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

Kainé | OTA

[prevail]

A. Crosswalk
[ Against her better judgement, and her very best efforts, Kainé finds herself among a collection of strangers. She doesn't recognize anyone thus far, which she considers an enormous relief. The last thing she wants is for Lily, Nier, or his little sister to get caught up in whatever this is.

Honestly, she's expecting some attempt at extortion. Joke's on them though, she will absolutely wipe the floor with the culprit if they present themselves...so she thinks. ]

How'd this crap even get on my phone?

[ She barely uses her phone for anything but texting her family, both immediate and essentially adopted... ]

B. Network
All right, whose damn idea of a prank is this?

You better not be messing with my family, or I'll cram this phone down your throat.

A

[silentends]

Kainé!!!!

[Nier runs over to her sprinting. He's physically weak so he already out of breath when he starts speaking.]

I was looking everywhere for you. Thank goodness you aren't hurt.

[He sounds like he might choke if he doesn't stop to catch some air.]

[prevail]

[ Oh no, so her favorite dodo friend got caught up in this crap too, after all.

Kainé frowns. It's not directed at him, but rather, at the circumstances in general. ]

...We really need to get you in shape.

[ This concerns her too, so. ]

[silentends]

My lungs are on fire...I just need a moment to rest and I'll be fine.

[Nier coughs and wheeze a few times before he finally regains stability.]

What do you mean? Do you want me to work out?

[prevail]

You'd stop dying after a short run that way.

[ She pats his back lightly, hoping he won't keel over on her.

It's happened before, she feels she knows better than to think it won't happen again. ]

Anyway...why are you here?

[silentends]

It's my sister. She got caught up in this mess.

[Nier loses his balance a bit but he manages to stay still. Kainé's right he needs to exercise. He frowns while staring at the floor.]

I think it might be affecting her health so I'm worried. How about Lily?

Is she okay?

[prevail]

[ He remembered Lily's name.

That bit of mental clarity answers her question immediately. ]

Don't know. Haven't been able to get through to her with my phone going berserk.

[ But if Nier's sister got dragged in, can she really hope better for her own? ]

[silentends]

We need to find Lily soon then. Let's go see her before something bad happens.

[Kainé and Lily are his friends and neighbors. He doesn't want to see them get hurt.]

The App is at fault for all of this. I'm sorry Kainé...

[prevail]

What the hell can an app do, other than screwing with phones?

[ He sounds way too concerned for what she's assuming is a ridiculous prank.

But she won't disagree about finding Lily. ]

[silentends]

Haven't you noticed Kainé? The barriers are in the sky and I think it's from the app..

[He can feel his palms getting sweaty from how nervous he is. Nier really wants to just find their friends and family as soon as possible.]

It's screwing with more than just a phone. We need to do something.

a

[stormsoff]

[ .... she’s like half a foot taller than him and this is more intimidating than he feels like it should be ]

Wouldn’t we all like to know. No one has any idea, so. [ SHRUG ] Join the club, I guess.

[prevail]

[ It likely doesn't help that her frustration's practically radiating off of her. ]

Why they hell'd all these people show up here, then?

[ She makes a sweeping gesture at the crowd around them.

Nevermind the fact that she, too, ended up here. ]

[stormsoff]

You didn’t notice? Well ... I mean, it was weird. When I was walking here, I noticed something.

[ Isaac gestures around. ]

Whenever I tried to take a detour or go somewhere else, I ... couldn’t. Stuff was blocked off or shut down. Literally, no matter what I did ... it felt like I was led straight here.

Just one more item on the Creepy Things list.

[prevail]

You don't believe in coincidences, huh?

[ Sometimes when it rains, it pours. That's what she told herself anyway.

It's not as though she subscribes to any of that supernatural business some people do. ]

Could be if someone can get into our phones remotely, they can hit up other crap too.

[stormsoff]

Heh. There’s coincidences, and then there’s sitcom levels of coincidences, and I don’t see any cameras.

[ isaac what ]

Yeah, that’s what I think it is. This all feels pre-planned. Orchestrated. Dramatically so, even. Someone told me the Latin phrase that came up on our phones means “the die is cast.” I mean, whatever they’re trying to tell us, it isn’t pleasant.

[prevail]

Sounds like some punks with too much time on their hands.

[ She's got stronger words for it, really, but since Nier said his sister's around here someplace... It seems best to mind her mouth. ]

Don't know about you, but I'm not interested in playing along.

[stormsoff]

You’re telling me.

[ Isaac glances up at her, eyebrows lifted in surprise—and then grins, an expression that seems to surprise even him. ]

Heck no. I’m gonna find out what their game is, and help keep everyone safe.

[prevail]

[ Well, there's a stance she can agree with.

Who knows how others are reacting to all this, but surely some of them won't just go along with it either. ]

Better than letting them herd us around spouting Latin.

[apatheia]

Kainé!

[Sorry about the sense of relief, sis... Honestly though, Lily's somewhere between relief and extra worry. Her big sister's presence is always a little more reassuring to have than not, but on the other hand, she doesn't want Kainé dragged into whatever weird mess this is. For both her sister's safety and whoever's involved with this. Not like Lily would be one to let it go either, but between the two of them, she knows Kainé's wrath is far worse.

For now though, she jogs over to Kainé's side. Gotta make sure big sis is okay!!]

You alright?

[prevail]

[ Relief and dread mingle in equal measure when Kainé hears a voice she could mistake for no other. She turns automatically toward that sound, spotting her twin headed in her direction.

At the same time that visual confirmation of Lily's safety is a comfort... Her presence here means that whoever's pulling this nonsense has involved her sister as well. That means most of those close to her were dragged into this.

Someone's getting a boot where the sun doesn't shine, when she finds them. ]

Lily, you okay?

b

[flowerclips]

Do you think they'll really hurt our family?

[prevail]

They might try, but I'm not gonna let them.

[flowerclips]

Okay I'll do my best too!!
I'll tell Nier not to go out at night time!!
Please be safe too, Miss Kaine!!

[prevail]

Thanks, Niko. He's good at worrying about everybody but himself, so we've gotta look out for him.

But hey, if trouble finds me, I'll kick its butt.

[flowerclips]

Right! If we look after him together, he'll be okay! ٩(•̤̀ᵕ•̤́๑)ᵒᵏᵎᵎᵎᵎ

That's so cool... I hope that I can also kick trouble's butt! ( #`⌂´)/┌┛