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: (can i SAY them?)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-04-28 06:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[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: (protag skill: idk what the fuck i'm doin)

[personal profile] probablynoteren 2017-04-28 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[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.]
Edited 2017-04-28 23:16 (UTC)
foxhands: (are you?)

[personal profile] foxhands 2017-05-02 04:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[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: (#ANGRY SLOW-MO)

[personal profile] probablynoteren 2017-05-03 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
[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.