repeter | JUNE TDM

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! tdm

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!

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[ It's fine that Aki took a moment, since Kouran had to take a moment of her own to let this all sink in. It's been...about a year from when she last saw her sister, and certainly she didn't expect to see Aki again at some street hundreds of miles away from Japan of all places.

But that moment passes quickly, and she lights up. ]

Nee-san, you're here!

[ For now the comment about being taller than her older sister will go unaddressed. For now. ]

["A while", she thinks, but it's left unsaid. They can catch up on the past later.

For now, she has questions that need answering. On the other hand, she wants this to be a happy reunion, even if Kouran's always been hard to disappoint.

So to strike a balance, she reaches out to take her sister's hand.]

Come with me.

[She'll buy her an ice cream or something.

But as they're walking-]

What're you doing here, Kouran?

[ She follows after Aki, quite happily holding her hand. ]

Oh, uhm...some things happened back home, so I'm staying here for a while.

[ 'Some things', she says, like it's not as if dad's company got exposed for fraud and blackmail or anything. But it more like she doesn't want to actually say those words where other people could hear them. ]

Edited 2017-06-23 20:32 (UTC)

Things.

[Is her not clarifying making her more or less suspicious? Who can say.

Doesn't matter, either way. Here's the real million dollar question.]

Are your parents with you?

[ There's a pause as Kouran tries to decide on how to answer this. ]

No, they aren't.

[ Which is probably a relief for Aki, really. ]

[Even if her stepdad was here she wouldn't be too bothered. But it's still a pain having to deal with most of her family, so.]

What a shame. [She doesn't even try to sound sincere, honestly. Still, she stops at an ice cream stand and releases Kouran's hand to take out her wallet.] Here, pick something. I'll treat you to anything you like.

[ Yeah, Kouran didn't expect Aki to care very much about their parents, or the lack of their presence here. ]

Ah, then one sccop of cookie dough ice-cream, please.

[ She can eat whichever flavour she wants and no one can stop her. It's great. ]

[Maybe Kouran's newfound freedom and Aki spoiling her will end badly...

Nah.

Either way she orders one scoop of cookie dough and one scoop of matcha (they only started selling it after Aki's repeated insistence), pays for it, and then hands Kouran's over. Now that they've got their ice creams, she leads Kouran to a nearby bench so they can sit down.]

So how've you been?...it's been a while.

[Understatement...]

[ Nothing can go wrong, clearly.

She sits down next to Aki, and takes a moment to come up with an answer. ]

I've been fine. I'm staying with Sousuke-kun and his father, and they're taking good care of me.

[ Yeah, that's a good, simple explanation. She'll talk about what happened back home if Aki asks. ]

Anyway, how about you? How did you end up all the way in America?

I'll be honest, when I got to the airport the night I left, the earliest flight I could take was leaving for this city...that's all.

[She didn't really have much of a plan...in hindsight it was stupid as hell.

But she would've rathered to take the risk, honestly.

...of course, mentioning the night she left to begin with has left that up in the air. She can't just leave it as it is.

There's something she's always wanted to say, after all.]

...look, I-[A beat. She looks away briefly, but she looks back at Kouran when she musters up nerve to say-] I'm sorry. For leaving...and if I made you worry.

[ Kouran isn't sure what to say to do that at first. It wasn't so much that she had been angry or resentful towards Aki for leaving -- she doesn't even get mad at their parents despite how smothering they've been -- but to say she hadn't been upset at the time would be a lie. She told herself that Aki probably would have been happier elsewhere, which...well, it wasn't exactly comforting, but she had to tell herself something to stop worrying and feeling lonely.

It's obvious that this is hard for Aki too, so Kouran tries her best to muster a smile. Not a fake or insincere one, at least. ]

...I'm glad you're okay. You were going to have to leave eventually, I think.

[ In hindsight, it was kind of hard to imagine Aki being happy if she stayed with their family for much longer. ]

Thanks.

[Not just for what she said, but what she's trying to do for her, too - because it is hard. She's spent a lot of time trying to think of what to say, because of course she'd track down Kouran eventually to offer this apology. She just wasn't expecting it to be so soon.

But she's owed it, at least. Aki wants to do a lot more for her, but this is a start for now.]

I don't know how much she told you, but she was planning on sending me off anyway...she wanted me to go to university in Tokyo, so I was gonna be staying with one of her sisters.

At first I thought it sounded great, being away from home, but she said they'd be keeping a close eye on me and keeping her updated. I realised it'd...just be the same old, same old, you know? It didn't matter how far away from her I was, I was always going to be kept under watch like that.

So I decided...if I'm gonna leave, I may as well do it on my own terms. Things haven't exactly been easy here-[especially lately. Lately things have been a real shitshow.]-but...I'm pretty happy, all things considered.

[And then she just...

scoots a little closer.

to put her at a more comfortable distance for her to reach around Kouran with one arm and hug her.]

I'm really happy you're here, though.

I always wanted to bring you with me, but I didn't think I could support the two of us.

...after these past three years I can safely say it was better this way.

[ Mom did tell her about wanting to send Aki to Tokyo, but...well, not the other details. It wasn't as if she would have thought Kouran needed to know. She tries to hug Aki back, also one-handed. It would be awful if either of them got ice-cream in their hair. ]

Well, I'm happy to see you too.

I'll be staying here for a while longer. At least until mother and father thinks it's okay for me to come back.

[JOKE'S ON THEM THEY'RE NEVER GETTING KOURAN BACK.]

...ah, yeah. I didn't really expect things to get this heavy, sorry.

[At the same time, she felt she owed her an explanation, but...whatever. She lets go and makes some more space between them again, taking a lick of her ice cream thoughtfully.]

I wanted this to be a happy reunion, so let's see...ah, I ought to show you where I work sometime. It's an arcade so we can play together if you like.

I can show you my apartment, too. My girlfriend asks me about my family sometimes, so I can just show off my cute little sister in the flesh instead.

[She says this in her usual, flat tone of voice, so there's not really any affection there when she says that...it'd almost sound either disingenuous or funny to anyone else, but Kouran's probably used to it.]

[ She perks up a little when she hears about the arcade, then is practically starry eyed when she hears 'girlfriend'. Aki's flat tone doesn't bother her at all. ]

You have a girlfriend?

[ Her sister!! Got a girlfriend!!! ]

Yeah. We've been dating for...a little over a month now. But I've known her a lot longer than that; almost the entire time I've lived in the city, really.

[In truth, she's glad she can introduce them. She feels bad evading questions about her past so much, but it's never been a good topic of discussion. Having someone positive to talk about will be good.]

I get the feeling you'll both really get along.

[Seeing as they're both cute and good.]

Edited 2017-07-01 12:23 (UTC)

[ It's okay Aki, we can talk about maybe-important questions about what we've been missing out on later. ]

What is she like?

She's, ah-

[She can't just say "nice thighs good butt"

Gross, she actually has to be sincere.]

She's...really sweet and thoughtful. Outgoing, energetic, kinda sensitive and emotional...I really like her.

[ There's a small giggle from her. It's good to hear Aki talk about someone she likes and actually say it. ]

I'm glad you're happy, then.

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JUNE TDM

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