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
He doesn't comment for a moment on the sudden touch and feel of another person's body against his vessel. It was always...worrisome to be left in this state. But Kousetsu trusted this girl, as she seemed quite familiar with the spiritual world in general. He can sense that she's...experienced it before. ]
It is fine. Thank you for...assisting me. It has been quite some time that someone other than my master's have held me as you do. It is not...unpleasant but it is strange to be stuck in this form and still be able to speak.
[ He's wondering if it was some kind of spell or curse maybe?! But he doesn't feel like he's been put under either, so it's probably more Ceres shenanigans. ]
You may call me Kousetsu Samonji.
no subject
She nudges that thought to the side, figuring it's largely irrelevant. Could or couldn't, what's important is what's happening here. He could speak, she could hear him, and she was going to get him home. ]
It's nice to meet you, Samonji-san. I'm Chihiro Ogino.
[ She comes to a stop at a cross-walk, waiting for the light to turn. She waits even after it does, eyeing the traffic, but the cars seem to be behaving in this area. None try to plow through without the right of way.
Jogging across, she jumps over a puddle and lands near in front of a stationary police robot. It twitches, rocking backward and swiveling its head to look down at her as she dips her head and continues on her merry way. She doesn't make it more than two meters before a siren cuts through the air, and a voice calls out with a sharp edge: ]
Diminutive citizen, halt where you are. I'm afraid I cannot allow you to continue. [ A pause. ] According to Magical Girl Trope #0065, sub-clause D, you're considered armed and dangerous in an unacceptable fashion. Please surrender your weapon now, or decorate it properly with sparkling accessories and ribbons to indicate your upbeat, charming young sense of femininity.
[ Chihiro tuned out on the details as soon as she figured out the robotic officer was asking her to turn over her charge, and she shakes her head. ]
I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand what you're talking about, but I really need to get going — I shouldn't be late heading home.
[ Whose home she doesn't specify. She keeps moving, backing away as the police officer keeps on coming closer. In a low voice: ]
Samonji-san, are you ready to run?
[ ... she'll do the running, is he ready for whatever wild ride that ends up being? ]
no subject
Though he really wished that they could have gotten back to the apartment without any more incidents, but today everything seemed to be a bit weird, weirder than usual for this place. ]
Yes. If you must you may...use me as you see fit. I cannot remainfest yet. [ And he's really sorry for putting such a young girl in danger?! He's kinda beating himself up over this internally though, but he will have to repay her when he regains his form. ]
no subject
[ It doesn't occur to her in the moment that she might use him as some sort of defense, since as a sword she has no idea what to do, and she's not all that well versed in wielding things as blunt instruments either. She turns on her heel and ducks low as she bolts, trusting to her smaller size and her willingness to shove through sections of the crowd to disguise where she's running and slow down the police.
It works well enough that she can duck around a corner and back into a stairwell, switching up her hold on Kousetsu and pulling a length of material out of her pocket. She doubles over, awkwardly using one hand to hold him across her back, using the cloth piece to tie him down like she would tie back her sleeves in more traditional wear, keeping them out of the way.
She doesn't have time to tie his bundled clothes down in the same way, jumping up and over the railing as the police officer rounds the corner and tracks back, still looking for the girl defying likely fictitious mandates.
Chihiro doesn't look back when the police officer shouts after her. She runs like someone's life depends on it, darting around pedestrians and dodging down roads if she comes to a stop and the crowds aren't thick enough to hide in. It's not a straightforward way to get back to their destination, but it does manage to help her stay ahead of individuals who're built with greater endurance and speed than she herself has. Being small and difficult to predict works in her favour when she knows that in a fight relying on strength, she's at a disadvantage. (Even if for some reason Kousetsu would be able to tell her what to do.)
It does have consequences, however; she slows down because she gets tired, and she finds her way blocked by dumpsters and a car careening toward them, forcing her to duck into an alley and dive to take cover as metal crashes into concrete with a screech. Chihiro lands on her stomach, Kousetsu's bundle of clothing taking part of her impact with the ground, but she scrambles to make sure she doesn't end up half rolling and slamming her sword companion into the ground. It's a child's logic that says it's easier for her to heel than for a sword to be damaged; it's an imperfect corollary. Yet she doesn't know swords, remembers broken handles on butterknives growing up and the care her mother took with keeping her kitchen knives sharp, and that ingrained sense of responsibility means keeping Kousetsu safe, too. (Because that's what every sword wants. To be told how they reminded someone of a butterknife.)
Adrenaline and mild shock have her feeling jittery as she pushes back up to her knees, then scrambles to her feet. The car has no one in it, and is now whining and leaking steam at the entrance. She can chance going forward and trying to slide out around it, but she hears sirens and she grimaces that those sirens don't mean help is coming right now. The dumpsters are another option, and she's looking those over when she sees the ladder some ten feet up one wall. ]
I'm going to have to head up and over.
[ She doesn't know how much he's aware of, so she doesn't try to describe what she's doing so much as what she intends. One of the dumpsters is close enough she might be able to push it under the ladder and scramble up from there. Going around to its far side, she shoves and jostles it forward in screeching protest. The sirens are almost there, tires of some other vehicle screeching, and so she hauls herself upward after tossing up his bundle of clothes. The ladder is just in reaching distance now, so with her arm shoved through the tie on his bundled clothing, she jumps up, climbing through sheer force of will. It's three stories to the top, short by even her standards. Once she's up and over the lip, she crouches down, leaning forward so she doesn't accidentally make Kousetsu drag.
Breathing harder than is comfortable, she just needs a moment to recover. Who ordered the extra side of crazy city today? ]
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Please...be careful Chihiro-san. Do not...over extend yourself. If it is easier to hand me over to them...I do not mind.
[ He just doesn't want a poor innocent girl to get hurt because of him?! His tone projects his worry quite well too. ]
no subject
[ She doesn't know if he'd be hurt. Swords can break. The robots are hardly being careful, and metal under enough stress snaps like any bone might. She's not sure to what extent that'll hurt him, but her presumption is "way more than I want to find out."
Her tone switches to something more upbeat as she stands and walks across the roof, peering down from the sides to watch the world below. ]
I'm catching my breath right now. It looks like the road up above is pretty clear... if we head that way, I can cut across toward the gardens, then head toward the apartments. We'll be back soon!
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But you are very brave for...following through with this. You have my thanks in assisting me. If there is ever anything I may do to...repay you, please do not hesitate to ask.
no subject