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.

probablynoteren: (smth's rotten in the state of crapsack)

[personal profile] probablynoteren 2017-04-22 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
if there's pizza near the scene next time. maybe.

[It's not pizza he objects to so much as getting eaten instead of eating. There's something visceral in him that knows what the teeth on that shadow feel like, or at least something very like it. He's not eager to have that memory confirmed.

That said, he's definitely assuming there will be a next time.]

i don't know if there's someone i know here. [selfishly, it would have made things at least a little easier] your family's not from here?
mockingbirb: (Uh.)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-22 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
The one I got here? No. They're from somewhere else. I moved to get away from them, I guess. Go figure, huh?
probablynoteren: (why do only the profiles look good)

[personal profile] probablynoteren 2017-04-22 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
that is lucky.

[He's not at an age where moving out is all that feasible yet, but there's always student dorms. He knows better than to make hasty decisions when he's just been fighting monsters and is still questioning whether he ate something funny that night, but... Well. He's been talking to his folks less and less lately anyway.

Maybe that's a lucky thing, too.]

are they real?
mockingbirb: (16)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-23 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
Who knows? I'm playing along until I know for sure or not. I never really had parents before, so even if they're fake I might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
probablynoteren: (smth's rotten in the state of crapsack)

[personal profile] probablynoteren 2017-04-23 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
[No parents... An orphan, then? For a moment, he envies: thinks it might be easier, simpler, if the grass was that green on his side of the fence as well. But of course that's not the way it works -- it's just another selfish impulse that he'll ignore. It both helps and doesn't help that he feels like he's had these thoughts before.]

are you enjoying it? playing along...

[It's hard to tell with that emoji. He's really bad with them.]
mockingbirb: (And now this.)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-23 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
It's been really interesting! And that's what's important. At least to me. Honestly, I could probably just disown them, cut off contact, maybe move to a different apartment AGAIN, but what's the point?
probablynoteren: (hey when you making your own icons)

[personal profile] probablynoteren 2017-04-23 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
interesting...?

[It's an odd point of view he can't say he shares, that the only thing he's taking away from this is the fascination factor. But what Tsuru says after that, that resonates. Both versions of himself have spent a lot of time running and hiding, after all.]

if it's not a dream, they won't go away. so, it really would be pointless.
mockingbirb: (20)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-23 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
Exactly! And even if it's a dream none of us show any signs of waking up anytime soon, sooo...
probablynoteren: (why does he look 12 here)

[personal profile] probablynoteren 2017-04-23 12:40 am (UTC)(link)
i wonder if that app hypnotized us.

[Now he's just wildly speculating. He really doesn't know how you'd wake up from a dream like this.]
mockingbirb: (Wasn't my keywords numbers?)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-24 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
Who knows? If it hypnotized this many people then you could go the other way and say that everybody ELSE is hypnotized, and we were the lucky ones who woke up. Or...'lucky' depending on how you want to look at it.
probablynoteren: (logic comes after e7 tbh)

[personal profile] probablynoteren 2017-04-24 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
that's... true.

[Overturn it, something inside him whispers, and seizes at the chance to reconsider everything. If that's the case, then--]

that means we can change something. even if we play along. if we find the one behind this app, then...

[He's not sure what then, because he's just made a few leaps in logic here, but it's somewhere to go. Something to fight.]
mockingbirb: (18)

[personal profile] mockingbirb 2017-04-24 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
So you're angry? That you know what they're calling the truth.
probablynoteren: (logic comes after e7 tbh)

[personal profile] probablynoteren 2017-04-24 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
no.

[He said he wasn't mad, and he meant it. About all of it.

Running away from the truth won't change the truth. He's always known that, both of him. It doesn't mean he knows the best way to deal with it, but it means he'll keep looking.]

i'm going to find my truth.