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
I, uh... [ another laugh. ] ...lied.
[ his tone is sheepish, embarrassed — and far from malicious, as he idly rubs the back of his neck. ]
I'm a spirit, see? So, I don't really have any concept of an appetite. I just wanted to see if you'd be nice enough to share food with a stranger.
no subject
[Karl sounds more confused than anything (and in the back of his mind, he wonders if this guy is the same as Kashuu, or if it's narrow-minded to assume that based on him being a spirit), since he's not quite sure what would be running through someone's head to go I feel like testing people's generosity right now...]
... Well, I'm glad you're not starving or anything, and I hope you enjoy the food anyway, but can I ask what brought this on?
no subject
Well...
[ he pauses, then shrugs his shoulders. ]
I was bored — that's pretty much it. If you want a deeper answer, though, I can try to make one up on the spot.
no subject
[Different mindsets, and all.]
But if you really don't mind sharing, then I'll be eating my half?
no subject
[ but by the time he catches the question, he's already taken a preemptive bite into his half of the granola bar... so he mumbles something that kind of sounds like a "sure!". he'll take a moment to chew through the rest of his mouthful, though, before he says anything else. ]
By the way — what do you look like? I'd like to repay you, but since I can't see you, I won't know who to look for.
no subject
Hmm? Oh, you don't need to repay me back! It's fine.
no subject
[ even if it's over a simple granola bar... ]
Plus, if I don't know who you are — then there was no point in testing you.
no subject
[Is that distinctive enough? He's not sure how common blue is around here, but.]
Ah, I hang around the dojo sometimes, if that helps.
[Since Kashuu basically invited him (even if it was mostly to rope him into helping with chores, but eh).]
no subject
[ imagine, though, halberd spirits. but at the mention of the dojo, he glances up curiously — wherever up is, in the darkness... ]
The dojo? Then... that means one of us asked you to stop by, right?
no subject
Haha, you hit it right on the head! Kashuu did, actually. Then, I take it that you're a... tsukumogami like him as well?
no subject
[ perhaps kashuu socializes for a living, because a lot of people seem to know him — which makes it all the more convenient, really, that the rest of them don't always have to explain the concept of sword spirits... ]
I am! I'm way older than him, though. [ in numbers only, really. ] But if he's the one that asked you to stop by, then... was it to spar?
no subject
[Or rather, nice after, like... trolling Karl for a while, and while kind of tsunning about his friends when Karl asked, but Karl likes him and that's all that matters.]
Heh, is that right? I'll admit that compared to a human lifespan, anything past a hundred seems pretty old. [This doesn't stop centuries' old beings from having questionable maturity, as he's found, but.] And kind of! He was kind enough to invite me to drop by the dojo after I mentioned that I didn't know what I was going to do with all my free time here.
no subject
That's Kashuu, alright. He's too nice for his own good, though I don't think it's bad for him. It's just who he is.
[ also! ] If it helps, he's about... five hundred, or so. I'm a few decades over nine hundred — but I don't look it, do I?
no subject
[SHRUGS.]
But that's definitely a big age difference. Would that make Kashuu like a child to you, then? Or does it not matter from your perspective?
no subject
Sort of! Older swords generally see younger swords as children — moreso if they raised them. [ like how he doubts he'll be anything other than a child in the eyes of the sanjou swords... but — ] Then again, there are swords that look as if they're in their mid-40's, when they're still younger than me.
How we manifest is a complete mystery, you know? It's practically luck.
no subject
Makes sense! You guys are kind of like gods, then! They come in all sorts of appearances, regardless of their actual age...
[And no one's quite sure how Disciples come into existence, at least.]
... So did you raise Kashuu?