Round 1: Test Drive

[cordibus]

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.

Comments

[unmaking]

I

galen erso: is this meant to be for social networking or for work

galen erso: I see no relation this might share to any of the science apps I have installed, nor do I recognize anyone I know and I have no idea what I'm meant to be relaying over this

galen erso: who even installed this on my phone

galen erso: Orson, is this your doing?

ii -- awakening:

[ When Galen gripped onto the beginning of a new puzzle, whether it be a calculation, an idea, or a theory, he often found it difficult to let it go until the solution was within his grasp and he could taste the start of a break through. There was nothing like the adrenaline rush that came with the thrill of a new discovery, of finally knowing an answer.

So, of course, once it became clear to him that the mysterious phone app he initially chalked up to as some sort of childish prank was more of a riddle, he became preoccupied with decoding it when he wasn't teaching, following the clues and hints with some amount of intrigue. Every attempt to get rid of it hadn't worked, why not solve the mystery instead? Maybe then he could figure out a workaround or the responsible party.

It never occurred to Galen to take the warnings the application delivered seriously. He had no close acquaintances except for his brain and his research, so of course he arrived to the designated area alone. Why would he bring any distractions? Other people only interrupted important progress. He didn't realize how grave an error that was until it was much too late, cornered and exhausted and trapped with no way out that he could calculate. The only prediction he could make was that he would die, he was certain.

But something told him he could change that outlook, he could thrive and make amends.

Galen didn't know what prompted that line of thinking or why his soul suddenly felt so crushingly heavy with guilt and sin. But somehow everything felt so much clearer, like his mind was defogged, like all of the answers to the universe just arrived at his feet in one small instance. ]

iii - realized:

[ Though Dr. Erso was always a strange, quiet individual, his behavior was much more quirky than was typical, like he couldn't rest or sit still and he was more easily agitated than usual.

It led to some incredibly aloof confrontations with colleagues and students alike, like they were people who weren't even a blip on his radar, as if he failed to notice they even existed.

His blackboard for his current lecture is more of a mess than usual, too, completely unintelligible to anyone but him, and his erratic behavior became even more pronounced when he cancelled the lecture mid-way through out of the blue, urging his high school students to catch up on the material in their own time. ]

iv - wildcard
[Feel free to use 3 as some sort of wild card! Could catch him in class or outside of it. You might find him in the teachers' lounge and recognize him as a fellow Persona user, or you might find him in the library doing research and also recognize him as one. ]

3!

[1in_perfection]

Most of the student body doesn't seem to hesitate over getting a free study period. Some leave the classroom, others congregate in the corners to pursue their own social lives or swap notes.

But then, Michelle-

No. Mitsuru. She's Mitsuru. And she isn't like most students. That's evident in how she stays at her desk, and keeps her focus on the blackboard. True, most of it is a scrawl to her. But, there's still parts of it that jump out at her, and almost make some strange sort of sense.

In that way, it's a match for her own head. And seeing it in physical form does something to aid in sorting her thoughts out, as though it's some sort of meditational aid. So she'll keep her eyes fixed to the blackboard and the chalk scrawls, and try to copy as much as she can onto her own notes. Her pen moves in a constant, loud scratch over the paper.

"Hmm..." and there's the soft noise in the back of her throat. "Something... like that."

It's more than she usually says when taking notes. But then, this is an unusual class lecture.

[unmaking]

Though Galen's mind was preoccupied by the events he took part in last night, and he was anxious to go over everything in closer detail, he wasn't about to leave and abandon whatever students decided to linger since that's not how he treated people. He watched his students go one by one and waited for them all to depart, making sure that he answered any immediate concerns or questions.

He might not have been a teacher in his past life but these students depended on him, like the scientists he failed to protect from Krennic. He wouldn't let their futures suffer just because he couldn't focus on his lecture.

There's only one student remaining by the time he's done answering questions, with a good portion of the period still free. Galen peered, trying to sort out in his brain who she was when the answer came to him.

When he identified her and made the connection, he found he wasn't surprised that she was the one still here. From what he could remember, this particular student appeared in his courses quite a few times, always studious and delightful to have in his lectures. What did surprise him, however, was the faint glow he spotted emitting around her, which he came to learn identified others like him.

Galen coughed, "Michelle?"

Usually, he was the one who had to be prodded back into reality.

[1in_perfection]

"Hm?" A part of her cringes over how quickly she answers to that name. But a few hours isn't enough to distance herself all the way from it, given that she still has a life time's worth of memories in her head. And said memories paint this teacher as someone worth listening to. And... perhaps worth speaking to as well, given that faint glimmer that seems to surround him, once she shifts her focus from the board to him.

"Oh." The situation catches up to her, after a moment of stunned blinking. Someone was deep into studying, it seems. "I understand that class is dismissed but... it didn't seem right to leave, when there's still studying to be done."

Different name or not, some things don't appear to change.

ii it's time for FIGHT CLUB

[probablynoteren]

[Lenka is probably one of the last students you would have expected to be out in the gloom of an evening like this, by himself, when normally he at least has someone with him who's talked him into a bad idea, a new adventure, an odd discovery. Normally his family would at least know where he is even if he likes to trek into abandoned places and the outskirts of town, but lately he's been less communicative.

There's something about the strange app -- some students and users have taken to calling it Ouroboros, after the snake on its logo -- that won't leave his head. It's been weighing on him even when his friends haven't been excitedly whispering about it, and he's reluctantly chased the strange obsession to its logical conclusion, one concession at a time.

He's alone, because he couldn't explain even if he wanted to how much he simultaneously hates and fears and is drawn to the app's mysterious offerings, but he's prepared: a shovel, carefully cleaned from his work in the greenhouses; a rucksack of food, water, and minimal first aid supplies; a flashlight; a compass.]

... Ugh...!

[It was all the preparation he would have needed to explore an abandoned office building, perhaps, but definitely not enough to destroy the thing that had come swarming up out of the dark. Even tearing out his heart has only given him enough new strength to fend off the creature; his hands won't steady on the grip of his makeshift weapon and his vision is swimming from all the thoughts and feelings and memories that keep slamming in and disrupting his concentration. The quiet murmur of the Persona still half-formed behind him is keeping him grounded, but just barely.

With a herculean effort, Lenka regains his balance even as the shadow's teeth start bending the metal of the shovel, and heaves.

It manages to send the thing flying, but as it turns out, he's not all that far from where Galen is fighting: the shadows actually collide with an unearthly shriek and... now they have two to deal with. Great.]

... Sir?

[Two shadows, and his chemistry teacher, apparently? This really isn't a class he wanted to sign up for.]

[unmaking]

[ That made two of them, since it wasn't a class Galen particularly wanted to teach.

At least Lenka had better sense to come armed, unlike Galen, who held himself up in a slouched fashion, breathing raggedly. His mind is a storm of calculations as he tried to figure out the best way to out maneuver this creature and get himself to somewhere safe. Only the high pierced screech broke him out of his thoughts and Galen jerked, startled as another shadow collided with the one wearing him down but at least the interruption gave him a breather. ]

Who --

[ Galen looked about until his gaze landed on Lenka, recognized him as one of his younger year pupils, at least in this life. ]

Lenka?

[ Lenka would be able to spot a modest sized Persona shaped like the Death Star spinning above Galen, half destroyed in its appearance but still quite deadly and sinister. Galen also looked different, no longer wearing standard school staff uniform. ]

Are you alright?

[ Galen looked barely alright himself, but he had to ask out of concern for someone so much younger than him. ]

[probablynoteren]

[Nighttime in this city lately is no longer someplace anyone can go unarmed, even if it is with something as mundane as a gardening tool. Still, the shovel has outlived its usefulness once it meets the shadow a second time: even if Lenka's awakening strength can stand up to the creature, the ordinary metal can't.

(He's going to have to make excuses to the gardening club; they have extra shovels, but it's the principle of the matter.)

He grits his teeth as Shadow #1 (#2?) falls back, blocking the advance of the other, and moves in closer to try to keep them penned in -- the bent mess that was the shovel is kicked away into the dark. He has no time to spare to look over Galen for injuries, nor for a detailed look at his Persona, which would have simply looked like a somewhat ominous, hollowing sphere to him without the knowledge of its dark origins. But he'll still stand stubbornly between him and the threat.

Meantime, his own Persona finally materializes fully over the thundering of his heart and the snarling of the shadows -- a massive knight of twisted wood mounted on a horse of leaves, a strange sight. His hands are promptly filled with the weapons of his Awakening: a pair of short swords with rounded grip, red and blue.]

I-- [he hears Galen's question, but it's impossible to answer it, not least because he doesn't know himself just what exactly he is] --I'm combat-ready. Sir.

[It's an oddly matter-of-fact reply, out of place in a few different ways. There's steel behind it, though: Lenka's always been self-assured in his own quiet way, but there's teeth in the statement as he brings his swords up and rushes the enemy with a cry that sounds more animal than human.]