cordibus: (Default)
cordibus ([personal profile] cordibus) wrote in [community profile] skippedabeat2017-04-21 11:29 pm
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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.

foxhands: (unless you're a fox of course)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-04-22 06:24 am (UTC)(link)
[Well he didn't feel naked before you said that!! He makes an awkward face, quietly fumbling with how to answer that. On one hand, he's suddenly an inanimate object from another world, and compared to what he was an hour ago that's...kinda chuuni but does it count as chu2 if it's reality?

On the other hand, he's foxless, which - while once perfectly normal - suddenly jut feels really weird. So Tsuru gets an agreeing noise, followed by:]


.......Maybe he's somewhere in town? As a human.
mockingbirb: ((Can you blame me?))

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-22 06:28 am (UTC)(link)
That's just weird. [Don't make it weird, man.] What would he do as a human? Why would he want to be hum- for the same reason we wanted to be human, right. I'd say let's go look for him, but...you have parents. [...] You have parents? [And he probably met them a few times.

Wait.

With horror:]
I have parents.
foxhands: (what)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-04-22 06:35 am (UTC)(link)
[He never asked to be human! Fox would ask even less to be human!! But ah, the parents issue is suddenly a much more pressing priority than looking for theoretical human foxes. He has parents! Human parents!

...Were they adopted!]


They're...[a pause.] Our parents are real. [That was a question. Please confirm. His whole human life up to this point wasn't just his imagination, right? Right?]
mockingbirb: (Wasn't my keywords numbers?)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-22 06:43 am (UTC)(link)
I guess? I met yours, so I know they exist. I see them all the time. [...] I should probably call mine but...what would I tell them? "Hi mom, I just remembered I'm a sword. Love you, bye."
foxhands: (i think i confused myself)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-04-22 06:52 am (UTC)(link)
Would they believe that? [Semi-serious question, for all he knows Tsuru's parents could be open to that sort of thing.

Also the more time he has for his past life to settle in, the more he feels weird about talking so much? But that's just something he's gonna have to power through.]
mockingbirb: (69)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-22 06:59 am (UTC)(link)
[Got your back, fellow sword so weird.] Probably not! Assuming they are my parents in the first place and we weren't adopted it's not like they're like me. My...dad? [SO WEIRD. They have birthdays. And birthdays were perfectly normal to have up until about a half hour ago or whenever the random encounter started.] He's kind of like...

[Who's someone who they both know (so weird.)] Hase...be? Hasebe. You remember him, right?
foxhands: (but hold me against you)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-04-22 07:12 am (UTC)(link)
[Hasebe, Hasebe, Hase.....ah! He remembers Hasebe! You can tell he remembers because his eyes widened a little bit. Also because that ah was voiced.]

...He was really strict. [Definitely kind of dad-like, now that he actually has experience with what counts as "dad-like".]

.......I wouldn't tell him.
mockingbirb: (18)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-22 07:18 am (UTC)(link)
He's definitely a dad. Hasebe, I mean...how is he a dad? We didn't have dads unless you count the people who forged us. I guess.

[And now he's folding his arms and making himself at home. This is just like they cleared 4-1 and are chilling before heading back or something.]
foxhands: (foxes?)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-04-22 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[They just got personas, realized everything they knew was a lie, etc etc...that's about the same difficulty level as map 4, right? Naki plops himself down too, sitting seiza-style like a proper sword.]

Reincarnation?

[You can get parents from that, right?]
mockingbirb: (I guess I should accept it.)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-22 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Can we-

[Screw it, he's plopping down too. Cross legged, like an improper sword would.] Can we reincarnate? [...] Wait. If we reincarnate, does that mean that one of our old masters could've been a sword too? Like Lord Date used to be a tantou...maybe one of Ichigo's brothers.

[This situation is weird.]
foxhands: (but it's mine)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-04-22 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Atsu Masamune...

[That sounds....honestly it's kind of amusing to say but also, imagining it? that's weird. Atsu being Date! Midare being whoever used to own Tsuru? Kashuu being Awataguchi Kuniyoshi reborn.

....He's just kinda staring at you, Tsuru. I mean, he tends to stare anyway, but he's also momentarily stuck trying to imagine if one of them is somebody else. Identity crisis! Maybe!]
mockingbirb: ("Self why not slack?")

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-23 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
[Maybe!] Don't worry about it too much, Naki! I'm not. Even if we ended up being other people at some other point- even if we are- are we other people? Well, even if that's the case we're also still us or...something.

I really wish Ishikirimaru was here - this seems like his sort of thing.
foxhands: (but you're not one)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-04-24 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
[We're totally other people now.

Naki nods though, turning his gaze back down to his new shadow-fighting sword. That's right, they're still them. Probably. Whoever they are. And Ishikirimaru would totally have all the answers in a situation like this.]


Maybe he is.

Somewhere.
mockingbirb: ((I can't blame me.))

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-24 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
Naki...what if he's one of our teachers.

[Just. Imagine that. After all, they didn't really recognize each other up until this dramatic awakening business, and after it he's realizing that pre-awakening there wasn't something really Nakiish to Naki. And after it he realizes Naki- basically, there's a lack of Naki and now there's a lot of Naki. Like a vessel was just filled.] What if my boss is actually Hasebe all along. Can you imagine?
foxhands: (how do humans work)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-04-24 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
[Ishikirimaru being a teacher would be. Shocking! But not as terrifying as Hasebe being your boss.

It's a lot easier to focus on this topic, in comparison with that weird existential question of "Who were we before we became ourselves??"]


He'll fire you. [He sounds so sure!]
mockingbirb: (Uh.)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-24 04:46 am (UTC)(link)
He'll definitely fi- no, he'll probably keep me on but make me work harder out of spite. It's Hasebe. He'd say something like...

[And here Tsurumaru drew himself up in a Hasebeish sort of pose and basically did a terrible Hasebe impression.]

As attendant-... [No, he can't pull a Hasebe. He deflates almost the second he tried.] I tried.
foxhands: (why you ask?)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-04-24 05:18 am (UTC)(link)
[Ah, that sounds plausible too...Naki nods, a tiny almost imperceptible nod, and--doesn't even bother to try pulling a Hasebe himself, but.]

You-- [wait.

...Let's just give you a headpat instead.]
mockingbirb: (It's actually really cold right now.)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-24 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
... [And his face is going in his hands.] I deserved that- no, I needed that.
foxhands: (thanks for your patience)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-04-24 06:11 am (UTC)(link)
[There there, Tsuru. It's fine. Everything's okay.

Maybe. Possibly. He's not sure.]


You'll survive.