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

Deuce Spade | OTA

[pursuit]

A. Crosswalk
[ Deuce is sure, very sure, that his phone hasn't left his person the entire day. And yet there it is, staring him in the face: a new, foreign app that he can't delete. The strange message it gives him is cause for a frown, and just like that, he's prying the back of his phone case open with the ease of someone quite practiced in tinkering.

Because frankly, he is. ]

That app doesn't seem to have any special permissions, so...

[ Nothing looks physically amiss upon inspection. He removes and replaces the battery, then the SIM card, brow furrowing. His next utterance is a pensive hum, as he moves on with his inspection of his phone. It could be that he's right next to someone, talking to himself. Good times. ]

B. Network
[ When Deuce's search turns up nothing new and he grudgingly relents, he decides to see what sort of response he gets from the barren forums. ]

Anyone else find a new app hijacked their phone?

It has to be malware, right?

[ Replacing his phone really isn't in the budget, but... ]

C. The White Rabbit Teahouse (6/3)
[ It may be hot as blazes, and it may be his birthday, but Deuce is still on shift. For anyone visiting their favorite local western-style teahouse themed after a certain work of fiction, Deuce is still busily serving tables in the quaint little establishment, same as always.

The difference being that his card suit-patterned uniform today includes a big blue rosette ribbon with BIRTHDAY BOY emblazoned upon it for all to see. Deuce does his best to ignore the cheerful signal of his special day, considering the day's really no different than any other, and likewise aims to overlook any pointed glances at his Badge of Acquired Age. ]

Welcome to the White Rabbit, may I take your order?

C

[armsel]

I'd like to have black tea and some milk on the side.

[It feels like a long time since he's had the opportunity to sit down and just relax. His life is nothing short of chaotic so stopping by the teahouse is just....nice.]

Is today your birthday?

[pursuit]

Right, I'll have that ou-

[ He starts speaking automatically, as comes of rote, procedural replies, as he writes down the order on his little notepad.

The faint scritching of pen to paper halts however as his brain registers the question. Deuce glances down at himself, then back at the man. ]

Oh, yeah... The owner makes a big deal out of occasions, I guess.

[armsel]

I guess you're the local birthday boy now. Do you want me to sing you a song?

[ Leon, no. Don't sing happy birthday and don't suggest something so embarrassing as a guest. ]

Happy birthday to--- ah, shit. I don't know your name and the song is ruined.

[pursuit]

[ Perhaps it's a blessing that ribbon just so happens to cover his name-tag. ]

I-I'm pretty sure you don't serenade wait staff anyway—

[ Deuce waves the notion off like offending smoke, like the guy hadn't already given up on the idea. ]

[armsel]

Alright let's just forget that happened.

I'll only go for my tea and milk, thanks.

[Leon is so poor but he has some coins from working police shifts. He can at least buy a drink.]

Here's your payment.

[pursuit]

Oh, no- [ Deuce very nearly drops his notepad, hastily pushing the money back toward the man. ] Officer's discount.

[ If his eyeing that uniform wasn't painfully obvious before, and it assuredly was, he's made the notice evident now.

Before Leon can question it, Deuce hurries off. ]

[armsel]

Thank you for your generosity.

[Deuce's very kind and Leon appreciates it. His wallet gets off easier too so that's nice.]

You really didn't have to go out of your way to do that for me. I'll make it up to you someday.

[pursuit]

[ Deuce is, of course, already out of earshot. Perhaps it's for the best, lest they wind up in a debate over whether he needs to be repaid at all.

It doesn't take long for Deuce to return with Leon's order and a plate with one rather robustly sized muffin. These he sets in front of the man with a sunny smile. ]

Here you go, sir.

[ Maybe he's wrong, but he's pretty sure the guy looks hungry, even under all that padding. ]

A. Crosswalk

[rago]

I think not! I gave this device no such permissions!

[Rago's tail swishes as he watches Deuce take apart the phone. There are so many parts, and it's confusing.]

[pursuit]

Me either.

[ Deuce, for his part, does not yet notice the source of that deep voice, preoccupied as he is with inspecting his phone. ]

And it's not like I downloaded anything weird... What about you?

b

[flowerclips]

I did!
I just found this app right now!
I don't know what malware is, but this doesn't look safe ヾ(`ヘ´)ﾉﾞ

[pursuit]

Pretty much what malware is: unsafe stuff that doesn't belong there.

Was your phone out of your sight, just before this started?

[flowerclips]

It was in my purse!
I was drinking tea and eating cake when it started to vibrate
It felt like it was going to blow up if I didn't pick it up! ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ

[pursuit]

Mine was in my pocket all day too.

I'm not sure how they could do that without touching our phones, but I guess they can. We better watch out for that with family and stuff, in case it happens to them too.

[flowerclips]

Is malware really dangerous?
Why is it unsafe?

[pursuit]

Yeah, it can start downloading stuff without your permission, or save your passwords and other private information.

They've kind of done both already which makes me wonder about it.

[flowerclips]

That really IS unsafe!! ((((；゜Д゜)))
What can we do about it then?
I can't delete it! ヽ(#ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ┌┛

network

[tothemetal]

oh
uh
its not just that thing you talk to on your phone ?

[no, Styx, this is not a google assistant or Alexa. nice try, honey.]

[pursuit]

I can't even find it in the app store and didn't install it, so I don't think it's anything like that.

[ He wishes it was only as menacing as Alexa activating randomly during conversations. ]

[tothemetal]

[app store? where...is that on the phone...

it's moments like these that Styx realizes just how heavily he'd been relying on Ymir to set his phone up for him in a way that was manageable without supervision. damn. for the first time since awakening here a stab of homesickness manages to temporarily beat out the storm of constant confusion.]




oh
just kinda figured it was one of those things that came with every phone
like uh
baked in or whatever
you know ?

[pursuit]

[ There's a certain familiarity in that response, and it serves to remind Deuce to check his mom's phone when he gets home.

Fiddling with machines was always left to him, after all. ]

This one's definitely not supposed to be there. It uh. Well, if it was from the manufacturer, it would still show up in the app store, which is like a digital shop with all the verified, safe things that can go on your phone.

Usually, anyway.

[tothemetal]

huh !

[that's pretty neat. is that where Ymir got the little match four game he loves playing on his phone so much? if they ever figure out what, uh...exactly happened here today, he's going to have to try and remember to ask him.]

so if this one came from somewhere else whats it supposed to be doing
seems kinda uh
intense ?
for just texting the way we are right now

[pursuit]

Yeah, I'm guessing whoever got it to install on our phones is using it to monitor us... Plus send messages like that Latin thing earlier.

[ And maybe prove some weird point, showing off the information some strangers have about them. ]

[tothemetal]

oh were those words ?
i thought it was just the shit they put in boxes until you have something to say on your own !
haha :)

you think maybe some of us couldve gotten this thing by mistake ?