Prompt 1:
 he forest looms as ever, colorless but not at all dead. The leaves are full, fluttering in the silence, but there's no scent to them, no color. The effect is eerily hard to navigate, almost like an optical illusion, leaves, branches and trunk blending together with the small path -- which already disappears and reappears at a whim.
But even so...
If you brave the path, it seems as though there is something leading you onwards. A trail of... something, crumbs, maybe, the same shade of colorless as everything else, almost impossible to see. Following those might be a bad idea -- your chances of getting lost, tangled in random underbrush, or wandering aimlessly for hours are pretty high... to say nothing of what you might encounter if you stray too far (hint: even the small, fuzzy things have nasty bites).
Still, it's there, and if you follow them... eventually you will come to a small house. It's decrepit, falling apart and in shambles... do you really want to go inside? Perhaps armed with one of the many convenient tree branches that have probably smacked you thus far?
Prompt 2:
 hould you enter the house, you'll be greeted with a creepy, creepy doorman. Aw, how cute! And in that doll's hand, there's...a message.
On a slip of paper, it reads, simply and plainly:
The more you take, the more you leave behind.
Curious! (And yeah, you can destroy the doll. It's just a normal doll. You may even come across said doll already crushed by an intrepid explorer.)
Of course, it's a riddle, and the answer's a warning -- the longer you walk around and about the house, the less you'll remember about yourself, until you forget why you were there and why you should leave, and who you are at all, doomed to wander forever.
Or someone saves you, that's fine too.
Prompt 3:
 roblem: There are no fresh eggs in the Town.
Solution: Catch a feral chicken, and keep it for eggs. That seems simple enough, right? You're totally up for the task... right?
But why do all of the animals look so strange in the forest? Mutated, with teeth, or wings that don't belong, or claws. That's... a chicken, right?
Catching it will allow you to get some eggs, but that beak looks pretty nasty -- it might be harder than it looks. But you're intrepid and clever, right? Why not demonstrate your Chicken Wrangling Skills that won you the championship so many years ago? Or try to serenade the savage beast? Or wuss out and form a coalition with which you draw lots to see who has to do battle with the chicken? There's safety in numbers! But the prize will surely be worth a bit of blood loss and fowl-related trauma.
Do it for the eggs.
Prompt 4:
here's a new quest on the forum today, and it looks awfully easy! It's listed simply as:
Quest XXII.
Talk to someone you've never met about their childhood.
Quest will be completed when you have reached an acceptable level of knowledge.
On the other hand, that's a little vague, isn't it... ? How will you even know when you've completed a quest like that?
Still, it looks easy! Maybe go give it a try. You could respond to the forum post to try to find people, or just go on outside, go harass someone about their past. If you're lucky, you'll drag it out of them with very little hassle and it won't take you a good chunk of the day. If you're unlucky, that's what highly persistent stalking is for! But don't forget, you'll likely have to return the favor.
And your new friend might not be the only one listening.
Extra:
Got something in mind? Want to play with the setting more? The sky's the limit, so feel free and make up your own prompts to play with!
Welcome to Awash's first Test Drive Meme! Please check out the FAQ and rules as you test your characters out. The setting is yours to play with, so be creative and have a good time with it!
Important dates to remember are March 1st, 9 PM EST, when Reserves will open, and March 7th, 9 PM EST when Applications will open. Keep an eye out for it!
If you have any questions about the TDM, feel free to ask us here. If there are any other questions, you can catch us via PM, the FAQ or the contact page. Thank you for your interest in Awash! |
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Naoya for his part just assumes either the mutant chicken somehow has the power to suppress the other's persona or he's out of energy. He doesn't want to get too close - unlike the other Naoya isn't the most agile on his feet.]
There's no full moon out, but maybe a Wolvaan spell might help? I could cast it on the both of us...
[A Wol in the what now?]
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which is really irrelevant right now, anyway. for now—well, he's dodging a peck from the chicken and asking, bemused:]
Wolvaan spell?
[what's that, he doesn't have this ability, naoya!]
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It turns you into a werewolf briefly, but you can't use your Personas while it's activated. I figured a wolf might be good to take a chicken down...
[Yes just nonchalantly mention Personas, no harm, right?]
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honestly, he is not sure what to make of that, exactly. it definitely sets akira a bit on-edge to realize this person is aware he's a persona-user. his immediate instinct is to play dumb, but he's no idiot.
he's a Fool, but he's no idiot. if he can cast a spell that can give another strength at the cost of persona usage—that has to mean...]
...You're a Persona-user? [he's never met another one outside of his team, and since he can't sense them, this is a baffling situation.
what the hell, world.]
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...you didn't realize?
[Well, they could exchange questions later. Right now they had an angry beast in front of them. Bluish energy emerges from under him, as the wind begins to blow.]
Persona!
[A large dog-like figure hovers in the air above him. That got the chicken's attention enough to stop pecking at Akira look towards Naoya. They probably don't have much time. He darts his eyes between the beast and the boy.]
I'll cast it on you first!
[If the boy refuses, Naoya will just concentrate the spell towards himself. Do you accept the inner wolf inside of you?]
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except... it doesn't work. naoya will have to cast it on himself, because akira can't just summon his persona that easily. he's not in the metaverse, and while it's entirely possible? he's going to need a more significant threat than a mutant chicken to actually draw out his rebellion. his ability isn't quite dormant, but in some strange limbo that needs a little cognitive push that he hasn't gotten yet.
but really, akira has approximately a million questions cycling through his head about this strange persona-user. he's clearly legit, but unlike anything akira has encountered. for now, he'll have to wait and see how this wolf spell situation works.]
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On the other hand, there's no time to think about this now because he summons it once more and casts it on himself.
Honestly, he's not sure if it's working correctly. It's daytime and does this place have a proper moon? Maybe the lack of moon will make everything worst. But hey, when it doubt, he'll still have claws, pointed years and fangs, looking like he just stepped out of a cosplay convention. Wordlessly, he jumps towards the chicken, claws extended.
Hopefully that will at least remove a bit of heat from the other for them to do something. Alternately, grab either the sword of submachine gun that Naoya left on the ground. Those are also just for show right? (no).]
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he'll let naoya do his thing (which is kind of cool? he's not sure he'd have a good use for it, but it's a cool skill), while he grabs machine gun. it's not really his style, and he doesn't have any interest in firing it because he doesn't use them at all—unlike some of his teammates—but holds it up to the chicken.
he's not shooting.
this is totally a holdup.]
Give us the eggs.
[this is how you negotiate when you're a phantom thief, apparently.]
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Why is he holding the chicken hostage? Now that he thinks about it, why hadn't his team ever done that? Well, whatever he's doing it seems to be working.
True, one might question if a monster chicken know what a holdup is. Is it caught in the moment, or was it Naoya's additional swipe towards its neck that makes it crack? The monster finally let out confused, distressed squawks as its head goes back between the claws and the gun, and seems to ponder if this is worth the battle.
Apparently it is not, because it begins to run away, leaving behind a few eggs. Naoya almost looks disappointed.]
Should we go after it?
[His voice is slurred from the fangs in his mouth.]
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[akira will drop his guard a bit, lowering the gun and letting his shoulders relax before handing the weapon back to naoya so that he can pick up the eggs. it worked just about as well as his holdups for items and money works on shadows, so there's definitely some kind of merit here to the approach.
note to self: that could work again in the future.]
We probably wouldn't be able to get more eggs than this out of it for now, anyway.
[which is really all he was after, apparently. he can live with it scurrying off because he got what he was looking for out of it. he seems pretty satisfied with the outcome, at least.]
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Well...we have eggs now.
[Which is good!]
...Are we going to have to do hold-ups every day for more?
[That's bad.]
At one point we might give it a heart attack. I guess then we'll have a whole chicken to cook...
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[but if they're not... well, then naoya kind of has a point here. he probably can't hold up the same chicken every few days for eggs.]
Maybe I'll just have to get it to join our cause. If we can get eggs from it, we can probably persuade it to stick around.
[it's totally sound logic, right? this is how you negotiate.]
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[Because logic from back home and Mako's mind = logic here as well. He can't help but look at the other and smile, however.]
Do it alone? But I haven't had time to show off my negotiation skills or my singing yet! Honestly, if you weren't getting pecked out, I might have tried that first, but since Demons don't like forming contracts when you start attacking them...
[What is he even talking about...]
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[look, there's a lot to unpack here, but his method of negotiating and who he is negotiating with are definitely two confusing sticking points here.
their persona methods are clearly so different, which is a lot to process when he's never met a persona user outside of his circle before.]
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[I just met you, and this is crazy...but here's my card...have Igor call me maybe?]
Elly knows most of them so we just go by her advise. What do you do normally? Just hold them up with guns? No one really does that in my group...Reiji threatens to rip off their nails and remove their eyes, but that's as far as threatening as we go.
[THAT'S PRETTY THREATENING, NAOYA. ]
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I think we need to back up here for a second.
[because he's getting a little jumbled here. akira usually follows along easily with things, but this is so, so different than anything he's used to.]
So you fight demons. That have types. And you have Persona... cards?
[he will have to tackle the reiji threats, but one thing at a time here.]
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Yeah! Demons are like us and have personalities...and we take the cards to Igor in the Velvet Room so he can turn them into Persona for us.
[He looks at him a little more suspiciously now.]
What about you?
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[at least naoya has a reason to be suspicious, because—yeah. this is so completely bizarre. definitely more so because they're holding eggs, but akira has his priorities straight here. persona business first.]
I've never dealt with demons. I can gain the mask of Shadows to harness as Personas. [he's kind of being brief about this because he's just not the wordiest, and not quite ready to explain phantom thievery.]
Igor's assistants can... change them into new ones for me.
[...there's something else to address here about what naoya's saying, but one thing at a time here, right?]
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Shadows huh...you're right. That's nothing like us. [He's not that great with words either.] I didn't think Belladonna and Nameless were taking over the Velvet Room.
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...Who?
[belladonna and nameless? never heard of 'em.
they'll get on the same page eventually, maybe.]
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[He strokes his chin and looks at Akira. This was curious indeed. As curious as the clothing he had on him, now that he thought about it.]
Maybe that's why you don't know Wolvaan. Have you asked for a Cerberus before? What are your attendants names?
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[igor uses a phone to summon personas, what? to him, igor is a creepy and condescending old man who sometimes gives him useful abilities as they bond, but does pretty much none of the work.]
Caroline and Justine. [well, they're wardens, but akira really doesn't want to talk about his weird prison velvet room, even if he's going to have to get the the persona executions eventually.]
Also.. when you say "we," do you mean... other Persona-users go into the Velvet Room with you?
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[Hey what the heck, internal narration, Igor is like this delightful old grampa with a huge nose and eyes that never blink.]
I've never heard of either of them. [He looks at him again, raising an eyebrow.] Well yeah...I might be the leader, how is everyone else going to be able to switch their Personas otherwise?
[He might be average in school, but even Naoya is good enough to guess why he's asking.]
Your friends...are they stuck with just one Persona?
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but either way, naoya is pretty much right on the money with that one.]
I'm the only one who can change Personas in my group, yeah.
[though apparently, that isn't as special snowflake as it was implied, if there are a whole group of people who can do it. huh...]
sorry I'm gonna use something from the manga because I can
[Sorry Akira...but you might be more of a special snowflake than you might know. Naoya reaches to his chest and concentrates briefly before a card with a 4 on the top and Emperor on the bottom appears. The middle of the card itself is blank.]
Can you do this? If we bring out your card, it might help me understand.
[By understand, he means 'HOPEFULLY I'VE SEEN THIS CARD AND CAN REMEMBER WHAT ELLY TOLD ME']
this is fine by me o/
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