you were here to help get people free, though. It'd have been harder if you weren't. Especially for those guys."
A nod of her head toward the car he'd defeated the robot within. People of all kinds had been running scared, even violent, the last two days. He'd helped where he could. She had a feeling he'd keep doing exactly that. (She wouldn't have minded if he'd finished all of her water. She'd track down more, even as she could start feeling her aches creep on in.)
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"We should try to find a doctor, or someone who can help give first aid over here. You and the others are going to need it."
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"I haven't had much luck with it today. And with all the technology breaking down right now..."
But there had to be some clinics nearby, even without them having to go to the research district.
"Do you think you can walk if we need to find a clinic around here?"
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She glanced at the evacuated group of people, most having made it to the street past the immediate wreckage. "Not everyone can. People here should watch out for the technologies getting dangerous while we go find who we can to help them and the rest."
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At the suggestion to help watch out for CERES tech, he dug in his pockets for his candroids. "You're right. And at least I know these are safe."
He activated two of the Takos and Kujaku. "Spread out, guys, and try to keep everyone away from anything that looks dangerous, okay?"
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"Which way?"
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But there's something to be said for just knowing human behavior, as he looked around the crowd.
"We might want to ask around, or at least see where people are going. Chances are they'll try to make their way to local stuff first, before trying the hospital."
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"If it's really bad, they'll still need a hospital. I don't know if the hospitals will be able to help like this, though. They're all full of electronics."
Was anyone prepared to go suddenly manual tech in a world like this?
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"Hopefully those doctors will be able to help. I know a little first aid, but not enough."
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She'll take her small wins where she finds them.
"Every little bit helps." She picked her way forward, toward a group of those who were trying to help each other further from the wreckage and instabilities around the immediate area. Walking up to an older man supporting another man around his age, she asked if he was familiar with the area, only to be greeted with an apology and a shake of his head. It looked like they were going to need to do this the hard way, either in asking everyone or setting out on their own.
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"We might want to try somewhere else, maybe closer to the residential area."
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"Then we'll have to head back from where the train was coming." She turned and started picking her way down across to the nearest street, doggedly heading where she thought she needed to go.
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He started down a different alley. "I found this way a lot safer--you just have to climb over a couple fences, if that's okay."
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That said, she started down after him, game for whatever barriers they encountered along the way.
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Of course, assuming he still had the energy for that. His body was also aching, but he could at least move through it, for now.
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"How are you doing?" She knew he was tried, and it was kind of bolstering knowing both of them were not in top form, but were pressing onward. They'd make it! To finding who they needed. Only... "Wait, how are people going to get back to where the train derailed if there are so many robots and vehicles blocking the roads that we have to go this way?"
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"I can take care of that when it comes to it. But I don't want to use up all of my energy fighting now when I'm sure I'll need it later."
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Was that the right term? She wasn't sure, hence pausing to search for a term to use as they continued on their way.
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... Wait! "Would they be able to help?" She gestured toward the sign with the whole of her hand.
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He started to walk over, looking around.
"Not too busy. Not yet, at least."
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Controlled chaos, considering everyone appeared to be in various stages of taken care of, but chaos none the less.
"I think they've taken care of the people who were already here..." she said, stepping forward to push the door in and enter the urgent care center proper. A few turned to look her way, some eyes wide, others resigned. None did more than sigh in relief when she proved to be a little girl accompanied by an adult man. Just two more people: not two more robots in this insane little world of the colony.
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