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

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-?

ONLY~~FANS~~ 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!)

FUCK ✓ / FIGHT ✕ / CHILL O HTML
✓ ✕ O

-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!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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That's a really striking picture, Mr du Bois!!

Edited 2022-07-10 03:57 (UTC)

thank you!!!
im not surprised you understand you are clearly an intelligent man

Haha, because of the number puzzles? I'm just good at math, really.

that and your sensibility in fashion only further prove your wisdom!
no need to be bashful about it.

Haha, well, I suppose it's just my nature. I don't have your confidence. Actually, it makes me wonder, what did you do for work before you came here?

im a cop! a detective actually. wild right? that's what they told me anyway and it seems true enough.

Oh?? I think detectives are really cool! Especially the ones I've met here, Mr Sholmes and Lieutenant Kitsuragi. And now you!! I have to wonder why none of you got sorted into the Enma though.

[Harry's uncertainty doesn't faze Fukuda at all because he's also got brain damage and is too busy being excited.]

yeah ive met sholmes! and kim is my best bud.
it is kinda weird. maybe they want people with no experience?

Oh that makes sense!! You and the Lieutenant being friends, I mean. I have no idea why the Enma only wants people with no experience. Though I suppose it's wrong to say I have no experience.

is this related to your puzzle skills?

No, the puzzle is more because I like reading and am good with numbers! I've just also worked with police detectives before.

ohh
you're like a special consultant then.

That's a good way to describe it! I had a special skill that they needed in their work, so I was brought on to help.

a special skill for making up puzzles?

[ WHY is he so stuck on the puzzles, harry asks himself as if he has any answers. ]

Haha, not exactly! But don't worry about the details.

[He can't specify because the special skill was being a serial killer with a serial killer brain that could interface with their weird machine.]

i always worry about the details
that is LITERALLY my job, fukuda

Even now? I actually don't even know what faction you're in, detective.

shuten!
i dont need to be a cop to be a detective.

Oh I suppose that's true!! You can be a private eye, or a consulting detective like Sherlock Holmes!

Isn't his name Herlock Sholmes?

Ah- Right, this one is Herlock Sholmes. But I'm pretty sure he's the same as Sherlock Holmes. He's fictional where I'm from, but there's a lot of books about his cases.

[ ... ]

are you telling me this guy is some dick mullen-motherfucker fictional character come alive?

[Fukuda: Who the heck is Dick Mullen]

Well, yes and no. Have you heard of the Many Worlds Theory, detective? It's from Quantum Mechanics, but it can be generalized to say that at any given point where two or more outcomes are possible, there is a parallel world for each outcome. So if at lunch, I have to choose between green tea and strawberry milk, there's two universes that are identical up to that point, but then in one I choose green tea and the other strawberry milk. But then there are an infinite number of divergence points, and thus an infinite number of universes. Essentially, every possible universe exists. Therefore, for every fictional character that exists, there are an infinite number of universes where some version of them is actually real. Of course, the chance of encountering one that's exactly like the character I read about in the books is infinitesimally small, so it's not surprising that some details about Herlock Sholmes are different than the Sherlock Holmes I read about.

ok i get it
you're saying that somewhere out there i have a twin named "larry du gauze"
and you have a twin named "pukuda"

[...]

I mean that's not specifically what I'm saying but those things would be true under the theory, yes. But why would our hypothetical twins both have different last names, detective?
[I guess now is when Harry learns about Japanese name order.]

(no subject)

horrifictie - 2022-08-09 19:25 (UTC) - Expand

holeful - 2022-08-10 02:42 (UTC) - Expand