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
... Pookie. Please be nice to him, will ya?
[Though seeing Minato pressing a hand to his forehead certainly doesn't go unnoticed from Hiro's eyes. While Hiro wasn't in the best of shape, he put more priority on his partner over here.]
You okay, man? Doing that over and over looks stressful. We can take a little break to catch our breaths, y'know... We won't be much help to anyone if we're both running ragged.
[And small tentacles were popping out from where his arm used to be as they started to tie themselves together and form muscles. Hiro makes a disgruntled sound as he looks down at his little surgery horror show.]
... Ugghhhh. This is so freakin' grooooss.
no subject
Not that he's ever been known to do that at once, but.]
I'm fine. I took a slight hit to my head just now, so concentrating's a little painful. [The tentacles show up just in time to provide a distraction from Minato, and he seems concerned yet fascinated at the same time observing them at work.]
Speaking of painful...does that hurt? I've never seen anything like it before.
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[He'll pat Byakko as he continues to walk forward and Aramisaki is floating closely next to Hiro. Lifting up the tentacles up that have not constructed itself into an arm and starts to flex his fingers a bit. Thankfully, he could remember how his arm and hand looked like... So rearranging his biodata into how it used to be wasn't as difficult as he thought.]
Um, it strings quite a bit... But it's nothin' too bad. [A beat.] Does this creep you out? I'm not exactly human anymore, y'know.
[There's nothing self-depreciating behind this statement as it was simple the truth for him now. Hiro was more or less at peace with not being a human, but he wouldn't had blamed Minato to have been a little disturbed.]
no subject
Even so his answer has nothing to do with either of them, as he's not quite sure where does "Human but fused with a massive collection of humanity's desires for death who turns out to be the messenger of Nyx" gets filed underneath. He supposes 'human' is as good as any, since he doesn't care.]
Can't say it does. Does it take energy to maintain your form like this? [Minato's a bit steadier on his feet now, keeping an even pace with the others.]
no subject
['Hunger' was probably considered an imperfection in his Administrative biodata as he really didn't need to eat much anymore. As the Human Administrator, he decided to cling to it instead of overwrite it entirely with his Administrative Authority. The other Administrators were like computers who could not feel nor understand humans unlike Saiduq and Miyako who could.]
It's easier to think of my body as a giant computer full of apps instead of a normal human body now. I've still got a lot to learn about controlling my new Administrator powers, but I feel like this is a big step forward to becoming more stronger.
[Regardless, he's genuinely smirking with this discovery. Instead of brooding about it, he's doing his damnest to make the best of things.]
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Talking like this while they look for survivors might seem odd to outsiders, but Minato doesn't mind at all. For all the acceptance he has of death and how ugly it can be, he's only human and some sights always make the stomach churn.]
I guess this is what you were talking about back in the jungle. It's probably not the best time to say this, but it's good that you've learned something more about your own powers.
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[Hiro didn't mind the small talk either. Maybe when he was younger, he would've been more self-conscious.. But now, he figured that other people's opinions of him were their business and not his.]
Thanks a bunch. I made a big sacrifice in exchange for becoming like this, though. [His tone shifts to something a little more serious and thoughtful. He'd be lying if he said that he was 100% percent happy with this position...] Since I'm protecting the human world, it means that I can't interact with my friends again. It's no part time job, but something I'm stuck with for an eternity.
[He's still smiling... But there's something sad and lonely reflected in it. Really, he was happy to be making interactions here again. But there was always that weird sense of isolation that he couldn't shake off.]
no subject
He listens without a single comment while they go through the motions of checking for survivors, pausing for a few seconds after Hiro's done talking to reply. There's nothing notable about his tone or his expression, inscrutable as it always is, yet there's a faraway look in his eyes that seems to transform his normally neutral expression into something sombre.]
And you're okay with that? [Probably someone more conscientious would have said "I'm sorry", but Minato's really not all that sensitive and he can tell Hiro wouldn't have made this choice unless he accepted it on some level anyway.]
no subject
... Yes and no. I'm happy to be protecting the world and seeing my friends living their peaceful days, But...
[But he didn't consider himself as strong as everyone always thought. He always worked hard to build himself up as the pillar of strength that everyone wanted him to be. The cheerful and flawless hero that everyone could rely on. But deep down... He was scared and traumatized as the rest of them. And he needed them as support as much as they needed him.
He was like a ghost who could watch over them, but not interact with them. One day, he would only have his memories of everyone left. And who knows when those would slip away. He was afraid of what he would become as time continued on.]
I know I'm sounding selfish, but... I still miss being human sometimes. If I could go back in time to fulfill all the broken promises I made, then I would. [But he can't now.] In the end, I just wanted to help everyone with my choice. The world was in despair, so I became hope itself.
[If he were a pure saint, then he could've said a flat yes. But he was nothing like that... Beneath that omnipotent body was a fragile and complex human heart.]
no subject
There always had to be a 'but', wasn't there? He can't claim to know how it feels like living to see his friends die since his position's almost the reverse of Hiro's, but Minato's lips slowly flatten out into a wan smile as the other talks about being selfish, about wanting to fulfill the promises he had broken. In that he could say with certainty that they felt the same way and he replies with a quiet conviction that doesn't seem like it could come from someone as frail-looking as him.]
There's nothing selfish about missing what you once had, Hiro. I can't say I understand what it means to watch your friends live their lives while you protect them, but wanting to protect them and see them happy is just as selfish, isn't it?
You might have made that choice because there was no one else who could do it, but it's still a choice you made on your own...something you chose to do because you're human. [A pause.] Those feelings that you have are what makes you human, not your body or anything else.
no subject