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

[torching]

yeah, just let me know. there's a dojo just down the street. tell them mako sent you.

[ ...tell them mako sent you, huh. those words were said in his past life--whatever that weird surge of memories were about--it freaks him out, thinking about it, because none of it really makes sense. he didn't live a life like this one. it's scary, feeling like you're no longer certain of what your reality really is. ]

when you got your persona, by any chance, did you get all these weird visions? sort of like images of yourself in a different world?

[plainest]

[ mako, huh? yuuri carefully makes a mental note of it, and hesitates a little bit, his fingers hovering over the screen nervously. should he give this guy his name, as well?

yuuri is still admittedly trying to oscillate between the life he knows now and the weird bits and flashes of what he remembers. he doesn't want to acknowledge it unless he has to, and giving this guy his name would only help to facilitate that. so he lets out a big sigh and moves on from the thought determinedly, jumping onto the next topic of conversation. ]

yeah, i did.

mine wasn't... anything special, really. confusing yes, but nothing as strange as what other people are talking about here.

[torching]

[ there's no point in hiding his own name when it's apparently been chosen as his username for this chatroom. maybe he should be more cautious; even so...hiding things in a group of people as equally as lost as he is just doesn't feel right to him at this very moment. ]

i see. either way, it was like you were a different person entirely, right?

[plainest]

[ well, the name that was appearing next to his name on the chatroom wasn't even actually his -- or well, it was technically his, though yuuri still has a hard time trying to grasp that concept. the memories he hold, the things he remember here, they weren't all lies, were they? some of them had to be true. it wasn't an illusion. he did have a sister. he does have a house. he has a job.

but then, there's the other things he remember. things that hasn't got to do with anything in Eddan at all, other cities and people that he's sure he's never even heard of before. his head twinges slightly. ]

you could say that. i think i even graduated with a completely different degree to what i remember doing.

[torching]

[ in this life, mako's going to school, has a younger sister, wants to study law and go into law enforcement in the future. in those memories, his sister had been replaced--and the thought still makes him angry--by a younger brother instead. they'd lived on the streets without any parents. there were powers, and maybe the fire correlates to his newfound abilities, but for the most part, the world seemed entirely different. life was different.

it's a little reassuring to know he's not the only one. ]

i don't think i went to school at all.

anyway, thanks. i wanted to know if all that stuff i went through wasn't just happening to me.

[plainest]

I didn't do anything to deserve thanks. If anything, thanks for the offer for the dojo — I'll check it out if I can.

I want to say this is some kind of mass hallucinations, or something, but it isn't, is it?

These things could kill us.

[ the thought makes his palms sweat, but yuuri takes a slight breath in and holds it in his lungs, willing himself to calm down. ]

[torching]

sure. doesn't hurt to learn self-defense now that we're...well. you know. all of this.

they seemed pretty real to me. the first time that shadow monster hissed at me, i could feel its breath.

[ unless these really are just powerful hallucinations. but...how? how would that be possible? ]

[plainest]

[ none of these makes any sense. ]

this... this persona thing,
how did it appear for you? for me, that's the most confusing part. even though I'd never seen any of these things before in my life, it felt like something was telling me what to do, like some kind of magic.

Does that sound crazy?

[torching]

no, it doesn't. that's exactly how it happened with me, too.

i was going to run from the shadow, but whatever that voice was--and i'm guessing it was my persona--it felt like it was actually forcing me to charge at the shadow instead.

[plainest]

that's how I felt, too.

I don't... I don't even understand why this is happening. Why do we have to fight these things? What's the point? Why are we even here?

[torching]

...this is gonna sound crazy, but i wonder if whoever "recruited" all of us just really needed people to help fight off the shadows.

[plainest]

But why me?

...Sorry, that sounded selfish of me. I didn't mean for it to sound that way. I'm just

I'm just worried, I guess. People could get hurt.

[torching]

i'm sure that's the question we're all asking ourselves right now.

we'll just have to keep fighting until we figure this all out.

[plainest]

does it come easy for you? the fighting?

don't get me wrong, it's just....well, you just sound like you're used to it.

[torching]

i do martial arts, remember?
i mean, it's not exactly fighting. but i learned self-defense from a young age, so i can handle myself.

[plainest]

you must be quite good at it,
then.

[ it's weird to think about, learning how to do things like that himself. Yuuri has never even punched someone else in his life. In both his lives. It's surreal to think of it that way. ]

anything that helps to keep us alive, I suppose, right?

[torching]

[ man.....he actually kind of feels bad for yuuri. mostly because someone as nice as him really shouldn't have been thrown into a situation like this. the selection, from what mako's gathered, appears to be random......but a lot of people involved are at the same school. huh. ]

dealing with the shadows is a lot different than regular people, obviously, so this is all kind of new to me, too. some of what i've learned comes in handy, but most of it is getting used to my persona and having actual powers now.

[plainest]

you're right... but honestly,
I've never done anything like this before, not even with regular people.

How are you doing with that, by the way? Your persona, I mean.

[torching]

don't forget: my offer's still on the table.

well, after encountering so many of those shadow things? i'd say we're doing okay. i think i'm getting the hang of its attacks, at least. how about you?