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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no subject
Only the comment about not being a genuine Shadow gets a reaction of any kind: his shoulders jump just twice with silent laughter. ]
You're right about one thing.
[ He tilts his head, leaning on his sword with one hand and gesturing in a broad, blasé way with the other. ]
I'm not a traditional Shadow. Not without my lesser self here to get indignant and claim he feels so much more than this. It's too bad. I'd like the chance to knock him down a peg.
[ What does that even mean? That Yu feels he needs to be browbeaten into being less confident?
Or just that he believes he'd deserve being torn down? ]
Use that brain of yours, Naoto. It should be obvious to you. I didn't want anyone to know I was worried. I was determined to carry my burdens alone. Isn't that the leader's job? If I suffer so no one else does, that's alright. That's how it should be.
[ The Shadow is quiet and serious. ]
I'm a hypocrite. I encourage everyone I know to rely on their friends when I won't do it myself.
[ Shadow Yu lifts his sword and starts tapping it on the pavement. Rhythmic and incessant, tap. tap. tap. ]
Do you know the only reason I haven't tried to step down as leader? There wouldn't be anyone to take my place.
no subject
We all had to accept the parts of us that we didn't like. We all, eventually, did. I'm certain that he-- you-- be no different. [She shakes her head.] Do you really think we don't know you're worried, senpai? We know you're not an emotionless robot. You're as human as any of us are. But worried or not, you never let it get in the way of doing what you need to do.
If you were determined to carry your burdens alone, you wouldn't have confided in me the things you did in the Sanctuary. You do rely on us, and none of us will let the others down.
Besides, it isn't that we would be unwilling to fill your role. We would be unable. You are, and remain, the most qualified of us to lead. [She tilts her head to the side.] But that doesn't mean you shouldn't ask us for help when you need it, either.
no subject
[ That's his immediate response, quiet and infinitely sad. ]
What happens when I rely on someone and end up driving them away?
[ Now he sounds bitter, his mouth twisting sourly around the words. Minato. ]
Confiding in you the way I did... confiding in Yosuke and Rise... isn't that just another sign of my weakness?
[ Yu places his face in his free hand, his expression contorting with pain. ]
I don't know how much more I can take of seeing my friends die. I have to be better. I have to be enough to keep everyone alive.
[ The Shadow can't accept that everyone should be responsible for their own safety. That was what Dipper and Minato had both said back during the jungle. That they were responsible for their own actions. But isn't it true that if he'd been a better leader, a smarter one, they wouldn't have been in the position to make the decisions that they had?
Yu can't accept how much damage he feels like he caused - that's what's clear. ]
no subject
In the end, she can only respond with a short, pointed jab.] I rely on you. I rely on the others, as they rely on me, and you.
Do you consider us weak for that?
no subject
No.
[ He might be dark feelings, twisted feelings, self-hating feelings - but he can't lie. No piece of Yu considers his friends weak for that.
Still, he lifts a hand in a shrugging motion. ]
Which just makes me a hypocrite on top of everything else.
no subject
You aren't an island, Yu Narukami. The bonds you make are your strength, aren't they?
no subject
Once Yu is done glitching, he meets Naoto's gaze with normal gray eyes. For a moment, he's still lost for words. Then he swallows and nods, a sad smile pinching the corners of his eyes. ]
Yeah. It's because of you guys I'm able to do everything. And that's ... not a bad thing. We all rely on each other. That's our strength.
[ Not just his. ]
no subject
She returns his smile.] Yes, it is. None of us could do this on our own. It's been the case in every crisis we've faced since the beginning.
[The smile dims slightly.] Senpai, I... appreciate that the burden on you is a weighty one. But it isn't one you need to shoulder on your own. We are here for you. And we follow you of our own accord.
no subject
I know. [ His tone is even and quiet, the way he normally sounds. ]
At some point... it somehow seemed easier to start closing myself off. I thought I'd be better able to support everyone if they didn't have to support me in return. But... that isn't how bonds are meant to work. I'll remember that, now.
[ He pauses. Out of all the questionable things he said... there might still be things she's wondering about. And there's little point in keeping more secrets now after ... something like that. So, rather plainly: ]
Did you have any questions for me?
[ Similar to things he said when she arrived. But when she arrived, he didn't tell her he'd watched five people die. ]
no subject
So there's one question that comes to mind before all others:] Are you all right?
no subject
Yeah. [ He sounds like he means it. ] I know now I've got a lot to work on, but I won't be doing it alone. I have all of you with me, after all.
no subject
[He knows the area better than she does, to be fair.] It's interesting that CERES' alteration to your personality was meant to mimic a Shadow. They know more about us and our worlds than I'm comfortable with.
no subject
But he's been leading many people to the park, one of the safest places in the city right now. Plus, that isn't far from where they live. So he'll take them in that direction as he considers her words. ]
We're code, after all. [ He says matter-of-factly. ] If they're able to recreate us and our worlds, they'd have to know just about everything. It seems ridiculous, but ... I've seen it in action more than once.
[ Yu turns one of his hands palm-up and looks down at it, thinking about the other times their code has been overwritten, how he himself "went home" for a brief time. The amount of data CERES has stored away... it's almost unfathomable. ]
no subject
[She sticks close to him, her hand never too far from her handgun's holster.] Though from what I'm seeing, this doesn't seem to be controlled in the slightest. If CERES truly has lost control of their 'code,' everything they know about us could be in the hands of others.
no subject
Dipper and I once speculated they might be selling information about us to a third party. There's no doubt about the fact that they're using us to make a profit, at the very least.
[ Yu's eyes narrow slightly in thought. There's a certainty to the way he says: ]
I intend to find out exactly how. In the meantime... [ His expression shifts again, more thoughtful now. ] It's probably for the best if we just assume they're using us to make money in every way they can, including information.
no subject
[She frowns in thought, reaching up to tuck her chin between thumb and forefinger.] And what about us would be the most valuable? Nobody would want our information if they didn't stand to profit on it in some way. If we take our universe's destruction as a given, then the profit couldn't come from anything as simple as utilizing what they know about us to exploit something where we came from.
Which means that either the premise we're here on is a lie, or that the information itself is somehow intrinsically valuable.
no subject
[ Yu gestures with one hand as if to encapsulate the entirety of that concept. ]
Haven't you wondered why they encouraged us to participate in a free game, and then rewarded us for it? There was never any way CERES was that altruistic. They had to be getting something out of our participation in the game. And most of the game focuses on combat.
[ He hums, folding his arms over his chest. ]
Dipper's speculation was that CERES uses ViViD to gather information about our combat abilities which they then sell off. My own theory is that ViViD is used to collect our energy. I don't play it very much. [ Said with some quiet distaste.
When he glances over at her, his expression is a bit wry. ] Regardless of which theory is true, we're definitely here on a lie.
no subject
Either the information itself is valuable in some way, or there's something else at play... [She glances over at him.] What do you mean, 'our energy'?
no subject
CERES is an energy company. That's what they describe themselves as. Hiro once found a room full of generators in the tower that went crazy at the presence of colonists in the room. It's pretty safe to say we're a resource to them.
no subject
Logically, it doesn't make sense, but given what you describe, it's also an obvious conclusion. What are we missing?