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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Darin, what are you doing?! I didn't give you that much elemental power! Snap out of it!
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[He almost looks like he's in pain]
[He huffs as sweat pours down his face. Muzet might not have given him that much elemental power, but Darin's own power, with an outlet to flow out, is having some trouble being bottlenecked. In fact, he looks like he might overload any second.]
It's...gonna get out...!
You need to...run...!
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[She flies up, briefly, getting a survey of the area as if she's considering bailing from the scene. It shouldn't be much of a problem if they get hurt, after all -- should it?
... oh, darn it, that's right. She's supposed to be better than that now. Gaius would be ashamed.
Well. With an exasperated huff, she swoops back down to get a closer look.]
Darin, you can't simply let your power run wild! You have to temper it -- are you a blacksmith, or not?! Because if you can't manage to control such a paltry power as that--
[A number of portals open up around him, and a number of hair-tentacles surround him. Muzét's attacking with her hair again -- but this time, it looks like she's preparing to attack him.]
Then I'll have to contain you!
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Do it...!
DO IT NOW!!
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[Congratulations, Darin. You are getting attacked by a swarm of tentacles. Luckily, we are not in that sort of game.
Nonetheless, the hair lashes all lunge forward and bind him from head to toe. Around the wrists, around the ankles, around the midsection and chest, and even his neck. Not attempting to crush him, naturally, but certainly to constrain him. And yes, it is far stronger than rope, strong enough that she could have beaten most of those men at arm wrestling using this sort of technique... if arm wrestling allowed for hair, that is.
It's not a full-on tether, but she's able to siphon the mana as directly as if he was channeling it. It's not to feed or draw mana out of him, but a method of dampening the excess power. Once it starts bleeding off, she starts shouting at him--]
Darin, attempt to visualize it! As -- oh, I don't know -- as a gate! And then shut it, and lock it!
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[The heat starts to subside...but it's still hot enough the Darin's own clothes are smoking.]
[He grits his teeth and tries to contain it all within himself.]
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If you could just play nice for ONE SECOND, I'd be able to set up the biggest, greatest tether a spirit could ever ask for! I'd have more energy than I'd know what to do with! But NOOOOOO! Every time you get a little taste of power, you go COMPLETELY OFF THE WALL and have to get sealed up again and you WONDER why we don't let you have any more often! This is YOUR FAULT!! There is no one here to blame but YOU!!!
Since the smart method didn't work, let's try to fix it the old fashioned way -- hit it until it does what you want it to.
Muzét's hair seems to be unending. As he pries it off, even more lashes out from the portal to take its place, like the heads of a hydra. And then, suddenly, it all retracts and Darin is dragged swiftly through the tear in space. It pulls him out to the other side, up in the air with Muzét -- complete with a sudden, disorienting flip in gravity. And then...
Then whips her hair and slams him against the ground. Twice. Three times? Three times should work, let's see how he's doing then.]
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[Here's the real problem, Darin. As Muzét has said, she's a great spirit. One who has control over space and dimensions. And the space you're currently in is losing its grip on basic physics, anyway.
She tries to pull back, and the whole world flips instead. Darin will find himself tumbling end-over-end over the tops of the different buildings. The two of them are now falling sideways, off towards the oversized hot tub that used to be the Pleasure District.]
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[The sad thing is, it's pretty clear he's not even home. His eyes, fierce and focused as they are, lack his usual spark and life. His body's on autopilot right now as he tries to wrest control of himself back from his 'other half.']
[He pivots sharply and throws Muzet down towards the water that is currently flooding the Pleasure District with considerable force.]
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The only question is, how to knock Darin into it? She's currently being flung away from him, and that heat is going to start frying her hair if she keeps lashing it out at him. Besides, he'll probably slow the fall, somehow, with magic jet engines out of his legs or something like that.
It's time to think with portals!
A giant black void opens up in front of her, and she vanishes into it. And then, behind (above? space is still pretty skewed right now) Darin, another portal opens up, and she flies out at the same velocity that he threw her. She slams into him like a giant, human-sized pool ball, shoulder-checking him towards the water.]
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[It works and down Darin goes, tumbling towards the water. He hits with an enormous splash!]
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... ... ...
Is that steam rising up off the surface? It is. Rather than the water cooling Darin down, it seems he's heating the waters up. And the steam rapidly growing thicker. Darin, why must you and your soul-buddy be so DIFFICULT?!?!!
She dives down, and pulls him back to the surface before he boils like a lobster.] Are you feeling like yourself yet, Darin?
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[As Muzet gets close enough to bring him to the surface, his hand snaps out and seizes her shoulder.]
[He's still out of control it seems, and as the steam billows forth around them, that heat is doing a real number on his clothes.]
[He's already down to his boxers!]
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[She tries to pull away. Behind her, a blue circle of light shines, as she starts preparing to cast an ice arte...
And then, somehow, there is a glitch. Since they are clearly(?) in a spa, the environment has outfitted them with towels instead of clothes.
A humble rubber ducky floats past.]
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[It's unclear if Darin's managing to regain control, or if he's pleading with Muzét to stop him. The water swirls around in close proximity to them as the heat continues to wither the towel Darin's wearing away bit by bit.]
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[She goes to grab him again... and, well, she's accustomed to her own, spirit-generated parts being far more fire resistant than towels. So it's to her surprise (and aggravation) when it starts to catch flame as well.]
... this is not how you stop, Darin!
[And then, since she's a naive spirit who doesn't give this situation its proper consideration.
She whips her towel off.]
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[What he's looking at, is Muzet's naked body.]
[Stunned, whatever presence has taken over Darin's body looses its control. Long enough for the usual luster to reappear in Darin's eyes. His eyes dart over her form until finally all of that blood rushes to his head and he flushes scarlet.]
WH...WH-WH-WHAT ARE YOU...?!
[He can't seem to get the entire thought out. Luckily, his own towel wasn't burned away from the intense heat...]
[Unluckily, it's burned away just enough to not really be able to stay on with his sudden, jerky movements. The cloth falls away...]
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[She leans in... and from the angle, Darin might be too distracted to realize that she's spinning her towel into a rat-tail.]
You've been out of control, Darin -- and it's time you were properly disciplined for it!
[You know what else is great about having control over space?
You can whip someone's behind while you're standing in front of them.]
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I CAN SEE
JUST..!
COVER UP!!
[Darin is trying very hard to look her in the eyes and just the eyes. But when she whips he behind, he yelps and leaps forward right into her.]
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Oh, no you don't, Darin. You are going to turn the fire off before you start making emboldened moves like that.
[Her hair springs to life again, wrapping around him and pulling him up in the air. Dangling, exposed.]
Are we clear? Fire. Off. NOW!
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[He's not really concerned about being exposed. He's a lot more concerned about what he can see.]
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Or I could siphon it off, if you could keep that thing inside of you from going wild at the very sight of me!
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I MEAN IT!! JUST DO IT!!
[SERIOUSLY WHY ISNT SHE COVERING UP?!]
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FINE! BUT IF YOU START ACTING UP AGAIN, I AM SEALING YOU IN A BLACK HOLE FOR THE NEXT WEEK!!
[And... she starts draining the excess mana. Since she's still holding him with her hair, it's using that as a circuit to flow out of him and into her.]
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