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

[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?

Who knows? It hits everyone differently. I had nothin' but the memories for months. Once the first change happened, they've been coming around kinda regularly since. Some people had 'em not long from the get-go.

[Freya frowns briefly, casting a glance at Anna.] That's something I should warn you about. As much as I throw around the word "memories," they're a lot more than that. You experience every bit of what's goin' on, like you're living through. Sound, smell, touch, pain, emotion, you name it. Sometimes it's not too bad, but I haven't talked to many people that've had a good time of it.

[that makes as much sense as everything else to Anna, really. and while she should be taking it seriously, and on one level she is, she doesn't really understand the scope of what awaits her. like she even could. so instead, she scoffs lightly, because it's easier than being honest with her emotions.]

Can't be much worse than the crap I deal with on a daily basis, but I guess I'll find out, huh?

[she takes a look around and recognizes that they're at least much closer to her place right now. huh. time flies when you're having everything you took for granted about reality challenged.]

Should've asked before I asked you out for coffee, but what happens if someone who's not like us hears us talking about all this stuff? Are the... Retrospec police or whoever gonna come for us?

[Oh, you poor soul. Well, Freya tried. Maybe she will be one of the lucky few that are relatively normal.]

Well, it'd make me feel a lot less crazy if that was the case. [She shakes her head.] No, they just stare and smile like you're lost and confused. Sometimes laugh it off as a prank, even if they're walking a dog-sized caterpillar at the time. No matter what happens, it's just "how the city's always been" to 'em.

Hell, my partner walks around with this little tomato-headed monster all the time and no one says a damn thing about him. For a while, lot of us weren't sure if we were just loosin' it all the same time or not.

Partner? [ah, shit. oh well. she at least moves on quickly.] Good to know there's no risk talking about all this. Not really interested in going back to having to hide stuff about myself.

[not that she's especially free or open with information to begin with, but she likes having the option. and while she's thinking about it...]

It's Anna, by the way. Went this whole time without telling you my name.

[Freya glances over with an apologetic smile. As much as she was having fun, her partner deserved a mention at this point.]

Don't know why you'd have to hide stuff in the first place. Name's Freya.

Where in Apprassage do you live?

[well, at least Anna's still not subtle.]

Birch Hills. I'm not in college anymore, but I just got used to the neighborhood. And there's... I don't know, there's a lot of shit I had to hide before all this happened.

[she gestures up at the dome, but doesn't seem too eager to elaborate. she likes Freya, but their social link is gonna have to go up a few more ranks before Anna's ready to share any sob stories.]

How about you, Freya? You live around here too?

[It's a little subtle, and a little flattering.]

[Freya shrugs. She's obviously free with information herself, but she also lives with Lucy, the grandmaster of Meet These Requirements To Advance.]

Yeah. Same complex, actually. Funny, that. Not that I'm there much these days.

Yeah, I feel it. If I'm not being a phone jockey I'm dragging my dumbass roommate back from trying to beat up the dome.

[she pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs as she thinks about Nic.]

You might've seen him. Big muscly guy, doesn't wear enough clothes, current biggest reason I'm not into men? And now he's part of this whole thing, too. God, this is gonna suck from here out.

Mm. He got an eyepatch, by chance?

Shit. What did he do now?

Tried to beat up the dome, [She answers, an amused note in her voice.]

Again? [she puts a hand on her forehead and looks down.] I swear to god.

[and back up at Freya.] Sorry about that dumbass. I usually keep him under better control than that. I'd get him a leash, but he'd be into it. He didn't say anything gross to you, did he?

[Her shoulders shake with a quiet chuckle at Anna's exasperation.]

Nothin' I can't handle. [In other words, "thread still under construction."] I've dealt with his sort before.

You know, this is a college city. People are always lookin' for roomies; if he's that much of a ratbag, you can find another.

I... look, I give him shit and most of the time he deserves it, but we've been roommates for like five, six years now. He's really not that bad.

[she does have this habit of going a little too hard on him, but, well, sometimes it's funny. and sometimes it leads to this.]

He's just a moron sometimes. Besides, we're used to each other.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

JANUARY 2018 TDM

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