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. ] |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
Yu drops his arms and the expression on his face is as wild as his laughter was: a feral smile, angry and vicious, beneath wide eyes. ]
If I were good enough I could have convinced you not to walk away. But I wasn't. I'm such a pathetic failure that everything I wanted and needed went completely ignored in a relationship we never really had! You decided everything for us. Does it really get more pathetic than that? Some leader.
[ Despite having just backed away, now he takes a few steps forward. Not quite enough to close the gap between them, but almost. ]
... aren't you going to walk away again, Minato-san? Why are you still here?
no subject
He closes the gap between them so they're but a step away now, thoughtful expression never leaving his face.]
Because you're my friend, Yu-san. [Some friend I am- it's a thought that's crossed his mind more than a few times since they broke up and a thought he's setting aside once again, since he's already been too selfish to consider where he stands on this.] It's true that I lied to you and pretended not to notice what you wanted or needed, but that doesn't mean I don't care about you. [His voice is soft but his tone is firm: Love didn't just mean being together after all.]
I...didn't want to cause you even more pain than you'd been through or burden you, and it's my fault for not understanding how you would have felt being left in the dark.
no subject
A few moments pass - probably long enough for the silence to become awkward - in which all Yu does is stare the other boy down.
His slasher smile returns just in time for him to reach out and grip Minato's shoulders and lean down and in until their lips are little more than an inch apart. The leer is back on his face, sick and malicious. ]
"It's true that I lied to you and pretended not to notice what you wanted or needed," [ he echoes, his voice thick with laughing condescension. ] Do you even hear yourself? How much more selfish could you possibly be?
[ He leans in even closer, just barely managing not to touch lips to skin. Instead he skates past until his mouth is near Minato's ear. ]
You used me to make yourself happy.
[ Abruptly he shoves Minato away, hard, standing up straight and regarding him coldly. ]
If you didn't want to cause me pain, maybe you should have reconsidered lying and ignoring me. But what do I know?
[ He effects a shrug, perfectly pitched to seem flippant. ]
I'll ask you again. Why are you still here? Your care doesn't mean anything to me anymore. Why should it, when you were being false from the very start? I don't even want to look at you.
no subject
You used me to make yourself happy. It's like hearing an echo of himself outside of his head, only with some of the words switched. And he can't say that he never had doubts, either- he could have said something about having second thoughts, but he hadn't wanted to be left behind. He liked being loved and hadn't bothered thinking about whether this could continue until his return, and now it's too late to take back what he's done.
Minato remains rooted to where he's standing even when he's shoved, barely processing how his knee is now bent to keep him in place and how this means Yu's towering over him even more than before, looking at him frigidly.]
I did. [The words leave his mouth quietly almost as soon as Yu says that, and his eyes go wide after he has a second to hear Yu's next words. He hadn't wanted to use anyone at all, but if he did anyway, that means...]
You reminded me of my home and my friends, and I didn't realize that until coming back here... [And his heart aches thinking of that crushing revelation, so much that he's blinking back tears.] I shouldn't have thought of you like that, or have thought about returning at all.
[Even knowing how wrong it'd be of him to leave Yu again Minato can't help but turn away exactly how he did the last time, unable to look at his friend.]
But I understand if you can't accept that...Sorry, Yu-san. [Not his Shadow, but the real Yu. It's said shakily and this time he's walking away more quickly than the last time, seemingly not even looking where he's going. Yu would probably forgive him in time, but as it is Minato's not sure he even wants or deserves that.]
no subject
It's a little too late for that, isn't it? Minato-san. Why should I accept your poor excuses?
[ There's nothing left for him to say. There's nothing left for him to do. Shadow Yu lets his lip curl with pure scorn. ]
I'm going to ask you one last time. Why are you still here?
[ The implication is clear. He expects Minato to run. Walk away from him the exact same way he did a few days ago. Coward. ]
no subject
I don't know. [He has nothing else to add as he walks out of sight, steadily picking up his pace as he gets further away from Yu. It's cowardly, it's selfish but Minato truly can't bring himself to confront his issues right now.]
no subject
Later, when Yu glitches back to normal, he'll spend a long moment with his head in his hands struggling with flaring, burning emotions, and wishing things could be different. ]