repeter | JANUARY 2018 TDM

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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

[that's a new voice, but Anna had been coughing pretty loudly, so getting people's attention isn't a surprise.]

Yeah!

[it's sort of ragged, but she gets herself under control with a few deep and careful breaths, then brings herself back to her full height and walks a little further into the light. if they're checking on her, they probably don't want to engage in this dumb laser tag thing.]

[when she sees the person who owns the voice, she straightens her back a little further and brushes some hair out of her eyes. no reason.]

Just trying to get home and avoid all this crap.

[Freya regards her quietly, one hand propped on her hip and the other holding the gun at her side, and tilts her head just slightly.]

And that involves hidin' out in an alley, coughin' up a lung, huh?

I just smoke more around the holidays, is all.

[yeah, like that explains everything. there's a line of logic in her head, but she's not inclined to articulate it. don't worry, it makes sense to her.]

Look, I was trying to catch my breath. Are you gonna shoot me or were you just gunning for my pride?

[She snorts quietly, but Freya looks amused instead of annoyed.]

I was just bein' a concerned civilian. If skulking in alleys helps you get home faster than just, you know, going home, more power to you. A little light show's not gonna hurt you.

[at least this other woman doesn't sound angry. and despite herself, Anna's kind of slipping more into the nicer tone she uses with customer service—or when she's just trying to be pleasant to somebody in general, for whatever reason.]

If someone hits me with one of those things, everybody else will think I'm actually playing. [her gun is for self-defense and nothing else.] And I'm really not in the mood to get turned into a walking light show right now when I'm still trying to figure out where all this crap even came from.

Right. You're too proud to get hit. You're on the look out for other players. You're toting one of those things around. [A gesture.] Sounds like I need to reconsider what "not actually playing" means.

[She chuckles.] Doubt you'll believe me if I told you they didn't really come from anywhere.

[she levels a glare, but knows when she's being correctly called out, so it's not a very intense one. maybe she is playing, but she doesn't have to let anybody else know that.]

What, is it like the "eclipse" thing? [air quotes.] Has the city always had barrels of toy guns lying around and I've just been too stupid to see them until a couple days ago?

Edited 2018-01-26 03:00 (UTC)

Just like that. [Freya says brightly, ignoring Anna's glare and jab at herself.] 'cept the barrels weren't there, I'd bet, until what, an hour ago? Less?

Being a walking lightshow's better than the paint balloons, believe me. Not the first game to descend on the city.

Oh, thank god, you're actually used to this. Everybody I've been running into says it's brand new for them.

[she runs a few calculations in her head. no matter how long this has been going on under her nose, she's going to have a bunch of questions to ask. and right here right now hardly seems appropriate for the little details.]

This is a bad place to talk about everything that I desperately need some filling in on. Let's just hit the most important stuff right now, and then when it's calmed down, we can grab a coffee or something?

[Wow, a newbie that wasn't balking at everything. Freya appreciated that. ]

Hah. Cut right to the chase, yeah? Well, don't hold your breath. Go on. [Freya tilts her head a bit, then zaps herself with her pistol, speckling herself with blue light. ]

C'mon. I'll walk with you.

[Anna's life has been full of those moments where it's just "adult life is weird enough already; this might as well happen" since she found out she's living under a dome. with a defeated sigh, she zaps herself, too, then starts walking sort of in the direction of Birch Hills.]

All right. Let's start with the obvious one. How long has it been like this? [because even while she's got all these other thoughts going on, the idea of some kind of world being hidden from her this entire time makes her uneasy. and a little excited?] Is there some kind of special secret Wikipedia that's been keeping track of what history actually is?

[She follows with a thoughtful hum. ]

That's not a bad idea. A communal record of what's happened, at least. History's... Well, you went straight for the hard one.

I've been in the know since March. Haven't met anyone that's been in before last Founder's Day in February. The city itself's got some crazy history we're all still piecing together, but our reality's apparently a lot less stable than we thought. The whole thing's a right mess; got a bunch of people squabbling over how real our lives are.

Just since last Founder's Day? [she sounds incredulous that it could be so recent.] I've lived here for... christ, eight years now, and I'm just now finding out about all this?

[because hell, if she'd known that there was this whole world of interesting stuff just behind whatever veil was hiding it... maybe she'd be happier today.]

I mean, okay, sure, whatever. Maybe whatever it is just picks people at random or something. But why would the world changing make people think their lives aren't real?

[Freya takes a deep breath, doing her best to keep her voice casual.]

Well, about that. It's not just the world's changing--we're changing. Seein' things that never happened, wakin' up with new hair or features, knowin' how to do things all of a sudden. A lot impossible things, too.

You know that social media site based in town? Retrospec? The lot in there claim to be the cause of it all, and've been goin' on about how these changes, these visions, they're real. How we're "supposed" to be. You following?

[This girl really had to dive right into the meat of the matter, didn't she.]

[she's an overachiever.]

I... see.

[somehow she's managing to keep pace even though she really just kind of wants to stand there and stare at this other woman like she's got two heads, which is apparently a possibility now.]

You know this sounds totally crazy even with everything else happening, right? A company implanting crap into our brains? [she shakes her head. changing the world is one thing. maybe there's just some kind of veil (?) or something and they... turn it off for certain people. or something. there's probably some real explanation for this. instead of people in a corporate building just... beaming random crap into people's heads.]

You got any proof?

[She snorts.]

Oh, I've got plenty. [Freya pulls out her phone, tabbing through some old pictures. She nods her head towards a parked Vespa up the road while she looks for the right picture.]

Hey, how much do you think that weighs?

Couple hundred pounds?

[she doesn't really have any idea, but that seems right from the one or two times she's ridden on one of those things. heavier than she can reasonably handle, anyway. and she has a brief idea of what this "proof" might be and despite herself, a smirk crosses her lips.]

Oh, don't tell me.

[Freya grins in turn. ]

Tell you what? [She feigns, before handing Anna her phone. There's a picture loaded up of an arm with a detailed tattoo of a bear skull on a bed of irises. ]

I had that done three years ago. Two months ago, it decided it didn't like that, and shoved off to make room for this. [She shrugs out of her jacket long enough to show her left arm, and the large tribal tattoo of some kind of creature's head. ] Just woke up to that and a whole host of scars one day.

Huh.

[it's all she trusts herself to say as she takes a look at the original tattoo, then the current one, and then nothing else about this other woman's arm.]

So... they can change things about our bodies and our brains. You're making a good case, but let's say I buy it. If you don't like it, why hasn't anyone tried to stop them? I mean, you can bench press a Vespa, right?

[for some reason, though, she's not sure she wants this to stop. she's just found out about it, but it's already making her talk more and think about... possibilities. being more than just some tech support grunt. finding something of worth to do with her life.]

Bench it? [Freya plays at sounding almost offended. She strolls towards the vehicle in question after shrugging on her jacket.]

Oh, we've tried. Some still do; I think it's really startin' to piss off Maurice, since he's gotta clean up our messes.

They've been talkin' to us more, and after just about a year of this? I'm thinkin' they're not the bad guys here. Sure, I'd like my other life or whatever to keep its hands to itself, but throwin' a tantrum's not gonna help.

[As she's speaking, Freya crouches before the Vespa, finding a good hold on it. When she's done, she chucks the scooter up a couple yards in the air.]

[Catching it's significantly harder, since she's, you know, not trying to destroy a stranger's ride, and Freya grunts at the impact, but otherwise sets it down fine. That'll leave a bruise.]

Edited 2018-01-27 17:57 (UTC)

[now, normally, Anna would have something to say about that. about Retrospec and them not being the bad guys even if they're tampering with people's memories and bodies and lives. and about who the hell Maurice even is. and for the moment, yeah, she'll trust what she's being told.]

[but currently she's just a little bit distracted because she just watched someone she already thought was interesting enough to not be a total bitch to pick up and effectively juggle a Vespa.]

Holy shit. [she wants to say more but her mouth is kind of hanging open a little and she's not proud of it.] You can just do that now?

Yeah. Happened a couple months ago. Couldn't tell you how many things I broke before I adjusted.

[She resumes walking. ]

That's not even the weird stuff. Saw a guy walkin' on the side of a building once.

[Anna shakes her head as if snapping out of a trance brought on by seeing one of the most incredible things she's seen in years and picks up her own pace to walk alongside her companion again.]

So... okay. Sorry, that was. [it was a lot of things.] Never mind. Uh, is there a reason that they're doing this that anyone's been able to figure out? Other than "it's what we're supposed to be".

[Freya looks both amused and extremely pleased with Anna's reaction as they walked. A shrug is the best answer she can give, really.]

Something about growing our "other selves'" worlds, and these changes are the result of our souls trying to realign themselves, or [she waves a hand dismissively instead of finishing the sentence.] One of the techs put up a nice long explanation about it, but even then, it didn't really make sense. There's too much we don't know, yeah?

According to them, it's some kind of... reconstruction. The changes to us and our memories is part of that rebuilding. If they don't do this, our souls go outta alignment, and if it gets too bad, we'll die. Supposedly.

[This entire time, Freya's sounded confidant in everything she's relayed, up until that last world. She utters it dryly, a shadow of bitterness in it.]

[this is starting to sound more pseudoscientific as it goes on, but she's earned enough of Anna's trust for her not to completely dismiss all this stuff out of hand. as the line of thought grows a little more serious, Anna starts thinking more instead of talking quite as much.]

All right.

[they're changing the world one person at a time, but, well, literally. it's the kind of crap she'd see in a way too happy and upbeat corporate environment that's desperately trying to convince itself it's doing good. maybe not too far off? she guesses they'll see.]

So how much longer am I going to be normal before they start changing me, do you think? Or do they just get started immediately?

JANUARY 2018 TDM

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