skippedabeat | Round 1: Test Drive

Welcome to the first test drive!

Please don't worry too much about using your Personas correctly or following the prompts exactly. They're meant to give you starting ideas, but by all means, go wild and add more options!

The objective here is to try out characters and see who you could have the most fun with in the game's setting. However, feel free to follow this link to request a Persona be generated for you as if you were part of the game. (~~Please try to limit this to only one of your test drive characters if you can as to not overwhelm us!~~ Never mind generating Personas is a pretty fast process! Request for as many characters away as you like!)

If you have questions about the test drive itself, you can ask them here! If you want to play an AU don't forget this entire post can be used for you to get AU scenarios set up and see who your character might have been related too or know before Awakening.

Now then, let's begin...

Prompt 1 - From Dawn to Dusk

The city has been abuzz for the past few weeks. A new string of murders is making front page news and serving as a grim reminder why the nightly curfew is so important. As families, perhaps even someone close to you, mourn, pressure continues to rise at the many police stations and at city hall. The people are afraid and they’re demanding answers.

There's not much time for you to dwell on this.. Like everyone else in the city, you have a lot to do, and a tight schedule to do it in. You don't even notice the application that has appeared on your phone's screen. The headache that follows, however, is strange and disorienting, and it brings with it an odd sensation that something is wrong today. You’re just not sure why.

The day passes by and soon, it's close to midnight. Your body, if you're not in bed by now, is completely exhausted. Despite your best efforts, you'll find yourself closing your eyes. Too bad it's quickly interrupted by a strange noise, and movement like something pulsating softly.

It's your phone, or at least you think it's your phone, but it's never glowed this orange before. There’s mist rising above it almost like fire...something's definitely bizarre about this. Despite your fears, you forces yourself to open it, and click on that strange snake-like icon.

It opens revealing a single statement and blank box;

To begin, please write your name.

Your fingers move on their own. Before you have time to really think about it, and as the pain inside your head becomes so terrible you start breathing rapidly and sweating, you've entered a series of letters and pressed enter. Now you're in a large chatroom with many others...but your 'name' you've never even heard of it...have you? It almost feels like you have...

Prompt 2 - Awakening

The last rays of the sun disappeared over the horizon almost an hour ago, yet here you are, walking through the apple orchards located behind one of the campus wings. The strange app that's been sending you strange clues the past seven days now says you're ready to face the truth. It told you to come here tonight, but never to travel alone. Repeatedly, it warns you to make sure to have someone close by if you're to survive…but besides some friends, what else did you bring with you? Did you pack for this, or did you figure you'd make it up as you go? Are you in a position to be able to bring weapons with you that no one would suspect?

Something is out there, and it's getting closer.

Before you can think, you see it: a large, blackish mass, almost like slime, slithering along the ground resembling a vaguely humanoid shape with glowing yellow eyes. When it roars again, it reveals rows and rows of teeth. This was a mistake your brain warns. The strange name from the chatroom, the days leading up to this...you're fairly certain even if you are prepared that you're going to die.

And yet, something inside you stirs. Even as they move closer, you find yourself charging instead of running, as your heartbeat increases. A voice inside is guiding you, each movement bringing forth a surge of memories of a past that you had lost. You’re angry and confused, but your pain, your fears, your rage for all of this… all of that needs to be taken out on those creatures.

All you need to do now is to tear out your heart.

Prompt 3 - A new, old life

Now that you have your memories back, the strange veil of this world has been somewhat lifted. Things that seemed simple now seem strange. You have so many questions, but not enough answers. Then there's the new weapons you wield and the strange creature inside of you...your Heart Persona.

During the day, you are encouraged to continue to live as you did before, but with old and new memories together, sometimes it is difficult to keep acting like you did. Will it cause issues in your job or school life? Will it change your reactions to whatever life you had here? Do you notice others like you who have awakened?

Maybe it would be a good time to send a chatroom message, just to ask others what they are planning to do. Maybe you should set up a meeting to fight shadows at night. Maybe you’ll organize a plan of attack or set up a club to escape the strange looks others have been giving you. Maybe you just want someone's opinion on the best place to have pizza. Hey, no one said you had to use the AppleNET just for serious things, after all.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Prompt 1]
[Pearl sighs, closing the newspaper quickly and dropping it to the bench at the back of the dance studio. She knew she shouldn't have opened the paper today, but it had just been too hard to resist. She had to be an informed citizen after all? But she couldn't stand seeing another murder being reported. She recognizes the picture too, a girl she'd seen at the local flower shop. Pearl wipes away a tear and turns her attention to the door as it opens. Right, she has a class to get started teaching. She clasps her fingers together.]

All right. Let's get started, shall we?

[The class begins with her normal stretches, leading in to some basic exercises on the barre as Pearl bends her knees and lifts her arms over her head, elegant and grace. She glances through half-closed eyes at her class and then winces as a headache suddenly pulses through her temples.]

Ah!

[Prompt 3]

[Normally a cafe would make her feel better. It was her favorite place to go after a long day at the studio and she had thought it would make her feel better after the night she'd just had. But there is no comfort here. She isn't even sure if she'll ever feel comfortable again. She isn't supposed to be here. Be...this! What's wrong with her?

Pearl stares down at her cup of tea (quickly growing cold) and plate of pastries (looking really disgusting at the moment -- though they were once her favorite). Pearl frowns, looking away and at the flower shop across the street instead. That is no help either as, of course, there are several different roses outside, waiting to be sold. She hates this...she hates it so much. Instead of reaching for her drink or food she reaches for the phone. Maybe, just maybe someone out there will understand.]

Does anyone want some pastries? I'm not hungry and they're just going to waste...and I could use the company, I guess.

[ It’s strange, 9S decides, being human. It’s as fascinating as it is surreal and foreign. He has his memories—his "human" memories—but now they’re hazy and jumbled. Implanted. No longer as intense and vivid as the one he remembers now. It’s as if he might forget them, given time, like they’re files scheduled to be erased, and this “earth” is far different from the one he remembers. It actually looks alive in the way 9S thinks it was always supposed to be.

The only part of it that he feels even remotely familiar with is the network. Data. Data is something he’s used to, something he can still manipulate, and the phone is one of those gateways, a small, if pitiful connection to the life he remembers to the vast, open network. He keeps the phone close by him, like he expects Operator 21O to suddenly contact him through it. He monitors the chatroom often enough, reading and learning more than he comments, but eventually his eyes scrawl across a line of text. ]

I wouldn’t mind. [Has he even eaten a pastry before, in his human memories? He can’t remember. ] And I’d be happy to lend an ear if you want someone to talk to.

Edited (I can format html) 2017-04-22 05:59 (UTC)

[The reply she receives shouldn't surprise her, and yet it does. As a human she'd been a little social and enjoyed the company of others -- but her memories told of a lonelier story that involved close friends, but few of them human. The other her didn't understand humans and yet now she was sort of...forced to understand them. It made her head hurt, and her heart ache as well.

Maybe if she could work with someone else's problems her own wouldn't seem quite as bad.]

All right. I'm not sure I really want to talk about much. I suppose that might be contradictory after what I said before, but...oh never mind, here's the address.

[She puts the cafe address in the phone and decides to just see how this goes.]

HHTwilightSparkle: I would appreciate a muffin and company.
HHTwilightSparkle: Is it the bakery just outside of campus?

Pearl: Yes. Here's the address. There's actually quite a number of different cafes around.

[Insert Address Here]

HHTwilightSparkle: I'm not as familiar with that one. Give me a moment.

The other bakery strikes Twilight as more of a Rarity place than her usual Pinkie place - conspicuously French, not as casual, more expensive. She'll live.

The flicker of opalescent skin and a cabochon for a third eye catches Twilight's attention. She brings her cake and coffee over and sits down with her.

"How are you holding up?" Twilight asks, her own features occasionally revealing equine features beneath her human form.

Pearl taps anxiously at the phone, reading through messages and trying to keep herself distracted. She places another order for food and gets her tea freshened since the last one had grown cold. She knows she's going through the motions, but it's better than waiting. Maybe by focusing on this she can just forget. But...does she want to forget?

She returns to her seat a few minutes before Twilight joins her. Her eyes widen slightly at the appearance -- a flicker of something -- but it's gone and she really can't say it's any stranger than what her memories have shown her. She's frazzled and managing to keep it together for the time being. "I'm...managing I suppose," by avoiding it, but she knew that wasn't a long-term solution by any means.

"The new afterschool program has taken some... adjustment," Twilight allows. "Should I call you Pearl? It's... about as on the nose as I'd expect from home," she says, "which is surprising."

A nervous laugh bursts out before she can help herself. After school program indeed. It was so beyond what was happening that it was funny. The laugh nearly breaks her, but she manages to pull it together even as she wipes a tear from the corner of her eye. This girl is a student at the school, not someone she should be doing this in front of and yet aren't they in the same boat?

"Pearl is fine," she raises an eyebrow, "What do you mean? What is so surprising about it?"

"Most of the names I've heard here are a language or two removed from what they actually mean," she says, stirring her coffee. "Back home, they're simple. Literal. Names like - Applejack, apple farmer and brewer. Rainbow Dash, weatherpony and athlete. Roseluck, flower arrangement salespony."

"Or, for that matter, Pearl. Ruby. Emerald. Entirely on the nose. No one's going to notice your horn or... your opalescence who hasn't already..." she vaguely gestures at her chest.

[ Galen was already taking refuge inside of the cafe, his laptop situated on the table next to a large cup of coffee and an assortment of odd drawings and notes. He hadn't slept since the night prior and he looked like it, too. His mind couldn't rest after the memories of a previous (or was it his real one) life flooded his brain, drowning him in more knowledge than he ever thought he could possibly hold. Grief and guilt weighed down on him, too, and he looked somehow even more aged. Different from the colleague Pearl might know or recognize from the science department.

His phone app vibrated the same time she sent her text but Galen ignored it. That is, until he looked up from his work to finally acknowledge who sat near him and spotted the faint glow pulsing around her. His attention caught, he peered at her curiously. ]

Pearl, is it?

[She looked up. While she had been anticipating a response on the phone, she hadn't expected someone to be calling her out in person. The name pulled her from her thoughts -- swirling like a storm -- and she was actually a little grateful. She turned and recognized the voice.]

Yes. Hello.

[She notes the pile of books, notes, and the computer on his table.]

That's quite a bit of research for a Saturday.

Round 1: Test Drive

Pearl | Steven Universe

[3]

[3]

3, into action?

3, into action - yes

:|b

?

Thumbs-up emote

that makes more sense |D

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