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

Nakigitsune | Touken Ranbu

[foxhands]

2

[You're ready to face the truth, the app had said. Face what truth? The truth behind his new username? The truth behind where the app came from in the first place? Regardless, here he is, companion-free (he's shy enough on a normal day, inviting someone out on a rule-breaking adventure after dark is a little much), wielding a golf club-sized chicken statue for reasons he'd rather not get into. It'd probably hurt if he hit you with it, at least?

He's actually surprisingly used to sneaking into strange places at night, thanks to a certain neighbor, but that doesn't make him any less likely to follow anyone he finds conveniently heading the same direction...or jumping at strange noises in the dark.

Seriously though, please don't ask about the chicken.]

[probablynoteren]

[LENKA has joined your party!

Actually, neither of them are aware they've joined this particular party yet; for one, Lenka really isn't ready to face the truth, even if he's here and armed and ready for just about anything short of an apocalypse brought about by a giant sword metaphor falling from the sky. Nobody is really ready for those, are they?

At any rate, they're both sneaking about in the bushes, the apples smell really good but now is not the time to think about snacking because-- CLANG.

Chicken meets shovel! It's lucky Lenka's startled but wary enough to leap back instead of swing the shovel, because even if it's just a shovel wielded by a teenager, getting one to the face would hurt.]

... Hello? Is... [pause] Is that a chicken?

[He had to ask, it's the only thing he can see right now??]

[foxhands]

[why did he have to ask]

...Ah.

[He looks at the chicken. And the shovel. And the guy? Gosh it's dark out here.

Looooooooooong pause.]

Yes.

[probablynoteren]

[He moves over a bit, both trying to untangle their weapons(?) and get a look at the guy waving around a chicken statue in the middle of the night where murders or who-knows-what-else might be happening.

... He still doesn't recognize him in the gloom, but the guy looks short. And kind of scrawny. Now he's a little worried on top of being baffled.]

Is it-- [tap tap, goes the shovel against the chicken, gently] --good protection...?

[Does he need to start escorting you so you don't become fried chicken?]

[foxhands]

[Wow rude, he--okay he might be kind of scrawny, but this is a perfectly average height! Maybe you're just absurdly tall!

Also Naki watches him tap the sword chicken, tries lifting it a tiny bit - in a weight-testing sort of way - and shrugs at the guy.]

It's heavy....it'd probably hurt.

[probablynoteren]

[No, pretty sure he's just the normal variety of tall, if you subtract anime hair™ -- if a little bulkier than your average 15-year-old. It's all the replanting and lugging of fertilizer. Probably.]

... Okay. [still sounds kind of dubious, but sometimes you just have to let the chicken free range; instead he takes another look at the owner] You go to this school, don't you.

[He's pretty sure his companion looks at least a little familiar, even if he seems like he has very little presence overall, and is even quieter than Lenka himself. They're finally properly partied up, but for now they need to go through the introductory dialogue. I'm sure the orchard dungeon monsters will wait politely.]

[foxhands]

[Why so dubious...he nods though at the question(?) though, before tilting his head.] You too. Don't you?

[A familiar...voice? Familiar anime hair™? Something, anyway.]

uses his real name bc it's less confusing, just pretend it's AU

[probablynoteren]

[Everything about this is dubious, he's being polite! He nods in response to Naki's actually-a-question.]

First year, senior cycle. Utsugi Lenka.

[He definitely doesn't recognize Naki's voice because where would he have heard him talking, anyway.]

uses his real name too because i'm a copycat

[foxhands]

[There's nothing dubious about this at all! I mean, he knows perfectly well it's kinda weird to be dragging a fake chicken through the apple orchard after dark, but Lenka's pretty dubious too. His mom likes watching true crime shows, he knows what you do with shovels at night!]

...Third year, senior cycle. Nakigitsune.

[Copying his introduction...it's true though, he doesn't talk much with his own classmates, let alone stray lenkas. Either way: good to know you're a fellow student! He's okay with this.]

copykes!

[probablynoteren]

[Wait, they're in an orchard, how is having a shovel in an orchard at all dubious!! Okay, at night is a little unusual but it's still a sight better than having a chicken statue, lurker fox! I don't know why we're meta-arguing in the brackets, probably because these two wouldn't bother. They're too easygoing(?).

Lenka does relax a little now that he has some way to place Naki; that means that they're very likely both here for the same reason.]

You found the app's clues, too. Or they found you.

the most copiest kes

[foxhands]

[These two actually bothering to argue would be a sign of the apocalypse or something, meta-arguments are the best we can manage!]

That's right. [It's hard not to be curious about the app...how it works, where it came from, what the clues might lead to.

He shifts his weight, quietly dismissing the tiny complaint that the chicken is harder to wield than a shovel might have been, and focuses instead on looking around the empty(?) orchard.]

I don't know what we're looking for, though.

[probablynoteren]

[You never know, Personas can change a guy! For the moment, though, all is seemingly peaceful, even if it's still kind of dark and ominous minus the stray chicken. Lenka's shouldered his shovel, which is something he prefers wielding even if it can still get dicey if he has to swing it in all these trees.

Hopefully it won't come down to him having to protect both of them (and the chicken) with the thing. It'd be nice if it stayed quiet and apple-scented, right?]

I don't know, either. [he's thoughtful, though] But we probably aren't the only ones out here.

[An unspoken be careful, not only because of murders, but also in case the next student comes armed and attacks before asking questions.]

[foxhands]

[Dice the trees, Lenka! Senpai believes in your shovel! He nods at the suggestion they're not alone, looking around at the apple-scented darkness, but - with his perfectly average human vision - failing to see anything just yet.

Sneaking out here during a murder epidemic is probably a bad idea, huh? Not that it's stopped either of them. Also was that a rustle in the distance?]

Whoever wrote the messages...should be here, right?

[probablynoteren]

[Those poor trees never did anything! It's a much better bet to dice apples (when you're not low-key fearful for your life), though you probably don't want a shovel for that. Lenka's night vision is decent, and for the most part he's been alert, but he can't see much more than Naki can.

(Too quiet, another, hyper-watchful part of him confirms. There's the sigh of wind, but no movement in the underbrush, no stirring of birds, not even the far-off rumblings of human civilization in the early evening. Something else is here, not someone. He tries to shake it off--)

--the rustle is louder than a gunshot in a scoured wasteland, and the shovel is suddenly swung out between them before either can blink. Lenka can't, in fact, remember moving.]

... No. Not just those who wrote the messages. [his voice is low, even] Watch your back.

[The trees provide good cover, but it's impossible to tell where exactly movement is coming from. It's back to being deathly silent.]

[foxhands]

[A shovel would be better than a chicken for that, at least! And while Naki might not have been all that alert before, he's definitely alert now.

He tenses at - a lot of things, really; the warning, the sudden rustling, the even-more-sudden swinging of the shovel. At night, in the dark, it's hard not to imagine the noise as being anything from a rabbit to a terrible monster from a horror movie. He might not be a fighter in this life, but the potential fear of whatever might be out there leads him to grip his weapon a little tighter, readying it for any monsters that might rear their heads. Everything's gone quiet though...one second, two seconds, maybe a full minute, and still nothing happens.

And then, as if it had been waiting for them to let down their guard (and had possibly lost patience), a black mass bursts out from the shadows! Seeing it, seeing all those teeth, he's not sure whether what he's feeling is adrenaline or fear. All sorts of strange thoughts and feelings are starting to swirl through his mind - for that first moment, he's frozen like a deer in headlights - and yet, deep down, he gets the feeling they can't run from this. The only way to go is forward.

Aside from a sharp intake of breath, he's yet to make a sound.]

[probablynoteren]

[Lenka's hands remain steady on the shovel, even if the rest of him isn't. A part of him remains hypervigilant, even if the rest of him wants to simply back out of the orchard, out into the street and the rest of the way home. Crabwalking if necessary.

The presence of Nakigitsune at his back, though silent, means that he has nowhere to back away to -- but it's also something nice and solid even if he's oddly armed. What that means is that when their lurking stalker finally reveals themselves (itself?), Lenka's first instinct isn't to freeze up but to point his shovel straight at it. Again, he's moved before he could think. That seems to be becoming a theme.

... He doesn't continue the forward motion, though the same part of him that keeps the shovel steady whispers Protect, because that sure is a lot of teeth aimed straight at him. The shadow pauses a little ways from the shovel at its prey's initial movements, seeming a little put off, but now that both of them are frozen--

CLANGTHUNKRSSHH.

That particular odd, disgusting noise results from Lenka's shovel outright colliding with Naki's chicken (again) in a reflex when the shadow comes for them. On the bright side, somehow they've managed to fend the shadow off by bouncing it off their collective weapons.

On the less-so-bright side, now there's shadow gunk all over the place. And that's probably not going to work twice.]

[foxhands]

[Naki, too, had moved without thinking, swinging the chicken with skills he's pretty sure he doesn't have, rushing to attack the creature from nameless nightmares, and--

Hitting Lenka's shovel, apparently.

At least the thing is dead now?

He stares at the gunk for a moment, catching his breath, before taking a quick look around in case more shadows are in the area. There's probably more - two or three, put off for a short moment by the loss of their comrade.]

What are they?

[probablynoteren]

[Lenka doesn't answer for a long moment; he's staring at the shadow gunk at the end of his shovel, where it's splashed off and onto the ground and likely is emitting some sort of noxious shadow fumes or something. Eventually, he shakes himself and seems to come back down to earth -- literally as well, as he starts wiping off the shovel on the grass.]

I don't-- They're-- [eventually he gives up, both on cleaning the shovel and being able to evaluate what they've just collectively stabbed] Maybe, what the app sent us here to find.

[And that brings up all kinds of unsavory possibilities, even if the app was telling the truth (what kind of truth?), per se. There's little time to regroup and get their bearings or shed any light on the matter, because already there are more rustling movements faintly carrying through the bushes. Somehow, the moonlit night seems darker.

Or maybe that's just because there's something moving in the treetops. More than a few somethings.

Lenka shudders and tightens his grip on the shovel. His teeth grind almost audibly as the low-key headache that's persisted for almost a week returns with a vengeance.]

We need to move. They'll surround us.