Round 3: Test Drive

[kokuyoyo]

Welcome to the third 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!)

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 - The National Leviathan Habitat

Eddan's shimmering sapphire of an aquarium, the National Leviathan Habitat, is holding a series of special events at its location in Royal Mount. Students and family groups get half off, with certain events being completely free. This include a full night's stay at the aquarium sometime during the week for any person who checks in with their card. While spots are limited, it's such a large aquarium, and nights can be booked in advance, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. So come, everyone! Enjoy whale spotting, aquarium strolling, educational shows, and a night surrounded by water. However, unknown to you, something else might be starting to beat in the deepest, darkest depths of your heart.

Similar to the flower festival that was used in the prior TDM, Unawakened characters can get a flash of memory sometime during this prompt and Awakened characters will be able to occasionally pick them out. For more information on the National Leviathan Habitat, which is a player introduced location, please check here.

Additionally, if both test drive player and game players agree, the aquarium test drive threads can also become game canon! As long as the test drive character is played as being completely unaware of what has happened in the game up to this point. Keep in mind that they would NOT have had a message on their phones. Two Test drive players can also make these game canon if they get accepted (and they keep the same requirements as above).

Prompt 2 - 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, even on summer vacation. (Or maybe because of summer vacation for the local schools.) 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 3 - 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 4 - 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

[whitefox]

I'm afraid I have to disagree.

[Coming to rest next to his companion before the open mouth of the double doors, Kit slipped his hands into his jacket pockets and stared ahead down the long hallway. He was selfish, but solitary creatures often were. How better to ensure their survival? That was not a point he would ever refute, but what he could not allow was Vincent's assertion that he lacked personal insight.

A similar comment from the other teen had rattled him earlier, but not now. Kit had felt his life was worthless, and perhaps it still was...but it was also his and he was the one in control of it. Having that authority made a world of difference. For example, he could choose for himself who to keep company with, and he could even choose when and where he wanted to die. The entirety of the night up until that point had been an unplanned exercise in exactly that: power and jurisdiction.]

People who are too afraid to gamble will never come to understand who they truly are, their limits, or how to surpass them.

[The stinging in his foot was evidence of that, and acted as a reminder for next time. If he was more like the willow, if he remembered when to bend, then he would not break. It wasn't something which to regret, that hard lesson learned. It was something to embrace and to nurture, for that was the only way he would ever flourish.]

Your greatest adversary will always be the one within. Hold yourself back when you need to, but always be conscious of when you should let go...for without sacrifice, you are sterile and not only useless to the world, but useless to yourself.

[blacktemper]

Ten feet isn't enough to escape him.

[the person within Kit, the one who held both his ugly past and all the frailties that he was so terrified of another person so much as brushing up against. it was clear that this whole thing had been about personal validation, and that understanding tints Vincent's gaze with faint cynicism as he finally cants his head to look his companion's way.]

The only thing you won was another illusion. You're still not in control.

[he doubts that he'll believe him, but that doesn't matter. it was the truth, and someone had to say it eventually.

the way he was now, constantly haunted by a specter he refused to neither fully fight nor embrace, Kit was beyond neutered. there was no future for someone so carefully cultivated to avoid deep self-reflection. he barely even had a present.

he could gamble all he liked, but the person determining the bets was that shadowy self. there was nothing to be won and only more of his own self to lose.]

[whitefox]

Perhaps.

[He felt Vincent's gaze on him and cast his own in his direction.]

Escape from something must seem impossible when your roots are buried deep into the same soil, but there is another way.

[Was he talking about escaping himself? Or his connection with Vincent?

The answer remained unclear even as he carried on, scarcely missing a beat.]

A flower in a forest of trees will starve without sunlight and wither until it is nothing more than food for the vegetation that both surrounds and has outgrown it.

[He just needed to be the tree. To reach for far greater heights and cast his old self into a shadow so deep it would never again see the light of day. Eventually...that minuscule spec would die. Like the strange bond he'd felt forming between him and Vincent.

That was what he wanted, wasn't it? ...wasn't it?

Or would true control be found in embracing those roots rather than denying them?

He considered the familiar faces he'd seen that day, and all the whispers that had stalked him this far. Smothering that part of himself might be an impossible task unless he was also willing to stamp out all the life around him that had come into contact with it. But if he were to absorb it instead...would he be more than he was now, or merely more frail...?

Recalling his own words a moment later, Kit smiled and shook his head. In the end it all boiled down to one thing: was the payoff worth the risk?]

In any case, a cursed child is the last person who should be lecturing me about illusions.

[blacktemper]

[it's a bit of a simplistic view of flora for someone who apparently had an especially soft spot for them...or at least enough botanical knowledge to never shut up. plants had a will to survive so strong that it could seemingly defy the very laws of nature which had placed it there - and the most towering tree could be felled by an unassuming parasitic vine, if it had enough patience. even Vincent knew that.

the thought is amusing, given the metaphor which spawned it, and while Kit is lost in thought he allows himself a brief chuckle. he'd intended to share what was so funny with the class, but unfortunately his companion had decided to settle down on an annoyance instead. given that he wasn't particularly dedicated to converting the other teen's philosophical outlook regarding himself, he gives into the irritation easily.]

Then it's a good thing he's not here to do that, isn't it?

[he'd known that this was a futile argument from the beginning, but this just drives the point home utterly. how many times did he have to be shot down before he let go of this inane concept?]

[whitefox]

[Nature's true beauty resided within its capacity to be an unpredictable and unrelenting force, Kit knew that too well. Nothing lived forever, everything returning one day to the earth from which it had sprung. Not even the tallest trees were an exception to that rule. But it wasn't mortality that Kit wished to outrun.

Death didn't frighten him. He would fight tooth and nail to survive, but one day his time would inevitably come and he had already accepted that long ago. Perhaps that was part of why it was so easy for him to take the risks that he did. He had nothing left to lose and everything to gain.]

I wouldn't be so certain.

[Shrugging, Kit started through the doors, past the out-of-order vending machine and into the long hallway leading back to the guests' sleeping quarters. Everything was as quiet as it had been earlier with not a soul in this area seeming to be out of bed besides them. In order to keep that at bay, he told himself it meant nothing. Even if he didn't believe it.]

[blacktemper]

I would.

[the things that he'd seen in those visions had been as frightening as death was to Kit, but that didn't mean that common sense had completely vanished in the face of that. Vincent knows instinctively that even if such things were possible in a world like this, he could never hold those experiences and still remain as he was. something was bound to shatter - his own personality and those 'memories' were both too intense.

and since he was still perfectly himself...well, it stood to reason. whatever those visions had implied to the contrary, there was no way there was a genuine visceral connection between its actors and himself. Kit must know that as well; the only reason he was implying otherwise was to try and wheedle a more intimate connection between himself and his lyrics out of him.]

You wouldn't be hesitating at all if it were true.

[that, at least, he could say for sure. the boy he'd seen (been, briefly) had a presence like no other. there could be no mistaking him.]

[whitefox]

Who's hesitating.

[Kit knew the visions meant something. If he could be sure of nothing else, at least that point remained irrefutable. The fact that he and Vincent had both experienced them, and the hefty toll that experience took upon their bodies, was all the evidence he required to support that theory. Claiming there was no connection was just an attempt to delude oneself into a false sense of security in his opinion.

Exactly how he was related to the person he saw in his own visions, Kit didn't know. They appeared to be of a similar age, shared a face, and both exhibited an inclination toward gambling with their lives, but that seemed to be about all they had in common. Was that specter truly a rose by another name? Or did those hallucinations have something to do with the feeling that there were things amiss in the city?

It seemed impossible that they could be the same people, but if he believed in demons, spirits, and gods, why not also past lives? Perhaps, if his life was a forked pathway in a dense forest, that phantom was attempting to steer him down the correct road...maybe even toward the purpose he felt he was lacking.]

What would he do if he were here, then?

[blacktemper]

Cut you down.

[the answer is instantaneous and born from a part of Vincent that he isn't entirely certain actually belongs to him. but the answer feels right, threatening as it is. that unwanted child whose rage had already been great enough to overwhelm an adult...if he had managed to grow up, he wouldn't have the patience for the sort of tricks Kit spun.

he certainly wouldn't be lecturing him for any reason. there was no room for love in that boy's world, even of the most cursory sort. the only thing he cherished was his revenge.]

[whitefox]

[Cut him down?

That had been what the masked man had wanted to do, and the boy named Kaito. Steal his life, steal his soul, each of them wanting to tear him down in their own way, and before each of them, the boy who wore his face had been unwavering in his determination to survive.

Just as Kit was then, reaching into his jacket pocket and producing his butterfly knife once more. An ornate little thing with a golden handle embossed with roses and a blade that appeared forged by water, it was flipped open and around and then held out for Vincent to take.]

So, what's stopping him?

[blacktemper]

[he takes it naturally, the only expression hanging around Vincent's face that of faint interest. he owned knives of his own, of course, but had allowed a brief attack of politeness to prevent him from bringing any to today's activities; it's with a soft flash of admiration that he contemplates how Kit must have smuggled this one in.

despite its pretentious design, it's obvious to anyone with a scant amount of knowledge that the blade is well-made. he hefts it around a bit to get a feel for it, tossing it up and down occasionally purely to be an annoying little daredevil. he knows he'll catch it. as the knife makes one of its high-flying rotations, he hears a voice in his head - his own voice.

Do you know why I chose Kurama as a partner? It's because I'd never want to fight him as an enemy.

...not that I'd hurt him either way.

the flash is much softer than the others he's experienced, prompting nothing but a half-hearted punch to the head and a brief spate of wobbliness. Vincent still manages to catch the knife without incident, and he imagines that his momentary silence can easily be interpreted as examining the unnecessary design.

when he speaks, his words come slowly despite their firmness.]

He doesn't exist.

[of course. although he can't help but wonder whether that's his own attempts to impose his will on reality, a thought which troubles him as he hands the blade back to its owner.]

[whitefox]

[While Kit retrieved the blade immediately from Vincent, he did not return it to his inside jacket pocket. Instead, holding it in the palm of his hand, he concentrated upon its weight, felt even through the fabric that concealed the minor burn he'd received when he'd thrown his hand down into the ashes. That weight was proof of its existence. Even if he were blind, he would know that it was real because he could feel its effect upon him. The coolness of the handle as his fingers curled around it, the shape preventing his fist from closing all the way, a smooth surface that would be traitorous to anyone unfamiliar with its handling...]

You know, there are some who say the same thing about gravity.

[That it didn't exist and wasn't real. And yet, without gravity, Kit's little stunt in the stairwell wouldn't have been so alarming, and their earlier tumble down that same flight of stairs wouldn't have hurt nearly as bad as it had. Simply being able to see something did not confirm its existence. Sight alone never could.]

He isn't something your subconscious conjured out of thin air. He is a force of nature within you unwilling to be silenced.

[blacktemper]

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that you can either know exactly how fast a particle is moving or where it is, but not both.

[Vincent is loathe to break out anything that might give the indication of deeper learning, but he feels that this is something he's obligated to struggle against with all his might. Kit's irksome habit of spouting useless trivia is also a factor, much as he'd hate to admit it; given the theme of physics, he naturally gravitated towards a similar analogy.]

As long as I know myself, he's as real as a dream. That's not going to change.

[the two of them can't exist in this world simultaneously, just like the knowledge of location and momentum. so long as he remembered that it didn't matter how loudly the voice in his head railed. he wouldn't be intimidated by such feeble actions.]

[whitefox]

[Sighing, Kit finally returned the knife to its pocket inside his jacket and shook his head.]

Everything changes.

[He was fairly certain neither of them were having visions this time last week, but now all of a sudden...

It was that strife within them that would give birth to something greater, fortifying the people they were now or plowing them into the dirt to fertilize the soil for the growth of someone else. Either way, though, they wouldn't remain the same people they were a year ago, a week ago, or even yesterday.]

You assume you're the particle, but what if you're the position? If the you that exists here and now is something he is moving rapidly away from, what can you do to stop it if you cannot even measure that velocity accurately?

[He'd considered that possibility himself already: that the one who was real wasn't the person he was now. It seemed an unrealistic theory, and yet...was there any better way to explain the urgency that accompanied those visions? The forcefulness they usually demonstrated when they were triggered was like that of an individual buried alive banging on the inside of his coffin. He was in there, screaming at the top of his lungs, Let me out, I'm still alive!]

[blacktemper]

[that other person could suffocate down there, for all that Vincent cared. if he'd valued his life so highly he wouldn't have allowed such a thing to happen in the first place. there was no reason for him to sacrifice his own existence for another's mistake.]

You still can't know both at the same time. I'll just have to keep being the one that matters most.

[if 'everything changed' the way Kit said (an unnecessary exaggeration for effect, but he allows it to pass) then so would the relative position which he represented. as the other person in his mind continued moving, so would he. all he had to do was be the most important thing to focus on.]

[whitefox]

[As if committing him to memory, like a final farewell standing over a corpse at a wake, Kit studied Vincent before abruptly turning away.]

For your sake, I hope that you succeed.

[In his mind, it was better to consider every angle and to be as prepared as possible for every outcome. Refusal to adhere to that simple rule of survival, failure to acknowledge even one likelihood, only to be proven wrong when the impossible forced its way to fruition...Kit never wanted to be in that position. How maddening it would be to realize you were so blind, to know you had deliberately chosen ignorance over enlightenment. And to only have yourself to blame...]

I would be disappointed if you faded away into a dream before I could keep my promise.

[The remaining stretch of hallway seemed much shorter now, perhaps because the door to the sleeping quarters was within his sights. The promise of an end had that effect on the mind, warping perception and convincing someone they had run out of time when, in reality, the only thing that feeling signified was ill time-management and perhaps...some reluctance to part ways.

Not enough to hold him back, but enough to inspire a glance over his shoulder at the other boy to confirm if he was still in tow. Or even still there at all.]

[blacktemper]

You wish. I don't stop until I win.

[in any struggle, no matter what part of his life it encompassed. and for something as crucial as the survival of his very being? he was willing to dig his heels in and brace his back against the wall and withstand any onslaught. if he hadn't succeeded, then he wasn't finished. it was as simple as that.

what was less simple was the reason behind his continuing to tag along beside his companion, steps once again carefully measured to keep from drawing ahead. was the conversation really that stimulating? or was it something more?]

Think you can keep up?

[or would Kit simply bend to the point that this other personality would completely weight him down, leaving him unable to ever spring back again? Vincent doesn't know the reason, but he wants to see this...whatever had formed between them to the very end.

even if that end was a bitter one.]

[whitefox]

[Keeping up wasn't the issue, Kit thought. He simply didn't know what he wanted. Was it a future of his own, carved out with his own two hands, and if so, what did such a thing even look like?

If he was right and that vision was some kind of other self, then he had two ghosts haunting him and no way to safely exorcise either one. And even if there were a way to achieve a seamless separation, what would he do next? Would life in Eddan somehow feel more real, then? Would he go back to his everyday routine of attending school, working at the botanical garden, and 'retrieving' back stolen goods for paying customers? Would nothing change, or would he miraculously be 'cured' of the uncivilized inclinations he sometimes possessed, no longer desiring the thrill that had driven him to tempt fate more times than he could count that night?

Then again, if he succumbed of his own free will to that phantom, it was possible that he wouldn't truly disappear, he would only become something...more than what he was. More whole, maybe.

But without a way to know for certain...]

I can.

[Which wasn't to say that he would. Once more, his answer hinged upon which decision would yield the greatest reward. And, at the moment, even if he couldn't help thinking letting go of the person he was would be the most gratifying, it was still too early to tell.]

[blacktemper]

You better. I don't drag dead weight around.

[his answer comes as if he can sense the unspoken caveat in the promise and has taken serious affront to the very idea. it's the sort of thing that he normally wouldn't give a second thought to - it was Kit's life, not his - but the idea of him folding to this unseen force simply because he couldn't get over some idiotic existential angst was for some reason absolutely intolerable.

what if he wanted another fight after their predetermined one? his own self-interest was at stake here, and although he's just made a blase claim to the contrary he'd more than willing to drag the other teen through whatever defiant measures may be necessary in the near future. no one got away that easily.]

[whitefox]

[Pausing at the end of the hall, Kit tilted his head in the other boy's direction. He really was strange, wasn't he? So determined to act cold and callous, and all the while he was as transparent and flimsy as cellophane.

He could let the comment go. Really, he should. They were standing before the last set of doors now, and on the other side awaited his bed where he could get some much needed rest. But this was a bees nest he couldn't help kicking one last time...]

Careful. You almost sound like you care.

[blacktemper]

[right on cue, Vincent bristles like a wet and highly offended cat. he shoots his soon to be former companion a glare ugly enough to melt right through the door in front of them, pausing in reaching out to push it open in order to dedicate the full brunt of his ire to the cause.]

Don't flatter yourself. I don't like having my time wasted.

[and nothing would be a bigger waste of time than finding a worthy sparring partner only to find him absorbed by some mind-parasite that was likely disinterested in continuing the life it had just consumed. it was inexcusable to the point of warranting intervention. that was all.]

[whitefox]

Hmm...even dressed up with different words, it still sounds like you're developing a soft spot.

[He wasn't just kicking the bees nest, he was picking it up and running with it at this point. But all the little barbed stings were worth his companion's reaction and that indignant look he'd reflexively given him.]

How about this...

[He beat Vincent to the punch and rested his own hand upon the doorknob, offering the other boy a smile that teetered precariously between being insufferable and fond.]

If you decide in the future that you still wish to fight then, whatever happens to me or whoever I may be, I'll still grant you that request. Assuming that's what concerns you the most, of course.

[blacktemper]

The only soft spot here's in your skull.

[and possibly his nose, from the dour look still being leveled Kit's way. they'd promised not to scrap any more tonight, but it's becoming more and more tempting to just smash a fist into the middle of that smug face as times goes on.

the fact that his reactions only seem to be making the other teen feel endeared of all things doesn't help the continuous heating of his temper. it's why he can't help completely his previously forgotten action and reaching out for the knob as well, hand resting atop his companion's. he fully intended to wrestle his way into pushing the door open himself when the time was right. for now he was simply jockeying for position.]

You can't make a promise like that when you don't even know what your friend will think of it.

[of course it was fighting. it had always been fighting. the implication it could possibly be anything else just serves to annoy him further.]

[whitefox]

[Letting everything else slide, Kit looked at Vincent's hand atop his and then back to the other teen's glowering face.]

Oh.

[God, just punch him in the face before he...]

I'll admit, tonight has been really interesting, but I don't think of you like that.

[...too late.]

[blacktemper]

[his expression remains exactly the same way it was a moment before, but at that comment Vincent's eyes bug out to the point that it's a wonder one of them doesn't burst and spray his unwilling victim with frothing blood.

his hand clenches instinctively over the offending one, as if by squeezing it out of existence with his death grip he can also eradicate the reality in which those words escaped from Kit's demented mouth. teeth audibly grinding against one another in pure rage, he manages to hiss out a response eventually:]

As if you were my type.

[why hasn't he taken a swing at him yet? the simple answer is that Vincent is simply too stunned to react in any way that isn't purely instinctual. it's going to take him another few moments before his brain sorts itself out to the point he can attempt some serious violence.]

[whitefox]

[Vincent wasn't swinging, but the same could not be said for Kit.

Really, he should have expected that reaction and prepared for it, but the sudden clenching of his injured hand in a death grip had still taken him by complete surprise. Unfortunately for his companion, it also prompted such an instinctual response that he couldn't stop himself in time from clobbering him across the top of the head with his free fist.]

If that's true, then let go!