skippedabeat | Round 1: Test Drive

Entry tags:

test drive

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

[from the other side of the tree comes a startled rustling before Isamu finds a baseball bat shoved in his face as threateningly as one can when the object in question was borrowed from a kid you babysit for. short notice meant that improvising on self-defense items had pretty much been required.]

Oh!

[regardless of how terrifying her weapon actually was, the standoff ends almost as soon as it had begun. upon realizing that the source of the unexpected noise and light is not, in fact, some horrible boogieman here to punish her curiosity, Emily lowers the bat with a relieved laugh. truth be told, she was pretty glad to see anyone at this point. in the silence of the darkened school her imagination was starting to supply enough horror for an entire film series.]

I was starting to think that I really was the only one who actually showed up!

[it had surprised her a little, really; she'd shown up by herself with the understanding that surely someone else with this strange app would heed the same call. it was a strategy that avoided any teasing from her friends on getting so into this - and one that she'd begun to regret when it turned out that apparently the only person in the entire city stupid enough to go stomping around after dark was her.]

[ Isamu jerks back, hands going up in surrender immediately, light shining up into the sky rather than anywhere helpful. He had been looking for people- he just wasn't expecting to be threatened immediately on finding them. ]

Oh, uh-

[ Once the baseball bat is removed from his personal space, Isamu slumps out of his defensive position, pointing his phone back to the ground and away from either of their faces. Shrugging, Isamu's free hand goes to rub the back of his neck. ]

Yeah, kinda figured there'd be a ton of people wanting to figure out what's going on with this app thing.

[ It's weird, he'd figured that he'd at least be able to follow people's lights. ]

Maybe they got fed up with all those other clues from earlier.

[Emily's gaze drifts out briefly across the abandoned campus before she turns back to her new companion with a small but no less cheerful smile.]

Or maybe they all just got scared! It's pretty spooky out here even with nothing happening.

[she's a pretty deft hand with horror stories, having babysat more than a few kids at this point, but even she can't deny the unsettling atmosphere a lonely school has in person. if Isamu had told her that he'd seen half the other people who'd shown up here swallowed by a giant void, she might even believe him at this point. ...for a little while, at least.]

What, this place?

[ Glancing around, Isamu just sees what he's always seen- the campus orchard ]

It's just harder to see than anything else.

[ A shrug, clearly not spooked by the atmosphere. He's been in the orchard often enough that he's having trouble seeing it as anything other than familiar.

Still, they're out breaking curfew for a reason, after all. ]

You have any idea where we're supposed to find whatever it is we're here for?

[clearly someone didn't keep up with the latest urban myths and scary stories circulating the internet. Emily makes a mental note to enlighten her new companion whenever they find...whatever's hidden in between all these moldy apples.]

Well, we're going to hit the building pretty soon if we keep walking. It can't be that much further ahead.

[she chews on the bottom of her lip, crossing her arms (and the bat) behind her.]

I've been checking at the bases of all the trees, but it's kind of a bust so far...

Maybe we got the time wrong?

[ Turning off the flashlight app, Isamu pulls up the chat app, scrolling to double check the clues ]

It'd explain why there's no one else here.

[ It's not like the chatroom had ever lacked for attendance ]

[it's definitely possible, but Emily doesn't quite buy it. she'd been so diligent in setting her phone alarm, smuggling the bat up to her room, getting everything in place so that her parents didn't nab her before she even left the driveway. no way she'd someone fail to notice that she'd plugged in the wrong time. besides, what were the odds that two people made the same mistake for the meetup time?

but, now that she thinks about it...]

It said to bring someone else, didn't it? Maybe now that we're together something will...pop out at us.

[not literally, she hopes. with the meager light of Isamu's flashlight now gone, she can't help squinting out into the darkness. was something rustling out there..?]

There's a lot of people on that thing, I think someone else would have shown by now.

[ Isamu isn't paying attention, but there sure is something else out there that is, if the slowly approaching crunching rustle is anything to go by. ]

Maybe it is by the building.

[ Shaking his head, Isamu gives up and flips back to the flashlight app, holding it back up to shed some light on their surroundings- and catching on an unnatural pool of darkness on the ground. ]

[Emily's almost able to chalk the strange crunching noises that she swears she hears as more products of her hyperactive imagination; she would have succeeded, even, if a part of the scenery that seemed to be actively resisting Isamu's flashlight didn't catch in the corner of her eye.

alright, now that was definitely weird.]

...hey, do you mind moving the light? I thought I saw-

[she reaches up to gently angle his arm so that the light falls completely on the strange darkness - a grip which instantly tightens when the patch of seemingly nothingness rears up and bares its teeth?]

W-what is that!?

[and more importantly, how fast should they be running away from it? this is definitely not a fun little treasure hunt anymore.]

I dunno, but it doesn't look good-

[ Isamu takes a step back automatically as a growl fills the air- fills his head.

The patch of shadow falls forward, newly grown hands scraping at the dirt as it claws it's way towards them, sharply fanged teeth bared in a rictus grin, bright eyes glinting in the light cast by Isamu's phone. ]

We should-

[ 'run' but it's drowned out by a loud thudding in Isamu's ears, his hand itching as he drops the phone, blanketing their surroundings in darkness. His chest hurts, and he stumbles, arm jerking away from Emily's as he grabs at his chest, over his pounding heart.

The roar of his beating heart is threaded through with the snarl of a wolf, and it's overwhelming, enough to drive him mad, enough that he's willing to do anything to make it stop make it stop make it-

Isamu's hand plunges into his own chest, past fabric and flesh and bone, ripping back out with a still beating heart. For one second, another, he just stares at the organ, then collapses to his knees, heart vanishing as a wolf with bright, white wings and the tail of a snake steps out of his shadow, looking Emily over briefly, before bolting towards the shadow, biting out at it. ]

[when Emily had decided to impart a few of her choicest ghost stories on her new friend once they'd finished poking around the school, she could never have imagined that the universe would be supplying its own instead.

Isamu's light crashes to the ground along with her stomach, but she can still see that...thing as clearly as if it were broad daylight. its luminous eyes pierce through the darkness as they lurch closer and closer, stare right through them both and the ruckus in her own mind. she has to get away now, before it pounces, but you can't turn around until it's over.

...what?

foreign thoughts are racing through her head, drowning out the present with words and phrases which make no sense. Emily doesn't even notice as the bat slips from her numb fingers, barely registers Isamu on the ground in agony, can't focus on anything but the pulse practically shaking her body.

and then that wolf appears, and her chest begins trying to turn itself inside out.

the pain is maddening, enough to bring tears to her eyes, but still she hesitates. the same feeling deep in her bones that tells her without a doubt she must do the same, must destroy her heart, also whispers of something darker. should she walk down this path, there would be no turning back.

only sorrow awaited her. even so, Emily couldn't stand by and do nothing.]

Agh!

[the pain is so excruciating that her whole body shakes, the heart nearly tumbling from her hands as she sways violently. a flatline screeches through her mind as the pulsing of the organ slows to a halt - and nothing takes its place.

her screams continue to echo through the night as death returns her to its embrace; so stunned is she by the ordeal that she fails to even notice the terrible figure rising from her own shadow. skin as black as the night around them, eyes that practically burn through all she casts her gaze upon, and too many arms.

it's horrifying - and her first action is to gently place one of the many pairs of hands over Emily's face. she feels a calm descend upon her then, a singularity of purpose she's never experienced before. this hadn't been a mistake. she could help like this.]

...tarukaja.

[the unfamiliar word falls from her lips almost unbidden, drawn out from some murky corner of her mind. the woman behind her acquiesces silently, raising another hand to point at Isamu's wolf. just for a moment it glows - enough to imbue even more power into those deadly jaws.]

[ There should be blood on his hands, Isamu thinks, Okuyasu knows. There should be blood on his hands, tears in his hoodie. The presence in his mind of other and same is wrong, but it's filling a hole Isamu never knew existed, Okuyasu had almost always known was there.

As the wolf paces and snarls, lashing out with teeth and claws, Okuyasu reaches out for the Hand, and comes up with nothing, because Isamu had never had the Hand to begin with, had never been hit by his brother's arrow.

Isamu didn't have a brother, he had two sisters.

The tangle of memories and personalities slam into him, leaving him frozen on the ground. Time muddles into a blur, and he only reacts to the outside world when the mass of shadow reacts to the wolf's attack, striking out and scoring a line of pain down the wolf's side.

The wolf- his Stand, the shadow, the girl- ]

Reimi!

[ Okuyasu pushes himself up to his feet, ignoring the bright flash of pain from his connection to the wolf, pointedly staring forward. He doesn't know what's going on, but he does know that he's not supposed to look back. ]

Let's take this thing down!

[ His wolf paces back, and then lunges forward, jaws latching on and tearing ]

[she smiles beneath the hands of whatever being is grounding her, bright and wide, because she knows that voice. more than just the sound of the boy she'd nearly clocked in the skull moments before - it was Okuyasu. how could she have ever forgotten him? how could she have ever forgotten Morioh?

her back aches with the weight of new old scars, but Reimi doesn't care. the whole she'd torn in her chest has been filled with things she'd never known to miss, and it feels wonderful. all at once she was emptier and more herself than she's ever been.]

You've got it!

[there were still so many unanswered questions, but they knew the rules now. they'd faced so much worse and come out the victory - what chance did this shadow have?

her...companion raises another hand, points this one directly at the enemy. a streak of light crackles from her fingers, slamming into the shadow with an audible squelch. it won't destroy it by any means, but it's more than enough to take its attention away from the injured wolf and onto Reimi.]

[ The shadow turns it's attention towards Reimi, hands digging deep furrows into the ground as it claws it's way towards her.

Okuyasu sidesteps closer to where he remembered her being, putting himself in front of her, and in the thing's way.

He isn't looking back out of sheer instinct, can feel the presence of something else, something other than Reimi standing behind him, and he remembers the alley now, remembers that he's not supposed to look back. ]

Marchosias!

[ How does he know the wolf's name, where's the Hand-

The wolf pivots, attacking the shadow from behind, slashing at it's retreating mass, harrying it even as it scrambles over fallen apples and leaves. ]

[even with her eyes covered, Reimi can see everything unfolding before her - can see more than ever, she realizes with a jolt. the alley has always been a presence unto itself, a silent and malevolent companion, but the being with her now is something else entirely. part of her, but separate and distinct. she wonders, briefly, if this is what it feels like to possess a stand.

there isn't much time to dwell on that now. the shadow is overwhelmed now and trying to beat a retreat, but something visceral in her screams that the fight can't end here.]

Okuyasu, don't let it get away! It's almost finished!

[her dark companion flings another spell(?) at the monster with a frighteningly feral cry, as if acting on its master's emotions. the shadow's pace slows the moment it connects; it struggles to proceed, as if it had suddenly found itself underwater.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Round 1: Test Drive

2, pre-this being even more awkward

What, it's not like there's anything weird about her (yet)

no of course not, just your ordinary hs girl

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