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« 015 ⇢ EVENT015.EXE »

Who: CERES, you, and your little ~~dog~~ CYbuddy too!
When: OOC: 6/11 to 6/17th | IC: 1/18 to 1/21
Where: The Greater Cerealia Area/ViViD Shenanigans
What: Event log
Rating/Warning: PG-13/R for possible violence! Let us know if the log needs to be locked or if any issues pop up, thanks!

//event014.EXE

Perhaps it's easy to take the accommodations of Cerealia for granted, even for those who come from worlds that are considerably less technological in nature. Aside from that one nasty hiccup on Halloween, everything moves smoothly in terms of everyday appliances. One can come to take the soft glow of LED lights and hum of machines for granted if you've been in the colony long enough. The metro runs on a regular schedule and you'll very rarely find yourself late for appointments. Schedules run on a universal clock and appliances for your every need and desire can be conveniently supplied by CERES. Life is good. Really.

Yet with the rocky transition to the new CEO, it would appear as though the colony is experiencing some minor… glitches? Well, surely it's nothing to worry about. Nothing can be as bad as the fiascos that residents found themselves dealing with under the old management. Continue on with your day, it's fine. An announcement made by Mosley, who you may recognize as the secretary of the new CEO, will echo the same sentiments with a broadcast from your CereVice:

“Good day, residents. This is Mosley. Please pardon any minor hiccups in your commute or quaint mundane activities today. In accordance with the transition, we are also doing some pre-emptive spring cleaning, I suppose you could say. A few bugs were found crawling where they shouldn't in the city's infrastructure. Isn't that positively horrific? They really let this place fall apart. You needn't worry, in a few days everything will be as pristine as it should be. Think of this as a cleansing for all of us.

Goodbye."

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I

[ 1000 ] The “cleansing" doesn't begin too strangely. No, instead it starts with some minor inconveniences. After Mosley's broadcast, anything running on electricity seems to be… mildly on the fritz. Characters will find their home appliances suddenly rebelling just enough to be troublesome. Anything that uses electricity within the bounds of the colony will start suffering from some small malfunctions. (Do we have any cyborgs in the crowd tonight?) Toasters burning your breakfast and shooting the crispy things at you. Televisions suddenly exploding in a haze of smoke before working perfectly fine a moment later. Hair dryers suddenly running a little too hot and whoops, your hair's on fire… Well, this is all still just a small issue. Probably. Here's hoping the fire extinguisher doesn't run on electricity too?

PHASE II

[ 1200 ] It's only glitches for a day or so, but by noon the next day, things get a little weird. We interrupt your regularly scheduled routine to bring you this important message: Welcome to ViViD. … Wait, what? Yeah, sorry about that. Whether you wanted to or not, you've found yourself in the virtual simulator… except it doesn't seem very… virtual anymore, no. The monsters look a bit meaner, and they seem to be after you in particular. You might suddenly be glitched into a dead end, or a level that actually doesn't seem to be beatable at all, with people you've never seen before as your party members. Endless mazes! Boss battles with a wooden sword! Dungeons with no walkthroughs! When you finally make it to the end, you might even find a giant wall blocking your way, or a moat where there was once a path. Now that's troublesome.

And make sure you don't get hurt by any of those monsters. Not like it matters, it's just HP, right? Wrong. Rather, it'll actually hurt quite a bit, just as if you were injured in real life.

If you're lucky, you'll find yourself glitched back out maybe half an hour later -- your wounds still fresh from the experience and still bleeding. Just don't die. You don't want to see what will happen if you die.

PHASE III

[ 1800 ] It's the day after, and you've survived your unfortunate ViViD runs (though there's no promise that you won't end up there yet again). But for now, you've finished your work day without too many electrical object malfunctions, and you're on your way home. Normally the transit system is so very reliable. From district to district, the metro is your only way of travel and today? Today it's stopping with an ugly screech. Hopefully you don't need to be anywhere because it's safe to say that you're not getting off this ride any time soon. The lights aren't only flickering anymore, they're completely out. The darkness settles in uncomfortably as you're only left with the other people who were making the same trip. A second later, things start to get weird. Cold breath down your neck. The scratch of something sharp and angry against the outside of the cabin. Seconds pass in silence, the presence of something outside growing more and more frightening. If you hold your breath and stay very still, you might make it out just fine. That is until a forceful SLAM sounds behind you and there's something against your window. At least you know what's been making all that noise.

Of course, should you pry open the doors, there's nobody there, but… you couldn't have been imagining that, right?

Looks like the entire city's blacked out… and without the hum of technology and warmth of the advanced lighting system, some ghosts have come out to play. But they can only be seen from the corner of your eye, a glimpse, a breath, a nondescript whisper on the air and then they're gone. Who knows what they want from you…? Either way, they're not saying, staying just out of reach and mostly out of sight… but always there, watching and waiting.

PHASE IV

[ 0000 ] Here you are, finally: day 4. You made your way through the dark, avoided the things that go bump in the night and found your apartment. Your pants are gone, your door is locked, and you've managed to stumble right into your bed/nest/cocoon/what-have-you. Your unbearably long day is finally, finally about to come to a close but then something glitches, worse than before. Suddenly you're not all cozy in your bed, but rather suspended in an unidentifiable space. In this darkness, there is screaming and only screaming. You try to move your limbs, use your voice -- and there is nothing. Rather, you can only look on as the space shifts and you see two figures appearing in the darkness, glowing in the same digital blue that lights up the rest of the colony. As you get closer, the screaming grows louder -- a woman's screams, you can hear now. It sounds garbled, like broken pieces of sound bytes. She's being strangled, you can see now. The other figure strangling her is a robot, metallic and ruthless. He turns to see you and his eyes glow with the same blue shine. As the woman -- LILITH, for those who have seen her or heard her voice may recognize -- finally begins to lose her strength to scream, the robot's mouth slowly spreads into a smile as he maintains eye contact, cold and yet somehow pleased.

In the next second, you have been returned to your body, echoes of screaming your only lullaby. Sleep doesn't seem as likely anymore, does it?

BONUS

[ whyo'clock ] If at all possible, the darkness just got darker. How, you might ask? Well, it seems like someone just put a bag over your head! That's a little inconvenient, but it looks like you're suffering from an old school kidnapping at some point through these couple of days, complete with your assailants pushing you around asking, “Where the hell is the money?!" As they shove you into their shady kidnapper van, you can hear a certain song playing which is… a bit too on the nose for this situation. As the wheels of the vehicle stop and you're pushed out, the bag comes off and you're facing down your friendly neighborhood debt collector. He's slow to get his words out but they are very menacing indeed, something about threatening your family and sleeping with the alien fishes in the park. When you protest, insisting that you don't owe them any money, they pull out a CereVice and show your bank account, which does indeed seem to be approximately 50 million credits in debt.

They'll do this even if you're not in debt at all, and, in fact, it is impossible for you to be in debt, as CERES doesn't loan money to you people. Looks like the glitching did a number on your bank account though, and the numbers don't lie.

Looks like you're out of luck, friend. Why not have a friendly chat with the other half a dozen people who have been bagged and kidnapped as well? There's even a small table with snacks as you wait. Wait for what, they haven't exactly said yet. Maybe you should just leave through the window.

PENALTY

[ xxxx ] Should you be unlucky enough to die in ViViD while it is glitching and injuries are being sustained, you will find yourself in a penalty game. Even more than usual penalty games, this one is increasingly unnerving. There is nothing but a dark room, a single light hovering over two masks on a table. One might recognize them as the masks of comedy and tragedy. In front of the player, red words slowly illuminate the room. Pick one. Well, that's an easy penalty game, isn't it?

Yet as you reach for one, the masks will suddenly turn into the faces of the two most important people to you. Their voices whisper, growing distressed as time goes on, “Pick me, pick me, pick me." The red words turn into a countdown if you take too long -- your hand forcibly moved to pick one mask or the other if the timer runs out. Yet once you put on the mask, you will see the person who was not picked, suddenly and brutally murdered right before your eyes by a shadowy figure, wearing the mask you chose.

With that, you will return to the colony, good as new. Though on occasion, you may see the person whose mask was not picked in the corner of your eye, dressed in black and wearing the very same mask of tragedy.

[ 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. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to Cerealia's June event! Please visit the OOC information here, and should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here! You can also check the FAQ for more general inquiries. This event will last from June 11th to June 17th, or IC 1/18 to 1/21. Should this event log hit Captcha, there is an all-purpose overflow here. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'll give them a call while we're out. No doubt they'll have the usual unsatisfactory excuses.

[He emerges from his room, fully dressed and katana at his hip. He's aware that carrying a sword might make Athena uneasy, but he's not taking any chances, after everything that's happened.]

We'd best take the stairs to the ground floor, rather than the elevator.

[ It does send some concern to her, but she doesn't speak of it especially when there are other things to be bothered about. ]

That might be better, [ and she nods obediently. The day seems to be bad already, and it's gotten her frustrated. She could punch something to relieve her stress, but Simon doesn't need a broken fridge on top of a stove???

Instead, she suggests-- ] I'll even race you down the stairs!

[ It might be inappropriate given the situation, but she thinks it'll at least lighten the mood. ]

Hmph, race yourself. I'll watch as you inevitably trip and tumble the rest of the way down. [He's aware by now that Athena is a total klutz, particularly when it comes to stairs. Not that he cares if she falls or anything!!1!

As they leave the room, he goes to lock the door behind him -- and the electronic lock sparks and shocks his hand for his trouble.]

Gah! [He withdraws his hand, shaking it to try and get the feeling of static out of it.] Accursed thing.

[ ~~Feels like home, doesn't it?~~ ]

Simon! [ She'd take his hand to look at it, but she hesitates midway. ] Um—

[ ... Probably best to not say anything until he isn't angry anymore. ]

[~~rude! but also true~~]

...It's fine. [He turns away from the door.] Let's just hurry up and leave before anything else decides to malfunction.

[ She walks by his side, hands behind her back. ]

The new CEO's secretary said we'd have minor hiccups, but this feels like everything's malfunctioning.

Edited 2015-06-14 12:12 (UTC)

[He keeps one hand on his sword as they head for the stairs, just in case anything is lying in wait for them.]

Let's hope their little spring cleaning session resolves these glitches for good, instead of making things worse.

I'm sure the old lady will be able to do something about it. I mean, she said something about a business and money, so I'd want to think that she can make things run smoothly.

[ Though now that they're talking about the new CEO. . . ]

I wonder what happened in that murder, though.

What indeed? She won't let a single outsider take a look at the crime scene, not even members of the police force. And with the bodies of the victims and the evidence all in her hands to tamper with at her leisure, it would hardly be a worthwhile investigation.

--Wait here. [As they reach the stairs, he gestures for Athena to stay put while he goes on ahead into the stairwell. He looks around, but there's nothing amiss aside from the lights flickering every now and again. He looks back at Athena.]

It's safe to proceed.

[ She moves to the side of the railings, sliding her hand on it as she walks down the stairs. ]

I'm pretty sure the old CEO--Julius Vincere--had somebody else working for him. From what I've seen on the network, there were three big guys in the company.

[ But only two bodies were found. MYSTERIOUS. ]

[At least she's not actually trying to race him down like she suggested.]

There is a third individual? Then his disappearance makes him either a suspect, a man on the run in fear of his life... or a third victim, missing for one reason or another.

Is there anything else you know about him?

[ YES, BECAUSE SOMEONE DOESN'T WANT TO RACE. Hint hint. ]

I've never had the chance to talk to any of them, but the CEO was around when I arrived. He welcomed us and made us play more games after getting out of ViViD.

This guy, he said his name is Elias. He posted once on the network— [ Athena fishes out her CereVice from her pocket, but it slides away from her hand and falls to the floor. She tries to catch it while it's still in mid-air, but she ends up slipping and falling on her bum, instead. ]

Ow.

[Blackquill gives a start, trying to catch her when she slips, but... too late. He sighs picks up her Cerevice from where she dropped it, and offers her a hand up.]

Perhaps you should concern yourself less with murders, and more with navigating the stairs in one piece.

[ She takes the hand and pulls herself up, though it doesn't look like she's very willing in doing so. ]

I can go down just fine!

A- Anyway, he was asking people what was wrong after another set of glitches.

[Once she's back on her feet, he shoves her Cerevice back at her. It doesn't seem to be damaged from her dropping it, at least.] Was he playing ignorant, or was he just a simpleton? The glitches have been an issue in the city for some time now.

[Bitter? Just a little. The technical glitches in this city have hurt Athena and endangered countless others, so as much as he'd like to catch the murderer of the CEO, his sympathy for those at the helm of CERES is extremely limited.]

[ She presses on the CereVice's screen to access the network and digs out a post. Then another button to prop up the holographic screen. It should be displaying the post right in front of them now, as they go down the stairs. ]

Oh, it was a virus after all. [ Glitch, virus, whatever... not that it makes a lot of difference. It still affected a lot of people. ]

Anyway, this was his only appearance on the network. I checked the contacts list, and he's not there anymore. The same can be said about the old CEO, and his secretary, but I guess it makes sense... nobody would probably want to send messages to a ghost inbox.

[If Blackquill was already unimpressed by the CEO, he becomes even less impressed with his colleague as she plays the broadcast, watching as they descend the stairs.]

What is that insipid whining...? If fools like him were leaders here, then we're better off without them.

[Harsh, but he has little sympathy for someone who blames the citizens he's supposed to protect for something that likely wasn't their fault. The new CEO, wary though he is of her, seems far more responsible than that.]

If he's missing from the contact list, it does not necessarily mean he has perished like the others. He could be in hiding, or perhaps he is being held somewhere...

[It's at times like this Blackquill almost misses having an obnoxious detective at his disposal to start gathering evidence. Almost.]

I think he's still alive, but finding out where he could have gone might take a while.

[ She's smiling as she says all of this. It actually feels nice to talk about what she usually talks about at home! MURDERS YEAH!!!! SUSPECTS WOO HOO. ]

I'll try going to the research facility again sometime. Maybe the robot tea party will be over by then.

[Please don't smile about murders, Athena.]

Perhaps Aura can help you with that. I'm under no illusion CERES will have divulged any secrets to her, but she knows the facility better than most.

[ Or maybe she can just ask somebody else??? Look at her face, Simon. It looks like you're forcing her to eat the worst possible combination of vegetables ever.

Not that she doesn't eat vegetables BUT YOU GET THE POINT. ]

I'm sure there are others. Like Rin, or maybe even Yata.

[ She really thinks Yata is cool ok... Thug lyf. ].

Yes, Rin could aid you, I've no doubt of that. [No comment about Yata.] But what is to stop you from asking Aura as well? She no longer has any reason to bear you ill will.

[Seven years of bitterness don't vanish overnight, but working together for a common goal should be reason enough to set aside their differences. Or so he hopes.]

[ It might be awkward and terrifying for Athena, asking Aura for help and all, but she would do it. In fact, aside from asking about CERES or the research facility, she'd want Aura to check if Widget's still fully functional. Aura is just really intimidating, though. ]

... I feel like I can eat an entire bakery today.

[ She obviously put a lot of thought into that response. ]

[...It's like she doesn't even need Widget, she lacks her own brain to mouth filter as is.]

Now that would be a sight to behold. [He'd watch. And laugh.] By the time you'd be done eating, we'd have to roll you back up to the apartment.

[ DON'T BE RUDE. WIDGET IS V. V. IMPORTANT. ]

Maybe if someone's stove was still working, I wouldn't get this hungry.

[How does everything somehow wind up being his fault?]

Maybe if someone hadn't melted a pan to its surface, it would still be working.

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