repeter | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I can assure you, it's the latter. [The urge to say ladder is barely resisted.] I see you're also rather interested in them, though not quite as... hands on about your investigation.

[... Maybe it would've been smarter to do it the way she is. No, someone has to take the fun way.]

It has its downsides, but I can't say I've been in the same place twice yet. Fascinating.

Did you keep note of where you have been?

[Because if he's willing to be guinea pig, Ros is more than happy to partner up with him. Indeed, she's stepping in closer, already ready to invite him at her side.]

[!!!]

I would be a poor detective if I didn't. Let's see, there's been two different shops in Tisse, I found myself in the observatory once, then at a spa, and now here. I don't think I'll ever return to the university via chute, though.

[...]

It'd be too convenient.

Is there such a thing?

[Ros, you have a BMW, can you really say your current ride is inconvenient? No, you can't. But oh, those are interesting answers, and she's tapping away, adding them to her current list.]

That makes seven in total on my list, all of them vastly different.

[A beat, and she wrinkles her nose.]

Frankly, trying to find logic in this sort of mess is bit of an exercise in futility, but I'm hopeful that with more people attempting to solve these puzzles, science and logic will eventually prevail. Certainly it helps to have a detective chipping in.

[Actually, wait. Wait just a second . . . Rosalind glances up again, frowning slightly. University, he'd said . . .]

Haven't I seen you about the university before?

[Seven in total so far, all different... interesting indeed. Goro's pleasure at being a validated detective and being able to partner up with someone also investigating is like, a bit obvious.]

Possibly during a campus tour, yes. I'm attending in the fall.

[Or hoping to, anyway. Get that higher education.]

[Her eyebrows raise, but she doesn't yet comment on the improbability of his being a detective at that age. Either he's lying, in which case this conversation will be very dull very quickly, or he's not, which would make him an intriguing figure indeed. Either way, time will tell, and so instead:]

Majoring in criminology, I assume? I'm surprised you're only just starting to attend now.

Edited (it's 3 am) 2017-06-17 06:40 (UTC)

I am, and if I could have attended sooner I would. I only graduated recently.

[And he liked to focus on the classes he could, plus needing to prove himself for scholarships, and not wanting to leave his mom alone just yet, and... a number of things.]

Are you a professor, then? [That's polite and flattering, especially if she ends up being an older student.]

[She hums softly, a quiet acknowledgement of his reasoning. She herself had flown through school, but not every semi-genius child's experience is the same.]

A professor of physics, yes. Although I tend to teach across the sciences, chemistry and biology and the like. You might end up having me, if you branch out a bit.

[Interesting..! And if he can make a good impression now, then all the better.]

I do plan to go into a few of those fields, just to broaden my experiences and knowledge. I'll be certain to take your classes if they coincide, Professor..?

Dr. R. Lutece. Doctor or Professor will do.

[She nods.]

And your name? I'll admit, I'm a bit curious about a boy who's managed to make detective-- unless that wasn't a proper title?

Ah, well.

[He rubs the back of his neck, smiling apologetically with a bit of pink in his cheeks.]

Not a proper detective, not yet. I'm quite known around my neighborhood though... [Handshake?] Goro Akechi, but just Akechi will do. It's a pleasure, Doctor Lutece.

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.]

[He still ducks his head like it's the former, laughing sheepishly.]

Yes, I'm... aware, Doctor. But as long as I don't charge my services, surely it can be overlooked?

Do you want me to agree, or do you want my honest opinion?

[She is intrigued; normally she'd simply give the latter, but this boy is a bit too useful when it comes to this latest mystery. She doesn't want to drive him away just yet.]

[Goro straightens, smiling readily.]

Your honest opinion, please.

All right.

[She tucks her phone into her pocket and crosses her arms loosely under her chest.]

I think you're going to end up shooting yourself in the foot if you keep introducing yourself under a title you haven't yet earned. Either people are going to understandably assume you are a detective, and then they're going to be upset when it turns out the opposite, and whenever they encounter you or hear of you, they'll always think of that deception.

Or they're going to doubt you, and when you can't back yourself up with solid proof, you'll be seen a little more than a child playing pretend.

[A beat, and she adds:]

Believe me when I say I understand wanting to be more than you currently are, especially when you're smarter than your cohorts by miles. But that comes at a price. People won't take you seriously until you make them do so, and to do that, you have to be perfect.

[It's all very reasonable, all very sensible, but defiance riles up inside and he bites it down, tucks it into his clenched fists and behind his polite smile.]

Your honesty is appreciated, Doctor, truly. [She's right and it sucks. He knows she's right.] I'm already aiming for perfection, so hearing you say that only tells me that I'm on the right track! It's good to know.

[He's not going for perfection at any cost, because there's a line between determination and stupidity that he's aware of, but.]

However, I will take your words to heart, I promise. You seem to talk from experience, after all.

Very much so.

[She glances over at him for a few moments, then:]

I graduated with my doctorate at twenty-three, and started working in a laboratory then. You can well imagine how seriously people took me, and that was with a title and degree to back me up.

JUNE TDM

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