EMBER 2.0 - A Social App for Lost Souls! [July Substory]

[enterthe]

UPDATE 7.17.2022
EMBER 2.1 (OVERFLOW)

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The EMBER Application icon flashes alive on the homescreen of all the Lost Soul devices across Jigoku-cho. Not a surprise if your character has been using it since launch, but perhaps unsettling to newbies or those who deleted it previously. It pops open on it's own, welcoming the user and telling them that all Lost Souls need to update to the newest version!

It doesn't specify by whose order, or if it actually is mandatory, but why think too hard about it? A lengthy and extremely technically worded Terms of Service appears, even if it's been gone through before, it has some updates. Again, why scroll up to read all that? There's a large ACCEPT button front and center! (There doesn't seem to be a Decline button. Closing out of the App is the only way to not agree... Might want to just delete the App to be safe.)

Accepting moves users forward to App Permissions! A Helpful Window says "Accept All and your profile will be quickly updated or auto-generated for you! Great for speeding set up along! (Recommended)". If that doesn't sway, then each Permission question can be prompted individually. The subsequent windows ask for a variety of totally standard and absolutely above board access prompts. Location Data, Photo/Video Access, etc etc etc- Yes or No! REMINDER: The app will function better if all access is granted!

It doesn't seem to matter what is pressed- all, some, or nothing- the App moves forward for users regardless.
Have fun connecting with your fellow Lost Souls!
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WELCOME to EMBER 2.0
A Social Network for Lost Souls!
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EXAMPLE PROFILE

YDRIS (Immortal) SUTOKU ALLIANCE ☆☆☆☆☆ Creator

✓       ✕ FUCK | FIGHT

STAR RANK
For "who even knows why" reasons, users on Ember now have ☆'s denoting... something. The only clarity is that they come with a Title besides them. These are not, as it might first seem, faction star rankings. They're just something new! The example profile has the highest rank to be found, 5 stars and the title of Creator.

Everybody else gets between 1 and 4 stars with what seems like an algorithmically generated title. These could be anything from ☆ Stink Man up to more illustrious ☆☆☆☆ Faction Hero.

(These cannot be edited or changed ICly by a character and are fully an OOC choice of rank and title! Characters who know Ydris will find themselves with more curated titles, though not necessarily nicer ones.)

Higher star ranks seem to be weighted in favor of getting Green Checkmarks via the algorithm. Hmm.

SWIPE ¹

Swipe Left or Right, accepting the green or red... proposals? Is that what they are? The App immediately starts a Live Chat between the two parties, complete with recommendations for either highly rated Love Hotels or... discreet alleyways with nearby emergency clinics. (These might get presented to the wrong matches from time to time, coding is hard).

ALGORITHM
Stalling on the profile for more than a few seconds results in a loading graphic of a little dancing fire. **Calculating!** it says;

Ding! The In App Algorithm has decided for you! How convenient. The person whose profile was being looked at automatically gets sent a FUCK ✓ or FIGHT ✕, complete with that same live chat initiation mentioned above.

Rarely, there's a third option, essentially an algorithm fail state called CHILL, which still initiates the live chat. That means the system didn't find either of the other two options appropriate. Bummer. It generates completely random suggestions on where to meet, doesn't the DMV sounds like a great place to hang?

¹ [ DISCLAIMER: At the insistence of one Kim Kitsuragi, there is a link to an additional Terms and Conditions document for which the tl;dr is to "All Ember users engaging in matters of passion and/or violence are encouraged to practice such activities in a manner which remains safe, sane, and consensual.
Any injuries resulting from following through on an EMBER suggestion are not the responsibility of the application. ]

NEW FEATURES - JULY
So, what is in the Update to EMBER? Plenty! And much of it unseen to Lost Souls. Ydris has spent most of their time creating a splinter branch of the app denoted as "EMBER Premium" and it is for Celestials only. It is a pay to access service with a delightful little thing called microtransactions. Seems those Dragon Coins from answering Profile Questions do have some purpose! While Lost Souls cannot interact with the Celestials via the app, the Celestials have some functionality, namely they can donate Dragon Coins to their favorite Lost Souls.

Dragon Coins can be cashed out through the app for a small cash bonus- some extra spending money, nothing too crazy. By what rate compared to what they're being purchases at is unclear... Oh well. It's a little extra pay! Why not side hustle from your phone? There's even a leader board!

How does one become one of the favored souls, anyways-?

ONLYFANS CELESTIALS

-MORE PHOTOS: Simple enough, the Celestials are very visual! They're more likely to donate if a Lost Soul has appealing photos on their profile.

-PLAYLISTS: Some curious Celestials like to see what music tastes are had among the Lost Souls. List a few songs you character is fond of or just selected at random to fill the missing profile element for a Dragon Coin bonus.

-QUEST NOTIFICATION: Some Celestials like to be a little more involved, so they spend to create a Quest. These can be sent to individual Souls or picked up from a virtual Bulletin Board. They are experiences or tasks to do around town and document! The app provides a location map should it require going to a certain place. These are largely benign requests such as "Take a photo drinking the new boba tea at this shop!" or "Share a story about your homeworld" or "Post video performing your favorite karaoke number!" Sometimes, they are requests to do good deeds or participate in local volunteer efforts.

Very occasionally, they are more saucy requests for lewd photos. Those requests cannot be sent to individuals! The Celestials get what they get when asking for those on the bulletin board!

Whether it's a rare moment of Ydris' coding filtering correctly or just the Celestials having collectively better judgement than those in Hell; no illegal, harassing, nor dangerous requests can be posted.

-LEADER BOARD: OOC OPT IN/OUT here to have your character added to/kept off of the HEAVENLY HOTNESS LEADERBOARD. This will be a purely RNG'd list of characters the Celestial's favor most. It will be updated every 1-2 weeks for the next (2) months, as I have time! Watch the rise and fall as a variety of results play out.

The Current Leader Board is linked here!

-PRIVATE PROFILE: Don't want the attention of these strange beings? Profiles can be set to Private! This doesn't actually block off from other Lost Souls, but it's an easy way to opt-out of any of this funny business. The cost is "all Dragon Coins" currently on account. If you're not playing, they why bother with those?

(Due to some obtuse design choices, it might be difficult to find this option... Your character would be forgiven for not even realizing it's there!)

PROFILE HTML
(Use squared Image for best profile template fit!)
<center><table style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 2;"><tr><td width="260" align="center"><img src="IMG URL HERE" style="width: 245px; border-radius: 15px; border: 1px solid #7F7F7F; box-shadow: #8D8D8D 1px 1px 1px;"><br /><b><big><big>CHARACTER NAME (CHARACTER AGE)</big></big></b><br> CHARACTER FACTION ☆ to ☆☆☆☆ CUSTOM TITLE <br><tr><td><center><span style="font-family: times; font-size:40px; color:#2EB82E;">✓</span>       <span style="font-family: times; font-size:40px; color:#CC0000;">✕</span></div> </center></td></tr></td></tr></table></center>
FUCK ✓ / FIGHT ✕ / CHILL O HTML
✓ <span style="font-family: times; font-size:40px; color:#2EB82E;">✓</span> ✕ <span style="font-family: times; font-size:40px; color:#CC0000;">✕</span> O <span style="font-family: times; font-size:40px; color:#0000FF;">O</span>

-EMBER is a separate app on a character's phone which functions using the main network.
-This is fully canon to the game! Threads on this post or using the prompts above for Log Posts of your own both count as a SUBSTORY thread. Per mods, these can be used for rewards!
-Post a profile below, engage with other Lost Souls or Only Celestials prompts, and/or tag around to other characters using the SWIPE, ALGORITHM, or just start a chat! Blame as much as you like on Ydris' at times shoddy programing! Have fun!
-FOR CHARACTERS NEW TO THE GAME please post a link to your TL in the New Users header below! This is so new people aren't so easily lost in the shuffle. Keep in mind this post is active from July to end of August, the next EMBER goes up in September!
-Feel free to repost the Profile HTML provided for IC inboxes if you like, but please do not take these out of this post and make individual EMBER profiles on the Network, as that would clutter up the main network very fast.
-Check out Ydris' OPT-IN if you want them to have access to your character's information through this app. This is NOT required to play around with this. The ToS basically just applies normal network rules to this post, messages are public unless explicitly marked [private] in the header. (Ydris will not have access to Private Messages unless the player Opts-In!)

Comments

[nerine]

Homely...
☆☆☆☆ from me honestly
I don't know what kind of broke brains gave you that rating.

[everblooms]

aww, thanks. the wound in my heart is healed. almost! really wish i could edit it... i mean, "local florist" sounds way better, don't you think?

[nerine]

Yeah you mentioned those before and I saw our post a while ago about the ones you grew
They look great too by the way
Will that heal your heart some more if I compliment the flowers too?

[everblooms]

singlehandedly rebuilding my confidence... what more could a girl want out of a ember match?

[nerine]

That's me, healer of hearts
Though I guess I have to wonder
Did anyone make the Celestials mad? They seemed chill to me, I didn't take them to be so judgmental

[everblooms]

my hero!

i actually thought about that, too! see, they were pretty bored of me when i saw them, so, maybe that's it?

[nerine]

We were really encouraged to entertain them as best as possible after all
They probably judged on hotness based on that.
Maybe it's just all arbitrary

[everblooms]

haha so then that begs a question, monts! how did you entertain them?? nothing i came up with seemed all that interesting to them

[nerine]

Nothing too wild!
Though I did make sure to show off some more skin than usual in terms of dressing up
But we had a fun time doing a tasting menu with coffees and teas!
They really loved peach iced tea or some vermouths with a peach edge to it

[everblooms]

good call, monts. they like peach shaped stuff too, if you need another in!

[nerine]

peach-shaped peach cobbler, got it
That will go perfectly with a light cold brew, something more on the fruity side perhaps

[barista brain here]

Maybe I'll do something funnier with them next time
Like a game of Red Flags!

[everblooms]

the flags have to be peach shaped!!

[ just reminding you... ]

say, monts, since you said all that
do you work in a coffee shop??

[nerine]

I can change the shape of the cards maybe, but they still have to be red flags!
It wouldn't be "Red Flags: The Game of Terrible Dates," without the red

And to answer your question, I'm not working at a cafe here
I'm sticking with the hostess gig for the time being
Picking up a cafe shift sounds nice in theory since I have the experience back home
But I feel like working at a normal (for lack of a better word here in hell) cafe isn't going to be as flexible as my prior stint as a barista.

[everblooms]

oh! i thought you meant the running game. what's a red flag then?

hmm! that is interesting knowledge to have that you should exploit to take me on a coffee date some time.
maybe!

[nerine]

I'm going to have to actually write down the list of people I've promised to make coffee at the rate I'm going. Just know you're on that list Aerith.

And for Red Flags... Well.
Let's say you're presented with a dreamy hunk. Or dreamy lady, whatever floats your boat. They have some qualities that make them the ideal romantic partner.

But there's a red flag. A warning sign if you will, about how this romance is probably not meant to be. Like maybe they pick their nose all the time, they have a secret love child, or they're just the worst smelling person in the world.

It's a whole card game, it's pretty great because the other players have to sabotage each other to sell their person of interest despite the red flags they inflict on each ideal and imaginary individual.
And it really does make you think about what you're willing to put up with.

[everblooms]

no, no! not MAKE me coffee... take me on a coffee date!
D A T E
have you been on one before?

that's a fun game, i think! they'll probably enjoy that. i wonder if any of them stayed... you could totally shoot up the leaderboard then!!

[nerine]

[Monts is a little surprised at how straightforward Aerith is; it's nice actually and it really enhances her cuteness which apparently the Celestials have failed to give credit for.]

Oh, like that?
I've been on my fair share.
I can still make it as part of it? I like making things for others.

[everblooms]

i'm not complaining! how about i make you something, too, then?

[nerine]

I like sandwiches if that helps!

[everblooms]

yeah, it does! i have a few ideas already. picking is going to be hard, but surprises are fun. i think so, at least.