repeter | JUNE TDM

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JUNE TDM

TEST DRIVE

JUNE TEST DRIVE
The city of Recollé. The kids are out for the summer and the weather's just fine. The sun's shining brightly, not a cloud in the clear gray sky. Everything seems at peace and citizens are out and about, smiling to one another and enjoying each other's company.

Oh, and this thing (complete with cardboard cut-out) has currently taken the place of the founders' statues in Recollé Square. But that's probably not a big deal.

What will you do today?

I.
What is this thing? Why is this thing here? For those of you in Tribunal Terrace today you may wish to investigate the five-foot-tall spinning wheel. How did it even get here? And where did the statues of the founders go? Even if you cannot answer those questions, it's hard to ignore the urge to give it a spin.

Check out those colors go 'round and 'round. Depending on what number you land on, you will find a notification pop up on your phone with a short list of…words. Are these supposed to be qualifications? Weird. That was a waste of time.

However, the moment you walk away you will find yourself accosted by various recruiters wherever you go, congratulating you on your impressive resumé and leading you to an office in Chata. Their offices have been equipped with tabletop-sized spinning wheels much like the one in Recollé Square that will spin 'round and 'round, determining the position you qualify for. Are you ready to show how these traits make you the perfect applicant? It looks like you have time to consult with your fellow candidates before your turn comes.

Or perhaps you've managed to resist spinning that wheel. The recruiters absolutely love your willpower and determination and want you to join their team! For those who can resist, they will still find themselves whisked away by recruiters to the same office and thrown straight into training to prepare for interviewing their neighbors. Recruiters will set up pairs of interviewers and applicants, leaving them alone to ask the hard-hitting questions and pick the most qualified candidate. Do your best and beat out the rest! It's your time to shine.

II.
Just because school is out for the summer doesn't mean Apparassage is quiet. Students and faculty alike are bustling about already preparing for the next school year. Campus tours of Recollé University run every two hours, and there are open house tours of the local elementary, middle and high school. Perhaps you're a future student exploring the campus and getting to know your future classmates. Maybe you're faculty or a student guide wrangling the kids and keeping them in line. Or you just might be one of the unfortunate ones who have found yourself with six weeks of summer school.

However, no matter where you find yourself in this district things get a little tricky when you're ready to leave for the day. The sidewalks outside of the buildings have all disintegrated, revealing a large void leading to nowhere beneath your feet. Without a clear path it seems impossible to escape, but stacked at the entrances of every doorway are large tiles with the letters of the alphabet carefully printed on them. When you look across the devoid path, you may notice you have a partner in a similar position with their own stack of letters.

Get ready to expand your vocabulary. Building a bridge of connecting words may be your only chance of getting home before sunset. Strangely, as the letters are laid out they seem to suspend mid-air enough to hold your weight as you make your way carefully across this pit. Balance and precision are key in this game. The stack floats along behind you as you cross the void, letters seemingly adding to the pile to provide more materials to build.

But like all games, there can be only one winner. Those who clear their letters first will arrive outside of the district safely, free now to come and go as they please. For those who do not clear their stack in time, you might have luck jumping from word to word to cross the finish line. Try as you might, if this is the method you follow, the moment you land on the winning word to leave the district the letters will glitch out, sending you plummeting into the void and landing on a long slope down to the bottom. Upon landing, you will see a series of chutes and ladders one can use to climb back up. Some ladders lead back to Apparassage. Some lead straight into Tisse, and some even lead to unexpected places. Where will you end up? The journey is up to you now.

III.
The days are longer, the nights are shorter, the sun is shining and it's noticeably warmer. Isn't it a perfect time for a summer potluck? The citizens of Recollé seem to think so and have all gathered today in Hollingberry Field with friends and loved ones to share food and fun. Kids chase after each other in friendly games of tag and hide-and-seek while other attendants mingle with one another, piling plates of food and sharing with their neighbor.

Why, even Mayor Mayer is out today for this summer kickoff with his lovely red Chocobo, Seabiscuit.

As the evening begins to wind down, however, there's a startled cry from the Mayor as he realizes someone has kidnapped his beloved pet from right under his nose. Was it you? How about you? Everyone has become a suspect and it's up to you to solve whodunnit. The Mayor provides everyone with a pen and a pad of paper divided into three sections for a suspect, a method, and a location. Grab a friend (or even a group of strangers) and get ready to interrogate each other to crack this case.

(With a little looking, however, it's easy to see that Seabiscuit's merely wandered down the hill away from the park. But maybe it's better not to tell the Mayor. He seems very adamant about this game.)

For anyone who manages to solve the case, the Mayor will be immensely grateful and reward you with a valuable prize! Congratulations! However, for anyone who fails to solve the puzzle, or even anyone found guilty of this heinous crime, by order of the Mayor you will be subjected to jail time for a full half an hour. (The Mayor can't stay too mad at his citizens. He loves them all.)

IV.
A nice, leisurely stroll through the entertainment district of Tisse seems to be in order. Summer sales are aplenty and now's the perfect time to shop 'til you drop. On the other hand, that doesn't seem to be the only thing dropping in Tisse. Do you hear that? Perhaps it is easy to ignore the sounds of stone crashing to the ground. Construction isn't unusual in this district. You think maybe you passed an ongoing demolition on your way inside a shop. But the crash happens again, and again, and again, a loud string of booms growing closer and closer.

Are those buildings tipping into one another? Or is it your imagination? You may not have time to answer while the string of events is put into motion. A crane swings overhead, knocking into a well-placed boulder that begins to roll down the street. Cranes, pulleys and wires move in sync as the ball rolls right toward you. Will you run? Will you collide right into the next set of traps? You may recall learning about this type of experiment once upon a time, coming to realize the elaborately planned Rube Goldberg machine spans the entirety of the city.

Maybe you're one of the lucky ones and you find a safe shop to dive into to escape. Or perhaps your sole focus is to run and get as far as you can, failing to notice that the large boulder herds you right to the end of the district and into a caged-in area. Make yourself comfortable. Someone from the outside will have to free you. But hey, maybe you aren't alone in this trap. Misery loves company, doesn't it?

BONUS.
The Retrospec app is at it again, just as useless as it's always been. After downloading to your device and allowing you to upload a profile picture, the app seems to take over your phone. Any time you open your phone to use it, a splash screen appears prompting you to pick one of the brightly colored wedges (or one of the two grayed out ones.)

It's time to exercise your brain and buff your trivia stats. Answering a question from your selected category will allow you to use your phone once again, but if you get it wrong? Retrospec will encourage you not to give up and try again.

...or, you know, you could ask someone to help figure out the answer. Hey, that person looks like they're bursting with knowledge! Perhaps it's best to see if they can help you stop this madness.

As usual, any attempt to get the company to reply are futile. Once a question has been answered correctly, phones will return to their usual functionality until the next time it settles into idle mode.

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!

Your June TDM directory is here, and your AU workshop is here!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[He waits impatiently for his teacher to connect the dots, shifting from one foot to the other in a bad attempt to vent the energy that has suddenly build up inside his body in response to the bout of adrenaline being faced with a sudden abyss has given him. This all is not normal, and man, if Cutter doesn't know it! But he still gives Aizawa an exasperated look because explaining would make sense, but it also means slowing down and sitting still somewhere.]

I don't know. All I know is that they most likely either caused this- this predicament... that we're in, or they know who or what is responsible for it. Your guess is as good as mine.

[Giving up on staying calm he tosses his arms up and paces back and forth with quick, restless steps before he accepts that that won't help either and rests his back against the wall with a sigh.]

Listen, Mr. A- [He turns his eyes back on Aizawa and gives him a look that has nothing to do with insubordination or them being teacher and student anymore. This is bigger than stuff like that.] I can't give you all the explanations I bet you want because I don't know a lot of what is going on myself.

[He licks his lips, shooting a wary look up and down the corridor.]

...I can try to answer your questions as good as I can, but only under two conditions: 1) you keep checking one side of this corridor while I make sure nothing nasty comes out from the other. 2) if I tell you to run you'll run, no questions asked. Okay?

[ ... ]

You cheat at Scrabble?

Edited 2017-06-21 22:38 (UTC)

It sounds like too much effort with too little payout. I already have a chocobo and money and the mayor's probably just gonna arrest whoever took the chocobo. Having the cops pull up doesn't sound fun at all.

[so maybe he

thought about it????]

You could just rattle out a piece of scientific nomenclature trivia and bam, the jocks will all think you're a wizard.

[that sounds more like the kind of thing baren's done. maybe he has]

You look a little lost. Do you need help with something?

[Cedric noticed the rather lost looked on Noctis' face and decided to approach the other to help. It wouldn't sit with him well if he didn't help and the other got lost.

He doesn't seem to be too put off by the whole Mayor's chocobo thing (he's pretty sure he saw it just a moment ago enjoying itself). It seems harmless enough.]

If there's somewhere you're looking to get to, I can probably assist you.

[ AU workshop comment is here! ]

II
[ it just started with her going to school so she could use the art room, but now she's here playing...Scrabble, she guesses? Life-sized Scrabble. It would be fun if it wasn't for the whole 'void beneath your feet' thing.

She turns to whoever her partner is, holding some of the tiles in her arms. ]

How do you spell 'rhythm'?

[ Kouran's spoken English isn't terrible, but she's less great at written English. ]

Bonus
[ Trivia games are fun!

Only they're less fun when they're stopping you from using your phone.

But really, the biggest issue Kouran has with this is that there are whole categories she can't really answer much at all, she only kind of knows American entertainment and pop culture. After a while she tries to approach someone for help. ]

Excuse me, do you have a moment?

Edited 2017-06-22 01:06 (UTC)

[This is...awfully uncharacteristic. This entire situation is jarringly uncharacteristic, especially when he's still not entirely sure how said situation even reached this point. It's hardly as if he and Cutter are particularly acquainted, either, but all the same...all Aizawa's memories of interacting with this kid have never involved the level of agitation he's showing now.

On top of all that ominous phrasing...it's pretty alarming, admittedly, to the point that it's getting hard to ignore even if this really is just an especially weird dream or something. But that particular mental exercise is getting more strained by the minute, too, the longer this goes on. --That's ridiculous, though. What else could it be? Sidewalks don't up and vanish like that. Students don't come up to him and show him strange posts on their phones, talking like...]

You know, all of that sounds very reassuring. [What is this, a horror movie all of a sudden? He follows Cutter's glance up and down the corridor, still frowning, and wonders what they're even supposed to be looking for. But he starts moving down the hall again, slowly, assuming Cutter's probably going to follow suit--and he's offering the phone back, if Cutter does.] ...You're saying this building isn't a very ideal place to talk. So we'll step outside first, then, since the second exit isn't far from here. --And we'll see what happens, alright?

[...Though now he can't help but eye the passing open doorways a little warily himself, because paranoia is apparently pretty contagious like that. Great.]

Hey guy, you're holding up the line. [Comes an impatient female voice from behind Faolan. Well, so much for the not hurrying up.]

[A towering redhead, hair up in a ponytail and wearing a training tank and leggings, furrows her brow expectantly at the guy reflected in the glass, tapping her foot. There was only one sign-out sheet on the door, and this guy was in front of it!]

[Sigrun gives him a skeptical look up and down, as if to judge him a little, and reaches over his shoulder for the pen hanging from the clipboard.] Well, you're not going for the elliptical, I guess. [SMH. Leg day, guy.]

Nuh-uh-uh, kid, I'm not stupid. Twenty dollar limit. I'm not made of money. [And she was on a glorified gym teacher's budget!]

You can pick the place, though.

["Bird voyeur" is a no sell, unfortunately. Rick Astley intensifies. Aizawa makes a face, both at his phone and at Zoro's suggestion.]

I think even anyone liking this song would be getting tired of it by now, if they were dealing with a problem like this.

[Briefly giving up on this impromptu bird-watching quiz, he lowers his phone and watches tiredly as...Zoro rolls his up in his shirt. Which is a valiant attempt, Aizawa supposes, questionable fashion regardless. There's points for effort somewhere here. It's a shame that the fabric's apparently no match for Rick Astley's incredible vocals, though.]

Well, obviously it'd be too easy if it only took turning down the volume. I get the feeling whoever spread this around wanted to be very obnoxious about it. [And they sure are succeeding, he's gotta say. He frowns down at his phone.] Finding a way to effectively block the speakers would be a start. Cloth might be good. ...But it looks like it'll have to be more cloth than that.

[Looks around....at these very non-cloth coffee cans and cereal boxes. Ah.]

You think they sell anything with fabric in here?

[Same shit, different day. It seems like every so often they're being thrown newbies; there's a pattern to be recognised, but as far as she's concerned it's pointless. They could easily alter the pace they're bringing in new users on a whim, so she doesn't think much of it.

All it means is more people bother her these days about whatever the app is doing to their phones, or why it vanishes on computer screens, or why some shitty mp3 won't stop looping--]

Look, if you throw a stone in the next crowd of people over, I'm sure whoever you hit is gonna be another retrospec user. Go bother them if you--

[Wait.]

...

[Now that she's actually looking at this person, she's realised...

Well, shit.

There're a lot of conflicting emotions. Truth be told, one half of her wants to pinch her arm to make sure she isn't dreaming. There are some people she left behind in Japan she always wished she could've brought with her, Kouran being one of them. The fact she's here, right in front of her, almost seems like retrospec is just messing with her.

And another part realises that if she is real, confronting her means confronting the fact she just up and abandoned her without saying a word.

Running away got her into this mess, but running away could also get her out of it, right?

...no, she isn't gonna do that. Kouran's not the person she ran from so...

She decides to just...turn to face her. Give her one look up and down.

And just...]

...you got taller than me.

[Yuuko did too.

Life isn't fair.]

[Nooo, that's no good either...]

Nope, never heard of it. [He's a math teacher, not a literature professor....he's certainly not about to judge over some shaky Dutch, anyway.] You do whatever's easier for you at this point, I'm not in a hurry. Might pass on the tea, though...wouldn't happen to have any coffee, would you?

[Cutter flashes him a humorless smile. He almost wishes that he had fangs or some other unnaturally sharp teeth to add to the dramatics of the moment, but just almost. Better keep that thought to himself before somebody takes it as an invitation.]

Just wait until somebody you know as sane and rational calls you at one in the morning to tell you that they suddenly remember that they're a superhero who immolated himself. [He takes the phone back and pockets it. Falling into step next and half a step behind Aizawa he keep looking up and down the corridor while one of his hands lingers close to a pocket in his jacket. Cutter gets a lot of flack for his nickname, but behind all the jokes the fact that he is very skilled at delivering cutting blows remains a many times proven truth.

It's only after the second exit comes into sight that he relaxes with a sigh.]

Seems like it's just whatever is up with that missing paths for now. Sorry for the panic, but in the last weeks I had run for my life a few times too often for my liking. Wouldn't have always made it without some help, too.

Ah.

[Well then. She can't say she's particularly impressed by the lie, but at least they've gotten it over with in the here and now.]

You're going to get in trouble if you keep introducing yourself that way.

[It's less a scolding and more advice, really.]

So... let me get this straight, I tripped over you while you were sleeping in the middle of an alleyway dressed like a sack of potatoes, and you tried to make me feel guilty about it all so you could get a free meal?

[ Wow what the hell

This guy must be really hungry ]

...There's a diner around here that's open 24 hours.

[ooc: There were mention of him being Magilou's adopted son or something here. idk. I'd need to figure the au and samples, even if I have most of an app sorted from Empatheias.]

You think so? I hope you're right. I guess they do sound kind of distinctive, don't they? With their...um, 'wark'.

[He's not sure he's heard one around somewhere it shouldn't be. At least, with dealing with school and such as he is required to, given his age, that did affect his ability to help with the search and all.]

Maybe if we had another Chocobo with us too, they could call to each other?

But why would you want to eat me?

[ He looks at her like she has two heads. ]

First of all, I'm not very satisfying if I'm made of metal. And I probably don't taste very good. And then one day when you need me the most, you'll have to go to the hardware store to pick up a new one.

I think we should just take eating me off the table. But I will pour you a beer. Another one?

Are you going to finish the one I already poured you?

[oh my god??? awesome about the diner, but first:]

You made yourself feel guilty before I even said anything. What do you mean sack of potatoes?

[Twenty dollars... He could still do a fair bit with that.]

All you can eat buffets never cost more than twenty dollars. I don't know where any are, though.

[Careful what you wish for there for sure, Cutter........]

I'd prefer not to wait at all, actually. ...I'm not sure I even want to ask what you mean by "immolated himself". [Ridiculous. All of that sounds ridiculous.

Not at all the fighter of his past life, Aizawa simply continues on with the same tired posture he's been maintaining up to this point, one hand absently on top of his shoulder bag. He frowns sidelong at Cutter as they move along, getting a distinct sense that he should...maybe be reacting a bit more strongly to hearing all of this than he is. But that would mean mustering both the energy and the investment, and he's still not sure if he wants to do either of those things right now. But that still...really warrants a response? That's a lot, right there.]

You're talking like you've been attacked. Please tell me that you've at least tried to contact the police about such an incident, because if you haven't I'm probably going to have to do it myself.

[Reaching for the door first, he tugs it open.

Oh, that sure is a decided lack of sidewalk out here too.]

[He isn't familiar with big boulders rolling down the city streets so excuse Severin for being skeptical.

But he is accommodating, and asks the one of the store clerks to set out a chair.]

Please miss... tell me all about it.

[ UH

did he say sack of potatoes, like are those really words that came out of his mouth like no, definitely not, he definitely did not say Lalli was a sack of potatoes

Play it cool Emil ]

Listen, do you want this burger and milkshake, or not?

[ Cucumber on cream cheese. ]

[Taking a bite from the cupcake, she immediately gets the impression of a first time baker. Mainly because she made something like this shortly after college, back when she was trying to out down on getting take-out all the time. It really is pretty dry, not inedibly so but enough for it to be a offputting. Still, free food is still free food. And she's sort of eating off the stress from that insane scrabble game earlier. Besides, other than the moisture issue they do taste pretty good.][She takes another bite chews in a thoughtful manner, thinking over the faces she's seen. Maybe she has seen her around the university at some point or another?]

You know, that might be it. I work there as one of the guidance counselors so maybe I saw you on campus at some point.

Edited 2017-06-22 02:18 (UTC)

[Caught and replaced!]

Yep! I can make "Clowder" which should get us another few feet at least!

[He barks out a laugh at that, neither willing nor able to keep his reaction down.]

Yeah, sure. Why don't you try asking anybody we meet if they think there's something strange about suddenly missing exits here?

[He shakes his head, not waiting for an answer.] They won't believe you. You can swear up and down that the sky is blue and always has been and all you'll get is a funny look and the question if you're alright.

[Besides, what should he have reported? Forest fires and giant bugs the size of a van and an even bigger cat high on catnip that almost crushed him with a mistaken loving headbutt? Not to mention that ghost...

He shudders and trips over his feet at the memory of that screaming, wailing thing he had once encountered on the nightly streets.]

...nobody but other Retrospec users is going to believe me anyways. Oh right, you better expect some crazy packages being delivered to your door sooner or later as well.

[Why is he not surprised that the second door is a letdown as well? Raising an eyebrow Cutter leans against the threshold.]

After you, Mr. Aizawa. And by immolated I mean he set himself on fire. He burned and felt a big something about having broken a promise rather than the pain from the fire. I asked him if it wasn't a dream the first time I heard it.

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Page 66 of 100

JUNE TDM

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Kouran | Original Character

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Re: wildcard!

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bonus

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Re: I

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