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

[silentends]

I guess you're right. You could always learn any time.

[Latin still looks whack to him and it's well beyond his understanding at the moment. Nier appears to have calmed down after being given an explanation like that. He nods.]

Is this for me? Thank you.

[A gesture that makes him light up with happiness. It's hot outside so a drink would be nice.]

I didn't think it would be so warm today.

[ape]

[ his waving gesture says "don't worry", although he wished he had some extra water in his thermal mug. just a little left, with the little shake he gives it, but it's alright. he'll ration his own sips. ]

Mm. All week, looks like. [ so best be prepared. and now, since there is a rather large elephant in the room . . . ] I know it's hard considering all this, but, [ gesture, ] feeling calmer?

[silentends]

A little. I'm just not very good at dealing with anger and stress.

[He's still young so that may be understandable. Suddenly, your life turns upside down so you'd feel a whole range of emotions.]

How do you manage those things? I think taking deep breaths might help.

[ape]

Aha . . . You learn a thing or two in Postgrad.

[ the dictionary summary of phd might as well be stress. obviously, ezekiel had his ways to cope, but he's not about to tell someone to start smoking! it's bad for your health. ]

Breathing excises are a good start, you're right. Then, I start by looking at facts.

[silentends]

Kind of like thinking about the facts and sorting out information? Seeing what makes the most sense?

[Using critical thinking skills seems like a better solution to that kind of issue. Nier tries to relax his shoulders and remove tension from his body.]

...I would just run into the corner and scream at the top of my lungs. Next time I'll try doing that instead.

[ape]

The thinking or the screaming?

[ there's a touch of lightheartedness to his tone, nothing rude. just sort of trying to keep the air less tense. ]

I get what you mean, either way.

[silentends]

[That makes him chuckle lightly. It seems like his mood has improved considerably.]

Well, I'll try thinking it through properly. [He scratches his chin.]

Have you ever yelled just to blow off some steam???

[ape]

Maybe just a little [ his arms come close together in front of his face and he gives a short, barked arg! to convey, ] grr, once and a while. When it comes to steam, I do better with throwing some fast pitches on the field.

[ baseball, one of his other passions. ]

Have you considered sports, Nier? It's proven to be a lot more effective than screaming.

[silentends]

Sports? Actually yeah, I tried doing that sort of thing once.

[He thinks back on how much of a mistake it was. Nier is clumsy so he can't play basketball or tennis. The only thing he can manage is fishing.]

I'm not physically fit so I had a hard time keeping up with it. One of my friends said I should exercise more often.

Do you have a work out routine?

[ape]

I try and make time for a jog at the very least. If you want to be more fit, I'd take your friend's advice.

[ it's a simple action-reaction sort of thing. ]

It's the place to start.

[silentends]

A morning run would be okay once in a while.

[He nods in agreement over it being a start. You can't suddenly become fit overnight so it's something that needs to be worked on.]

I've got so many classes and lectures to attend during the week. Trying to find time for it is the hardest part.

Hey, you're probably busier than I am.

[ape]

That can be relative. [ he too, has many lectures, classes, and studies to have done throughout the course of the week. there're deadlines, presentations, keeping up a job . . . ezekiel rolls his shoulders and tries to laugh. ] Making time for yourself is a challenge for anyone with a schedule. The trick is exactly that: make time. We have twenty four hours in a day, you just need to know how to manage them flexibly.

[ as his mentor says, haha. and well, anyway— he gets up, and points above their heads. ]

Along with the irregularities.

[silentends]

You must be talking about that thing. It looks ominous from here.

[ Nier stares at it and then frowns. He doesn't know why things have escalated this way. ]

What do you think about all this? I am worried that things are worse than they seem.

[ape]

I have a few theories.

[ they're . . . kind of crazy, though. ezekiel takes the opportunity to stretch his legs and anxiously begin his slow-stepped pacing that masks how nervous he actually is. he wants to smoke. he won't and instead busies himself with cleaning the humid fog off his glasses. ]

Most of them come down to some sort of federal occupation. The app has all our profile information down to height and weight, did you see that? Of course, those records could be leeched anywhere from hospitals to the SSA, so . . . [ he really needs to smoke. ] There's extraterrestrial technology, too, but that doesn't explain the lack of panic.

[silentends]

Someone could have just taken our records from anywhere, I agree.

The breech in personal data is concerning. I mean, they could easily find our address and tamper with our belongings too.

[It's also possible their homes aren't entirely safe now. Nier is especially concerned for his little sister Niko.]

Isn't it possible that all of this is some kind of misunderstanding? We don't know much at all.

[ape]

To be fair, an address is just as easy to find— maybe even easier.

[ phone books. google. location services on ios. the internet is vast and hackers have a lot of time on their hands. ]

This looks too elaborate for something so simple to access, especially when there's nothing of value to target in the majority . . . Some people claim to not be from here and don't have anywhere to stay, so that's not the pattern. [ a misunderstanding . . . ezekiel sighs quietly as he swings a foot into another sideways pace. ] A misunderstanding would imply this is an accident.

[silentends]

Guess you're right about it being too elaborate. [He scratches his chin. Now that possibly of it being a misunderstanding seems more doubtful.]

I heard of those people who came in so suddenly. Do you think they took an airplane or something to get here?

You can't just pop out of nowhere and appear from thin air. That's not realistic.

[ape]

A barrier in the sky isn't either.

[ just. straight up. but, you know? he doesn't seem to be saying it judgmentally. ezekiel is . . . smirking . . . like he's about to pick up a brand new box from gamestop or something. or finally catching worthwhile gibbon activity to record, or playing with the zoo chimps— ]

That just tells me we're going to have to think unrealistically if we want to figure it out. Understand?

[silentends]

I don't like the sound of it, but sure. Let's think unrealistically...like a dream maybe?

Anything can happen in a dream.

[Weird barrier lights and people coming out of no where makes complete sense if Nier thinks they're asleep and this is just the subconsciouness at work.]

Which unrealistic idea did you have in mind?

[ape]

I'm still ironing out the kinks. I loved these things as a kid.

[ CRAZY QUANTUM SCIENCE but he ended up married to another science completely. crazy, the way life was. ]

But I'll let everyone know once I have my bearings. Maybe unrealistic was the wrong descriptor. [ because that's what everyone usually ends up calling it; unreal. impossible, and yet, so very tempting to probe at. ] I should get to that. In the mean time, maybe think . . . [ he pauses to search for the word, and in the mean time, pulls out a box of smokes from his back pocket. he won't light anything right now, he's mindful of others, but he does prepare himself. ] Abstract.

[silentends]

[ There it is. Abstract thinking. Nier's expression stiffens somewhat because he's never been particularly good at thinking outside the box. His grades are half decent, but he really struggles with applying imagination to different concepts.]

You know I'm drawing blanks now but I can make an attempt. There's never any harm in trying or so goes the saying.

Did you really have fun doing this as a kid??

[ape]

[ the skepticism. it makes zeke huff out a laugh, and with a drift of nostalgia: ]

I had peculiar interests. Have, maybe. [ with a dip of his head, he signals his good bye. ] Take care, Nier.

[ at about two meters of distance between them, he finally lights a cigarette and unfurls some of the built up tension. ]