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

[rago]

| information, app details
| his nokia brick phone is attached to a collar and reads things aloud


i. newcomers/mission 001

[He can still feel the pull of that girl's barrier, tugging against his desperate will to leave some of his power behind, but... now it's all changed. He's no longer under an overpass being ripped from someone's body. It's... a shrine. More modern than the one he'd had himself back in that village centuries ago. His ears prick up, listening for sounds of anyone, only encountering the typical animal noises in the forest behind the honden. He tilts his head and something heavy drags it too far.]

What?

[He rubs his neck against the offertory box, trying to dislodge the infernal contraption, but it remains. He cannot access any of his power, and for Rago, that means at least that he was successful in leaving it behind in Jiro. He can no longer help. His contemplation is interrupted by someone coming up the path and Rago leaps into the bushes to hide, crouching low to the ground, tail swishing. Observing, because he doesn't know where he is, and it's best not to reveal himself. He spends the hour traversing along the edge of the treeline, but nothing happens, nothing changes, and he is... very lost. This is not Gamagori.

The heavy brick thing attached to the collar vibrates once, and he hisses wildly, jumping and trying to run from it instinctively... to no avail. It's now beeping and words come from it. Like the rectangle. Rago growls as he listens to the instructions. Half of them he doesn't understand. Decryption? The city crosswalk, whatever that is, will be in the city, and he's on the outskirts. With one more thorough look around for traps or surprises, he's satisfied there isn't anyone currently in pursuit, and he trots down into the more populated area.

He sticks to alleys and close to building walls, scampering quickly because the tar is hot under his soft paws. Hot, hot, hot. It isn't long before he's muttering to himself as he darts into another shady enclave of a doorway to cool off.]

Where the fuck is this "crosswalk"?


ii. missions 002 + 003

Survive? Does this voice think it can kill me!?

[Rago claws at the collar with attached phone.]

I will not be toyed with!


iii. wildcard
anything goes; pm or laike

ii

[ehero]

[ Judai is not bothered by the talking cat at all because [gestures towards the ygo canon]. Rather than questioning it, he just kneels down so he can talk to Rago on a more... face-to-face(?) level. ]

Do you need help taking that off?

[rago]

[He hisses with contempt at Judai, for daring to think he needs assistance, and then he lowers his paws and flattens his ears.]

Remove it!

[ehero]

[ He reaches over so he can try to find the buckle to undo the collar, but... there is none. He then tries to rip it apart by holding onto it with both hands and pulling, but that doesn't do anything at all. Uh oh. ]

I think we're going to need a pair of scissors...

[rago]

And where will we get these scissors?

[He doesn't know what those are.]

[ehero]

We can probably borrow one from one of the stores in the mall.

[ With the mall right behind them, it'll be the fastest and easiest way to grab a pair. Plus, Judai doesn't have any money to buy one so this is their only choice. While he looks over the collar once more, glancing at it from where he is, Pharaoh decides to make an appearance. Another cat :0!! Hope Rago doesn't care about his personal space because this chubby kitty is getting really in there to check him out. ]

Hey, Pharaoh, play nice.

[rago]

The mall?

[Rago backs away as Pharoah approaches. He smells. Rago lifts his paw to his nose to see if he also smells like this... cat. He does not.]

Oi! Fuck off!

[ehero]

[ Pharaoh does not care about fucking off. In fact, he only moves closer. He's sleepy. Let him nap on you, Rago. ]

[rago]

[As Pharaoh gets close enough to start brushing himself against Rago, like they're acquainted, like he is some cat who has no dignity, Rago swats at him.]

Unhand me, you miscreant!

[ehero]

[ The swatting is returned! Because Pharaoh isn't the type to just sit there and take it like some punk bitch, but before things can escalate, Judai will pick him up. ]

Ah, sorry, I think he's just excited to see another cat.

[ Pharaoh meows to confirm that yes, he just wanted a cat buddy :/ ]

[rago]

[Rago glowers at both Pharaoh and Judai.]

I am not a cat!

[ehero]

Then what are you?

[ Rago doesn't seem like a duel spirit. ]

ii

[stormsoff]

[ is that a cat

is it talking

he has several questions

but also he can’t help but think it’s really cute help ]

H-Hey, we all feel the same way, don’t worry about that. You, uh, you need help? With that?

[rago]

[The collar is heavy and incredibly annoying; he's never worn one, and his paws are insufficient for removal. He looks Isaac over with an intense scrutiny. A child. But children are not always as they seem.]

What do you want in return?

[stormsoff]

.... nothing? I just wanna help.

[rago]

[Nothing will be owed.]

It is. Complicated.

[He steps closer to Isaac to let him look at the collar.]

[stormsoff]

[ Isaac kneels down, inwardly glad of his jeans protecting him from the hot concrete and wondering if the cat’s paws are okay. He’ll reach out gently so as not to startle and start to try and work on the collar. He hasn’t had a pet before either—he hasn’t had to use anything like this... ]

Geez... how’d they attach a phone to a collar, anyway? That’s messed up they’d do that to a cat. This thing’s way too big for you, and how’re you supposed to use it, anyway? [ Not yet knowing, of course, that Rago’s phone reads things aloud. He thinks it’s a useless brick to this poor cat, and the injustice clearly galls him. ] Those jerks.

[rago]

[At least now he knows the talking brick is a phone, and he knows they are for communication over long distances.]

It speaks! Like the rectangle.

[stormsoff]

It ... speaks? [ 3... 2... 1... ] Oh, you mean it dictates things to you? ... this old thing??

[ Isaac finally, successfully, gets the collar off, and shows the Nokia brick phone to Rago. ]

This is a pretty old phone. It’s weird that it can dictate to you, but ... not any weirder than the rest of this, I guess. ... by the way, “rectangle”?

[rago]

[Rago backs away from the offending item as soon as it's removed, and swipes his paw at the phone. Not to destory it, but as a gesture of malcontent.]

The rectangle!

[He says it as if Isaac should know which rectangle, and what it is.]

It spoke to me too, with Amagi's face! The glowing rectangle shown to me when I woke. He wasn't there in the room, he was in the rectangle!

[Slowly, he moves forward again to examine the phone.]

The rectangle was larger, and flatter.

[It was a tablet.]

1/2

[stormsoff]

[ with anyone else Isaac would probably get pissed off at this behavior





but this is a cat, so he just kind of takes a moment to process all of ... that ]

[stormsoff]

[ Isaac sits back on his heels, one hand cupping his chin thoughtfully as the other holds up the collar and phone so Rago can inspect both ]

He was in the rectangle ... sounds like a TV or computer. Probably the second thing, if this Amagi person was speaking to you. It was probably video chat.

[ Huff. Think, Isaac. ]

Much as I hate to say it, you’re gonna need this phone. But keeping it on a collar seems really uncomfortable for you...

[rago]

Yes. A... video chat.

[He narrows his eyes at the phone.]

What do you suggest I do with it?

[stormsoff]

[ Makes a face. ]

You might want to, I dunno, find a way to keep it with you in a pouch or on a vest or something?

I don’t have a lot of money, but maybe we could find a pet store that might have something that would work...

ii.

[cislunar]

[ cat. talking cat. with a nokia. cursing its unknown captors. nani the fuck is happening, some might say. ]

How delightful.

[ is what johannes says instead, absolutely not following the whole "trust only who you know" directive going on here. the novelty is pleasant enough to ignore any alarm bells that could get triggered from approaching a talking cat... not that his alarm bells work anyway. plus, he's half cat-kin regardless.

he crouches a bit away from said kitty, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. ]

It might be too late to make a proclamation like that. Doesn't that collar already place you as a piece in this game, like the rest of us? I hope you're as resilient as what's attached to it.

[ the fcking NOKIA ]