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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[ She'd focused on other things. Like basically everything else. Also work. And school. Who needs multiple outfits? ]
I will. Though I'm hoping to avoid a need for it for a while longer.
[ rubbing the heel of one hand against her eye. eesh, it's just been tiring and catching up. ]
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[he hums, and sees the gesture.]
Sleepy?
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[ ah, she blinks (her one visible eye), letting her hand drop away from her face. ]
Mm.
[ yes, and about to stifle a yawn too. ]
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[aw...well its been a long day, no wonder.]
Think you can fall asleep?
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Mm... yeah.
[ She looks at the ground with tired interest. Her blanket's around, so she can probably just... curl up there. Yeah. Seems legit. ]
For a little at least.
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Alright. Goodnight. I'll try not to write on your face while you're asleep.
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[ STARTLES HER INTO LOOKING but she's tired enough that past giving him a look of "wait when did we decide on having a sleepover and writing on whoever sleeps first" is dispelled with a shake of her head and Chihiro curling herself into her folded over blanket. Pulling it down across her, she is now one tiny bean in a blanket, all stick limbs present and accounted for.
... Yep. She's asleep within minutes. TRUSTS YOU, KANEDA, for what it's worth Mr. Faithful Watchdog.
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There isn't much else to say. He'll take first watch, then. He crosses his arms over his chest and looks out into the night.]
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But she'll sleep surprisingly well for a few hours... eventually waking up out of a nightmare gasping for air and with her heart racing, whatever imagery that had accompanied it already fading as she pushes up to her hands and knees.
Then, you know, blinks and looks around, because where in the world is she again? Right. Riiiight. The gardens... ]
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Kaneda, too, starts at the surprising awakening, looks around for some threat, and settles once he realizes there's nothing.]
Well, well, well. Look what the dragon dragged in.
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She sits back on her heels and runs her hands through her hair, pulling out the hair tie she'd left in. While running her fingers through her hair and working on creating ponytail 2.0, she glances toward Kaneda. Hah, hah, dragons dragging in... it makes her miss Haku a little. Plus, where's Wrathion been hiding himself? Curiouser and curiouser. ]
How long was I out?
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[she seems a little....he doesn't know. A shrug.]
Not too long. Didn't miss out on any excitement if you're worried.
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I don't snore.
[ TEASE DENIED. Though honestly, waking up from nightmares just sucks. It's not unusual, just no more pleasant than usual either. ]
... Unless I have a cold, anyway. Did you want to rest for a while now? I can keep watch for you, too.
[ Missing out on some of the excitement might be nice for once, but she doesn't expect it'll happen too often. ]
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[DENIAL DENIED!! he side eyes her and snorts]
Let the kid stay up past her bedtime? No way.
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[ SHE'S PRETTY SURE............... and she didn't blow any raspberries so hah ]
What bedtime is that? At the bath house it was waaaay late at night. This is nothing. Plus, I was the one just napping.
[ ergo how is it late, only that argument is basically just "UNRELATED THINGS MAKE IT OKAY" ]
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[WELL
MAYBE
maybe she has super powers]
You worked at a bathhouse? Guess it'd have to be so you'd help all those old farts goin' for the spa treatments. I dunnnoooo...can you watch our backs?
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WORST SUPERPOWERS EVER THOUGH OKAY ]
Mm, in the spirit world. Spirits need to relax away from humans just like old people want to relax and forget about their aches, I guess. [ they're not quite the same but whatever she'll roll with it; and give him a very serious nod, likewise creeping off the blanket and picking it up to, you know, hold out his way. ] I can, and I will. I'm good at watching.
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worst than super cleaning
In the spirit-- his brows furrow]
So are you a ghost? But are you good at defending besides the tricks with the bots? [he honestly doesn't doubt she's plucky, actually]
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[ SHE'S MADE SOME ASSUMPTIONS HERE... but as she's basically edged closer to hand off the blanket, she juggles it onto one arm and reaches out to clasp his shoulder with the other. this. is. reassurance!!! ]
I do what I need to with what I have on hand, but if things are really not looking good, I'll wake you up and we can run. I promise.
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[ALSO...REASSURING WITH A LOOK AND KNUCKLES NOOGIE-ING HER??? he too made these assumptions ok good whew]
We started a promise thing here didn't we. But I really ain't that tired, so how bout we both keep watch?
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Okay. We can do that.
[ aaaand then she totally throws half the blanket over him anyway.
??? look if they're both keeping watch clearly they need to blend into the background, and this blanket... does technically help. also. it is a sly bid for "if you want to pass out it'll be totally fine." and by sly, it is not sly at all. because she did throw half the blanket on him.
"""sly""" ]
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And the warmth is definitely making the comfort turn into drowsiness....]
Okay then.
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[ That lesson was in primary school, Kaneda, talk about a slow learning curve... Chihiro sits quiet, watching and listening to the world around them. Registering the sounds in the near and middle distances, otherwise not speaking. Gardner robots can be heard far off; nothing seems to be venturing into this particular area for the time being.
In her head....................... she wonders how everyone else is doing. And probably composes an emoji, just for something to think about that's utterly innocuous. ]
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It's peaceful, more or less, and even the bots fade into the background noise.]
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Congratulations, kids. You managed to capture some relatively quiet downtime in a city going to hell in a mechanical handbasket. Chihiro enjoys it, even allowing her mind to stop thinking and instead simply absorb the world around her. It's nice, slowing down for a bit. She has a niggling feeling she won't be getting all that many moments like these in the near future. ]
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