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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can't get more gangstar than saying FUCK DA POLICE
With freakish coordination, the robocops turn their heads in Giorno's direction all at once, warning signals flashing around them as they keep Yusuke pinned to the ground.]
'YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR PROPERTY DAMAGE--'
'YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR DEFIANCE OF HAIR PHYSICS--'
'YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR INDECENT CHEST EXPOSURE--'
[As the robocops quickly leap to their feet to apprehend Giorno, completely legal tasers out and ready, Yusuke attempts to process what was going on. Wasn't this the guy who dropped his own robot off a balcony a little while ago? What in the world was he doing here? And better yet-- what did he just DO? Was he really ballsy, or just nuts?]
GIO! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! NOW! THEY'RE GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!
no subject
I can handle a few robots. [ He says calmly enough as the bots come swarming him with their tasers. Caught up in the moment, he's only glad that Yusuke isn't closer to him as he brings forth Gold Experience and lands a solid hit on every single one of them before they can successfully zap him.
Everything looks fine as the taser burst into flowers but the bots themselves aren't reacting the way he would have thought. He wanted to turn them also into plants but instead they drop to the ground and look to be turning into something else...?
This is not a good sign. ]
no subject
[But before Yusuke can finish his quip, the brief glimmer of something forming behind Giorno catches his breath in his throat. He's seen this before, a couple of times, but... it couldn't be. Could it?
But as Gold Experience fully materializes and attacks the robots, any doubt in his mind is gone. Kakyoin was the only person he had seen using something like that here, but in hindsight, that didn't rule out other people with the same ability, did it? Granted, he wouldn't have made the connection in a thousand years, but it seemed these past few days were FULL of surprises.
... sort of like the way the robocops were being taken down right now, for instance! Maybe this thing had the power to turn things into flowers? (Man, why did all these Stand things remind him of Kurama--)
Except... with the way the robots themselves were writhing on the ground, that didn't seem likely. Scrambling up to his feet, he inches a few steps towards Giorno, shooting a look towards him and his Stand, before flickering back to the bots on the floor.]
Oooookay, I'm gonna take a wild stab here and say you got another trick up your sleeve, because I don't think whatever they're turning into right now is gonna spell good news for either of us.
no subject
It depends on what they turn into. [ Giorno's still calm despite the fact that Gold Experience has turned the bots into animals instead of plants like he had intended. Never had he had never turned anything into anything bigger than a frog, so he watches carefully to see what the limits were with his abilities could be...
It takes a while for the animal shape to really become noticeable—four limbs, a mammal with a tail. Their sizes were shrinking so Giorno's unease was also dissipating. If it was small, it could be manageable. ]
I had wanted to turn them into plants but it seems like whatever is happening is affecting my powers. [ Still calmly as ever, he'll turn to Yusuke as Gold Experience hovers closely to Giorno, nearly embracing him as it does. ] You can see him, can't you?
no subject
You mean your shiny gold friend over there? Yeah, it's kinda hard to miss him. [And he raises an eyebrow.] It's one of those Stand-things, right? I didn't think there was anyone left here who could use them, to be honest.
[Or... well, that he was aware of, anyway. Boy, will he be surprised the day Narancia ever shows him HIS.
His expression quickly turns into one of concern, however, something he had mentioned now clicking into his head.]
... hold on, what do you mean 'affecting your powers'? Aren't those things stuck to you or something? How can your own powers be messed up by--
[But a noise from below prevents him from finishing his thoughts, and he shifts his attention back to the changing robots-- and causes him to gape like a fish.]
Wh...
... are those KITTENS?!
no subject
He "didn't think there was anything left who could use them"? Was he talking about Kakyoin? ]
What do you mean by that? [ That was...a very curious way to phrase things. Though instead of waiting for the response, he'll go ahead and answer the other question...not minding the freak out about the kittens. ]
Just as all of the technology here has become dysfunctional, we're also at risk given how we're made of code that was extracted by the technology here. [ Giorno takes a moment to walk over towards the fully formed kittens. He had never made anything this big before and the fact that they were mewling and drowsily making their way towards him, was a good sign. They were not threatening him, he could still control them.
...but it still was uncomfortable. They were supposed to be laurels. Whatever, Giorno scoops up the kittens into his arms and turns back to Yusuke. He better keep them with him so he could keep an eye on the effects of his powers during these times. ]
Hopefully it won't lead to too many terrible things to come from the other inhabitants in Cerealia. I'm sure none of them want to accidentally make things worse for anyone else here.
no subject
Yusuke's powers seemed to be working fine before, but could that change? He already had an iffy experience with his body the first day he arrived, and if these glitches brought it out again...]
... yeah. [His voice is subdued, and a bit distracted.] Let's keep our fingers crossed on that one.
[Prrrrrobably best to switch subjects. He eyes the kittens in Giorno's arms, still a little dubious, but rolls with it for now. At least this was as weird for Giorno as it was for him (or... well, he hoped so, anyway).]
Anyway, I knew a guy here who had a power just like that. Didn't turn stuff into plants or anything, but it could do... vine-y things. And some sort of rock attack, too. [The latter which he experienced first-hand when Kakyoin had to kill him on his first day HA HA... HA... 8'(]
He never told me there were other people here who had 'em as well, but... I never bothered to ask, I guess. I just kinda assumed it was something only HE had, y'know? Or maybe he didn't know.
no subject
The kittens were surprisingly calm in Giorno's arms and he's half tempted to see if he could use Gold Experience to turn them into the laurels he wanted but he also doesn't want to risk it glitching out again. ]
By any chance was his name Kakyoin? [ Giorno had never seen his Stand in action but he did know all of the, or what he hoped to be, all of the Stand users that were in this place. ]
To be honest, I wasn't aware that there were other Stand users outside of what I knew as well. It came to a shock to the both of us to see one another with them. [ And he'll leave it there. He doesn't want to expose too much. It's not that he thinks Yusuke is a bad person or will mishandle the information, but it just wasn't necessary. ]