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
[ That's not the sort of word she's used to hearing used, although it is perhaps not as far off as she'd like, now that she thinks of it. She watches the other girl touch the not-tree but doesn't really see it, so wrapped up is she in her considerations. (Fortunately, the bark won't leave splinters, despite how realistic it otherwise is.) ]
No. The... the second one.
[ Almost immediately she regrets saying so much, but it was instinct; the latter, to her, was the preferable choice. Well, no helping it now. ]
That's-- part of why I was so worried when my powers got out of hand. I don't... I wouldn't want someone to do that to me.
no subject
[She pauses.] Could you read mine, if you wanted? Were you concerned about simply the invasion to my privacy, or is there the possibility that you could have harmed my mind in some way?
no subject
[ Then come the inquiries she was expecting. Under normal circumstances she might try harder to avoid answering them properly, but given the context, she can't find it in her conscience to do so. No, if Naoto is going to continue putting herself at risk, she ought to know just how much risk. ]
... Yes. [ There's a quiet, guilty sort of resignation in her voice. ] To all of those things. [ Her shoulders are tense; she won't meet the other girl's eyes. ] It might be different if all of this weren't going on, and if everything wasn't behaving so strangely, but... it's possible.
[ Probable, even, she tries not to think. ]
no subject
Is there anything in particular I should be wary of?
no subject
[ Almost certainly won't - but she can only hope that there would be more warning in this case than there would under normal circumstances. A helpful glitch would be vastly preferable to the alternative. ]
But if you do notice anything is strange about your thoughts, or if you feel like you've forgotten something - please let me know. If there's any indication at all, it'll probably be one of those. [ Of course being afraid of that kind of thing doesn't help one keep one's head clear. Hands folded uncomfortably together, she hesitates, then adds, ] I... understand if, knowing that, you don't want to continue to help me.
no subject
My Makarakarn hasn't triggered yet, so I'll take that to mean your powers haven't tried to directly affect me. [It's not a logical conclusion. There are too many variables. But it's a white lie for the girl's sake.]
Yu-senpai wouldn't leave you by yourself, and neither will I.
no subject
... No, I suppose he wouldn't.
[ Suddenly she realizes she's grateful that he didn't find her now, that she saw him before things got so bad. She doesn't like the idea of putting anyone at risk, Naoto included, but it would seem even wronger, somehow, to potentially hurt someone who's always been kind to her. Of course, as of the current moment, that also applies to Naoto. ]
You're both very brave, you know. If I were you, I'd be so frightened.
[ She is frightened, but surely, she thinks, it must be worse being the other party. ]
no subject
We should continue onward. I don't think the library can be that much further, can it?
no subject
[ But it's still impressive, in Naoto's case. Though Naminé has known many people who would take great risks to help a stranger, it never ceases to pleasantly surprise her. (Maybe it's just not hard to imagine people running in terror from powers like hers. That would probably be the sensible thing to do - but the heroic types never do seem to choose the sensible thing.) ]
It shouldn't be. [ Although she realizes an unforeseen issue with a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach. ] But I'm not sure whether we'll recognize it. I-- guess we can just look for an unusually large building?
no subject
--do these episodes typically last long?
no subject
It depends. This is the first time it's been this bad while I've been here, so I can't be sure, but... I've heard of something else serious that happened before. That lasted for a few days, I think.
[ Goodness. She's not sure how much worse this can get, really, but her imagination provides her with a number of options she isn't eager to see come to fruition. Fortunately, however, she doesn't have the opportunity to consider it for long. There happens to be one of the aforementioned large buildings coming up ahead. None of its signs remain legible, but it certainly could be a library. ]
Do you think that's it?
no subject
I'm not sure if it is the library. [It does seem, for the moment, out of range of her illusion ability. Naoto thinks for a moment.] Wait here. I'll check ahead. If there are any signs, you might be overwriting them.
no subject
[ Naminé looks notably hesitant; she can't help a twinge of anxiety at the idea of being left alone again. Which is a silly thing to think, she recognizes, because if anything that's the way it ought to be, and she's more than capable of realizing the necessity of Naoto scouting ahead. She presses her lips together in an attempt to keep from frowning and nods. ]
Alright. I'll stay right where I am, then. But--... be careful? Please. I know I can't be the only one having this kind of trouble.
no subject
It's almost a breath of fresh air, especially when she leaves the illusion entirely. Sure enough, the sign there is obvious: Library.
Naoto grits her teeth and gathers her senses, walking back into the illusion towards the other girl. It seems more overpowering now, for some reason. But she finds Namine all the same.] This seems to be the place. I can't tell if anyone else is here.
no subject
Thank you.
[ And she watches the other girl go, staying behind still and bright against the backdrop of a place that shouldn't be there. Naminé keeps her hands folded together and does her best not to wring them. ]
[ When Naoto returns, Naminé is in the same place that she was before, but-- the illusion has changed again, the colors oddly muted, buildings wavering and dreamlike. She perks slightly when she realizes she has company once more, expression bemused. The weight of her magic presses down more harshly than ever, though whether or not she can feel it herself is hard to tell. Frowning, she glances again in the direction of the building. 'I can,' she doesn't say, because to actually make good on that would require greater control than she has at the moment. ]
I doubt anyone is. [ A guess, but perhaps more educated than she lets on; she can't identify any other memories nearby, at least, not that she'd trust her capability to. For the sake of a more concrete point, ] We didn't see anyone on the way. [ Thankfully. She exhales slowly, then, ] Shall we?
[ The only way to know for sure is to check the place out. ]
no subject
Follow me.
(ooc: Good place to stop, do you think?)
no subject
[ Not that that's been her forte up 'til now, but... she was fortunate enough to meet Naoto. Nodding, she follows along as requested - though not before offering a soft, heartfelt, ]
Thank you.
[ It has more to do with the many other forms of assistance than the one at hand. ]
( ooc: Sure, sounds good to me! )
no subject
--let's go inside. [And so they did.]