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Recollé Mods ([personal profile] recollecters) wrote in [community profile] repeter2017-06-16 08:40 pm
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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 [community profile] 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!
maskreant: (pic#11465208)

[personal profile] maskreant 2017-06-17 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[ That isn't safe, but Akira isn't going to nag, especially when it's working out for the both of them? Their teamwork is impeccable, better than trying to compete against each other... But of course it only lasts for so long.

Quick on his feet, he drops letters to spell "dog" and hops onto it when he feels the tile start dispersing. There's some weight missing...
]

Ryoji—[ Well, that was a slip of a first name, but he abandons his stack of letters and grabs onto his wrist. There's a sense of relief as he tries to pull him back up.

Problem:
]

... You're heavy.

[personal profile] appraiser 2017-06-17 08:21 pm (UTC)(link)
[ That's the weight of responsibility you're feeling, Akira, please don't let him fall. ]

Sorry. And thanks. [ There's... not really much Ryoji can do in this situation besides hang limply and grab Akira's wrist in turn so that they won't lose one another, but he can't reach the ledge as he strains his other arm above his head trying to grab it and help pull himself up. ]

You can do it! I believe in your strength...!
maskreant: (pic#11408883)

[personal profile] maskreant 2017-06-17 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
This is the part where your encouragement and faith lets me tap into my inner strength, right?

[ Ha. Either way, he has no plans on letting Ryoji go. With all his might, he tries to pull him up while his knees are digging onto the tile. Holy shit does he need to work out or something. With one hefty tug, Ryoji can reach the edge and he'll try to pull him up by the back of his shirt. There we go. ]

Safe and sound.

[ Spoke too early. "Dog" can only hold two for so long—they fall into the great abyss. ]

[personal profile] appraiser 2017-06-20 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
[ That's exactly how it's supposed to go, Ryoji regretting never lifting weights as he's able to grab hold of the edge but still relying on Akira for the most part to haul him up onto the tile. It's not supposed to end in tipping over the other edge and being swallowed up by darkness.

Ryoji scrambles to grab hold of Akira's hand, but that won't stop them from falling. Unless... He hopes and prays Akira is too busy looking down at where try might land, to look up as he shifts into Thanatos under the cover of darkness— it can fly, coffins spread out to slow the descent, and maybe he could—

but before he can think to fly up, they hit something. A slide of some sort and Thanatos returns to Ryoji, squinting at the sudden sunlight and... rooftops? Speeding down the chute like a bullet and they're going to splatter on the ground. ]
maskreant: (pic#11465219)

[personal profile] maskreant 2017-06-20 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
[ While he was curious, he had no actual intention to fall, so he scrambles to hold onto something. Anything. That includes Ryoji's hand. With a firm grip, he holds onto his partner in crime as he tries to figure out a way out of this. There are no ledges, no vines, nothing that would slow down their descent. He's looking everywhere until he worries for the person that may be freaking out more than he is.

What he sees as they fall chills his heart cold to the very core. Only part of its head reflects light from above as the whole is covered in darkness, but it shakes him. He's not sure what it is. He's not sure why it's here, but... it gives off the essence of death—and he's holding onto it. The contact with the slide jumbles them, so it breaks his trance, but that fear follows him down till they land as a tangled mess.
]

What was that?

[ It's not where are we? Akira is fixated on finding the truth, though he has his guesses already. Still, he's telling himself it was a trick of the light. It's his mind playing games with him. It's his craving for the thrill of his life. Hell, maybe it's his eyesight because his glasses did fall somewhere else. ]

[personal profile] appraiser 2017-06-20 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It's a park that had broken their fall, thick grey grass Ryoji had never thought he'd be so happy to see and spit out of his mouth as he pulls himself up, shaking his head and stopping immediately because it just makes things hurt all the more. ]

What was- what...?

[ He looks up. Chutes and ladders. And then over at Akira, who is staring at him with searching eyes and Ryoji immediately feels his stomach clench under that stare: guilt. Suspicion. That look people give him when they think he might be hiding something from them, and it's the worst when they are friends. ]

...Ah, your glasses. [ He breaks off that thought and takes a step back, looking around for them. ] How well can you see without them?
maskreant: (pic#11465207)

[personal profile] maskreant 2017-06-20 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It takes him a while to find his grounding, still shaken by the outline of that thing from before. It seemed humanoid? It had a head. Fingers... Very similar to a human's. His eyes only conveys his confusion, but they strain at the pragmatic reality.

Of course Ryoji won't tell him, so he weighs his options. Should he press on?
]

I can live without my glasses for a day. There's a spare waiting for me at home.

[ Like he can mentally kick Ryoji when he's trying to hide this dreadful look. He drops it entirely and puts his efforts into picking himself up. Ugh... Every muscle aches. ]

Remember me fondly.