TESTDRIVE #1

[cobamods]

There's a number of ways it could happen, but regardless you find yourself standing on the outskirts of a city. A beautiful city, as familiar to you as any from your world, with all manner of buildings within sight. A sign on the side of the road greets you, saying WELCOME TO COBA You're already part of the family! It's practically inviting you to step into the city limits. Why don't you? As soon as you do, you'll find a pamphlet in your hand, almost eager to tell you all about what this mysterious Coba has to offer. And eager seems to be the impression you get about almost everything - the sun seems to brighten, the flowers seem to perk up - it's almost as if everything about Coba is welcoming you as an honored guest. And you are. Though hopefully, only temporarily. Coba would love nothing more for you to become an honored member of her precious community. Welcome to Coba, visitor, and we hope you enjoy your stay! PREMISE | RULES | FAQ & QUESTIONS | RESERVES | APPLICATIONS Please read the FAQ before commenting! ♥ Welcome to the City of Coba Testdrive! Your character has found themselves in Coba, and are welcome to do any of the following: ● As you enter the city, you hear some bustle about a homecoming party! Following the signs will find yourself at a plaza with food, drink and live music, of all sorts and types. Why don't you stay awhile and indulge? ● Or, if you're not the party type, maybe you'd like to check out the city's cultural center! There's art, books, and other things to keep your mind occupied. And, maybe you'll meet other like-minded people there. ● Not in the mood for any of the above? There's always the beach! It's a lovely day, the waves are beautiful and the stores along the boardwalk all have signs up that read "TAKE WHAT YOU NEED". Maybe you need a surf board. ● Or maybe you have something else you want to do? Go for it! You're more than welcome to come up with your own prompts. In addition to the above, we would love to encourage anyone taking part in the testdrive to world build with us! Whether it be a street name or an entire neighborhood, whatever you come up with will become part of the game's canon. All we ask is that you pop over here to link us so we can see what you've done! Finally, ENJOY YOURSELVES. Seriously, this is meant to be a laid back, enjoyable game. We welcome any questions, critiques, and ideas, so always feel welcome to approach us about any and everything. We hope you decide to stay here in Coba!

Comments

Naoto Shirogane - Persona 4 CRAU

[shiroganeheir]

At one side of the party is a small figure in plaid pants a blue jacket, and a blue hat. Naoto is sipping a punch, leaning against a wall, and watching everything carefully. Every so often, she rubs the side of her neck thoughtfully.

There's an analytical look on her face, curious, but still approachable.

[fridgeninja]

Souji's been circulating, fetching drinks for partygoers, introducing himself with a duck of his head and a smile, dancing to the music with a motion that's all in the hip, more or less. Slowly, dancing his way backward, he turns when he gets close to Naoto, offering her the full force of that grin - and almost apologetically, tentatively, holds out his hand?

> Dance?
> Decline?
> Pull him out of the dance?

[shiroganeheir]

> Dance

His smile is infectious. It always has been. Naoto returns the smile, and takes his hand in hers. After a moment of blushing, her expression turns apologetic. "I am afraid that my dance skills are as terrible as my skills at skiing, which are quite nonexistent. However, I will attempt to spare your toes."

[fridgeninja]

"I've got strong toes," he answers with a smile. "Besides, it's just like a rhythm game. Let me count the steps for you, and you'll catch on quick." He has a limitless faith in Naoto's ability to learn, and the victory of getting her on the dance floor at all has him walking on air, so to speak.

[shiroganeheir]

"And to be fair, I am quite light."

For whatever reason, she's in high spirits, and willing to try something new in this new place. "Have I mentioned lately that I am terrible at those rhythm games?" Possibly better than she wants to let on, but the point stands. "However, for you, I will watch and try."

[fridgeninja]

"You'll be fine," he reassures her warmly, and steps back just enough to demonstrate. Step-step, sway-step, while his hands move side to side even with the beat.

[shiroganeheir]

She mirrors him, a bit awkwardly at first, but after a few moments, she's into it, steps precise, movements exact.

Without realizing it, she's biting her tongue a bit as she concentrates. At least there are no toes being stepped on.

[fridgeninja]

"That's it." He repeats the pattern once more, twice, then nods. "Okay. This time I'm going to add a little more. Ready?"

[loversdilemma]

Rise sidles up to Naoto (as much as she can sidle, anyway) with a smile and a little plate of hors d'oeuvres.

"So...have we figured out what the heck's going on yet?" she asks, offering Naoto the plate in case she's hungry.

[shiroganeheir]

"I might be good, Rise, but I cannot solve this much of a mystery in an hour." Naoto shakes her head, obviously amused.

Reaching out, she claims a stuffed mushroom, chewing thoughtfully. "At the very least, this place seems much less offensive than the island."

[loversdilemma]

Rise nods while chewing half a spring roll.

"My neck has never been happier in my life," she said, "and according to the literature, we can leave whenever we want. I'm asking around to see how legit that is and how we can do it."

She was inclined to trust this sort of information after Atia's had proven mostly technically accurate, but it never hurt to be sure.

"Say, Naoto...something did occur to me..." she adds, looking more serious.

[shiroganeheir]

"To be honest, I really don't want to wear a tie for a while. It's nice to have my neck unencumbered by anything."

She blinks at the comment, surprised a the topic change for a moment.

"And what is that?" Naoto turns, curious, snatching another mushroom from the plate.

[loversdilemma]

"Well...the situation's a lot different now that we don't have to...you know," she says, trying to keep vague in a public place. The first different part of the situation was that she actually had some shame again.

"This probably isn't the right place for it, but I think we all need to have a talk. Especially if you and Kanji want to settle in like you were talking about back on the island."

[shiroganeheir]

"Yes, we should. Perhaps we can collect everyone, and find a private place to talk." Naoto nods, seriously. "We should figure out where we all stand going forward from here."

[softshooter]

Approachable indeed. Something about that particular element of Naoto's manner was something this kid found encouraging...and, after maybe a minute or two of her own curious staring, she decides to just walk right on over - weaving past people as needed - and just...sort of cheerfully fold her arms behind her back.

"Hello."

Yes, just like that.


(She's around Naoto's height, but...might appear to be a year or so younger. It's a touch iffy.)

[shiroganeheir]

"Hello." Naoto nods, a curious look on her face. "Can I help you with something?"

This other person is... interesting.

[softshooter]

"You can talk to me. That's all I really want. Right now, anyway."

And apparently she thinks that's good enough because little else changes after she's said it. Same posture, her demeanor is still friendly, but now there's an air of anticipation about it all.

Seems she wants you to go first...

[shiroganeheir]

"Oh. Um. Hi. I'm Naoto, and I think we're all new here. I'm from Inaba. Where are you from?"

Now she's just confused, a little surprised.

[softshooter]

"I'm Soft. That's really my name," she adds, "not a description. I'm new here too. And I don't know where I'm from, but I don't think it was as happy as this.

"But that's okay, because it means I can be happy here, now."


...Hmm. Is there another thing she's supposed to-- oh, wait, there's something she could say...!

"I hope you can be happy here too!"

[evokeslovers]

Well, as far as Yukari could tell, there didn't seem to be anything... to really worry about too much with this party. Nothing seemed to be drugged, and there was no monster or anything jumping out from the shadows to announce that he was going to eat everyone, or anything like that. Still, it probably wasn't a good idea to let her guard down just yet... or at all, really. But maybe she could focus on finding something to wear other than the Pink Argus costume?

But before she could even really think about going to someone else to see if they knew anything or find more suitable clothes, Yukari's eyes fell on a familiar face... and the fact that she was rubbing her neck. What was that about?

Yukari walked over to Naoto, a small frown on her face as she headed over to her. "Hey, are you feeling alright Naoto-kun?"

Naoto's pre-Arena! Whoops!

[shiroganeheir]

Whut. No, really, whut. Naoto blinks a few times, confused. That is one extremely accurate Featherman cosplay. And the person in the cosplay seems to know who she is. What in the world is going on. Perhaps her future? Perhaps some other universe?

She composes herself quickly, dropping her hand to her side. "I am fine, however, I must ask, how do you know me? There must be some time strangeness, as I do not believe I know who you are."

Yay for time-related confusion.

[evokeslovers]

Yukari nodded, resisting the urge to let out a sigh. Well, if Rise hadn't known who she was, this wasn't really all that surprising. "I probably shouldn't go into too much detail considering everything, but... an incident involving Shadows happened in Inaba. We met during that. Some of my friends had been captured by the ones responsible, so the rest of my group went in to help."

Which... probably didn't explain much at all, now did it. "Anyway, my name's Yukari Takeba. I'm a Persona user, though I'm mostly just backup nowadays." ... That barely explained anything either. And wait, if there was something weird with time travel going on then that might have meant that Naoto didn't even know what she was talking about at all.

"... Please tell me that made at least some sense to you."

... I feel like I should apologize for my dork.

[shiroganeheir]

"More Shadows in Inaba?" Naoto blinks, concern on her face. Well, shit. "That can't be good."

She nods, however, bowing a bit. "Yes, that does make sense. When I was pulled to the place I was before here, it was just before Golden Week of 2012. Does that help any?"

And then it hits her. "Wait. Takeba?! Then... that's not a cosplay." Whups. Quickly, she composes herself. "Er, sorry." There's a grin on her face, though. A Persona-using Featherman ranger? This might be the best city ever.

... Why apologize for being in character?

[evokeslovers]

Hmm. That... wasn't a good sign either. That there was more of the places like this that could just yoink people out of where they were. But that does explain why Naoto immediately jumped to things about time being messed up.

But there were more important things to talk about. Like say, just when Naoto came from, and Yukari actually winces a little bit when she hears it. "It's a little bit more complicated than just there being more Shadows, but... whenever you get back home, you might want to go ahead and cancel any plans you had for Golden Week."

Of course, then Naoto was reacting to her actually being, well... her, and that actually gets Yukari smiling. Seriously, at the rate things were going, she was going to find out that every Persona user was watching Featherman. "Yep. Not a cosplay. Also not the first time I've ended up wearing it when wearing something else would work out a lot better."

[shiroganeheir]

"So that was a vision of the future." Naoto grumbles, mostly to herself, then looks up, face serious. "Understood. Senpai was planning on coming back, and we were going to just spend some time together, however, it would seem that other things will have to take precedence. Shadows always take first priority."

And they always will to Naoto. However, in this particular moment, she can't help but grin. "I have loved Featherman since I was little. I apologize for my slight fannishness."

She pauses, and then, thoughtful: "If I might ask, how did you come to your Persona? I have not heard of many Persona users outside of my group from Inaba."