[Adelie]

She wasn't a hero. She wouldn't mind if she were, of course - it was no secret that she occasionally imagined herself the heroine of some fantasy romance, some tale where the power to save the way awoke from her mundane everyday life. But that was fantasy, after all.

Life wasn't like that.

So when the decidedly fantastical event of the world suddenly being rendered in greyscale, as if some villain had suddenly stolen all color from the world, happened, she was torn with a moment of elation that finally, finally something out of the ordinary had happened. But the incident didn't come accompanied by any sudden revelations of a previous life, or with the development of some mysterious color-inducing powers, or really much of anything at all.

Life simply went on, as it always had.

[Adelie]

And so she went on too.

She made herself breakfast, struggling a little to choose between her peach and blueberry jams without colors to distinguish them; she watched the news, listening to the various press conferences held by politicians and scientists alike, all of whom were professing their dedication to solving this issue without offering explanations nor approaches.

Classes were cancelled until further notice, at least - but in every other respect, it was every other day in her life.

She couldn't help but feel there was something she should be doing - that with such a monumental change to the world, she should've felt some kind of change herself, too.

[Adelie]

Even if she was just one person, woefully human with no special powers or abilities - no matter how depressing that was to think about. No, she didn't want to think about that at all.

Instead, she thought a little about her friends - not exactly superhuman, either, but certainly more successful than a mere college student with little idea what she was doing with her life. Maybe Chi, with her physics degree, might have some theory as to what was going on; maybe Nebs, always in the know, might have some connection who could explain it all.

Perhaps it would be a good time to check in with them - see how the events might be affecting them, see what they had to say.

[Adelie]

She logged onto the chat client on her computer and browsed through her friends list, taking a moment to parse each entry - as she should've expected, it was hard to tell at a glance who was online or offline because there was no color on their indicators.

One familiar name struck her eye, and she quickly opened up a private message with her.

vennnn. chi chi chi!
vennnn. how are you holding up
chi-korita has notifications snoozed. would you like to send a notification anyways?
vennnn. hit me up when you get a chance, okay? just wanted to check in on everyone because of this whole no-colors things going around, y'know.

[Adelie]

Well, that didn't work too well - then again, what had she expected? Chi was always busy with something - whether it be grading papers, teaching classes, or doing other generally societally useful things - and she couldn't expect the woman to be online and ready to talk all the time. Maybe she'd been called in to help with this situation, after all. You never knew.

Instead, she scrolled down her friends list, looking for someone else to approach. She found someone who didn't seem busy - not because of anything negative about them or because she thought they were useless or anything, but rather because she checked and double-checked their status, then noticed they were playing games as well.

[Adelie]

vennnn. vers!
vennnn. how's it going
vennnn. everything holding up okay?
★★★ vers. owo !
★★★ vers. sup ven
★★★ vers. girl, this is actually the worst
★★★ vers. i bought this dating sim yesterday and the gameplay is pretty much bejeweled
★★★ vers. it's so effing hard to match anything with no colors!
vennnn. omg
vennnn. wait which game is this

They talked a little, on and off - it was a game she'd never heard of, but that was to be expected. Versailles always seemed to her a connoisseur of strange and obscure dating sims, and he was always the first she'd ask for recommendations when she just wanted to enjoy some scantily dressed boys doing suspiciously provocative things.

It was all so very normal.

[Adelie]

Talking to Versailles calmed some of the anxiety she was feeling, if only a little; she didn't feel good, but no one could really feel good with the spectre of some unexplained, unknown phenomenon affecting the entire world hanging over their head.

But Versailles didn't seem to mind it too much, and that lackadaisical attitude carried over, just a little, to her.

vennnn. i'm kinda surprised you're playing games though
vennnn. doesn't this whole thing kind of freak you out?
★★★ vers. i mean
★★★ vers. kind of?
★★★ vers. but look, if it gives me a chance to not come in to work i'll take it.
vennnn. haha
vennnn. guess that's one way to look at it!

[Adelie]

vennnn. by the way have you talked to any of the rest of the crew?
★★★ vers. uhh
★★★ vers. nebs texted me earlier but i've been too busy most of today tbh
vennnn. i guess i'll go check in with them then
vennnn. glad to hear things are going well for you!

Heart a little more at ease, she left her friend to struggle through the dating sim he was playing - although he showed signs of giving up on that and trying another game on his backlog instead - and went back to browsing her friends list. Most of her friends were offline or away, which made sense - some places had cancelled classes and work, but the vast majority of people were trying to go about their lives as normally as they could.

[Adelie]

vennnn. nebs!
vennnn. i didn't expect to see you on
nebbu-chan. what's up?
vennnn. not much
vennnn. just wanted to check in, since there's that whole no colors thing going on.
vennnn. everything going okay where you are?
nebbu-chan. to the extent it can be okay, yeah.
vennnn. huh?
nebbu-chan. everyone here is freaking out tbh. it feels like i'm the only voice of sanity around here.
nebbu-chan. they think it's some kind of declaration of war.
nebbu-chan. as if they don't realize every other country is having the same thing happen to them.
vennnn. wow
vennnn. sounds awful ;w;

Versailles had mentioned that Nebula had texted him earlier today, although he hadn't mentioned what it was about - she could only guess it was about the current situation. Something about that had pricked at her, and when she spotted Nebula online she couldn't help but send out a greeting, to see what she had to say.

Still, she wasn't entirely sure what to do with the answer she got. Consoling others was never really her thing, and from what she knew of Nebula, the other woman didn't really have the type of personality to tolerate excessive sympathy from others.

[Adelie]

vennnn. i guess everything's okay then apart from your coworkers freaking out?
vennnn. do you know anything more about what's happening?
nebbu-chan. not a clue.
nebbu-chan. i'm about as lost as you are.
nebbu-chan. well, my coworkers are absolutely convinced they know everything about what's going down, down to distribution method and culprit, but i don't think i need to regale you with a convoluted tale of imperial interference and the third imperial-purine war.
vennnn. hahaha
nebbu-chan. but yeah, i'm really glad you reached out, actually.
nebbu-chan. these people are driving me insane. i gotta go deal with yet another emergency meeting rn, but i'm really glad i had someone to vent to.

It seemed Nebula had just wanted to vent - a relief, honestly, considering she was still too anxious herself to deal with much of other people's anxieties as well.

[Color Harvested]