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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[Rei cuts off with a snarl, stepping closer and grabbing his shirt. Even without transforming she's incredibly strong, and she lifts him up just a bit as a sudden anger comes over her. It's not the normal kind of anger, no, but a quick, hot fury.]
He was my first human friend. He treated me like a person, without being afraid of me. [Pushing back, she turns and drives his back into a wall, her eyes hard but shining with barely restrained tears.]
I'm not just humoring him. I don't talk to people who don't have worth, and he's got more heart than any boy I've ever met. He was kind to me, even after I shut him down, because that's the kind of person he is. Yosuke Hanamura is a kind boy, and he treated me like a person and not a goddamn viper! [Her grip tightens, the knuckles of her fist going white, the leather of knife's hilt creaking in her grasp.] And it's not that I'm out of his league, because he's not. I considered it. I seriously thought maybe it might be alright. That maybe he was the kind of person I could be with and not burn up. I was thinking...I cared...and I almost told him how I felt, and then she came...and then he left with her. And it was too late. [That ship sailed.] The next time he showed up, Minako was here. And he left me again...and then...
[The knife slams into the wall, driving deep into the brick near the side of the Shadow's face.]
Then he came back, but things haven't worked out. So much happened so quickly. But it's not because of him. And it's not because I'm just humoring him. So fuck you! Fuck your theories and your bullshit. If you really are inside his head, then listen to me. You. Are. Good. Enough.
no subject
He listens, gritting his teeth, partially in pain and partially in a half-sneer. For a moment, for a short moment, the gold in his eyes fades to their usual brown and his expression softens. But just as quickly as it had come, it passed, and the vitriol of which he'd been spewing before turns with gusto. ]
That's--really cute...Rei. [ No honorifics, too familiar. He doesn't usually talk to girls like that, no matter how much he wants to fit the image of a skirt-chaser. ] I've gotta hand it to you, you do know how to keep a guy entertained!
[ With that, there's a huge gust of wind spiraling up from the ground around him. Whether it's effective or not is yet to be seen, but the fact that he didn't need to summon his Persona to cast it is new. Then again, a Shadow can't really summon itself, can it? ]
no subject
This was working, she just had to keep up the pressure. So, drastic measures.]
You want entertainment. Fine. You want to chase skirts and think of me as some prize to be won, then fine. [Her mouth curls into a sneer of her own and she whirls, shoving him across the alleyway to the opposite wall. It's not far, just a few feet, but he's gotten her hackles well and truly up now so it's more unrestrained. Steam rises off her skin and she steps closer, one boot after the other, lips pressed into a thin line.]
If that's all I am to him, then fine! But I don't think that's true. I care about him, and if that means I'm just a fool, then so be it. I'd rather be a fool with the illusions of friendship that someone who's only ties to others are fated.
[Another step, and she raises a fist.]
So prove it. Prove to me that I'm just some source of entertainment. If I mean nothing to you, then hit me with me your best shot. Kiss me, prove I'm just another girl you want to play with. Or try and fight me, if you think you're strong enough. Or back down, and let me talk to my friend.
[She leans closer, fist literally on fire now.]
You've got about five seconds to make up your mind. Don't try running, you can't get away from me. I'll kill you before you can turn around.
no subject
That's a lotta faith to put into one person...kinda sweet. [ He grins despite himself. ] The kind of BS he's totally into. I mean, have you heard some of the things that come out of his mouth? The guy could write a melodrama if he wanted to. What a girl.
[ As if somehow that's the biggest insult he can come up with.
He rolls his shoulders, still grinning. Shadows are self-preserving by nature, but he feels like he's got a trump card in his back pocket. If she kills him, she kills Yosuke. ]
Big threats you're making there. You sure about that? I think you'd regret it.
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And why would I regret that? [She knows you share a body.] He'll come back to life in a day or so. He'll probably thank me for stopping you from hurting anyone. You're his shadow, a piece of his psyche. I know what you are, and I know that you're just a tiny part of him. His self doubt, his self-consciousness, and all those things that we try and hide. He's more than that.
[Her knuckles pop, her eyes hardening.]
You want to test my faith, but you're just trying to weasel out of the hole you've worked yourself into, Shadow. Show me how your whole self feels.
[Another step, and she's barely an arms length away now, intense as ever. She's not in her right mind either, clearly, but that doesn't matter. What matters now is her absolute conviction that she needs to stop this. However much it may hurt, and however bad the fallout may be. At least she's acknowledging the boy and this thing are one in the same now.]
Let your whole self talk, and not just this side. You're more than just this, Yosuke. So, show me that you care, show me how much I mean to you, or how little. I want to know how you feel, all of you.
no subject
He's more than that.
Yet, as she begins to describe his nature, Yosuke's Shadow seems to subside, slowly with each word. She's practically on fire with righteous indignation (understandably so) and he's so close to being burned. But for the first time, he seems to listen without a wisecrack. Yosuke stares at her for a long time, feeling a little too hot, but there's something in him that can't move.
I want to know how you feel, all of you. ]
...I am a Shadow, [ He says with strange plainness. ] The True Self.
[ Though his eyes are still gold, he almost looks uncertain. ]
...Would you still want to be friends with all this ugliness?
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I've seen the worst of human nature, and I've seen the best of it.
[Evil. Good. Heroism. Villainy.]
Everyone has a dark spot. Everyone has fears and insecurities. Everyone acts on them.
[She pauses, the scalding aura around her dying away.]
It's not ugly to have flaws. It's ugly to be unable to accept that others do.
[Finally, Mars nods.]
So. Yes. I do. I want to be your friend. For good or ill, I care about you. I...hope that you feel the same way about me.
no subject
Sometimes there's the fear that they won't be accepted by others. Or maybe it's part of CERES' glitch, drawing out new insecurities that only others can cure.
It's not ugly to have flaws. It's ugly to be unable to accept that others do. ]
...
[ ...I care about you. I...hope that you feel the same way about me. ]
...
[ There's a drawn out silence between them when she finishes. But after a moment, he smiles softly. ]
Thanks.
[ And then, he starts to glitch again, like the static of a television. He flickers between his Shadow, total blackness, an error screen, and true Yosuke for a good minute. Then after one final flash, he looks almost normal. ]
no subject
It's a heavy thing, what they just did, and she knows it bears a lot of significance to Yosuke personally. He's insecure, yes, he's always struck her as such and she's just removed some of that she hopes. She's also admitted things aloud she never expected to, but that's fine. It's a weight off her shoulders, she no longer needs to pretend something, and that's pleasing.
Shee had shoved around and probably hurt Yosuke though, so she not only moves towards him, she puts a hand on his shoulder and looks up into his eyes.]
Hey. You...okay? I didn't...did I?
no subject
He blinks, slowly coming back to himself. ]
...Rei-san?
[ It's just his voice this time. Simple, plain, unimpressive. The hand on his shoulder, gentle, is enough to shake him back fully into reality. He sucks in a sharp breath, her face finally clear. ]
Oh god...did that--I'm so sorry--!
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You have nothing to apologize for. You weren't in control of yourself.
[She stops, sighs, and looks down at her feet.]
You're not hurt, are you? I...wasn't either.
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No, I'm...--a little sore, but hell, I deserved it.
[ He's probably got a few bruises, but he's not complaining. Not at all. ]
I do have a lot to apologize for. That was still me, even if that's not how I would've wanted to say any of it.
no subject
[Rei's voice is even, calm, even subdued. She pulls back a bit and looks up into his eyes, squeezing tight to his shoulders.]
I have a more to apologize for. And I should have been more mindful of your feelings. I...had no idea you thought that I was never...
[She breaks off, looking sharply down at the ground, her cheeks burning.]
I had no idea you thought I was just humoring you. I don't...it's not like that. I meant what I said, even if I could have said it better. I...
[Her voice drops, her frame wilting a little bit.]
I've never had a friend that wasn't...like me...before you.
no subject