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
[Viridi whispers reverentially as she breathes heavily. ...It might be for the best if they don't respond to her any more until they actually reach the ice cream shop since she's probably only going to get weirder.]
no subject
Although, that proved to be a lot more difficult than he thought. The moment that he walked right up to the store, he simply gave it a curious look]
This is the right one...isn't it? [Because he really didn't want to continue walking in the dark, thank you!]
no subject
[Have they ever met in person? If not, Takeru may be slightly surprised at the diminutive goddess's size, though naturally, she floats up to a height until they're at eye level.]
Huh. I remembered you being shorter.
[Puberty. Pfeh.]
Come on! It's over here.
no subject
But as Patamon sat on top of his head, he was extra close to see if she was mean to his partner again!]
Um...you'll have to show me where, I can't really see in the dark.
no subject
[Viridi sighs in a long-suffering manner.]
I guess what we didn't give you in natural abilities, we gave you in destructive power. OK, here.
[After a moment or two, a few phosphorescent mushrooms will pop out of the ground and glow gently.]
no subject
In fact, when they glowed all he could do was give a slight gasp!]
Viridi-san, I knew you were a goddess, I didn't know you can do that! That's really impressive!
[...And it also makes him wonder exactly just how much she could do too......]
no subject
[She huffs in annoyance as she floats back into the interior of the store.]
It's not just there for decoration. Someone had to populate the earth - and don't go on at me about evolution, either; that's clearly pseudoscience. You'll be labeling GMOs next.
[...]
Anyway! Here's the machine. Do something with it.
no subject
But it's still pretty amazing that you could do all of that. It makes me wonder what else you could do and especially if you said that you created life!
[But now that he thought about it, it probably makes some sense on why she's the way she is. Somebody's a little arrogant from all that power...
Although, now that he saw the machine, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at it. Oh where was his brother when he needed him? He's a good cook right? He might know how to open an ice cream machine!
But don't mind him just hitting it around lightly and hoping for the best!]
no subject
[Viridi responds cheerfully. The key to keeping in her good books was, of course, to relentlessly pile on the compliments. A bit of bowing in reverent wonder might help, too.]
The deities in my world are all responsible for different domains. Poseidon is Lord of the Sea, Hades if Lord of the Underworld, Palutena's the Goddess of Light... and like you should know by now, I'm the Goddess of Nature and Ruler of the Earth. So my domain... is all living things.
You can let that sink in for a minute.
[She'll wait for the bowing.]
Too bad ice cream machines don't count. Do we need a god of technology or something? A god of metal?
...What's that you're doing there? Is it working?
[She'll just prattle on endlessly as Takeru makes his best attempt.]
no subject
Suddenly, that made him all the more worried of the fate of Earth from her world. But he'll keep that part shut for now.
Instead, he'll just keep focusing on making the ice cream machine open somehow! With all the light taps he made, he was looking for a weak spot that could make it easier for him to open. But alas...]
I'm not sure but it looks like we're going to need some kind of crowbar to make it open.
[Otherwise? He's got nothing, man.]
no subject
...You're just gonna crack it open? Sheesh, I could have done that myself. Isn't technology supposed to be, like, your one saving grace? Work those brain muscles! Focus that grey matter! Take the bull by the horns and shake it til it moos!
...You know, so it produces milk that we can make into ice cream.
no subject
Then maybe you want to give it a try? If it doesn't work for me, maybe you might be able to open it.
[Because you know. There's only so much Takeru could take from her. Even if he wanted to keep his calm, he wonders how much more he can handle it]
no subject
Fine, fine...
[Viridi sighs in a long-suffering manner.]
It's not my fault if it gets ruined, though. Stand back.
[Viridi doesn't do much of anything so much as she sits back and watches a bunch of ivy sprout from the ground and begin to envelop the ice cream machine.]
no subject
As he stood back, he simply watched as the ivy started to circle around the ice cream machine]
You really think it's going to work? I'm not sure if the cold might damage the sprout a little.
no subject
[She's not sure whether to feel offended or to think this is hilarious.]
Goddess of Nature. Goddess of Nature. Not minor conjurer of Nature. Actual literal Goddess. It's like nobody ever listens to anything I ever say.
Maybe I should say it louder?
[Probably she shouldn't. But as she grouses, the ivy continues to grow, continuing to twine out of the ground until the floor around the machine is a thick carpet of greenery.
...Then it grows an enormous Venus fly trap head, screeches, and tears off the front panel in one great crunch because Viridi is anything but subtle.]