(no subject)

[recollecters]

TEST DRIVE

MARCH TEST DRIVE The city of Recollé... ...probably needs your help. I. Like most holidays, Mayor Mayer will come up with any excuse to hold a celebration and have fun in the city. Today for St. Patrick’s Day, the city seems to be awash with shades of green almost overnight. Green ribbons, lights, shamrocks and garland adorn every windowfront and street lamp. Corned beef and cabbage are the specialty at several of the hottest restaurants in the city. Shamrock shake season is back in action, and mint-flavored coffees are available at both A Good Bean and Expressive. You could just celebrate with some fun and silly traditions today. Or you could slowly realize there’s a distinct hissing sound coming from somewhere near your feet. As you look down, a serpent winds itself around your ankles before slithering off down the street to follow someone else. One by one, several snakes of all shapes and sizes begin rising up from bushes and sewers and tall grass, taking up space on the sidewalks and the streets of the city. Traveling in packs, these snakes slowly start invading the city and turning up in places you may not anticipate, leaving you to have to fend them off and chase them out of city limits. Mayor Mayer puts out an emergency alert, demanding all citizens work together to fight back against this snake epidemic. Will you work together to get rid of these creatures and release them back into the wild? Or will you find yourself overwhelmed and looking for a place to hide? II. At the beginning of the month, two large domes eclipsed the Recollé Art Museum and the Atrium, the city’s concert venue. The "Modern Living" display has been open for a few weeks, depicting life in the city of Recollé with art pieces and sculptures inspired by buildings and famous figureheads of the city including the police chief, the fire department, and Mayor Mayer. But even with that display at the frontmost portion of the museum, it’s the commotion further inside the museum that’s drawing in the crowds. Word on the street is that people are beginning to see famous works of art run amuck through the city. At first, it seems like they’re just stories, but as you step out of the museum after an educational afternoon (or even if you happen to be in Appraassage), everywhere you look the art pieces begin to take on a life of their own, slipping out of the museum into the city. With these figures running around, the city continues to warp to their familiar backgrounds and create a new image of the city itself. Several citizens have been working to try and persuade these pieces back to the museum, but they could use an extra hand. Some of the art pieces are quite talkative and may even befriend some people! Others, however, seem to want to find replacements so they may spend more time outside of the museum, capturing an unwitting suspect to drag back toward their frames and lock them away. Luckily, there’s a way to combat them after weeks of varying success. Should you encounter one of these works of art, a simple touch with a paintbrush will freeze them, plastering them to nearby objects for easy portability. Good luck getting them to hold still long enough to find a paintbrush though. You may need to work on the art of persuasion in order to send them back. III. The Atrium seems to be having trouble with their electricity issue still, the lighting issue still unsolved as employees look into the wiring and circuit breakers to bring back the power. As employees continue recruiting strangers off the street to try and locate the source of error, you’ll find yourself among these groups that are brought into the dark concert hall and sent on a mission to check the sockets of the building and ensure everything necessary is plugged in. Even with a light source such as a cell phone or a flashlight, the light doesn’t spread too far as the sound of leathery wings flap somewhere above you. The sockets in the walls are filled with cords that are plugged in or places that spark with silver-white lights. Getting too close is dangerous, and should you lean too close to examine you’ll find yourself getting shocked and blown away from the wall. A small, electric buzz fills your ears as a closed circuit overtakes you, rotating around your body and providing you with a light source and a dangerous kind of weapon. Electrically charged, anything or anyone you touch will run the risk of being shocked and burned. The lights are out in the wings, and somewhere up above you’ll hear the flapping again as a large, skeletal bat swoops down from the rafters to challenge you. This bat is in the same situation as you are, crackling with electric energy that can shock anything that gets close enough. It will be relentless, following you through the music hall until you find a way to escape, or you fight back and shock the creature into a state of confusion. Light returns to the bulbs above for every hit the monster takes, but that’s still pretty dangerous, isn’t it? Fighting fire with fire is a risky position to be in, but it looks like you don’t have much of a choice here. IV. There’s also something weird going on at the Recollé Zoo. A silver door stands out against the brick building, but as you approach it, the color shifts from silver to blue. Should you open this door, you’ll find yourself entering an area with a blast of snow hitting you straight in the face, a whirlwind temporarily blinding you as the door closes behind you. Inside an icy cave, you’ll find several small, egg-like structures with unborn creatures suspended in time. The mouth of the cave lies before you, ergo the exit from this weird region. Be careful on your way out of the cave, however. Even briefly nudging one of these eggs will cause it to splinter and crack, the creature hatching from the ice and beating its small fists against the ice-eggs next to them. It’s a chain reaction as these little monsters awaken one by one, freeing their brethren and swarming the area. Rushing for the mouth of the cave, you may see them disappear into the snow and dive down, hiding in wait and ready for attack as they trip you up, cause you to fall on your face and temporarily freeze your limbs. You’ll have to fight your way through these groups out into the snow and all the way back to the other exit hidden among the tundra. A silver door can be found on top of a snowy hill, but the journey forward is a long and treacherous one. Better move fast. The snow shifts beneath your feet and you’ll find yourself sinking down the further you go. Hope you dressed warmly. BONUS. The new app on your phone won’t leave you alone no matter how many times you quit it. Retrospec is desperate for your attention, blinking and flashing until you open the new message waiting for you. Upon opening it, however, it might not be the message you were expecting to see. Hey, welcome, sorry this is so last minute but we’re in the middle of an operation right now. I think this was already in the works before the rest of the team disappeared but I’m doing damage control to get you up to speed. Some of the others might be able to explain it better than I can though. Post to the forum, ask around, and forward all other questions to my office. Z. The message disappears just as quickly as it came, presenting you with a directory of people to reach out to. However, all of the names seem to be missing, leaving you with a list of randomly generated letters and numbers. Take your chance and click a name. Maybe you’ll get lucky and find someone helpful. 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, threads on the TDM can be used for bonus points but also memory regains. Players may also earn one (1) freebie memory regain by turning in a thread of 5+ comments with a character who's TDMing. Friendly reminder that current players must have full, passing AC before submitting a reservation or an application. Your March 2019 AU workshop is here! Our mod questions thread for this TDM is over here!

Comments

Adrian "Alucard" Ţepeş (AU: Adrian Harker) | Castlevania (Netflix)

[halfvampire]

III.

[What was supposed to be a fairly normal day of volunteer work has quickly turned into something horrible. All Adrian really wanted to do was attempt to help and then get home, but instead here he is, somehow conducting electricity on his own and facing off against something up in the rafters. He can hear the sound of claws clicking against something up there in the dark, and whatever is making that noise certainly doesn't sound pleased to see him.

So Adrian... is he seriously just walking toward the door to leave?? Yes. That is exactly what he's doing. He's not here for this today, he's just going to turn around and leave and hope morale improves. Hopefully the electricity will wear off and hopefully the lights will come back on and hopefully whatever is up there will just cease to be an issue.

The creature isn't having any of this and swoops down to land directly between Adrian and the door to freedom. It bares its teeth and makes a hissing noise as it rears up to its full height to try to prevent escape.

...Adrian just looks so done already.]

Please tell me you know of a way to stop it.

IV.

[Okay, so entering the blue door at the zoo was a massive mistake, and Adrian really needs to learn when to stop checking out the new things. But fine, he's here, he's cold, and there's only one way out. He'll start heading towards the mouth of the cave, being very careful not to touch any of the eggs. He's played plenty of video games, he knows how this goes.

Now if only it weren't so slippery. Unfortunately, controlling characters in ice levels in a video game is much easier than actually doing it yourself (no matter how slippery those controls are), and Adrian finds himself sliding into one of those eggs. It cracks and the blue creature pops out, and for a brief moment they end up staring at each other.

And then the little creature's running off to go break its friends out of their eggs and Adrian's looking panicked.]

Wait, please don't wake them all up...!

[oh my god is he seriously trying to reason with these things?? yes. please stop him.]

BONUS.

[Okay, fine. Adrian gives up. He'll just post to the network and hope he'll get some answers regarding all of this. The username is Adrian.]

What is going on around here? I received a strange message about an "operation" and why am I only just now noticing all the strange things happening in the city? Can someone please explain any of this?

WILDCARD.

[Got something else you'd like to do with Adrian? Hit me up on plurk at pokerap and we can plot something out! If you're interested in building pre-established CR with Adrian, his AU workshop comment is over here!]

Username Al

[flametheif40]

Not going to lie, this is crazy stuff and it gets weirder as you go along. I promise things will sort of make sense with time.

Basically, we are all unwilling experiments that are gradually remembering some other life, probably different place and gain skills or powers that you had in that other life.

Some, like myself, get magic out of the deal, others will gain skills or abilities.

If you need to see magic, that is no problem, name a place close to you and I can show up in a few minutes and show you.

I also have a file explaining some of the basics if that helps.

[halfvampire]

That's certainly a lot to take in.

I have a hard time believing any of this, but I have seen some very strange things lately that I can't explain...

Can you tell me more about what's happening in the city right now? And why it's happening, I suppose. If there's an answer for that, of course.

[flametheif40]

I don't blame you...after getting some memories from your other life and...probably some more shinanigans it becomes easier to belive.

Short answer on the why. We are at war, the details are complicated and strange, but we are fighting for survival and we HAVE to work with a few of the people that have been experimenting on us, because, no matter what you think of them, they are objectively a better option than the alternative.

The what, I really don't know. Random shit happening is par for the course here, even before this shit hit the fan.

I know those are shitty answers, and I know you don't have much reason to trust me.

But I'll help if I can

[halfvampire]

I appreciate the honesty. It really is a lot to take in and understand, so I apologize for the barrage of questions while I attempt to sort this all out. Just yesterday everything seemed normal, but now...

Who are you all at war with? Can you tell me more about that?

[flametheif40]

You seem to be taking it better then I did at 1st.

I woke up one morning, saw a floating paintbrush, grabbed it and screamed my lungs out when it started flying me to the top of a skyscraper and noticed all the colour in the city was gone.

It also slapped me when I tried to run away from the paintbrush.

So I get it, don't worry.

Clarence Vanderwheel, murderer of babies(his own niece and nephew) and guy who sees the majority of our souls as walking batteries.

this file has more info incase you want to do more reading on your own.

Bit of a read, and you want to pace yourself cause this just gets weirder.

[halfvampire]

Thank you very much for the file, I'll be sure to look it over. It does seem like there's an awful lot of information I'll need to familiarize myself with...

How long have all of these strange things been going on? This is all so bizarre...

[flametheif40]

Welcome, just, take some breathers while your reading.

That is a good question, Vanderwheel is 120+ years old, the city may have been built with this experiment in mind.

and this may not have been their first try, last month we went underground and found a pocket of reality that held another city, completely abandoned.

[halfvampire]

Why do you think they're doing this? I have a hard enough time imagining this happening to begin with, but perhaps having a reason would make it a bit easier to understand.

1/2

[flametheif40]

Well...

Since...you seem to be doing alright...

I guess now is a good time as any, super crazy shit though...

2/2

[flametheif40]

If Retrospec is to be believed, every single one of us is a survivor from a planet that was destroyed.

The point of all these experiments is for our souls to be able to somehow reconstruct our destroyed home planets.

Vanderwheel only wants "useful" planets, or useful souls, leaving the rest to be drained for energy.

[halfvampire]

[...he shouldn't have asked...]

So you're all working to stop him. Well, I can certainly see where he needs to be stopped and working with Retrospec is a necessity right now.

Thank you for all of the information. It's certainly a lot, but it's helpful to know exactly what I've gotten myself into.

[flametheif40]

[Al is really impressed with how calm he is taking it or at least appears to. He really wouldn't blame him for freaking out]

Picking the lesser of two evils, worst case senario.

It's grim sure, but I've personally had fun too, definitely gets the blood pumping when, say, giant metal bugs invade your house.

Your welcome :) We need to work together if we are going to make it.

Sides, more fun that way, so don't hesitate to hit me up. ESPECIALLY if you find out you have fire magic or swordplay skills.

Pro-tip. Find Elliot in the farmer's market on the weekends, he sells magic food that has literally saved lives.

III.

[drydrown]

[Oh, excellent, there's someone here who seems about as done with all of this as any proper Retrospec test subject should be. Cumore's never seen this guy before, granted, so he's probably just speedrunning the Done process and deciding he's not here for all of this already. Here's hoping he'll make Zee's life hell.

That said, you are dealing with an equally charged-up lawyer in a suit that's way too nice for this, just kind of standing there looking at this thing like "fucking really" - internally screaming a bit, sure, but at least he's keeping all that internal.]

Honestly, I assume we deal with this in the same way we deal with everything else - completely blind, possibly screaming, and generally trying not to die.

As for stopping it, your guess is as good as mine.

[halfvampire]

Charming. I'm pleased to see that we're both at a loss for what to do here.

[The skeletal bat lunges forward, the crackle of electricity following it. The one good thing here is that the bat's more than a little clumsy, and even Adrian without any sort of enhancements (or even any sort of physical dexterity) is able to get out of the way.]

Well, this is going to be fun.

[We're so going to die.]

[drydrown]

You get used to it. Unfortunately.

[...jesus, okay, this thing is mad.]

Honestly, the one suggestion I have is "find a stick and whack it with it", simply because nothing tends to like being hit in the face.

[halfvampire]

...I was hoping we'd have some other option...

[He's not really here for violence?? Also look at him, he's scrawny. How is he supposed to swing a stick at a skeletal bat thing and not die.

But our only other option seems to be "die" so uh.]

Well, there must be something here we can use to defend ourselves...

[And there's a jolt of electricity from the thing that comes a bit too close as it gets back up, ready for another charge.]

[drydrown]

[Ow? God, he didn't ask for that, moving back, goddamn.[

Well, the other non-stupid option is to find a way to shock it back.

The stupid option, incidentally, is punching it.

[But that sounds like a good way to get our asses kicked.]

[halfvampire]

I'm quite sure I'd break my wrist.

[He has never thrown a punch and doesn't even know how to do it. We are so fucked.]

Perhaps there's something we can use around here...

[Ah, hang on, there's a generator over here. It looks like they might have tried to use this to get the lights working at some point.]

Do you think it can stun itself if it runs into that?

[drydrown]

That depends. How much am I going to regret asking how you plan on getting it to do that if I tell you "yes"?

[halfvampire]

You're going to regret it.

[He does smile apologetically before continuing on anyway, though.]

If we're both in front of it, we should hopefully be able to get out of the way before it slams into it. It's clumsy enough on the ground, so it should be fine.

[Hopefully??? Either it'll be fine or we'll be very dead.]

[drydrown]

Oh, good. You're jumping right to "live bait", you're going to fit in well around here.

[He's noticeably not complaining, though.]

I've done dumber things. Let's go.

[halfvampire]

Here I was thinking you'd tell me off for such a reckless plan.

[You. He likes you. He's not nearly this crazy most of the time, but he can appreciate someone who has the balls to agree to a wild plan like this.

Anyway, let's! He'll head on in front of the generator, and it's a damn good thing we moved when we did, because that thing's ready to charge again.]

Let's hope our timing is good.

[Here it comes!]

[drydrown]

[...this is such a dumb idea but god knows that he's dragged people into far stupider things for less reason so we might as well - ohhhh god here that thing comes, this is gonna suck but you know what, he is frail and in much too nice of a suit to let himself get mowed over by-

...

wow this thing is like, a whole new breed of ugly isn't it

jesus

......anyway

if you get hit that's not his problem, he's getting the goddamn fuck out of the way when needed.]

[halfvampire]

[Good man, this is at least marginally better than the spider-thing right??

Adrian's timing is good enough and he's out of the way as well, though it's not exactly graceful, and it's still a little too close for comfort.

The beast runs directly into the generator, and between the force of its charge and the electricity it's putting out, the generator sparks immensely. The shocks are enough to at least momentarily stun the creature into submission, and it continues to put out sparks even as it twitches.]

Good, I was hoping that would work.

[It isn't dead, however.]