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

[ehero]

Haaaa, really? I haven't met someone who hasn't played duel monsters before!

[ Well, he might have met one or two people who haven't, but he has a memory of a goldfish so. ]

Then what do you normally do?

[hippocarnival]

I'm in charge of the teahouse here. [He's sixteen, but he says it like that's normal.] My family's run it from the beginning.

[ehero]

Huh? Aren't you pretty young to be running a teahouse?

[ He can't tell how old Yuya is, but he looks waaaaaay too young to actually be in charge of anything. ]

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya waves a hand, trying to brush that off immediately.] No! I mean, I inherited it way sooner than I was supposed to, but I can handle it. Maybe you can stop by sometime.

[ehero]

Yeah? I mean, it's pretty hot right now, so if it's not busy, I'll stop by!

[ Not that... Judai has any money on him... ]

[hippocarnival]

It's supposed to be like this all week. [Yuya groans and fans himself.] We're already closed for the day, but it opens at eight tomorrow. Are you a tourist?

[ehero]

Hmm, I guess? I mean, I just woke up here, so I guess you can call me a tourist, haha.

[ He laughs it off like it's no big deal since... well, it really isn't. ]

[hippocarnival]

Uh. [Didn't someone else say that exact kind of thing.] Like you don't remember how you got here? At all?

[ehero]

Nope. I think someone said that this city's in the United States? I haven't been to America before, so everything's pretty new!

[ He's... really relaxed about this whole thing. ]

[hippocarnival]

Is there someone you need to call? You didn't see anyone kidnap you, did you?

[Two people is a mass kidnapping, obviously, maybe he should tell that cop dude what's up.]

[ehero]

I think this is one of those "wake up somewhere new" scenarios, so I should be fine. This isn't the first time that this happened.

[ That honestly says a lot about him. ]

Though immediately learning a new language is a first!

[hippocarnival]

This has happened before...? [That's--not normal?] Are you really okay?

[ehero]

Yeah, I've woken up in worse places, so this is not bad!

[ He laughs a bit. Judai is absolutely not okay (in the head). ]

I'm sure once we find out who's behind these missions, everything will go back to normal.

[hippocarnival]

It seems like they're the ones that kidnapped you. And, um, everyone else who woke up here. I've never even heard of AVA before.

[ehero]

Oh yeah, that was the name of the thing that showed up on our phones, right?

[ He digs out his cell, which is a very old slide phone. The screen is only a display and he has to slip it upwards to reveal the keypad. Gotta press 2 three times to type the letter 'f'. ]

This is the first time that you've ever seen it?

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya stares at the phone that honestly seems like it should be older than he is.] Uh,yeah. I mean, no, I never heard of it before it downloaded itself on my phone. I guess you never heard of it either?

[ehero]

[ He shakes his head. ]

I didn't even know you could download things onto a phone. This is the first time I've ever heard of it.

[ he's from 2007 so ??? what is an app. he also sucks at tech ]

[hippocarnival]

[He's surprised that phone was able to handle downloading an app, too...] It seems like that's the case for everyone who got it. It might be some weird social experiment but I don't think that actually excuses kidnapping. Can I ask where you were before?

[ehero]

I was in Venice.

[ doing the stupidest things. the tenth-anniversary movie is Wild. ]

But what's a social experiment? Some kind of test?

[hippocarnival]

Venice--like Italy?! [Hold on, that's the most important thing. What, did they drug people and fly them over for this weird experiment??] You're in New York!

[ehero]

Haha, yeah, and I woke up knowing how to speak English! Everything's pretty sudden.

[ Though Judai does not seem that concerned at all. It's actually kind of cool that he can speak and understand English. He sucked at it so nice ]

[hippocarnival]

What. [What.] You didn't know English before?

[ehero]

Nope! I was only able to say 'hi' and what my name was. I didn't do so well in my English classes, haha.

[ he sucked at english ]

[hippocarnival]

Are you... are you sure they didn't do something else to you when they took you from Venice? [Are they going to find out they have mind control chips giving them special abilities. Like English.]

[ehero]

Hmm, I don't feel any different.

[ To demonstrate, he steps in place and then moves his arms. Everything seems okay? ]

What should I do to find out?