UN: Zodiac | Happy New Year!

[kaisoumods]

WHO: Everyone!
WHERE: Libra App
WHEN: January 1st
WHAT: Zodiac Network Post
WARNINGS: None!

[As the new year rolls in, a deep cold settles into Kaisou. Best bundle up and make sure your heat is on. In the sky, the spirit vein shifts from hues of white and gold to hues of blues. As the clock hits midnight and many of the older app users are well into drinking, the blaring alert sound that comes with a new Zodiac post. The alert will sound even if you have your phone turned off or on silent, and will take over your phone until you read and comment to the message.]


Jonathan, Nick, Jamie, Larry, Morpheus, and Kanade have joined the app. Say hi everyone!


Demyx, Five, Sora, Cale, Cecil and Althea have left the app.

[The post then continues on as normal.]

Hello! Thank you for using the Libra App!

Happy New Year! We've reached the new year, and what a year 2022 was! So many incredible and memorable things happened in the past year, it's hard to know where to start! We thank everyone who has been along for the journey of the first year of the Libra app, whether you were with us from launch day or if you just joined today. Your time and engagement with our platform really means the world to us!

We're looking forward to another exciting year with everyone! Let's make 2023 our year, shall we?

Now, as a quick aside among all these new year celebrations, we wanted to report that we have been looking into the unusual changes some of you have been experiencing. While we're still trying to figure out the exact reason it's happening, we did notice that despite our earlier proclaim that the Spirit Vein's barrier was showing signs of healing - we perhaps jumped a bit too quickly on early data. In fact, it seems that early data was nothing more than an outlier and well... the spirit energy level within the city is actually higher than it's ever been, and the exposure to that energy might be what's causing the recent mutations.

While we're not sure why these changes are happening and what can be done to reverse them, don't worry! We're looking into solutions to this problem and let you know as soon as we find something. In the mean time, since it's the start of the new year, we recommend viewing this as a new challenge that could encourage growth! There's been no reports so far of these changes being lethal or harmful, so perhaps you can garner a whole new set of experiences from them!

But with that news out of the way, we encourage you to not let these things get in the way of enjoying the holiday and reflecting on the past year! So now we'll leave you with our icebreaker, and our first annual Libra Unwrapped. Enjoy!

Happy New Year from Zodiac!


[As you finish reaching the message, the app will change to one of end-of-year videos that show off stats like how many times a person has commented, active days, which people they message the most, etc. There is also a slideshow of photos that depict "memorable times" of the year - like the time you fought a dragon or played death soccer or ate at dennys! It's not clear how some of these photos were taken, but that's not important right? For brand new users of the app, the only photo they have is a selfie shot of the expression they made when the app opened. ]


This post has been sponsored by Milliways Bar! Come end the year and the universe with us!

[Users will have the option to choose their own display names and userpics if they haven't already. If nothing is chosen, the app will use their real name and a quick photo taken of them from their camera's phone. Demyx and Sora will be around the city with no memories of the app. Meanwhile Five will be nowhere to be found.

Like always, there'll be no responses from Zodiac. ]

Comments

[schrodingersghost]

Oh, there's equations, but most of the time I don't think they show them. But there's physics! And chemistry. And lots of things exploding.

[droptheious]

Aw.

[He sounds genuinely disappointed by the lack of equations. He wants to see the cool math! :<]

But the rest sounds amazing!! Man, I bet I could work out how they did the experiments and try it myself if they show enough of it.

[SEE WHAT YOU WROUGHT, DANNY?!!]

[schrodingersghost]

Maybe some of them? Most of the bigger ones I think they had to get special permission from the city. And have a fire squad standing by.

[At least Danny was still somewhat responsible.]

[droptheious]

Well, I don't know if I could get that, the folks at the fire department kinda don't trust me after...everything, but maybe if I went as far out of the city as I could I could give it a try?

[Varian NO.]

[schrodingersghost]

.....I think that's a really good way to get into trouble actually? You have to get all kinds of permits for stuff like that.

I think.

[droptheious]

...Really? Even when you're way out of civilisation?

[SOUNDS FAKE.]

[schrodingersghost]

....Yes? I mean you could still start a fire or something? And there are still people living out there who might be a little concerned if they see an explosion.

[droptheious]

I guess. I mean, I guess there might be farmland out there? People have to get their food from somewhere, right?

[schrodingersghost]

Eh, maybe? Most farms these days are run by companies I think. Lots of machines.

[Not that he knew much about agribusiness.]

[droptheious]

Really?

[Wow, he's not sure how to feel about that.]

I always tried to add machinery to our farmland, but dad was always suuuuuper against it. [He puts on a gruffer voice.] "Farming is working with your hands, knowing the land, it's not for machines, Varian." And all that. I mean, all I wanted to do was optimise our harvests.

[schrodingersghost]

Your Dad's a farmer? That's cool! What kind of farm did you have?

Yeah, I've never actually been on one. But I think we talked about them some in school before. It has something to do with mass production. There's a few groups of people around who still do farming by hand, but most of them use tractors and different kinds of machines. I bet there's some books about it in the school library.

[droptheious]

Uh-huh. My whole village back home was made up of farmland. We had crops- wheat, barley, vegetables, some apple trees, we got a huge pumpkin patch. [He smiles fondly, he misses Old Crona a lot.] A couple of farms over had livestock. Our village fed the kingdom- my dad's the village leader so it's his job to make sure it all runs smoothly.

[He sounds pretty pleased- he's PROUD of his father and the hard work he does, even if it made their relationship...strained more than once.]

Man, I'd like to read them! Everything we did was by hand. Harvest time was always pretty exhausting.

[schrodingersghost]

That is so neat. I've never heard of any places like that around here. [Danny was a city boy, all the way. He'd never even been outside of Kaisou if you didn't count a few trips out to find darker skies for his telescope. Hearing about such a different kind of life was super interesting to him.]

It sounds like it! How long did it take to do all of that by hand?

[droptheious]

I think the closest we have is Stardew Valley? That place is a lot like Old Corona.

[He only goes there once in a while, because it tugs on the heartstrings a little too much. ]

Oh, wow. All autumn, really. It's a lot of work and you're usually doing it from dawn to dusk to make sure all the harvest is in and stored in time before winter.

[schrodingersghost]

That's in the spirit realm, right? I don't think I've been there yet.

[There always seemed like there were too many other things to do to take the time to do exploring. But come to think of it, what was he thinking? Why hadn't he gone exploring? There was a whole other dimension he'd barely seen anything of.]

[droptheious]

It is! You get there by train. It's pretty calm there, honestly. There's a couple of mines with some spooky stuff in them but the rest of it is pretty calm.