repeter | AUGUST TDM

Entry tags:

! tdm

AUGUST TDM

TEST DRIVE

AUGUST TEST DRIVE
The city of Recollé.

...yeah. Yeah, it's just sort of a mess...

What will you do today?

I.
What the hell happened here? Perhaps you're new to the city, or perhaps you've finally started to notice just how bad the damage is to the beloved city of Recollé. The convention center is still crumbled in pieces and several local shops have boarded up windows and doors to prepare for reconstruction. Vendors on the street try to urge residents to purchase monster insurance for all of their home and vehicle needs. But the moment you step outside, you'll find yourself greeted by a member of the Recollé Restoration Committee as they thrust a hardhat into your hands and eagerly chatter about your new assignment.

Whether you find yourself in Tisse and assigned to haul pieces of stone around or you're placed over in Apprassage to pour cement, you'll find you aren't alone in these tasks. It's nice to meet your coworkers, isn't it?

II.
But really, what caused all of this? This is completely insane and while some of you may be willing to help rebuild the city, others might wish to solve the mystery. Poking around the various districts, NPCs will explain that monster attacks "sometimes just happen" which seems pretty strange in and of itself. Monsters shouldn't "just happen", should they? And where are these alleged monsters anyway?

Careful what you wish for, though. Exploring too much and straying off-task will lead to finding some things you may not want. These creatures will immediately hone in on new Retrospec users and begin to chase them, though they won't outright attack. While the smaller ones may be destroyed with a bit of effort, it might be wise to either cut your losses or find someone with a bit more experience to take on the larger creatures. Don't worry; there's bound to be someone to help.

III.
By now, you may have heard the rumors from some of your fellow Retrospec users that several members of the network have disappeared. You may even hear the rumors that those members are lost in "unreality" and that the city itself is a bit...unstable. But they're just rumors, right?

Everything seems fine as you go about your day (monsters notwithstanding.) However, any time you pass from one district to another suddenly a list of names scrolls past your line of vision . As the list comes to a halt and lands on one name, you may recognize it as a friend or a stranger. If you're lucky, you may get a holographic video connecting you to someone still in the city. If you're even luckier, you may find someone speaking up inside your head due to a telepathic connection. Go ahead and say hi. You just might get some answers from those who have been lost and those you haven't met yet.

IV.
As the night begins to set upon the city, a warm sleepy feeling rolls through. Whatever you're doing, it's hard to fight off the urge to curl up under a shaded tree and take a nap. After some time it's nearly impossible to ignore any longer and no matter where you are, you'll instantly fall asleep. Strangely, even

The place that you wake up, however, may look very familiar to you. You've seen this place before. In fact, you've lived through this very scene before. Maybe it's the little league game you scored your first home run, or maybe it's your high school prom. These are your memories played back to you, and glancing back you may find that again you aren't alone. Any Retrospec user has the ability to pass through these pockets of time and can stumble right into your memories. The memory pockets can appear no matter where a person is, and they'll be able to view and interact with the memories they see. Take a walk through your childhood neighborhood. Sit through the nightmare of your college entrance exams. These memories are yours as you've lived them. However, try not to change anything about the past. Memories can be quite tricky if meddled with too much.

BONUS.
While the makers of Retrospec are a bit scattered and busy at the moment, it seems as though they have failsafes to keep their systems up and running. The latest update push operates on its own and begins to download to your device. Your profile remains the same as always (your name and your photo), but it appears you won't have access to it until you apply one of the brand new filters to your picture. Seems easy, right?

Maybe you should have given this a second thought. As soon as the filter's applied to your photo, you might find that people are stopping and staring at you as you go about your day. They may or may not comment, but what's evident is that something's going on that you're unaware of. A quick glance in your phone's camera, a storefront window or a mirror will reveal all. That fun filter's now applied itself to your face with no hope of coming off for a while. Have fun!

Welcome to the

recolle test drive meme! All characters will be begin in-game AU'd as Recollé residents. You may use any of the above prompts for ideas or make up your own depicting your Recollé AU! Prompts do not have to be set in the districts listed above. You can review our list of locations for what's available. Please note that TDM threads can be used as samples, can be kept as game canon, and can also be used for bonus points for future item regains. Share a few minor details of your AU, tag around, and have fun!

For continuity's sake, for the first time we will be stating that the TDM is dated IC 8/17! This is all in one day. Potential applicants/characters on the TDM will revert back to NPC status on 8/18 and will not remember the events of the TDM until the mod-posted Retrospec post goes up 9/1.

Members of Group 2, since the TDM can be considered game-canon, prompts III and IV are open for you to tag around to new players while stuck in your locations outside of the city!

For Prompt III, members of Group 2 may telepathically connect to someone even if there's a video option, but their faces and surroundings will be obscured! Other members of the game + potential applicants may use video if they wish.

For Prompt IV, please remember these are memories from your AU and not your canon! Should characters deviate from these "memories" too much, they will find themselves thrown back to the beginning of the memory to start over!

And finally, the filters provided in the bonus are just examples and you can swap in any others you want.

Your August TDM directory is here, and your AU workshop is here! Our mod questions thread for this TDM is over here!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I:

Hello, fellow coworker. Are you haphazardly tossing rubble around? Sneakily trying to plant your handprint in the wet concrete? Perhaps you're slacking off on the job?

... Or maybe you just look thirsty? Because Ryousuke comes up behind you— and without warning, lightly knocks the plastic of your bright yellow hardhat with the bottle of water in his hands.

What's the big idea?!

BONUS:

Yet another unsolicited app update? Ryousuke usually couldn't care less about keeping them up to date, but when it gets in the way of his phone's usual functions... well, then it's just a hindrance.

Not long later, Ryousuke can be found with a pair of horns protruding from top of his head. The slants of his eyes, usually thin enough to give the impression they're always closed, are replaced with fiery, demonic ones. If he's noticed (and how could he not? With all those concerned stares he's received from passerbys) he doesn't seem to mind at all.

In fact, he's smiling.

WILDCARD:

Anything else? Feel free to shoot me a PM or contact me at

ossu! You can find Ryousuke's AU workshop comment here.

[ if eijun is nothing else, he's a great little worker bee. for the most part, he's pretty obedient, and he's definitely strong, easily hoisting big pieces of lumber over his head and carrying it for the nice people around the city. he loves recolle--it's become his home--and he wants to make sure people are happy and not miserable here, so he's happy to help out rebuilding!

...but, the temptation to stick his hand in the concrete is pretty real. he just wants to see what happens, and right as he glances around to make sure no one's watching and picks his hands up...

thunk.

it's not unfamiliar, but eijun yelps anyway, his hands coming up to the back of his head. busted. ] Oniisan!! Where did you come from?!

[If there's one thing Ryousuke hates, it'd be giving anyone the notion that he's not pulling his own weight. There's a lot of wreckage to clean up, but neither of them should be a stranger to manual labour with all the chores back home on the Sawamura family's farm. So he's been responsible for pouring out a fresh slab, one eye on the task at hand and the other watching for anyone foolish enough to try sticking their hands into the concrete.

Just like... that.]

Trying to make your mark, are we?

[Caught red-handed.]

Wet cement is caustic, you know. It'll suck all the water out of you too. [Gleeful and sing song, he can't help but add:] I'll have a raisin for a little brother.

[ the word "caustic" flies right over little brother's head, because despite all his years of living with ryousuke, his vocabulary never really increased, but-- ]

That's not true!! [ he blusters, instead, sounding only maybe 50% convinced that it's not true?? but he pulls his hand away anyway and whines, rubbing the back of his head. ] It'd be cool, though, right?! Like a signature!! And then when I get famous and stuff they'll make it a monument, like, Sawamura signed our street!

Don't get ahead of yourself now.

[Eijun "prune hands" Sawamura.]

Until you're famous— [there's a brief pause as he surveys the smudge of dirt on Eijun's cheek, deciding to hammer the point in] and only until then— I think that counts as "vandalism".

[Now he's related to a criminal in the making.]

[Kuramochi didn't hesitate to offer his help around the city. After running away from monsters and punching them, he's more than happy to lend a hand. He's helping carrying bags of cement, moving heavy rocks, and assisting anyone who needs it. He may have been working harder than he thought that he takes a little break on the nearby bench to catch his breath. He nearly jumps from the water bottle against his hat, turning to see who did it when his eyes widened at the person behind him.]

S-Sawamura-san!? When you come back?

Edited 2017-08-19 08:21 (UTC)

[Ryousuke pretends not to notice the surprise, an easy shrug of the shoulders.]

Just because we're not teammates anymore doesn't mean I'm all that far away, Kuramochi.

[Recolle is no small country town, and it's not like they can pass each other in the hallways between classes anymore. It's still an odd chance of fate they'd run into each other in the city's streets like this, wearing fluorescent safety gear and the damaged buildings all around them.]

Did you get roped into a construction job too?

[Well, he did have a point. Between the times he visits Eijun and his deliveries they could have run into each other at any time, though it's probably been awhile since he's seen him since he stopped playing baseball. He didn't think they would meet up here it's still nice to see him. Kuramochi shakes his head as he takes the water bottle.]

I saw that they needed him and volunteered. After only being able to run from the monsters I wanted to do something that would help. How did you get roped in?

[ Chiyo's on her way to the university for some game event fun when she spots a familiar head of hair. ]

Ryousuke? —Ack!

[ The problem with knowing Ryousuke is knowing exactly how fitting that filter is but also knowing that he's also not actually that bad at the same time.

She sees that smile. ]

Um, are you happy about this new update?

[ She points to her head and then her eyes, which are without any kind of filter addition at the moment. ]

[Ryousuke blinks, and the demonic flames where his eyes would usually be are momentarily put out.]

Ah, it's Chiyo.

[That blatant, overly cheerful smile (as if he was daring someone to mention it) relaxes somewhat.]

You mean this? [Idly, he flicks through the app instead of acknowledging his new pair of horns.] It's troublesome to make everyone adopt it, but it's simple enough. Did you get yours working yet?

[ Chiyo isn't sure if she's creeped out or impressed that the app works to hide his eyes, too. Will the mystery of how his eyes look fully opened ever be solved? ]

Oh, I'm used to the app wanting us to do things so we can use it, but... I didn't want to mess with it right now because I didn't know what it wanted. But now I do? Nice to know Retrospec is taking ideas from Snapchat now. Like Instagram.

[... Chiyo's saying something about how Instagram has borrowed ideas from Snapchat, but he hasn't the slightest idea what those would be (sharing photos? does Instagram have cat ears?) No comment.

There's one thing that does stick with him, though:]

So you've made a decision?

[ Ryousuke, are you not hip with the times? Does Chiyo need to give him social media lessons? Eat some avocado toast?? ]

Yes! Wait a moment...!

[ She slips her phone out of her bag in the time it takes to take a breath, does a few swipes, a few taps, and the voila! Butterfly crown!

Chiyo giggles. ]

What do you think?

Edited (what's closing an html tag) 2017-08-21 03:11 (UTC)

[Chiyo seems more experienced with these things, she definitely should teach him about other forms of social media. Someone helped make him an account once, but it's just been gathering dust this entire time. He's fine with just using the Retrospec network, happy to comment on other people's posts rather than share anything significant about himself.

The butterfly filter is pretty impressive though.]

They look like your ribbons. [His smile widens.] Sentient ones.

[JUST SAY SHE'S CUTE OR SOMETHING, THE HELL.]

Ehehe, you think so? I hope it suits me as much! It's a little out of my usual style, but it was either these or the stars!

[ She's used to Ryousuke's backwards speech, so she takes his not compliment in stride. ]

Have people been more scared of you today?

I can't imagine why.

[That's a funny question for you to ask, Chiyo. He continues to scroll through the available filters - there's a lot he missed, but he eventually finds the stars. A quick tap, and the devil horns and eyes are replaced by a crown of silver stars.

There's no instinct for him to check his reflection in a nearby window or anything. The camera app on his phone just changes accordingly, and then he's glancing over Chiyo's shoulder to peek at her own screen.]

Let's see it on you.

[ Ryousuke doesn't have to say it twice. She's more than happy to switch filters because the stars are just as cute as the butterflies. She beams at him through the camera and then holds her phone out at just the right angle for a selfie. ]

Smile! I'm going to send it to Eijun.

Ryousuke Kominato | Daiya no Ace

I!

no subject

no subject

no subject

I

no subject

no subject

bonus

Re: bonus

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

i

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject