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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I don't like leaving friends alone. I think you're the same way, Takeru-kun. Will you come with me, please? We need to get out of here.
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[He shouted at the top of his lungs. He couldn't take it anymore, why was did she keep on bothering him? What was the point behind it all? He was just about ready to let go of her once more before...!
He just blinked at the girl all of a sudden. Just then, the anger on his face was completely gone. Upon realizing what just happened, that's when he took a step back.]
C-Chichiro-chan? What did I....? [Oh dear, what did he do?]
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[ ... yeah that calmness becomes a SHOUT RIGHT BACK because instinctively getting shouted at to do something she can't (or more appropriately won't) she makes sure she's just as heard in return. It's not the best logic — she's not thinking so much as reacting — so the way he blinks and takes a step back after makes her think at first she startled him into that reaction. Less so when he's asking what did I...
She fills in the blanks. What did I do? ]
Other than get angry? Not much — yet.
[ She still hasn't let go, though, because life is cruel and her malfunction is still in evidence, though it's ... no, it's just bothersome, and she'll tug on his hand again. ]
Come on, we should get out of here. Where were you going before?
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Although, when Chihiro started tugging his hand, that's when he found his voice.]
I-I'm not sure, I just know that I wanted to help people here run away from those robots but I don't even know where I am. I don't even remember anything.
[Although, if there was one thing he did remember, it was him shouting at his friend just seconds before. What did Cerealia even do to him anyway?] What's even going on?
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[ Another hint might be Chihiro holding on still, just chilling out, refusing to let go even though he's being more reasonable. ]
I don't think the city is being good to us or any of the electronics, but I don't know of anywhere to go.
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[Although, he kept staring at her holding his hand. Not that he minded but it was starting to make him wonder a few things]
But what about you? Are you sure you're okay? It looks like you've been holding my hand for quite a while now.
[She wasn't affected too was she?]
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Hm? I do? [ she glances down at their hands. ] I guess I didn't really notice.
[ doesn't... let go... this is so normal??? ]
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[Honestly, Takeru has no idea how to handle somebody holding his hand for this long before. All he could do was just stare and ...just keep on staring.
And he just didn't have the heart to be mean to her after what he just said to her.]
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Not really.
[ ??? TAKERU... HELP.............. She can't even stand there and go "wow this is probably uncomfortable for him" this is JUST HOW IT IS. There's also an urge to start skipping, but that one she can kind of... shrug off... ]
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But in the meantime, as he kept on looking down, he...really didn't know how to process this. Should he just let her keep on doing that or just tell her to stop?]
Then maybe we should g-go somewhere and escape from the robots? Because it wouldn't be good to just stand here.
[Because you know. This is kind of a w k w a r d]
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[ said with a nod, turning to the side and gently pulling on him to come along. In the opposite direction of the earlier robots. ]
You need to get back to your friends, right? Let's find them!
[ She's so sorry in the future about all of this, but she's also going to start... skipping... ]
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It was just way too much for him to handle. However, when he spoke up..? He didn't know what happened but hope you like him singing this song!]
First on the floor, you know that's me
Bustin' out the moves like it's MTV
I'm guessin' where I'm goin' cuz I lost my head
Then I jumped on table, this is what I said!
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Are you rapping?
[ ... He is rapping, isn't he? ]
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When he attempted to open his mouth again? Guess what song he's rapping?
If only he could say something but alas...!]
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Instead, he simply just followed orders from his friend and hoped for the best. Even if it felt like they might be followed.]
what in the world did autocorrect do /stares at "very away"
She waited, listening to the street cleaning robot, then bolted as a series of clatter-clash-crackings would hide the pat-pat-pat of her running feet. Chihiro turns the corner and presses her back up against the wall, heart pounding, looking for Takeru to join her.
Hopefully. ]
Haha don't worry, autocorrect does very strange things sometimes!
Carefully, as soon as the cleaning machine was making that once more, he quickly made a run for it! But once he made it his way to meet up with Chihiro, he quickly gave a thumbs up to her!
And yet, despite his thumbs up, he couldn't quite give her a smile. Why does it still feel like something was watching them? If only he could convey that without talking!!]
it has a great talent for that, it's true
Overhead, digital eyes blink. The pigeon cyBuddy perched on a windowframe opens its beak to coo. Toddles closer to the edge. Peers over.
Its eyes flash green as it divebombs down at Takeru's head. The flutter of its wings as it starts backwinging gives it away, along with a demented, falsetto coo! Chihiro leaps forward and makes a shooing motion, still staying quiet in case this commotion attracts the attention of the street cleaning robot. cyBuddy pigeon, go away! Stop trying to peck and claw at them! ]
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With how much it was moving, it felt like it was purposely getting Takeru to open his mouth to say something! However, Takeru kept putting his hand on it in hopes it would keep reminding him what was at stake here!
But with how much it was cooing, that's when the street cleaning robot stopped for a moment. They had to think of something fast, it was coming toward their direction now!]
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Run!
[ She shouts, taking her own advice and bolting down the alley while scrambling up and over trash and a sideways fallen trashcan as she goes. The street cleaner robot is heading for the entrance she's left behind, brushes whirring in anticipation. Ooh! Ooooh! A mess to make right? ]
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As far as he could tell, it didn't seem like it was it was aware they were nearby. However, he could be wrong! Especially with how much the whirring seemed to be getting closer with each second!
When he tapped her shoulder, he pointed to a nearby place. Hopefully if they hide, the robot won't notice them right?]
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As it is, she gives him a nod, darting over to where he was indicating and squirming her way out of sight. She leaves room for him to join her, and Patamon besides, waiting for that whirring noise to reach them or pass on by.
The air seems to vibrate as the street sweeper sweeps down the way they'd been running, throwing dirt and debris into the air as it trundles along. They better cover their heads and mouths to avoid coughing or unintended damages! ]
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And what song did he decided to sing about?]
I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha)
I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazah ♪
[Yes, he decided to sing that in the middle of a battle zone right now.]
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The robot recognises the song. ]
If you want my future, forget my past
If you wanna get with me, better make it fast
Now don't go wasting my precious time
Get your act together we could be just fine!
[ The robot has even started dancing. Somehow. Have they found the cheat code to overriding this robot's programming? The power of Spice Girls compels you! ]
Takeru-kun, I have no idea what's going on, but... I think you need to keep singing.
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