repeter | JANUARY 2018 TDM

TEST DRIVE

JANUARY TEST DRIVE
The city of Recollé...

What do you mean the city's behaving for once?

I.
The large opaque dome enveloping the entire city continues to stand tall and firm, though this may be the first time you've noticed the dome itself rather than believe it's simply an eclipse effect. Faintly reflective in appearance but blocking the outside world, the dome still allows the warmth of the weak winter sunlight to seep through. It isn't hard to breathe, and the flora and fauna seem to be responding just as naturally as always. But the city of Recollé is pitch black except for the light citizens shine themselves.

The dome stretches incredibly high over the city, but anyone who can get close enough to it will find that they can briefly see themselves in the surface. Upon touching the dome, it appears to be smooth and almost rubbery in texture despite a shell-like shield appearance. Soundproof and unable to provide clues to what's happening outside of the city the dome is also harmless for those who wish to touch it and examine it, causing it to bounce a few times under light impact. However, do be careful not to trigger its defense mode! Should anyone attempt to damage the dome itself, it will light up with a bright, sickening blue color for three seconds before delivering a shock to its attacker and rendering them unconscious for an hour. Perhaps you'll get lucky and you'll only deal with the too-hot-to-touch surface that self-activates when the dome is threatened, or the spikes that appear at the source of impact. The dome seems to have a temperament of its own. It may be best to treat it the way you want to be treated.

II.
Going about your normal day, the darkness seems endless aside from whatever light can be shed via flashlights, cell phones and interior lights inside buildings. However, as you wander the streets of the city, under your feet a swirl of yellow light appears before darting ahead, bouncing and bobbing its way over snow and concrete to create a clear path for you. It's a little convenient to have a guide to follow, but you're not the only one. Others around you are following their own lights and they all seem to gather right at the entrance of the old subway station. Perpetually under construction for as long as you can remember, the station appears to be wide open for anyone who ventures in.

The light will guide you for roughly twenty-five feet before it dies down again. You're allowed to turn back, of course. There's nothing stopping you...except for the vine that suddenly snakes along the ground and wraps around your ankle, hooking onto you and beginning to drag you further into the tunnels. Now would be a good time to start calling for help.

III.

Back in the city itself, it's hard to say who, exactly, is to blame for the first hit. People are minding their own business and moving on as if everything is perfectly natural as usual. However, in addition to the hustle and bustle small barrels appear on every street corner with an assortment of colored guns. The moment you step up to investigate one of these barrels it becomes a little more clear what, exactly, is happening here.

A bright red, green, or blue dot appears on your skin as the laser light hones in on you. Someone's decided to make you their next target in a city-wide game of laser tag and you have precisely ten seconds to run. For anyone tagged by the guns, a confetti-effect of red green and blue dots will appear all over you lasting for up to fifteen minutes before you're back in the game.

Will you grab your weapons and join the game? Or will you dodge as long as you can?

IV.
As the evening sets in, there's a smell in the air. It's not the usual winter-y scent of peppermint or warm soup or anything like that. No, you soon realize that the smell is buttered popcorn and now instead of the barrels of laser tag guns there are carts containing popcorn machines, bottles of soda, candy and more. These carts don't move and they do not seem to be manned by anybody so feel free to take as much as you'd like! At precisely 7pm, the street lights dim a little and the dome above you starts to...glow? It glows and a picture stretches all the way across the sky as a movie begins to play for your enjoyment. Maybe it's the first of the Galaxy Fights series, or it could be that crazy archaeologist turned fortune-hunter Kentucky Smith. The movies will rotate one after the other for the rest of the evening until 7am when the street lamps come on, but for now grab some blankets and a good seat. There's always time for a movie with some friends.

BONUS.
Of course communication to people outside of the city is still out of the question. Of course it is. There are absolutely no signs of that changing anytime soon no matter how many times you call or text or email. Snail mail is nearly impossible and don't even think about videochatting.

On the other hand, it seems as though the powerlines above are beginning to spark, pulsing in patterns of a bright blue color visible to the naked eye. What's up with that? Trying to get a closer look will only reveal a thick, crackling sort of energy that is surely not dangerous in the slightest and is nothing to worry about.

The energy won't leave the powerlines at all, but instead the next time you use your phone for anything a song activates instead. It's loud and it can't be shut down, but once it ends you may find yourself in a video chat with a fellow Retrospec user. Say hi!

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 current players, please remember that TDM threads can only be used for bonus points, not regains.

Please note: you will need a reserve to apply, and current characters must have full AC posted at the time of their reservation.

Your January 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 actually played laser tag with my boyfriend pretty recently, so my aim is actually amazing! ☆

[ First of all, there's an issue with that sentence: that being the fact that anyone that knows Mio (at least, in real life) knows that there's no way she has one. Or at least, she's never spoken of it aloud, that's for sure.

Even if it wasn't a secret, she's just not the type to share about that sort of thing unless it becomes relevant. ]

You want me to prove it?

Oh, Mio! [Her eyes adjust to the dark and she recognizes the girl's voice moreso than anything as she ducks behind her, waving the gun in front of her eyes a bit. There's definitely a lot about that sentence that makes her kind of "???" internally, but they can settle that later! There's a serious crisis at hand here and Rise points to where the laser-dots seem to be sweeping through the shadows to track her down.]

I think you'd be better at proving it than me. Think you can find them and take them out?

Haha, definitely.

[ That laughter is pretty confident, but then again it hardly comes as a surprise, considering who Rise's talking to and it's a little easier to obscure the color of her hair and eyes (being different from what it used to be) in the dark, at least. ]

If they're boys, it'll be even easier.

[ Wow.. Of course, she runs and easily does just that, her aim being pretty spot on as she pretty much one-shots her opponents without a single hint of hesitation. ]

There we go!!

Edited 2018-01-23 15:59 (UTC)

[The dark is a great place to hide and it helps that she trusts Mio to actually keep up and help her out.]

What makes you say that? [But the other girl runs and Rise follows, a little too in-awe by the sounds of defeat as the laser from Mio's gun meets its targets.] Whoa! Your aim's great! [She glances back and discreetly points left.] Stop that one in its tracks, too.

You can't just cry and shoot for a lot of girls, you know?

[ Mio smiles brightly without a care in the world as she even lets out light laughter as she aims in the direction that Rise points and runs in to shoot them. ]

And there we go! ☆

[The lights shimmer and the lasers disappear, revealing that the two of them are safe for now and Rise's laughter echoes in the dark after Mio's.]

That was great! Thanks a lot...I didn't think people would be out here doing stuff like this when there's an even weirder problem going on.

Well, if you can't have fun every once in a while, what's the point in living?

[ She thinks that good balance is essential, at least. But there's a sigh of relief as she plants one hand on her hip, leaning on one side. ]

Weird problems can be dealt with later.

Somehow that kind of answer doesn't surprise me coming from you. [She's kind of grateful for that attitude though.] I'm all for dealing with weird problems later, but how are you even supposed to deal with a giant dome that's blocking everything?

Well, the obvious solution would be to destroy it, but then the next question would be "with what", and I honestly don't want to think about what people might have thought about doing already.

Maybe somebody could rent a wrecking ball and tear it down. But that might be wishful thinking. Hopefully it won't stay up for too much longer...it's been a day and I miss the sun already.

Hopefully... I've been having to constantly use my flashlights and phones for everything, and it's a huge pain to deal with.

Isn't it weird that nobody else seems bothered by all of this though? My parents haven't said anything about a dome at all.

It is, but... honestly, I think it's the norm at this point.

[ Being strangely used to this now is kind of unnerving in her opinion, but. She tries not to show it in her expression or body language, just simply swinging her arms behind her. ]

The norm is to ignore these things. That's a pretty dumb norm, Mio. [She's perceptive, of course, but she doesn't read anything in the other girl's body language that raises enough flags.] So what can we do about it? Anything?

Just because it's a dumb norm doesn't mean that it isn't what's happening.

[ She idly twirls an index finger around in a circle before sighing, arms folded over her chest. ]

As for what we can do... I don't know. [ Mio sounds genuinely frustrated at saying that, however. ] I wish I did, though.

I guess laser tag isn't the worst. [She shakes her head.] Oh well. I think we can go from here without worrying about that part, at least.

JANUARY 2018 TDM

iii

sorry for the delay!

no worries, i've been pretty slow myself

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