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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Sounds like it takes skill. What's your longest record?
[ as for dragons... she smiles, but she shakes her head too. ]
I can talk about Haku a little better than Felneus-san. You'd want to talk to Karl-san to know any more about them. Karl-san's actually here, so it's something you could do. Haku isn't. They're both spirits, though. I think? I'm not sure what Felneus-san is, when he's summoned... but he was kind of like a spirit!
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[probably not even that long knowing him and his bragging. In the meantime, Kaneda sits up a little straighter, eager for the deets]
Wait a fuckin' minute! You mean there's a dragon here and I never knew that!? You could be makin' so much money, girl!
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[ way too long mimicking a unicycle. also, sorry karl, sobs ]
Huh? They're only here when Karl-san asks them to be, and Felneus-san only handles serious business. I don't see what that has to do with making money.
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[this little asshole, showing her that asshole (tm) smile!]
He could summon-- or you could-- whatever, they could do tricks on command! Make a show outta it and charge for tickets.
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[ a small grin. or she trusts Haku more but hey, nbd ]
I feel like Felneus-san would be insulted. He prefers to only be called on for really important reasons. You could always ask Karl-san if you want.
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What if we give him a percentage? Think this Karl would be into it?
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I don't think so, but I don't know if Karl-san never would, or if because Felneus-san wouldn't like it, he wouldn't.
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[this Path right now is of utmost importance too!!]
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[ ??? she has no idea ]
Have you been having trouble earning enough here?
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Nah, people always want their stuff fixed. I just miss the excitement to tell ya the truth.
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Karl-San? I don't know, I never asked if he was, actually.
[ His confession gives her pause. ]
What kind of excitement were you used to before here? Needing to make money and being daring on motorcycles, and what else?
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Maybe you should ask him. Uh, just hanging with my friends. Partying.
[thats right keep it vague]
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[ she considers if that's too rude. if so, then she very well may not. ]
How's that more exciting than this place?
[ son you're kidding aren't you ]
It sounds like you miss your friends the most.
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[please don't
and then he scoffs, glances away]
Those fucks? I guess, a little. I do kinda wish I could go back and party with them one last time after everything. And we may have almost died back home but most of the trouble we got in and out of.
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[ intensely dubious of this, but figures Karl can handle himself.
just as she figures it's pretty universal to miss friends. ]
What are your friends back home like? I'm... glad you didn't all get killed before... this.
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[he grins; she's a good, good kid.]
They're all a bunch of assholes. But really cool, like I said they know how to party. And they've always got my back too.
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You are a weirdo. I think most of us are. It's kind of nice, but it's not the only thing any of us are.
[ okay part of her keeps going language but it's a tie for if it's bothersome or mildly impressive that he just doesn't care ]
Mm, do you not feel like anyone here has your back, Kaneda-san? [ she reaches out to pat his arm. ] I may be young, but I'll do everything I can to watch your back. And if you'd really like to talk to Karl-san, I don't mind going with you.
[ if things go south she can always just tackle someone right ]
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[sniffs, arms crossed over his chest.
But then he pauses, face softening even now. This brat.]
It's not that. You don't gotta be all mushy, kid. I've...I know. I've got your back too.
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[ look if people can nerd over robots it can probably happen over bikes, too? she just opts not to mention that he could also qualify for mechanic nerd cool.
she smiles, settling back and digging around for something... something in her bag... ah. hah! there it is. she hands over the equivalent of a cerealian twinkie. just 4 u, kaneda. ]
I feel better already.
[ the darnedest thing is she 100% means that. ]
no subject
but his eyes light up at the treat, immediately cradling it in his hands and of course ripping into it]
Holy shit! Thanks kid. For that I might make you my number two afterall.
[and with his mouth full, he beams]
Me too.
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though really she's more pleased that he's pleased by her concept of Snack Supplies than anything else. what a good Bonding Moment, okay! ]
I don't think friends need ranking systems.
[ she's kidding about that much at least, if her small grin is any indication. she feels less lonely and out of sorts right now than she's felt for the last few hours, and she's thankful for that. cerealia is sure weird and sure built on a lot of Terrible Things Happening, but it's got people and moments like these, too. that's Important. ]
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he is so so fucking pleased, it shows in the way he eats it so fast.]
Well in our group we did. Didja know I'm the leader? As if it wasn't obvious.
[this is about the first time he's bonded in a good way with someone here. usually its fighting and drinking, the normal things. His type of normal.
This type of normal...isn't bad. Finally being around people. Something soft.]
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she's got no idea if it was obvious or not, but hey, he cares — cares — about his friends-who-may-also-be-jerks, which is enough for her right now. welcome to her kind of normal. er, her normal kind of normal. her other kind of normal means the chaos is probably adding to the sheer normalcy of their bonding. ]
No, I didn't know. What was it like? What was the best part in being the leader of your group of friends?
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how to explain this without outright saying hes in a gang that fucks people up sometimes (they deserve it though)
This is a really great normal. Weird. Normal.]
Knowin' they'll listen to me and do what I tell 'em. Deciding where we get to eat. Party. That sorta thing.
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he manages not to make it apparent that they beat down on anyone, so Chihiro has No Idea. which is probably for the better at the moment. she's seen plenty of attempted and successful ones in the last, oh... day? ]
That does sound like it'd be fun. Also like responsibility.
[ which she nods to, because being responsible for the people who listen to you and act on your decisions seems logical. ]
They must trust you for all of that.
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