introduction log.

[falsitates]

JUNE 1, 2021

The first day of summer - it’s unbearably hot. Temperatures are high and relentless, and without a single cloud in the sky, the sun blazes down heavily on the unlucky few stuck outside.

Weather predictions warn of an intense heatwave that’ll last all week long. The young and elderly are advised to stay indoors and hydrated, and anyone with the symptoms of a heat stroke is urged to head straight to the city hospital. Schools are temporarily closed until new air conditioners can be installed, and businesses come to a slow grind as many call out sick from heat exhaustion.

The city warns that it’s going to be a long seven days.

  NEWCOMERS

You wake up.

You’re left to your own devices. You have a vague memory of the last few moments of your time back in your world, in familiar surroundings, but you’re now somewhere new. Whether you’ve awoken on an unknown rooftop, in a stranger’s bedroom, behind cell bars, or under six feet of water - you know that you’re no longer at home.

You’re on your own for the time being. You must escape whatever predicament that you’ve found yourself in and find answers to your own questions. What brings you here? How did you arrive? What happened to your friends and family? You have an hour to explore and speak with the people of this world before your time runs out.

Something then vibrates in your pocket.

  RESIDENTS & NEWCOMERS

Your phone vibrates.

It buzzes incessantly until you pick it up, but when you look at the screen, it’s blank. It will not turn on, no matter how hard you press the buttons. It’s possible that it overheated and shut down, but it’s unusually cold to the touch, almost as if you’re touching a brick of ice. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, white text appears on a black background.

Decryption confirmed.

Condition green.

Booting program.

The screen goes dark once more. Seconds later, new words are typed.

WELCOME TO [ AVA ]

→ MISSION 001
HEAD TO THE CITY CROSSWALK BY 1500. FIND THE [ OTHERS ]. YOUR REWARD WILL BE ANNOUNCED THEN. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.

  WELCOME TO [ AVA ]

You can't avoid the mission; you don't have any choice. Any attempt to ignore or avoid it is futile, as convenient coincidences occur all around you as a motivator to go.

Did you have work? For some inexplicable reason, your shift has been cancelled. Were you trying to get some rest? The fire alarm went off and you were evacuated from your home. Did you attempt to travel to another part of the city? The sidewalks and roads have been closed due to a sudden blackout.

No matter what you do, you are compelled to head to the city crosswalk.

For the middle of the afternoon, it's unusually quiet and empty. Despite the heat warning, there should still be more than just a handful of you and a few others, but you won't have the time to ponder about it. Your phone finally reboots and appears to be back to normal - or so it seems. You've got a new app.

[ AVA ]

It's an icon with a white eye. It stares at you, and the screen remains frozen until you press it. It then starts the initialization process.

WELCOME TO [ AVA ]

PEACEFUL DAYS ARE OVER

ALEA IACTA EST

The text vanishes, revealing the app's interface. It's an online social media network with public forums and private messaging, but it's completely devoid of content. It currently only contains the user profiles of those who have signed up for the app, and you are one of them. Your full name, date of birth, personal address, height, weight, and a mugshot that you don't recall taking are all listed on your profile.

You quickly discover that you have no way of deleting or even editing your information. You can't even get rid of the app. The option simply does not exist.

Minutes after opening [ AVA ], you receive a notification. There have been two new forum posts. MISSION 002 and MISSION 003 are the names of the new threads. You open them to read.

→ MISSION 002
NEWCOMERS, WELCOME TO VITAE. YOUR GOAL FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS IS TO SURVIVE. IF YOU ARE ALIVE TO SEE THE MIDDLE OF THE MONTH, YOU WILL BE GREATLY REWARDED.

→ MISSION 003
RESIDENTS, BE AWARE OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE THIS CITY. ONLY TRUST THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW. YOUR COMPENSATION WILL BE PROVIDED IN TWO WEEKS' TIME.

These threads allow you to leave comments. What do you do now?

Comments

[pursuit]

[ Deuce has to ponder for a moment what the guy could be apologizing for, confused.

Can't be his awesome height, can it? ]

Well, yeah! People have to have told you that before, right?

[tothemetal]

uh
dont think anyones ever said it was killer before no
kinda the opposite actually
i get in a lotve peoples ways

[pursuit]

Seriously? I think being tall like that'd be pretty helpful.

Like I bet no shelf's too high for you to reach.

[tothemetal]

haha havent found one yet yeah !
and i can lift real heavy shit too :)
but its real hard for people to get around me
and sometimes when the doorways are real low i end up hitting my head
and uh just kinda spook people by being around and being that big
you know ?
so unless theyve got something really heavy on a high shelf i dont think anybodys ever too pumped to see me
uh not that i blame them or nothing !
you dont always need help grabbing stuff
you know ?

[pursuit]

I guess... I'm not that tall though and I was shorter in middle school and people still were scared of me, so maybe it's something you can change?

You seem like a nice guy, so maybe there's a way people could see that.

[tothemetal]

um
mean
been this way for as long as i can remember
even when i was a kid
you know ?
so like
not gonna say its impossible or nothing !
theres lots of shit people can do that i cant you know ?
but uh
for me i think this is just how it is
really dont mind honest
being upset dont make me shorter or anything haha !
so i dont think about it too much anymore :)

[pursuit]

Isn't that kind of lonely though?

[tothemetal]

nah :)
mean back when i was younger it was kindve a bummer yeah
but that was cause i didnt really uh
know my place ? i guess ?
or whatever
but i get it now and that makes everything a hellve a lot easier
even joined a killer band :)
so im not lonely at all

[pursuit]

As long as you've got good friends, that's the important thing.

I've got a couple who aren't scared of me, too.

[tothemetal]

yeah theyre real good
couldnt think of better dudes in the world :)

its killer youve got buddies now too !
everythings a lot more fun when youve got somebody to do it with isnt it ?
you guys get up to lots of shit ? haha

[pursuit]

I spend time with them after school, sometimes. Got a job this summer so I'm working more.

But it's nice when I can spend time with them.

What's being in a band like, anyway?

[tothemetal]

oh dude it's killer
like i mean you really gotta bust ass not gonna pretend you dont
but i wouldnt trade it for the world
feel like i could take on the whole fucking world when im playing onstage
you know ?

[pursuit]

Wow, really? That sounds pretty great.

Has your band been performing for long?

[tothemetal]

nothing better dude
you should try it sometime if you ever get the chance ! !

been a couple years since we started
uh maybe like two ?
kinda lose track haha
just really enjoy every day you know ?

[pursuit]

I've been told I don't have a very good sense of rhythm.

But it sounds pretty fun when you've got friends with you.

[tothemetal]

dont matter if it dont come naturally to you dude
anybody who says you cant learn rhythms fucking lying
just gotta practice !

but its a helluva lot more fun with friends youre totally right
cant imagine doing it with people you dont love
you know ?

[pursuit]

I guess even if I'm not good at it, it wouldn't seem so bad with friends around.

Maybe I'll give it a try sometime. You'd know better than me about practice, after all, and my friend Malleus is good with uh. You know that huge violin looking thing?

[tothemetal]

everythings better with friends man
and like
honestly ?
if you got buddies you can rock with it makes you wanna work harder
so you get better a helluva lot faster too :)

uh which one ?
like the biiiig big one or just the
uh
kinda big one ?

[truly amazing. his adjective repertoire consists only of 'big' but he's aware of the existence and differences between a cello and a double bass.]

[pursuit]

Now that you mention it, it worked that way with track too. One of my teammates always makes me want to try harder when he's around.

I think it's kind of big? Seems a lot bigger than violins and stuff but it's not as tall as he is or anything. He sits down to play the thing, even.

[ He's seen one of the big honkers in passing but what the heck is it even called, a mystery... ]

[tothemetal]

yeah right ?
you wanna do your best so everybody can smash past their ceiling together
how i feel anyway :)

ohhh yeah probably a cello then !
those things are killer man
you know theres a band that does fucking metal just with those instruments ?
its crazy the range you can get on it

[pursuit]

Wow, really? I'll have to ask him if he knows about that, it sounds so cool.

[tothemetal]

its real fucking killer dude
id like offer to lend you guys some shit if he hasnt listened to them but i dont got any of my albums here
and i only drum so i couldnt even try and transcribe the sheet music or nothing
haha